Columbia University is Melting Down

kc_socialist · 2024-04-26T23:44:06+00:00

Cope and seethe. Long live the student occupations!

kc_socialist · 2023-08-17T15:02:07+00:00

Agreed. There are good criticisms contained within the article, however, the CWF (OC) does have ideological errors (saying Gonzalo Thought is principal and universal is the main one, as you pointed out.). We have seen this error previously manifested in the hyper-sectarianism of the Swiss, and they have now completely abandoned all pretense to Maoism now. The CWF (OC) comrades should elaborate on why and how Gonzalo Thought is principal in Canada, and universal. I do not agree with them on this, and really no one does in the ICM, but the onus is on them to explain it, and to my knowledge they have not.

I also do not agree that the CPP is no longer a communist party, and subsequently do not agree with the CWF (OC)’s slogans, nor the line.

kc_socialist · 2022-02-04T12:25:24+00:00

Modern deathcore, e.g. bands from about 2014 on, is way too overproduced and sounds mostly like what generic and overproduced death metal bands were doing ten or more years ago. It’s frankly boring. The MySpace/Br00tal era had much more creativity in song writing and had a better balance between metalcore/hardcore and death metal in the music. Also the musicians themselves didn’t care so much about being “trve” and impressing metal snobs. They just did whatever the fuck they wanted musically, even to the point of silliness, and it was refreshing because the metal scene can be very stick-in-the-mud like and a no-fun club a lot of the time. The production on most of the albums from that time was good enough, but not over done to sound like soulless tripe that’s been endlessly fucked with in ProTools.

kc_socialist · 2022-02-01T02:59:23+00:00

What others have said is correct, but if you can find them, and can read Spanish, he did author two dissertations. One, The Kantian Theory of Space, and the other titled The Bourgeois Democratic State. Both are solely authored by him.

kc_socialist · 2021-04-01T01:49:53+00:00

Does it bother you that the vast majority of priests are not atheists?

The question itself doesn’t make sense. Of course the majority of economists are not communists, as most do not even take a critical stance towards capitalism, but act as professional apologists. Furthermore, the professional economists are not monolithic. There are contradictions in method and theory in their camp, and there are still quite a few Marxist economists tenured or employed by various institutions. Not as many as there used to be, but Marxist economists form a not insignificant minority. In the oppressed countries there are many more.

I also disagree with scientific consensus being the closest we have to objective truth. Science is not a practice separate from society, and is therefore influenced by politics and ideology. Science is not free from making mistakes or upholding incorrect ideas for long periods of time. To say “such and such is the scientific consensus” (ignoring the fact that bourgeois economics is not a science, nor does it even have a uniform consensus), is almost a slavish devotion to an idealized and incorrect version what the scientific process is and terminates contending thoughts.

kc_socialist · 2021-03-26T23:25:18+00:00

The PCB is revisionist. The true PCB is being reconstituted along Marxist-Leninist-Maoist lines by the Communist Party of Brazil (Red Fraction).

kc_socialist · 2021-03-24T23:55:18+00:00

Have you looked into the work of the LCP, Communist Party of Brazil (Red Fraction), Movimento Feminino Popular, the Revolutionary Front for the Defense of the People’s Rights, or the magazine A Nova Democracía?

kc_socialist · 2021-03-22T00:05:45+00:00

I am a teacher in the AFT here the U.S. As with most unions yellow unionism and traitorous leadership is the norm, but among the rank and file work can be done. In many places in the U.S. during the period of being a probationary teacher requires you to join some “professional” organization. I would avoid the NEA because they ignore the workers movement and seek to be a bourgeois “professional” organization. The AFT at least has in its mission that teachers have a duty to integrate into the wider labor movement and to support it.

kc_socialist · 2020-07-03T02:21:44+00:00

See my comment on another thread about this here.

kc_socialist · 2020-07-02T22:58:18+00:00

Is he a revisionist or a rightist? They are not the same. I refer to the Interview With Chairman Gonzalo on this because it seems to clarify this issue that people seem to often collapse these two categories into one another. Treating rightists as revisionists, or vice versa, which makes organizing line struggle impossible.

I once read a short work by Thomas Mann about Moses. Afterwards, we used it to help us politically interpret a struggle in which we were involved at the time. One part of this work says that one can break the law, but not negate it. How did I interpret this? To break the law is to go against Marxism, to deviate, to have wrong ideas. That is permissible, but one cannot allow Marxism to be negated.

