Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Speaking of the disaffected...
In a message dated 3/1/2010 8:20:44 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, cb31...@gmail.com writes: CB: This doesn't seem to me to be "hating" on the CP. You are just saying some that is a fact. 1949-1955 is a period of most intense McCarthyism and criminalization of the CP Reply CB I try not to be a hater. There is another aspect of the CPUSA equation which I have spoken about in the past. That is the location of their cadre in heavy industry and the inability of any group to shift their forces to a new front of struggle. Let me be clear. When the Negro peoples movement of that period broke out, the bulk of the militants were located in heavy industry and specifically the trade union movement. This is no crime. No organization could demand its members quite their jobs and go to the new front of social struggle. Especially, when the members were under attack by the government. Today is different. There is a core of retired workers who can shift to any front of struggle because they are not tied to an employer. You are perhaps the youngest amongst us and you are not young. :-) WL. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Speaking of the disaffected...
In a message dated 2/28/2010 2:36:15 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, _farmela...@juno.com_ (mailto:farmela...@juno.com) writes: He wasn't really even a little capitalist, he was a wananbe at most. In reality, he was just another contract programmer, and as such, lacked the security and benefits that unionized blue collar workers used to enjoy. I agree that it is fucked up to see exploited workers cling so relentlessly to a petit bourgeois consciousness. Reply Perhaps, I was to harsh on this fellow. I did read his letter of protest and it was fairly obvious be was being crushed by big capital. Before returning to Detroit I did live in Texas for a while between Austin and Houston. It was Austin this fellow relocated to discover rates for his business 1/3 of that in California. It is true that for all of my life - up until now, I have had security and benefits of the better paid union workers. My fear is that the Marxist of our generation - no matter what our differences in perspective and ideology, will miss this juncture of history as the CPUSA missed the period of roughly 1949 - 1955 and leadership of the impending social activism will pass into the anti-communist so-called left. Here, I do not speak as a knee jerk hater of the CPUSA. I am not. If there are say 10,000 Marxist in America and we commit to wining over and teaching on a regular basis just 10 people for this year's goal that is 100,000 people who can make an impact. My personal goal is 36 or three a month. At this point it matters little what organization people are involved with. If we get two people who get two more people and open our homes to many of the youth, we win. All of us were won over to the idea of fighting injustice and then Marxism by someone else who spoke up. Yes? WL. WL. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Speaking of the disaffected...
On Feb 28, 2010, at 5:34 PM, Jim Farmelant wrote: > > On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:43:20 EST waistli...@aol.com writes: >> >> The real proletariat in America thinks out things very different, >> and their spontaneous drift to the right barely leads to terrorist >> acts on >> this level. Individual terrorism is by definition a "petit bourgeois" behavior. But exactly what makes anyone put this particular terrorist *on the right*? Shane Mage The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed. Joe Stack (1956-2010) ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Speaking of the disaffected...
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:43:20 EST waistli...@aol.com writes: > > > > > Comment > > I asked myself, why would a human being work a 100 hour week > voluntarily? That sort of thing is not or was not uncommon in the high tech world. > Seven days 12 hours a day is only 72 hours. Add another 28 hours > and one > has no family life and ultimately no wife or children one can > maintain a > relationship with. Here is a man that earnestly believed that > capitalism could > work for him and it did work pretty good in the post WW II period. > Things > stated going to hell a very long time ago for the proletariat > majority. New > layers of American society is being ruined. I think you will find that sort of thing to be common among high tech workers. A lot of them dream of becoming capitalists and during the '90s boom enough high tech workers did, for a while succeed, in doing just that, or at least enough did to make this seem a plausible dream. That came crashing down, starting around 2000. > > The real proletariat in America thinks out things very different, > and their > spontaneous drift to the right barely leads to terrorist acts on > this > level. Massive economic ruin does generate an initial response of > increased > family abuse, bouts of rage and individual suicide. Then depending > on the > ability of communist to impact the movement with a sense of > purpose, the > implosive subsides and becomes an outer explosion of activity. > > I feel no sympathy for this man who drives an airplane into a > building > because he is angry with the system. Did he own the plane? This > angry man > thought thinks out as a little capitalist, rather than proletarians > still > clinging to bourgeois views. He wasn't really even a little capitalist, he was a wananbe at most. In reality, he was just another contract programmer, and as such, lacked the security and benefits that unionized blue collar workers used to enjoy. I agree that it is fucked up to see exploited workers cling so relentlessly to a petit bourgeois consciousness. > > No human in their right mind, voluntarily works 100 hours a week, > unless > they earnestly believe that at "some point" they "they can make it" > and > retired in peace and wealth. This pursuit of wealth and "making it" > was once > called the American dream. Our bomber terrorist woke up to the > American > nightmare, millions having been living for a couple of decades. > > Real time America on February 19, 2010 is in a profound crisis. 