[Turkish] Trotskiy’inÖldürülmesinin 72. Yıldönümünde, Trotskiy’in torunu Esteban Volkov’la yapılangörüşme

19 Ağustos 2012 tarihinde Birleşik Krallık’ta basılan Guardian gazetesinde yayımlanmıştır. [1]

Guardian:

1929 yılında Sovyetler Birliği'nden sınır dışı edildikten sonra, Kızıl Ordu'nun kurucusu Lev Trotskiy, 1937 yılında Meksika'da sürgünde yaşamaya gitti.

Onunki çok bütünsel bir yaşamdı.

Kendisini düşüncelerine ve onları pratiğe geçirmeye adamıştı.

24 May 1940 tarihinde, Trotskiy’I öldürmeye yönelik bir suikast girişiminde bulunuldu.

Torunu Esteban Volkov oradaydı.

Esteban Volkov:

Biri bahçeden içeri girdiği zaman ben yandaki yatak odasında uyuyordum.

Kapıyı ittiler ve kapı yere sürterek bir ses çıkardı ve uyanmama neden oldu.

Bir gölge gördüm ve biri içeri girdi.

Bu kişinin ev halkından biri olabileceğini düşündüm. Bir yabancı olabileceği aklıma gelmedi.

Ardından kısa bir süre sonra ateş edilmeye başlandı.

Guardian:

Esteban Volkov Lev Trotskiy’in torunu

Esteban Volkov:

Barut kokusu vardı.

Kendimi yere attım ve köşede üzerimi bir battaniye ile örttüm.

Yatağıma da ateş ettiler; ortasına altı ya da yedi mermi sıktılar.

Neyse ki korunaklı bir yerdeydim ve sadece bir sıyrık aldım.

Üç açıdan ateş ettiler. Bahçe penceresinden, benim yatak odamdan ve çalışma odasından.

Bir Thompson makineli tüfekle.

Elbette, bunun kısa bir süre sonra yeniden olacağını biliyorduk, dedem de bunu biliyordu.

Her sabah [karısı] Natalya’ya, ‘Bize yaşamak için bir gün daha verdiler,’ diyecekti.

Sorun emperyalizme karşı mücadeledir. Bütün bu ülkelere egemen olma girişimine karşı.

Bu ülkelerin doğal kaynaklarına el koyma girişimine.

Bunu şimdi Irak’ta, dünyanın ikinci en büyük petrol üreticisi olan ülkesinde görüyoruz.

Tüm bunlar nereye doğru gidiyor?

Trotskiy bu tarihi olaylar içinde kilit bir oyuncuydu.

Deneyimlerinin tüm detaylarını kaydederek ardında muazzam bir siyasi cephanelik bıraktı.

Yaşamının 40 yılını sosyalist davaya adadı.

Önce Lenin’le devrimi hazırladı ve ardından onu gerçekleştirdi.

Devrimin sonrasında gericiliğe ve Stalin’in bürokrasisine karşı savaşım verdi ve hareketi yeniden hayata döndürdü.

İşte bu mücadeleyi verirken öldü.

Stalin imha etme ve öldürme saplantısından vazgeçmemişti.

20 Ağustos 1940 tarihinde, bir buz baltası ile saldırıya uğradığı sırada çalışma odasındaydı.

Katili, Trotskiy’in yakın çevresine sızmış olan bir Stalinist ajandı.

Trotskiy ertesi gün hastanede öldü.

Kapıdan içeri girdim ve genç koruma Harold Robbins’I gördüm.

Çok üzgündü ve tabancası elindeydi.

Eve doğru yürüdüm ve polisler tarafından tutulan ve yarasından kan akan bir adam gördüm.

O sırada bu adımı tanıyamamıştın.

Daha sonra kütüphaneye doğru yürüyünce dedemi yerde yaralı olarak yatarken gördüm.

Dedem etrafındaki sekreterlere bu sahneyi görmemem gerektiği için beni uzak tutmaları gerektiğini söyleyebildi.

Aynı zamanda korumalar kendisine saldıran adamı döverlerken onu öldürmemelerini de söyledi. Konuşması gerekiyordu.

Kendisine olan inancı öylesine etkileyiciydi ki.

Sahip olduğu özgüven bulaşıcıydı.

Marksizmin tarihsel süreçleri anlamak için en kusursuz teori olmaya devam ediyor.

Umarım daha iyi bir teori ortaya çıkar ama henüz bu olmuş değil.

Kapitalizmin tam bir felaket olduğunu görüyoruz.

Kapitalizm insanlığını sorunlarını çözme becerisine sahip değil. Tam aksine.

Her gün daha fazla kargaşa, daha fazla sefalet ortaya çıkıyor. Hayır, kapitalizm gerçekten de modası geçmiş bir sistem.

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/19/trotsky-last-day-by-grandson?intcmp=239

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Interview with Trotsky's grandson, Esteban Volkov, on the 72 Anniversary of Trotsky's Assassination

Published in the UK's Guardian newspaper. [1]



Transcript of the interview.

Guardian:

After being deported from the Soviet Union in 1929, Leon Trotsky, the founder of the Red Army, sought exile in Mexico in 1937.

His was a very complete life.

He dedicated it to his ideas and putting them into practice.

On 24 May 1940, an attempt is made to assassinate Trotsky.

His grandson Estaban Volkov was there.

Esteban Volkov:

I was sleeping in the neighbouring bedroom when someone came in from the garden.

They pushed the door and it scraped the floor and made a noise, waking me up.

I saw a silhouette and someone came in.

I thought it was someone from the house. I didn’t imagine it was a stranger.

Then shortly afterwards the shots started.

Guardian:

Estaban Volkov, Leon Trotsky’s grandson.

Esteban Volkov:

There was the smell of powder.

I threw myself to the floor and covered myself with a blanket in the corner.

They shot up my bed too, six or seven bullets in the middle of it.

Fortunately I was covered and only got a scratch.

They fired from three angles. From the garden window, my bedroom and the office.

With a Thompson machine gun.

Well we knew, grandfather knew, that it would happen again soon.

Each morning he would say to [his wife] Natalia, ‘They’ve given us one more day of life.’

The problem is the fight against imperialism. The attempt  to dominate all these countries.

To take away their natural resources.

We’re seeing that now in Iraq, the second biggest oil producer in the world.

Where’s all that going?

Trotsky was a key player in these historical events.

He documented every detail of his experience leaving an immense political arsenal.

He dedicated 40 years of his life to the cause of socialism.

He first prepared the revolution with Lenin and then he made it happen.

In the aftermath of the revolution and Stalin’s bureaucracy he fought the reaction against it and brought the movement back to life.

And it was in that struggle that he died.

Stalin hadn’t lost his obsession for annihilating and killing.

Guardian:

On 20 August 1940 Trotsky was in his study when he was attacked with an ice pick.

His assassin was a Stalinst agent who had infiltrated Trotsky’s inner circle.

Trotsky died in hospital the next day.

Esteban Volkov:

I went through the door and saw the young bodyguard Harold Robbins.

He was very upset and had his pistol in his hand.

I walked towards the house and saw a man who was bleeding, being restrained by the police.

I didn’t recognise him then.

And later when I walked into the library I saw my grandfather injured on the ground.

He managed to say to the secretaries who were around him that they should keep me far away that I shouldn’t see the scene. And he also said when the guard was beating up the man who attacked him not to kill him. That he should talk. 

