The hope of peace at last: The Russian Revolution in documentary and song

The November-December episode of Communist Voice premieres on The Peoples Channel Tuesday (the 6^th) at 6pm, but because of some problems, the previous episode will be air one more week on Durham Community Media, so the new episode will start there on the 13^th at 6pm. The title of this episode comes from a line from an excellent Irish song, The Red Flag, sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum or Maryland, My Maryland. It was written by Jim Connell in 1889 (see webpages.dcu.ie/~sheehanh/lsongs.htm ). This episode includes Chronicle of October – 1917; Song is Our Friend, which has some famous Soviet songs like the World War II song Holy War; a short YouTube video from the Communist Party of Great Britain Marxist-Leninist, which I won't describe because it is going to surprise many people, though many communists will already know this song; and two music videos by the Pakistani group Laal. There were a lot of problems getting the Laal videos off of Youtube. Inqalab [Revolution] is dedicated to the millions of bonded laborers in South Asia. There might be some problems with the video, but it can be viewed, with English subtitles, at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtrV6o2fCpI&feature=relmfu . The episode ends on Jaago [Awaken], a Pakistani version of the famous leftist song The Internationale. It can be found in a few places on YouTube, but this video comes from www.youtube.com/watch?v=v07kRN1VnlA&feature=related . Because of technical problems, the video and audio were added separately, and something might have happened with the audio, since it should have vocals. I would have liked to include Utho Meri Duniya ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=owHGL8ZG0WI&feature=relmfu ), but there were technical problems and lack of time in this episode.

Some political notes

It could be said that Alliance Marxist-Leninist was disbanded at the beginning of the year. The archives are still online at http://ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html , and I still generally agree with its positions, but I was left without an affiliation. I am currently distributing the US Marxist-Leninist Organization's Voice of Revolution, so look out for it at libraries, bookstores, etc., for now in Durham and Orange counties, but maybe later in Wake.

The election is of course Tuesday. I will probably be following the Durham People's Alliance voter guide on most of the races. The presidential vote is complicated to decide, because I don't want Romney to win (but it probably wouldn't be the end of the world if he does), I don't want to vote for Obama, and from what I've read write-in votes for a left candidate such as Jill Stein of the Green Party will not be counted

( www.ncgreenparty.org/ and the last article at www.usmlo.org/arch2012/2012-09/VR120905.htm#04 ). I still need to research the judicial candidates. Most of the other Federal and state offices are easy to decide about, and a candidate's position on the 751 South project is very important in the Board of County Commissioners election.

Celebrating the 95th anniversary of the Russian Revolution on The Peoples Channel and Durham Community Media

The September-October episode of Communist Voice has been broadcast for 8 weeks, so under TPC/DCM rules it won't be shown October 29^th, but the next episode should air November 6^th, just in time for the anniversary of the socialist stage of the Russian Revolution, November 7^th. This is the most complex episode to produce up to now, editing together videos from DVD, VHS, and YouTube. It includes a re-airing of the English language Soviet video Chronicle of October- 1917, another short Soviet video and a YouTube clip featuring songs of the October Socialist Revolution, and a few music videos from the Pakistani communist pop band Laal [Red]. Laal's channel on www.youtube.com is laalpakistan and the lead singer and guitarist is a leader of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party (Communist Workers and Peasants Party).

Friends of the Durham Library fall book sale is this weekend

The fall Friends of the Durham Library book sale is this weekend at the Main Library downtown. There are several copies of Marx's Capital and the Communist Manifesto this time, in the expanded and now more prominent philosophy section. In the special price section there is a nice $6 set containing the Chinese (English language) editions of classic Marxist-Leninist texts such as the Manifesto, Lenin's Imperialism, and Stalin's Foundations of Leninism. Someone helpfully wrote “Workers of the world unite!” on the price tag. I almost bought it myself, but I already have most or all of the books in one printing or another. They are also online and some are being reprinted by Red Star Publishers. Unfortunately there is not a separate Russian/Soviet history section this time. There is also a wide selection of books in other subjects, as well as music and videos, and even a Whitewings paper airplane kit. Books are only 50 cents for paperbacks and a dollar for hardcovers and large paperbacks. The sale is 10-4 Saturday and the bag sale ($7 for a grocery bag of books) Sunday is 2-5. The branch sales going on all year at other libraries are separate and do not include decommissioned library books and seem to sell novels mainly. The spring 2013 sale will be the weekend of April 12^th.  

