tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69519597080373029932024-02-19T07:04:01.009-08:00Gus Hall Action Club<b><i>Peace - Jobs - Equality - Socialism</i></b>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-20687257393633078522014-05-09T13:03:00.003-07:002014-05-10T12:45:54.339-07:00Long Live Victory Day [День Победы] May 9!<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Gus Hall, Marxist-Leninist fighter extraordinaire, hailed the
Soviet Union's lead role in the war against "Hitler fascism, the most
brutal and bloodiest capitalist dictatorship!"</i> This post is dedicated to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation КПРФ. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><i><b>May 9 is Victory Day</b> День Победы<b>, a holiday marking the USSR's heroism in smashing imperialist Hitler Germany in WWII!</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i><b>Henry
Winston, stellar late CPUSA chair, put it squarely: "the Soviet Union
played the decisive role in saving the world from the racist, genocidal
consequences of anti-Sovietism and anti-Communism."</b></i> William Z. Foster wrote that "<i>had Hitler been able to demolish the Red Army that would have been the end of democracy for an indefinite period</i>.
The US, though not falling an immediate victim, could not have long
withstood the tremendous power Hitler would then have had at his
disposal." (Winston, <i>Race, Class and Black Liberation</i>, 1977, International Publishers; Foster, <i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i>, 1952, I.P.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"<i><b>The Soviet people won their historic victory in the Great Patriotic War because of the socialist social and state system.</b></i>" (B. Ponomarev, <i>Short History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union</i>, 1970, Progress Publishers, Moscow)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i><b>The Communist Party, the party of Lenin, was "the great organizer and inspirer of the national resistance"</b></i>.
It "set an example in both battle and labor and greatly strengthened
morale. The Party transformed the country into a vast military camp.
Hundreds of thousands of Communists went to the front, and their
selfless valor and devotion to their socialist homeland, their
implacable hatred for the fascist invaders, served as an inspiring
example for millions of Soviet soldiers." (<i>Liberation</i>, Progress Publishers, 1974)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span class="yiv2338261710Apple-style-span" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1399669809247_6979"><span class="yiv2338261710Apple-style-span" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1399669809247_6978" style="color: #333333;"><i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1399669809247_6993">[William
Z. Foster: "the great offensive of the Soviet people and their Red Army
against the Nazi hordes was guided daily by Generalissimo Stalin."]</i></span></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i><b>Stalin roused the Red Army and the guerrilla detachments: "May you be inspired by the victorious banner of Lenin!" </b></i>(1941)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The
American Marxist-Leninist William Z. Foster chronicles the past: "When
Hitler’s armies swept across the Soviet border in June 1941, the
bourgeois military experts of the West were unanimous in prophesying
that it would only be a few weeks until Hitler would crush the USSR
completely. In fact, Hitler’s ’blitz’ did carry him fast and far, to the
very gates of Leningrad by September, a city he was never to capture.
On October 3, <i>the vainglorious Hitler blared out to the world that the Soviet Union was crushed and would never rise again</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"But he counted his chickens before they were hatched. <i><b>Hitler vastly underestimated the fighting power of the Soviet people, their Red Army and socialist system</b></i>. The <i>Wehrmacht</i>
had been made to pay a terrible price in its drive across Russia. It
was battered again in its fruitless attempt to take either Moscow or
Leningrad. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"And in January 1943, <i>the fascist’s back was broken at Stalingrad, the most decisive battle in the history of the world</i>.
Then began, for the Nazis, their terrible 1, 500 mile retreat, with the
Red Army slashing them to pieces all the way, while the United States
and Britain kept their enormous armies idling in Britain." Foster
declared: "<i><b>The Communists were wonderful people while they were saving the world from the criminal follies of the capitalist system</b></i>." The Allies launched the western front "after the European war was basically decided and Hitler licked." (Foster, <i>History of the Three Internationals</i>, 1955, International Publishers)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"<b><i>The Red Army carried out Stalin’s order: the flag of victory was hoisted over Berlin!</i></b>" (Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute, <i>Joseph Stalin</i>, 1949)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"<i><b>The memory of the undying exploits of the peoples of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War will live through the ages.</b></i>" (Ponomarev, <i>Short History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union</i>, 1970, Progress Publishers)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This is <a href="http://youtu.be/cZhcNagUGy8"><b><i>the superb anthem Victory Day</i></b> День Победы</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Enjoy this stunning video with a beautiful song by Joseph Kobzon <i>Иосиф Кобзон</i>: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWDhx6gva6M"><b><i>Bow to Those Great Years </i></b></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Read Georgi Dimitrov's <i><b><a href="http://www.marx2mao.com/Other/TUF35.html">The United Front</a></b>: The Struggle Against Fascism & War. </i>[</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">1938]</span></div>
Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-45999226219612918922014-03-06T18:15:00.000-08:002014-03-07T10:50:05.697-08:00Long Live Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto!<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Circulate International Publishers' edition of Marx & Engels’ <i>Communist Manifesto</i> to workers at picket lines, protests and online!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>(They can be purchased in the Twin Cities from Mayday Books, 301 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55454. Phone #: 612-333-4719)</i></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Henry Winston spoke out eloquently: "in the opening lines of the <i>Communist Manifesto</i>,
authored in 1848 when the modern working class was emerging, <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/granat/">Karl Marx</a>
& <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1895/misc/engels-bio.htm">Frederick Engels</a> noted that Communist influence on the
laborers was already a 'specter haunting' the exploiters and
oppressors!" (<a href="http://www.politicalaffairs.net/henry-winston-a-man-of-and-for-the-people-biographical-notes/">Henry Winston</a>, <i>Class, Race & Black Liberation</i>, 1977, International Publishers)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://epa.cpusa.org/Comrades/gus_hall.htm">Gus Hall</a>, stellar past Marxist-Leninist warrior with the <a href="http://www.cpusa.org/">Communist Party of the United States</a>, author of <i>Working Class USA: The Power and the Movement</i>
& a founder of the United Steelworkers union, frequently hailed
one of the Manifesto's crucial lessons: "of all the classes that stand
face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a
really revolutionary class." (Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, <i>Communist Manifesto</i>, 1848, Int'l Publishers)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/photo/lifeandwork/sketches/kmstudy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/photo/lifeandwork/sketches/kmstudy.jpg" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Karl
Marx & Frederick Engels: 'Communists fight for the attainment
of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of
the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also
represent and take care of its future.'</i></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k488/sqacct7/AuthorPhotos/Section%20F/FriedrichEngels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k488/sqacct7/AuthorPhotos/Section%20F/FriedrichEngels.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">William Z. Foster of the CPUSA once wrote that: "the <i>Communist Manifesto</i>
was the first revolutionary program of the world’s workers. It laid
down the solid foundations of proletarian thought and action for the
workers thenceforth on their road to socialism. It showed them how to
protect themselves under capitalism, how to abolish the capitalist
system, and how to build the structure of the new socialist society.
Marx, Engels, V.I. Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and others were to write many
books on Marxism in the ensuing decades, and their writings served to
elaborate and to buttress the basic propositions of the Manifesto.
Today, (more than 160) years after the great document was written, the <i>Communist Manifesto</i>
stands as firm as a rock, a clear guide for the international working
class, justified by generations of revolutionary experience, and
altogether impervious to the attacks of capitalist enemies." (<a href="http://epa.cpusa.org/Comrades/william_z_foster.htm">William Z. Foster</a>, <i>History of the Three Internationals</i>, 1955, International Publishers)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><img src="http://www.lessingimages.com/w1/401701/40170136.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.marx2mao.com/Stalin/FL24.html">Lenin</a>, the great successor of Marx & Engels, summed up the significance of the <i>Communist Manifesto</i>: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"With
the clarity and brilliance of genius, this work outlines a new
world-conception, consistent materialism, which also embraces the realm
of social life; dialectics, as the most comprehensive and profound
doctrine of development; the theory of the class struggle and the
world-historic revolutionary role of the proletariat--the creator of a
new, communist society." (Lenin, <i>Karl Marx</i>, 1914)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And Lenin could add, with every justification: "This little booklet is worth whole volumes!" (Lenin, <i>Frederick Engels</i>, 1895)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Read Karl Marx and Frederick Engels' epic classic online at this socialist link: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.marx2mao.com/M&E/CM47.html"><i><b>Manifesto of the Communist Party</b></i></a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Order the <i>Manifesto</i> in print from <a href="http://intpubnyc.com/"><b><i>International Publishers</i></b></a>. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>(Fellow Workers! "Like" the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/internationalpublishers">International Publishers</a> page on Facebook!)</i></span></span></div>
Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-22794243957284893372014-02-05T21:50:00.002-08:002014-02-26T20:14:19.733-08:00Les Misérables Storms the Barricades at Washburn High School in MN! <div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6783" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="yiv7646462271yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391553455112_14"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent">(FYI: I'll do a future </span></span><span class="yiv7646462271yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391553455112_14"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent"><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6660"><span class="yiv7646462271yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391553455112_14" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6659"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6658"><span style="font-style: italic;">Les Misérables </span></span></span></span>piece with </span></span><span class="yiv7646462271yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391553455112_14"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent"><span class="yiv7646462271yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391553455112_14"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent">Frederick Engels on the 1832 Paris uprising & </span></span>the Soviet Union's appreciation of Victor Hugo's book</span></span><span class="yiv7646462271yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391553455112_14"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent">. It will include a link to <i>The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte</i> by Karl Marx.) </span></span></span></span><br />
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<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6661" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: lucida console,sans-serif; font-style: normal; text-align: center;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6660" style="font-size: large;"><span class="yiv7646462271yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391553455112_14" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6659" style="font-family: lucida console, sans-serif;"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6658">I'm fired up about Washburn High School's
upcoming production of <span style="font-style: italic;">Les Misérables</span>, Fellow Workers! The epic musical
adapted from Victor Hugo' s fighting novel storms Minneapolis barricades
February 20 to March 2. Vive la Révolution! ― Washburn High SCH, 201 W.
49th St. , Mpls.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="yiv7646462271yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391553455112_14" style="font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6668" style="font-size: large;">Comrades, Come Rally! Forward this post, share the </span><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6668" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="yiv7646462271yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391553455112_14" style="font-family: lucida console, sans-serif;"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent"><a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/les-miserables-tickets-9877275196">schedule & ticket info</a></span></span></span> and get out the word!</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <span class="yiv7646462271yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391553455112_14" style="font-family: lucida console, sans-serif;"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent">― Michael </span></span></span><br />
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<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6672" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; text-align: center;">
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<img alt="The leader in red by SallyGipsyPunk" class="yiv7646462271dev-content-normal" src="http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/258/f/f/the_leader_in_red_by_sallygipsypunk-d6mdhad.jpg" height="1010" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6674" style="height: 469px; width: 327px;" width="705" /></div>
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<i><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6773" style="font-size: large;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6772">(Enjolras of Les Misérables : "The Leader in Red." Created by
SallyGipsyPunk (Sabrina) on DeviantART with "watercolors, ink, black
pen, acrylic & pastel.")</span></span></i></div>
<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6770" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; text-align: center;">
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<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6768" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">(FYI II: </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".a6.1:3:1:$comment801355943215052_110076518:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body"><span data-reactid=".a6.1:3:1:$comment801355943215052_110076518:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".a6.1:3:1:$comment801355943215052_110076518:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The Minneapolis Teachers Union MFT Local 59 FB page "liked" this public school event on their wall. Ura!)</span> </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6767" style="font-size: large;">Dig this <a href="http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/events/washburn-high-school-present-les-miserables-school-edition" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Daily Planet article</a> about the <span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6766"><span class="yiv7646462271userContent" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6765"><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6764" style="font-style: italic;">Les Mis </span></span></span></span><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6767" style="font-size: large;">performances.<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></span></div>
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<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6760" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="yiv7646462271main-content-area" name="main-content-area" rel="nofollow"></a>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="yiv7646462271main-content-area" name="main-content-area" rel="nofollow"></a><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6759" style="font-size: x-large;">Washburn High School to Present <span style="font-style: italic;">Les Misérables</span>® School Edition</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6757" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: lucida console,sans-serif; font-style: normal; text-align: center;">
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6754" style="font-size: large;"><span class="yiv7646462271date-display-start">02/20/2014 - 7:00pm</span><span class="yiv7646462271date-display-separator"> - </span><span class="yiv7646462271date-display-end" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6753">02/23/2014 - 2:00pm</span> </span></div>
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<span class="yiv7646462271date-display-start" style="font-size: large;">02/27/2014 - 7:00pm</span><span class="yiv7646462271date-display-separator" style="font-size: large;"> - </span><span class="yiv7646462271date-display-end" style="font-size: large;">03/02/2014 - 2:00pm</span><br />
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6747" style="font-size: large;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6746" style="font-family: lucida console, sans-serif;">Washburn High School presents eight performances of <span style="font-style: italic;">Les Misérables</span>® <span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6745">School
Edition on February 20, 21, 22 at 7:00 p.m., February 23 at 2:00 p.m.,
February 27, 28, March 1 at 7:00 p.m. and March 2 at 2:00 p.m.</span></span></span><br />
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6739" style="font-size: large;"> <span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6738" style="font-family: lucida console, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6741">Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students and
seniors, and $15 for VIP seating (online sale only). Tickets can be
purchased at the door or in advance at the </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WashburnArts" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Washburn Arts Council Facebook page</a><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6737"> events section. The performance on February 20 will be “pay as you can” night.</span></span></span><br />
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6733" style="font-size: large;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6732" style="font-family: lucida console, sans-serif;"> <span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6731">Adapted from Victor Hugo’s epic novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">Les Misérables</span>
is a passionate tale of crime and punishment, justice and redemption.