The belief he had in himself was so impressive.

His confidence was contagious.

Marxism remains the most precise theory for understanding historical processes.

I hope something better comes along, but it hasn’t yet.

We’re seeing that capitalism is a complete disaster.

It is unable to solve humanity’s problems. Quite the contrary.

Every day there is more chaos, more misery. No, it’s really an obsolete system.

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/19/trotsky-last-day-by-grandson?intcmp=239

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Review: Left Forum 2012

This year’s edition of the Left Forum, the annual New York conference for the exchange of left wing ideas, achieved record attendance numbers.  Over 4,500 participants were registered for the event, far surpassing previous years.  The conference, which had its first outing in 1965, (it was then called the Socialist Scholar’s Conference), has long since outgrown its origins as a scholarly venue for radical and New Left professors to present their views.  The 2012 Left Forum, which was hosted at Pace University in New York on March 16-18, boasted more than 400 panels and several higher profile plenary sessions featuring a number of semi-celebrities on the left. Included in the lineup of stars were Cornell West, Chris Hedges, Barbara  Ehrenreich, Frances Fox Piven, Stanley Arronowitz and Rick Wolf among others.  There was also a talk by one genuine celebrity, the left-wing film maker Michael Moore, on Saturday night.  [1]

The permanent-revolution web site had initially scheduled its own panel at this year’s Left Forum to follow up the highly successful panel we hosted last year.  However, personal difficulties intervened this year and we had to limit our participation to that of attending several panels and being careful observers of the overall event.  

Although one can still find a number of “theoretical” panels among the 400 that were listed in the program guide, the bulk of the panels were oriented toward activists.  The theme this year was naturally the Occupy Wall Street movement and many of the participants were either active in OWS or were inspired by it.  This is evident in some of the panel descriptions: “Occupy Research – Research by and for the Movement” or, “Occupy Outside Metropolis: Small-Town and Rural Occupations”. There were dozens of other panels with similar titles.  In addition to the more activist-oriented panels, there were also a number of panels in which radical academics tried to engage with the Occupy movement.  One such panel had the title, “How Should Left Theory Respond to the New Movements?”.  Judging from the lineup of participants in this panel, Richard Wolin, Simon Critchley and Stephen Eric Bronner among others, this one promised to be a series of reflections on the Occupy movement from the vantage point of critical theory loosely inspired by the Frankfurt School.  (As I did not attend this panel I cannot report on its proceedings.)

In  contrast to Left Forum’s of previous years, the older generation of academics and radicals that have been a staple of the this conference were outnumbered by a new generation of young people who came to the conference looking for  ideas  to take back with them and inform their struggles. One should not conclude however that the large contingent  of college age participants were simply looking for practical tips in how to organize their individual struggles.  While the anti-intellectualism that is a common staple of radical politics in the U.S. was certainly evident in many panels and a number of contributions, there was also a healthy curiosity on the part of the newer participants who were eager to inform their practice with something more than practical suggestions. At least some of them exhibited what can only be described as a genuine hunger for theory.  And while it would be difficult to obtain a systematic theoretical outlook from anything happening at the Left Forum given its eclectic mixture of viewpoints and theorists, there is no question that the desire was there. Some of the most weighty philosophical and theoretical panels were filled to capacity with younger participants.

The more  overtly political panels were heavily weighted toward a social democratic, left reformist outlook.  This was doubtless no accident as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are the chief organizers of the Left Forum.  Which is not to say that other  points of view were absent.  Aside from the DSA, a number of other political groups participated, including the Stalinist Communist Party U.S.A., the Maoist cult known as the Revolutionary Communist Party, the International Socialist Organization, and the Green Party.

Some political groups chose not to participate officially in the conference or even have an official literature table, but set up informal tables outside the conference or gave out flyers promoting their events.  It is hard to understand why any political group on the left that was serious about winning over the new generation of young people who have been inspired by the Occupy movement would pass up the opportunity to present their views to such a large audience or even pay the modest fee to have a literature table. One of the groups that abstained from the conference was the Socialist Equality Party.  They did however manage to send two supporters one afternoon to distribute leaflets promoting a polemic written by their long-time leader, David North. The polemic is a response to the falsifications of a recent biography of Trotsky by Robert Service.  And indeed Service’s biography does contain a number of crude falsifications.   But other than this extremely modest “intervention”, the SEP was nowhere to be seen at this year’s Left Forum.[2] (Curiously enough in one panel I attended I heard the Marxist scholar Kevin Anderson make some disparaging remarks about this flyer. Anderson objected to the attack on Service and felt that any biography of Trotsky, no matter what its perspective, should be welcome because it encourages public discussion about Trotsky and his legacy.  I replied by saying that having different interpretations of Trotsky is one thing but outright falsification of his life is quite another and the latter should always be exposed.  The falsification of history, far from advancing an open dialogue, only serves to poison the atmosphere.)  

In addition to those panels officially sponsored by political groups, there were a number of non-affiliated panels exploring different political perspectives.  There were more than a few panels from an identity politics perspective: most notably radical feminism and Black Nationalism. Also present were a number of issue oriented panels championed by environmentalists, social justice activists, civil libertarians, political prisoner advocates, housing and health care advocates, union organizers, radical educators, etc.  Added to this lineup were a number of panels of an anarchist leaning, not surprising given the prominence of anarchist ideas among Occupy Wall Street activists.  Finally there were several panels from a broadly conceived Marxist tradition, a few of them quite good.  I will comment about those panels shortly.

Solidly within the left reformist perspective was one panel I attended titled  “The Left in Crisis Today”, featuring Leo Panitch, Bill Fletcher Jr. and Rick Wolff among others.  This panel tried to address the question of what the traditional “left” can say to the new generation  coming into struggle against capitalism whether it is in Tahrir Square in Egypt or Zuccotti Park in New York.  This is clearly a topic worthy of considerable discussion.  However anyone looking for answers to this question would not find it here.  Of all the speakers, Leo Panitch,  whom I would describe as a left social democrat, gave the most radical response.  He said that capitalism is the problem and the left should not be invested in looking for nostrums to patch up capitalism but instead should focus on moving beyond it to socialism.  So far so good.   However, he could not connect this thought to anything specific.  Nor did he provide an adequate historical context in explaining why the left has continuously gotten trapped in the pursuit of band aid solution over and over and lost sight of the goal of socialism. He did correctly bring out the role of Stalinism in discrediting the idea of socialism in the minds of millions.   His talk included a fully justified critique of the notion, popularized by John Holloway and now prominent among Occupy Wall Street activists, that you can change the world without taking power. [3] Panitch also insisted that if movements like Occupy are to have any lasting effect then they must congeal into a coherent political institution. But that is as far as he got. While sounding very left and even claiming to support the cause of socialist revolution, Panitch never explained exactly what kind of political structure is required to bring us from where we are now to the socialist future of mankind.  The need for a revolutionary party guided by Marxist theory never came up in his talk.  The very subject seems to be anathema at the Left Forum (with the exception of the political groups who showed up and proclaimed that they and they alone are the revolutionary party.) One would think that given the unbroken string of failures of revolution after revolution, most recently witnessed in the hijacking of the Egyptian revolution by conservative Islamist forces,  that it might be time to revisit the question posed by Lenin in his ‘What is to be Done?’  But the antipathy to the heritage of Marxism and Bolshevism continues to dominate discussion in this forum. One suspects that had Panitch raised this question - a highly unlikely prospect - it might have embarrassed some of his friends in the academic and left political circles in Canada where he is based.  

