Taking apart the Wall Street web to create a beautiful tapestry

I kind of like the comparison of the tapestry and the threads to our society that I read in a posting here on FaceBook but there is a lot left out.

It isn't so much that "we didn't see how the threads are connected;" most of the problem is that we didn't see that the threads now are put together to create a web rather than a tapestry.

There has been so much governmental repression against a way needed to examine what was, and is, going on in this country and around the world that people have feared articulating the problem/s. 

Marxism has been the best and most effective critic of capitalism. This is the only country in the world where socialism has been successfully "purged" from the body politic, and as a consequence there is no socialist alternative political party critiquing the consequences of first capitalism, and then state monopoly capitalism in its imperialist stage.

Following on this government repression as mass opposition is arising to Obama's Wall Street policies and agenda resulting in the emergence of a left that has being resuscitated because of the vicious attack on the standard of living of the working class required to pay for imperialist wars; now, again, the FBI, the New York Times, the New Republic along with all the MainStreamMedia and Public Radio and Television is once again on the attack against "the left."

The attack on the left was first initiated by Obama, his campaign staff and his Administration, then picked up by the Tea Baggers and now we get this massive effort under the guise of "what the left doesn't understand about Obama." Like in the late 1930's, into the 1940's and then throughout the 1950's, this attack is broad and sweeping in scope branding everyone including liberals and progressives together with the Marxists as "leftists."

It was interesting to see how Naomi Klein's "soft" socialist analysis was welcomed enthusiastically in Canada and all over the world but here in the United States her "soft" socialist critique of capitalism was downplayed with most liberals, progressives and the left refusing to use the opening she created to open up a full-scale attack on capitalism.

We saw how the phony liberals, progressives and the left who used their "credibility" to create and provide Obama a false image of being something he was not--- liberal, progressive and left--- latched on to Naomi Klein in order to marginalize her in this country within a small circle rather than use her popularity to bring socialist ideas out into the public square.

Marxism not only provides the "magnifying glass" to closely examine the tiny threads of the tapestry or what holds the system together and how it works; but it enables people to articulate alternatives to the reactionary Wall Street agenda--- which has created not so much a beautiful rug, but a strong web trapping us all--- to free ourselves from this trap.

The "new" attack on "the left" (liberals, progressives and the left) is taking on the creation of this straw-man of what the left is and what the left believes in order to knock down this straw-man without having to debate--- or acknowledge--- the real left.

It goes like this: The left doesn't understand Obama. The left says Obama should have focused on the economy and instead he focused on solving the health care problems and then the left tries to toss these wars into the mix even though the wars have nothing to do with health care or the economy--- this left just has a moral objection to wars and tries to work the wars into everything else. This attack then goes on to say, "Yes, alright; the left has a point that Obama should have been more vigorous in pushing more taxes on the wealthy but the left doesn't understand that the presidency is just one branch of government and Obama has all these Republicans he has to work with because, after all, the Republicans represent an important segment of society, too."

What is ignored in this straw-man argument now making its rounds through the MainStreamMedia is that the real left said what we needed to do is create a National Public Health Care Program which would have create over ten-million new jobs providing the American people with free primary health care through a vast network of over 30,000 neighborhood health care centers--- in other words, health care would be publicly funded, publicly administered and publicly delivered just like public education or the United States Postal Service--- which, perhaps not coincidentally, has over 30,000 local post offices across the country now under attack by the very forces that refused to use the creation of a public health care system to create jobs and solve the problems of unemployment all at the same time; all financed by ending these dirty imperialist wars and taxing the rich... the only thing we need is our own socialist working class people's party made up of those of us under attack--- liberals, progressives and the left--- to explain all of this to the American people and advocate such a progressive alternative agenda to Obama's reactionary Wall Street's agenda of wars paid through austerity measures intended to decimate the standard of living of the U.S. working class.

In the past liberals, progressives and the left retreated when under attack--- this time we need to mount an attack of our own.

