Po-ta-to, Po-tah-to

A week or so ago, I was sitting in a foodcourt at the mall, reading a newspaper ( the Victoria Times Colonist). Anyways, on the opinion page they had yet another very backwards political cartoon.

The cartoon first began with the title “guide to extremist factions in the middle east”, and proceeded to feature Hamas, Fatah ,Al Quaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs brigade, all above an identical cartoon of a mob of crazy, armed, muslim stereotypes. The joke was obviously that all of these groups were therefore “identical”.

 What a vile insinuation.

 The truth of course, is the exact opposite. All of these organizations mentioned are guided by different struggles, goals, methods and ideological centers. While organizations such as Al Quaeda have the self-stated goal of global Jihad, organizations like Hezzbolah no longer preach the line of establishing an islamic state in their own nation, let alone others. While the Taliban was essentially a theocratic government, Al Aqsa martyrs brigade has been classified as secular and nationalist. The contradictory goals and methods of these organizations can even be seen as some of these organizations have fought against each other, such as Hamas and Fatah.

 So, what exactly is similar (let alone identical,) about these groups? The fact that their membership is comprised of Arabs/Muslims ? If this is the case, does that also mean that the IRA is identical to the Ku Klux Klan? Technically both of these organizations are formed of european christians. Was the FLQ the same as the Branch Davidians?

The most important question is, is this comic simply a racist, euro-centric misconception, or something much more sinister?

 In addition to the continued wars of occupation in the middle-east, there is still the tireless struggle of various militant groups against foriegn imperialism, and many of these groups have won major battles in the last two years. Hezzbollah won staggering victories against the Israeli invasion last year in Lebanon, the Iraqi resistance continues to chip away at the American occupiers and their puppet army in Iraq, Hamas won a landslide majority in the Palestinian elections last year (and is now taking militant control of Gaza), and a resistance force is rising in occupied Afghanistan as well.  

The imperialist occupiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Somalia are once again seeing the true strength of people power; they are learning that fancy techno-weaponry accounts for nothing against mass popular dissent. As Mao said (and I’m paraphrasing) “People, not weapons, win wars.”.

 And this is the motivation behind this cartoon. The powers that be spread these ignorant notions that compliment thier militarism, in the form of islamophobic entertainment. They group legitimate national-liberation movements in with the likes of Osama Bin Laden, using the notoriety of Al Qaeda to smear the reputations of armed groups attempting to overthrow the conditions of occupation that they live under.

Simply put, all Muslim organizations are not Jihadist. Many of these militant organizations do not aim to establish an Islamic state, and the majority of all of these organizations harbour no intentions of “spreading Islamic rule” to other countries.  We need to stop writing off the national-liberation fighters of the middle-east as “religious fanatics” and “terrorists”; Most of these fighters pick up a gun because some of their family members were killed in a bombing raid by an occupying power, not because of something they read in the holy Quran.

Hamas is NOT Al Quaeda; the Iraqi resistance is NOT the Taliban.

 A resistance fighter is NOT a terrorist.

Grass roots Conservatism: Fiction and Hypocrisy

For the longest time, in my small hometown of Rycroft, Alberta, I have been deluged in  an ocean of Conservative rhetoric.

As I grew up and became more politically aware, I began to become more and more demoralized by what I perceived to be the widespread proliferation of popular conservative ideals among the masses of most Northern Albertan towns. In the midst of this fortress of conservative-capitalist thought, my life more and more became an exercise in futility as I waged a lone war against Christian fundamentalism, Racism, gender Chauvinism, militarism, Nationalism (whether it be Canadian nationalism or Albertan soveriegntist nationalism,) and the general anti-social offensive being carried out by the rank and file peoples themselves.

 Needless to say, the situation seemed hopeless. Many times, I was demoralized to the point of considering giving up the struggle for Marxism-Leninism. 

 Since that time, as I left the largely rural North of Alberta for the Provincial Capital of Edmonton, and later for the British Columbian Capital of Victoria, I came to realize that this entire perpetuated notion that Alberta (or anywhere else) is a “Conservative stronghold” is a facade.

Even though I long ago rejected Parliamentary Democracy as a legitimate model for peoples rule, consider the following example: When I was living in Edmonton , during the 39th federal election of 2006, I participated as the campaign manager for my Comrade, (name removed) (Communist Party of Canada-Marxist Leninist). It was noticeable that the Conservative, Rahim Jaffer, who was trying to be re-elected, did not make to much effort to show his face at town hall meetings, or to try and spread his campaign at a grass roots level. While his Social-democratic competitor, Linda Duncan, had her partie’s signs spread across lawns, apartment windows and cafe’s, Rahim had to buy add space on billboards and such. It didn’t seem as if Jaffer had very much public support, and the election results reflected it; Rahim Jaffer managed to get only 41% of the vote. Unfortunately, not unlike his boss Stephan Harper, that was all he needed to get into office. Now, my criticisms of the “first-past-the post” system aside, logically that means that almost 60% of the population of Edmonton-Strathcona did not desire a conservative as their representative. Even, for the sake of argument, if you wanted to add the results of other right-wing conservative parties  in that riding (Progressive Canadian) to Rahims total, it still comes to only 42.1 %. Only 42.1% of the people of Edmonton Strathcona selected a party with any measure of Conservative economic/social platform. (source: Elections Canada, Wikipedia)

 Now that was just one electoral riding in all of Alberta. You have to wonder, how many other Albertan provincial ridings have a Conservative representing them, against the will of the majority of constituents?