Another speaker at this panel was the Marxist economist Rick Wolff.  Professor Wolff has recently broken out of the academic scene and become something of a celebrity, launching his own nationally syndicated radio program and lecturing to the Occupy Wall Street activists in Zuccotti Park  on the topic of Marxist economics. However Wolff’s interpretation of Marxist economics seems to have more in common with John Maynard Keynes than with Karl  Marx.  [4] In his talk at the Left Forum, following on the same theme he discussed in his teach-in at Zuccotti Park in November, Wolff emphasized the need for workers “self-management” of the factories.  Now there is nothing wrong with raising the slogan of workers’ self-management of factories as part of a series of demands aimed at the social ownership of the means of production.  But Wolff specifically counterpoises the demand for worker management of factories to the demand for worker ownership.  Wolff in fact derides the idea that workers should own their factories as just another reproduction of the same capitalist social relations that we already have.  And if ownership is conceived within the framework of capitalist social relations then there is some truth to this. In that case “ownership” merely signifies that workers assume responsibility for running a capitalist enterprise and take up all the obligations involved in ensuring that it turns a profit. If the enterprise is deeply in debt to begin with - and it is only under those circumstances that we have seen the transfer of ownership of an enterprise to their workers sanctioned by the state - then all that has happened is that the workers have inherited the debts of their former bosses and will be forced to institute the same ruthless exploitation of the work force in order to pay off those debts. [5] The fact that the workers have become their own exploiters does not change the essential social relations of capitalism.  However, raising the issue of social ownership of the means of production as part of the struggle for socialism is entirely different than workers assuming ownership of a capitalist enterprise.     By failing to make this distinction Wolff’s championing of workers self-management turns out to be a chimera and leads him right back to a blind alley similar to the illusion of “workers ownership” of  capitalist enterprises that he derides. In this context workers “self-management” becomes little more than a plea for workers getting a better deal within the framework of capitalist social relations, despite his protestations that the problem is indeed the existence of capitalism. 

Of the more theoretically oriented panels that I attended, the most notable were two panels exploring Marxist economic theory, “David Harvey and Capitalist Accumulation”, which presented several critiques of the well known Marxist economist David Harvey, and “Roundtable on Andrew Kliman’s  ‘The Failure of Capitalist Production: Underlying Causes of the Great Recession’”, which focused on reactions to the important new book by Andrew Kliman.    Both the videos of the panels and the texts of the papers presented are now available. [6]  Readers can judge for themselves the intellectual seriousness of these panels.  Suffice it to say that both the critique of Harvey as well as Kliman’s book, “The Failure of Capitalist Production”, are milestones in the restoration of a genuine Marxist understanding of the crisis of capitalism,  one that has to be rescued from decades of distortions by Stalinists, underconsumptionists, and all manner of academic “creative” interpretations. 

I was impressed by Cooney’s analytical deconstruction of Harvey’s theories.  Kliman’s talk focused not so much on the details of Harvey’s analysis but on the trend in academic Marxist economic theory that Harvey represents – what he calls “That 70’s Show” -  and more importantly the conditions that gave rise to those destructive trends.  Kliman convincingly argues that if Marxism is indeed a science then the development of Marxist theory must be taken out of the halls of academia.  As long as the advancement of Marxist theory is tied to the institutions of academia, it is no longer an autonomous scientific practice in the Kuhnian sense of the term, but is prone to the distortions of careerism and self promotion.    We can certainly concur with Kliman’s indictment of academia as institutionally ill-suited for the development of Marxism as a scientific theory. What Kliman proposes as an alternative is however somewhat problematic.  He presents a plea for something akin to a “Republic of Letters” for Marxist theorists where disinterested and unbiased scholarship is encouraged and the validity of any theory must be ultimately justified by its ability to explain the phenomena.  He writes,

“Marxian scholarship needs to greatly reduce its dependence upon the resources of academia. Intellectual autonomous zones need to be created.”

It’s a sentiment with which I can sympathize.  But where are these “autonomous zones” supposed to be? In prior generations the advancement of Marxist theory was tied to the development of Marxism as a living force in the political struggles of the working class.  In those days the Marxist movement itself provided the institutional framework for the development of Marxist theory. There was a certain space created for “autonomous zones” for scholars and intellectuals within the context of a very partisan struggle. But that institutional structure disappeared decades ago, or to be more precise turned into its opposite. Far from being a laboratory for the development of Marxist  theory the parties claiming the mantle of Marxism became a source of anti-Marxism. The degeneration of those movements, whether it was the transformation of Social Democracy into a pillar of the capitalist state, or the liquidation of Bolshevism by the Stalinist bureaucracy, resulted in the destruction of any “autonomous zones” and the transformation of party intellectuals into apologists for a  reactionary bureaucracy.  In the case of Stalinism we also witnessed the physical liquidation of an entire generation of Marxist intellectuals. Furthermore, the betrayals of Social Democracy and Stalinism in the past century created a rupture between Marxism and the working class.   The isolation of the Marxist movement from political life provided the impetus for the rise of academic Marxism in the first place.  But the modern university is a bourgeois institution and, especially in the 21^st century when the demands of big business override purely “educational” concerns, it is inherently hostile to Marxism.  Yet  the overcoming of this sad legacy of academic Marxism cannot proceed in a vacuum.  Hoping for the creation of “autonomous zones” without  a firm foundation smacks of wishful thinking.   It is possible to work under adverse circumstances and individuals can still make notable contributions today - even within the groves of academia - but a generalized renewal of Marxist theory is an institutional problem.  It is not conceivable outside of a renewal of Marxism as a vital political force in the working class. 

And for all of the contributions at the Left Forum, some quite stimulating, the development of Marxism as a viable revolutionary movement is the one question that is not even raised let alone answered. 

Alex Steiner

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[1] A video of Michael Moore’s talk is available online at http://www.leftforum.org/content/michael-moore-left-forum-2012 .

[2]  For an account of the SEP’s “intervention” at the permanent-revolution panel at last year’s Left Forum see the essay, “Insults and Intimidation: An SEP ‘intervention’ at the Left Forum”, http://forum.permanent-revolution.org/2011/03/insults-and-intimidation-sep.html  

[3] John Holloway wrote an influential book a number of years ago with the very title: “Change the World Without Taking Power”.  His talk at the Left Forum is available online at http://www.leftforum.org/content/john-holloway-left-forum-closing-plenary . 

[4] A good deconstruction of what Wolff calls going “beyond capitalism” can be found here:

http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/alternatives-to-capital/wolff-on-wall-street.html#more-2050

[5]  The best known example of this phenomenon is the fábricas recuperadas movement in Argentina, where the bankrupt owners of a number of enterprises literally walked away from their property – and their debts – allowing the workers to take them over and run them as worker-owned cooperatives.  