After being imprisoned 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread, ex-convict
Jean Valjean builds a new life, becoming mayor of a prosperous town and
adopting a young daughter. However, he violates his parole, and is
pursued for decades by the relentless Inspector Javert. Ultimately,
Valjean proves his mettle during a bloody student uprising in Paris,
saving the young man who loves his daughter. As his life comes to a
close, Valjean finds peace at last.</span></span></span><br />
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6727" style="font-size: large;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6726" style="font-family: lucida console, sans-serif;"> <span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6725">Nancy Lee, Co-Director and Production Lead, explains
why the timing was right for Washburn to take on this demanding
production. “The number of significant roles in <span style="font-style: italic;">Les Misérables</span> allows us
to feature upperclassmen who are dedicated, hard working and well
trained. The production challenges our advanced instrumentalists and
experienced senior tech crew as well.”</span></span></span><br />
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6720" style="font-size: large;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6719" style="font-family: lucida console, sans-serif;"> <span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6718">Co-Director John Lynn adds, “Don’t let the title
‘School Edition” fool you. The difference between our production and the
Broadway show is some careful editing of the songs, which shortens the
run time without taking away the difficulty or the beauty of this epic
production.”</span></span></span><br />
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6715" style="font-size: large;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6714" style="font-family: lucida console, sans-serif;"> <span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6713">Karen Reisch and Deb Keefe, Co-Chairs of the Washburn
Arts Council, emphasize, “We are tremendously proud of our musicians,
performers, and crew, and look forward to sharing this outstanding
production with the entire community.”</span></span></span>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/WashburnArts" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1391642415152_6696" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/WashburnArts</a></span></span>
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Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-36422821694869191612013-12-17T12:34:00.003-08:002014-02-19T10:38:38.000-08:00William Z. Foster: "Lenin Cleared the Road for Socialism in America!"<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Reprinted from <a href="http://rosicrucian1970.blogspot.com/2011/09/william-z-foster-lenin-cleared-road-for.html">Starry Messenger</a> : </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Comrade Lenin of Russia<br />Rises in the marble tomb<br />On guard with the fighters forever -<br />The world is our room!</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- Langston Hughes, <i>Ballad of Lenin</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Lenin put American Communism on a rock hard scientific footing. Daniel Mason reports that "The interplay between Lenin and the United States was very extensive. Lenin had learned the English language early in his career and became an avid student of US economics, politics, education and social life." (He Changed The World! foreword to <i>Lenin's Impact on the United States</i>, edited by Daniel Mason and Jessica Smith, New World Review, NY, 1970)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Confusion and utopian schemes ruled during the wilderness years of the American Left. Lenin's writings and warm personal contact with US comrades swept away this discord. Early Party luminary <a href="http://epa.cpusa.org/Comrades/william_z_foster.htm">William Z. Foster</a> evokes the bombshell effect of Leninism on the course of his own political maturity: "after more than 20 years of intellectual groping about, I was at last, thanks to Lenin, getting my feet on firm revolutionary ground." (William Z, Foster, <i>Pages from a Worker's Life</i>, 1939, International Publishers)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.lessing-photo.com/p2/401701/40170136.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://www.lessing-photo.com/p2/401701/40170136.jpg" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>(<span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"type":45,"tn":"*G"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption">Lenin, author of <a href="http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/LWC20.html">Left Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder </a>& other <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/sw/">titles for workers</a>.) </span></span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">William Z. Foster, yesteryear's fighting CPUSA National Chairman and lead organizer of 1919's Great Steel Strike, wrote eloquently in <i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i>:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Marxism-Leninism made its impact upon the American left Socialist movement not only by means of the practical example of the Russian Revolution and Lenin's major writings, but also by direct counsel from Lenin himself. Lenin knew the American situation profoundly and was deeply interested in it. He wrote a basic work on American agriculture, and twice he sent major political letters directly to the American working class - once, in 1916, in answer to a manifesto of the Socialist Propaganda League, and the second time in 1918, in his famous <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/aug/20.htm"><i>Letter to American Workers</i></a>. Also, during the early years of the Communist International, Lenin often spoke about the 'American question.'</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"The initial influence of Marxism-Leninism on American Marxist thinking was tremendous. Lenin provided the basic answers to many complicated problems of theory and practice which for decades past had confused and crippled the American Socialist movement. This clarification, besides acting with crushing effect upon the right-wing sophistries, also tended to liquidate the traditional sectarian errors of the left wing. Lenin exposed the De Leonite theories, syndicalist and sectarian, which had plagued and dominated the left wing ever since the death of Engels almost a quarter of a century earlier. Lenin provided a solid theoretical basis for the left's fight against Gompersism in the trade unions, and he also refuted the pseudo-Socialist pretenses of all sections of right-wing Social-Democracy - including its Bernsteinian and Kautskyan varieties. This had a clarifying and strengthening effect upon the American Marxist movement.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Highly important from the American standpoint was Lenin's scientific analysis of imperialism. With powerful emphasis, Lenin pointed out the qualitative differences that develop within the whole structure of capitalism with the growth of monopoly. Previously, without clearly differentiating itself from the right wing on this question, the left wing had tended to consider the growth of monopoly as merely a quantitative development of capitalism, and it's 'expansionism' (imperialism) as simply a secondary policy manifestation, instead of a basic expression of monopoly capitalism. This error led to a profound underestimation of the aggressive character, reactionary aims, and war making potentialities of imperialism. Lenin cleared up this confusion.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Lenin also made clear the road of all-out political mass struggle to socialism. In so doing, he annihilated for Americans the prevalent De Leonite, syndicalist ideas that the workers would win their way to power by 'locking out the capitalists' or by means of simply a general strike and other kindred illusions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"He also smashed the syndicalist conception, previously held almost unanimously by all sections of the American left wing, to the effect that after the workers had secured political power, the Party would dissolve itself and the unions would take over the management both of the industries and of society as a whole. Lenin, with the reality of the Russian Revolution to back up his words, clearly outlined the Soviet form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, pointed out that it is incomparably more democratic than the bourgeois dictatorship, and stressed the decisively leading role of the Party in every stage of the struggle, both before and during the existence of socialism. Lenin also, in his masterly analysis of the national question, with the able co-operation of Stalin, laid the basis for a fundamental understanding of the Negro question in the United States, a problem that had baffled left-wing thinking up to that time. With his historic doctrine that 'without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement', Lenin struck hard, too, at the traditional American tendency to minimize theory.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Among his other contributions to the American revolutionary movement, Lenin clarified the question of the role of the farmers, which had always been a weak spot in Socialist Labor Party and Socialist Party policy, especially after the advent of De Leon. Lenin stressed the vital necessity of labor co-operating with the oppressed and exploited strata of these toilers, and he indicated the basic conditions under which such co-operation , with working class leadership, should be carried out. Lenin also, with his strong anti-sectarian position and his supreme genius for mobilizing all the potential strength of the anti-capitalist forces, laid the basis for a clarification of the question of the labor party.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Smashing through the crippling De Leonite policy of non-participation in the broad, elemental mass movements of struggle, Lenin categorically, like Engels long before him, supported participation is such movements. Lenin likewise clarified the knotty question of partial political demands, which had also been a bone of contention in left-wing ranks for many years, especially under De Leon's intellectual tutelage. Indeed, Lenin had made this question quite clear in Russian practice, long before the Bolshevik Revolution. He showed that partial demands are an integral part of the workers' whole struggle. And Stalin, in his <i>Foundations of Leninism</i>, points out that reforms are by-products of revolutionary struggle and reforms can and must be used in the fight for socialism.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAfosterW1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAfosterW1.jpg" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>(William Z. Foster, past fighting Marxist leader of the Communist Party USA. Read his</i><i> <a href="http://williamzfoster.blogspot.com/"><i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i></a>.)</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Lenin also clarified American Marxists on the question of religion. The Socialist Party, from its inception, had a confusion of policy on the matter, ranging from a cultivation of petty-bourgeois 'Christian socialism' to the placing of 'God-killing' as the main task of the Party. Lenin, reiterating Marx's statement that 'Religion is the opium of the people', stressed its class role in the exploitation of the workers, and declared: 'We demand that religion be regarded as a private matter so far as the state is concerned, but under no circumstances can we regard it as a private matter in our own party.' Lenin insisted, on the one hand, upon the complete separation of Church and State, and on the other, on an educational campaign by the Party. However, 'the propaganda of atheism by the Social Democracy must be subordinated to a more basic task - the development of the class struggle of the exploited masses against the exploiters.' The Party should not write atheism into its program. It should, however, freely admit religious minded workers to membership and then educate them to a scientific outlook on life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"The writings of Lenin, the master Party builder, clarified the American left wing movement about the structure, practice and role of the Communist Party. In this respect he also made crystal-clear many problems which had worried and handicapped the left for many years. Lenin's basic teachings on the Party were especially needed in the United States, because of the long prevalence of syndicalist and semi-syndicalist ideas, the heart of which was a belittlement of the Party and an underestimation of political action.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"To all these great contributions of Lenin to the American movement must be added at least another. It was Lenin, above all others, who finally knocked on the head that chronic American sectarian disease, the dual union illusion. Ever since the days of Debs' American Railway Union in 1894 and De Leon's Socialist Trades and Labor Alliance in 1895, American left-wingers had been obsessed with the idea that the way to revolutionize the labor movement was to withdraw from the conservative trade unions and to organize independent, theoretically perfect industrial unions. The general effect of this policy had been to leave the Gompers machine in virtually unchallenged control of the basic mass organizations of the working class and to waste the strength of the dynamic left-wing fighting trade unionists in innumerable utopian industrial union projects.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Lenin had encountered the problem of such abstention from the unions in Russia in 1908, on the part of the Otzovists, a group among the Bolsheviks. These elements, among other wrong tendencies, refused to work in the trade unions and other legally existing societies. Lenin, with his keen ability to go straight to the heart of a problem, and thus with a penetrating analysis to settle it once and for all, sailed into the Otzovists and destroyed their position completely.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Lenin dealt again and crushingly with this particular sectarian abstentionist tendency shortly after the beginning of the Russian Revolution, when 'ultra-lefts' in Germany, Holland, England and other European countries, in the exuberance of their revolutionary spirit, had no patience for work in the old trade unions, but sought short cuts by setting up new revolutionary labor organizations. Lenin sharply denounced this practice as a serious form of sectarianism. He declared that 'to refuse to work within reactionary trade unions means leaving the insufficiently developed or backward working masses under the influence of reactionary leaders, agents of the bourgeoisie, labor aristocrats or 'bourgeoisified' workers.' This criticism applied with triple force to the United States, where the dual union fallacy had reigned almost unchallengeable in left circles for many years, thereby doing incalculable damage to the revolutionary movement.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Lenin, in fighting for a correct political line, fought on two fronts. That is, he combated both the right danger and all forms of pseudo-leftism. This two front fight was particularly necessary in the United States, with its ingrained historical right weaknesses of American exceptionalism and its long affliction of 'left' sectarianism.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"The long-continued sectarianism of the left wing was basically an immature political reaction against the extreme opportunism of the Socialist Party and A.F. of L. leaders, which was bred of the especially corrupting influences of American political life. The left's dual unionism, anti-labor party, anti-farmer, anti-immediate demands, anti-parliamentary and other ultra-revolutionary policies and attitudes were short-cut methods aimed to create powerful trade unions, a militant workers' party and a mass Socialist ideology. A historical influence, too, producing left sectarianism was the pressure of the vast body of foreign-born workers, who were as yet little integrated into American economic, political and social life.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Important also in this general respect was the fact that the American Marxist movement, in the imperialist epoch, had produced no outstanding Marxist theoretician, capable of immediately and basically solving the many complex problems faced by the working class. During many years, from the 1890s on, the great Lenin was developing Marxism into Marxism-Leninism and building the core of the eventual powerful Bolshevik Party. At this time, the American Socialists, in an extremely difficult objective situation, were being gravely hindered in their development by the powerful but revisionist influence of the ultra-left sectarian and semi-syndicalist theoretician, De Leon.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"The sudden impact of Lenin's profound and comprehensive writings, supported as they were by the tremendous reality of the Russian Revolution, revolutionized the thinking of the Marxist forces in the United States. The left moved rapidly toward a position of scientific communism. As Alexander Bittelman put it: 'The formation period in the history of our Party appears as a development from Left Socialism to Communism. The essence of this development consisted in this, that the Left Wing of the Socialist Party (1918-1919) was gradually freeing itself from vacillation between reformism and ultra-Left radicalism by means of an ever closer approach to the positions of Marxism-Leninism.'"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- William Z. Foster, <a href="http://williamzfoster.blogspot.com/"><i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i></a>, 1952, International Publishers) </span></span></div>
Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-76844801616704540842013-12-14T12:58:00.000-08:002013-12-17T12:44:42.684-08:00Soviet Union: Where Workers Had Power<center>
<i>FYI: Republished from a couple years ago, this piece will be updated. </i><br /><br />Gus Hall, the former Marxist-Leninist leader of the Communist Party USA, said that the former Soviet Union was a society where workers had power. <i><b>Gus Hall considered the USSR to be "the most powerful, successful and influential socialist society."</b></i> He explained the Great October Socialist Revolution in a few words. "In 1917," Hall writes, "the working class of the Soviet Union decided they didn't need the owners who were getting richer while the people got poorer. In fact it was just this class of leeches that held back all social advances for working people. So the working people took over." (Gus Hall, "Where Workers Have Power," <i>Working Class USA</i>, 1987, International Publishers)<br /><br />William Z. Foster, the Marxist-Leninist leader of the CPUSA preceding Hall, pointed out that "<i>the Communist Party (was) the brain and heart and nerves of the Russian Revolution, and so it must be in any proletarian revolution.</i>" (William Z. Foster, <i>Toward Soviet America</i>, 1932, International Publishers)<br /><br />And the ruling capitalist classes of the world freaked out! V.I. Lenin, stellar head of the 1917 revolution, answered their capitalist slanders of the Soviet Union eloquently. <i><b>Lenin said: "for every hundred mistakes which we commit and which the bourgeoisie and their lackeys are dinning into the ears of the world, ten thousand great and heroic deeds are performed."</b></i> (Lenin, <i>Letter to American Workers</i>, 1918)<br /><br />In his book, <i>Working Class USA</i>, Gus Hall exposes the capitalist lies about the Soviet Union. <i><b>The USSR was a society where, as Gus Hall put it, "workers (had) power."</b></i> John Eaton, in <i>Political Economy</i>, notes that: "<i>Socialism is planned production for use on the basis of public ownership of the means of production.</i>" Leontyev said that "<i>the building of socialism begins only after state power passes from the hands of the bourgeoisie into the hands of the working class.</i>" And socialism in the Soviet Union, Gus Hall wrote, brought free education, medical and dental care. Employment was guaranteed and workers were the majority on all government bodies. The socialist economy guaranteed that there was no economic crisis or corporate capitalist profit. Racism and discrimination were outlawed as criminal offenses. Unions were a valued part of socialist society. There had been no unemployment in the Soviet Union since 1930. And all profits from production went to funds to provide for the mass welfare, paid vacations and housing for the Soviet people. (Gus Hall, "Where Workers Have Power," <i>Working Class USA</i>, 1987, International Publishers)<br /><br /><img src="http://www.lessing-photo.com/p2/401701/40170136.jpg" /><br /><br /><i>(V.I. Lenin: 'for every hundred mistakes which we commit and which the bourgeoisie and their lackeys are dinning into the ears of the world, ten thousand great and heroic deeds are performed.')</i><br /><br />Karl Marx & Frederick Engels taught that communist society had two phases. Socialism, which Karl Marx referred to as "the first phase of communist society" is a transitional stage to highly developed communism, "a higher phase of communist society," where there is a classless social system and full social equality of all members of society. (Marx, <i>Critique of the Gotha Programme</i>, 1875)<br /><br />And <i>socialism, "the first phase of communist society," in the former Soviet Union brought enormous gains to the working class.</i> Gus Hall explained that the working class and unions, not the capitalists, called the shots in the former Soviet Union. "<i><b>In the socialist countries," Gus Hall said, "workers are their own bosses.</b></i></center>
