Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity volume 2, issue 3 out, etc.

A new issue of Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity, a Journal of Discussion and Debate, came out today, though it has not yet been posted online, at:  redstarpublishers.org/TMLU.htm

 

Contents:

On the US Presidential Elections.

Elections Won’t Defeat Fascism, Only We Can

Communist (PCUSA) for Congress in Vermont!

Poem: The Carpet Weavers of Kuyan-Bulak Honor Lenin 

Natural History Museum’s Racist Statue Still Stands

Fully Reopen the Libraries, and more

Cuomo and New York State Legislature Make Ballot Access More Difficult for Third Parties

Humor and Stupidity Article

Is There a Need for a Marxist-Leninist International?

 

Artículo en español  

 

¿Hace falta la Internacional Marxista-Leninista?

 

Also, here are a few corrections to previous posts, notes on Tuesday's elections, etc.: 

 

Bush and Obama tried to overthrow the government of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, first elected when Bill Clinton was the US president, and almost succeeded in the spring of 2002. Nicolas Maduro was first elected in April 2013 and has been targeted by both Democrats and Republicans ever since.  

 

Trump almost started a disastrous war with Iran at the start of 2020, but it could also be mentioned that, if not for Russian diplomacy, Obama seemed to be about to start a direct war against Syria in 2013, and the US has been waging a proxy war against Syria.  Since I wrote that post it could be noted that while Obama and Hillary Clinton supported the 2009 coup in Honduras and successful removed president Zelaya, a year ago Trump supported the coup in Bolivia against Venezuela ally Evo Morales of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) and, though Morales is still in exile, a recent election again gave the presidency and legislative majority to MAS.   

 

Also, did NCCU's WNCU 90.7 FM censor Democracy Now! shortly after 7:30pm Monday, October 19th because Jeremy Scahill (?) was rightly condemning Obama for killing American citizens, some minors not accused of any crime, overseas, as well as condemning Trump's violence?  The broadcast was interrupted and did not continue, without explanation.

 

Supposedly China, Iran, and Cuba want Biden elected, which would be some of his best endorsements if true (yet Biden attacks Trump from the right on China and the media is media is beginning to talk about the possibility of a war with geographically huge, populous, technologically sophisticated, and nuclear-armed China in the near future, such as on the BBC yesterday).  After a prolonged period of silence, a new issue of the Revolutionary Organization Labor, USA's newsletter is calling for voting for Biden, as are some other Marxist groups (ROL supported Jill Stein of the Green Party in 2016).  That could be the correct course, but on the other hand the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (publisher of Fight Back!) supported the Obama campaign (I think beyond just voting), and then the Obama-Biden administration spied on and harassed them for anti-imperialist organizing.  Every four years the line from some is that we have to vote for some awful Democrat, because the "ultra-right," greatest mass murderers in history (whatever Noam Chomsky has been saying) Republican Party is worse, and we can vote for a better candidate in some future election that will never come (in the meantime holding the awful Democrat's 'feet to the fire,' but more effort and money is put into electing Democrats than to criticism and holding them accountable, organizing a better option, or demonstrating when they engage in "humanitarian interventionist" wars, "pivot to Asia," shield CIA torture and NSA domestic surveillance, push "free trade" agreements and austerity, engaged in mass deportations, broke up Occupy Wall Street, wouldn't consider Medicare for All or a real Green New Deal, etc. ).       

 

Before the primary election, I think the Independent Weekly said Democratic US Senate candidate Cal Cunningham had been involved in the 751 South project, which would explain why his name seemed familiar and would be a large negative mark if true.  

Revolusjon: Norwegian troops out of the Middle East!

Below is an article from the Revolusjon newspaper of the Norwegian party Communist Platform – Marxist-Leninist (KPml).  Despite Scandinavian "socialism" (capitalist economic relations with social-democratic politics), Northern European or Nordic countries like Norway still cooperate with US imperialism, belong to NATO, and carry out imperialist military adventures abroad.