[6] The videos and texts are available on the web site of the sponsoring organization, The Marxist Humanist Initiative, http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/economic-crisis/mhi-panels-at-left-forum-2012-on-harveys-and-kliman%E2%80%99s-books.html

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[Turkish] New York Belediye Başkanı Wall Street’i İşgal Et protestocularını zorla tahliye etti

New York Şehri Polisi dün gece Wall Street’i İşgal Et protestocularının kamp yerine baskın düzenledi ve 17 Eylül’den beri orada bulunan protestocuları zor kullanarak tahliye etti. Polis yetkilileri tarafından dikkatli bir biçimde koordine edilmiş bir saldırı olduğu kabul edilen ve Beyaz Saray’ın talimatıyla girişildiğinden kuşku duyulmaması gereken bu saldırı, Oakland’ı İşgal Et protestocularının zorla tahliye edilmelerinden bir gün sonra gerçekleştirildi. Ne var ki, protestocular yanlarında, NYPT’nin [New York Polis Teşkilatı] gece yarısı gerçekleştirdiği, dikkatle planlanmış olduğu anlaşılan baskın sırasında el koyduğu ve kasıtlı olarak tahrip ettiği çadırları ve eşyaları olmadığı halde, bugün (15 Kasım) öğleden sonra Zuccotti Parkı’na geri döndüler.



Polise bağıran bir protestocu

 Zuccotti Parkı’ndaki manzara ilk elde hem gergin hem de umut vericiydi. Protestocular kamp yerlerini kaybettikleri için demoralize olmamışlardı. Ortaya çıkan yeni koşullar altında görevlerini sürdürebilmeleri için kendi yönetim organlarını yeniden şekillendirerek, sahip oldukları yaratıcılık ve örgütlenme kapasitesini bir kez daha gösterdiler. Mutfak, bu kez Trinity Kilisesi mezarlığının önüne park etmiş olan bir kamyonun kasasında, yeniden faaliyete geçmiş durumda. Geceleri yatacak bir yere ihtiyacı olan yüzlerce insan için kalabilecekleri evler ayarlandı. Kalınacak yerlerin çoğu protestolara sempati duyan New Yorkluların protestoculara evlerini açmalarıyla sağlandı ancak diğer şehirlerde bulunan diğer kamp yerlerine gitmiş olan bazı protestocular da olabilir. Kamp yeri Zuccotti Parkı’nda ya da başka bir yerde yeniden kurulacak olsa da olmasa da, protestocular eylemlerinden vazgeçmiyorlar. Konuşmacılardan birinin yaptığı bir açıklama, protestocuların verdikleri mücadeleyi, Manhattan’ın merkezinde yer alan, sembol niteliği kazanmış bir kamp yerinin ötesine geçen bir mücadele olarak gördüklerini açıkça ortaya koyuyordu:

“Böyle bir hareket zor kullanılarak tahliye edilemez. Bazı politikacılar bizi kamusal alanlardan –kendi alanlarımızdan- fiziksel olarak çıkarabilirler ve fiziksel olarak, başarılı olabilirler. Ancak biz bir fikir savaşımı yürütüyoruz. Biz, siyasi yapılarımızın bize, halka, sadece elinde büyük servet ve güç toplamış olanlara değil, hepimize hizmet etmesi gerektiğini düşünüyoruz. Kongre, Wall Street’e göbekten bağlı olduğu için, komşularımızın evlerinden ve yüreklerinden dökülen güçlü öyküleri, yaşanan amansız ekonomik sıkıntı öykülerini göz ardı ettiği için, bu düşüncenin birçoğumuzda karşılık bulduğuna inanıyoruz. Bizim, içinde önem taşıdığımız bir demokrasi rüyamız var ve işte bu nedenle, bu kadar çok sayıda insan kendisini Wall Street’i İşgal Et ve %99 hareketiyle özdeşleştiriyor.”



Protestocular Zuccotti Parkı’ndan çıkarıldıktan sonra New York Polisiyle çatıştılar Fotoğraf: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Bu gece, Zuccotti Parkı’nda yapılan genel toplantı, son zamanlarda yapılmış olan daha önceki toplantılardan çok daha kalabalıktı. Tahminime göre katılımcı sayısı 1000 ila 3000 kişi arasında değişiyordu. Belediye Başkanı Bloomberg’in giriştiği tahliye operasyonunun ironik bir sonucu, artık çadırlar kaldırılmış olduğundan meydanda halka açık bir toplantı düzenlemek için çok geniş bir alanın açılmış olmasıydı. Genel toplantıda, 17 Kasım Perşembe günü, Wall Street’i İşgal Et’in ortaya çıkışının ikinci ayında, New York Menkul Kıymetler Borsası önünde kitlesel bir yürüyüş düzenlenmesi kararı alındı.

Bugünkü toplantı, meydan birçoğu kask takmış olan yüzlerce polis tarafından kuşatılmış olduğu halde gerçekleştirildi. Meydan aynı zamanda bariyerlerle de çevrilmişti ve böylece polis protestocuların geçmelerine izin verilen tek giriş noktasını yakından izleyebiliyordu. Onlarca polis minibüsü ve naklen yayın aracı meydanı çepeçevre sarmıştı.

Hem bugün hem de daha önceki seferlerde dikkatimi çeken tuhaf bir durum, meydanda neredeyse hiç bir sol grubun yer almıyor olmasıydı. Hiç kuşkusuz sol gruplara üye olan kimi insanlar tekil bireyler ve bazen de internet “gazetecileri” olarak orada bulunuyorlardı ama bu gruplar eylemlerde örgütlü varlıklarıyla hemen hemen hiç yer almadılar. Meydanda, Birleşik Krallık’ta müteveffa Ted Grant’in önderliğini yaptığı, eski adıyla “Militan” grubunun farklı hiziplerini temsil eden iki küçük grubun yayın stantlarını gördüm. Wall Street’i İşgal Et protestocularının saflarında kendi düşünceleriyle mücadele vermek isteyen sosyalist bir siyasi hareketin burada en azından bir yayın standı açmasını beklenirdi. Ancak SWP [Sosyalist İşçi Partisi], Spartakist ya da Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi gibi gruplar eylem alanında yoktular.

% 99 düşüncesi Amerika'nın popülist ve radikal geleneklerinden kaynaklanmaktadır. Ancak Marksist ve sosyalist bir geleneğin en azından iki kuşaktır var olmadığı ve emek hareketinin içinde bulunduğu uyuşukluk hali göz önüne alındığında, %99 düşüncesinin, muğlâk olarak formüle edilmiş bir biçimde de olsa, işçi sınıfının yerini tutan bir ilk adım olarak eklemlendiriliyor olmasının kaçınılmaz bir durum olduğu görülecektir. Bununla birlikte, toplumsal eşitsizliğe karşı oluşmuş olan yaygın duyarlılığın hareket tarafından eklemlenmiş olması, Amerika’nın siyasi yaşamında ileriye doğru atılmış önemli bir adımı temsil etmektedir. Bu, Amerika’nın bir toplum olarak Avrupa’nın daha yaşlı ülkelerinin sınıf sistemlerinden kaçınabildiği ve herhangi bir insanın çok çalışması ve gerekli enerjiyi göstermesi durumunda bir sonraki Warren Buffet olabileceği efsanesine kesin olarak bir son verildiği anlamına gelmektedir. Wall Street’i İşgal Et hareketiyle ilgili dikkat çekici husus, önderlerinin açıkça sergiledikleri tüm siyasi kafa karışıklığına rağmen, hareketin bizzat kapitalizmi siyasi söylemin gündemine yerleştirmiş olmasıdır. İdeolojik aygıtın ve devlet aygıtının bu sorunu gündem dışında tutabilmek için on yıllardır çok yoğun bir biçimde çaba gösterdiği dikkate alındığında, bunun küçük bir başarı olmadığı görülecektir. Aniden, 1960’lardan bu yana görülmeyen bir biçimde, alternatif bir ekonomik sistemin üzerinde düşünülmesine yönelik bir açıklık ortaya çıktı.

