Monday, November 05, 2012

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 6th) 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 13th 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.

Sunday, November 04, 2012

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.