Commie Curmudgeon

Courtesy of the Spartacus School:

In an attempt to settle the dispute, George Gapon decided to make a personal appeal to Nicholas II. He drew up a petition outlining the workers' sufferings and demands. This included calling for a reduction in the working day to eight hours, an increase in wages and an improvement in working conditions. Gapon also called for the establishment of universal suffrage and an end to the Russo-Japanese War.

Over 150,000 people signed the petition and on 22nd January, 1905, Gapon led a large procession of workers to the Winter Palace in order to present the petition to Nicholas II. When the procession of workers reached the Winter Palace it was attacked by the police and the Cossacks. Over 100 workers were killed and some 300 wounded. The incident, known as Bloody Sunday, signalled the start of the 1905 Revolution.

From George Gapon:

We were not more than thirty yards from the soldiers, being separated from them only by the bridge over the Tarakanovskii Canal, which here marks the border of the city, when suddenly, without any warning and without a moment's delay, was heard the dry crack of many rifle-shots. Vasiliev, with whom I was walking hand in hand, suddenly left hold of my arm and sank upon the snow. One of the workmen who carried the banners fell also. Immediately one of the two police officers shouted out "What are you doing? How dare you fire upon the portrait of the Tsar?"

An old man named Lavrentiev, who was carrying the Tsar's portrait, had been one of the first victims. Another old man caught the portrait as it fell from his hands and carried it till he too was killed by the next volley. With his last gasp the old man said "I may die, but I will see the Tsar".

Both the blacksmiths who had guarded me were killed, as well as all these who were carrying the ikons and banners; and all these emblems now lay scattered on the snow. The soldiers were actually shooting into the courtyards at the adjoining houses, where the crowd tried to find refuge and, as I learned afterwards, bullets even struck persons inside, through the windows.

At last the firing ceased. I stood up with a few others who remained uninjured and looked down at the bodies that lay prostrate around me. Horror crept into my heart. The thought flashed through my mind, "And this is the work of our Little Father, the Tsar". Perhaps the anger saved me, for now I knew in very truth that a new chapter was opened in the book of history of our people.

From Peter Rachleff (Soviets and Factory Committees in the Russian Revolution):

Over 100,000 factory workers in St. Petersburg had gone on strike in January of that year. A few days later, workers and their families, protesting both factory conditions and their lack of political representation, presented a petition to the czar, asking him to alleviate their problems and grant them a Constituent Assembly. The demonstration in front of his palace was fired upon by the czar's soldiers. Mass strikes spread throughout the industrial cities of the country, involving more than a million people over a period of two months, reaching at least 122 towns and localities. Strikes, demonstrations and public meetings continued sporadically throughout the spring and summer months despite severe repression. Workers elected committees throughout the urban areas to organise the strikes.

Rosa Luxemburg:

On January 22nd in Petersburg [January 9th according to the Russian used Julian calender], the first mass revolutionary rising of the Russian proletariat against absolutism was put down 'victoriously' by the terrorist government, that is, it was drowned in the blood of thousands of defenceless workers, in the blood of the murdered men, women and children of the people [Bloody Sunday]. It is possible that - at least in Petersburg itself - a lull in the revolutionary movement has set in. The tidal wave is now surging from Petersburg, from the north, down over the huge empire, and is engulfing, one after another, all the great industrial cities of Russia.

And (as I posted last month):

Workers everywhere are, by themselves, reaching agreements whereby, for instance, the employed give up the day's wages every week for the unemployed. Or, where employment is reduced to four days a week, there they arrange it in such a way that no one is laid off, but that everyone works a few hours less per week. All this is done in a matter of course, with such simplicity and smoothness that the Party is informed of it only in passing. In fact, the feeling of solidarity and brotherhood is so strongly developed you can't help but be amazed even though you have personally worked for its development. And, then too, an interesting result of the revolution: in all factories, committees have arisen "on their own," elected by the workers, which decide on all matters relating to working conditions, hirings and firings of workers, etc. The employer has actually ceased being "the master of his own house."

Finally, from Anton Pannekoek:

The soviets, essentially, were simply strike committees, such as always arise in wild strikes. Since the strikes in Russia broke out in large factories, and rapidly expanded over towns and districts, the workers had to keep in continual touch. In the shops the workers assembled and discussed regularly after the close of the work, or in times of tension even continually, the entire day. They sent their delegates to other factories and to the central committees, where information was interchanged, difficulties discussed, decisions taken, and new tasks considered.