They are the real economic and political power. There is no drive for maximum private profits, there are no privately-owned corporations, and no tax shelters inducing companies to close plants and move to more profitable locations leaving human devastation in their wake...<br />
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"<i>The basic truth is that it is only in a socialist society that trade unions acquire real political and economic power</i> because they work, speak and act for the class in power--the working class...<i>Under socialism people come first and profits are made to serve them.</i>" (Gus Hall, "Where Workers Have Power," <i>Working Class USA</i>, 1987, International Publishers)<br />
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William Z. Foster correctly penned that "<i><b>In a world thrown into deepening disorder and demoralization caused by the growing general crisis (of capitalism), the superiority of the system of planned socialist economy stands out like a great mountain!</b></i>" (William Z. Foster, <i>Toward Soviet America</i>, 1932, International Publishers)<br />
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<i>And V.I. Lenin was absolutely right that, with the birth of the Soviet Union, "a new era in world history has begun!"</i> (Lenin, <i>The Third International and It's Place In History</i>, 1919)<br />
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<i><b>Superb Books:</b></i><br />
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<i>Daily Worker</i> Labor Editor and Moscow Correspondent, George Morris, wrote <a href="http://leninist.biz/en/1980/WHRAR176/index.html"><i><b>Where Human Rights are Real</b></i></a>. <br />
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Victor Perlo's excellent text <i>Dynamic Stability: the Soviet Economy Today</i> cited the <a href="http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/1977toc.html"><b><i>1977 Soviet Constitution</i></b></a>. <br />
<br />Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-70906700640340866272013-09-24T12:21:00.003-07:002014-05-29T14:09:06.165-07:00Trotsky is NOT a Communist Hero<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>FYI: We urge workers to study M. J. Olgin's <a href="http://marxists.org/archive/olgin/1935/trotskyism/index.htm"><i><b>Trotskyism: Counter-Revolution in Disguise</b></i></a></i></div>
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Gus Hall, past US Communist Party warrior and a United Steelworkers founder, wrote eloquently: "Trotskyites, followers of Leon Trotsky, habitually employ splitting tactics in people's movements & promote anti-Communism in pseudo-radical guise!" (<i>Fighting Racism</i>, 1984)</div>
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Brothers and Sisters,</div>
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The influence of bourgeois propaganda, the lack of availability of authentic Marxist-Leninist books and the influence of revisionism in the Communist movement (see previous posts for a definition of revisionism) has produced a situation where some folks mistakenly believe that Trotsky was a Communist hero. It ain't so. <i><b>"(Trotsky's) policies," William Z. Foster, former leader of the Communist Party USA, said "would have been fatal to the Russian Revolution and would have brought about the restoration of capitalism in Russia."</b></i> William Z. Foster explains, in <i>History of the Three Internationals</i>, that:</div>
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"Trotsky, whose whole history stamped him as an unstable petty-bourgeois radical and who did not join up with the Bolsheviks until 1917, was a confirmed factionalist and opportunist. Even after he joined the party he continued his opposition to Lenin on many points. When Lenin was in his final illness, during the autumn of 1923, Trotsky made a bid to capture the leadership of the Communist Party. He gathered together the several small opposition groups than in the party and issued an oppositional program, the 'Declaration of the Forty-Six.' The substance of this was to accuse the party leadership of gross bureaucracy, to instigate the youth against the party, to pronounce the N.E.P. a complete retreat, to demand freedom to build factional groupings, to condemn the party for the defeat of the German and Hungarian revolutions, to blame the many economic difficulties upon party mismanagement, and to pronounce the Russian Revolution itself in a state of 'Thermidorian degeneration.'</div>
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"It devolved upon Stalin to lead the party fight against this disruptive opposition, and he was to prove brilliantly capable of the task...Stalin, a profound Marxist and a relentless fighter, ideologically shattered the Trotsky case, and at the 13th conference of the party in January 1924, the opposition was condemned overwhelmingly as a 'petty-bourgeois deviation from Marxism.' During this fight Stalin produced his great book, <i>The Foundations of Leninism</i>, which played a big part in the controversy. </div>
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<i>Lenin: "The dialectics of history were such that the theoretical victory of Marxism compelled its enemies to disguise themselves as Marxists." (The Historical Destiny of the Doctrine of Karl Marx, 1913)</i></div>
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"The defeated Trotsky, tongue-in-cheek, pledged himself to abide by the party decision, a pledge which, however, he immediately began to violate.</div>
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"Shortly afterward, the party...was confronted with the basic problem of defining its perspective. Stalin, in early 1925, met this tremendous theoretical task magnificently. He declared, and the Central Committee backed him up, that Soviet Russia possessed all the requirements for the building of socialism. Lenin had previously indicated the possibility, if need be, of building socialism in one country, Russia. Stalin's formulation was a bold departure from commonly held Marxist opinion, which was that in order to make the construction of socialism possible it would be necessary for the workers simultaneously to gain political power in several countries.</div>
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"Stalin's basic statement immediately drew fire from the adventurer Trotsky, who came forth with what he called the theory of 'permanent revolution.' Trotsky categorically denied the possibility of constructing socialism in Russia alone. He proposed, instead, an intensification of revolutionary struggle at home against the peasantry (all categories) and war abroad against the bourgeois governments. The fate of the Russian Revolution was at stake in this historic discussion. Stalin succeeded in making the party understand that <i><b>Trotsky's line would have meant the overthrow of the Soviet government and the end of the Revolution</b></i>. As a result, at the 14th party conference, April 1925, Trotsky's policy was defeated and Stalin's overwhelmingly endorsed. Again Trotsky agreed to abide by the party decision, but did not." (William Z. Foster, <i>History of the Three Internationals</i>, 1955)</div>
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William Z. Foster points out that Trotsky and his friend Zinoviev and their handful of supporters, held "a street demonstration against the party on November 7," 1927.</div>
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<i>(William Z. Foster, former leader of the Communist Party USA)</i></div>
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In another book, <i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i>, Foster says that:</div>
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"For several years prior to the sixth Comintern congress Trotskyism, which Lenin had long fought, had become a malignant pest in the Soviet Union. Leon Trotsky, always an opportunist and adventurer, made a reckless grab for the leadership of the Communist Party after the death of Lenin in 1924. The substance of his 'ultra-revolutionary' program was the provocation of civil war against the peasantry as a whole and the unfolding of aggressive foreign policy that could have only resulted in bringing about a war between the capitalist powers and the Soviet Union. <i><b>His policies to force such an artificial revolution would have been fatal to the Russian Revolution and would have brought about the restoration of capitalism in Russia</b></i>.</div>
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"The Soviet people wanted none of Trotsky's destructive program...At the time of the sixth congress of the Comintern, Trotsky was in exile, as a criminal against the Revolution." (William Z. Foster, <i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i>, 1952)</div>
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And <i><b>Trotsky became anti-Soviet to the core</b></i>. "Trotsky, who had been expelled from the Soviet Union in 1929, organized abroad the 'Fourth International' in 1933, which was composed of skeleton groups in many countries. Among its other counter-revolutionary activities, it openly advocated the violent overthrow of the Russian Communist Party leadership and of the Soviet government." (William Z. Foster, <i>History of the Three Internationals</i>, 1955)</div>
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We urge workers to study M. J. Olgin's <a href="http://marxists.org/archive/olgin/1935/trotskyism/index.htm"><i><b>Trotskyism: Counter-Revolution in Disguise</b></i></a>.</div>
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http://marxists.org/archive/olgin/1935/trotskyism/index.htm</div>
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Dig William Z. Foster's <a href="http://williamzfoster.blogspot.com/"><i><b>History of the Communist Party of the United States</b></i></a> !</div>
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<i>(Note the section on "the expulsion of the Trotskyites" in Chapter Nineteen.)</i></div>
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Enjoy the 1939 book authorized by the Central Committee of the CPSU: <a href="http://www.marx2mao.com/Other/HCPSU39NB.html"><i><b>History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)</b></i></a>.</div>
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Required Reading: Lenin's <a href="http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/LWC20.html"><i><b>"Left-Wing" Communism, an Infantile Disorder </b></i></a></div>
Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-39684125520979195222012-04-17T09:44:00.002-07:002012-04-17T09:46:47.538-07:00Marxism for the 99% : Philosophy is Stamped with the Brand of a Class<center><i>"Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it!" - Marx, Theses on Feuerbach</i><br /><br />This blog piece includes the first few pages of the 1953 edition of Maurice Cornforth's <a href="http://leninist.biz/en/1971/MDM126/index.html"><i>Materialism and the Dialectical Method</i></a>, written while he was a Marxist-Leninist. <i>I have also woven in quotes by Howard Selsam, Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, V.I. Lenin, William Z. Foster and Gus Hall, former leaders of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).</i><br /><br />Cornforth's <i>Materialism and the Dialectical Method</i> is part of a three volume series on Dialectical Materialism (which includes the books <a href="http://leninist.biz/en/1971/HM147/index.html"><i>Historical Materialism</i></a> and the <a href="http://leninist.biz/en/1971/TK207/index.html"><i>Theory of Knowledge</i></a>) and is based on his 1950 lectures for the Communist Party of Great Britain. These works were long-appreciated by the socialist movement around the world.<br /><br /><center><i><b>This post is warmly dedicated to our friends in the Labor movement & Occupy Minneapolis:</i></b></center><br /><center><i>"Every philosophy expresses a class outlook. But in contrast to the exploiting classes, which have always sought to uphold and justify their class position by various disguises and falsifications, the working class, from its very class position and aims, is concerned to know and understand things just as they are, without disguise or falsification.<br /><br />"The party of the working class needs a philosophy which expresses a revolutionary class outlook. The alternative is to embrace ideas hostile to the working class and to socialism.<br /><br />"This determines the materialist character of our philosophy."</i> (Maurice Cornforth, <i>Materialism and the Dialectical Method</i>, 1953)</center><br /><center><img src="http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/monografia/lenin/fotos/lenin_oleo_brodski.jpg" /></center><br /><center><i>(V.I. Lenin: ’the Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true! It is complete and harmonious, and provides men with an integral world conception which is irreconcilable with any form of superstition, reaction or defense of bourgeois oppression’)</i></center><br /><center><i><b>Party Philosophy and Class Philosophy</b></i></center><br />"<i><b>A revolutionary working-class party needs a revolutionary working class philosophy, " Maurice Cornforth begins, "and that philosophy is dialectical materialism.</b> Dialectical materialism has been defined by Stalin as: ’The world outlook of the Marxist-Leninist Party.’</i> (Joseph Stalin, <i>Dialectical and Historical Materialism</i>)<br /><br />"This definition must appear a strange one, both to many politicians and to many philosophers. But we will not begin to understand dialectical materialism unless we can grasp the thought which lies behind this definition. Let us ask, first of all, what conception of philosophy lies behind the idea expressed in this definition of party or--since a party is always the political representative of a class--class philosophy.<br /><br />"<b><i>By philosophy is usually meant our most general account of the nature of the world and of mankind’s place and destiny in it--our world outlook.</i></b>" (Maurice Cornforth, <i>Materialism and the Dialectical Method</i>, 1953)<br /><br />In other words, <i><b>philosophy is "the whole body of thought concerning the kind of world we live in, the kind of beings we are, and our relation to the world."</i></b> (Howard Selsam, editor, <i>Handbook of Philosophy</i>, 1949, International Publishers)<br /><br />Cornforth continues: "that being understood, it is evident that <i><b>everybody has some kind of philosophy</b></i>, even though he has never learned to discuss it. <b><i>Everybody is influenced by philosophical views</i></b>, even though he has not thought them out for himself and cannot formulate them.<br /><br />"Some people, for example, think that this world is nothing but ’a vale of tears’ and that our life in it is the preparation for a better life in another and better world. They accordingly believe that we should suffer whatever befalls us with fortitude, not struggling against it, but trying to do whatever good we can do to our fellow creatures. This is one kind of philosophy, one kind of world outlook. Other people think that the world is a place to grow rich in, and that each should look out for himself. This is another kind of philosophy.<br /><br />"But granted that our philosophy is our world outlook, the task arises of working out this world outlook systematically and in detail, turning it into a well-formulated and coherent theory, turning vaguely held popular beliefs and attitudes into more or less systematic doctrines. This is what the philosophers do.<br /><br />"By the time the philosophers have worked out their theories, they have often produced something very complicated, very abstract and very hard to understand. But even though only a comparatively few people may read and digest the actual productions of philosophers, these productions may and do have a very wide influence. <i>For the fact that philosophers have systematized certain beliefs reinforces those beliefs, and helps to impose them upon wide masses of ordinary people.</i> Hence, everyone is influenced in one way or another by philosophers, even though they have never read the works of those philosophers.<br /><br />"And if this is the case, then we cannot regard the systems of the philosophers as being wholly original, as being wholly the products of the brain-work of the individual philosophers. Of course, the formulations of views, the peculiar ways in which they are worked out and written down, is the work of the particular philosopher. But the <i>views themselves, in their most general aspect, have a social basis in ideas which reflect the social activities and social relations</i> of the time, and which, therefore, do not spring ready-made out of the heads of philosophers.<br /><br />"From this we may proceed a step further.<br /><br />"When society is divided into classes--and society always has been divided into classes ever since the dissolution of the primitive communes, that is to say, throughout the entire historical period to which the history of philosophy belongs--then <i>the various views which are current in society always express the outlook of various classes.</i> We may conclude, therefore, that <i>the various systems of the philosophers also always express a class outlook. They are, in fact, nothing but the systematic working out and theoretical formulation of a class outlook</i>, or, if you prefer, of the ideology of definite classes.<br /><br />"<i><b>Philosophy is and always has been class philosophy</i></b>. Philosophers may pretend it is not, but that does not alter the fact.<br /><br />"For people do not and cannot think in isolation from society, and therefore from the class interests and class struggles which pervade society, any more than they can live and act in such isolation. A philosophy is a world outlook, an attempt to understand the world, mankind and man’s place in the world. Such an outlook cannot be anything but the outlook of a class, and <b><i>the philosophers function as the thinking representatives of a class</i></b>.<br /><br />"How can it be otherwise? Philosophies are not imported from some other planet, but are produced here on earth, by people involved, whether they like it or not, in existing class relations and class struggles. Therefore, whatever philosophers say about themselves, <i><b>there is no philosophy which does not embody a class outlook, or which is impartial, as opposed to partisan, in relation to class struggles</i></b>. <i>Search as we may, we shall not find any impartial, non-partisan, non-class philosophy.</i><br /><br />"Bearing this in mind, then, we shall find that the philosophies of the past have all, in one way or another, expressed the outlook of the so-called ’educated’ classes, that is to say, of the exploiting classes. In general, it is the leaders of society who express and propagate their ideas in the form of systematic philosophies. And up to the appearance of the modern working class, which is the peculiar product of capitalism, these leaders have always been the exploiting classes. It is their outlook which has dominated philosophy, just as they have dominated society." (Maurice Cornforth, <i>Materialism and the Dialectical Method</i>, 1953)<br /><br /><i><b>Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, great Communist pioneers, exposed the fact that "the class which is the ruling material force in society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force."