 Now, I have no doubt in my mind that out of Alberta, the base of all Conservative-capitalist ideology is in the rural Albertan north, where Conservatives often win elections by landslides, and the people themselves tow the line of conservative ideology.

 Still, I would even argue that among this ideological power base of reaction, there are no true Conservatives in the rural Albertan north.

It is very easy for the residents of Northern Alberta to claim to be Conservative, and fervently defend it, but upon closer inspection very few of them actually practice their Conservative ideals.  Albertan Conservatives have their proverbial cake, and eat it too.

While the average rural Albertan farmer will claim loyalties to Conservatism, speak out against so-called “hand-outs” and social services, the fact of the matter is that collectively owned means of production and social programs are a day-to-day part of life. To give an example, in my home town of Rycroft , Alberta and the neighboring town of Spirit River, most of the local farmers rely on the Canadian Wheat Board to market and sell their crops. The Canadian Wheat Board, in addition to being a form of pseudo-collective bargaining on the rural workers behalf, states as their goal to “..create a level playing field for all producers.” “level playing field”, eh? That sounds a little bit pinko, don’t you think? A system where elected representatives of the farmers themselves try to sell the fruits of their labour for a fair wage, does seem to be kind of contrary to the “free market competition” ideals of conservatism, don’t you think? In fact, that’s probably why Prime Minister Stephan Harper (and American overlords via NAFTA and WTO) is trying to shut it down in the first place.

 Now, these same “conservative” farm folk in Rycroft/Spirit River, who depend on the Canadian wheat board to make a fair living, also get their groceries at IGA/ Co-op, get their fuel at UFA and their insurance from Co-operators, all of which are co-operatives.  The International Co-operative alliance defines a co-operative as a “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise”.  Wow, that sounds really anti-free-market, don’t you think? I mean, “United to meet common economic,social, cultural needs”?  That’s not dog-eat-dog capitalist competition!

Even the Albertan farmers that farm livestock get in on the co-operative scene, as farmers themselves in places like Beaverlodge organized co-operative slaughterhouses.

So, let’s recap… These conservative farmers rely on co-operatives for all of their needs from petroleum to groceries, they rely on the Canadian Wheat board to sell their crops fairly… Many of them do their banking with “Alberta Treasury Branch”, which is a provincially owned, and therefore state owned bank (not exactly laisez-fair economics). Am I missing anything?

Oh yeah, they all subscribe to nationalized health care. I forgot.

Yes, all of these farmers are “conservatives”…sure. I’m sure that this is exactly what Reagan had in mind.

I’m biting my lip to see how “conservative” these closet-social democrats remain when Stephan Harper abolishes their Wheat Board. 

In the meantime, have your cake, my pinko conservative friends. Your secret is safe with me.

The Internationale shall be the human race…

I’m sure that I’m not the only one that feels this way, but what the labour movement is lacking most at this time, is an international. It has been decades since a true workers international has existed: there was the First international, the Second international, the Third (arguabley the golden era of communism), and that was all.

Some may say ” what about the Trotskyist fourth international ?”. I reply , “what about it?”

 The fourth international is anything but. Rather than fostering unity of workers organizations and leading the working class to victory, the fourth international has produced nothing but steaming mounds of ivory-tower analysis, and a thousand different splinter groups.  I take offense that the mantle of the International has been appropriated by  what basically amounts to a political clique. The fourth international is not an international at all; It is an exclusive club for Trotskyists and Trotskyist organizations, nothing more.

 So what is the true internationalist organization of the workers? If not the fourth international, what organization do the workers of the world have to uphold the banner of Marxism-Leninism  and international socialism?

 Perhaps, the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM)?  Hardly.

The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement deserves credit, in that they have mobilized the working class in many nations, such as Nepal, India, Peru, etc. On the other hand, the RIM also is a political clique, especially in the western world. Membership in RIM, as far as I know, revolves around being a follower of Mao Tse-Tung thought/ Maoism. Rather than trying to unite the loose threads of Marxism-Leninism and focus the power of the working class, RIM continues to divide the movement, as their clique excludes flavours of Marxism-Leninism that do not exhalt Mao.

 The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is no better in this respect, even shunning the other Maoists of the RIM, accusing them of being CIA related.

The Anarcho-Syndicalist International Workers of the World (IWW, often called “Wobblies”) also entertain notions of being the workers organization, especially as they aspire to one united Union.  The obvious flaws of Anarcho-syndicalism aside, the IWW does not live up to such lofty standards either, even their own slogans of “Call a general strike” and “One big Union.”. The workers, from factory to field, have by overwhelming majority never heard of the IWW (which is quite common with most organizations that dub themselves “workers organizations”). The make-up of the IWW is not workers and labourers, but mostly Anarcho-syndicalist students. As with all previously mentioned organizations, the IWW is also a political clique, out of touch with the working class, and floating among the left-wing community.

