OUR TIME
Fall/Winter Edition 2014 - Volume 1 , Issue 2
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Voice of the League of Young Communists USA
By Stephanie Hall (member of the YCL of Canada and an avid lover of nature.)
“The universality of man appears in practice precisely in the universality which makes all nature his inorganic body – both inasmuch as nature is (1) his direct means of life, and (2) the material, the object, and the instrument of his life activity. Nature is man’s inorganic body – nature, that is, insofar as it is not itself human body. Man lives on nature – means that nature is his body, with which he must remain in continuous interchange if he is not to die. That man’s physical and spiritual life is linked to nature means simply that nature is linked to itself, for man is a part of nature”
Karl Marx “Estranged Labour”, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844
Tarnation: an Introduction to Enbridge Northern Gateway Project
Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Project (NGP), a Canadian federally approved pipeline slated to carry bitumen 1177 km from Bruderheim, Alberta through to the Douglas Chanel at Kitimat, British Columbia, is one of five major pipeline projects intended to expand delivery of Alberta crude to international markets. The NGP will cross more than 1000 streams and rivers (including the Fraser and Skeena Watersheds), cut through the Great Bear Rainforest, through to the Douglas Chanel, where 520,000 barrels per day will be shipped by super-tanker along the tumultuous coastline.
With watersheds, salmon habitat, human and ecosystem health, and a rugged coastline en route, and anthropogenic global climate change on the rise, threatening biodiversity at a scale unseen in some 55 million years, democratic opposition to NGP along the approved route has been strong, as has Conservative disregard for overwhelming democratic consensus. Provincially and federally, parties opposing the NGP and tanker traffic on BC’s northwest coast have dominated the coast and communities along the proposed route. More than 130 First Nations have signed on to the Fraser Declaration, banning tar sands from their territories, 9 coastal First Nations have banned tanker traffic, the Union of BC Municipalities has passed resolutions opposing NGP and its accompanying tanker traffic, municipalities along the path of the pipeline, including Kitimat, Terrace, Smithers, Prince Rupert and Masset, have voted against the NGP, the Wet’suwet’en have delivered a ceremonial feather to Enbridge’s representatives as warning that Enbridge is not welcome in their traditional territory. Despite public opposition and the carbon bomb, the NGP has been given federal approval to go ahead, and BC Liberal approval by Premier Christy Clark (partner with Burrard Communications, who lobbied for the NGP) isn’t expected to be far behind. Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has eroded environmental protections and accountability, and ignored affected areas’ democratic consensus for the benefit of the oil barons, effectively crystalising Canada’s dirty energy dictatorship.
NASA Climatologist James Hansen has famously cautioned against emissions exceeding 350 ppm, meanwhile industry and consumption has expanded to exceed this level, and globally, we are now approaching, and preparing to Inside this issue: exceed, 400 ppm of CO2. The expansion of Fight For $15—A Marxistextraction of bitumen from the Athabasca Leninist Analysis tar sands of Alberta is estimated to increase global emissions by an additional 2 ppm. The NGP alone is estimated to contribute, at Statement on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict the low end, 80 Mt of CO2 per year, which is more than the total emissions of British Letter from a Hungarian Columbia for one year. The unfettered Comrade expansion of the tar sands has been described, accurately, as a carbon bomb, Is there really an Ultra and is, increasingly, a threat to our species Right Danger? place in this world.
Editorial
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Made out to: Ideological Fightback
Our Time / Fall/Winter 2014 / page 2
Fight For $15—A Marxist-Leninist Analysis By Logan A. Nicks - National Secretary of the League of Young Comunists
As more and more Americans slip into poverty, there has been a renewal of campaigning for better conditions and pay. One movement in particular, the “fight for fifteen” movement advocating a fifteen dollar per hour minimum wage has swept across our schools, workplaces, and college campuses. Millions of Americans, predominantly young people, are a part of this movement. However, what is its usefulness? This article will first look at arguments for this rise in wages and then analyze whether or not this reform would be useful to the working class in the long term. The primary argument for the rise in the minimum wage is that inflation has made this country’s minimum wage pathetic. In fact, since 1970, every raise in the minimum wage has still resulted in a lower overall wage than existed at the time of the previous rise in wages due to inflation outpacing reform. The wage has consistently fallen when looked at in terms of real (inflation adjusted) value while the GDP of America (wealth of the country overall) has more than doubled in this same period of time. If a fifteen dollar minimum wage were instituted, proponents argue, it would be the first time that we had a higher minimum wage than we had in 1970, and would accordingly be a true victory for workers. While I, of course, do not dispute the mathematical fact that a fifteen dollar
This article appeared in The Red Texan the newsletter of the Texas LYC
minimum wage would be the first true raising of the minimum wage since 1970, I contend that it would not be such a victory for the working class.