But here the tasks proved more encompassing than in ordinary strikes. The workers had to throw off the heavy oppression of Czarism; they felt that by their action Russian society was changing in its foundations. They had to consider not only wages and labor conditions in their shops, but all questions related to society at large. They had to find their own way in these realms and to take decisions on political matters. When the strike flared up, extended over the entire country, stopped all industry and traffic and paralysed the functions of government, the soviets were confronted with new problems. They had to regulate public life, they had to take care of public security and order, they had to provide for the indispensable public utilities and services. They had to perform governmental functions; what they decided was executed by the workers, whereas Government and police stood aloof, conscious of their impotence against the rebellious masses. Then the delegates of other groups, of intellectuals, of peasants, of soldiers, who came to join the central soviets, took part in the discussions and decisions. But all this power was like a flash of lightning, like a meteor passing. When at last the Czarist government mustered its military forces and beat down the movement the soviets disappeared.

Thus it was in 1905.

We are now making demands that will cost the nation something. You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with the captains of industry.... Now this means that we are treading in difficult waters, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong...with capitalism....
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Nonviolence must be adapted to urban conditions and urban moods. Non-violent protest must now mature to a new level, to correspond to heightened black impatience and stiffened white resistance. This high level is mass civil disobedience. There must be more than a statement to the larger society, there must be a force that interrupts its functioning at some key point.... To dislocate the functioning of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot because it can be longer lasting, costly to the larger society, but not wantonly destructive. It is a device of social action that is more difficult for a government to quell by superior force.... It is militant and defiant, not destructive.

- Martin Luther King, Jr., 1966 & 1967

Here are some interesting MLK-related sites that I stumbled across today:

MLK: The Red Reverend

Exploiting King

Sanitizing a National Hero

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Speech Menu

A few months ago, I wrote an article (which may or may not appear in the intended publication) bemoaning the fact that there is insufficient militant street action in response to the healthcare crisis in the U.S. I mentioned that part of the reason for this is the fact that our radical street actions are planned and waged mainly by young people, who do not prioritize the healthcare crisis because it is not a top concern on their minds. (There are exceptions, however - such as AIDS activism.) I pointed out that if there were more late-middle-aged and elderly people involved in planning street protests, the lack of universal health coverage, the huge and growing number of the uninsured, and the increasing unaffordability of healthcare for so many others would be top concerns in the "movement."

Of course, one might make the same point about the impending attempts to "reform" (i.e., privatize) Social Security...

And I pointed out in my article that it is not an impossible idea for elderly people to take to the streets for the causes that affect them most directly, even if older people might not be as swift and full of energy as the college kids and 20-somethings who comprise the vast majority of direct action-oriented street activists in the U.S. today. I pointed out how some of the best direct actions and acts of civil disobedience that took place in recent decades actually were carried out by elderly people, especially among the peace activists (vandalizing missiles, etc.).

Now, we can look to Russia for an even closer example to follow. Thanks to a blurb in Bombs and Shields for directing me to an article in the Moscow Times, which informs us that:

Thousands of retirees rallied across the country on Sunday and Monday to protest the removal of Soviet-era benefits that took effect Jan. 1.

About 500 pensioners blocked Leningradskoye Shosse in the Moscow suburb of Khimki for two hours on Monday in a rally that was not sanctioned by the authorities, Interfax reported....

Police managed to clear the road and restore traffic. Two pensioners were hospitalized after clashes with riot police, Ekho Moskvy cited witnesses as saying.

The Communist Party said on its web site that it had not organized the rally, and called it "spontaneous."

So... Maybe it's high time for a revolt of the elderly right here in the U.S. It's time for the elderly to take to the streets to speak out about, and act upon, issues that the typical "revolutionary youth" might not think about until they are much older.

Isn’t it great that America saved Iraq from Saddam? Now former members of Saddam Hussein’s secret police are torturing and killing some of the same trade unionists whom they persecuted from within Saddam’s regime. Here’s an interesting item from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions on the torture and murder of union leader Hadi Salih:

Hadi Salih, a prominent Iraqi trade unionist, had returned from exile to Iraq at the beginning of the war, to help build up a democratic trade union movement. He was killed on Tuesday night by assassins who broke into his home. According to a report today from the IFTU, Salih was severely tortured before being put to death. Evidence of torture was visible on his head and body. His hands and legs had been tied. He was blindfolded, then strangled with electrical wire. Iraqi trade union sources believe that the atrocity was carried out by remnants of Saddam Hussein’s secret police, the Mukharabat.

And here are some words on the matter from the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI):

A terrorist group has assassinated Mr. Hadi Saleh, a prominent leader and international secretary of Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions-IFTU, Wednesday January 04. 2005 .They assassinated him near his home in Baghdad, in a series of assassination and physical eradication exercised by the terrorist groups....

Assassination will not end the path of any progressive political activist and group which determined to struggle for a free and progressive life for Iraqi people....

