On The United Front - Mariategui

The united front does not annul the personality. It does not signify confusing or amalgamating all the doctrines into a single doctrine. It is a contingent, concrete practical action... [and] only considers the immediate reality outside of any abstraction and any utopia... everyone should keep his own affiliation and his own ideology... But all should feel united by class solidarity... the struggle against the common adversary, tied by the same revolutionary will and the same renovating passion... The variety of tendencies and precise defined groups is not something bad, on the contrary, it is the sign of an advanced period in the revolutionary process. What is important is that these groups know how to understand each other before the concrete reality of the day. They are not mired in byzantine reciprocal confessions and excommunications... They do not use their weapons or squander their time in wounding one and other, but rather combat the social order, its institutions, its injustices and its crimes.

It is up to us... to be the cause of class consciousness. This task belongs equally to socialists, syndicalists/trade unions, to communists and anarchists...

Jose Carlos Mariategui

From "May Day and the United Front" in Jose Carlos Mariategui - an Anthology - eds Harry E. Vanden, Marc Becker, MR Press 2011


Mariategui was the founder of the Peruvian Communist Party, was very much influenced by anarchism and syndicalism. His writings were an influence on Che Guevara. (See Motorcycle Diaries )

For more info see

http://www.marxists.org/archive/mariateg/

Looking Forward to 2012 - Global Economic Crisis Chapter Two

Even the most optimistic view of 2012 gives us a continuation of 2011. Europe remains in crisis, the US staggers along, China continues to skirt crisis. But things could get much more interesting. As Europe follows its suicidal path of austerity, the economy continues its decline. Some countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal could follow Greece into defacto default. The virtual collapse of Europe will send a shock wave across the Atlantic, furthering the wrecking of the US economy. With a lower demand from the US and Europe, China and India will go into crisis. Brazil, one of the global powerhouses in 2010 is already having a downturn, which will be exacerbated by these events. Russia. So dependent on the oil and gas exports, the demand for which will be cut back will face serious problems. This will be Global Crisis Chapter Two.

Smug, self-satisfied Canada will not be immune. Demand for petroleum and minerals has kept the Canadian economy afloat. With global demand down, Canada will feel the economic crisis. Over the past two years, oil has ranged between 80 and 100 dollars a barrel. It takes at least $70 a barrel to make tar sand oil profitable. (If you ignore both the billions in government subsidies and the cost to the environment) The onset of the 2008 crisis saw oil at less than $60 and there were long faces in the tar pits. Furthermore, Canada has a housing bubble. Dwellings are overpriced by at least 30%, prices are already falling. Pull the plug on the economy and the real estate ponzi scheme collapses like a house of cards.

Then there are the political ramifications. We have not heard the last from the Greeks. The working class of Southern Europe is combative. Occupy, the Arab Spring, the Indignados of 2011, may well be only the first wave of revolt that will actually challenge the system at its roots. Political unrest will further undermine the European economy. The establishment political parties – and this includes the ostensibly left wing parties – are intellectually and morally bankrupt. They have no answers or solutions.

While the majority of the population oppose austerity and the bankster bailouts, the opposition still has no coherent direction or program. This is to be expected as the people are on their own and are have their own learning curve. However, should the people unite around a program that challenges neoliberalism and the corporate state – and this may well not be in the cards for 2012 – revolutionary changes may be in the offing in Southern Europe.

The Middle East will also be crucial in 2012. Though Islamist parties seem to have profited from the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, they have no answers to the problems afflicting these countries. The working class is organizing and revolutionary socialist and anarchist ideas are spreading. We have not heard the last from the Arab Spring. Should the Americans prove foolish enough to attack Iran this year, this could flatten the world economy. While "cheap oil" is a problem for the producer countries, overpriced oil is a disaster for the rest. Close the Gulf of Hormuz and hello $300 a barrel oil and good bye global economy. And one must never underestimate the arrogance and racist-based stupidity of the US ruling class.