Together, we can take the fine threads that have been spun to create this "web" that now serves as a trap for the parasitical Wall Street coupon clippers to suck the life-blood from the working class, and turn these fine threads into a beautiful tapestry.

Some people object to my using Marxist terms like "imperialism" to describe these dirty wars. But, Mark Twain who was well on his way to developing a Marxist analysis declared--- "Before the Spanish American War I was not an anti-imperialist but after seeing what we have done to the Philippines and Puerto Rico after the war I am now an anti-imperialist." (the quote is not exact but it conveys accurately what Mark Twain thought and said)

Well, before the Spanish American War the United States was not a full-fledged imperialist Nation even though the campaign of genocide in the way the land and wealth of this country was stolen from Native Americans and how slavery was imposed reflected the embryonic stage of imperialism--- the highest and most barbaric and cannibalistic stage of capitalism.

Today Mark Twain is on a new "Forever Stamp;" the government would like Twain to be remembered as a teller of tales not a person of great political and economic understanding and vision.

Just like these same people would like us to remember Albert Einstein for his work with the atom and not his involvement in the struggles against racism and war and his socialist politics and vision.

Just like the people in power would like us to remember Abe Lincoln as the president who saved the union and not as the liberal who was strongly influenced by Marxist thought when it comes to the struggle between labor and capital.

It sounds to me like there are a lot of people who are really fed up; this might be a good time for people to read a little essay by Albert Einstein, "Why Socialism?," in which Einstein explained why he was a socialist:

http://socialismtheoryandpractice.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-socialism.html 

Another good read is a new book by socialist Howard Pawley who had been the Premier of Manitoba, Canada--- elected on the socialist New Democratic Party ticket. His book is, "Keep True, A Life In Politics."

Here is an interesting recent interview of Pawley:

http://www.channels.com/episodes/show/14571014/Howard-Pawley-Pawley-on-Politics?page=38

Pawley and his NDP government started to tear apart the "web" using the threads to begin weaving together a beautiful tapestry for the people of Manitoba.

Of course, the history books have totally eliminated any mention of the socialist governments here in Minnesota led by Floyd Olson--- if you want to learn about Floyd Olson and the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party you have to go dig through the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society:

Many activists are coming to resent attacks on them by the "leadership" of the CPUSA; this is my response to concerns on FaceBook

We are trying to correct the problems in the CPUSA. It isn't doing any good to toss around some of these unfounded accusations. Gus Hall wrote plenty and what he wrote can stand on its own. His last book was "Working Class USA; the power and the movement." How about a few quotes to "prove" where he was wrong?

In fact, the FBI began the COINTELPRO program with the explicit intent to destroy the CPUSA. Then there is the joint FBI-CIA report, "Family Jewels" which tells how this government went after members of the CPUSA.

I think the entire movement in this country needs to know where Sam Webb got over one-million dollars to remodel his office but can't come up with one penny to print leaflets to distribute at plant gates advocating solutions to the problems confronting working people.

There is no doubt in my mind that Sam Webb is on the payroll of the FBI since the United States Department of Justice answers all of my repeated Freedom of Information Act requests for "all files and records relating to Alan Maki and Sam Webb" with denials based on "investigation in progress."

This would not be the first time the FBI infiltrated the CPUSA--- there was the traitor Jay Lovestone and even the Editor of the Daily Worker, Louis Budenz; then there was the liar Maurice Childs who continued his dirty work for over 30 years.

The FBI was forced to turn over some its own files on me as a result of two court rulings--- over 10,000 pages. Multiply that by tens of thousands of labor, civil rights, peace and environmental activists who found a home in the CPUSA and you begin to get the scope of what this government has done to try to destroy the CPUSA. What is amazing that we still exist at all.

It is the likes of Sam Webb and Jarvis Tyner and their little handful of wreckers who need to be called on to explain their positions of support for an imperialist warmonger like Barack Obama who need to be held accountable for what they write that has been used to create a false image of Barack Obama.

