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Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Another look at Kasama Project- "The Unrepentant Marxist"


The article below by “chegitz guevara” is being posted in full since it appeared originally on FB, a medium some people understandably might choose to abjure. The author is a rather ubiquitous figure on the Internet left who might have even been on Marxmail or the Marxism list that preceded it. I honestly can’t remember. He attributes the collapse of Kasama to the decision made to turn it into a cadre organization. Surprise, surprise. He also takes issue with my article (https://louisproyect.org/2016/06/19/notes-on-the-demise-of-the-kasama-project/) that questions the use of the word communist, an argument I have made on occasions after reading points made eloquently by Michael Lebowitz. In fact, the Kasama Project was too consumed by the Marxist-Leninist regalia of hammers and sickles to ever emerge out of the communist cocoon. My comments are in italics.
Whither Kasama?
KASAMA PROJECT·WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2017
by chegitz guevara
(The Kasama Project ceased functioning over a year ago, without issuing any formal statement. This note, by one of its original supporters, represents his own viewpoint only, and is shared as a point of information. The struggle continues.)
At Kasama’s peak, we were the target of an FBI raid and Glenn Beck’s radio and TV ire. We had a million page hits a year on our blog. We had comrades who were part of struggle in living history. We were sending comrades to Nepal and Greece, the Jackson, MS, to investigate the struggles there first hand. We brought together communist and anarchist forces up and down the West Coast for the Everything for Everyone festival. Our comrades played key roles in Occupy around the country (including the Occupied Wall Street Journal). We were in discussions with a number of different organizations for a merger of post Occupy communist organizations. People who weren’t in Kasama, and who were even opposed to our politics said we were the must read communist blog. And then one day, Kasama went silent….
==
It’s been more than a year now since the demise of the Kasama Project. It happened quietly, and to most of the members, unexpectedly and without warning. One day we learned that much of our leadership had quit over the previous months. A handful of us tried to keep going, tried to keep the blog running, but it was only ever a handful of what was left.
Depending on whom you ask, you’ll get a different story as to why things went south. This is mine. If you’re looking for salacious details, for dirt, for sectarian infighting, you’re going to be disappointed. Kasama was the best organization I was ever in. I don’t regret it for a minute.
To understand why Kasama folded, you must understand what K was. Depending on whom you asked, K was: a bunch of hard Maoists, soft Maoists, social democrats, liberals, anarchists, Marxist Leninists, Stalinists, Trotskyites, the RCP-lite, a cult, pigs, or the communist plot behind Occupy (thank you Glenn Beck). None of that was completely true, some of it was completely false, and some of it was a little true.
The truth is, few, if any, ever fully understood K, whether inside or outside the group. Everyone tried to pigeon hole us, figure out what we were. Hell, we didn’t even know what we were. We were an experiment. We were riding the tiger trying to figure it out. If anyone who wasn’t in Kasama tries to tell you what K was, they’re either lying or don’t know what they’re talking about.
For me, the loss of Kasama was both expected, and a bitter blow. If you weren’t around at the beginning, you may not understand today how so many people felt about K, even today, after over a year of relative silence, and years of decreasing activity.

For the rest click here.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Ecuador- Honor and Glory for comrade Mary/ Maria

A Google Translation:



With deep sorrow the proletariat and people of Ecuador have received the news of the death of comrade "Mary"/ Maria, the "flower of broom" as her comrades knew her affectionately.

Early in the popular struggle as many of those who live under the shadow of social pauperization: organizing, mobilizing masses, tempering their forge in the midst of the difficulties to survive that is where the rebellion is built and consolidated. Later it happened to military in ranks of the Communist Party of the Ecuador Red Sun.

Mother, fighter, forged a family of communists of historical trajectory within the party.
Years and a severe terminal illness affected her departure.

In the course of history there are individuals who, even though they are born in the midst of the people, of pain, of misery, of hunger, do not fight, condemned to die every day under the shadow of inaction and silence complicit with opprobrium and The exploitation​. However, there are also sons and daughters of our people who have early assumed the task of fighting tirelessly against the enemies of the people, making, of that struggle, a project of life that transmutes even after death as a living example for New generations of popular fighters. Comrade Maria was one of them, those who made the struggle a project of life.

Who has given his life to the struggle against those who oppress and exploit us, lives forever in the hearts and will of the people.

HONOR AND GLORY FOR COMRADE MARIA!

HONOR AND GLORY FOR COMRADE MARIA!

HONOR AND GLORY TO THE HEROES OF THE PEOPLE!

LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM!

Ecuador- ¡HONOR Y GLORIA PARA LA CAMARADA MARÍA!

Con profundo pesar el proletariado y pueblo del Ecuador ha recibido la noticia de la muerte de la camarada “María”, la “Flor de retama” como la conocían cariñosamente sus camaradas.