There are a host of other questions. What will happen in Iraq? Will the country implode and Iraqi oil production – already low compared to pre-US invasion – drop? Pakistan? Don't even go there! Russia? The left is rebuilding after the virtually genocidal restoration of capitalism and strongman Putin is beginning to look weak. Mexico? Will the people finally have enough of their US-backed narco-terrorist regime and rise up?

A Happy New Year to all!

Venezuelan Anarchists Form New Group

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Manifesto of the Federación Anarquista Revolucionaria de Venezuela (FARV)

1) The Federación Anarquista Revolucionaria de Venezuela -

http://farvespecifistas.blogspot.com/

is a collective that adopts the ideology of Libertarian Communism, a system where both capitalism and the bourgeois State that supports it are abolished, where the people as the producers of goods and services have control of what is produced in the form of collective ownership, where such production is distributed according to the principle "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs".

2) We operate under the principles of horizontalism, self-management, mutual aid, collectivism, the class struggle, anti-imperialism, and solidarity between peoples and the peoples' struggles.

3) We firmly believe in anarchist organization as the only form of struggle within libertarian communism, as only by working to certain principles and programmes, respecting individual work but having nothing to do with capitalist egoism and neoliberal trends, can we build the necessary platform where militants accept their collective responsibility.

4) We act politically as anarchists and work within the popular struggles, building collectively from the daily routine, walking the same path as the communities in order to promote increasingly libertarian principles. As methods and fields of struggle, we support direct action, revolutionary syndicalism, libertarian educational methods, alternative personal and communal communications, and popular participation, amongst other things. We believe that bourgeois democracy restricts the people's right of choice, so we advocate instead direct, popular democracy and communal self-government.

5) We support the Bolivarian process critically as radical militants of the Social revolution. That is to say, we are in favour of the creation of greater political, social, economic and cultural spaces within the process, but nevertheless we must fight against reformism, bureaucracy and other vices embedded in the national government, which we know are intrinsic to the State and any form of government other than self-government.

6) We are neither anti-Bolivarian nor anti-Chavez. These are expressions of the bourgeois opposition in the country; therefore, as a libertarian communist organization we oppose any area that plays into the hands of imperial factors, including a supposedly anarchist sector that rejects the class struggle and whose "anarchism" serves to hide their neoliberal intentions. We remain distant from these ideas and attitudes, and identify with the Bolivarian and Chavist popular struggles, as they are currently the hope for any future social and class-struggle revolutionary change in the country.

7) The anarchism we profess is that of the Bakuninists in the First International, of the Makhnovist Revolutionaries, of the anarcho-syndicalists in the Spanish Revolution, the proletarians of the FORA, the guerrillas of the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya, the Chicago Martyrs, Flores Magón and the Partido Liberal Mexicano, the pedagogy and mutual aid of Peter Kropotkin, and Proudhon's self-management. These struggles were framed within the class struggle between the dispossessed and their exploiters, between the workers and their bosses, between the peasants and the landowners.

8) We identify with the historical struggles of the Venezuelan people: the aboriginal resistance, the revolts of those of African descent and the Maroons, the libertarian ideas of toparchy and emancipation of Simón Rodriguez, the class war represented by the popular rebellion of 1814 with the pardos, blacks and amerindians of Boves, the struggle for the independence of the people by Simón Bolívar, the 1846 popular insurrection, the Federal War and Ezequiel Zamora, the advanced idealism of Pío Tamayo, the coup d'état of 23rd January 1958, the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), the investigation into the disappearances and torture of FALN guerrillas, the 1989 Caracazo protests, the insurrection of 4 February 1992, the Bolivarian process, the events of April 2002, among many other struggles which have involved the people of Venezuela.

9) This is why our struggle must always be framed in the social, political, economic and cultural context of Venezuela, expanding this framework to the Latin American and global level, but always starting from the local and regional level.

10) Our humble contribution must be, on the one hand to try to ensure that the socialist process follows libertarian paths as far as possible, while on the other hand, to ensure that anarchist and libertarian communist ideology is known for what it is, genuinely socialist and revolutionary, and not to be confused with false positions that mask the purest anti-popular, anti-class struggle neoliberalism.