One has to wonder how a member of this "grouping," Gerald Horne knew that the "Frank" in Barack Obama's autobiography was Frank Marshall Davis. This all happened at the very time that the CPUSA was given three-million dollars, one-million of which was used by Sam Webb to remodel his office and the rest used to pay a full-time staff turning out lies after lies trying to create an image of Barack Obama as a "progressive." Webb went so far as to call Barack Obama the "leader of the democratic people's front."

People have a right to be angry that the CPUSA did not use its resources to expose Obama as the Wall Street imperialist war-monger that he is--- but, to use our problems in order to hinder us in trying to solve our problems is not right, or correct, either.

As someone who ran for public office for Congress on the CPUSA ticket against Gerald Ford in 1972, I can assure everyone that the CPUSA did not have problems as far as being shills for the Democratic Party until the CPUSA endorsed Bill Clinton. And I think that it is important for everyone to know that this was by no means a unanimous decision and Gus Hall took the position that the CPUSA should run a Communist ticket but he was outvoted by the grouping led by none other than Sam Webb.

Over the years, many of the great activists worked as members of, and alongside and with, the CPUSA.

Great trade unionists like Phil Raymond, Nadia Barkan, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, James Ford, William Z. Foster, Wyndham Mortimer and the list goes on--- we all know about the racist bill-boards that once dotted the highways of this country with Martin Luther King, Jr. seated next to Communists at a school training civil rights activists and then there are people like W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson--- what was their "crimes?" "Friends" of the Party like Smedley Butler often spoke side-by-side with Earl Browder and the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party's two socialist governors, Floyd Olson and Elmer Benson were very vocal in claiming Communists as their friends while Communist John Bernard of Minnesota's Iron Range was elected to the United States Congress on the Farmer-Labor ticket with his voice being the one, lone, courageous voice to stand up in opposition to FDR's embargo of arms needed by those fighting fascism in Spain.

If people want to deal with specifics, here are two recent articles from the on-line People's World that should be ripped apart by peace and social justice activists:

http://peoplesworld.org/the-republicans-must-be-defeated/

http://peoplesworld.org/it-s-complicated-president-obama-and-mass-movement-building/

And then there is this hypocritical article by Webb trying to conceal his dirty work:

http://peoplesworld.org/millions-make-change/

The CPUSA has over 8 decades of proud contributions and service to the working class and other people's movements that no one can deny.

Now the complaints against what a small group which has hi-jacked the organization are very legitimate--- but, is it the intent of those criticizing to help the FBI bury the CPUSA or rebuild it into the fighting working class organization for which it is so well know?

I realize there are those who have had major disagreements with the CPUSA over the years; but, if the intent is to gloat over the problems then state that as the intent not try to hide behind this crap of Webb and his little entourage supporting Obama.

I am in contact with dozens of CPUSA members around the country; none support Obama--- all see Obama as a Wall Street warmonger. Many of these members have been arbitrarily "purged" by Webb and have had their memberships "revoked." Thousands of members have quit in disgust not understanding that part of the class struggle is struggling to defend their Party when things aren't going well.

Many working people have joined our new clubs not recognized by the national and district "leaderships."

The CPUSA was in similar straits back around 1930 when the traitor Jay Lovestone who went on to work as the CIA's man in the AFL-CIO took control of the organization. But, farsighted, left wing, working people saw the need to join to help correct the problems and today we invite all of you to help us solve our problems. Those who want to gloat over our problems we have confronted this situation in the past, too.

Alan L. Maki
Elected, Secretary-Treasurer
Minnesota-Dakotas-Wisconsin District, CPUSA




I should have stated that I welcome all comments, discussion and dialog; including from Sam Webb.

Obama supporting liberal/progressive/left hypocrites

Obama, when running for election, insinuated he had a Main Street agenda; but, conveniently, neither he--- nor any of his liberal/progressive/left supporters--- ever articulated any specifics.

Obviously Obama did have a very specific and well thought out Wall Street agenda.