There are very few workers organizations that exist these days ; Most of what exists these days are political cliques and personality cults. Many “Workers Parties” these days exist only to put flowers on the graves of their founders, rather than to try and mobilize the working class towards proletarian revolution. Any organizations that  survived the cold war (or have sprung up since then,), which still entertain ideas of the victory of socialism, sell themselves short by dividing into camps and removing themselves from both the realities of the working class and from the theory of Marxism-Leninism.

It is discouraging that in this time, when capitalism is floundering in all of it’s imperialist endeavours, when it is desperately clawing at all deposits of resources and hissing at all nations with some form of workers control/national sovereignty, trying to escape it’s imminent demise… At this time, there is no rejoicing from the workers parties. Capitalism is failing astronomically, there is a general air of anti-imperialist sentiment and dis-illusion with the system among the masses, and yet there is no celebration among Marxist-Leninists. On the contrary, we are in no position to celebrate. The self-destructive cliquing and isolationism of the workers parties and organizations, not to mention the splintering and outright capitulationism of many of these organizations, has left our movement in a sad state.  Unfortunately, it seems to be the Liberal and Social-Democratic parties that are poised to pick up the pieces from the fallout of world capitalism, not the Marxist-Leninist workers parties. Of course, this is a situation that could be remedied, but that depends on the unity and active state of the communist workers movement.

We, the labour movement and Marxist-Leninist parties are a sword; the problem is, we have been shattered into too many pieces to be wielded against any foe. We must reforge this sword. We must re-establish the international of workers parties, based on he foundations of Marxism-Leninism.

Noobs know nothing

Every Commie noob thinks that they’re the new Lenin.

Every red, whos been red for a year or so, thinks that they are the true disciple of Marx, and that they have the ideological “Holy Grail” of insight that all of the other communists in the movement, who have been red for decades, are missing.

 It seems to me that very few people come to communism to embrace it; they come to communism hoping to change it.  I should know because sadly, I was once among their ranks.

 I too, in the beginning, thought that I had a pretty good handle on things. Among my experienced comrades, I thought that I should be the one calling the shots.  Rather than embracing the decades of experience of my organization, I questioned every action and every policy, spouting long tirades of social-democratic,  Utopian socialist rubbish.

It is surreal now, to look back at where I came from ideologically, as I have gone through radical ideological changes in only a short time. I went from calling Lenin a revisionist, to becoming a student of his teachings. I went from calling Stalin a “totalitarian dictator” to  defending him vigorously as a champion of socialism.  I was once  an overzealous supporter of parliamentary democracy, perplexed and annoyed at my comrades lack of effort when participating in elections ; It took me years to finally understand that parliamentary democracy is a sham, and is no way to build a socialist revolution.

I used to think that Mao was a great Marxist-Leninist, and couldn’t understand why all of my Comrades abandoned Mao Tse Tung thought back in the sixties; now I’ve read Hoxha, and I understand the ideological flaws of Maoism, including the “theory of three worlds” and the “two line struggle within the party”.

 I even wrote a short book , pompously titled the “Manifesto of the 21st Century proletariat”. In this tome, I layed down my own naive thoughts on every element of a hypothetical socialist society, my capitalist influenced criticisms of of various past communist personalities, my Utopian socialist  revisionism, and other useless bile that I thought was both insightful and practical. Now, since I have re-read it, I find myself grimacing with disgust that the words coming off of the page are my own.  I feel sickened that these words, which once represented my thoughts and ideological outlook, are so similar to the naive communist novices that I previously mentioned.  I have considered destroying the book, but I have opted to keep it, if only for a teaching guide to warn other new communists, and to remind myself of where I came from ideologically, and how I have progressed.

In hindsight, my communist development could have been so much more painless if I had taken into account the four decades of socialist experience that my comrades offered to me. I guess that to truly embrace the theory laid down by Marx,Engles,Lenin,Stalin, etc, you have to actually experience the communist movement. To truly understand the wisdom of the classics, rather than suggesting radical and impractical revisions to them, you need to learn for yourself why your own notions are incorrect, through practical experience and study.

 To sum up, basically I used to think I knew it all; experience has taught me that I was just another punk commie noob with dillusions of grandeur.

Ravens Nest- New and Improved

Hello Comrades.

 So, I finally couldn’t take it any more.  The fascism of blogger, and the constant pressure to get a google account, was too much for me to handle. Obviously Google is buying the entire internet ( Youtube, blogger), but I refuse to submit to their system.

 Because of this, I’ve been forced to switch my blog provider. I know that my comrade SoilRide uses wordpress, so I decided to give it a try.

 Hopefully democracy reigns on WordPress.That is, until they are bought out by some other internet giant. Until then, Welcome to the Ravens nest, the home of Revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist Analysis.

Let’s get started…