Hareket, şu anki haliyle, kökten toplumsal değişimi tetikleyebilmekten hâlâ uzaktır. Bunun olabilmesi, işçi sınıfının siyaset sahnesine çıkmasını ve siyaseti kapitalizmin sınırları içinde hapseden iki partili sistemden bir kopuşun yaşanmasını gerektirecektir. Bu, aynı zamanda sosyalist politikaların bilinçli bir biçimde eklemlenmesini ve devrimci bir önderliğin geliştirilmesini de gerektirecektir –ki bu, Wall Street’i İşgal Et’in anarşist kafa yapısına sahip önderliği için, hâlihazırda nefret edilen bir şeydir. Bununla birlikte, bunlar çoğunlukla kendi politik bakış açılarını hâlâ geliştirmekte olan genç insanlar. Biz Marksistler, bu insanlarla aramızda ne türden farklılıklar olursa olsun, onları çeşitli sol ve liberal örgütlerde yer alan profesyonel siyaset erbabıyla ve kiniklerle aynı kefeye koymayız. Bu bağlamda akla, gerek Nation Dergisi ve Moveon.org gibi gruplar gerekse de UAW [Birleşik Otomobil İşçileri Sendikası] gibi sendikaların bürokratları geliyor. Kısacası, bu harekette gördüğümüz sadece bir başlangıçtır, ama bu başlangıç daha şimdiden milyonlarca insanın hayal gücünü harekete geçirmiştir ve yaygınlaşma ve siyasi olarak olgunlaşma kapasitesine sahiptir.

Alex Steiner, 16 Kasım 2011

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New York Mayor evicts Occupy Wall Street protesters

The New York City Police raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment last night and evicted the protesters who had been there since Sept 17. This followed by one day the eviction of protesters at Occupy Oakland in what was acknowledged by police officials as a carefully coordinated assault undoubtedly stemming from the White House. But by this afternoon (Nov 15) the protesters were back at Zuccotti Park, though without their tents or their property, which had been confiscated and wantonly destroyed by the NYPD during their carefully planned raid in the middle of the night.

Protester shouting at police

The scene at Zuccotti Park was at once both tense and hopeful. The protesters were not demoralized by the loss of their encampment. They have once again shown their capacity for inventiveness and organization by reconfiguring their governing bodies so that they could continue their functions under the new circumstances. The kitchen was back in operation, this time from the back of a truck parked in front of the Trinity Church cemetery two blocks south on Broadway. Housing arrangement were being made for hundreds who need a place to sleep for the night. Most of the housing arrangements are in the homes of sympathetic New Yorkers but some might be going to other encampments in other cities. Whether the encampment reemerges at Zuccotti Park or elsewhere, the protesters are not going away. A statement from one of the speakers made it clear that they see their struggle as transcending the immediate symbol of an encampment in downtown Manhattan:



“Such a movement cannot be evicted. Some politicians may physically remove us from public spaces – our spaces – and, physically, they may succeed. But we are engaged in a battle over ideas. Our idea is that our political structures should serve us, the people – all of us, not just those who have amassed great wealth and power. We believe this idea resonates with so many of us because Congress, beholden to Wall Street, has ignored the powerful stories pouring out from the homes and hearts of our neighbors, stories of unrelenting economic suffering. Our dream for a democracy in which we matter is why so many people have come to identify with Occupy Wall Street and the 99% movement.”

Protesters clash with New York Police after being removed from Zuccotti Park Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

The General Assembly at Zuccotti Park tonight was much larger than recent ones. I would estimate the crowd at between 1000 – 3000 people. One ironic outcome of Mayor Bloomberg’s eviction is that now that tents are gone there is plenty of space for holding a public meeting in this square. The General Assembly resolved to stage a massive march on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, Nov 17, the two month anniversary of the start of Occupy Wall Street.

Today’s meeting took place as the square was surrounded by hundreds of police, many of them wearing riot helmets. It was also barricaded so that the police could closely monitor the one entrance point protesters were allowed to pass through. Dozens of police vans and news trucks surrounded the square.

One curious fact that I noticed both today and on previous occasions is the almost complete absence of any of the left groups. To be sure some of them are there as individuals and occasionally as Internet "journalists",  but they hardly ever have any sort of organized presence. I did see literature tables from two small groups representing different factions of what used to be the “Militant” group in the UK, lead by the late Ted Grant. One would think that if a socialist political movement was interested in battling over its ideas among the Occupy Wall Street protesters it would have at least set up a literature table.  But groups like the SWP, Spartacist, or the Socialist Equality Party are nowhere to be found.

The idea of the 99% comes out of America’s populist and radical traditions. But given the absence for at least two generations of a tradition of Marxism and socialism, and the quiesence of the labor movement, it was all but inevitable that the idea of the 99% would be articulated as an initial, if vaguely formulated stand in for the working class. Nevertheless the articulation of widespread sentiment against social inequality marks an important step forward in the American political psyche. It means that the myth of America as a society that has escaped the class systems of the older countries of Europe, and where anyone, as long as they apply themselves with hard work and energy, can become the next Warren Buffet, is once and for all put to pasture. The remarkable thing about the Occupy Wall Street movement is that despite all the political confusion its leaders evince, it has placed capitalism itself on the agenda of political discourse. That is no small accomplishment considering that the full weight of the ideological and state apparatus has worked overtime for decades to keep that question off the agenda. Suddenly there is an openness to a consideration of an alternative economic system the likes of which have not been seen since the 1960s.

The movement as it stands now is still far from being able to induce fundamental social change. That will require the entry of the working class onto the political stage and a break from the two party system that has trapped politics within the confines of capitalism. It will also require the conscious articulation of socialist policies and the development of a revolutionary leadership, something that is currently anathema to the anarchist-minded leadership of Occupy Wall Street. However, these are mostly young people who are still developing their political outlook. Whatever differences we Marxists have with them, we do not place them in the same camp as the professional political operatives and cynics who populate various left and liberal organizations. Outfits like the Nation Magazine and Moveon.org as well as the bureaucrats of unions like the UAW come to mind in this context. In short, what we have in this movement is just a beginning, but one that has already captured the imagination of millions and has the capacity to spread and mature politically.

The following are interviews at Occupy Wall Street that I conducted this past Saturday, prior to the eviction.

Alex Steiner, Nov. 16, 2011 

Interview with an iron worker at Occupy Wall Street

Free health care song at Occupy Wall Street

Tour of Zuccotti Park: interview with Occupy Nova Scotia

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Eyewitness report from Oakland

Oakland Occupy Dispersed, but then…


Oakland Erupts!


Police Attack Protestors In the Streets

Oakland, very late on Tuesday the 25th of October 2011 --

It all took place under the endlessly circling helicopters, like giant gnats, flapping, buzzing, shining their threatening lights. It made me remember the line from a 1980s song, "I wish I had a rocket launcher."
The Oakland Occupy, a peaceful and well organized encampment of about 200 or so in front of Oakland's City Hall, was violently attacked and dispersed by 500 cops at 4:45 am this (Tuesday)morning. The Oakland police, backed up by cops from 13 other jurisdictions, including UC Berkeley cops and the California Highway patrol, moved in with tear gas, flash grenades, rubber bullets and even armored vehicles. At least three people were injured, including one hospitalized with a head wound.