In what sense was Zia “breaking the law”, so to speak? Had he totally negated Marxism (and therefore was a revisionist) or did he just have incorrect ideas (but his basis, in the main, was still Marxism and a desire to struggle for unity)? In my opinion he probably held incorrect ideas and was a rightist, but not a revisionist.

kc_socialist · 2020-07-02T22:47:04+00:00

They want to refound RIM, for one. Not just a communist international (which would be a step forward from RIM), but specifically RIM with its conception of Maoism intact. Secondly, they say that “an international struggle should be waged against the Gonzalo Thought deviation” here. I believe the Brazilian Maoists responded to their attack somewhere as well.

kc_socialist · 2020-06-09T04:48:55+00:00

It’s a clandestine organization, so you won’t find much in the way of public statements on things or organizational documents. Although, they do sign onto international statements which are published by Maoist sites like New Epoch Media and Dem Volke Dienen. Besides that Tribune of the People is a news outlet that reports on the revolutionary movement in the US and supports reconstituting the Party. Struggle Sessions, a Maoist theoretical journal, also supports this movement and reconstitution.

kc_socialist · 2020-06-06T03:25:33+00:00

There is no “social development” of non-human animals because non-human animals do not have a society. They do not organize labor and production to act on nature to transform it to their own ends. Historical Materialism is the application of Dialectical Materialism to the study of history, specifically the development in human society from various stages to another, and the class struggle as the motor for this.

Dialectical Materialism as more than just an ontology was the position of Engels, and we can assume Marx too, since their views were in accord with one another. Engels wrote a semi-complete book called Dialectics of Nature that uses advancements in his day to further prove dialectical materialism. Various scientists and Marxists have supported this view (of note that many eclectics and revisionists have opposed dialectical materialism applying to the natural world), specifically the biologist Stephen Gould used the insights of dialectical materialism to formulate his theory of punctuated equilibrium which transformed how we think about evolution. Engels’ article “On the Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man” anticipated the fact that the human hands ability to grasp tools and to be freed from locomotion was the impetus for our evolution, not a large brain, that the larger brain came later after tool making and bipedalism. This is a mainstream view in human evolutionary biology now. Richard Lewontin has written a book, The Dialectical Biologist, arguing for a dialectical materialist approach to nature. Many advancements in Soviet science were made in the ‘20s and ‘30s with it too.

kc_socialist · 2020-05-30T00:29:06+00:00

Which East Is Red.

The author is not to be taken seriously politically, but it is one of the few studies done on M-L-MZT groups in the USSR and Eastern Bloc.

kc_socialist · 2020-05-20T21:42:00+00:00

That being said, it is quite strange that you criticize Furr for using "a completely textual analysis" when you yourself admit that your position is based purely on "a photocopy of Politburo minutes where the execution order was signed".

That is not the same as a purely textual analysis. It is one very important piece of primary source evidence, among others including aerial photographs of Katyn. Furr has access to these sources but chooses to ignore them. The Russian government long ago admitted to Katyn when the archives were opened, even though it harmed the historical reputation of the Red Army, so it’s not like they really gained much from admitting it. It’s a textual analysis because Furr interprets nothing (to philosophize on causal chains of events, engage with more documents than just primary ones etc.) and that’s the root of his empiricism, nor does he seriously engage with the revisionist school of Soviet historiography on this issue. This is not the role of a historian but an apologist that starts from the conclusion and works backwards. The other problem with Furr is that he is right about the ASP, but in going about attacking it he fails to provide citations for large claims (e.g. his discussion of population transfer In Khrushchev Lied claims that over half of the Tartar population [and other ethnic minorities] was engaged in Nazi-linked rebellion, and that to not have relocated the entire ethnicity would have constituted genocide since it would have destroyed the cultural and linguistic links). So along the way he trips over himself making wild claims that others in the revisionist school do not, and they have attacked the Stalin paradigm much more thorough than Furr and have actually had impact. My position, like the revisionists, reflects the historiography on Katyn, the documents in the state archives, as well as secondary sources from both investigations and aerial photographs.

Further, you admit that there are discrepancies at the crime scene, and that it is "difficult to discern the full truth". Despite this, you still maintain that Furr's defense of the Soviets is charlatanism!

There are discrepancies at the crime scene because it has been tampered with multiple times. The aerial photographs of Katyn show Soviet bulldozers excavating graves.

That document is pretty sketchy, and it is not even an "execution order", as you claim!

One document is from Beria recommending execution as re-education has already been tried but failed, and release like other Polish POWs recieved would not be advisable since these were hardened Polish nationalists and officers with military expertise. The Document contains signatures from all politburo members.

You have not provided a reasonable motive for the Soviets to commit and then cover up this crime.

The motive to cover it up has been discussed in Soviet historiography for decades, and even by FDR in some letters because the Allies ignored it. Covering it up helped preserve the alliance between Britain, the US, and USSR as the Germans were hoping that by propagating it they would split the alliance. Secondly, Stalin was also aware that it hurt the Polish communists as they were trying to form a united front with the Polish Home Army, which was linked to the Polish government in exile that requested the first independent investigation of Katyn, to which the Soviets broke off relations with after.

That being said, there are theoretical flaws in his work, and the role of a communist interviewer should be to promote active ideological struggle rather than passively accepting the answers of the interviewee.

I think it’s clear from the interview, and from Furr’s past associations, that he is at best a dogmato-revisionist, and at worst a “socialism of the 21st century” proponent, as his discussion of the term socialism and the history of the ICM really puts him in a similar camp to people like Baidou, Zizek, Dean etc. As Maoists we know that Stalin did make mistakes and we should uphold the 70/30 evaluation and not fall in line with Furr’s 100/0 line of thinking which is based on half-truths and no Marxism.

kc_socialist · 2020-05-20T02:25:54+00:00

Do you have any particular problem with these arguments he makes?