Now these same Obama sock-puppets come along saying, "We didn't build the movement to make Obama do what we want him to do."

What hypocrites; they are the ones who told us, "Don't get specific because you are going to harm his chance to be elected."

How do you build any kind of movements without specifics?

Anyone want to come along for a walk?

I'm thinking of trying to organize a "walk for peace, social and economic justice" across the Midwest starting on May Day until Election Day. Anyone want to join me?


I'm thinking of a route from northern Minnesota through Wisconsin and down through Michigan--- ending up in Chicago. Blogging as I go and asking people in YouTube videos: How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you--- with lots of meetings around kitchen tables along the way leaving behind small grassroots organizations. So, it is not only walkers who would be needed.


I kind of look at it like we are each like one little snowflake--- alone we don't amount to much. It's time for the politicians to experience a northern Minnesota blizzard.


Let's get the snowballs rolling downhill like on a warm spring day--- gathering speed and weight as they go.


Let me know if you want to help out in some way: 


Phone: 218-386-2432


E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net


Here are the kind of ideas I would be getting out... kind of like a "Johnny Appleseed" for change---


From the Minneapolis Star Tribune---



The nation's wars are a heavy burden on the state


Article by: JACK NELSON-PALLMEYER and BILL HILTY

July 25, 2011 - 7:02 PM

Link: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/126142923.html

Budget gap could have been easily closed with the money we send away.


Citizens in Minnesota are being encouraged to see scarcity as the new normal. If you are an elected official at any level of government, your job has been reduced to managing austerity.

It doesn't have to be this way -- if we address the elephant lurking in the budget deficit hall. That would be the high costs of militarization and war.

Technically, the military budget is a federal issue, distinct from state, county and city budgets. However, we can no longer maintain the fiction that distorted federal spending that prioritizes war and militarism is disconnected from state and local budget crises and is eroding living standards.

According to the nonpartisan National Priorities Project, Congress devotes 58 cents of every dollar of federal discretionary spending to war-related purposes. To better understand the impact on Minnesota of privileging military spending priorities, consider this: We have just experienced a painful government shutdown over how to deal with a two-year $5 billion shortfall. Yet Minnesota taxpayers over the same two-year period will spend $8.4 billion just for our share of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

This will bring Minnesotans' total contribution to those wars to about $36 billion. Additionally over the next two years, Minnesotans will pay $26 billion for our share of the nation's base military budget, a budget that has doubled since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Every Minnesota citizen and every layer of government is impacted negatively by current war-related priorities. Faced with pressing local needs, taxpayers in Fergus Falls will pay $17 million for their share of counterproductive Iraq/Afghan wars over the next two years; Minneapolis taxpayers will contribute $255 million.

We believe it is time for Minnesotans to communicate clearly to our members of Congress and to President Obama that federal funding priorities must shift from unnecessary wars to meeting essential needs. A new citizen-driven effort, the Minnesota Arms Spending Alternatives Project (MNasap), is a vehicle for doing so.

We have crafted a simple resolution that can be adapted and enacted by individuals, community groups, library boards, city councils and other elected bodies throughout the state. It reads in part: "Whereas our nation desperately needs to better balance its approach to security to go beyond military defense and include the economic, social, and environmental needs of our communities, state, and nation ... Therefore [we] call on Senators Klobuchar and Franken, and Representatives Walz, Kline, Paulsen, McCollum, Ellison, Bachmann, Peterson and Cravaack as well as President Barack Obama, to shift federal funding priorities from war and the interests of the few, to meeting the essential needs of us all."

The state government shutdown has ended, but the pain will be ongoing for many Minnesotans. As a recent Star Tribune editorial ("New budget rests on shaky structure," July 20) states, borrowing against future state revenues and delaying school payments will have serious consequences, and the budget "inflicts too much pain. The hurt will be felt most keenly on college campuses and among those who serve low-income disabled and elderly people."