Imagine that a fifteen dollar minimum wage bill actually made it into the national congress. How long would such a bill take to be passed? How long would it take to be implemented after it was passed? How much less would fifteen dollars be worth by the time it was in effect? The capitalist system is capable of absorbing reforms such as these. If the minimum wage is raised, the capitalist class will simply raise the cost of living. They control the cost of food, gasoline, and rent. They control how much of your wage you have to give back to them to survive. That is why we see the situation of constantly rising cost of living. It is not because the system is broken, but because it works exactly as it is meant to: elevate the one percent while denying the 99. Trying to control a capitalist economy with governmental reform is like trying to hold a bull by a leash, perhaps you can slow the bull, but it will pull you, not the other way around. So, while this legislation could potentially bring a very brief relief to the working class, we recognize that no reform within the capitalist system is immune to absorption by that system and that such reforms, historically and today, serve primarily to pacify the screaming masses. Ultimately, the only societal change that capitalism cannot turn for its own advantage is its own outright abolition.
A letter from a Hungarian Comrade Our fellow sufferers!
For today, Hungary has been ripped into two parts, and the gap is becoming deeper! On the one side, there is nine million people, us. We have been working for decades with honor. We are not worse than anybody else, but we can’t live in the way we would like to. And on the other side there are the millionaires, the billionaires, the capitalists, the super riches.
We are the majority, but Hungary is not ours! Our country is owned by those, who have the money. They are in the Parliament, they make the laws. They decide about taxes, and they decide who can get advantages. We pay the tax, and they provide themselves a good life from it. They became rich from the money that was stolen from the people, from you! They have a good life, because we have terrible! The last quarter century made the dictatorship of money. It have given super richness to a few, and super poverty to millions.
For 25 years, they have given away only from us. Now it is time, to give something back to the working people. We could limit the rule of the money, but it won’t happen by itself. The parties in the Parliament won’t tax the riches. They don’t even want it, because they live from this system. Only the Workers’ Party want and could limit the capital, because we are not capitalists, we are not rich. Our interest is the same as yours. For 25 years, you let the parties of rich people to make decisions about your future. You believed to them, and they lied. It doesn’t matter, whether Hungarian Socialist Party, of FIDESZ, you trust the cabbage to a goat. They only needed your votes, but not you. They only gave you crumbs, while they have stolen everything.
The smaller parties of the opposition are all the same. From the Democratic Coalition to the Policy Can Be Different (LMP – Lehet Más a Politika”) they don’t care about you. They want a bigger slice from the tort of profit, and they want to continue where they were stopped. The Jobbik (right-winged radical, fascist, horthyst party) it the same. They are talking about
radical changes, but in fact, this system is good for them, but it could be better, if they could rise to power.
Now we can change! It doesn’t matter if you consider yourself a left-winged of rightwinged. Only one thing matters: Do you want a better life, or you will be satisfied with crumbs. If the Workers’ Party can get into the Parliament, you will be there too. We will be there. If not, nobody will represent you and your interest; nobody will care about your problems.
We are not promising wonders to you. We have only one promise: We will do everything in order to provide you work with salaries high enough to provide you a better standard of living. We will be working for a Hungary where we can live... Written by the Hungarian Workers’ Party, translated by Kristóf Turi, member of the Leading Committee of the Left Front Hungary. This letter to the LYCUSA can be read in full on our website at: http://leagueofyoungcommunistsusa.org
Our Time / Fall/Winter 2014 / page 3
LYC Statement on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict political prisoners held by the Israeli government, and cessation of military action against innocent civilians. We also demand full transparency\ from both sides on the issue of nuclear disarmament in the Middle East. PCUSA stands with those who engage in popular struggles in the occupied territories. We stand with all other organizations around the world, Marxist or otherwise, who support an end to the imperialism and repeated attempts by the US to use the Israeli conflict to destabilize the region. The party recognizes the PLO as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian peoples, and supports any of it’s members currently fighting against the Israeli imperialism. The PCUSA does not however endorse any groups that uses the Arab-Israeli conflict to propagate antisemitism in the region.