Tempranamente militó en la lucha popular  como lo hacen muchos de aquellos que viven bajo la sombra de la pauperización social: organizando,  movilizando masas, templando su forja en medio de las dificultades por sobrevivir que es donde se gesta y consolida la rebeldía. Posteriormente pasó a militar en filas del Partido Comunista del Ecuador –Sol Rojo.

Madre luchadora, forjó una familia de comunistas de trayectoria histórica dentro del partido.
Los años y una severa enfermedad terminal incidieron en su partida.

En el curso de la historia  hay individuos que aun naciendo en el seno de pueblo, del dolor, de la miseria, del hambre, no luchan, condenándose a morir todos los días bajo la sombra de la inacción y el silencio cómplice con el oprobio y la explotación. Sin embargo, también hay  hijos e hijas de nuestro pueblo que tempranamente han asumido la tarea de luchar incansablemente en contra de los enemigos del pueblo, haciendo, de esa brega, un proyecto de vida que transmuta aún después de la muerte como vivo ejemplo para las nuevas generaciones de luchadores populares. La camarada María fue de éstas, las que hicieron de la lucha un proyecto de vida.

Quien ha entregado su vida a la lucha en contra de quienes nos oprimen y explotan, vive para siempre en los corazones y voluntad de lucha del pueblo.

¡HONOR Y GLORIA PARA LA CAMARADA MARÍA!

¡HONOR Y GLORIA PARA LA CAMARADA MARÍA!

¡HONOR Y GLORIA PARA LA CAMARADA MARÍA!

¡HONOR Y GLORIA A LOS HÉROES DEL PUEBLO!

¡VIVA EL MARXISMO-LENINISMO-MAOÍSMO!

Friday, January 27, 2017

People's war in Peru: Open popular committees (1980s, early 1990s)

Recently I posted an article on examples of Marxist democratic countries and Marxist democratic institutions. Here is one more example of democratic institutions set up by the Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path). They had democracy set up on local levels of their new society.  -សតិវ​អតុ
Translated from French by Google:


By Serve in Home
The conquest of popular power is the central objective of every revolution. Under the conditions of each, the task is to begin to implement it in part, in the form of open popular committees.
These committees are made up of five members, called "commissioners" because they are commissioned by the masses and can be revoked by them at any time. They are appointed by Assemblies of Representatives who, wherever possible, are elected by People's Assemblies from the whole population of a given village or sector. They are led by the Party and consist of communists, peasants and other local progressive forces. Their mission is to begin to create a new policy, a new economy and a new culture in the countryside, as a preparation to be able to do it across the country.
Among the five commissioners, the Secretary represents the Party and the proletariat (present mainly in the campaign through the Party). The Security Commissioner, also a member of the PCP, is responsible for the defense of the New Power by the local population as a whole, organized in militia, alongside the local guerrilla forces and the main forces of the People's Guerrilla Army. It also means preparing for the tactical withdrawal of the inhabitants of the area if necessary. He or she is also responsible for police powers and takes action against counter-revolutionaries who attack the New Power and against common criminals who harm the masses. Theft, drugs, persistent intoxication, prostitution, gambling, violence against women and children, rape and other plagues that have for so long prospered under the protection of the old established order are now being suppressed.
The Production Commissioner directs the organization of the new economy based on a new type of social relations. The land is divided and distributed first among those who do not possess it, and only then, if there is anything left, among those who possess few, on the basis of the number of members of the family. The land is given to the family as a whole and not only to family fathers or men in general (to young people who wish to leave their parents and to found their own family is also given land). But if the possession of the land is personal, the seeds and harvests are collective and organized by all. The Commissioner shall ensure that the lands of elderly persons, widows and orphaned children are maintained. He or she also organizes the production of direct ownership of the Committee, such as raising poultry or cuyes (guinea pigs, equivalent to the rabbit there), as well as collective irrigation works.
Frequent changes are made in plants and cereals grown to allow the Bases of Support (groups of several popular committees) to be as self-sufficient as possible. The Committee is concerned with the scientific selection of seeds and the diversification of crops. With the efforts to replace chemical fertilizers dependent on importation, all this puts an end to the need to go into debt. These measures and the abolition of rents ("rents" for agricultural land) free the peasants from the heavy burden of government bureaucracy, which for so long sucked the blood of agriculture, and the tyranny of local potentates whose power on land, control of credit and inputs was exercised in the most arbitrary manner. These new relations of production and exchange, designed to satisfy the needs of the People and the People's War, free the productive forces from their barriers and improve productivity. In some cases even embryos of clothing and work tools are developed, so that the Bases of Support are even more self-sufficient.
Small and medium-sized traders are allowed to continue their important activities; In fact, for them also it is a liberation. But the open popular committees also organize the exchange activity. This may mean, locally, a People's Fair in which the goods can be sold directly from the producer to the consumer or traded. It also means convoys of mules that can safely cross the mountains and allow trade with other localities because the Bases of Support can not be totally self-sufficient and the Party must take care of the solution of this problem.
As the revolution gets militarily stronger and its political power begins to be relatively consolidated in a number of areas, these