Approximately 105 people arrested at the dispersal were still being held as of 4 pm, most charged with standard protest charges such as "refusing to leave the scene of a riot," according to representatives from the National Lawyers Guild, who have been acting as legal monitors. These may be cited and released, but some face more serious charges, and could be arraigned this week.

"This Is What A Police State Looks Like," said the Oscar Grant Plaza Gazette, which promises to keep publishing despite the dispersal. But the dispersal was just the beginning, as this evening's events showed. According to news reports, another hundred or so arrests have been added tonight, charges as yet unknown.

After the dispersal, a rally was called for and held at 4 pm on the steps of the main Oakland Public Library on 14th St, several blocks down from the Occupy site (which was now barricaded off and guarded by cops). The library was significant, since the Occupy and other protestors have sharply opposed the recent threats of Oakland's "left" liberal Mayor Jean Quan to close libraries, a threat which was used to force concessions from city workers. On an Occupy support march, which wound its way through Oakland's streets last Saturday to protest the threatened dispersal, marchers stopped in front of the library and chanted, "Shut down OPD, not the public library," to smiles and cheers from library workers. Then today, as the rally formed up, we were told that the the Oakland PD had asked the library to close its doors in advance of the expected rally. Library workers proudly refused to do so, to cheers from the crowd.

As the rally outside the library gained strength, supporters quickly filled 14th St below the library steps. Chants of "Every week, every day, the Occupy is here to stay," rose up from arriving supporters, and the rally vowed to march up 14th to re-take the Occupy site in Oscar Grant (officially Frank Ogawa) Plaza. Using "mic check" repetition, the rally vowed that, "whatever happens tonight, we meet again, every night, at 6 pm, at 14th and Broadway."
On the way to 14th and Broadway tonight, the plan was to wind our way West a few blocks to the local municipal jail at 7th and Broadway, to give some support to our detained comrades inside. As we marched closer to the jail, changing the route at least once to out-flank a major police barricade on Broadway, images of the storming of the Bastille came to mind, and I think the cops were thinking about that as well. They seemed almost desperate to keep us from getting to that jail.

As we rounded the corner at 8th and Washington, now only about two blocks from the jail, there was a thin blue line of 10 or so cops blocking the street. The crowd pushed up and many began to flow around the police line. After some billy-club poking, the line broke up, people poured through, and the cops were quickly surrounded, along with a handful of civilian vehicles that were caught there. Protestors and cops shouted and cops jabbed for a few minutes until all of a sudden three cops were bent over beating and containing someone. Enraged, the crowd surrounding the cops broke into a chant of "let them go." (It turned out it was two arrestees.)

While all this was going on, many marchers had moved on up the block, and once again made a turn to avoid a second and more formidable line of cops, complete with motorcycles and patrol cars, guarding the jail. The Occupyers' principle of consensus and no leaders seemed to alternatively work well, and then break down into disorganization; but then it usually picked up and found a united path again.

In this instance, while some marchers were shouting "let them go" and surrounding the cops, others were trying to get marchers to move on, not realizing that the cops had two prisoners down on the street. For a while marchers were separated into two groups, but then, the second line of cops moved in to rescue their now paint-spattered brethren, and all hell broke loose. This was the first battle of the evening, as police opened fire with flash-bang grenades and tear gas. The police then retreated with their prisoners, and the marchers reconnected and decided to keep moving, this time heading toward Oscar Grant Plaza, as darkness began to fall.

That set the pattern for most of the night. When we arrived at the site of the former encampment, it was barricaded off and guarded by a solid line of cops. (And City Hall was closed, even though tonight would have normally been a council meeting.) Protestors pushed up to the line, but very soon a sergeant was on the horn. "This is an unlawful assembly. If you do not leave the designated area within 5 minutes, you will be arrested. Chemical agents will be used. You could suffer serious injury." Just as the police were about to unleash a barrage of tear gas, protestor consensus worked again, and the march took off up Broadway and then swerved to go up Telegraph Ave. to avoid yet another line of cops.

We marched and marched, seeing no cops, and getting enthusiastic welcome from the drivers whose cars were stuck at intersections that the march was passing through. In the streets the whole way, this march had grown as people heard news reports on KPFA and came down to join it. Very hard to say, but I think its peak could have been 3,000.

After a stop at Snow Park, on the shore of Lake Merritt (the site of a second encampment, which was also removed early Tuesday morning), marchers headed back up to 14th and Broadway. That's when the serious battle erupted. This time, after the usual warning, marchers held their ground, and the cops unleashed a huge barrage of tear gas, which sent most of us off in different directions. At least one demonstrator was struck in the head by a tear gas canister.

The police were later quoted on local TV news as saying that they acted in self-defense, since they were being bombarded with rocks, bottles, and even knives. This is crap. I was watching the whole time from the outer edge of the crowd, and saw exactly one piece of something flying toward the cops. It was now about 8 pm, and my companion and I escaped the tear gas and called it a night. But many marchers, fewer in number each time, kept returning to the scene at 14th and Broadway. According to news reports, three more barrages of tear gas were fired at ever smaller groups of protestors, the last one around 11 pm. And the maddening drone of helicopters never seems to stop, just one price of living in a war zone.

The spirit and determination--and the numbers--of these protestors was impressive. One young marcher said to me, early in the march, that he'd been to several of the other Occupys around the country, but except for New York, Oakland was the only place that could produce a large protest such as this on the very next day after a police dispersal of their encampment.

As for consensus and "99 percent?" Those concepts will inevitably give way to a process of sorting out. The bulk of the Tea Party, the police rank-and-file, and Mayor Jean Quan are all in the 99 percent, as it is being defined. The General Assembly of the Oakland Occupy evolved, in its 2-weeks so far, a view of the police as the enemy who needed to be kept out of the encampment, and a decision-making process that involves a quorum of at least three to present a proposal, and a super majority (but not unanimity) to pass one.

For now though, the great value of this movement is that its aim is quite good. The one percent of Wall Street barons, the financiers who are the very peak of the imperialist ruling class, is exactly the clique that needs to be overthrown in a working class revolution which would expropriate, not just control, the banks. The aim is good, but the revolutionary consciousness is not quite there yet. Still, the consciousness is a bit better than what is suggested by one sign that I saw being held up at the library rally earlier today. It read, "Mayor Quan, and Oakland Police - Which Side Are You On?" I smiled and said to the sign holder, "I think they've already answered that question." He smiled back broadly, but still held the sign.

-- Chris Kinder, socialist and activist

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Impresiones de la ocupación de Wall Street

Por Alex Steiner

06 de octubre 2011

Traducción de Antonio Baluarte

En el centro de Manhattan está Wall Street , preñado de la historia de los Estados Unidos. Aunque hoy en día Wall Street se conoce como el corazón financiero del capitalismo estadounidense,  comenzó como una muralla, al límite norte del asentamiento original holandés de Nueva Amsterdam. Los jóvenes manifestantes que se encuentran ahora en la tercera semana de su ocupación de Zuccotti Park eligieron su campamento también. Apenas a tres cuadras de sus tiendas de campaña se encuentra la razón de ese símbolo del capitalismo americano, el New York Stock Exchange.

En diagonal, a través de la calle de las columnas de mármol de la Bolsa de Valores,hay una gigantesca estatua del fundador de la república estadounidense, George Washington. Él está de pie en las escalinatas del Federal Hall, el lugar donde fue juramentado como el primer Presidente de la República. Otro padre fundador está enterrado aún más cerca del sitio del campamento de los manifestantes - Alexander Hamilton, el arquitecto de los Estados Unidos , del First National Bank, está descansando en el cementerio de Trinity Church. 