150 > > million Americans feel stress over layoffs and paying their bills > on a consistent > basis. Over 60 percent of Americans now live paycheck to paycheck. > A > record 20 million Americans qualified for unemployment insurance > benefits last > year, causing 27 states to run out of funds, with seven more also > expected > to go into the red within the next few months. In total, 40 state > programs > are expected to go broke. When you factor in all these uncounted > workers -- > "involuntary part-time" and "discouraged workers" -- the > unemployment rate > rises from 9.7 percent to over 20 percent. In total, we now have > over 30 > million U.S. citizens who are unemployed or underemployed. With a > prison > population of 2.3 million people, we now have more people > incarcerated than any > other nation in the world -- the per capita statistics are 700 per > 100,000 > citizens. In comparison, China has 110 per 100,000, France has 80 > per > 100,000, Saudi Arabia has 45 per 100,000. The prison industry is > thriving and > expecting major growth over the next few years. A recent report > from the > Hartford Advocate titled "Incarceration Nation" revealed that "a > new prison > opens every week somewhere in America." > > Over five million U.S. families have already lost their homes, in > total 13 > million U.S. families are expected to lose their home by 2014, with > 25 > percent of current mortgages underwater. 1.4 million Americans > filed for > bankruptcy in 2009, a 32 percent increase from 2008. As > bankruptcies continue to > skyrocket, medical bankruptcies are responsible for over 60 percent > of > them, and over 75 percent of the medical bankruptcies filed are > from people > who have health care insurance. > > Over 50 million people who need to use food stamps to eat, and a > stunning > 50 percent of U.S. children will use food stamps to eat at some > point in > their childhoods. Approximately 20,000 people are added to this > total every > day. In 2009, one out of five U.S. households didn't have enough > money to > buy food. In households with children, this number rose to 24 > percent, as the > hunger rate among U.S. citizens has now reached an all-time high. > > The American government defines poverty for a family of four at > $32,000 a > year. 60% of the American working class m
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Speaking of the disaffected...
In a message dated 2/19/2010 1:57:51 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, rdum...@autodidactproject.org writes: While other people are just as fucked up in their own ways, white people of this type have a peculiarly apolitical view of their own victimization. They can't see their situation as anything more than an individual problem, as lone individuals being abused by the system, as individuals who can only act alone, and who are victimized by bad people running a system that is supposed to work but who have betrayed something they thought they were part of and was supposed to be functioning properly. Comment I think you hit the nail on the head with a carpenter's skill. The unionized workers, white in particular, facing impending ruin have a somewhat different instinct and orientation. These workers who I interact with are very angry and gave Obama his edge in the election. They are also universally scared of the "system" but distrustful and harbor very different illusions. They generally have not lived under generations of reactionary bourgeois democracy with its extreme police violence and in areas like the deep South have been on the non-receiving end of generations of historic fascist terror. In places where the black areas of town merge into the white proletarian neighborhoods their is a profound impulse for unity. The specific problem is that these workers have a way of thinking things out. We - meaning the generation of communists who are basically seniors, need a way to speak with these workers on the basis of how they think things out in real time as the velocity of crisis increase and as they awareness is in flux. These workers who constituted the margin of victory for Obama can swing either way in the actual social struggle. I am not seriously concerned about the so-called Tea bagger and fanatics, who are divorced from the masses of proletarians without regard to color. I am concerned about establishing a polarity that serves as a gravity well for the so-called "political middle," as it exists in flux. The crisis has kicked the economic legs from up under the political middle as this section of the working class is hurled forcefully into the lowest section of the proletariat. The fragments of the remaining left are incapable of any dialogue with the proletarian masses. We are making headway, really, but the resistance and fear is incredible. Ralph, we have arrived in the undiscovered country. Strategy and ideology of the past is useless. We need to make perhaps 10,000 new mistakes. The pace and consolidation of Fascism in America is going to depend upon our ability to really influence and win people over to thinking different. The edifice of race has been cracked forever. Even the bourgeoisie is caught flatfooted. We might get really lucky. Hopefully we will not have to experience what the former Soviet proletariat had to endure.Our analysis is that there will be no recovery only restoration of profitability on the governments dime. Things are getting interesting. WL. This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Speaking of the disaffected...