[To facilitate the understanding of things, it is possible to take this page (little glorious) of the history of the PCF:
"On September 24, 1922, a report was unanimously adopted by the Second Inter-Federal Communist Congress of North Africa, and said that" what characterizes the indigenous mass is its ignorance. , The main obstacle to its emancipation. "Thus envisaged," the emancipation of the indigenous populations of Algeria can only be the consequence of the Revolution in France. "" Direct communist propaganda among the Algerian natives ... is Currently unnecessary and dangerous. ""

... and to extrapolate it to the Peruvian situation => in Peru too, after the premature death of Mariátegui (the main communist theorist of the colonial situation of the country), for the "Marxist" left with mainly criolla (white, Spanish, although it is less a matter of European physical appearance than of lifestyle), the "main problem" and "obstacle to the emancipation" of the "Indian" was his "ignorance"; Its only salvation integration with the working class of the cities and the interbreeding both biological and progressive cultural; And its emancipation "necessarily" a "consequence" of the "revolution", or rather of the electoral takeover or military coup of this "left" - there in Lima - the creature of Spanish colonialism separated from the metropolis in 1821 .
At the "best" one "thinks very strongly of him" and is celebrated in a mythologizing way, "good savage" in a sense, like Haya de la Torre in his time (before drifting ever more right to try to win the elections ) Or in a more contemporary way the mandarin and talkative parrot Quijano (who at the time of going to the end of the consequences of his brilliant analyzes, did little if not conferences "even in the dark" and to perfer on the massacres Of Fujimori by referring implicitly back-to-back the Power criollo murderer and the only armed and organized resistance consequent to him).
Until one day in May 1980, in the Andean countryside of Ayacucho, the ballot boxes of the semi-decennial ballot collection by local (including "left") political caciques ... and Begin to rise in thousands by the ignorant and despised forever, sounding the time of the reparcelling of Inkarri, the return of Tupac Amaru in the form of millions ("I will return and I will be millions")!

Thursday, January 26, 2017

To support the Communist Party of India (Maoist)- Part 2

Google Translation:


Continued from....

It has been known that more than 20 political parties and social organizations in Chhattisgarh have joined together in a joint initiative which, based on the IWC report, seeks to require the government to punish Kalluri and the other officers and soldiers guilty of Police, paramilitaries and PAHO. All the revolutionary and democratic forces of the country should welcome and support this initiative. Needless to say, neo-Nazi police officers like Kalluri deserve the severest of punishments for their innumerable crimes of all kinds, past and present, against adivasis. Uniform killers and gangsters have always enjoyed the protection of the ruling and reactionary classes to act as their faithful watchdogs. Justice almost never reaches them. Not surprisingly, despite numerous accusations in the past heinous crimes, namely killings, fake encounters, gang rape, arson, looting, etc., Kalluri has been promoted to Inspector General of Police Bastar In "reward" for his services to the Indian ruling classes, to the nationalist terrorists of the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP, Hindi] and to the imperialists. As a sign of subservience, Kalluri currently runs in Bastar the third phase, the most repressive, Operation Green Hunt , which is nothing but the war of the state against the people - under the name of "Mission-2016". This has already claimed the lives of more than a hundred Adivasis, the vast majority of whom were unarmed villagers, including a large number of women, described as "Maoists" and murdered in false confrontations. Therefore, only a strong and united movement can force central and state governments to take more severe measures against the culprits.

However, it should never be forgotten that Kalluri and those of his kind simply comply with the policies of central and state governments, serving the interests of the imperialists and their buying class in India. That is, the mere removal of an individual's office or the punishment of a few private soldiers is not enough. Raman Singh, Commander-in-Chief of the War on the People in Bastar and President of the Unified Command of the Chhattisgarh Government Armed Forces, must be waged. He is responsible for the massacre of thousands of Adivasis of Bastar and the displacement of hundreds of thousands in the last twelve years of his mandate. In addition, the Brahmin-Hindu fascist clique of Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and Mohan Bhagwat, promoter of genocide of adivasis and moolvasis in every country in order to allow looting at gunpoint of natural resources under the guise of "Development", must respond to their crimes. It is therefore necessary that the movement in demand of the resignation and trial of Kalluri and other officers and members of the police, paramilitaries and PAHO involved in the March 2011 attacks should be part of a larger movement of Resistance against the fascist war imposed on the people by the Modi clique, Raman Singh and the nationalist thugs throughout the country, a war that is being developed in close collaboration with several state governments, regardless of the party in power. If this movement does not consolidate, expand and intensify, it will not be possible to stop the daily massacre of adivasis that, day by day, is intensified throughout India.