Otro bloque más o menos por la calle y la vuelta de la esquina de la Bolsa de Valores se encuentra levantadas las gigantescas murallas fortificadas de la Reserva Federal de Nueva York, sede de lo que es quizás el mayor tesoro de lingotes de oro en el mundo, por un valor aproximadamente de 7.000 toneladas. Más que esto, aquí es donde la mayor parte de la política económica de los Estados Unidos se lleva a cabo, a partir de la fijación de los tipos de cambio de monedas extranjeras a la transferencia de miles de millones de dólares entre los bancos sobre una base diaria. El edificio también organizó, junto con el Departamento del Tesoro en Washington, algunos de los encuentros que reunió a los jefes de la Reserva Federal y el Tesoro con el CEO de los mayores bancos del país para elaborar los términos de lo que eventualmente se convirtió en el plan de rescate del TARP de los bancos tras la crisis provocada por el colapso de Lehman Brothers en 2008.

Esto nos lleva a una consideración de lo que está pasando en el Zuccotti Park. Varios miles de manifestantes están diciendo que han tenido suficiente. Están cansados ​​de ver a miles de millones de dólares que se utiliza para rescatar a los bancos cuyas prácticas fraudulentas en los años anteriores los dejó en posesión de bienes masivos, cuyo valor bajó repentinamente a cero. Al otro lado del rescate bancario realizado tanto por las administraciones de Bush y Obama, ha sido el empobrecimiento de decenas de millones de personas, especialmente de los jóvenes. Mi impresión, como resultado de hablar con algunos de los manifestantes y la audiencia que entrevisté es que la gran mayoría de los ocupantes de Wall Street no ve ningún futuro para sí mismos en virtud de este sistema económico conocido como capitalismo.

También me impresionó el espíritu de la inventiva y la lucha de estos jóvenes. Ellos, frente a grandes dificultades, han sido capaces de mantener una ciudad de carpas en el centro de Manhattan, en un inhóspito "parque" que es en realidad una plaza de concreto con poco o nada de servicios, que no sean la hierba y los árboles, y no hay baños públicos o fuentes de agua. Lo que sí hay son  algunas mesas y sillas que normalmente son ocupadas por los trabajadores de oficina sorbiendo su café de la mañana, los jugadores de ajedrez o sitios de tomar de los magnates de Wall Street para los cuartos. De alguna manera este grupo ha logrado alimentarse a sí mismo, con la ayuda de los vecinos que han donado alimentos.

Se las arreglaron para mantener seca  la cara en las implacables lluvias de otoño en Nueva York,  gracias a unas lonas que ellos han secuestrado. Sin electricidad, han conseguido crear un centro de comunicaciones, alimentado por un generador portátil, donde varias personas están ocupadas en la cima dándolo vuelta durante todo el día, llueva o haga sol, esparciendo su mensaje a los sitios de redes sociales en todo el mundo.

Se han creado comités encargados de confección de carteles, impresión de una versión satírica de The Wall Street Journal, y la organización de las marchas y actos de desobediencia civil. Hay un ruido constante de tambores y otros instrumentos en una esquina donde puedes encontrar juerguistas traspasado por los sonidos rítmicos. Hay incluso una biblioteca libre repleta de libros donados, disponible para quien quiera leerlos. Lo más destacado de cada noche es lo que ellos llaman una "Asamblea General", un experimento de participación democrática donde todo el mundo que quiera puede hablar y contribuir a la discusión. A las decisiones se llega a través de un torturante proceso de consenso.


La policía ha prohibido el uso de megáfonos o equipos de audio por lo que es extremadamente difícil de mantener reuniones al aire libre. Sin embargo, los manifestantes han vuelto a encontrar una ingeniosa manera de sortear este obstáculo legal para la democracia participativa. Una persona habla, la  que es a su vez, estrechamente rodeada de cientos de facilitadores. Luego, estos animadores hacen eco con su voz, de las palabras del hablante, de manera que la multitud que los rodea puede conocer de la demanda. El procedimiento me recuerda a la brillante película de Truffaut, Fahrenheit 451, (basada en una historia igual de brillante, de Ray Bradbury), donde en un futuro cuando la lectura o la impresión de los libros están prohibidos, un grupo de personas que se dedican a la preservación de la literatura mediante memorizar libros enteros que ya no pueden ser impresos o a los cuales ya no se puede  acceder físicamente. Se han convertido en libros de vida así como a los facilitadores en la Ocupada Wall Street se han convertido en megáfonos vivientes.

La política de los manifestantes, en la medida en que la articulan, es ciertamente ingenua y contradictoria. He visto pronunciamientos que a la vez que sonaban muy radicales, llamando a poner fin a la plutocracia que maneja este país, junto con otros signos ("Emitir la ley para trabajos  ya") que indica que la luna de miel con Obama en que muchos jóvenes en 2008, aunque mal herida, no puede ser completamente terminada para algunos. Los manifestantes OWS han hecho hincapié en que  desprecian el proceso político y han evitado deliberadamente la presentación de una serie de demandas. Lo que indica claramente han sido inspirados por el ejemplo de las manifestaciones masivas en la plaza Tahrir de El Cairo a principios de este año y la plaza Syntagma, en Atenas. Ellos consideran  su acción como la chispa de la Revolución Americana.

Esta no es una revolución  pero es imposible predecir cómo este movimiento va a mostrar sus efectos. Hay indicios de que los manifestantes han aprovechado una vena de la ira contra las injusticias de la vida en la  América del siglo XXI que ha estado hirviendo a fuego lento durante años. Sus acciones ya han inspirado a otras protestas en otras ciudades. Asistimos una vista previa de esta acción en los plantones en Madison, Wisconsin, a principios de este año. Desafortunadamente ese movimiento fue desviado por la burocracia sindical y el Partido Demócrata que incitaron abandonar sus protestas y poner su energía en una campaña de más valor. A los manifestantes OWS no será tan fácil desviarlos. Sin embargo, su rechazo de la acción política es a la vez su fuerza y ​​su debilidad.

Lo que se considera la política normal en este país, el apoyo a uno u otro de los dos partidos burgueses, sin duda merece una dosis fuerte de desprecio. Pero que por sí misma hace poco para lograr el tipo de sociedad más justa que los manifestantes imaginan. De hecho, puede servir como una invitación para los demagogos y oportunistas de varias clases para venir y llenar el vacío. Y aunque he visto pocos indicios de  la confluencia habitual de los grupos de la izquierda en el campamento, su presencia se hincha cada vez que hay una marcha de protesta o alguna otra acción. El partido neo-estalinista de los Trabajadores del Mundo se ha manifestado al igual que la Organización Socialista Internacional (ISO). Hubo mucho entusiasmo hoy en la anticipación de los representantes de los sindicatos a venir mañana para mostrar su apoyo.

 Por supuesto, los publicistas de la burocracia sindical que se unirán a la marcha de mañana van a estar aquí para tratar de canalizar este movimiento hacia atrás en la seguridad de convertir las protestas en inofensivas y por el apoyo al Partido Demócrata. La ingenuidad evidenciada en los manifestantes, que  podrían esperar otra cosa de la burocracia sindical, no es sorprendente. Ellos vienen de una generación casi totalmente desprovista de cualquier cultura o de educación política histórica.

