“To be radical is to grasp the root of the matter. But, for man, the root is man himself.” —Karl Marx In 2014, I managed a seemingly crazy move, against all odds, and with literally no chance of success: I ran for governor in
Revolutionaries seek to end capitalism and move to the next stage of human development. That’s a tall order. In order to carry it out we have to know exactly what forces are arrayed on the political battlefield. That means we have to know the political enemy thoroughly.So every revolutionary – without exception – should read – at minimum – the Preface to this book, which is less than 20 pages. It outlines the thrust of the book: that the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the Central Committee of the U.S. capitalist class. The rest of the book outlines in detail who the central players in the CFR are and have been, how the CFR works, and which organizations and corporations it works through. Along with Domhoff’s The Powers That Be (see my review), this is essential reading on understanding who and what we are up against.
This is a must-read book for every revolutionary and activist because it details exactly how the class enemy – the capitalist class – rules the United States. It’s dated – and an update would be wonderful – but the detailed analysis remains completely valid. Domhoff describes with crystal clarity the inner operations of bourgeois democracy. The book is straight forward. In the first chapter Domhoff lays out four processes by which the ruling class rules. The remaining four chapters are each on one of the processes. There is no filler. The book is direct and detailed, laying out how the ruled are ruled and the actual organizations and connections that carry out that rule. The four processes are 1) the special-interest process, 2) the policy-formation process, 3) the candidate-selection process, and 4) the ideology process. The processes are separate, but intertwined and interconnected in myriad ways; they support each other.
por Lenny Brody Mientras la crisis del capitalismo internacional sigue desarrollándose, y un número creciente de países entran en una crisis política, los revolucionarios alrededor del mundo buscan una guía para la lucha de la clase obrera en el cúmulo de conocimiento existente como el marxismo. Sin embargo, la confusión y la fusión de varios aspectos del marxismo ha terminado en la desorientación de muchos revolucionarios. Algunos “marxistas” viven en un mundo de abstracciones, con muy poca conexión con el proceso revolucionario. Otros “marxistas” persiguen cada protesta y expresión de “lucha de clases” sin ningún concepto estratégico de la moción general y la metas del proceso revolucionario.
John Wessel-McCoy: In your experience of the poor organizing the poor, where do we begin? Willie Baptist: Like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out, “”The prescription for the cure rests with the accurate diagnosis of the disease.”Any approach to social change, organizing and leadership development has to be based on an accurate assessment of the situation, on an accurate analysis of the problem you aim to solve. If you have one assessment or a certain diagnosis of the disease to be cured, you’re going to have a particular prescription and a particular approach to the solution. Either we’re dealing with a teddy bear or we’re dealing with a grizzly bear, and either estimate will determine a different set of tactics and correspondently a different organizing approach. If you think you’re dealing with a teddy bear and in reality it’s a grizzly bear coming at you, you’re going to be in trouble. So an exact estimate of the situation has to be where you begin. This involves a tremendous amount of intellectual work to effectively and efficiently guide the practical work of particularly the poor organizing the poor.
El 7 de noviembre del 2017 marca el centenario de la Revolución Rusa. Esta revolución es importante porque fue la primera vez en la historia que los que no tenían propiedad, las personas más oprimidas y explotadas de un país, tomaron y mantuvieron poder político por un periodo de tiempo extendido. Ese poder político fue usado para tomar la riqueza y propiedad de los capitalistas y los dueños de las tierras quien habían llevado a la gente del imperio ruso a la semi-esclavitud. Aquellos de nosotros quienes no poseemos nada, y somos forzados cada día a pelear por nuestra sobrevivencia, miramos a las lecciones de la Revolución Rusa y otros instantes en la historia donde los pobres se han levantado en revolución y ganado el poder político. Los pobres han hecho historia en el pasado. Necesitamos estudiar esa historia y usar lo que podamos aprender para hacer historia de nuevo.
November 7, 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. This revolution is significant because it was the first time in history that the property-less, the most oppressed and exploited people of a country, seized and held political power for an extended period of time. That political power was used to seize the wealth and property of the capitalists and landowners who had been driving the people of the Russian empire into semi-slavery. Those of us who possess nothing, and are forced to fight every day just to survive, look to the lessons of the Russian Revolution and other instances in history where the poor have risen up in revolution and won political power. The poor have made history in the past. We need to study that history and use what we learn to make history again.
Por Nacho GonzalezEste es un resumen ejecutivo de un próximo artículo.PropósitoLa influencia del anarquismo y el sindicalismo tiene una larga historia en la izquierda política estadounidense. El anarquismo como doctrina ha existido desde los principios de los años 1800. A medida que el capitalismo evolucionó hacia el imperialismo a finales de los años 1800, se desarrolló una nueva tendencia anarquista: el anarcosindicalismo, una fusión del anarquismo y el sindicalismo, que relegó a la clase trabajadora a la arena económica y negó un papel para la lucha política.Hoy en día, el sindicalismo es sumamente fuerte de nuevo en el movimiento revolucionario, por ejemplo, la política de identidad de testigos y la organización de un solo tema. Esta doctrina oscurece y confunde la lucha de clases. Por lo tanto, impidió que la clase trabajadora utilizara su mejor arma contra el sistema del capitalismo: la lucha de clases.
The influence of Anarchism and Syndicalism has a long history in the American Left. Anarchism as a doctrine has been in existence since the early 1800’s. As capitalism evolved into imperialism in the late 1800’s a new anarchist trend developed: Anarcho-Syndicalism, a fusion of anarchism and trade unionism, which relegated the working class to the economic arena and denied a role for political struggle.Today syndicalism is once again very strong in the revolutionary movement, witness identity politics and single-issue organizing for example. This doctrine obscures the class struggle and confuses it. Thus hindering the working class from utilizing its best weapon against the system of capitalism – the class struggle.
As the crisis of international capitalism continues to develop, and a growing number of countries enter into political crisis, revolutionaries around the world turn to the body of knowledge known as Marxism for guidance in the fight of the working class. However, the confusion and merger of various aspects of Marxism has led to a disorientation of many revolutionaries. Some “Marxists” live in a world of abstractions, with little connection to the revolutionary process. Other “Marxists” run after every protest and expression of the “class struggle” without any strategic conception of the general motion and goals of the revolutionary process.
Edited March 2017 - We are in a new phase of imperialism ushered in by the 2008 financial crisis. US power is in decline. The most stalwart voice for Western Imperialism, The British magazine The Economist, noted in its September 17, 2016 Leader, that today’s rise of tech oligopolies and their avoidance of taxes etc. has cast the shadow of “1917 and all that”! How fitting that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Great October Revolution!The workers and dispossessed of the world suffered a defeat and crisis that was symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The international agenda of 1990’s was dominated by US capitalist hegemony under the guise of neoliberal globalization. There were subsequent critical articulations against the US proposal to dominate the South: most notably the World Social Forum and subsequent People’s Movements Assemblies (fully supported, it should be noted, by Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution). The rise of popular movements and progressive governments in Latin America altered the balance of forces and were a beacon of hope everywhere. Brave and heroic Cuba endures!