 

I supported US social-democrat Bernie Sanders in the primary, but in the heady days at the beginning of the year when it looked like someone on the left of the Democratic Party could actually become the nominee and then president, I began to have doubts.  For example, Sanders has condemned Bolivarian Venezuela, and what if his populist social-democratic administration, with cover on the left, were to succeed in overthrowing President Maduro through covert operations or war, where Bush, Obama, and so far Trump have failed?  There is little doubt that Trump, Biden, and Harris stand for economic warfare and violent interference in Venezuela and other countries, for imperialist US economic and strategic interests.

 

Special forces and Norwegian bases in Jordan and Iraq are a provocation and a threat towards the peoples of the Middle East.

 

Norwegian special forces have been operating in Jordan since 2016 to provide operational support to jihadist terrorist groups, also called "rebel groups", as part of pushing for a bloody regime change in neighboring Syria. It is a public secret that Norwegian special forces have operated illegally inside Syrian territory; the false pretext being 'combatting ISIL' (but certainly not the Nusra Front).

 

This activity will now become permanent at the training and intelligence base Camp Åsgård outside the Jordanian capital Amman.

 

The purpose of this training, which partly takes place along with Jordanian forces, is "to make the Norwegian combat force more able to carry out war operations in desert landscapes", besides providing logistical support for the Norwegian military presence in Iraq. In addition, the Norwegian intelligence service will obtain a better "overview of the Middle East".

 

This escalation is an outright provocation against the Arab peoples, who do not want a "Norwegian presence" in their region at all. Norwegian special forces and intelligence activities pose a direct threat to the Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and freedom-loving peoples throughout the Levant.

 

We are witnessing unadorned Norwegian imperialism

 

What we are witnessing is unadorned Norwegian imperialism preparing to take part in new American "desert wars" and as mercenaries for future palace coups and regime changes that are contrary to international law.

 

The partnership with the oppressive Jordanian regime is due to the fact that the Kingdom has been a stable supporter of US imperialism in the Middle East for generations. It was not without reason that Egyptian President Nasser branded former Jordanian King Hussein "a lackey for the United States."

 

Norwegian base policy* is distorted into the unrecognizable. From having been a stabilizing element in the High North, Norway is allowing permanent US bases in our country. In addition, Norway establishes military bases and facilities in remote areas to guard Norwegian imperialist interests.

 

With its imperialist conduct and lackey services for the United States, Norway has already disqualified itself for a seat on the UN Security Council in the period 2021–2022.

 

Norwegian military forces out of Jordan and Iraq! Get Norwegian imperialism out of the Middle East!

 

* When entering the NATO Alliance in 1949, Norway made a reservation forbidding the presence of foreign bases on Norwegian soil, unless the country is under attack.

 

https://revolusjon.no/hjem/english/statements/2269-norwegian-troops-out-of-the-middle-east/

 

Communist Platform – Marxist-Leninist (KPml)

 

October 14th 2020.

The 75th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea

October 10th is the 75th anniversary of the 1945 founding of what is today the Workers' Party of Korea, celebrated as Party Foundation Day in DPR Korea.  The original Communist Party of Korea was clandestinely founded in Seoul in 1925, but fell apart as a national organization due to factionalism, lost the confidence of the Comintern, and was repressed by the Japanese occupiers during the 30's.  Below is an October 9th article from the official DPRK website Naenara ( www.naenara.com.kp/ , unavailable for years if not today in the ROK), available in English and several other languages.  Naenara includes information about DPRK politics, economics, history, culture, foods, the environment and natural wonders, tourist information (except for the pandemic, there are group tours through companies such as koryogroup.com/ ), photos, online books, and freely downloadable songs.  The Korean Central News Agency, founded December 5, 1946, also has articles in English:  www.kcna.kp/kcna.user.home.retrieveHomeInfoList.kcmsf   

DPRK holidays later in the year include Mother's Day (November 16th); the December 24th anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong-suk, a guerilla during the war for independence from Japan, Kim Il Sung's first wife, and Kim Jong Il's mother; and Constitution Day, marking the adoption of the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK at the 5th Supreme People's Assembly December 27, 1972, replacing the 1948 constitution (Juche replaced Marxism-Leninism in a 1992 amendment). 