We declare in order to guarantee a peaceful and secure live for Iraqi people and to eliminate the current insecure and chaotic situation and scenario of assassination, terror and persecution in Iraq, are only possible through strengthening the progressive front of civil people in Iraq to end the occupation in Iraq and to eliminate the terrorism of political Islam and loyalists of Baath regime.

By the way, the above-referenced message is on the Web site for the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq and the Union of the Unemployed In Iraq – a very good place to go for information on working class struggle in Iraq (certainly stuff you are not going to learn about in the standard newspapers and TV news).

I have also been meaning to get back to the related Worker-communist Party of Iraq. They seem to have a new Web location (unless the first location that I listed, in my November 12 post, was wrong).

I like these words from the WCPI statement on the scheduled "elections":

We call you not to participate in this play and do not let these forces to use your consent to impose their reactionary alternative on the society. The endeavor of these parties whether through the so-called election or by force is to impose a reactionary religious-ethnocentric-clan puppet state, which sharply contradicts with all the demands, aspirations of the freedom loving and equality-seeking people in Iraq. These elections must be boycotted and moreover they must be thwarted, as they are a plan to break the willpower of the people. We call on you not to participate in these elections. Boycott them and do not be partners in the political project of any of the two poles of this terrorist conflict. Mobilize your force to thwart this hoax and beguiling play and to reclaim the authority from the forces of dark scenario and rebuild the willpower of the masses along with the Worker-communist Party. Organize and unite your ranks around the Worker-communist Party of Iraq to build a secular and non ethnocentric government based on the will of the people and which meets the basic and urgent demands of the society like security, bread, freedom and rebuilding the civility.

Meanwhile, Socialism Now, the left spin-off from the WCPI, criticizes the WCPI for even calling them elections:

What happens today in Iraq bears no similarity to the attribute of elections. Therefore the process could not be possibly negated (whether by boycotting or otherwise). Elections must be submitted to the main conditions i.e. the end of the US occupation and the disarmament of all militias, Islamic, nationalist, and Ba’thists, in order to end or paralyze the Dark Scenario and its criminal forces that are controlling the destiny of the society in Iraq.

Without these conditions, the planned elections are mere nonsense and consequently their boycott is an adopted twaddle.

Add me to the list of blogger crime victims tonight. About four hours ago, I got robbed at gunpoint. Two guys approached me and one said, "Give me all your money now." It was after he said that that I noticed he was holding up a black gun. But the thing looked so cheap and plastic, my first instinct was to wonder if it was a toy. I actually said to the guy, "What the hell is that?" And he answered, "What do you think it is?"

The second thing I said was, "I don't have any money." I was carrying $21 in my wallet, but maybe for a second I had forgotten or I just didn't want to remember for these guys. I was probably being a bit foolish under the circumstances, but my impulse was not to make it so easy for them by digging into my pockets to look for anything. When the guy with the gun pressed it against my chest, maybe impulse #1 was taken over by impulse #2, to freeze up a little from fear. Whatever the reason, I wasn't cooperating completely and the second guy started frisking me until he found my wallet in my pocket. The first thought that went through my mind then was that it would be a real hassle to replace all the shit in my wallet, which I would have to do right away because I can hardly go anywhere, into any building, etc., without an ID, now that New York City is such a police state (albeit a police state in which the police are never there at those times when we might actually sort of need them). But then the guy who'd lifted my wallet said from behind me, "Your wallet's on the ground," and when I picked it up I saw that they didn't care about my cards or any of that crap; they'd only wanted the cash.

I walked around for about 45 minutes feeling ambivalent about whether to go to the police. Finally, I went into a police station and told the cops that I'd been robbed at gunpoint. The first thing they did was give me a hard time by asking me why I hadn't reported it earlier. Then they asked me for details that I was very uncertain about. There were three officers at first, two men and one woman, but then the men walked away while the woman embarked on the task of taking down all the details. But the more details she asked of me, the less certain I became about my visual memory and the more pointless this visit to the precinct felt.

Given my anarchist background, I am always a little ambivalent about whether it's a good thing to report crimes to the cops. But I don't think there's anything about reporting to the cops that would be against my principles, unless I were to report someone for a victimless crime (which I don't think I would ever do). Although I've also been tear gassed, sprayed, followed, etc., by cops during big demonstrations, I've never felt the personal, demonizing kind of anmiosity toward uniformed cops that some of my fellow activists have expressed. Certainly, there are a few fascists in the bunch and collective police conduct can be atrocious in some situations, but I tend to think that rank-and-file police officers are far less blameworthy (or worthy of my hostility) than the politicians and upper management who are passing down the orders and training them. (Although, I admit, that could change if I have any really bad experiences...)

I suppose that my biggest real reservation about going to the cops is that I feel they're kind of useless with most crime situations, unless they actually can be there when the crime is taking place. And, of course, there's always the risk that the perps will see me ratting to the cops, and that this will get me hurt more badly than I was before.