The Central Committee of PCI (Maoist) welcomes and sympathizes with the struggle for those responsible for the atrocities committed in Tadimetla, Morpalli and Timmapur and attacks on social activists to be brought to justice. It also appeals to workers, peasants, democrats, patriots, religious and national minorities, Dalits, Adivasis and Moolvasis, women, students, youth, employees, the unemployed, all sectors of the population and their organizations and the parliamentary opposition, as the Congress Party, the PCI, the AAP and the Congress Party Chhattisgarh, to consolidate this movement with their active participation. Our party is absolutely sure that the people of India will give an adequate response to the elements of the ruling class who have committed crimes and untold barbarities against humanity and the masses of this country.

In the two years we have been under the leadership of the Democratic National Alliance (NDA) led by Modi, the joint aggression of state terrorism and national-Hindu fascism has continued to worsen day by day. The Maoist movement and the different democratic movements, Muslims and Christians, Dalits and Adivasis, national minorities, women, people oppressed by their sexual orientation, workers, peasants, intellectuals, academics, students , Artists and other sectors of the broad masses are among the victims of this brutal aggression. Raman Singh, for example, promised peasants an increase of Rs.300 in the guaranteed minimum price for rice. Instead, the minimum price has been reduced by 40 percent. On the other hand, it is squandering billions of rupees in the police and paramilitary forces with the excuse of fighting the Maoists. Similarly, yesterday the government of the BJP of Jharkhand ordered the police to shoot the people, who was protesting against the forced acquisition of land: they killed a protester. These being the prevailing conditions throughout the country, the democratic movement must grow and be strengthened to face the fascist aggression. In order to do this, all the forces opposing the buyer-feudal and national-Hindu fascism of the BJP and Sangh Parivar must join. Opposition to the third phase of Operation Green Hunt is an important element of this resistance.

The Maoist revolutionaries have taken up arms to defend the just cause of the people and the country once the Indian reactionary rulers have closed all peaceful ways for the people to establish a true democracy, freedom, sovereignty, independence, progress, prosperity and power Popular politics. The history of our country and other countries of the semicolonial and semifeudal world demonstrates conclusively that only through a popular war prolonged can achieve these goals. Nevertheless, the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist) is open to talks with the government for the sake of the country and the people. Nevertheless, Indian rulers have never shown any seriousness regarding the possibility of holding talks, peace or the well-being of the masses. Senior government officials like Rajnath Singh call the revolutionary movement, which fights for the sacred cause of the people and the country, as a terrorist and criminal movement, and they do not stop circulating appeals for their surrender. At the same time, they deploy more and more soldiers and use increasingly deadly weapons, including combat helicopters, recruit new forces, organize paramilitary bands and take all kinds of measures to repress the people.


Needless to say, under these conditions, the Supreme Court's suggestion that peace talks be held between the government and our Party will remain a dead letter. Undermining the spirit of the Supreme Court's proposal, Chhattisgarh Interior Minister Ramsewak Paikra has insisted that peace talks be held only after Maoists renounce "violence" and become part of " Institutional policy ". This is nothing more than a veiled call for the Maoists to surrender. It demonstrates the government's unwillingness and lack of sincerity in relation to peace talks. Kalluri has pointed out that the morale of government forces will suffer if the popular demand for punishment for those responsible for the atrocities of Tadimetla, Morpalli and Timmapur materializes. With these statements only thing that the aim is to silence all voices of opposition to continue committing atrocities and repressing the people. The CPC (Maoist) Central Committee hopes that India's genuinely democratic and peace-loving forces will continue their efforts to force the governments of Modi and Raman Singh to stop their genocidal war against the people, the only way to facilitate the possibilities Of peace and of creating an environment conducive to eventual conversations.

*Boycott the 17th anniversary of the creation of the state of Chhattisgarh 1 to November 5, 2016!

*We demand the resignation of Raman Singh and Kalluri!

*Solidarity with the struggling farmers of Chhattisgarh asking 2,500 rupees for every quintal of rice, a minimum price guarantee!

*We demand the denunciation of all MOUs signed with multinational companies and large domestic enterprises!

*Let us fight to assert the rights of people on Water, Forest and Earth [Jal-Jungle-Zameen, Hindi] !

*Organize demonstrations and public meetings in villages, towns and cities from 1 to 5 November 2016!

Here are Some thoughts on the demise of the Kasama Project and the future of Maoism