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" This guy reminds me of the Unabomber, also what it means that Americans are totally lacking in political and social consciousness. While other people are just as fucked up in their own ways, white people of this type have a peculiarly apolitical view of their own victimization. They can't see their situation as anything more than an individual problem, as lone individuals being abused by the system, as individuals who can only act alone, and who are victimized by bad people running a system that is supposed to work but who have betrayed something they thought they were part of and was supposed to be functioning properly. This kind of recklessless is also very middle class. It's what was wrong with "Thelma and Louise", which didn't have a thing to do with feminism: it was all about class, class, and nothing but class, and serves as a very bad example of the recklessness and irresponsibility that ensues when middle class people become rebellious. At 04:43 PM 2/19/2010, waistli...@aol.com wrote: >.. > > >Comment > >I asked myself, why would a human being work a 100 hour week voluntarily? >Seven days 12 hours a day is only 72 hours. Add another 28 hours and one >has no family life and ultimately no wife or children one can maintain a >relationship with. Here is a man that earnestly believed that >capitalism could >work for him and it did work pretty good in the post WW II period. Things >stated going to hell a very long time ago for the proletariat majority. New >layers of American society is being ruined. > >The real proletariat in America thinks out things very different, and their > spontaneous drift to the right barely leads to terrorist acts on this >level. Massive economic ruin does generate an initial response of increased >family abuse, bouts of rage and individual suicide. Then depending on the >ability of communist to impact the movement with a sense of purpose, the >implosive subsides and becomes an outer explosion of activity. > >I feel no sympathy for this man who drives an airplane into a building >because he is angry with the system. Did he own the plane? This angry man >thought thinks out as a little capitalist, rather than proletarians still >clinging to bourgeois views. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Speaking of the disaffected...
I read this guys suicide letter and here is what he wrote in part. >> Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn't need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to "shore up" their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement. Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I've never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages... and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn't give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies. << Comment I asked myself, why would a human being work a 100 hour week voluntarily? Seven days 12 hours a day is only 72 hours. Add another 28 hours and one has no family life and ultimately no wife or children one can maintain a relationship with. Here is a man that earnestly believed that capitalism could work for him and it did work pretty good in the post WW II period. Things stated going to hell a very long time ago for the proletariat majority. New layers of American society is being ruined. The real proletariat in America thinks out things very different, and their spontaneous drift to the right barely leads to terrorist acts on this level. Massive economic ruin does generate an initial response of increased family abuse, bouts of rage and individual suicide. Then depending on the ability of communist to impact the movement with a sense of purpose, the implosive subsides and becomes an outer explosion of activity. I feel no sympathy for this man who drives an airplane into a building because he is angry with the system. Did he own the plane? This angry man thought thinks out as a little capitalist, rather than proletarians still clinging to bourgeois views. No human in their right mind, voluntarily works 100 hours a week, unless they earnestly believe that at "some point" they "they can make it" and retired in peace and wealth. This pursuit of wealth and "making it" was once called the American dream. Our bomber terrorist woke up to the American nightmare, millions having been living for a couple of decades. Real time America on February 19, 2010 is in a profound crisis. 150 million Americans feel stress over layoffs and paying their bills on a consistent basis. Over 60 percent of Americans now live paycheck to paycheck. A record 20 million Americans qualified for unemployment insurance benefits last year, causing 27 states to run out of funds, with seven more also expected to go into the red within the next few months. In total, 40 state programs are expected to go broke. When you factor in all these uncounted workers -- "involuntary part-time" and "discouraged workers" -- the unemployment rate rises from 9.7 percent to over 20 percent. In total, we now have over 30 million U.S. citizens who are unemployed or underemployed. With a prison population of 2.3 million people, we now have more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world -- the per capita statistics are 700 per 100,000 citizens. In comparison, China has 110 per 100,000, France has 80 per 100,000, Saudi Arabia has 45 per 100,000. The prison industry is thriving and expecting major growth over the next few years. A recent report from the Hartford Advocate titled "Incarceration Nation" revealed that "a new prison opens every week somewhere in America." Over five million U.S. families have already lost their homes, in total 13 million U.S. families are expected to lose their home by 2014, with 25 percent of current mortgages underwater. 1.4 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2009, a 32 percent increase from 2008. As bankruptcies continue to skyrocket, medical bankruptcies are responsible for over 60 percent of them, and over 75 percent of the medical bankruptcies filed are from people who have health care insurance. Over 50 million people who need to use food stamps to eat, and a stunning 50 percent of