</i></b> For "<i>the class which has the means of material production at its disposal has control at the same time over the means of mental production</i>, so that, thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it." (Marx and Engels, <i>German Ideology</i>)<br /><br /><i><b>Thus Marx and Engels declared in the Communist Manifesto: "the ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class."</i></b><br /><br />"We can only conclude from this that the working class, if today it intends to take over leadership of society, needs to express its own class outlook in philosophical form, and to oppose this philosophy to the philosophies which express the outlook and defend the interests of the exploiters." (Maurice Cornforth, <i>Materialism and the Dialectical Method</i>, 1953)<br /><br /><center><img src="http://ww2.startribune.com/news/variety/influential2k/art/gushall.jpg"></center><br /><center><i>(Gus Hall: ’Marxism-Leninism is the philosophy and world outlook of the working class because it is a philosophy of social progress.’)</i></center><br /><i><b>Marxism is a revolution in philosophy</b></i>. V.I. Lenin, the outstanding head of Russia’s proletarian revolution, hit the nail on the head: "<i>the Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true! It is complete and harmonious, and provides men with an integral world conception which is irreconcilable with any form of superstition, reaction or defense of bourgeois oppression.</i>" (Lenin, <i>Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism</i>, 1913)<br /><br />Maurice Cornforth cites Lenin and draws some lessons: "’the services rendered by Marx and Engels to the working class may be expressed in a few words thus: they taught the working class to know itself and be conscious of itself, and they substituted science for dreams, ’ wrote Lenin.<br /><br />"The great world-wide historical service of Marx and Engels lies in the fact that they proved by scientific analysis the inevitability of the collapse of capitalism and its transition to communism, under which there will be no more exploitation of man by man...that they indicated to the proletarians of all countries their role, their task, their mission: to be the first to rise in the revolutionary fight against capital and to rally around themselves in this struggle all the toilers and exploited.’ (Lenin, <i>Speech at the Unveiling of a Monument to Marx and Engels</i>, 1918)<br /><br />"Teaching the working class ’to know itself and be conscious of itself, ’ and to rally around itself ’all the toilers and exploited, ’ <i>Marx and Engels founded and established the revolutionary theory of working-class struggle, which illumines the road by which the working class can throw off capitalist exploitation</i>, can take the leadership of all the masses of the people, and so free the whole of society once and for all of all oppression and exploitation of man by man.<br /><br />"<i><b>Marx and Engels taught that without its own party, the working class certainly could not win victory over capitalism</i></b>, could not lead the whole of society forward to the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of socialism. <i>The working class must have its own party, independent of all bourgeois parties.</i> Further developing the Marxist teachings about the party, Lenin showed that the party must act as the vanguard of its class, the most conscious section of its class, and that it is the instrument for winning and wielding political power." (Maurice Cornforth, <i>Materialism and the Dialectical Method</i>, 1953)<br /><br /><i><b>From capitalism to socialism, the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party must be the vanguard of the working class.</i></b> <i>"By educating the workers’ party, " V.I. Lenin said, "Marxism educates the vanguard of the proletariat which is capable of assuming power and of leading the whole people to socialism, of directing and organizing the new order, of being the teacher, the guide, the leader of all toilers and exploited in the task of building up their social life without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie.’</i> (Lenin, <i>State and Revolution</i>, 1917)<br /><br /><i><b>After the victory of socialism, as the great Communist William Z. Foster pointed out, "the leader and organizer of the proletarian dictatorship is the Communist Party."</i></b> (William Z. Foster, <i>Toward Soviet America</i>, 1932)<br /><br />"To fulfill such a role, " Maurice Cornforth concludes, "the party must evidently have knowledge, understanding and vision; in other words, it must be equipped with revolutionary theory, on which its policies are based and by which its activities are guided.<br /><br />"This theory is the theory of <i><b>Marxism-Leninism</i></b>. And it is not just an economic theory, nor yet exclusively a political theory, but a world outlook--a philosophy. Economic and political views are not and never can be independent of a general world outlook. Specific economic and political views express the world outlook of those who hold such views, and conversely, <i>philosophical views find expression in views on economics and politics</i>.<br /><br />"Recognizing all this, the revolutionary party of the working class cannot but formulate, and having formulated, hold fast to, develop and treasure its party philosophy. In this philosophy--dialectical materialism--are embodied the general ideas by means of which the party understands the world which it is seeking to change and in terms of which it defines its aims and works out how to fight for them.<br /><br />"In this philosophy are embodied the general ideas by means of which the party seeks to enlighten and organize the whole class, and to influence, guide and win over all the masses of working people, showing the conclusions which must be drawn from each stage of the struggle, helping people to learn from their own experience how to go forward towards socialism.<br /><br />"And so we see why it is that in our times a philosophy has arisen which expresses the revolutionary world outlook of the working class, and that this philosophy--dialectical materialism--is defined as ’the world outlook of the Marxist-Leninist Party.’<br /><br />"Experience itself has taught the party the need for philosophy. For experience shows that <i><b>if we do not have our own revolutionary socialist philosophy, then inevitably we borrow our ideas from hostile, anti-socialist sources</i></b>. <i>If we do not adopt today the outlook of the working class and of the struggle for socialism, then we adopt--or slip into, without meaning to do so--that of the capitalists and of the struggle against socialism.</i><br /><br />"This is why the working class party--if it is to be the genuine revolutionary leadership of its class, and is not to mislead its class by the importation of hostile capitalist ideas, and of policies corresponding to such ideas--must be concerned to formulate, defend and propagate its own revolutionary philosophy." (Maurice Cornforth, <i>Materialism and the Dialectical Method</i>, 1953)<br /><br /><i>Gus Hall, a Communist founder of the United Steelworkers, was right: "Marxism-Leninism is the philosophy and world outlook of the working class because it is a philosophy of social progress!" <b>The future belongs to the scientific, Marxist-Leninist world outlook! </i></b> (Gus Hall, <i>Karl Marx: Beacon for Our Times</i>, 1983)<br /><br />Read Howard Selsam & Harry Martel's stellar book <i>Reader in Marxist Philosophy</i>. This text with excerpts from Marx, Engels and Lenin is available from <a href="http://www.intpubnyc.com/">International Publishers</a>.<br /><br />Dig these sections from <i>Marx, Engels, Lenin For a Better World: Excerpts from the Classics</i> : <a href="http://www.cpusa.org/excerpts-from-the-classics-theory-of-objective-processes-and-methodology/">Historical Materialism</a> & <a href="http://www.cpusa.org/excerpts-from-the-classics-dialectical-materialism/">Dialectical Materialism</a>. </center>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-75123851083701933222011-05-03T15:44:00.000-07:002013-04-03T17:09:36.014-07:00Long Live Victory Day День Победы May 9!<center><i>Gus Hall, Marxist-Leninist fighter extraordinaire, hailed the Soviet Union's lead role in the war against "Hitler fascism, the most brutal and bloodiest capitalist dictatorship!"</i> This post is dedicated to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation КПРФ. <br /><br /><i><b>May 9 is Victory Day</b> День Победы<b>, a holiday marking the USSR's heroism in smashing imperialist Hitler Germany in WWII!</i></b><br /><br /><i><b>Henry Winston, stellar late CPUSA chair, put it squarely: "the Soviet Union played the decisive role in saving the world from the racist, genocidal consequences of anti-Sovietism and anti-Communism."</i></b> William Z. Foster wrote that "<i>had Hitler been able to demolish the Red Army that would have been the end of democracy for an indefinite period</i>. The US, though not falling an immediate victim, could not have long withstood the tremendous power Hitler would then have had at his disposal." (Winston, <i>Race, Class and Black Liberation</i>, 1977, International Publishers; Foster, <i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i>, 1952, I.P.)<br /><br />"<i><b>The Soviet people won their historic victory in the Great Patriotic War because of the socialist social and state system.</i></b>" (B. Ponomarev, <i>Short History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union</i>, 1970, Progress Publishers, Moscow)<br /><br /><i><b>The Communist Party, the party of Lenin, was "the great organizer and inspirer of the national resistance"</i></b>. It "set an example in both battle and labor and greatly strengthened morale. The Party transformed the country into a vast military camp. Hundreds of thousands of Communists went to the front, and their selfless valor and devotion to their socialist homeland, their implacable hatred for the fascist invaders, served as an inspiring example for millions of Soviet soldiers." (<i>Liberation</i>, Progress Publishers, 1974)<br /><br /><img src="http://www.russian-victories.ru/stalin_nn.jpg"><br /><br /><i>(William Z. Foster: "the epic offensive of the Soviet people and their Red Army against the Nazi hordes was guided daily by Generalissimo Stalin")</i><br /><br /><i><b>Stalin roused the Red Army and the guerrilla detachments: "May you be inspired by the victorious banner of Lenin!" </i></b>(1941)<br /><br />The American Marxist-Leninist William Z. Foster chronicles the past: "When Hitler’s armies swept across the Soviet border in June 1941, the bourgeois military experts of the West were unanimous in prophesying that it would only be a few weeks until Hitler would crush the USSR completely. In fact, Hitler’s ’blitz’ did carry him fast and far, to the very gates of Leningrad by September, a city he was never to capture. On October 3, <i>the vainglorious Hitler blared out to the world that the Soviet Union was crushed and would never rise again</i>.<br /><br />"But he counted his chickens before they were hatched. <i><b>Hitler vastly underestimated the fighting power of the Soviet people, their Red Army and socialist system</i></b>. The <i>Wehrmacht</i> had been made to pay a terrible price in its drive across Russia. It was battered again in its fruitless attempt to take either Moscow or Leningrad. <br /><br />"And in January 1943, <i>the fascist’s back was broken at Stalingrad, the most decisive battle in the history of the world</I>. Then began, for the Nazis, their terrible 1, 500 mile retreat, with the Red Army slashing them to pieces all the way, while the United States and Britain kept their enormous armies idling in Britain." Foster declared: "<i><b>The Communists were wonderful people while they were saving the world from the criminal follies of the capitalist system</i></b>." The Allies launched the western front "after the European war was basically decided and Hitler licked." (Foster, <i>History of the Three Internationals</i>, 1955, International Publishers)<br /><br />"<b><i>The Red Army carried out Stalin’s order: the flag of victory was hoisted over Berlin!</i></b>" (Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute, <i>Joseph Stalin</I>, 1949)<br /><br />"<i><b>The memory of the undying exploits of the peoples of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War will live through the ages.</i></b>" (Ponomarev, <i>Short History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union</i>, 1970, Progress Publishers)<br /><br />This is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS9tQCmNqfE"><b><i>the superb anthem Victory Day</b> День Победы</i></a>.<br /><br />Enjoy this stunning video with a beautiful song by Joseph Kobzon <i>Иосиф Кобзон</i>: <br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWDhx6gva6M"><b><i>Bow to Those Great Years <br /></i></a></b><br />The <i>КПРФ</i> hails A. Harchikov's spectacular <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr9JizzHQDQ"><b><i>Victory</b></i></a>. <br /><br />A legendary piece performed by Eduard Khil <i>Эдуард Хиль</i>:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2EGUi-AJ7g "><b><i>We'll Stand and Pay the Price!</i></a></b></center>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-5837988195750152562011-01-06T13:38:00.000-08:002011-04-03T14:15:14.384-07:00Fight for Jobs or Income Now!<center><i>"The forest of uplifted arms demanding work becomes ever thicker, while the arms themselves become ever thinner."--Karl Marx, "Wage-Labor and Capital"</i><br /><br /><b><i>The United States is in a jobs crisis.</i></b> The AFL-CIO Now blog reports (Dec. 2010) that the unemployment rate is near ten percent. 15.1 million proletarians are 'officially' jobless and 27 million more seek work. Black and Latino working class people are hit the hardest. <i>Capitalism, as Karl Marx pointed out long ago, spreads mass pauperization.</i> The army of the unemployed grows. Economic insecurity and poverty, Gus Hall boldly said, is part of the bourgeois pattern "exposed and laid out by Marx, Engels and Lenin."<br /><br /><i>"The capitalist class," the Communist economist Victor Perlo noted, "has always needed a reserve army of unemployed."</i> V.I. Lenin was right on the mark: "An industrial reserve army of labor is an indispensable attribute of the capitalist economy." <i>Unemployment is a weapon against labor to drive down wages. In times of economic crisis, capitalists lay off workers and impose speed up on workers with jobs.</i> <i><b>The Soviet Union abolished unemployment.</i></b> "Not only was there no joblessness in the U.S.S.R.," Hall wrote, "but there was full employment without racism or discriminatory practices."<br /><br /><b><i>The working class needs to stand up, speak out and fight back! We require class struggle picketlines, protests and mass people's lobbies that demand Jobs or Income NOW!</i></b> We must battle for a federal law against layoffs. For a public works program which can provide jobs. Money should be spent to create jobs and rebuild America, not wage imperialist war and occupation. End racism in hiring. Unemployment insurance and food stamps also need to be extended--with no exclusion of workers on strike.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.lessing-photo.com/p2/401701/40170136.jpg"><br /><br /><i>(V.I. Lenin: 'Only struggle educates the exploited class. Only struggle discloses to it the magnitude of its own power, widens its horizon, enhances its abilities, clarifies its mind, forges its will.')</i><br /><br /><i><b>Gus Hall, the Marxist-Leninist former leader of the Communist Party of the United States, put it squarely: "It's time to demand that People Come Before Profits!"</b></i><br /><br />In order to turn the economy around and prevent layoffs, the working class must fight to nationalize basic industries--let the proletariat call the shots. Tax the rich. We need to raise our voices for the passage of Employee Free Choice Act, a law which would make it easier to form and join a union in order to bargain for better wages, benefits and conditions. Slash the work week with no cut in pay. Put Labor up front! <br /><br /><i><b>Only socialism will finally end unemployment forever.</b></i> <i>The day approaches when American workers will turn to socialism and completely eliminate joblessness.</i> Socialism will be, William Z. Foster of the Communist Party of the USA of yesteryear eloquently declared, the "climax" of "the everyday struggles of the workers." And <i>Foster is right that "the time will come when the victorious toilers will build a monument to Lenin in New York."</i> But in order to win this society without exploitation, Marxist theory must, as V.I. Lenin taught in <i>What Is To Be Done?</i>, be brought to the working class. We need a vanguard Marxist-Leninist Party and a proletarian revolution!</center>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-10337262467150443582010-11-25T18:06:00.000-08:002011-02-15T14:39:31.078-08:00A Pro-Soviet View of Stalin<center><i>Lenin put it squarely: "there can be no 'impartial' social science in a society based on class struggle."</i><br /><br /><i>J.V. Stalin, a Marxist political figure of the Lenin type, saved the Revolution.</i> Objective conditions in his era were complex. The Soviet Union was a "besieged fortress" facing a hostile capitalist encirclement. Economically backward, it's "advance towards socialism was attended by a sharpening of the class struggle in the country and within the Party." 1941 brought the Nazi "war of plunder and aggrandizement against the USSR."<i> Stalin made grave errors but Marx would have proclaimed that the CPSU and the Soviet people in his epoch "stormed heaven!"</i> J.V. Stalin industrialized the Land of Lenin and built socialism: "the first phase of Communist society." He guided the Great Patriotic War "which ended in the utter defeat of Hitler Germany." The world famous Marxist led the battle against "trends hostile to Leninism within the Party" and popularized ML theory. The memory of Stalin, proletarian fighter extraordinaire, will live through the ages. (Quoted: Lenin, <i>Letter to American Workers</i>, 1918; Stalin and the Central Committee of the CPSU, <i>History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union</i>, 1939, International Publishers; Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute, <i>Joseph Stalin</i>, 1949, International Publishers; Karl Marx, <i>Critique of the Gotha Programme</i>, 1875; MELI, ibid; Malinin, <i>Fundamentals of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy</i>, 1974, Progress Publishers)<br /><br />Nikita Khrushchev’s vicious denunciation of J.V. Stalin at a "secret" session of the 20th Congress of the CPSU was a shock to the world’s Communist and Workers’ Parties. It influenced their view for decades. <i>Khrushchev’s "exaggerated, one-sided and incomplete" distortions "wrote Stalin out of Soviet history and discussion of his role more or less stopped."</i> Friends of the socialist homeland "gave up the effort of an overall assessment" in "a critical but balanced way." The "enemies of the USSR readily filled this vacuum with shelves of books portraying Stalin as a monster or madman." (Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny, <i>Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union</i>, International Publishers, 2004)<br /><br />Don Currie spoke out eloquently: "The anti-Soviet historical revisionists of our day really don’t care a nit about Stalin or his alleged victims. What they care about is the re-writing of the historical record." (Currie,'Open Letter to Heather Mallick on the Distortions of the Role of Stalin in the Defeat of Hitler Germany', <i>Focus On Socialism</i>)<br /><br /><img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44315000/jpg/_44315184_stalin203b.jpg"><br /><br /><i>(Workers raise high the banner of Stalin at a protest led by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation КПРФ)</i><br /><br />Yesterday’s genuine Marxist-Leninist movement, partisan towards the USSR, had dual lines. B. Ponomarev’s <i>Short History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union</i>, authored in Moscow’s Brezhnev era, was more rounded than Khrushchev’s ravings: "the CPSU sees two aspects in Stalin’s work: a positive one, which the Party values and a negative side, which it criticizes and denounces.<br /><br />"During the years Stalin was General Secretary of the CC (he was elected to this post in 1922), the Soviet people, led by the Communist Party and its Central Committee, carried out a task that was colossal for its importance and the difficulties it involved: they built the world’s first socialist society and turned an economically backward country into a leading industrial power.<br /><br />"During the Great Patriotic War, under the leadership of the Party, the Soviet masses accomplished an immortal feat: they defeated Nazi Germany and her allies, upheld the superb gains of socialism and saved mankind from the threat of enslavement by fascism. After the war, led by the Party, they quickly restored the country’s economy and started the building of communism.