By សតិវអតុ
Sometimes it feels as if I’m the only Maoist left in America. I know that isn’t really true. I know of one other Marxist-Leninist in the whole town of Wichita and I don’t see him very often, if ever.
I used to follow the Kasama Project. They broke away from the Revolution Communist Party. That party was already getting too dogmatic. Their great leader Bob Avakian is their main theoretician. But Kasama broke away from the great leader approach while Bob and his RCP went even further to the “have you seen the truth” (The Watchtower method) or religious style promotion of politics and leadership.
Meanwhile Kasama collapsed. They simply gave up. They no longer do anything.
Over the last two decades we had the people’s war in Peru and Nepal. The guerrilla movement in Peru collapsed, after 1992. Only a small group is left. The Guerrillas in Nepal won an end to the monarchy, but they ended up in a bourgeois democracy. The Maoist had won the fist election, but now they represent a little over 10 percent of the seats in the Nepal congress. A splinter group has broken away to build back the revolution, but they seem stuck. There is a small county in Nepal that has been taken over by the more revolutionary faction called Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist  (नेपाल कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी - माओवादी), or CPN-M, led by Bikram Chand. Maybe he will expand out in the future and the revolution will have potential. But right now, he and his party seem stuck. There is also some territory run by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its military wing the New People's Army.  
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) भारत की कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी (माओवादी) is the only real Maoist party with any real territory it operates in or controls. Efforts in Bhutan and other places in Asia just haven’t done well.
I will continue to write and edit Otto’s War Room. I will continue to work with any revolutionary organization that I am able to work with. There is a Kansas City Revolutionary Collective (KCRC). I may hook up with them and see what we can do as they are only a four hour drive from my home here. I may work with some other groups around here as well.
Probably the only real bright spot on the international scene right now is the Communist Party of India (Maoist). They seem to be hanging on and are actually doing well. As in the article before this one and the one after it, I plan to keep supporting the Indian Maoists. They are a bright spot in an otherwise very depressing world. So maybe things will change in a few years. We can only wait to see. And we can support Maoists where ever they are. And we can keep up the hope for a better world.


Tuesday, January 24, 2017

To support the Communist Party of India (Maoist)- Part 1

Google Translation:

Communiqué of the PCI (M) of India: Unity Facing the War against the People by the Fascist Government of Modi and Raman Singh!

In one of his last communiqués, translated by the Network of Communist Blogs in his effort to become the voice of the Naxalite Revolution and to make known its struggle in Castilian, the PCI (M) of India calls for it to continue strengthening the front of the genocidal war against the people carried out by the fascist government of Modi and Raman Singh, unit after the Supreme Court itself has denounced  members of the police and paramilitary forces and senior police officers that the commanding As direct responsible for brutal attacks against the people.

" In the two years that we the government of the National Democratic Alliance [NDA, its acronym in English] headed by Modi, has continued to get worse, day after day, the joint aggression of state terrorism and fascism national-hinduista The Maoist movement and the different democratic movements, Muslims and Christians, Dalits and Adivasis, national minorities, women, people oppressed by their sexual orientation, workers, peasants, intellectuals, academics, students, artists and other sectors of the broad masses, are among the victims of this brutal aggression "

 

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)
CENTRAL COMMITTEE-DANDAKARANYA AREA SPECIAL COMMITTEE


October 24, 2016


BOYCOTTING THE CELEBRATIONS OF THE 17TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CREATION OF THE STATE OF CHHATTISGARH IN PROTEST FOR THE ANTI-POLITICAL POLICIES OF THE NATIONAL-HINDUIST GOVERNMENT AND FASCIST OF RAMAN SINGH!
WE DEMAND THAT ALL RIGOR SHALL BE PUNISHED TO RAMAN SINGH, KALLURI AND OTHER GUILTY OF COMMITING CRIMES ATROCES AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF BASTAR!
The government NACIONAL-HINDU AND FASCIST MODI HEADING TO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE MASSES genocidal campaign against adivasis!

On March 25, 2011, a joint force of police of Chhattisgarh, forces  paramilitary state and the Special Police [OPS, its acronym in English] was given to fire, pillage and murder in the district Of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. At least three adivasis villagers were brutally murdered, others ruthlessly beaten, raped several women and set fire to 252 houses in the villages of Tadimetla, Morpalli and Timmapur in the course of a genocidal rampage. Parties, organizations and different revolutionary and democratic personalities of Chhattisgarh and every country at that time strongly condemned such barbarity. They demanded an impartial investigation and punishment of guilty policemen, paramilitaries and soldiers. However, instead of addressing just popular demands, the Raman Singh government tried to protect the mercenary armed bands of state terrorists without the least rebozo, completely rejecting their guilt. The government and the police of Chhattisgarh vainly sought to avoid their responsibility in the above-mentioned facts, accusing the Maoists of the attacks, which no one except the most fervent lackeys of the imperialists and the ruling classes ever believed. All this occurred while the victims proclaimed loud and clear that the armed forces of the government had committed such atrocities in their villages.

As is usual practice in areas where there is an active popular movement, in this case also the government and its forces tried by all means to land on the truth of their atrocious crimes against the people. As now do under the third phase of Operation Green Hunt, at that time the government of Raman Singh and police tried to prevent social and activists for civil liberties, journalists, intellectuals people Solidarity with the adivasis, lawyers, democratic forces and even the Congress Party and the Communist Party of India [revisionist] raised their voice in solidarity with the masses before the terror of State. A group of social activists, headed by Swami Agnivesh, who was carrying out fact-finding work in the affected villages, was attacked by the thugs of the Salwa Judum, led by the well-known criminal Inspector General of the Police Kalluri, who Then he served as Chief Superintendent in Dantewada, and his political leaders, especially the neo-Nazi, fascist and Hindu nationalist captain Raman Singh. Swami Agnivesh and Delhi University Professor Nandini Sundar filed a lawsuit before the Supreme Court, challenging the lies of the police and blaming the attacks on the latter and the Salwa Judum. The Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to find out the facts.