11) To conclude, we wish to make it clear that the FARV is politically active in the central and central west of the country (Caracas, Barquisimeto and Valencia) and that it hopes to connect up with other anarchist individuals and collectives on a national level, either organically or through direct support. We consider it extremely important to create a true anarchist federation in Venezuela with branches in every state or city, as we believe that in this way our action is more serious and forceful and thus leave behind us the situation we have today where many comrades (clearly anarchist or not) do not have a serious organization with which to fight and where each simply makes his or her own individual contribution. Naturally, we respect those already-existing groups that do not wish to join us as a branch and invite them to join us as collectives and contribute everything they wish to contribute to the struggle; all this will help to create true, honest and selfless unity, with which we can head towards the social revolution throughout the country and, even with the differences that do exist which are understandable in these types of organizations, seek the path that leads to libertarian communism. And this is nothing other than the path of life. We conclude by adding the words of comrade Errico Malatesta: "In an anarchist organisation the individual members can express any opinion and use any tactic which is not in contradiction with accepted principles and does not harm the activities of the others. In every case a given organisation lasts for as long as the reasons for union remain greater than the reasons for dissent. When they are no longer so, then the organisation is dissolved and makes way for other, more homogeneous groups".

For the construction of a Venezuelan Libertarian Movement!

For Libertarian Socialism and towards the Federation of Communes!

For the worldwide Libertarian Communist Revolution!

FARV - Federación Anarquista Revolucionaria de Venezuela

The Problem With Occupy

I see Occupy's situation today as analogous to that of the Civil Rights Movement. As long as they stayed in the South Northern liberals loved them. But when the movement went North and started confronting racism there, it became "Dr. King, you are going too far!" Perhaps without intending to, the Civil Rights Movement exposed the limits of liberalism and of the socio-economic system of the United States.

Occupy has gotten a lot of back patting and verbal support from political moderates. However, now that the time has come to turn those kind words into taking a real stand with the Occupy Movement, the story becomes, "No, we can't do that, and you have been here too long anyway. Please pack up your tents and go!" There has to be more to this rejection than just fear of slobbering rightwingers.

One of the most appealing aspects for the public – when they know about it – has been Occupy's list of demands. So moderate, so reasonable, probably three quarters of Canadians would agree. Yet, I think these sorts of demands are the very thing that upsets our corporate masters and their ideologues the most. If Occupy was demanding the implementation of anarchist communism next week, the movement could be laughed off, but demands that the average person can get behind are dangerous to the greedy and powerful.

Occupys sweet little list of demands is slam-bang up against the dominant ideology – corporatism, also known as neo-liberalism. To paraphrase the Godfather of corporatism, one Benito Mussolini, corporatism is best seen as "Everything by the corporation, everything for the corporation, nothing against the corporation." A contemporary corporatist, Margaret Thatcher, now dying of brain rot (karma) put it rather cold bloodedly, TINA - There Is No Alternative (to corporate domination)

The age of reforms was supposed to be over. Through their control of the state apparatus, the corporatist ideologues began eliminating the reforms thousands of working people had died struggling for. The neoliberal utopia was one without trade unions, minimum wage laws, laws regulating work hours and even child labour laws. Heaven for the wealthy and powerful, hell for the rest of us.

They beat the drum of corporatist ideology so long and so loud, that it became virtually economic "common sense." (This is known as hegemony) The mainstream left adopted the ideology but in a smiley face form. They are like someone who says beating you with a broom handle is an improvement over beating you with a chunk of two by four, yet dismisses not being beaten as utopian foolishness that you must outgrow.

Occupy, thus to adapt a quaint phrase of Lyndon Johnson's, is guilty of pissing on the corporatist barbecue. Millions of people now want to reverse the neoliberal depredations and push for new reforms. This was not supposed to be in the script!

Getting back to the otherwise friendly politicians – for them to take a concerted stand with Occupy would brand them as enemies in the eyes of our corporate masters and their hacks and ideologues. I wouldn't be too judgmental if I were you. Few of us are heroic, and often those who are, have nothing to lose anyway. Ultimately, Occupy has exposed the limits of conventional politics.