<br /><br />"Along with other leaders of the Party and government, Stalin, as a prominent organizer and theoretician, worked to carry through socialist reforms in the USSR, headed the battle against enemies of Leninism (Trotskyites, Right opportunists and bourgeois nationalists), exposed the intrigues of the capitalist encirclement and did much to enhance the Soviet Union’s defense capability. Moreover, he promoted the world communist and entire liberation movement. All this earned him considerable prestige and popularity.<br /><br />"But with time all the achievements of the Soviet people, led by the Party, began to be ascribed to him. The personality cult gradually took shape. Stalin overestimated his own contribution to the successes of the party and the whole populace, believed he was infallible and began to abuse the power placed in his hands.<br /><br />"This was furthered by some negative features of his character. Stalin began to depart from the Leninist principles of collective leadership and the norms of Party life. He committed particularly grave errors in the last years of his life. There were unjustified limitations on democracy, flagrant violations of socialist legality and unfounded repressions."<br /><br />But Stalin’s errors "neither changed nor could change the nature of socialist society, the genuinely people’s nature of the Soviet system, and they could not shake or weaken the theoretical, political and organizational foundations of the CPSU’s activity. The policy pursued by the Party expressed the basic interests of the Soviet citizens, always enjoyed their support and ensured the successful building of socialism and communism in the USSR." (B. Ponomarev, <i>Short History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union</i>, 1970, Progress Publishers, Moscow)<br /><br /><img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/hs443.snc4/50262_53284484777_5863989_n.jpg"><br /><br /><i>(Henry Winston: 'Communists refuse to lend monopoly our assistance in its anti-Soviet perversions of history!')</i><br /><br />Here’s the past Marxist stalwart and author of <i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i>, William Z. Foster, assessing Stalin before the CPSU's 20th Congress:<br /><br />"On March 5, 1953, in his 74th year, Joseph V. Stalin died as the result of a stroke suffered during his sleep a few days before. This ended over half a century of revolutionary struggle on the part of one of the greatest fighters ever produced by the world’s working class. His death was a tremendous loss to the Soviet people and to the international movement for peace and freedom.<br /><br />"Stalin was a major theoretician. Perhaps his greatest theoretical work was on the national question, on which he was the world’s leading expert. His epic ideological battle with the Trotsky-Zinoviev-Bukharin wreckers also constitutes a Marxist classic. And just on the eve of his death he gave a last example of his profound capacity as an economist by working out the basic economic laws of capitalism and socialism, in his last work, ’<i>Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S.S.R.</i>’<br /><br />"Stalin was a magnificent organizer. His building of the Communist Party, the Soviets, and other immense mass organizations of the Soviet people was a real masterwork. His leadership of the party in the mobilization of the people for the driving through of the successive five-year plans, with their building of industry and collectivization of farming, was organizational work beyond compare.<br /><br />"Stalin, too, was a militant fighting leader of the masses. His whole life was one relentless battle against the enemies of socialism, both within and outside the party. He was a tower of strength as a military commander in the civil war of 1918-1920, and in leading the Soviet people to victory over the Hitler barbarians in 1941-1945, he displayed a peerless fighting spirit and outstanding military genius. During the Cold War, the arrogant capitalist imperialists also came to dread the indomitable spirit and brilliant diplomacy of Stalin. He was indeed a man of steel, as his name signified.<br /><br />"At Stalin’s funeral, Malenkov said of this brilliant and courageous leader: ’Comrade Stalin, the great thinker of our epoch, creatively developed the teaching of Marxism-Leninism in the new historical conditions. The name of Stalin rightly stands alongside the names of the greatest men in human history--Marx, Engels, Lenin.’" (William Z. Foster, <i>History of the Three Internationals</i>, 1955, International Publishers)<br /><br />Peruse the <i>Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute’s biography</i>: <a href="http://marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/biographies/1947/stalin/index.htm"><b><i>Stalin</i></b></a>.<br /><br />Read <i>J.V Stalin's <a href="http://marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1924/foundations-leninism/index.htm"><b>Foundations of Leninism</b></a></i>.<br /><br />The book <a href="http://leninist.biz/en/1939/HCPSU364/index.html"><b><i> History of the CPSU (B)</b></i></a> is an excellent source.<br /><br />A. Harchikov's song <i><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQudTmplu7w">Stalin - Our Flag!</a></b></i> is stellar. <br /><br />Enjoy <i>You Tubes</i> by Communist Party of the Russian Federation (<i>КПРФ</i>) cadre <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/Vladlena1917"><b><i>Vladlena1917</i></b></a>.</center>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-54643216165307218792010-05-02T14:33:00.000-07:002011-05-03T15:56:13.290-07:00Celebrate Victory Day День Победы May 9!<center>This post has been updated:<br /><br /><a href="http://gushallactionclub.blogspot.com/2011/05/long-live-victory-day-may-9.html"><b>Long Live Victory Day <em>День Победы </em>May 9!</b></a></center>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-21564997572733285952010-03-11T16:35:00.000-08:002010-03-11T19:43:53.501-08:00For a Marxist-Leninist Vanguard Party!<center><i><b>Gus Hall Action Club dedicates this blog post to African-American steel worker, Communist fighter and proletarian hero Frank Lumpkin</b> (1916-March 1, 2010). We call on the working class to read his story in 'Always Bring a Crowd!' by Beatrice Lumpkin.</I><br /><br />The <i>Gus Hall Action Club</i> appreciates the submission from the Myspace group <a href="http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupProfile&groupID=106565315&Mytoken=B96626FC-0EE9-4122-A9164AAB415D6CD71740461787"><i>Gus Hall Discussion Forum</i></a> to the 29th National pre-Convention period of the <a href="http://www.cpusa.org/"><i>Communist Party USA</i></a>. GHDF, declaring that V.I. Lenin's <i>What Is To Be Done?</i> is the quintessential text on the Party, aimed for a concise, fraternal and ideological piece to inspire study of Marxism-Leninism and CP history. <br /><br /><i><b>For a Marxist-Leninist Vanguard Party!</i></b><br /><br />The Gus Hall Discussion Forum, a Myspace group bringing the <i>Communist plus</i> to the online arena, extends revolutionary fraternal greetings on the occasion of your 29th National Convention of the Communist Party USA.<br /><br /><i><b>Our country requires a Communist Party which is the vanguard of the proletariat</i></b>: <i>the advanced, class conscious section with the capacity to lead the fight to overthrow bourgeois exploitation and construct socialism.</i> Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, in the <i>Communist Manifesto</i>, theoretically substantiated the Marxist party’s vanguard role.<br /><br /><img src="http://th00.deviantart.com/fs32/300W/f/2008/187/3/8/Chance_meetings___LENIN_by_inObrAS.jpg"><br /><br /><i>(<b>Lenin: ’We see in the independent, uncompromisingly Marxist party of the revolutionary proletariat the sole pledge of socialism’s victory and the road to victory that is most free from vacillations’</b>)</i><br /><br />The pages of Otto Kuusinen’s <i>Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism</i> explain that:<br /><br />"Of all the organizations created by the working class, <i>only a political party can give proper expression to the proletariat’s basic interests and lead it to victory. With the aid of trade unions, mutual aid societies and other similar organizations, workers will never be able to put an end to capitalism and build a socialist society.</i><br /><br />"For this the working class needs an organization of a higher type that does not confine itself to the struggle for the satisfaction of the current needs of working people but aims at bringing the proletariat to power in order to effect a revolutionary transformation of society. Such is a <i>Communist Party</i>." (<i>Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism</i>)<br /><br /><i><b>The Marxist-Leninist party is the organizer and leader of the workers’ class struggle</i></b>. The <i>advanced, conscious and organized detachment of the working class</i>, it is the vanguard of the proletariat because <i>it wields the weapon of Marxist-Leninist theory and applies it to the world</i>. <br /><br /><i>The highest type of proletarian class organization</i>, the Party gives leadership to the working class’ battles and combines all of its' forms into an assault on capitalism. <i><b>Without the commanding vanguard role of a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, socialism cannot be won. </i></b><br /><br />As V.I. Lenin once eloquently put it: <br /><br /><i>"We see in the<i> independent</i>, uncompromisingly Marxist party of the revolutionary proletariat the sole pledge of socialism’s victory and the road to victory that is most free from vacillations."</i> (<i>A Militant Agreement for the Uprising</i>)<br /><br />"<i>By educating a workers’ party, Marxism educates the vanguard of the proletariat</i> which is capable of assuming power and of leading the whole people to socialism, directing and organizing the new order, being the teacher, guide and leader of all the toilers and exploited in the task of building up their social life without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie." (<i>State and Revolution</i>)<br /><br /><i><b>In the United States, Gus Hall remarked, "the Communist Party is a working class party of Marxism-Leninism.</b> It is the main fountainhead for the introduction and development of this science in our land."</i> ("The Party of Marxism-Leninism", <i>Political Affairs</i>, Sept-Oct. 1969)<br /><br /><i><b>Proletarian fighters must read, study and circulate the classic Marxist books. </i></b><br /><br />The Gus Hall Discussion Forum wishes your 29th National Convention success in the battle to <i>forge "a mass vanguard Communist Party in the heartland of world capitalism."</I> (William Z. Foster, <i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i>)<br /><br />GHDF: http://groups.myspace.com/GusHall</center>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-58615305244555201782009-09-10T16:00:00.000-07:002011-03-26T10:39:44.745-07:00The Online Battle for Marxism-Leninism and Communist Education<center><i>American Communists have hyped "the world of online possibilities" which are presented by sites such as Facebook and Twitter. </i></center><br />The United States’ Communist newspaper, the <a href="http://www.pww.org"><i>People’s Weekly World</i></a>, has even given notice that it will cease hard copy production on January 1, 2010 in favor of going electronic!<br /> <br /><center><i>(Note: In truth, the Communist Party has been on the Internet since the 1990s.)</i></center><br /><i><b>Lenin spoke as a militant in <i>What Is To Be Done?</i>: “a (Communist) newspaper is not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, it is also a collective organizer."</i></b> And the newsprint paper of the Communist Party USA was conceived and used as an organizational instrument - a spark for activism, socialist consciousness and Party recruitment– to be distributed at mill gates, shop floors, picket lines and mass meetings.<br /><br />The <i>newspaper of the CPUSA in Gus Hall’s day was "Marxist-Leninist, Communist" and it "(fought) for reforms" as "a revolutionary newspaper." <b>The importance of a Communist newsprint and press has not diminished in any way, shape or form since Lenin’s era.</b></i> Hall pronounced boldly: "to do away with the <i>People’s Daily World</i> would be the first step in liquidating the Party." (Gus Hall, <i>Working Class USA</i>; <i>Power of Ideology</i>)<br /><br />We peruse the online edition of <i>PWW</i> (or the <i>People’s World</i>) when not at the industrial plant gates. <i><b>We call on Communists to distribute Marxist leaflets with your blog address and contact info at protests and in proletarian neighborhoods or workplaces!</i></b><br /><br /><center><i>On the other hand, we need to, as the titanic Black American Communist Henry Winston put it, "struggle in every arena." This includes on the Internet!</i></center><br />V. I. Lenin said in <i>What Is To Be Done?</i> that Communist consciousness must be brought to the working class. Quite honestly, though, <i>there isn’t an abundance of electronic sites providing solid Marxist-Leninist ideological education - especially on Facebook</i> (which can’t be read by workers without FB accounts).<br /><br /><center><i><b>William Z. Foster taught future generations that a low Marxist-Leninist ideological level in the Communist Party can pave the way for revisionism and Party liquidation!</b></i> (William Z. Foster, April 1948, <i>Political Affairs</i>)</center><br />But <i><b>the Gus Hall Action Club is impressed by the statement of the Myspace group: <a href="http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupProfile&groupid=106565315&Mytoken=BB190D2C-984F-45E9-A4AA707EAB08501C5077561">Gus Hall Discussion Forum</a>.</i></b> <b><i>We share it below the picture of Lenin.</i></b> This declaration, rich in book extracts and Marxist-Leninist content, is especially <i>distinguished by it’s defense of the concept of a fighting Communist Party, the Communist policy of industrial concentration and it’s lashing out against revisionism.</i> We are pleased that selections from the outstanding <a href="http://florida.tenthamendmentcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/The-New-Communist-Program.pdf"><i>1970 New Program of the Communist Party U.S.A.</a></i> are woven throughout, too.<br /><br /><center>Michael, Gus Hall Action Club</center><br /><center><img src="http://th00.deviantart.com/fs32/300W/f/2008/187/3/8/Chance_meetings___LENIN_by_inObrAS.jpg"></center><br /><center><i>(V.I. Lenin: 'without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement')</i></center><br /><center><i>from the <a href="http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupProfile&groupid=106565315&Mytoken=BB190D2C-984F-45E9-A4AA707EAB08501C5077561">Gus Hall Discussion Forum</a>:</i></center><br /><center><b><i>People Before Profits!</i></b></center><br /><center><b><i>For Peace, Jobs and Equality! For Health Care for All! For a People's Front Against Reaction, War and Racism! For a Coalition Against Monopoly Capital!</i></b></center><br /><center>"Study Marxism and you will understand that there's no way out under capitalism"--Frank Lumpkin (from 'Always Bring a Crowd')</center><br /><center><i>(Note: This forum's statement below might be challenging for those who are new to Marxism. No one was born with a Karl Marx book in one hand and a Lenin book in the other. Topics on this group will explain the ideas of socialism and the what the Reds say and do today. The basic ideas of Marxism-Leninism are the science of our class--the working class. With study and effort, one can master the fundamentals. Marxist-Leninist books and writings can, as Betty Gannet once put it in a Communist pamphlet, "be grasped by the ordinary man or woman who works for a living. It was written for you--you can understand it." We, as workers, are dedicated to educating one another in the principles of Marxist-Leninist ideology. Just ask!)</i></center><br /><i><b>Our group respects the <a href="http://www.cpusa.org">Communist Party USA</a> as a Party</i></b>. "The Communist Party," Gus Hall, the great American Communist and former leader of the CPUSA, explained, "can be proud of its decades of contributions. It has been a major factor in the building of our trade unions. It was the main force in the organization of the mass production unions. It was the spark plug in the struggles for Social Security, for unemployment insurance. It has an uninterrupted record of struggle against racism since its founding. It has been a leading force in the struggle for equality of women. It has continued to provide the anti-imperialist content to all struggles for world peace. It has an honorable record in the struggles of family farmers. It has provided leadership in the struggle for democratic rights and against the ultra-Right and fascism. It survived the years of McCarthyite, anti-Communist hysteria." (Gus Hall, <i>Working Class USA</i>, 1987, International Publishers)<br /><br /><i><b>We uphold the principle of a vanguard Marxist-Leninist Communist Party.</i></b> A Communist Party is the vanguard of the working class, i.e., its advanced, class-conscious part, capable of leading the masses in the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the building of socialism. Otto Kuusinen, a friend of Lenin’s and principle author of <i>Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism</i>, was correct: "of all the organizations created by the working class, only a political party can give proper expression to the basic interests of the working class and lead it to victory. With the aid of trade unions, mutual aid societies and other similar organizations alone the workers will never be able to put an end to capitalism and build a socialist society. For this the workers need an organization of a higher type, an organization that does not confine itself to the struggle for the satisfaction of the current needs of the working people but aims at bringing the working class to power in order to effect a revolutionary transformation of society. Such an organization is the Communist Party." (Otto Kuusinen, et al., <i>Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism</i>, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)<br /><br />We need a fighting Communist Party in our day! A CPUSA Party Program from yesteryear made no bones about it: The working class requires a "Marxist-Leninist, working class political party--a revolutionary party dedicated to the fundamental transformation of society...A party that applies Marxism-Leninism to the struggles of the workers and their allies, a party that seeks to guide that class to power!" (CPUSA, <i>New Program of the Communist Party U.S.A.</i>, 1970, New Outlook Publishers)<br /><br />"By educating the workers’ party," V.I. Lenin, leader of Russia's proletarian revolution, wrote, "Marxism educates the vanguard of the proletariat which is capable of assuming power and of leading the whole people to socialism, of directing and organizing the new order, of being the teacher, the guide, the leader of all the toilers and exploited in the task of building up their social life without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie." (Lenin, <i>State and Revolution</i>, 1917)<br /><br />After the victory of socialism, as the eminent Communist William Z. Foster pointed out, "the leader and organizer of the proletarian dictatorship is the Communist Party."<br /><br /><i><b>We are Communists who uphold the science of Marxism-Leninism.</i></b> A CPUSA Party Program expounded Marxism-Leninism: "Our world outlook, is scientific socialism, or Marxism-Leninism as it is commonly called after Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin, its foremost originators and exponents." Marxism-Leninism, it continued, is the science of social change. Without Marxism-Leninism, the proletariat can not smash capitalism. "Marxism-Leninism is the world outlook of the working class, the theoretical instrument for achievement of working class power. <i>Nowhere has the working class been victorious without its use</i>." (CPUSA, <i>New Program of the Communist Party U.S.A.</i>, 1970, New Outlook Publishers)<br /><br />"Thorough mastery of Marxism-Leninism gives one a profound conviction not only of the correctness of the workers’ cause, but of the historical inevitability of the coming triumph of socialism throughout the world. Marxism-Leninism is a source of strength, even to the weak; a source of steadfast political principle. It instills the unshakable ideological conviction that enables one to withstand all trials and ordeals." (Otto Kuusinen, <i>Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism</i>)<br /><br /><i><b>We partisans of the proletariat have confidence that the working class is, has been and will be in the future, the most progressive force in society.