OUR TIME Voice of the League of Young Communists USA
Winter Edition 2013 - Volume 1, Issue 1
IS NOW
From the Editor:
From the Assisant Editor
Dear comrades, I am glad to be the editor for Our Time Is Now and look forward to being able to help the paper progress and make a voice for our generation and future generations of young Leninists. Sometimes the fight may seem to waver, and victory seems to out of reach, but stay strong comrades, for even something like this paper can bring new hope, meaning, and persistance. Sincerely, Trast Knapmiller — Editor
I am thrilled that the League of Young Communists is finally creating it's own newspaper. It's incredible that a group of young people, new to each other can work together so efficiently and collectively to create something as meaningful as this. I find it very hopeful that we can work together long distance. I am looking forward to our membership increasing and continuing our work together for this movement. Comradely, Kitty Eden — Assisant Editor
Daniel Rivera
City College/CUNY Students Resist Closing of Morales/Shakur Center City College students and their allies at other CUNY colleges, the community and political organizations have been waging a fierce and courageous fight to defend their right to use the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Student and Community Center which the administration of City College shut down October 20. Students for Education Rights denounced the shutting down of the center as, “a serious assault on our right as students to organize and cultivate community”. In addition to students, community organizations in Harlem often use the space for meetings. The surprise move by City College came on a Sunday morning, knowing there would be few people on campus that day. A former student at CCNY David Suker was arrested for just sitting peacefully in front of the center. It is a desperate move by the authorities who hope to stop and intimidate the growing student militancy across the City University of New York. Recently, students have led protests against the contracting of former General David Petraeus by CUNY, protesting the militarization of the education system. Petraeus was commander of all US forces in Afghanistan and oversaw imperialist coalition military forces in Iraq. He was also head of the Central intelligence Agency. Hundreds of thousands, mostly civilians were slaughtered under his military leadership. For this reason students and others opposed to the militarization of CUNY consider him a war criminal. Six students have been arrested for protesting the contracting of General Petraeus, several of them beaten up by ruthless cops after the students had been handcuffed. Videos of these beatings have circulated on the internet. Protests against the closing of the Morales/Shakur Center began the very day of the repressive measures. Over 100 students showed up that Sunday.
During that first week many hundreds participated in demonstrations demanding the reopening of the center. One of the most important student organizations leading the protests against general Petraeus and the closing of the Morales/Shakur Center has been the Student Revolutionary Coordinating committee. Members of the Professional Staff Congress, which represents CUNY professors, and other student organizations and community groups have joined the demand to give back to the students and community their meeting space. Although the situation to resist the closing is still fluid, the Liberate CUNY United Front created by students and their allies, has been emerging as a leading force in the fight.
Carlos Marti
“Youth Unite Against Imperialism, for a World of Peace, Solidarity and Social Transformation!” Every few years high school students, college students, young workers, organizers, and social activists from around the world travel to attend the World Festival of Youth and Students. The World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) is an opportunity for all of the anti-imperialist young people of the world-despite political opinions, religious beliefs, cultural or geographical backgrounds- to come together, and unite their voices against imperialism. It is a chance for youth to learn first hand about the hardships that people from around the world face due to imperialism and U.S. hegemonic policies. Since 1947, the WFYS has been organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), a left-wing youth federation that is recognized by the United Nations as an international youth non-governmental organization. The WFDY considers the development of an international understanding, and cooperation between all anti-capitalist youth organizations of the world as imperative in strengthening unity and international solidarity. It also takes into account the differences based on national ideas, conditions, interests, and the necessity for young people to go beyond these differences to fight imperialism together. This year, the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students will take place in Quito, Ecuador from December 7th-13th. The location of the WFYS itself is a statement of solidarity with the struggle of its people. During the week of the festival delegates of this event will be introduced to a wide variety of cultural experiences, and educational workshops about the struggles that youth face around the world. It will also provide a space for young men and women to discuss strategies and tactics to unite youth from around the globe against imperialism for a world of peace, solidarity, and social transformation!
Daniel Scheffer
Consumerist Anti-Economics
On The Use of Soviet Symbolism Among the recent developments of the Communist movement worldwide, one is and has been conflicted by the thought and thus depiction of the global Communist movement. By this I can only be speaking of it's relevance to the past and it's contemporary implementation and symbolism as opposed to it's older and more traditional usage. Furthermore, this brings to the point the use of the "Sickle and Hammer" symbol, and it's neglected use in certain modern parties, and its alteration within others. This comes from a deep misunderstanding in it's meaning, most of which people have associated with iron fist regimes, and totalitarianism. However, this is untrue, for the sickle and hammer is a symbol by which embodies the unity in the struggles of the workers and peasantry. This is often misrepresented in other nations where they neglect the peasant class, this being partially due to the industrialization of these countries, and therefore the lack of any true peasantry. This can be although still relevant to the struggle as the rural and urban movement still appeals to two very different lifestyles. One being of the farmer, whose land is all too often controlled by powerful agribusiness conglomerates. The other being the life of the working class citizen, whose domain is in the steel yards, the factory, and the mills. This can also exemplify the difference between the industrial worker, and those who work in the bitterness to obtain the raw materials for the industrial complexes. So very much so is the "Sickle and Hammer" still relevant, and very much so is it misunderstood, it does not represent the industrial and rural struggles separately, but rather the struggle of the united proletariat as a whole. Therein lays the symbolic use of the icon to embody the proletariat within the seat of power, and the united dictatorship of the proletariat. A sharp contrast to the use of the symbol to embody a totalitarian regime of varying sorts, or simply anything dealing with Russian or Slavic culture as often used within popular culture.