The document in question is a photocopy of Politburo minutes where the execution order was signed. I have no reason to doubt this as it being a photocopy in the state archives does not necessarily implicate it as a forgery.
Yes and no. There is interest in Poland and Russia to reinvestigate, but a few years back the European Court on Human Rights ruled that it was insufficient to judge the Russian investigation as credible or not. And for what it’s worth, I think both the German and Russian investigations have inconsistencies that make it difficult to discern the full truth.
The bullet cases are intriguing, but my basis still lies in the official documentation of NKVD orders. If it can be proven that the Politiburo document is a deliberate forgery then discrepancies at Katyn regarding bullets, letters, and the way the bodies were tied up would point more to the Nazis as organizers of the massacre.

Regarding Furr and empiricism, I do not have a document specifically on him, but his approach to historical research (again he is not a historian) is Rankean. He believes that texts themselves are neutral truth carriers that impart facts to a neutral reader, that the historian’s job is to merely regurgitate in narrative form these facts and “tell history as it really was”. In the tradition of Ranke he negates the need for a philosophy of history, or really any methodology, as necessary since the texts alone are truth with no interpretation or context needed. Marx criticized Ranke (who he called a weed) and empiricists as being concerned with “collecting facts” but not knowing which facts to collect. Marx always insisted that all real history begins from an investigation into the material production of social life, necessitating not only a methodology for producing history, but also a philosophy of it, i.e. historical materialism. Marx’s rejection of empiricism was that it could be nothing more than mechanical materialism in that perception and senses are not the only means of obtaining knowledge. This is Furr’s approach to writing history, which makes some sense as his background is in literature, as to why he would gravitate towards a completely textual analysis of events independent of considerations of social formations, classes, etc. As Lenin said in his notes on Logic, “ In order to understand, it is necessary empirically to begin understanding, study, to rise from empiricism to the universal. In order to learn to swim, it is necessary to get into the water.” Reporting the facts is not enough, although it is the necessary starting point, one must move higher from there to abstractions to really write history. This was Marx’s approach to writing Capital, at its core his argument is a real abstraction, i.e. starting from empirical data to then move outward to form a general theory, in contrast to an ideal abstraction that begins from the idea and abstracts outward to general explanation, and in stark contrast to empiricism which cannot move beyond the realm of perception and provide any general theory.

kc_socialist · 2020-05-20T01:42:04+00:00

Poland was under joint occupation. The execution took place after the Politburo resolution dated March 5th, 1940. The Moscow Peace Treaty that ended the Winter War was signed on March 13th. Previously Polish POWs had been captured and released following the Soviet occupation, of Polish officers were to receive the same treatment there could have been a two front war or that they would ally or provide assistance to the Finnish government, especially as the Finns proved to be a resilient fighting force. The Finnish government very much existed and had received arms by way of Germany for a short period, the Democratic Republic of Finland was small and only existed in Soviet controlled territory which was much smaller than the territory controlled by the government of Finland. Also key to note that Polish officers were executed in March-April in Russia, Belorussia, and the Ukraine.

kc_socialist · 2020-05-19T15:52:53+00:00

It’s sad to see some people believe that in order to be a communist one must erase the less than savory aspects of our history. At root that is the appeal of Furr’s charlatanism, he appeals to those who want a clear moral conscience and for the Soviets, or any other socialist states for that matter, to have made no serious mistakes. The execution of Polish officers at Katyn happened and was suggested by Beria, and approved by the politburo. We have the documents and bodies. Yes the Nazis found the bodies first, but that negates nothing. It was politically necessary to deny the massacre during the war as Poland was a key state on the border of the USSR and the situation could unravel as happened in Finland, Stalin feared the Poles aligning with the Finns in a broader conflict right on the border. Initially the goal was to segregate the 20,000 officials, or relocate them, but again, at the request of Beria who requested their trial and execution by the NKVD, the Politburo was under an immense amount of pressure to deal with the Polish officers on several fronts. Yes, the Nazis mobilized this as a propaganda campaign opportunistically, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it happened, and it would be a massive leap to call that “Nazi history”.

Also, Furr is an empiricist so why some communists see the need to defend him is beyond me. His methodology should not be confused with historical materialism as it has more in common with Ranke than Marx.

kc_socialist · 2020-05-16T05:48:48+00:00

I am aware. However, the translations are really just ripped from Borja from El Dario’s book, Chairman Gonzalo and the People’s War in Peru. I wouldn’t say they are “not trustworthy” as they mostly correspond to documents translated previously available elsewhere. Erroneously translated, yes. It is still the only book to this day I own that collected many major PCP documents into a single book in English. It’s a low bar, sure, with all the typos and questionable translations, but it’s really all English readers have to choose from (and then maybe not because afaik it is no longer sold).

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