</i></b> Marx and Engels said, in the <i>Communist Manifesto</i>, that: "Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class." The American working class is multiracial, multinational, male-female, young and old. We work at all sorts of jobs or are unemployed. The working class owns no means of production and is compelled to sell their labor power in order to live. On the other side of the class barricade, the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class, owns the means of social production and employs wage-labor. "As long as classes exist," Lenin declared, "the class struggle is inevitable." And for Communists, "class struggle is the frame of reference." (Gus Hall)<br /><br />Henry Winston, an deceased African-American militant with the Communist Party USA, spelled out that while all working class folks have a common interest in fighting against state-monopoly capitalism, they "do not all have a common place within the capitalist system from which to carry on that fight." In our era, economic restructuring has forced steelworkers, autoworkers, miners, electrical workers and other mass production workers to lose their jobs as capital chases profit around the globe. But industrial workers (workers in basic industry) are still what Winston called them: "front rankers in the class struggle." Marxist-Leninists focuses on and recruits from proletarians in the industrial sector. "The Communist Party places its industrial concentration policy at the center of its strategy." (Henry Winston, <i>Class, Race and Black Liberation</i>, 1977, International Publishers)<br /><br />In line with the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism, <i><b>we uphold the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the state power and the "political rule of the proletariat." (Lenin)</i></b> The working class must command state power. This is a fundamental question. The dictatorship of the proletariat produces proletarian democracy. "Simultaneously with an immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time becomes democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the money-bags, the dictatorship of the proletariat imposes a series of restrictions on the freedom of the oppressors, the exploiters, the capitalists. We must suppress them in order to free humanity from wage slavery." (Lenin, <i>State and Revolution</i>, 1917)<br /><br />Socialism is "a crowning achievement of the democratic struggle for a better life!" (CPUSA, <i>New Program of the Communist Party U.S.A.</i>, 1970, New Outlook Publishers)<br /><br />And V.I. Lenin hit the nail on the head: "only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is what constitutes the most profound difference between the Marxist and the ordinary petty (as well as big) bourgeois. <i>This is the touchstone on which the real understanding and recognition of Marxism is to be tested</i>." (Lenin, <i>State and Revolution</i>, 1917)<br /><br />Gus Hall, former leader of the Communist Party of the United States and one of the founders of the Steelworkers union (USWA), voiced the Marxist-Leninist position in an 1974 essay, <i>Marxism-Leninism is Creativity</i>: "Not to recognize the dictatorship of the proletariat is to be with the class struggle right up to the moment of economic and political power, only to desert it at that most critical juncture."<br /><br /><i><b>Our group stands four square against the revisionist and liquidationist trend in the Communist movement.</b></i> A Soviet work, <i>Right-Wing Revisionism Today</i>, notes that "By revisionism, Lenin understood an opportunist trend alien to Marxism and socialism that existed within the revolutionary party of the working class and which, under the guise of Marxism, actually carried out a revision of the fundamental tenets of Marxist theory, replacing the basic principles of that theory by bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideas." One of it's classical features, Hall commented, was that revisionism gets rid of the concept of proletarian dictatorship. But revisionism, a falsification of Marxism-Leninism, also attacks the concept of the Marxist-Leninist vanguard party. Otto Kuusinen set down that revisionism aims to liquidate the Party or transform it into a reformist organization. Revisionists "have invariably chosen Lenin’s teaching on the Party as one of their chief targets." They deny the leading vanguard role of the Party and reject real democratic centralism. (Otto Kuusinen, <i>Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism</i>)<br /><br /><i><b>We are working class activists in the class and mass struggles of today.</i></b> "Communists," Marx and Engels penned in the <i>Communist Manifesto</i>, "fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of that movement."<br /><br />A CPUSA Party Program from bygone days still breathes meaning: "We Communists strive for the improvement of the conditions of existence for the working class here and now." A working class, it goes on, which did not battle for day-to-day improvements would, as Karl Marx put it, "be degraded to one level mass of broken down wretches past salvation." The Program links work for reform to practice for revolution. "The struggles for day-to-day improvement are basic training for the fight to take complete political power." (CPUSA, <i>New Program of the Communist Party U.S.A.</i>, 1970, New Outlook Publishers)<br /><br /><center>In the present movement, to paraphrase Marx and Engels, Communists represent it's future--Socialism! Capitalism is on the skids to oblivion. Another world is necessary--Socialism!</center><br /><center><i>In our age, if you want to work for an end to racial and class injustice: JOIN THE COMMUNIST PARTY USA!<br /><br />If you are tired of our government's imperialist war and aggression and want peace: JOIN THE CPUSA!<br /><br />If you are for an end to poverty, unemployment, homelessness and hunger: JOIN!</i></center><br /><center><i><b>Workers of the World, Unite!!</i></b></center>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-46929691062907431332009-06-23T14:50:00.000-07:002011-03-14T15:02:48.034-07:00Create a Marxist-Leninist Blog!<center><i><b>Create a fighting Marxist-Leninist blog by going to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/start">http://www.blogger.com/start</a>!!</i></b></center> <br />V. I. Lenin said in <i>What Is To Be Done?</I> that Communist consciousness must be brought to the working class. Blogs are a great way to do this! This site, <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Blog"><b>How to Start a Blog </b></a> (@ http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Blog), shares basic information, with tips for when you have the blog up and running. The online manual says that you should find a "blog provider." https://www.blogger.com/start will provide the maximum public visibility. Communists, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels declared in the <i>Communist Manifesto</I>, "disdain to conceal their views and aims!"<br /><br />It's absolutely important that a Communist blog has solid Marxist-Leninist content and a focus on the working class. The ideological struggle is a reflection of the class struggle. Henry Winston, the great African-American Communist, was correct that scientific socialism is Marxism-Leninism. Marxism-Leninism has not grown old and never will! It is, as Gus Hall explained, "the science of the general laws of development of nature, society and thought. It is the science of the revolutionary transition to socialism." (Gus Hall, <i>Imperialism Today</I>)<br /><br /><center><i>Get the Marxist word out! Publicize your blog on leaflets that you distribute at plant gates, protests and proletarian neighborhoods. Prove William Z. Foster right: "wherever there is capitalism there is Communism!"</i></center><br /><center><img src="http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/monografia/lenin/fotos/lenin_oleo_brodski.jpg" /></center><br /><center><i>(Is Lenin writing a new blog post? Signing his name ’V.I. Lenin’ will increase his blog hits from google searches)</i></center><br /><center><i><b>Key Words</b></i></center><br />Marxist-Leninist blogs show up in google searches when working class researchers go to google.com and search for titles or "key words" like "Marxism," "Lenin," "Communism," etc. Including a <i>"key word,"</i> such as "Marxism" or "Lenin," or a combination of terms (such as "Marxism-Leninism", "Communist Party"," etc) in your blog's title or article makes your blog appear somewhere in the list of resources when folks go on quests for information related to the key words. <i>So it’s excellent to cite Marx, Engels, Lenin, William Z. Foster, Victor Perlo, Gus Hall, etc in an article when you want working class fighters who are interested in Marxism to find your blog!</i><br /><br /><center><b><i>Quotes</i></b></center><br />Frederick Engels once said: "Socialism, having become a science, must be pursued as a science, that is, it must be studied." We need to read and reread the writings of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels and V.I. Lenin. And we should also quote them on our blogs! <br /><br />Although some of the hard-hitting words by V.I. Lenin on the state are not featured, there’s some remarkable short quotations by Marx, Engels and Lenin arranged by subject on this site: <a href="http://www.cpusa.org/search/SphinxSearchForm?Search=Excerpts+from+the+Classics"><b>Excerpts from the Classics</b></a>.<br /><br />Extracts from other Communist writers and books are really great, too! We can also write book reviews for superb works like Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny's <i>Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union</i> and William Z. Foster's <i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i>.<br /><br /><center><b><i>Add the <a href="http://gushallactionclub.blogspot.com">Gus Hall Action Club</a> to your blog list.</i></b></center><br />Check out the the Gus Hall Discussion Forum topics on Myspace: <a href="http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.viewThread&entryID=73980054&groupID=106565315&adTopicID=16&Mytoken=15F09174-F265-4C4D-98834E869FFF1E4129078759">Create a Marxist-Leninist Blog</a> and <a href="http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.viewThread&entryID=68674389&adTopicID=16&categoryID=0&IsSticky=1&groupID=106565315&Mytoken=430498A7-3DD9-4ACB-9DEEC9E9E4482B1630006182">My New Blog Site</a>.Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-72385698235418695952009-05-14T14:30:00.001-07:002009-05-16T11:36:41.885-07:00Red Heroes of the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strike: Gus Hall & the CPUSA<center><i>"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle."--Karl Marx and Frederick Engels</i></center> <br />William Z. Foster wrote in his <i>History of the Communist Party of the United States</i> that "important local general strikes and near-general strikes were a pronounced feature of the years 1934-36." Trotskyites in Teamsters union local 574 are generally credited with being the Red heroes of the 1934 Minneapolis, MN Teamsters Strike (also called the Minneapolis Truckers Strike). Trotskyites and their sympathizers, "with their pathological antagonism towards the Communist Party and the Soviet Union," (Foster) declare the 1934 strike as a victory against both bosses and "Stalinists." We note the contributions made by Trotskyist ex-members of the Communist Party USA to making Minneapolis a union town. But the real "untold story" is the role of Marxist-Leninists in the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934. For, as Gus Hall said: "it would have been a lost strike if it were not for the activities and actions taken by the Communist Party."<br /><br /><center><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoqZVUYZlZtoH1OwJvRIBkPeJ3ky44zN2lwh6uA3QrGHwfRkTOepjh18Bodvr5VtMM4Z1GUbToKjjYGZEIL7wTbk5paeKEISDFx-pgBKSiiwZNaAu5Hkm7q0kUWlqroOd-ZrPUOJdABCCx/s240/story_hall_ap.jpg"></center><br /><center><i>(Gus Hall said that the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strike 'would have been a lost strike if it were not for the activities and actions taken by the Communist Party')</i></center><br />The great Communist Gus Hall (known as <i>Arvo Gus Halberg</i> in Minnesota of those days) was recognized for his militancy in the 1934 Teamsters Strike in Minneapolis by an article in the <i>New York Times</I> in 2000. He speaks history in <i>Working Class USA</i>: "in the 1930s a Trotskyite clique got into the leadership of the Teamsters local in Minneapolis. It was a period of great strikes, including the general strike in support of West Coast longshoremen in San Francisco led by Harry Bridges. The Teamsters in Minneapolis also struck. It turned into a bitter battle. The Trotskyites, instead of doing what the West Coast longshoremen did--appealing for support from all the workers and people--played footsie with the governor of the state of Minnesota who was out to break the strike with the use of the National Guard. So the strike began to peter out."<br /><br />"It would have been a lost strike if it were not for the activities and actions taken by the Communist Party," Gus Hall continues. "I was one of the comrades assigned to give leadership to the strike. The Mayor of Minneapolis had just deputized 15,000 thugs to break the picketline. Developments came to a showdown battle. The Trotskyites repudiated confrontation tactics, but it was the only way to win the strike and it was the only thing that did win it." <br /><br />And Gus Hall, fighting as a Communist in the trenches with Minneapolis workers in 1934, recalls as a participant the confrontation between thousands of strikers and the 15,000 deputies and the whole police force. He concludes: "To this day the Trotskyites have never admitted that with their opportunistic maneuvering with the Governor they had all but lost the strike. It was our tactic of confrontation at a critical moment and the initiative of workers that won the strike. Tactics of confrontation were correct in the Minneapolis situation." (Gus Hall, "Workers' Initiatives II: The Minneapolis Teamsters Strike," <i>Working Class USA</I>, 1987, International Publishers)Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-28289114135136781772009-03-29T12:30:00.000-07:002009-03-29T14:08:54.588-07:00Stand Up, Speak Out and Fight for the Employee Free Choice Act!<i>(The Gus Hall Action Club attended a town hall meeting in Minneapolis on March 24 which demanded the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. We passed out Marxist-Leninist leaflets, bearing a quote by Gus Hall, to the huge labor crowd. Note: Gus Hall was the former leader of the Communist Party of the United States and one of the founders of the USWA, the Steelworkers Union)</i><br /><br />"I’m alive today because of unions!" declared a member of ATU 1005 (the bus driver's union) at a rally in Minneapolis for the Employee Free Choice Act. <i><b>V.I. Lenin was right that "as long as classes exist, the class struggle is inevitable."</i></b> The working class--owning no means of production and compelled to sell their labor power in order to live--has fought tooth and nail to build the unions. And <i>ever since its birth, "the labor movement, " William Z. Foster pointed out, "has had to develop in the face of the opposition of the most powerful capitalist class the world has ever known."</i> Workers fought back, organizing militant strikes and picketlines (especially in the 1930s). <i><b>The history of the American labor movement is the history of class struggle.</i></b> And <i>for Communists, as Gus Hall put it, "class struggle is the frame of reference."</i> <br /><br />As a great strike movement, which Foster called an "explosion of proletarian wrath," swept the country, the right to organize unions was enacted into federal law as the New Deal's Wagner Act (1935). <i>Communists (Marxist-Leninist fighters) were, as Gus Hall said, the "main force" in unionizing industry and mass production.</i><i><b> History is witness that class struggle unionism, not class collaboration, wins victories for the working class!</i></b> In 2009--in our era of class struggle--<i>Karl Marx’s words ring true: "the battle between labor and capital, between wages and profits, continues."</i><br /><br /><center><img src="http://legacy.usw.org/usw/program/image/free_choice_verizon.jpg"></center><br /><center><i>(The United Steelworkers (USW), Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers rally in Pittsburgh to call for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, 2007)</i></center><br /><i><b>The passage of the <a href="http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/"><b>Employee Free Choice Act</a></b>, the AFL-CIO’s top priority in the 111th Congress, would make it easier to form a union at the workplace.</i></b><i> Unions fight for better wages, benefits and working conditions for the entire working class. They, J.V. Stalin once said, "curb capitalist exploitation."</i> Unions--a class organization of the proletariat--produce gains for all workers. Union women earn 32 percent more than non-union women. African American union members earn 28 percent more than their non-union counterparts. For Latino workers the union advantage equals 43 percent. But capitalists, waging an anti-labor offensive, fire workers in 30 percent of workplaces where there is a union organizing drive. The Employee Free Choice Act would penalize bosses for violating workers’ rights to form unions.<br /><br />Gus Hall, speaking as a partisan of the working class, argued that "to get government to intervene on the side of labor is part of the class struggle." <i><b>We must fight for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act!</b></i> However, as Maurice Cornforth wrote, "the trade union struggle does not get rid of capitalism." <i>Without the leading vanguard role of a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, socialism cannot be won. Socialism will end the exploitation of labor by capital forever.</i><br /><br /><center><i><b>What you can do to Fight for the Employee Free Choice Act:</i></b></center><br /><i>Step 1)</i> <i>Sign the AFL-CIO's online petition</i> at <a href="http://www.freechoiceact.org/page/s/aflcio?source=aflcioweb">AFL-CIO Online Petition to Fight for the Passage of EFCA</a>.<br /><br /><i>Step 2)</i> <i>Grab a notebook!</i> At the top of one page, write: "I support the Employee Free Choice Act." Provide some lines with the words: first and last name, street address, city, state, zip code and e-mail address. Then write: "this will be sent to the AFL-CIO."<br /><br /><i>Step 3)</i> <i>Ask your schoolmates or fellow workers to sign your notebook petition on lunch break or after school.</i> Be prepared to give a soundbite description of the Employee Free Choice Act. Maybe: "the EFCA would make it easier to join a union. Unions give us better wages, benefits and working conditions. EFCA would punish bosses who are anti-union." Point out that the EFCA is backed by the AFL-CIO and the labor movement.<br /><br /><i>Step 4)</i> When you get 10 signatures on your petitions, <i>send in their e-mail addresses to the <a href="http://www.freechoiceact.org/page/invite/aflcio">AFL-CIO's "Spread the word about EFCA"</a> page.</i>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-72305629312556747532009-02-27T13:08:00.000-08:002009-02-27T15:49:21.942-08:00Fight for the Minnesota People's Bailout!<i><b>Capitalism causes economic crises.</b> They are, as Gus Hall said, "an inherent, built in characteristic of the system."</i> Marxism-Leninism teaches that <i>crises are caused by the fundamental contradiction of capitalism--that between the social character of production and the private form of appropriating wealth.</i> This means that: Production is social because people need to enter into relations with one another and the means of production to create products. Social labor, the united efforts of millions, produce all of society’s materials and instruments. But, Frederick Engels noted, "the social product is appropriated by the individual capitalist." Maurice Cornforth adds that <i>this fundamental contradiction of capitalism "is a contradiction within the social system itself, on the basis of which the class struggle arises and operates."</i> It is this fundamental contradiction of capitalism that causes crises. Capitalism, not employed and unemployed workers, is responsible for the economic state of emergency.<br /><br /><i><b>It’s time for us working class people to stand up, speak out and fight back!</b></i> <i>We must raise the Communist Party USA’s slogan of yesteryear: Jobs or Income Now!