Report from Occupy Nelson

Having spoken with the camping protesters in front of
city hall last night,they told me the city has ordered them
to strike down their tipi tentunder the claim it is a fire
hazard. They have until 6pm tonight to do so,
right when most of Nelson is eating supper and/or
going to vote in ourcivic election. 

I spoke with one young fellow who is part native who
says he will do his utmost to not allow the tipi to be
taken down. We live in a place that
continues to deny the Sinixt Nation full Indian Status. 

I say all power to these folks who are standing up
for us at city hall.They need our continued support.  

Many people think The Occupy Movement is a diffuse
unorganized effort.It is crystal clear to me that the
corporate state collusion in this country
has undermined our Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms as well asUnited Nations Charters. The
corporate state collusion has grown to such
a point as to become an oligarchic kleptocracy.
They have made the ordinary citizen's methods of
referendum, petitioning and voting useless
tools against the rising tides of problems associated
with corporatehegemony which obviously include:
environmental genocide, wars, poverty and racist tactics
against First Nations.The citizenry has little
options left to affect change but civil disobedience
and direct action.     

The protesters worldwide are amazingly organized.
In fact, when has any worldwide event occurred with
so many countries involved for this
long? No sporting event, no Olympic hoorah has
captured the involvementof so many nations for
this amount of time. Who could organize such
a thing? Collective effort can do so, has done so,
and will continue to do so.  

The demands are obvious. Change the laws for
equitable economic, environmental, voting, and
judiciary practices. Of course, these things are
difficult for a nation to evolve into and will be a
hard war to fight. However, the people have won
round one and have a lot of fight left in them. 

Josh Wapp   (Clenched fist in the air!)

Website Occupy Nanaimo

There is a second Occupy Nanaimo web site and I think this is the "official" one, see

http://www.occupynanaimo.ca/

See also

www.occupynanaimo.weebly.com

One Week into Occupy Nanaimo

The weather has turned wet and cool, but it has not dampened the ardor of the people of Occupy Nanaimo. There must be about thirty tents, all of which are occupied, as well as a food area, library and covered area for making placards and posters. A number of homeless have joined this little community.

Today at noon there was a round table discussion which I joined. Occupiers and supporters like myself stood in a circle and took turns voicing our thoughts as how to distill down the vast number of demands into a smaller package and to voice any other opinions that people wished. One man said how student loans had become a kind of debt peonage (my words not his) and how we ought to have free university tuition (like in France or Cuba.) and how a university education ought not be the privilege of a few. A woman said how Occupy Nanaimo was building a community and this sense of community is what we need to develop further. These two sentiments were re-iterated by other speakers. One man recalled how successful direct action was in saving the trees at Cathedral Grove and another of how the 911 coverup had opened his eyes leading him to support actions such as Occupy. Several spoke of the need to support local businesses since the money circulates in the community, whereas with the big box stores, the money is siphoned out.

When my turn came I spoke of the need for democracy, real democracy, not our present elective dictatorship, a democracy of neighborhood assemblies and of the workplace as well. I pointed out how the biggest obstacle to democracy was the corporation and how this institution was a creation of government and thus could be eliminated by government. I spoke of the “four corporate privileges” that ought to be eliminated – corporate personhood, limited liability, patent law and banking law.

More people joined in and were still discussing when I left to get a coffee.

The following is Ken H's comment

Occupy Nanaimo is ongoing. i live more than 20 kilometres away and I drop in only occasionally. Occupy Nanaimo quickly became a gathering place for homeless people, First Nations people well represented among them. On Friday evening i counted 32 tents and at the meeting they were planning to buy more. A woman interviewed today on CHLY was enthusiastic about the impact on homeless people. For the moment they have a place to maintain a tent with sleeping bags and access to regular meals. Homelessness is very much an issue in Nanaimo right now as there is a campaign against the opening of "low-barrier" housing in the north end of Nanaimo. Many of the homeless people do not yet participate in the general assemblies. I would speculate that many of them are not used to having a voice in anything. I am inspired by the success of Occupy Nanaimo and look forward to dropping in on them again