The current intense conflict between Israel and Palestine would leave many to believe that agreement between these two peoples is impossible. However, the Israeli Communist Party and, our fraternal party, the Palestinian Communist Party stand together in support of the two-state solution proposed by the Soviet Union in 1947. In solidarity, they both call for a return to the “Green Line� borders, with the establishment of a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza and the capital in East Jerusalem. Party of Communists USA calls for an end to the blockade of Gaza, the dismantling of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory and the separation wall, the release of
Is there really an Ultra right danger, or is that just a social Democratic scare tactic away from revolutionary socialism? By Peter Korman Several months back I decided to test the thesis of the supposed "Ultra Right." This title has been thrown around revolutionary circles for the past 13 years. I had always been most accustomed to calling it the far right. I looked at it from a philosophical background. When we look at the two political parties currently ruling the United States of America today, we can see that these groups are indeed both on the far right. Both of these parties, the Republicans and the Democrats both support the same types of imperialistic and jingoistic policies. And they both implement them exactly the same. We can see this by how just today the United States has relaunched the war in Iraq. Under a supposed liberal and progressive administration. This administration also continues and intensifies the unconstitutional acts brought forth by the George W. Bush administration. This includes things like the extremely painful and torturous water boarding that was invented in the Middle Ages by inquisitive religious fanatics. One of the things that the Social Democrats like to throw around in order to scare other Democrats of their neighbor is to make reference to the rise of far right militias. The social Democratic media presents these individuals as fire breathing gun toting racists, who will stop at nothing to derail social progress and change. I find it actually odd because it doesn't seem there's much social progress or change being done, just more of the same capitalist imperialist abuses of the working class and exploited peoples of the world.
So several months back, I decided to investigate myself the level of consciousness of these armed militia and self-defense organizations to truly find out where their level of consciousness lie. I sent them an e-mail openly stating that I was a socialist and a communist wanting to do an article for a communist publication. Within 24 hours I received a call. This is what I discovered.
I spoke with over two hours with a man whom I will only identify as "Othello". After the individual introduced himself, I responded with "Hey how are you doing?" he responded that his day was going well and that he was
extremely interested to find that a communist or socialist publication had an interest in his organization. Here's where the things got interesting. Just as the Social Democratic media does the job of demonizing these philosophical classical liberals, we can be certain that the right-wing media does an even better job of demonizing socialist and communist without ever fully explaining our positions or thesis.
So after a good opening discussion I was hit with. "Listen Peter, I'm not trying to be a dick or anything it's just that within our circles and with some of the definitions we've been given, we see the socialists as "the enemy." "Here we go" I thought.
But then something strange happened.
I was asked to give my definition of socialism.
I explained that we communists see socialism as the phase after the revolution of the working class, when the working class has seized power of the means of production which means things like factories, farms, modern-day technology and other production equipment etc. etc. I was then greeted with the shocking response,
"I thought socialism meant that I was supposed to requisition my Xbox, computer, firearms, vehicle and other things to a tyrannical state." I then explained to the very nice and cordial individual that the means of production are not the same thing as one's personal property. This lightened things up immediately.
We then went on into a discussion of the root causes of the current economic situations in America. I explained that we socialists and communists feel that it is big capital and corporations that have slowly eroded the rights of the workers and even put a huge dent in small business, trying to turn as many Americans into corporate serfs as possible. After a while he did go into the whole "New World order." idea, I explained that we want to stop things like invasions and erosion of other countries sovereignty by the military-industrial complex as well. But I explained to him that
we call that Capitalism Imperialism. Once the bosses are done chewing up the workers in their host nation. They have to go elsewhere to maximize profits to stay afloat. This shows how capitalism is currently unstable and directly leads to imperialism. Today as we watched the horrors of imperialism and bombing around the globe. We can see that these classical liberal militia types oddly should be placed in the advanced category of revolutionary consciousness. They are way ahead of the Republican and Democratic factions in knowing that the current system cannot continue. They understand the values of working with nature and being prepared for any situation at a time, because the current system does not serve the people whatsoever.