Imagine what we can accomplish if we stop squandering wealth and talents on militarization and counterproductive wars. Schools could reduce class sizes and have adequate supplies. Bridges could be repaired. Food shelves could be adequately stocked but rarely needed. We could take steps to make homelessness rare and temporary. Cities and states could adequately provide essential services, including meeting their authentic security needs. Critical investments could be made in infrastructure and green technologies. Public libraries could expand hours and programming. Urban and national rail systems could be built. The country could address climate change and end child poverty. All Americans could have access to quality, affordable health care.

This sounds like a fantasy only because current choices keep us on the dead-end road of militarization. It is a realistic possibility once we demilitarize priorities, realistically assess security needs and refocus governing on serving the common good.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is associate professor of justice and peace studies at the University of St. Thomas. Bill Hilty, DFL-Finlayson, is a member of the Minnesota House. For information on the resolution campaign, contact MinnesotaASAP@gmail.com


Previously Pallmeyer and Hilty authored this resolution:

Resolution Calling for Re-ordering Priorities:

Whereas Minnesota is faced with a $5.028 billion budget shortfall; and,

Whereas past budget cuts have resulted in painful reductions in essential services and future cuts would further erode the quality of life for and, in fact, endanger the lives of many citizens; and,

Whereas many cities and communities in Minnesota are laying off police, firefighters, teachers and other essential employees; and,

Whereas past budgets have been balanced by cutting social services, under investment in essential infrastructure, and other measures that push the crisis onto local governments and the poor; and,

Whereas Minnesota taxpayers even during these times of economic crisis and fiscal austerity are poised to pay the equivalent of the entire state biennial budget, more than $35 billion over the next two years, for their share of the Defense Budget of the Federal government; and,

Whereas Minnesota taxpayers alone have already spent more than $27.5 billion, and will spend $8.4 billion more over the next two years for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and,

Whereas 58 cents of every dollar of federal discretionary spending is devoted to military purposes; and,

Whereas military spending priorities at the national level negatively impact budgets and quality of life at all levels of government and society; and,

Whereas our nation desperately needs to better balance its approach to security to go beyond military defense and include the economic, social, and environmental needs of our communities, state, and nation;

Therefore be it resolved that we, the Legislature of the State of Minnesota call on Senators Klobuchar and Franken, and Representatives Walz, Kline, Paulsen, McCollum, Ellison, Bachmann, Peterson and Cravaack as well as Congressional leadership and President Barack Obama, to shift federal funding priorities from war and the interests of the few, to meeting the essential needs of us all.

Approved [date]

Drafted by Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Representative Bill Hilty.


A more comprehensive alternative I put together based on talks with people across the Great Lakes Region:

A program for real change...

* Peace--- end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and shutdown the 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil.

* A National Public Health Care System - ten million new jobs.

* A National Public Child Care System - three to five million new jobs.

* Works Progress Administration - three million new jobs.

* Civilian Conservation Corps - two million new jobs.

* Tax the hell out of the rich and cut the military budget by ending the wars to pay for it all which will create full employment.

* Enforce Affirmative Action; end discrimination.

* Raise the minimum wage to a real living wage

* What tax-payers subsidize in the way of businesses, tax-payers should own and reap the profits from.

* Moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions.

* Defend democracy by defending workers' rights including the right to collective bargaining for improving the lives and livelihoods of working people.

* Roll-back and freeze the price of food, electricity, gas and heating fuels; not wages, benefits or pensions.

* Defend and expand Social Security.

* Wall Street is our enemy.

How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you? 

Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood for a real change.

Communist Party USA head fails to acknowledge that his role in creating a false image of Obama is part of the problem

What Sam Webb fails to note is that he was a leading part of the efforts paid for by Wall Street and orchestrated by Madison Avenue using Hollywood to create the image that Barack Obama was "the leader of the democratic people's movement" and a voice for peace, social and economic justice when Webb knew, as did his "partners" in the Progressives for Obama and the Campaign for America's Future and the mis-leaders of the AFL-CIO, that in fact Obama was--- and is--- nothing but an enabler for Wall Street's reactionary agenda of wars abroad paid for with austerity measures forced on the working class.