After several years, the IWC has finally presented its findings, which it sent to the Supreme Court in a report dated October 21. In it it is revealed the blatant lies Raman Singh government and Kalluri, and concludes that the Maoists had nothing to do whatsoever with the events in the three villages, as well as the attack on social activists. The report accuses the PAHO, the members of the police and paramilitary forces and the police commanders who commanded them to be the direct responsible for these events. As a result of these conclusions, a whole range of social activists, democratic and civil rights activists, organizations and individuals, such as the Congress Party, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP, "Common Man's Party" , In Hindi], the Congress Party of Chhattisgarh, etc., have demanded the immediate dismissal of Kalluri from his post, once the IWC itself has confirmed its participation in the events. All these actors have reported that the police have been denying their involvement in the crimes over the past five years despite overwhelming evidence of involvement of government armed forces, including PAHO. But now the government has no room left to hide behind the lie, since an organ of the Indian fascist state itself has been forced to admit the truth that the people of Bastar and outside Bastar had been defending for a long time .

to be continued.....

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Wichita's Women's March—a huge success

I was really impressed with Wichita's Women's March. There were thousands of people there. That has got to be about the larges march I ever attended in Wichita.
There seemed to be a general agreement that we all wanted President Donald Trump to know we will not sit back passively and just watch as he destroys women's rights and other rights that we have. There were also women's marches in major cities across the country and across the world.
The march started at the Keeper of the Plains statue. Then people marched to Wichita City Hall. One estimation I heard was that the crowed reached about 3,000. Women and men of all ages marched. Although most of the marchers were women, there were a lot of men and some children.
Once the crowd gathered at City Hall there were some women singing with guitars and the speakers started.
Julie Burkhart, Founder and CEO of Trust Women, spoke of need to fight for reproductive freedoms.
"Dr. Tiller used to say to me 'tell me the bad news first," she said. "Well the bad news is for the next few years reproductive freedom rights will be bad."
She went on to talk about efforts in two states to completely ban abortion.
"If you can't control reproduction you can't control your own life," she said.
Trust Women has a clinic in Wichita, Kansas and Oklahoma City.
Karen Countryman-Roswurm spoke about human trafficking.
"Sexual violence is the pipeline to prison for women," Roswurm said.
She went on to talk about women who end up in prison, women who lose their children and women whose lives have been messed up because their men have been jailed under the "war on drugs."
"We have to stand outside our privilege and recognise that violence exists," she went on to say.
Pastor Pamaline King-Burns spoke of her faith and fighting against hate.

"There are the seeds of discord," she said. "There were the children who grew up slaves, black men were slaves, Chinese were indentured. The seeds grew oak trees of hate. But we rose up. We made child labor laws, women can vote."
Briley Meek spoke for Planned Parenthood.
"I don't think I'm alone when I say I'm afraid for the future of my health care."
She said that Planned Parenthood not only gives women health care but does it without passing judgment on women.

The crowd was enthusiastic. Reproductive rights, Obamacare (Affordable Care Act, ACA) and issues of combating racism were themes heard from the various speakers.

Other rallies have been held across the country and world. My wife Cam Gentry was in Washington, DC. She said that march was way bigger than anyone thought it would be.
One thing I noticed from many people I know and talked to is that Trump is galvanizing people to become politically active. This may be just the first salvo of a political movement for women and men to defend their rights. 
It was hard to capture the crowd with a camera.

There were some very creative signs.
Cam and her sister Marsha Hesany.






Thursday, January 19, 2017

US- Women's March in Wichita, KS

For those interested, who live in Wichita or nearby, there will be a Women's March to coincide with the march in Washington DC. We already have about 1,000 people signed up to go.
This is our opportunity to show Donald Trump and the Republican Party that we are not just going to lay down and play dead while our new President and his party try to destroy all the rights women and others have worked for over the last 50 years.

Place: The Keeper of the Plains (the big statue at 650 N. Seneca Street in Wichita).
When: Saturday, at 10am to 1pm.

There will also be a chilli feed after the March, complete with updates on the situation at Standing Rock.

Place: Mid-American All-Indian Center.
When: Saturday, from 11:30am to 2pm.
-SJ Otto


Italy- The Return of Communism

This looks interesting. I would go if I didn't live so far away. The whole idea of the return of communism is a good one. I'm not sure which factional leaning this is (Maoist, Trot, Stalin, etc.) What is important is that we keep looking for ways to promote communism. - សតិវអតុ


Viewpoint is proud to co-sponsor the Rome Conference on Communism, taking place in the eternal city from January 18-22, 2017. The conference entails a series of roundtable discussions with major figures in the history, practice, and theory of communism, as well as workshops bringing together younger activists and militants. In accordance with Viewpoint’s project to uncover forgotten left histories and prompt critical thinking about revolutionary possibility in our own conjuncture, we offer the following interviews with key conference participants, originally published in the Italian magazine Il Manifesto, as a way for our readers to engage with some of the ideas circulating at the conference, even if from afar. We wish to thank our translators and Riccardo Antoniucci for making the texts available to us in advance of the conference.