Today is also the 119th anniversary of the beginning of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, part of the Xinhai or Chinese Revolution, which overthrew the last Qing emperor and established the Republic of China with Sun Yat-sen as president.  It is still the national day in Taiwan but is also important in the People's Republic of China (China's National Day marks October 1, 1949)

According to Wikipedia, October 10th is Vietnam's Capital Liberation Day and Cuba's Independence Day, commemorating the Grito de Yara at the beginning of the Ten Years' War in 1868.  It took two more wars before Spanish rule was successfully overthrown in 1898, followed by a few years of direct military occupation and decades of subservience to the USA until 1959. 

Historic Cause of Party Founding Comes True

President Kim Il Sung buckled down to founding the Party after Korea’s liberation (August 15, 1945) on the basis of organizational and ideological preparations he had made during the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.

In his speech delivered to military and political cadres of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army on August 20, Juche 34 (1945), he set forth the three-point task of founding a party, state and armed forces in the liberated homeland and set the party founding as the primary task.

In his talk to the military and political cadres and the senior officials of the Wonsan City Communist Party Organizations on September 19, he underscored the need to found the party in such a way of forming party organizations in local areas first and, on this basis, forming the central leadership organ of the party.

He dispatched the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters to different parts of the country in order to build up local party organizations.

They positively readjusted and fortified the existing Party organizations and formed new Party organizations where there had been no organization.

As a result, Party organizations at all levels were formed across the country, to say nothing of all industrial establishments.

Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung met with local communists active in different parts of Korea to explain the policy of founding a unified party and led them to the efforts to this end.

He mapped out the organizational and political lines of the party to be founded in the future and took measures for training party officials, while directing the work of anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters active in all provinces.

A preliminary meeting for founding the party was convened on October 5, in which it discussed the issue of establishing the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea as the party central leadership body.

Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung convened the Inaugural Congress of the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea in Pyongyang from October 10 to 13, Juche 34 (1945).

On October 10, the first day of the congress, the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea was formed and the founding of the Party was solemnly declared.

As a result, the historic cause of founding a Juche-type revolutionary party, which started from the formation of the Down-with-Imperialism Union, came true successfully.

World Can't Wait on the 19th anniversary of the Afghanistan War and Black Alliance for Peace on AFRICOM

Below is a statement by Debra Sweet, representing the anti-war group World Can't Wait ( worldcantwait.net ), on the Afghanistan War, launched October 7, 2001.  The second statement is from the Black Alliance Peace ( blackallianceforpeace.com) campaign against the US military's Africa Command; BAP recently organized an International Day of Action of AFRICOM, on the anniversary of AFRICOM's creation October 1, 2008.  Since then the US military has carried out cooperative operations in several African countries; carries out airstrikes in Somalia, at an increasing tempo under Trump; shattered Libya, which had been one of the most prosperous countries in Africa (Obama's 2011 Libya War was probably the biggest US attack on an African country), and there has been talk of splitting the wartorn country into 2 or 3 parts, not due to actual national differences, but instead over who will control Libya's oil; and adjacent to Africa, the US is part of the Saudi-led war against Yemen, aids Israeli aggression and colonialism, and the strategic Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia was held and depopulated by the UK for US military use, which continues today. 

The Democrats speak of 'restoring America's leadership in the world,' which sounds like a call to carry out more wars and coups. Would a Biden-Harris administration, no doubt better at governing than Trump, and better at lulling the public, intervene (again, in some cases) in Libya, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Belarus, Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Korea, on the maritime borders of China, or somewhere yet unknown, to demonstrate what happens to those who oppose US dictates?  Trump is a reactionary and speaks like a warmonger, but so far he hasn't started any new wars (though he came close with Iran in January), unlike Obama and Biden in their first term.  The US supported the 2009 coup in Honduras and the proxy war in Syria began during Obama's first term, followed by the 2014 coup in Ukraine, while under Trump there was the November 2019 coup in Bolivia.  Democratic Congressional leaders condemn Trump's foreign policy from the right, opposing attempts to improve relations with Russia and DPR Korea and they support overthrowing the government of Venezuela (in addition, media aligned with the Democratic Party undermined attempts to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan). They have long advocated moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and lavish Israel with military and civilian aid, even as it brutalizes the Palestinians and nearby countries, and undermines US foreign policy. The US planned to spend huge amounts of money on nuclear and conventional weapons under both Obama and Trump and the Obama administration wanted to “pivot to Asia” from the Middle East to oppose China. Trump and Biden both set up China as a major strategic enemy, justifying huge military spending, while other needs go unmet and austerity may be on the agenda. The “War on Terror” still isn't over after 19 years, and it isn't clear which of the two major parties will be the greater warmongering interventionist and enemy of peace over the next four years (despite the WCW and others considering Trump the greater enemy).