This reminds me of another group that oddly enough was labeled gun toting wackos. The 1960s Black Panther party. the Panthers knew that they wanted direct control of their workplaces and communities away from the vicious police brutality of the fascist cops of their day. Today we see police brutality and state brutality run by the ruling class at an extremely increased rate of viciousness, tyranny and exploitation of the working class. this has shown me that we as Marxists must not turn against these individuals are rather learn from their extreme discipline both with selfdefense with all types of weaponry as well as respect for the environment and nature with things like wilderness survival. Their respect for nature and understanding how to live in it put most social democratic liberals to shame in regards to practicing what they preach. We must form our own openly communist selfdefense forces for if and when the bourgeoisie try to institute any sort of fascism. This was done in Spain as well as in South Africa. We even see it today being done in the newly formed republics in the Ukraine. We need to show ourselves to to these classical liberals that we are the vanguard, that continues the historic revolution of 1776 as well as 1917, and The Cuban revolution and the Vietnamese revolution. We must become stronger tactically, physically and we must become prepared to defend ourselves and our communities against those who would strike an innocent worker with a police baton.
EDITORIAL: Justice for Eric Garner, Mike Brown and All Victims of Police Terror
Once again, police officers have killed unarmed Black men, Eric Garner, and Mike Brown this time on the streets of Staten Island and Furgeson Missouri. The latest police murders comes on top of decades of killings of innocent victim, the great majority Black and Latino, by police, since the murder of 15-year old James Powell in 1964 that sparked the Harlem rebellion of that year. To mention only a few of the most notorious cases of police brutality and killing in New York City, there was the murder of 67-year-old grandmother Eleanor Bumpurs in her home in 1984, the killing of Anthony Baez in 1994, the torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in 1997, the shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999, killed by 41 police bullets, of Sean Bell in 2006 with 50 shots, and of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham in his own home in front of his grandmother and younger brother in February of 2012. The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the cold-blooded police shooting of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California in 2009, are just two examples that such murders are not confined to New York. Rotten Apples or a Rotten System?
In almost all these cases, we are told by the authorities that they are examples of a few “rotten apples” in the police department, that the majority of cops are really there to “protect and serve.” But if that were the case, why did the rest of the cops who were there to arrest Garner do nothing as Officer Pantaleo was choking the life out of him? If it was just a matter of a few rotten apples, wouldn’t the “justice” system do all it could to charge, convict and sentence these cops for murder, so that it could cleanse the department of the few bad officers? But in almost all these cases, the cops have gotten off scot free, mostly without even an indictment and trial.
Why are there so few grand jury indictments of cops in these cases? Anyone who has ever seen a grand jury work knows that, as the saying goes, s grand jury would indict even a ham sandwich if the district attorney asked them to. But in most cases of police killings, the district attorneys do not even ask for an indictment. They just bring an “investigation into the death” of the victim. And then they present all the evidence that the cops want the jury to hear. This is usually enough for the reactionary majority on such juries not to bring an indictment. The Cops are No Friends of Blacks, Latinos or Any Working People
The police are only there to protect and serve the interests of the rich, the ruling, capitalist class. Look at the way the police were called out to make mass arrests of the Occupy Wall Street protestors in 2011, or how they are used against anti-war protestors – remember the hundreds jailed protesting in front of the Republican National Convention in 2004? And every time there is a strike, the police are there to protect the bosses’ property, to enforce injunctions against mass picketing, and so on. It may be that in the murder of Eric Garner, Officer Pantaleo will be indicted on some minor charge, or at least be dismissed for violation of “proper police procedure,” as chokeholds are against the NYPD’s own rules of conduct. But only a sustained mass protest would have any chance of leading to Pantaleo’s indictment on any serious charge.
Moreover, to get rid of police brutality would require a socialist revolution, that would overturn this system in which a small minority of wealthy bankers, industrialists, real estate interests, etc. rule over the workers and oppressed people. Under a socialist system, the police would be replaced by a militia of working people, and the armed forces would serve to prevent the former capitalist rulers, who had a fine life living off the labor of the majority, from returning to power. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the positions of the League of Young Communists
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