Webb claims in his typical manner of creating and setting up strawmen to knock down: "A few on the left say that the absence of a mass movement on the scale of the 1930s and 1960s stems from the fact that millions of Americans still believe the president is an agent of progressive change."

Who is saying this? As usual, Webb doesn't tell us. And he can't, because this isn't true.

What is true is that Sam Webb has helped create an image for Obama that doesn't fit with the reality of who, and what, Obama really is: A Wall Street flim-flam man and con-artist who intentionally set out to deceive and hoodwink people into voting for him.

Here, in what Webb is trying to pass off as "analysis," we have him still supporting the imperialist warmonger Obama:

"We have to appreciate that the president operates in a complex of competing class and social forces, some of which (namely the extreme right) are determined to sabotage his presidency."


Obama has done in his own presidency; Webb joins with the Democrats in continuing to push Obama on the working class even though Obama--- because of his own lies and deceit to get elected and then his anti-people, anti-working class Wall Street agenda--- now can't get re-elected, and here we have Webb trying to pin the blame for Obama's re-election woes on those of us working to Primary Obama and trying create a third party alternative to Wall Street's "two-party trap" set for the working class.  


What is there from the Obama presidency that working people and the working class should "appreciate?" 


Wars? 


Rising food, gas and home heating fuel prices? 


Massive unemployment?


Continuing home foreclosures and evictions?


Rising tuitions at colleges and universities?


Working people being forced to pay, through government dictate,  exorbitant prices that further enrich the health insurance industry?


We are supposed to "appreciate" the shafting Obama and the Democrats are giving working people which has created what Webb would like us to believe to be this great big "complex" problem that is of the making by Republicans and the ultra-right when Obama is part of the ultra right--- a fact Webb refuses to acknowledge. 


Webb would like us to believe that the New Deal and Civil Rights legislation were not the result of organized, unrelenting and stubborn pressure of the people--- but, rather, some quirks that happened quite by chance when the fact of the matter is the leaders of these movements knew exactly what they were after and organized for the victories resulting. Of course, if Webb acknowledged this, he would have to acknowledge the fact that he has steered the Communist Party out of mass struggles and into the hands of Obama and the Democrats enabling the Wall Street coupon clippers to prey upon workers and pick our bones clean. 


Why isn't Sam Webb asking working people: 


How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you?


Webb, in his "analysis" once again engages in further complicating the issues and then turns around and says, "It's complicated."


One has to wonder what would motivate the head of any Communist Party to support a Wall Street warmonger for any office let alone the presidency of the United States as CPUSA Chair Sam Webb does.


No working class can advance with its Communist Party supporting Wall Street's imperialist agenda. And make no mistake; there is no way one can support Obama without supporting his imperialist Wall Street agenda of wars abroad and austerity measures forced on the working class to pay for these dirty wars. How can one distinguish and separate Obama from his Wall Street agenda--- the two are inseparably one connected whole.  Support and vote for Obama and what are you going to get? More wars; more misery caused by austerity measures being used to drive down the standard of living of working people. If Webb expects working people to get anything more than wars and poverty from Barack Obama let him explain what there is to be had and what--- exactly--- it is going to take to get this. 


A hallmark of Webb's analysis is the kind of vagueness inspired by George Lakoff. And, like an obedient Democrat, Webb keeps true--- offering no specifics when it comes to solutions because Webb understands that bringing forward specific solutions to the problems of working people will land him on the Dumb Donkey's shit list--- and there will be no more contributions paying for million-dollar remodeling projects where he can sit in the comfort of his easy chair "analyzing" the problems grassroots and rank-and-file activists are creating for Barack Obama--- again, Webb joins his new-found Wall Street friends in blaming the victims of Obama's policies for Obama's re-election problems.


Had Barack Obama made even a very modest attempt to deliver on the agenda he deceitfully led people to believe he was for, he would have no problems at all in getting re-elected.