Anyway, I'm not thinking much right now about the criminals, except that I'm hoping this was a random incident and I'm not some target whom they will aim at again and again. I'm not dwelling much on feeling angry at the robbers. When my mind goes past the anxiety that this might happen again sometime, it goes toward thoughts about our "criminal justice" system and how utterly useless it can be, especially for poor and working people just trying to get by from day to day.

Although the cops might not choose to ignore me the way they might a lot of other people, considering that they probably have a file on me for my anarchist protest activities of a few years ago. (The most common opinion I got after that incident three years ago, when I was followed by undercover agents after the WEF demo, was that the guys were not Feds, they were local police. In fact, one guy who was subject to some of the same treatment said he was certain of it.)

Maybe now that I've said hello to the cops, they'll want to check up on me and follow me a little again, just to see what I'm up to (unless they already know for certain that I'm not up to much of anything). Maybe if they start watching me again, they'll be there to chase the criminals the next time I get robbed or mugged. But somehow, I doubt it.

Whenever thousands upon thousands of people, especially poor people in "Third World" countries, die as a result of a "natural disaster" and the major powers and corporate media start talking about how much we are all still at the mercy of Mother Nature, that's when my bullshit detector goes into the red. Whenever thousands and thousands of poor people die as a result of a "natural disaster," you can be sure that the death toll would have been a lot lower in an "advanced" capitalist area, especially if there were a lot of wealthy people at risk.

When a terrible earthquake killed thousands of people in Turkey five years ago, news came out, gradually, that a lot of the death toll was due to faulty construction of buildings, because so many people who wanted or needed to make a quick buck had failed to follow basic construction safety laws. Of course, the reason behind that problem was not evil and corrupt individuals, but the pressures of rapid capitalist development. As one Turkish professor put it (quoted in an article from the BBC News):

I think [that the effects of this earthquake] typifies the urban sprawl in the industrial heartland of Turkey.... The rate of urbanisation has been very high and unfortunately the control and supervision of the building quality has not been as good as it should be.

When I first heard about the mounting death toll from the latest earthquake and tidal wave, I thought immediately that a lot of that had to do with inadequate infrastructure within the poor communities. I still think that certainly was a factor, but the main reason for the huge death toll was something even more obvious, and something even more blatantly avoidable: the people in southern Asia who were affected most did not have adequate warning systems or, in many cases, did not have warning systems at all.

I recommend a visit to the World Socialist Web Site for an article, The Asian tsunami: why there were no warnings, by Peter Symonds. I think this piece describes the problems pretty well. While there had been a warning system in place for the Pacific Ocean since the 1940s, there was none in place in the Indian Ocean. Part of the reason for this - which is very obvious - has to do with which countries border on the Indian Ocean and how much they are valued (or not) by the "advanced" capitalist powers, i.e., how much those powers feel obligated or compelled to spend relatively little money to help protect the safety of people within the "Third World." Another part has to do with the willingness of so many people to jeopardize many lives for the sake of business concerns, such as protecting the tourist industry. (Apparently, in Thailand, for example, officials were reluctant to issue a warning because this was peak tourist season and any evacuation of people would have ruined business. This news came out not only in the WSW Web site, but also in a couple of TV news reports.)

Symonds sums up the situation very nicely:

The failure to establish such a system is bound up with shortsightedness, inertia and outright contempt—especially on the part of the major powers—for the lives of the oppressed masses of southern Asia. Destructive tsunamis are actually more common in the Indian Ocean than in the Pacific Ocean, but none of the G-8 countries borders the region. Both Japan and the United States have spent millions on a string of tsunameters and monitoring stations in the Pacific to protect their coastlines, but, prior to last week’s disaster, neither country offered to pay for its extension to the Indian.

Last week’s catastrophe also raises broader questions. The absence of a tsunami warning system for southern Asia is symptomatic of the general state of affairs regarding disasters, such as flooding and cyclones, that occur regularly throughout the region. The very scale of the tsunami tragedy has provoked the sympathy of ordinary people around the world, compelling governments to respond, even if insufficiently and belatedly. Yet every year thousands of impoverished people die or become homeless as a result of natural disasters in Asia, and the events barely rate a mention in the international media.

And the last point above is one that we shouldn't forget. While it's good that we're seeing this outpouring of help and sympathy from governments and populations alike during this highly publicized disaster, it would be better if people were more aware of, and informed about, the many deaths and ruined lives that result from disasters that are not so prominent or publicized. More importantly, it would be good if this kind of awareness extended further to encompass the big picture. As Symonds pointedly reminds us:

In the final analysis, the absence of adequate disaster management systems is a product of the same social and economic order that condemns billions of people to wretched daily poverty and treats their sufferings as inevitable and unavoidable.