</i> We need to organize class struggle picketlines, protests and mass people’s lobbies to demand passage of the <b><a href="https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=S0542.0.html&session=ls86">Minnesota People’s Bailout legislation (SF 542 and HF 626)</a></b>, an Act that would provide us an immediate measure of security under capitalism. Introduced into the 86th Minnesota legislative session, the People’s Bailout bill calls for an extension of unemployment compensation and the 5 year limit on welfare (MFIP), creates a public works program to "generate new jobs and produce a stronger state economy, " prevents the layoffs of state employees and establishes a two year moratorium (a delay) on housing foreclosures. <i>We in the Gus Hall Action Club propose that all costs be borne by the capitalist class. Tax the rich! </i><br /><br /><center><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Lenin_CL_Colour.jpg/225px-Lenin_CL_Colour.jpg"></center><br /><center><i>(V.I.Lenin: ’every month brings the world proletarian revolution nearer!’)</i></center><br /><i><b>Call your Minnesota state Representative and Senator and tell them to support the People's Bailout Bill (SF 542 and HF 626)!</i></b> Go to <b><a href="http://www.gis.leg.mn/mapserver/districts/">District Finder</a></b> for more information.<br /><br /><i><b>Only socialism will finally end crises forever.</i></b> It is, as Gus Hall pointed out, "the solution to the inevitable economic crises under capitalism." Socialism eliminates capitalism’s fundamental contradiction between the social character of production and the private form of appropriating wealth. <i>Socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat ushers in a society where social production matches social ownership and appropriation.</i> What is produced by social production and the labor of millions becomes the property of the producers, the working class. With the socialist planned economy, economic crises are done away with. <i>Capitalism is on the skids to oblivion.</i> It’s fundamental contradiction causes crises, but it also gives rise to the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The contradiction, Maurice Cornforth stated, "can only be resolved by the victory of the working class" winning state power and building socialism. And, <i>as V.I. Lenin said: "every month brings the world proletarian revolution nearer!"</i>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-72531259176453801312009-02-20T15:34:00.000-08:002011-08-28T12:37:44.155-07:00The Dictatorship of the Proletariat is the Crux of Marxism<center><center><i>(Part one of an upcoming series on the dictatorship of the proletariat)</i></center> There’s alot of misinformation about the dictatorship of the proletariat, the state power and the "political rule of the proletariat." And this is to be expected, for <i>as V.I. Lenin, outstanding director of Russia’s proletarian revolution, beautifully said: "there can be no “impartial” social science in a society based on class struggle. In one way or another, all official and liberal science defends wage-slavery, whereas Marxism has declared relentless war on that slavery."</i> <i><b>Instead of condemning the capitalist system which breeds economic crisis, unemployment and war, bourgeois propaganda misrepresents the proletarian dictatorship</i></b> as "the negation of democracy, as the dictatorship of individual groups or persons, as ’totalitarianism, ’ as political tyranny." The enemies of the working class slander the leading vanguard role of the Marxist-Leninist Party with the capitalist lie that "proletarian dictatorship (means) the dictatorship of the Party." What garbage! "The state is (and always has been), " Lenin pointed out, "a special organization of force, it is the organization of violence for the suppression of some class." <i>In a class society, Lenin taught, "we can only speak of class democracy." The proletarian dictatorship suppresses the bourgeoisie and creates proletarian democracy</i>. "Simultaneously with an immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time becomes democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the money-bags, the dictatorship of the proletariat imposes a series of restrictions on the freedom of the oppressors, the exploiters, the capitalists. We must suppress them in order to free humanity from wage slavery."(Lenin, <i>State and Revolution</i>, 1917; <i>Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism</i>; Otto Kuusinen, <i>Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism</i>, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow; Lenin, <i>State and Revolution</i>, 1917; <i>Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky</i>, 1918)
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<br /><center>(<i>Lenin eloquently wrote that a "dictatorship of the proletariat will not work except through the Communist Party."</i> Working People's State Power can take diverse forms but it's political leader is a CP.)</center>
<br /><i>Karl Marx spoke boldly: "between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat."</i> <i><b>But revisionism, swimming with the tide of bourgeois ideology and falsifying Marxism-Leninism, opposes proletarian dictatorship.</i></b> "By revisionism, Lenin understood an opportunist trend alien to Marxism and socialism that existed within the revolutionary party of the working class and which, under the guise of Marxism, actually carried out a revision of the fundamental tenets of Marxist theory, replacing the basic principles of that theory by bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideas." In other words, under the cover of Marxist terminology and a claim to be "creatively" developing Marxism, revisionism rips out the revolutionary essence and guts of Marxism-Leninism! <i>Gus Hall, epic Marxist-Leninist former leader of the Communist Party of the United States and one of the founders of the United Steelworkers union (USWA) once said that "a classical feature of revisionism is its rejection of the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat."</i> Gus Hall hit the nail on the head. <i><b>The dictatorship of the proletariat is the central issue that distinguishes Marxist-Leninists from reformists and revisionists. </i></b> <i>V.I. Lenin put it bluntly: "only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat.</i> This is what constitutes the most profound difference between the Marxist and the ordinary petty (as well as big) bourgeois. This is the touchstone on which the real understanding and recognition of Marxism is to be tested." The question of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the state power and the "political rule of the proletariat, " is the crux of Marxism because, as <i>Lenin proclaimed, socialism can’t be built and "the proletariat cannot achieve victory without breaking the resistance of the bourgeoisie, without forcibly suppressing its enemies."</i> (Karl Marx, <i>Critique of the Gotha Programme</i>, 1875; <i>Right-Wing Revisionism Today</i>, 1976, Progress Publishers, Moscow; Gus Hall, <i>Working Class USA</i>, 1987, International Publishers, New York; Lenin, <i>State and Revolution</i>, 1917; <i>Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky</i>, 1918)
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<br />Peruse Part Five, Chapter 21 in Otto Kuusinen's <a href="http://leninist.biz/en/1963/FML734/index.html"><i>Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism</i></a> : "Dictatorship of the Proletariat & Proletarian Democracy."</center>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-53854846760748244662009-01-25T12:25:00.000-08:002009-01-26T19:38:22.879-08:00The Lie of Soviet Anti-Semitism<i>(A few preliminary words: V.I. Lenin was right: "Shame on those who foment hatred towards the Jews!" Down with the lie that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism! Zionism is reactionary bourgeois nationalism that upholds Israel's state policies of aggression in league with the forces of Wall Street imperialism. "It is U.S. imperialism which has bolstered and dominated the Israeli economy and has supplied Israel with arms (and billions in grants, credits and cash). It has followed such a policy because it accords with the interests of the dominant sections of U.S. finance capital in the Middle East, with their desire to use Israel as a weapon against the Arab liberation movement and its threat to U.S. oil investments."--Hyman Lumer. )</i><br /><br /><i>Gus Hall, Marxist-Leninist former leader of the Communist Party of the United States, said that "Zionism is an unmitigated force for reaction and deadly enemy of the Jewish (and Palestinian) people."</i><i><b> Instead of condemning the Zionist expansionist imperialist state policies of the aggressive Israeli ruling class, capitalist propaganda screams that Jews were persecuted in the former socialist Soviet Union!</i></b> The USSR is slandered as the land of anti-Semitism. But this lie, as Gus Hall expressed eloquently, "turns historical facts on their head!" Victor Perlo noted that "such propaganda is forced to nitpick at dubious or marginal cases <i>(in order to) distract attention away from the massive and continuous expressions of anti-Semitism and racism in the United States</i> and other capitalist countries, as well as the racist actions and anti-Semitic actions--stoning of synagogues, etc., which have no counterpart in the USSR." <b><i>Gus Hall, the great Communist, tore through the lie about the USSR: "the truth is there is anti-Semitism. But it is in the capitalist world. And, like racism, it is on the rise right here in the United States."</i></b> (Victor Perlo, <i>Economics of Racism USA</i>, 1980, Third Printing, International Publishers; Gus Hall, "The Big Lie and the Jewish-American Community," in <i>Anti-Semitism and Zionism</i>, First Printing, 1987, International Publishers)<br /><br />Before the October Socialist Revolution of 1917, anti-Semitism was whipped up and frenzied chauvinist mobs attacked Jewish communities. The Tsar used anti-Semitism as a weapon to divide working class, peasant and oppressed peoples in order to carry out a monstrous robbery of the people. The great Communist leader V.I. Lenin, an enemy of anti-Semitism, spoke out: "Shame on accursed Tsarism which tortured and persecuted the Jews. <i><b>Shame on those who foment hatred towards the Jews!</i></b>" And <i><b>Lenin ripped the smokescreen off of anti-Semitism: "Capitalists foment hatred towards the Jews in order to blind the workers, to divert their attention away from the real enemy of the working people--capital."</i></b> (Lenin, <i>Anti-Jewish Pogroms</i>, 1919)<br /><br /><center><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Lenin_CL_Colour.jpg/225px-Lenin_CL_Colour.jpg"></center><br /><center><i>(V.I. Lenin: ’It is not the Jews who are the enemies of the working people. The enemies of the working people are the capitalists of all countries.’)</i></center><br /><i><b>Socialism in the former Soviet Union, by smashing capitalism’s material basis for racism, achieved unprecedented gains for Jews and masses of distinct nationalities.</i></b> Anti-Semitism, rotten in every fiber, was a "throwback to the past" days of an exploitative society and, as Hall revealed: "<i>Soviet socialism completely wiped out the degrading oppression, the poverty-stricken, pogrom ridden ghetto existence of the Jewish people under czarism.</i>" Henry Winston, a deceased African-American militant with the Communist Party USA, witnessed the gains made by oppressed peoples in the USSR and spoke out boldly: "the Soviet Union (was) a multi-racial, multinational society born out of a struggle based on the solidarity of the Russian working classes of more than 50 oppressed nations and peoples." <i>The great Communist Gus Hall was indignant: "The Soviet Union is accused of anti-Semitism but it (was) the only country in the history of the world that had pursued a policy of affirmative action, the Leninist policy of equality and justice for all peoples and nationalities!"</i> And in the former socialist Soviet Union, racist, nationalist and anti-Semitic propaganda and actions were illegal. (Henry Winston, <i>Strategy for a Black Agenda</i>; Gus Hall, "The Big Lie and the Jewish-American Community," in <i>Anti-Semitism and Zionism</i>, First Printing, 1987, International Publishers)<br /><br /><i><b>Jews were educated, not persecuted, in the working class' first homeland of socialism.</i></b> A book which examined the socialist countries reveals that "<i>more Jews attended college in the USSR than in Israel</i>, despite the fact that the Jewish population of the USSR was smaller than that of Israel. The percentage of Jews among Soviet college students (was) twice as high as the percentage of Jews in the Soviet population as a whole." And "according to Soviet sources, the USSR (had) a greater proportion of college graduates per 1,000 Jews than any other country in the world." (Erwin Marquit, <i>The Socialist Countries</i>, 1981, Third Printing, MEP)<br /><br /><i>Capitalist America, not the former Soviet Union, is a cesspool of anti-Semitism.</i> As Gus Hall said, "the Jewish people in the U.S. (overwhelmingly working class) are subjected to discrimination in employment, housing and other aspects of life. And they are a chief target of the fascist ultra-Right." <i><b>We must fight against anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish discrimination in the United States! We also have to speak out in America, along with progressive Jewish people, against Zionist "bourgeois nationalism" that is "a base of support to Israel’s policies of aggression." </i></b>Down with the Zionist lie that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism! Zionist government policies make Israel U.S. imperialism’s expansionist watchdog in the Middle East, oppressing Arab peoples and "separating Jewish working people from other workers and (tying) them to the Jewish capitalists." <i><b>As Black Communist Henry Winston said: "Zionism is imperialism; it is racism."</i></b> (Gus Hall, <i>Our Nation’s Crisis and How to Solve It</i>; Henry Winston, "Against Apologists for Imperialism, Zionism, Racism," <i>Anti-Semitism and Zionism</i>, First Printing, 1987, International Publishers)<br /><br /><i>Also posted on the <a href="http://209communists.blogspot.com/">Central Valley Communists</a> blog!</i>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-23685079312488086242009-01-14T15:25:00.001-08:002014-12-21T19:52:27.649-08:00Racism: Instrument of Capitalist Class Rule, Weapon of Big Business<div style="text-align: center;">
The United States of America has it’s first African-American president, Barack Obama, but <i>we ain’t "overcome" the terror of racism yet.</i> <i><b>Racism is a weapon of capitalists to split the working class and produce superprofits. Working class African-Americans are the prime victims of the scourge of racism. American monopoly capitalism, rotten to the core, kicks working class Black people in the teeth. </b></i> </div>
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<i>V.I. Lenin’s words ring true today: "Shame on America for the plight of the [African-Americans]!!"</i> Economic crisis, the loss of manufacturing jobs and racism in employment, wages, education and healthcare deals the heaviest blows to working class African-Americans. Capitalist robbery in the form of wage differentials cost Black workers over $275 billion in income every year. The Black median family income is about half of whites. 50% of young Black men are part of the growing army of the unemployed. Poverty, spreading like a plague, stalks the Black community. 1/3 of African Americans live in poverty and 53% live in starvation conditions. Black women, especially mothers, triply exploited and oppressed--as women, as workers and as Black folks--bear the brunt of the rotting capitalist society. There is one law for the capitalist class and another for the working class. The imprisonment rate for Black men is higher in the US than in South Africa. And, to add to the outrages caused by the obsolete capitalist system, <i>"monopoly [capital], " as Black militant and Communist Henry Winston said, "ceaselessly generates racist ideology to, as [Karl] Marx put it, ’deform’ the class struggle."</i> (Facts cited in Victor Perlo’s <i>Economics of Racism II</i>; Winston, <i>Class, Race and Black Liberation</i>, 1977, International Publishers)</div>
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"Historically, " Gus Hall, the Marxist-Leninist former leader of the Communist Party of the United States said, "racism in this country originated with slavery. Only with a racist ideology, bigotry and prejudice, could the slaveholders attempt to justify and rationalize such a monstrous, inhuman institution. Today <i><b>the basic cause of racism is monopoly capital--the giant corporations that dominate the economy, the government, the media and educational institutions of our country. It is the corporations who mainly benefit from racism</b></i>--who maintain it, stir it up, and use it for making huge super-profits and to divide and rule." (Gus Hall, <i>Basics</i>, 1980, International Publishers)</div>
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<i>Gus Hall exposed that "the corporations make billions each year by paying artificially low wages to racially oppressed workers."</i> This holds down the wages of all workers, including the white working class. Hall, a founder of the Steelworkers union, gave an example: "<i>In a plant, racism is used to pit one group of workers against another. It is an instrument of dividing the trade union and labor movements and to hold back the whole working class movement. It <b>[racism] is an instrument of [capitalist] class rule. Racism is a weapon of big business.</b></i>" (Gus Hall, <i>Basics</i>, 1980, International Publishers)</div>
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<i>(V.I. Lenin’s words ring true today: "Shame on America for the plight of the [African-Americans]!!")</i></div>
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<i><b>White working class people are also major losers from racism against Black and Latino workers. </b></i> <i>Racism, an instrument of rule for the parasitic capitalist class, lowers the wages and living conditions of the white working class.</i> Capitalism, a system of legalized robbery of the working class, uses racism as an offensive against the entire proletariat. Victor Perlo, a Communist economist, said that "racism facilitates anti-labor legislation." The South, the "traditional stronghold of racism" has anti-union ’right-to-work’ laws. Adding that racism is linked to blood-stained Wall Street imperialism abroad, Perlo says, "Racism favors militarism and aggression." And the scourge of racism, a weapon of the capitalist class against working class unity, is connected to the exploiter class’ wringing of extra profits from workers at home. "Racism [and anti-Communism], " explains Perlo, "have been the main political weapons used by reaction to divert, weaken, or wholly eliminate the positive social directions chartered by New Deal reform policies." Racism, a tool of big business, attacks the entire working class’ right to work at living wages, with unions, good education and medical services, decent housing. (Victor Perlo, <i>Economics of Racism USA</i>, Third Printing, 1980)</div>
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<i><b>"Marxism-Leninism shows that racism is an obstacle to class unity, " said Henry Winston, a former Black Marxist-Leninist with the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).</b></i> And he was exactly right that both "white and Black workers have a material stake in removing this obstacle to progress." <i><b>Karl Marx hit the nail on the head way back in 1867: "Labor cannot emancipate itself in the white skin where in the black it is branded."</b></i> <i>White workers have a heavy, special responsibility in the fight against racism, in the struggle to wipe out every form of material and social inequality.</i> In the United States, as Winston pointed out, this is a "Marxist-Leninist principle." (Henry Winston, <i>Class, Race and Black Liberation</i>, 1977, International Publishers; Karl Marx, <i>Capital</i>)</div>
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<i><b>We need to fight back!</b></i> The government should take over and nationalize businesses who discriminate! Hire Blacks in proportion to their numbers in an area’s population! No free speech for racists! Make all racist propaganda and actions a felony! Slash the military budget! End imperialist war and occupation! Pass a law against layoffs! Jobs or Income Now! Nationalize basic industries, tax the rich and create a public works program! Wage War on Poverty, Not the Poor! For an independent working class political party that will fight racism! <i><b>Gus Hall expresses the Communist attitude: "taking on monopoly capital is a big job. But there’s no way around it. Without an all out united fightback against the monopolies there’s no way the problems can be solved."</b></i> (Gus Hall, <i>Basics</i>, 1980, International Publishers)</div>