Consumerism, the basic model on which all modern market systems produce goods, is a startlingly ineffective and inefficient way of producing durable, and quality products at a sustainable rate. This is validated through many of the main economic concepts behind the consumer model, the largest of which being "Planned Obsolescence". The concept which encourages the use of substandard parts, materials, and processes, which not only reduce the cost of production but limit the durability and life-span of the product. This creates an infinitely repeatable process of failure and resale to which the producer gains increased profit from the inability to repair the product once it has suffered the failure. Most prevalent in modern electronics, often times the fatal issue of a product is minute and easily correctable if given the proper repairs. However, the other great concept behind the consumer society is the "Throw away" mentality, which forces people into a position where their product is easier repurchased than repaired. This mentality is extremely inefficient when weighed with the great amount of precious metals that is disposed of every year in outdated or obsolete electronics. Often times where the malfunction could be easily corrected or the product upgraded with little trouble. This ideology of consumerism, is a very unsustainable model which cannot be separated from modern market economics. The profit motive drives the development of systems such as these to increase profitability and short term monetary efficiency. This effectively drives monetary cost down, without increasing the efficiency of the resources being consumed. Adversely, it actually decreases efficiency by using more resources to sustain production without reusing the resources already processed within the economy. This is partially because the fluid movement of the economic system would be interrupted if the reuse of these already processed resources would damage the existing and powerful companies in charge of extracting the raw materials. Thus the economic system continues, without any large scale recycling due to the lack of profitability. Thus validating the concept that consumerism and therefore capitalism is an Antieconomic system, for it does not economize, or efficiently or sustainably use the scarce natural resources to meet our needs. D.S.
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National Council of Communists USA Welcomes the newspaper OUR TIME IS NOW This initiative on the part of the League of Young Commuists USA shows vitality and courage and inspires us all! Their activity is Ideological Fightback on the part of our youth and we are proud of their hard work producing it.
www.facebook.com/LYCUSA twitter.com/YoungCommunists league-of-young-communists-usa.tumblr.com (951) 660-0016 Published by LYCUSA, PO Box 741104 Los Angeles, California 90004 Editorial Board-Trast Knapmiller/Kitty Eden/ Chris Weeden/Daniel Scheffer/Carlos Marti $5./year US sub Cks made to Ideological Fightback Union Labor donated Kitty Eden
Soundtrack for a Revolution Film Review As a child, I was raised on a lot of American folk music such as Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. I’ve always been familiar with the influence of music- especially folk, blues and gospel- on the 1950’s and 1960’s various movements. However, there was something about the songs sung at demonstrations and rallies back then that expressed something more than the sort of cliché inspiration that one expects. It has never been something I could articulate very well. Sure, I could say that the protest song “We Shall Overcome” was motivational and hopeful for anyone singing it, but it was not just the lyrics or the raw voices of the masses singing it in the face of what they feared. There was something else. Soundtrack for a Revolution, written and directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, not only educates on the history of music used in the civil rights movement, but also explains a generally overlooked detail. Harry Belafonte describes it perfectly: “You can cage the singer but not the song”. The fact that one could take everything away from the African- American activists, except their ‘song’ empowered them, and the most important messages they had to share, they could sing, and sing in unison, uniting them, bringing them together. A person could speak alone, but he or she would only know the words. But when it came to music, everyone could know the words and no one could just ‘take the song out of them’. I found that to be a beautiful example of the incredible power of the arts for a movement.
US Friends of the Soviet People expresses Fraternal greetings on the occassion of the publishing of this courageous effort by the League of Young Communists USA OUR TIME IS NOW Congressman John Lewis, who was active in student movements in the 1960’s, stated that many of the protesters worried about violence being used on them by the police, but their best defense was their songs. Lewis said that once they were thrown in jail, they refused to stop singing, and their spirit could not be broken. This documentary delves into the African-Americans’ usage of singing from their history of slavery to the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. It covers the leaders and musicians as well as features performances by the Roots, John Legend, Wyclef Jean, Joss Stone, Richie Havens and many more performers, singing renditions of the classic songs used in the movement. I believe that this is an important documentary historically and is still a relevant, fascinating watch for the youth today. It also serves as a reminder to us that we have much more strength than we realize. There is power in music and art. We have only to wake up, use our own creativity and heartfelt passion, and write, sing, act!