What has been happening in Thailand? Who are the actors? I am pretty ignorant about this.
Nevertheless I know that one mass movement of citizen activists in Thailand seized the major international airport and that it ultimately toppled the government they didn't like.
What a novel idea!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
SHAMING THE OPPRESSOR
Moral authority is essential to any economic or political authority. Why else do petty morals play such a central role in politics? It is because petty morality is the kind of morality most people live daily. The extension of morality to the public sphere is somewhat difficult to understand and so the personal corruption of the individual politician takes on a salience that sins against the public at large often do not.
This is the situation in the United States today. Politics is terribly confused and mystified. There are so many different issues that are supposed to divide us but all this hides the class war which has been
waged against American workers for the last four decades.
We are supposed to be divided over the issues of early term abortions and birth control. We are supposed to somehow be divided over the issue of people having sex even if we never know about it. We are supposed to adhere to a narrow version of doomsday Christianity even though Christianity in the United States is not a state religion and never can be a state religion. But the point here is that we are supposed to be divided over the role of religion in society as well.
I think the Obama election suggests that most Americans don't accept these divisions of the working people. They see a common cause in economic and social justice. Of course if Obama is a corporatist he will undermine economic and social justice. Obama may simply seek to unite the poor and working people under the banner of an ever sacrificing "middle class". Time will tell about Obama, but I think that the people of the United States are more and more able to see across cultural and racial differences and see common economic, moral and social interests.
Will Obama use this political potential to facilitate progressive social change or will he try to coop the growing working class consciousness and kill any real progressive potential? If he does turn right he can be shamed for abandoning progressive values.
This is the situation in the United States today. Politics is terribly confused and mystified. There are so many different issues that are supposed to divide us but all this hides the class war which has been
waged against American workers for the last four decades.
We are supposed to be divided over the issues of early term abortions and birth control. We are supposed to somehow be divided over the issue of people having sex even if we never know about it. We are supposed to adhere to a narrow version of doomsday Christianity even though Christianity in the United States is not a state religion and never can be a state religion. But the point here is that we are supposed to be divided over the role of religion in society as well.
I think the Obama election suggests that most Americans don't accept these divisions of the working people. They see a common cause in economic and social justice. Of course if Obama is a corporatist he will undermine economic and social justice. Obama may simply seek to unite the poor and working people under the banner of an ever sacrificing "middle class". Time will tell about Obama, but I think that the people of the United States are more and more able to see across cultural and racial differences and see common economic, moral and social interests.
Will Obama use this political potential to facilitate progressive social change or will he try to coop the growing working class consciousness and kill any real progressive potential? If he does turn right he can be shamed for abandoning progressive values.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
DIRECT ACTION AS A MEANS OF ACCOMPLISHING ENDS
What is direct action? It generally applies to the citizen or person exercising her or his rights in a direct action that may or may not be strictly illegal.
So the refusal to pay a tax or the decision to deliberately violate an unjust legal prohibition are two kinds of direct action. One may commit all sorts of "property crimes" to protest "crimes against people". Generally this term implies a nonviolent orientation.
Howard Zinn suggests that direct action is a prerequisite for progressive measures to come out of an Obama administration.
He refers to the direct action of workers who seized substantial
fulcrums of the economic base and held it hostage until they got at least some of what they wanted.
We know there were substantial working class radicalisms and revolutionary or quasi-revolutionary groups at the time he refers to
in 1932. The opportunity to build such radical ideas and social change organizations exists today as people really do wonder how the whole capitalist supertanker has capsized.
His call for direct action to protect the victims of foreclosure is one well within the capability of the rank and file progressives in many neighborhoods.
The first response of the capitalists system was to care for the foxes in the chicken coups and then to throw us or at least our money to these same clever con artists.
We will have to defend our own. The working class must defend its own, no one else will do it for the working class.
So the refusal to pay a tax or the decision to deliberately violate an unjust legal prohibition are two kinds of direct action. One may commit all sorts of "property crimes" to protest "crimes against people". Generally this term implies a nonviolent orientation.
Howard Zinn suggests that direct action is a prerequisite for progressive measures to come out of an Obama administration.
He refers to the direct action of workers who seized substantial
fulcrums of the economic base and held it hostage until they got at least some of what they wanted.
We know there were substantial working class radicalisms and revolutionary or quasi-revolutionary groups at the time he refers to
in 1932. The opportunity to build such radical ideas and social change organizations exists today as people really do wonder how the whole capitalist supertanker has capsized.
His call for direct action to protect the victims of foreclosure is one well within the capability of the rank and file progressives in many neighborhoods.
The first response of the capitalists system was to care for the foxes in the chicken coups and then to throw us or at least our money to these same clever con artists.
We will have to defend our own. The working class must defend its own, no one else will do it for the working class.
Monday, October 27, 2008
DEDICATE A SONG TO YOUR POLITICAL FAVORITE
I heard this on the radio today. Hispanics often dedicate songs to those they like and love on Spanish language radio stations. So some campaigners for Obama have started dedicating this or that song to Barrack Obama. Apparently it is something of a phenomenon.