Also, the 25^th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation will be October 22^nd: www.october22.org/

           

WCW:  U.S. War on Afghanistan: an outrage for 19 years

19 years. The longest foreign war in the bloody history of the U.S. empire.  Afghanistan: geographically in the way of imperial conquerors for centuries, historically preyed upon by various military forces and further torn apart by the U.S. and its NATO allies in the global "war on terror."

The U.S. aggression on Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries on the globe, has to be condemned for its devilish destruction of life.  The Watson Institute at Brown University [ watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians/afghan ] says, "As of October 2019, more than 43,000 civilians are estimated to have died violent deaths as a result of the war."  But, as we know from first-hand accounts by journalists, the deaths were mostly uncounted.  It's from Afghanistan that hundreds of Muslim pilgrims and farmers were kidnapped for bounty, ending up in Guantanamo for years, many having nothing to do with al Queda or the Taliban.  Despite the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld claim that the war would be launched to save Afghan women, it remains one of the most dangerous places for a woman.  43% of people have "basic" sanitation and the maternal death rate remains high.  All sides use rape as a weapon of war.  All three U.S. administrations are responsible: Bush, Obama, Trump.

The Washington Post's Afghanistan Project revealed the sheer incompetence, brutality and lying of the U.S. occupation. "Over the course of 18 years, three administrations have deployed nearly 800,000 troops (2,400 of whom were killed), dropped 40,000 bombs, filled the skies with high tech drones to spread terror and direct air strikes, and spent at least a trillion dollars. Again and again their best political and military strategists have come up with new plans and spent years trying to implement each one." But, as the Afghanistan Project sums up, “military commanders have been unable to deliver on their promises to prevail.”  Read more in “The Afghanistan Papers”: The Lies Exposed — and the Deeper Truths That Need to Come Out [ revcom.us/a/631/afghanistan-papers-lies-exposed-and-deeper-truths-that-need-to-come-out-en.html ].

This situation continues to this day, as Pompeo negotiates with the Taliban, after getting essentially nowhere.  Then there's his boss:  “If we wanted to fight a war in Afghanistan and win it, I could win that war in a week. I just don't want to kill 10 million people” (stated by Trump in 2019).  

 

BAP:  Is AFRICOM Moving to South Carolina?

Individuals and organizations from around the world joined the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) on International Day of Action on AFRICOM [ blackallianceforpeace.com/dayofactiononafricom ], calling for the U.S. government to shut down its African command (AFRICOM) and withdraw its bases and military personnel from Africa.

When AFRICOM was launched October 1, 2008, U.S. authorities—understanding the political ramifications—realized it would be impossible to house the command headquarters in Africa. Hence, the German city of Stuttgart was chosen as the base of operations.

The Obama administration and NATO attacked and destroyed Libya, whose leader, Muammar Gaddafi, chaired the African Union, the continent-wide structure committed to African unity and cooperation. But with Libya in disarray and no African leader to voice opposition, the U.S. Department of Defense has floated the idea of moving AFRICOM’s headquarters to Africa. Then this past week, it suggested placing it in the U.S. state of South Carolina because the Trump administration has plans to move thousands of U.S. troops out of Germany.

The arrogance involved in considering basing AFRICOM in South Carolina is exactly why an International Day of Action on AFRICOM and our ongoing campaign, U.S. Out of Africa: Shut Down AFRICOM [ blackallianceforpeace.com/usoutofafrica ], is so important. The hubris and psychopathology of white supremacy could easily lead it to make the error of attempting to bring AFRICOM to the Black-Belt South, where it would be met with ferocious opposition—all despite U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina).

BAP is clear. We are not moved by paternalistic pandering from politicians, who pretend Black lives matter in the United States while they support racist U.S. subversion, sanctions, and warmongering against Africans and other non-European peoples and nations. 

We intend to shut down AFRICOM, close all U.S. foreign military bases, and dismantle the U.S. war machine for ourselves and for the world.