Because of phony leftists like Sam Webb trying to cover-up for Obama and make excuses for his Wall Street agenda--- which is a course of Obama's own choosing--- we are very likely to get saddled with a Republican President, a Republican House and a Republican Senate who will deliver the full right-wing agenda Obama seeks a second-term to force down our throats.


Against Sam Webb's "better judgement," we can opt out of this scenario by pushing to dump Obama and building a third party working class based people's party as the alternative while taking to the streets. 


Not coincidentally, Sam Webb has refused to comment on the need for mass action on the order of a General Strike--- apparently he is too busy encouraging working people to submit to employer lockouts instead of engaging in strikes and plant occupations as he has counseled for workers in the Red River Valley. There is no end to class collaboration and working class betrayal once one begins traveling down this road in supporting Wall Street's imperialist president.


Working people either engage in the class struggle or get swept under in it. 


Kind of strange that Sam Webb doesn't explain how it is he came upon a million dollars to remodel his office but can't come up with the needed funds to bring the U.S. Peace Council into action.


Alan L. Maki


C0-chair,


Lake-of-the-Woods Communist Club





http://peoplesworld.org/it-s-complicated-president-obama-and-mass-movement-building/

It’s complicated: President Obama 

and mass movement building

By Sam Webb

A few on the left say that the absence of a mass movement on the scale of the 1930s and 1960s stems from the fact that millions of Americans still believe the president is an agent of progressive change.

What follows from this theory is the role of left and progressive people is to ruthlessly unmask the politics and progressive pretentions of the president, which in turn will melt away people's illusions in him and trigger a mass upsurge throughout the country.

But is this the case?

I don't think so. And I will tell you why.

The building of a mass movement on the scale of the 1930s or 1960s is a complicated process. A wide-angle lens is needed to capture its many sides.

Before we lay responsibility for the inadequate scale of today's movement on the shoulders of the president, we have to factor in the impact of three decades of right-wing ideological onslaught.

We have to consider the structural changes in the U.S. economy that have economically devastated, socially atomized and politically weakened traditional centers of working class and people's power.

We have to take into account the unprecedented attack against African Americans and other communities of color, dating back to the election of Reagan.

We have to acknowledge the reality of a smaller labor movement, in large measure the result of economic downsizing, production relocation and a fierce right- wing anti-labor offensive.

We have to factor in the impact of the ideological intensification of racism, male supremacy, immigrant-bashing and homophobia in recent years on popular consciousness.

We have to include in our political calculus the negative effects of capitalist-structured globalization on working-class consciousness, unity and capacity.

We have to bear in mind the consequences of the militarization of our society on our society.

We have to note the capitalist class's control and domination of the means of communication and education.

We have to recognize that people in the face of crises can opt for individualist as well as collective solutions.

We have to weigh in the force of habit and inertia.

We have to appreciate that the president operates in a complex of competing class and social forces, some of which (namely the extreme right) are determined to sabotage his presidency.

And we have to bring into bold relief the fact that the left and progressive movements are still too small to exert a decisive and sustained influence on the nation's political direction. Face it. We still preach to the choir.

The multifaceted nature of the process of change is not a reason to throw up our hands in frustration or to revert to simplified explanations, in this case presidential mis-leadership, for the difficulties of building a progressive mass movement.

Indeed, I would argue that today's movement has the potential to eclipse the popular movements of 1930s and 1960s in size, social composition, political consciousness and social power.

Who thought in 1920 or in 1950 that people's movements of enormous scope and strength would spring up and proceed to realign national politics a few years later? 

But that is what happened as many foreseen and unforeseen factors came together in such a way that massive social explosions rocked the country and new chapters of progressive change entered the history books.

These movements had their own complicated factors to deal with, including the global rise of fascism in the 1930s.

Should we think that the process of progressive change and the building of a mass movement with transformative capacities would be any less complicated in our time or any less doable?