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<i>The working class must fight racism tooth and nail today.</i> But <i><b>only socialism will completely eliminate racism, national oppression and discrimination.</b></i> Socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat destroys the roots of racism and holds down the chauvinist beasts. And, as the great Communist William Z. Foster said, "The [African-American] people will be the greatest gainers under socialism" because of the super-exploitation, monstrous oppression and brazen outrages that they suffer under capitalism. (William Z. Foster, <i>The Negro People in American History</i>, 1954, International Publishers)</div>
Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-45660982310622884752009-01-05T16:59:00.000-08:002009-01-25T12:34:29.382-08:00What a Communist Party is Good ForGus Hall, the Marxist-Leninist former leader of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), hit the nail on the head in <i>Our Nation's Crisis and How to Solve It</i>: "<i><b>Today life confirms more vividly than ever the need for a Marxist-Leninist Party. Only such a Party is a truly viable instrument of progress and socialism.</i></b>" A Soviet book said that <i><b>"the Party's role is particularly great in the imperialist era where the socialist revolution becomes a direct, practical task.</b></i> (V. Afanasyev, <i>Marxist Philosophy</i>)<br /><br /><i><b>The Marxist-Leninist Party is the organizer and leader of the proletariat's class struggle.</i></b> <b><i>Stalin called the Party "the political leader of the working class."</i></b> <i>Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, in the "Communist Manifesto", theoretically substantiated the Marxist party's vanguard role.</i> A Marxist-Leninist Party, the advanced, conscious and organized detachment of the working class, is capable of being the vanguard of the proletariat because it wields the weapon of Marxist-Leninist theory and applies it to the world. The highest form of proletarian class organization, the Party gives leadership to the working class' struggle and combines all of it's forms into an assault on capitalism. <i><b>Without the leading vanguard role of a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, socialism cannot be won.</i></b> <br /><br />Communists bring Communist consciousness to the working class and fight for the purity of the Marxist-Leninist world outlook. "<i>The Party constantly develops the people's socialist consciousness and protects the working class from the influence of corrupting bourgeois ideology; the Party wages an implacable struggle against any attempt to falsify or 'revise' Marxism</i>. It develops Marxist theory in the light of the latest scientific achievements and the practical experience of society." (V. Afanasyev, <i>Marxist Philosophy</i>)<br /><br /><center><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Lenin_CL_Colour.jpg/225px-Lenin_CL_Colour.jpg"></center><br /><center><i>(V.I. Lenin: We need an "organization of revolutionaries.")</i></center><br /><i>From capitalism to socialism, the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party must be the vanguard of the working class.</i> <i><b>"By educating the workers' party," V.I. Lenin said, "Marxism educates the vanguard of the proletariat which is capable of assuming power and of leading the whole people to socialism, of directing and organizing the new order, of being the teacher, the guide, the leader of all toilers and exploited in the task of building up their social life without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie.'</i></b> (Lenin, <i>State and Revolution</i>, 1917)<br /><br /><i><b>After the victory of socialism, as the great Communist William Z. Foster pointed out, "the leader and organizer of the proletarian dictatorship is the Communist Party."</i></b> (William Z. Foster, <i>Toward Soviet America</i>, 1932)Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-77843810272834953202008-12-20T18:54:00.000-08:002008-12-21T14:30:37.244-08:00Homelessness Stalks the Land of Minnesota and the USA"It is another Great Depression for the American people, " Gus Hall, Marxist-Leninist of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), once said. "As hard-won economic cushions like unemployment, welfare and Social Security checks run out, millions are being thrown into the streets, on souplines and in shelters for the hungry and homeless." <b><i>Economic crisis and poverty, Gus Hall continued, is part of the capitalist pattern "exposed and laid out by Marx, Engels and Lenin."</i></b> (Gus Hall, <i>Karl Marx: Beacon for Our Times</i>)<br /><br />More than 13% of the U.S. population, a part of the working class, lives in poverty. <i><b>Homelessness goes hand in hand with cannibalistic capitalism.</i></b> <i>It is, Frederick Engels said in 'The Housing Question', a "secondary evil" of capitalism and is linked to the system where capitalists exploit workers.</i> Monopoly ridden American capitalism throws 12 million working class people unto the streets at least once a year. Millions more are "full-time" homeless throughout the entire year, as decaying capitalism forces them to live in shelters, cars or on the streets. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005)<br /><br />In Minnesota, 9200-9300 people are homeless. <i>American capitalism’s monstrous treatment of Blacks is exposed in the modern day scourge of homelessness.</i> African-Americans are 3% of Minnesota’s population but are 38% of the homeless. (Wilder Research, 2007)<br /><br /><center><img src="http://media.hoover.org/images/digest19981_conquest3.GIF"></center><br /><center><i>(Socialism will end homelessness forever because, as V.I. Lenin said, "the best buildings, the palaces, the mansions and manor houses" are "taken away from the bourgeoisie." Socialism would build housing for all.)</i></center><br /><b><i>30 million working class people, including every homeless man, woman and child, could be housed in the vacant homes and apartments of America tonight!</i></b> 12 million places sit empty year round and 4 million more luxury homes of wealthy parasites are vacant on any given night. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005) <i>A proletarian socialist revolution would, as Frederick Engels said, "expropriate the present owners" and "quarter the homeless in their houses!"</i> (Frederick Engels, <i>The Housing Question</i>, 1872)<br /><br /><i><b>The American working class needs to stand up, speak out and fight back today against homelessness!</i></b> We must advance our own demands with protests and mass people's lobbies. <i>Nationalize the construction of new housing!</i> This is the only way to quickly build millions of good housing units with cheap rent (no more than 10% of the renter's income). Nationalizing the construction of new housing also provides employment opportunities to Black people and other workers. <i>Expand HUD and other government housing programs! Expand welfare--with no lifetime limit. Prevent homelessness by standing against layoffs and housing foreclosures and fighting for universal healthcare!</i> One out of five homeless people are employed by capitalists at low wages. <i>We should fight tooth and nail for living wage, not poverty wage, jobs!</i> <br /><br /><b><i>Socialism will end homelessness forever</i></b> because, as V.I. Lenin said, "the best buildings, the palaces, the mansions and manor houses" are "taken away from the bourgeoisie." Socialism would build housing for all. (V.I. Lenin, <i>Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky</i>, 1918)Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-58413370374924970202008-12-12T13:23:00.000-08:002009-02-27T15:04:07.992-08:00'Capitalism is the Sick Element in our Society': Marxism and Psychology<i><b>Under capitalism psychology, a science which studies the human mind, embellishes the capitalist system of exploitation. Socialism will strike the capitalist fetters from science and sweep the anti-working-class, racist and national chauvinist, sexist, individualist, subjective and idealist ideologies which poison capitalist psychology into the dustbin of history!</i></b> <br /><br />V.I. Lenin's is right: "<i>There can be no “impartial” social science in a society based on class struggle. In one way or another, all official and liberal science defends wage-slavery, whereas Marxism has declared relentless war on that slavery.</i>" (Lenin, <i>Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism</i>)<br /><br /><i><b>"Under capitalism," said William Z. Foster, Marxist-Leninist former leader of the Communist Party of the United States, "science is a slave to the class interests of the bourgeoisie."</i></b> He continues: "Biology justifies the mad class struggle and war; economics puts an unqualified blessing upon wage slavery; history proves that capitalism is perfected; psychology explains away poverty on the basis of the inferior beings, etc." (William Z. Foster, <i>Towards Soviet America</i>)<br /><br />On the one hand, capitalism breeds mental health problems. On the other hand, capitalism distorts the science of psychology and infuses it with reactionary bourgeois ideology. Capitalism restrains the scientific role of psychology by injecting the venom of anti-working-class, racist and national chauvinist, sexist, individualist, subjective and idealist ideologies into psychology. <i><b>The great Communist Gus Hall was exactly right: "Capitalism is the sick element in our society.</b></i>" <br /><br /><i><b>The fight between materialist and idealist philosophy rages in psychology.</i></b> "The great basic question of all philosophy," Frederick Engels once said, concerns "the relation of thinking and being, spirit and nature." <i>There are "two great camps": idealists and materialists.</i> Those who believe that spirits or our mind is primary to nature are "idealists." Those who regard nature and the material world as primary are materialists. (Engels, <i>Ludwig Feuerbach</i>)<br /><br /><b><i>Marxist-Leninists take a side in the struggle between materialism vs. idealism.</i></b>Lenin wrote: "<i>Marx's philosophy is a consummate philosophical materialism which has provided mankind, and especially the working class, with powerful instruments of knowledge.</i>"<br /><br /><center><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Lenin_CL_Colour.jpg/225px-Lenin_CL_Colour.jpg"></center><br /><i><b>Marxism-Leninism's dialectical and historical materialism makes contributions to psychology:</i></b> <br /><br />"<b><i>1.</b></i> Marxism rejects as invalid and unscientific all theories of intellectual, emotional or behavioral inferiority of race, class, sex or national minority. It emphasizes the crucial importance of studying human development in the concrete reality of its existence, social and individual.<br /><br />"<b><i>2.</b></i> Marxism approaches the human mind and consciousness as a product of the brain and central nervous system...<br /><br />"<b><i>3.</b></i> Marxism stresses the important relationship of the individual to society. The psychology of individuals in the United States must be examined in the context of a class society with a specific--capitalist--superstructure. The effects of the ideological superstructure on the individual’s psychology is of vital significance in psychological study...<br /><br />"<b><i>4.</b></i> Marxism sees the science of psychology as playing an important role in advancing human development...<br /><br />"<b><i>5.</b></i> Marxism emphasizes that psychology and psychiatry are sciences which need to be advanced through careful, meticulous, comprehensive scientific work...<br /><br />"<b><i>6.</b></i> Science is international in scope and requires the best efforts of scientists in all countries for full progress...<br /><br />"<b><i>7.</b></i> Marxism believes that science advances through struggle, both scientific and social. (Struggle can expose false theories, correct one-sidedness and expose racist and reactionary ideology under the guise of scientific psychological theories.)<br /><br />""<b><i>8.</b></i> Marxism believes that a socialist society can produce great changes in people’s psychological health and welfare. The provision of full, comprehensive, available, free health and mental health care is guaranteed under socialism. Likewise, the guarantee of employment, social security, education, equal opportunity, facilities for working mothers, equal pay, and an ever-expanding economic and social system provide psychological security for people under socialism." (Joseph Nahem, <i>Psychology and Psychiatry Today: A Marxist View</i>, 1981, International Publishers)<br /><br />"Socialism," William Z. Foster said, "strikes the fetters from science." Science has the freest development under socialism because it isn't misused to defend the exploitation of another class. <i><b>Contrary to the bourgeois slanders, the emergence of socialism in the Soviet Union showed the world that psychology can be made to be humane and fully scientific!</i></b>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-9627777675467161732008-12-07T13:44:00.000-08:002011-01-04T17:00:08.515-08:00Jobs or Income Now!<center><i>"The forest of uplifted arms demanding work becomes ever thicker, while the arms themselves become ever thinner."--Karl Marx, "Wage-Labor and Capital"</i><br /><br /><b><i>The United States is bleeding jobs.</i></b> The latest (Dec. 5, 2008) unemployment figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that 533,000 jobs were lost in November. 1.9 million proletarians have lost their jobs this year. Black and Latino working class people are hit the hardest. <i>Capitalism, as Karl Marx pointed out long ago, spreads mass pauperization.</i> The army of the unemployed grows. Economic crisis and poverty, Gus Hall boldly said, is part of the bourgeois pattern "exposed and laid out by Marx, Engels and Lenin."<br /><br /><i>"The capitalist class," the Communist economist Victor Perlo noted, "has always needed a reserve army of unemployed."</i> V.I. Lenin was right on the mark: "An industrial reserve army of labor is an indispensable attribute of the capitalist economy." <i>Unemployment is a weapon against labor to drive down wages. In times of economic crisis, capitalists lay off workers and impose speed up on workers with jobs.</i> <i><b>The Soviet Union abolished unemployment.</i></b> "Not only was there no joblessness in the U.S.S.R.," Hall wrote, "but there was full employment without racism or discriminatory practices."<br /><br /><b><i>The working class needs to stand up, speak out and fight back! We require class struggle picketlines, protests and mass people's lobbies that demand Jobs or Income NOW!</i></b> We must battle for a federal law against layoffs. For a public works program which can provide jobs. Money should be spent to create jobs and rebuild America, not wage imperialist war and occupation. Unemployment insurance and food stamps also need to be extended--with no exclusion of workers on strike.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/monografia/lenin/fotos/lenin_oleo_brodski.jpg"></center><br /><center><i>(V.I. Lenin: 'Only struggle educates the exploited class. Only struggle discloses to it the magnitude of its own power, widens its horizon, enhances its abilities, clarifies its mind, forges its will.')</i></center><br /><i><b>Gus Hall, the Marxist-Leninist former leader of the Communist Party of the United States, put it squarely: "It's time to demand that People Come Before Profits!"</b></i><br /><br />In order to turn the economy around and prevent layoffs, the working class must fight to nationalize basic industries--let the proletariat call the shots! We also need to raise our voices for the 111th Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, a law which would make it easier for laborers to form and join a union in order to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. Tax the Rich.<br /><br /><i><b>Only socialism will finally end unemployment forever.</b></i> <i>The day approaches when American workers will turn to socialism and completely eliminate joblessness.</i> Socialism will be, William Z. Foster of the Communist Party of the USA of yesteryear eloquently declared, the "climax" of "the everyday struggles of the workers." And <i>Foster is right that "the time will come when the victorious toilers will build a monument to Lenin in New York."</i> But in order to win this society without exploitation, Marxist theory must, as V.I. Lenin taught in <i>What Is To Be Done?</i>, be brought to the working class. We need a vanguard Marxist-Leninist Party and a proletarian revolution!</center>Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951959708037302993.post-38179326782456786372008-12-02T16:17:00.000-08:002008-12-03T14:57:29.745-08:00Revisionism vs. the Vanguard Role of the Marxist-Leninist PartyRevisionist falsification of, and attacks on, the need for a Marxist-Leninist Party and its leading vanguard role come fast and furious. Gus Hall, Marxist-Leninist former leader of the Communist Party of the USA, didn't tolerate the revisionist assault: "<i>we have to fight for the concept, and for the absolute need of a revolutionary working class party in the ranks of workers.</i>" (Gus Hall, <i>Capitalism on the Skids to Oblivion</i>)<br /><br />And <i>V.I. Lenin, anti-revisionist to the core, taught that "<b>by educating a workers' party, Marxism educates the vanguard of the proletariat, capable of assuming power and of leading the whole people to socialism, of directing and organizing the new order, of being the teacher, guide and leader of all the toiling and exploited in the task of building up their social life without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie.</b>"</i> (Lenin, <i>State and Revolution</i>, 1917)<br /><br />The Soviet book <i>Right-Wing Revisionism Today</i> rightly says: "<i>The leading role of the communist party in socialist revolution comes naturally from the leading role of the working class</i> in the revolutionary process, as scientifically established by Marxism-Leninism."<br /><br />Stalin rightly said of a Communist Party in <i>Foundations of Leninism</i>: "<i><b>The Party is the vanguard of the working class.</i></b>" He continued: "<i><b>The Party is the advanced organized detachment of the working class. The Party is the highest form of class organization of the proletariat. The Party is the political leader of the working class." The Party is "an instrument in the hands of the proletariat for achieving the dictatorship (of the proletariat)" and for "consolidating and expanding the dictatorship (of the proletariat" once socialism is won.</b></i>(Stalin, <i>Foundations Of Leninism</i>, 1924)<br /><br />"<i>To deny it (the Marxist-Leninist Party) the leading role," the Soviet book "Right-Wing Revisionism Today" says, "is to decapitate the socialist revolution.</i>"<br /><br /><center><img src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MEPOD/10072550_b~Lenin-and-Stalin-Discuss-Their-Plans-Posters.jpg"></center><br />But <i><b>revisionism within the revolutionary Communist party of the working class ultimately means the liquidation of the party.</i></b> <br /><br />"By revisionism," a Soviet book points out, "Lenin understood an opportunist trend alien to Marxism and socialism that existed <i>within the revolutionary party of the working class</i>." Under the guise of "creative non dogmatic Marxism", revisionism rejects the fundamentals of Marxist-Leninist theory, replacing the basic principles with bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideas. (<i>Right-Wing Revisionism Today</i>, 1976, Progress Publishers)<br /><br />Otto Kuusinen wrote in <i>Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism</i> that <b><i>revisionism aims to liquidate the Party or transform it into a reformist organization.</i></b> He said that Lenin's teachings on the Party was one of the revisionist's chief targets. And, whether it's openly stated or concealed, "<i>the theoretical and practical efforts of the revisionists are in the final analysis always subordinated to their attempt to liquidate the Party or to transform it into a reformist organization.</i>"<br /><br />The Soviet book smashes through the web of revisionism: "<i>The surrender of a class and scientific (Marxist-Leninist) position in the activity of a Communist Party invariably leads to that Party's liquidation.</i>" (<i>Right-Wing Revisionism Today</i>, 1976, Progress Publishers)<br /><br />Gus Hall, Marxist-Leninist former leader of the Communist Party of the United States, lived through the Earl Browder debacle and wrote often about liquidationism. <i><b>Gus Hall once stated, "The most dangerous liquidationist trend is not disbanding the Party structure, but eliminating the Communist essence in our mass work."</b></i> (Gus Hall, "Opportunism--the Destructive Germ," <i>Political Affairs</i>, May 1979)Gus Hall Action Clubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891545614075757031noreply@blogger.com