Reinventing Communist Politics | Sandro Mezzadra

Migration showed me, along with feminism, the strategic importance of “difference”; strategic in organizing the relations of domination and exploitation; but also strategic as a construction of the politics of liberation as well.
For the rest click here.



László Moholy-Nagy, Am 7 (26), 1926

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

He’s right—NATO is obsolete

By សតិវអតុ
If Donald Trump is right about anything it is that NATO is obsolete.[1] It was originally justified as a deterrent against the Soviet Union, the arch enemy of the US at the time it was created. Today this great threat is gone. But NATO has been expanded rather than dismantled. So today, the alliance is used more to instill the imperialist order than it is at protecting anyone. There is the so called “Russian threat” but we really don’t need all the weapons in all those countries just for that. Small countries that were once in the Soviet Block now get real cheap weapons in some-what of a welfare system that gives small countries their cheap or free arms.
As far as I’m concerned those small countries don’t need arms from our tax money. They can arm themselves. Countries such as Albania, Bulgaria and Estonia have no reason to be in NATO. Also none of the other countries in NATO, such as France, have any real enemies to worry about.
The more powerful NATO countries, such as France, have attacked the ISIS (Islamic State) territory in Syria and Iraq. NATO really isn’t threatened by ISIS. But the imperialist countries don’t want ISIS to muscle in on their neo-colonial territories and countries. NATO is now just an arm of European imperialism and a tool of US imperialism. It has nothing to do with defense and everything to do with imperialist enforcement. No one in NATO would dare change their system of government without feeling the “iron fist” of NATO.
Trump is not right about much, but he is right that NATO is obsolete and needs to go.  



[1] Actually Trump has back tracked on much of his earlier statements against NATO just a day ago, according to Rueters.

Monday, January 16, 2017

It's Martin Luther King Day!

Some people still look up to Martin Luther King as a great progressive person who stood up for right in a not-so-right world. - សតិវអតុ



Sunday, January 15, 2017

India - Maoists plan ‘Janatana Sarkar’


VISAKHAPATNAM: Even as AP director general of police (DGP) N Sambasiva Rao recently claimed that the Maoist numbers have dwindled specially after the major encounter at Ramaguda in Bejjangi area in Odisha in October last year, the CPI Maoists are reportedly planning to set up a ‘Janatana Sarkar’ in the Andhra-Odisha Border.
A Janatana Sarkar is a parallel government set up by the Maoists who provide the people with facilities in education, health, security and other segments. For the benefit of the people, the banned outfit is also planning to set up hospitals in tribal pockets.
Despite losing ground in places like Palnadu and the South Andhra districts like Krishna and West Godavari in the last two decades, Maoists have till date managed to retain their hold in the AOB districts like East Godavari and Visakhapatnam.
According to sources, members of the division committee and red guerrillas have been continuously conducting meetings in the AOB villages. They are now telling people to send their wards to schools to be set up by them shortly and also bring the patients to hospitals set up by them, they added.
With the Maoists regrouping, security forces are on a high alert. “There are reports that new cadre has landed in the AOB. Maoists had already deployed some of the senior cadre from the Dandakaranya region in Chhattisgarh to AOB to recuperate from the losses of Ramaguda encounter,” a senior police officer told TOI
The sources said senior Maoist leader Jitender Reddy alias Krishna was recently seen in the Visakha agency. He may have been sent to the district to coordinate with the cadres and the public to rebuild the movement. Krishna was himself a former secretary of Galikonda Area Committee and has good knowledge of the agency areas. Along with him, Kakuri Pandanna, who was a former commander of Ramakrishna alias RK’s protection team, is also helping in regrouping in the area.
The Maoists have already appointed senior cadre Ajay as secretary of the Srikakulam-Koraput Division committee after the death of former secretary Chamala Krishnayya alias Daya in the Ramaguda encounter.
An expert in anti-naxal operations said Maoists are now practising Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC). They have also deployed a single-man action team in AOB areas. Usually, action teams have three or more people, he added.


Wednesday, January 11, 2017

The Women’s March on Washington is an expression of solidarity for fighting our own class warfare

By សតិវអតុ
Next week end there will be a major march for women and women’s rights timed to coordinate with the Donald Trump inauguration, The Women’s March on Washington. Women from across the country will come to meet and march on January 21.
According to their mission and vision the organizers said:

We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families - recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country.

OUR MISSION
The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us - immigrants of all statuses, Muslims and those of diverse religious faiths, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, survivors of sexual assault - and our communities are hurting and scared. We are confronted with the question of how to move forward in the face of national and international concern and fear.
In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office and to the world that women's rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.
We support the advocacy and resistance movements that reflect our multiple and intersecting identities. We call on all defenders of human rights to join us. This march is the first step towards unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up. We will not rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equity for all.
HEAR OUR VOICE.