So you could "dedicate this song" in whatever language to MLK, working class rule, banning all nukes, women's liberation, or whatever progressive ideas or leaders you like. Will progressive dedications be censored? Let's find out!
I wonder could we dedicate a song, and make an announcement?
Lucha!
Lucha!
Lucha!
So you could "dedicate this song" in whatever language to MLK, working class rule, banning all nukes, women's liberation, or whatever progressive ideas or leaders you like. Will progressive dedications be censored? Let's find out!
I wonder could we dedicate a song, and make an announcement?
Lucha!
Lucha!
Lucha!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Videotape the Adversary and Inform the People with that Candid Information
With cries of "KILL HIM!" echoing from Republican rallies across the nation one method of social struggle has helped inform the public about this dangerous situation. Of course, the cries for murder come from rank and file Republicans and they seek the destruction of Obama since he will obviously win in the polls, if they count the votes this time. One thing has brought this situation into broader awareness, the videos of citizens who upload them up on YouTube or elsewhere. Because of these home made videos millions are able to see for themselves what is going on in the real Republican Party.
A lot of so-called moderate Republicans have looked the other way and united with a lot of closeted and not so hidden white supremacists. Maybe someone can force these self deceiving "moderates" to look at what their political allies are doing, calling for the murder of Obama and basically being hard core white supremacists! On the other hand these so-called moderates may be pretty racist too and just tend to pretend they are moderate. That is what I think about most of them. Which brings us to the question, "Moderate Republicans, do they exist?" But that is another blog.
Videotape Republicans being themselves and then show the rest of us what they are really like when they think no one is looking!
A lot of so-called moderate Republicans have looked the other way and united with a lot of closeted and not so hidden white supremacists. Maybe someone can force these self deceiving "moderates" to look at what their political allies are doing, calling for the murder of Obama and basically being hard core white supremacists! On the other hand these so-called moderates may be pretty racist too and just tend to pretend they are moderate. That is what I think about most of them. Which brings us to the question, "Moderate Republicans, do they exist?" But that is another blog.
Videotape Republicans being themselves and then show the rest of us what they are really like when they think no one is looking!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Methods of Social Reproduction
Any social group needs some way to maintain social cohesion. This is just as true of progressive groups as any other sort of group.
A group may be run in a top-down way and with little progressive consciousness and still be more or less progressive in effect. A scientific vaccination program to prevent childhood diseases might be such a program.
On the other hand a progressive group or organization may be united by common values and political beliefs. It might be argued that a group which is united because of values and politics is genuinely progressive while the other kind of organization, based on pay or a draft or some involuntary participation is not. Of course outcomes need to be evaluated not just levels of political consciousness. Organizations often operate with some democracy. Of course some do not.
I tend to think that political consciousness is crucial in determining whether an organization is progressive or not. Political consciousness determines whether an oppressed group simply accepts a slave mentality, usually forced upon it by the oppressor elites or develops a revolutionary mentality to achieve liberation from exploitation and abuse by those elites.
Of course progressives are more and more thinking about the better society they seek. What would it be like? So that is important as well, but I still shy away from detailed Utopian solutions as general prescriptions. Still, we can hardly overthrow rulers without someone else or some group of people ruling in their stead. What is a substantially liberating way to do that?
Currently I am a lot more interested in whether those we are studying are progressive in their current ideas and current actions. As always the struggle for survival competes with the struggle to create a new world. Of course if we conclude that the problems of our survival both economically and ecologically are the result of an antiquated and destructive system called capitalism then we have to substantially overthrow whatever is bad in that system.
A group may be run in a top-down way and with little progressive consciousness and still be more or less progressive in effect. A scientific vaccination program to prevent childhood diseases might be such a program.
On the other hand a progressive group or organization may be united by common values and political beliefs. It might be argued that a group which is united because of values and politics is genuinely progressive while the other kind of organization, based on pay or a draft or some involuntary participation is not. Of course outcomes need to be evaluated not just levels of political consciousness. Organizations often operate with some democracy. Of course some do not.
I tend to think that political consciousness is crucial in determining whether an organization is progressive or not. Political consciousness determines whether an oppressed group simply accepts a slave mentality, usually forced upon it by the oppressor elites or develops a revolutionary mentality to achieve liberation from exploitation and abuse by those elites.
Of course progressives are more and more thinking about the better society they seek. What would it be like? So that is important as well, but I still shy away from detailed Utopian solutions as general prescriptions. Still, we can hardly overthrow rulers without someone else or some group of people ruling in their stead. What is a substantially liberating way to do that?
Currently I am a lot more interested in whether those we are studying are progressive in their current ideas and current actions. As always the struggle for survival competes with the struggle to create a new world. Of course if we conclude that the problems of our survival both economically and ecologically are the result of an antiquated and destructive system called capitalism then we have to substantially overthrow whatever is bad in that system.
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