Looking back at the Iraq War and forward at Syria and Iran

The February episode of Communist Voice (6pm Tuesdays on cable access in the Durham and Chapel Hill areas) is a double feature from 911TV on the brutal occupation of Iraq, comprising Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre and Poison DUst.

The first program is by Sigfrido Ranucci and Maurizio Torrealta and was shown on the Italian channel RAI November 8, 2005. It is about the US attack on Fallujah, Iraq in November 2004, especially the illegal use of white phosphorus and napalmlike weapons. The program starts with some background on the use of napalm in Vietnam, and shows footage from the bombing of Trang Bang by the Republic of Vietnam in 1972, which resulted in the famous photo of a girl, Kim Phuc, fleeing naked from the napalm. The narration says no one won the Vietnam War, but the Vietnamese liberated their country from Japanese, French, and American occupation and division. The use of napalm against civilians or military targets near civilians was apparently banned in 1980, but former Labour parliamentarian Alice Mahon forced the British military to reveal that the US military used napalmlike Mark-77 in Fallujah. According to an Army veteran interviewed, Garret Reppenhagen, there were many intentional civilian casualties. White phosphorus (WP) can be used to illuminate a battlefield, but it causes terrible burns if it touches flesh, burning that can't be stopped by just washing with water. At Fallujah, white phosphorus was used in an urban area and in March-April 2005 Field Artillery magazine said "WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired "shake and bake" munitions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."

In between the two main programs is a segment of Trophy Video, which appears to show an infrared film of an aircraft shooting at a tractor and then killing the crippled driver when he is writhing on the ground and other clips show vehicles driving in traffic in Iraq and shooting any cars behind them, yet allowing many vehicles to pass by in the other lane.

Poison DUst is about the use of thousands of tons of radioactive and possibly toxic depleted uranium weapons used against Iraq since 1991 and the alleged effects on civilians and US soldiers. These weapons have been used by the US elsewhere, such as in the former Yugoslavia and presumably in Libya. Personally I was afraid this program would contain overblown claims about radioactivity, but it is actually reasonable and convincing and includes interviews with well-known physicist Michio Kaku. .

One of the reasons given for the aggression against Iraq was the claim that it had weapons of mass destruction, but these two programs argue that the country using chemical and radioactive weapons, and using them on civilians, is the US.

How quickly Iraq has been forgotten, because now the Obama Administration and other imperialists want to start wars with Syria and Iran. As with Libya, they first claim they will not get involved, but then grab whatever UN figleaf they can get for wars to topple governments for geopolitical reasons. Our representative in the UN, Susan Rice, is disgusted by Russia and China's vetoes of the Security Council resolution against Syria, but what I find disgusting is this government's desire to start yet another war to control the Middle East, saying it is war for the sake of the Syrian people. The US is just as self-interested as the others in the Security Council and is trying to set up a friendly government in Damascus that is against Iran and Palestinian and Lebanese national liberation forces, to further isolate Iran and prepare for war. The US was late in backing demonstrators in Egypt and didn't do anything about the violence in Bahrain or Israeli violence and mistreatment of Palestinians. The situation in Syria is not the business of the US and it is in the interest of working class Americans to attack Syria. If the majority of Syrians want a more democratic government, they should overthrow Assad themselves and not ask imperialist powers to attack their country.

It also looks like Obama wants a war with Iran, when there is little evidence of the nuclear weapons program being used as justification. Meanwhile Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons and is occupying and brutalizing Arab countries and Obama's recent comments could be taken as threatening Iran with nuclear attack. Obama certainly isn't doing much to reduce international tensions and war propaganda in the media.