As can be expected there are the naysayers that believe the women’s march is a bad idea. Their reasons vary. Some have attacked the idea of so called “identity politics.” The Democratic Party is being advised to dump all of that and focus just on bread and butter issues that will appeal to the working class. A lot of pundits have noticed that uneducated white people, many who consider themselves democrats, voted for Trump.

Chris Arnade, of Quarts wrote before the election:

The United States is a place divided by race, class, and education. The 2016 election has divided us further. While minorities overwhelmingly favor the Democratic nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, whites are split at historic levels along the lines of educational background. Those with a college degree, the front-row kids, are much more likely to support Clinton than those without—the kids in the back.
Much of the reason for the divide lies in the fact that the front row is doing much better than the back row. While those in the back row earn about a fifth less than they did 35 years ago, the front row now earns more.
But the rift between Americans goes deeper than that. I am a front-row kid who has spent much of the last five years among those in the back row. And what I have seen are very different versions of America, with fundamentally different values and concepts of personal meaning.
It is this divide, along with the racial divide, that Donald Trump is exploiting now. It is a divide that blinded many of us in the front row to Trump’s broad appeal despite his ugly views. It is a divide that led many to underestimate him, and helped him come within reach of the US presidency.

Likewise is Kay S. Hymowitz who wrote for the New York Times:

I’m not a Trump supporter, but having talked to and read interviews with some of the 56 percent of white women and 43 percent of women overall who are, I think it’s safe to say this kind of talk will fool nobody.
Those women will – correctly – view the rally as organized by and for the women on the other side of the canyon. News media stories about the marchers refer to reproductive health clinic managers, professors, writers, attorneys, fashion designers, university students and 
an artist who is bringing her bachelorette party. There may well be a few small town factory workers and military wives among the 200,000 women expected to link arms on Jan. 21, but they will be alien creatures in a blue sea of creative and professional class elites. 
The women of the other side will – also correctly – know that the marchers look down on them as at best benighted fools and at worst racist haters. On her first show after the election Samantha Bee, one of the spokeswomen for the march, blasted “Caucasian Nation“ women for betraying their sex. Chelsea Handler, who is leading a satellite march in Hollywood-studded Sundance, described them as
self-mutilating.” 
If march enthusiasts are serious about wanting to speak for women, rather than laughing along with liberal comedians who treat the rubes like chopped liver…..They might learn that though they disliked Hillary Clinton, especially in the Rust Belt states, a significant number of Trump supporting women voted for Barack Obama. Many of them were eager to vote for a woman president. They put jobs, terrorism and health care before social issues, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t put off by Trump’s sexism. 

First of all, there are those who claim that a march will do nothing. Those people really have no solution of their own. The election is over and electoral politics has its limitations. In fact it rarely solves anything. We need to do all we can. Marches don’t get a lot of change accomplished but we can’t just do nothing.
Second, such a division can’t be helped. The Republican Party has been waging a class war on the American working class, the working poor and those in deep poverty. Many of us on the left have done what we can to reach out and support those classes. But quite often members of those very classes vote against their own interest. They vote for Republicans. Earlier last year labor leaders were in despair. They warned their members that Trump was especially down on labor unions. Most of their members voted for him anyway.
What these articles and others like them imply is that the better educated classes, of which the above authors claims were the supporters behind Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, has un
fairly ganged up on their less fortunate working class democrats. There may be some truth to this, but to imply we should be more like the Republicans is not the answer. The less educate may be more likely to look down on gays, blacks and other minorities. But why should we have to stoop to that level? Such minorities need our support. We shouldn’t need to become Archie Bunkers to gain the support of poorer working class individuals.
I’m not sure why these authors think that the issue of decent jobs is not important to the better educated. Jobs are a problem for a lot of people. And not all well-educated professional class people have the jobs they want or need. After all, one of the things that struck with the Bernie Sanders crowds was the idea of free college education. Those who spend thousands to go and get a college education are tired of not finding the jobs they studied and trained for.
It is also puzzling as to why working people who need healthcare would vote for a man who wants to dismantle Obamacare (Affordable Care Act). The Republicans never have and never will want health care reform. They like the system. It is good for business.  
It is true that the Democrats have not done enough to support the working class. They have let them down. It was easy to see why Hillary Clinton did not appeal to the working class. The Democrats are not friends of the working classes either. But voting for the Republicans was like leaping from the frying pan into the fire.
The truth is that we need class war of our own. The Republicans are not the friend of the working man and neither are the corporations that rely on their support. Neither are the Democrats. Working people need to understand this. Corporate America has waged class war on the workers and poor people. The Women’s March on Washington gives us a chance to come together in solidarity for our own class warfare.
Chris Arnade used this photo of a black women sporting a copy of Revolution, as an example of a disgruntled black woman in a divided America.