You know my answer.

Note: Sam Webb responded to me; in fact he wrote a pretty good article except he blames everyone except himself, and he is the one responsible for withholding Party funds and resources and capriciously wasting Party funds on a million-dollar plus office remodeling project instead of financing Party building tied to organizing struggles in defense of working people's rights, standard of living and for peace while his support for the Wall Street imperialist warmonger, Barack Obama, sowed confusion in the ranks of the working class and peoples' movements for peace, social and economic justice:

http://peoplesworld.org/millions-make-change/

The thing Sam Webb refuses to address is that the movements had a Communist Party providing able leadership.

For there to have been any continuation of what movement existed supporting Obama to carry through with advocating change the direction of needed change would have had to come from the CPUSA. And, by Webb's own admission he did nothing to encourage this kind of participation. In fact, by his own admission he participated in Obama's election celebrations and stood there on a street corner and cried in happiness instead of handing out leaflets about what needed to be done.

Now Webb turns around and blames the American people for not standing up for change when he knows full well the only time such change takes place is when the Communist Party leads the working class into action.

Alan L. Maki

Here is Sam Webb's response to me:

Millions make change

by: SAM WEBB

august 30 2011

tags: Obama, politics, economy, deficit, civil rights, labor, unions

The two main eras of progressive change in our country in the last century were accompanied by a broad and spirited upsurge of people. 

In the Depression years, a powerful people's movement, in the forefront of which was the working class and its organized sector (trade unions), crystallized into a mighty force for social progress. It was the backbone of a series of people's legislative victories - Social Security, unemployment insurance, welfare benefits, the right to organize into unions, etc. 

Three decades later a movement led by Martin Luther King broke the back of legal segregation and enacted civil rights laws, while at the same time inspiring a host of popular struggles that followed on its heels.

Both movements - of the 1930s and the 1960s - were diverse, mass, militant and spontaneous as well as organized. Both combined political action and mass action. And both, as mentioned, were decisive to the change process specific to their era. 

In other words, had they not been on the scene at the time, progressive change would either not have occurred or occurred in a much more limited way.

Which brings me to the present. Following the recent debt agreement between the president and the Republicans, progressive and left voices were critical of the administration. Many felt that it gave up too much and got little in return.

There is truth here, but I'm not sure if that is main lesson that should be drawn from this deal. 

For me what stands out is the inadequate mobilization of the American people in this struggle. To be sure, the seniors movement left its imprint on the process in so far as entitlement programs were not touched for the time being. But that shouldn't obscure the larger reality that too many Americans were onlookers, waiting to see what would happen behind closed doors in the nation's capital.

If this were a problem specific to only this struggle, it would be one thing, but it isn't. It dates back to the day after the election of Obama.

For whatever reasons, the level of mass activity at the national level hasn't approached that which took shape in the course of the 2008 election campaign. During the campaign mass activity was broad, grassroots, united and sustained over time. It brought millions into organized activity as well as influenced the thinking and actions of many more millions who went to the polls. 

But it didn't carry over to the post-election period. And in not doing so it reduced the progressive potential of the Obama victory since then.

Social progress without mass pressure is never easy in a capitalist system. Capitalism is structured to resist change of a progressive and radical nature. But it is especially tough going in circumstances where the right wing controls many levers of power, as it currently does.

Indeed, without a powerful people's movement mobilizing millions and advancing a program of a progressive character, the political discourse will tack to the right and legislative victories will be few and far between, as in the present situation. 

The political imperative of this moment, therefore, is clear: the quantitative and qualitative strengthening of the people's movement for progressive change.

Whether it happens depends on the human factor, that is, on what ordinary people do. Just as the initiatives and actions of the American people were an essential ingredient in the progressive-democratic thrust in the 1930s and 1960s, so too will the initiatives and actions of millions feeling the awful weight of this terrible and protracted economic crisis be essential in today's conditions. 

Seize the time!

Photo: Stand Up Chicago rally, June 14, 2011. PW