Los que han entrado en contacto con la política, ha sido en gran medida a los movimientos de protesta de la última década, el movimiento anti-guerra, el movimiento de justicia global, etc.  han recogido una educación en gran medida gracias a los sitios de redes sociales en Internet y al ejemplo de Egipto y Grecia. Independientemente de sus orígenes, ya sea de la clase trabajadora o clase media,  han llegado a la misma coyuntura en este tercer año de la mayor crisis económica del sistema capitalista desde la Gran Depresión. En su mayoría son desempleados o subempleados, y no ven un futuro para sí mismos en una sociedad que los ha bombardeado desde el nacimiento con imágenes de una utopía de los consumidores de Iphones y centros de entretenimiento en el hogar. El sueño americano se ha convertido para ellos en una pesadilla.

Ellos han resucitado muchos de los símbolos y las imágenes de la contracultura de 1960 y movimiento de protesta. Esto es evidente para cualquier visitante a Zuccotti Park, que tiene la edad suficiente para recordar la estética de los hippies y las consignas de los radicales de la década de 1960. Este endeudamiento con las imágenes de otra época era prácticamente inevitable, dado que la década de 1960 representó el último período de gran agitación política en este país. Sin embargo, este es un movimiento muy diferente a la contracultura de 1960. No está tanto para protestar por la injusticia  que nuestro país inflige a los demás en el extranjero - aunque esto tampoco no está ausente, - pero su objetivo principal es la injusticia infligida a ellos y a sus amigos y familiares. No son los hijos e hijas de la clase media acomodada enajenados por la cultura de la banalidad burguesa. Son personas que no ven un futuro para sí mismos sin un cambio fundamental en la sociedad y que están dispuestos a poner sus vidas para que esto suceda.

El sábado pasado 700 de ellos fueron detenidos en el Puente de Brooklyn después de entrar en una trampa tendida por la policía de Nueva York. (En realidad, la policía los llevó en su marcha sobre el puente, no les dijo que estaban entrando en una zona de tráfico limitado, y luego cuando estaban a un  1 / 3 de camino sobre el puente vieron que estaban rodeados, atrapados por las redes y detenidos. ) Las detenciones masivas han hecho poco para amortiguar sus espíritus.

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Actualización:
Yo escribí las impresiones  un par de días atrás, pero como la situación en Wall Street es muy dinámica y cambia todos los días ,quería añadir algunas reflexiones sobre los hechos hasta el día de hoy (06 de octubre).

La marcha de Foley Square en Miércoles, 05 de octubre, era enorme y llevó a  gran número de trabajadores y estudiantes en apoyo de los manifestantes. Según algunas estimaciones, había una multitud de 20.000 o más. Como se predijo, la burocracia sindical salió y se quedó con los políticos del Partido Demócrata en un patético intento de canalizar la furia de los manifestantes de nuevo con el apoyo a Obama y el Partido Demócrata. Por lo que pude observar más tarde, esa noche una gran mayoría de los manifestantes no quiere saber nada de ella. Su actitud podría resumirse en una de las pancartas que vi en Zuccotti Park esa noche: "La guerra de clase por delante".

La debilidad de los manifestantes estuvo también en evidencia por la noche. Un grupo de anarquistas pronto anunciaron que iban a marchar a la famosa estatua del toro de Wall Street y  paró el tráfico en el proceso. Varios cientos de jóvenes fueron por las estrechas calles del distrito financiero  buscando el toro. Al menos  muchos policías les siguieron. Cuando por fin llegamos al toro, que fue cerrada por barricadas de la policía por todos lados y varios agentes de policía fueron asignados a pie dentro de las barricadas y proteger el toro a toda costa, como si el destino de la civilización occidental dependía de ellos y su capacidad para proteger el toro de cualquier daño. Este fue sin duda uno de los episodios más divertidos del día. Después un par de los miembros más francos de la marcha del grupo fueron hacia el toro, se detuvo a los mismos, las medidas se agotaron y todo el mundo se dirigió a Zuccotti Park.

Sin embargo, esa misma tarde otro grupo de manifestantes demostró más notable ingenuidad que ha caracterizado a esta ocupación desde el principio. Un proyector situado en algún lugar en el Zuccotti Park (no pude encontrar la ubicación exacta) fue transmitido en la calle diagonal frente a un edificio alto que carecía de ventanas, una característica común a muchos edificios comerciales construidos durante los años 1960 y 1970 en Manhattan. Este artefacto convirtió la pared de este edificio en una pantalla perfecta para un anuncio gigante. ¿Cuáles fueron las palabras que brillaban en este improvisado cartel?

Romper la ley del valor
Abolir el capitalismo



Así que parece que el hombre más odiado y temido por la clase capitalista, cuyas teorías se pensaba que eran obsoletas y que nunca podría hacerse un lugar en el suelo anti-filosófico de América - Karl Marx - ha vuelto y tiene algo que decir a los jóvenes y los trabajadores de este país. No quiero hacer más de este incidente que se justifica. Todavía hay un largo camino por recorrer en el camino de repetir algunas palabras de Marx en la asimilación de todas las implicaciones de su trabajo. Pero sí existe una indicación de que hay talvez ahora una receptividad a las ideas de este hombre, más que en cualquier momento de nuestra historia reciente. La calidad irónica de este desarrollo sólo puede ser apreciada si se considera la reacción a los acontecimientos de Wall Street de algunos de nuestros blogeros radicales, un tema que va a llegar a la brevedad.


Estamos en solidaridad con los manifestantes Ocupar Wall Street. Su espíritu y la creatividad es digna de admiración y compartan sus objetivos. Pero nosotros no nuestra responsabilidad como revolucionarios marxistas y si no les advierte de los peligros de ignorar la lucha política y la historia y la herencia teórica de quienes los precedieron en la lucha por el socialismo. Tomo nota de que una serie de bloggers radicales han tomado exactamente el camino opuesto. Ellos están cayendo sobre sí mismos con las palabras de adulación a los manifestantes y condenar a cualquiera que introduce aún más suave, con buenas intenciones críticas. Por ejemplo, un blogger radical lanzó una fuerte crítica de la ISO para la simple mención de que los manifestantes tienen algunas lecciones que aprender. Él escribió:

"... Hay una desconexión real entre los jóvenes activistas que buscan el cambio social fundamental, y grupos como el ISO que se consideran de alguna manera mejor calificado para dirigir esas luchas, ya que han logrado algún tipo de conocimiento superior del marxismo, o porque son conscientemente siguiendo el ejemplo de Lenin o Trotsky en lugar de los experimentos de tropiezo y tentativas de los jóvenes en el parque de la libertad. "

Aunque no creo que la ISO será capaz de educar a este movimiento, sin duda piensan que pueden utilizar la educación y el análisis de Marx sobre la crisis del capitalismo y la asimilación de la obra de Lenin y Trotsky, es por lo menos un comienzo. La demagogia en el comentario de este blogero consiste en la contraposición de una educación en la historia y la teoría del marxismo a la creatividad natural y la espontaneidad del movimiento de masas. Pero esto es un razonamiento falaz. Esperamos que, incluso con una educación en el marxismo, la revolución tendrá que enfrentarse a tropiezos y errores y de sus participantes a aprender de sus experiencias. Pero no todos los errores son necesarios y no todos los tropiezos tienen un efecto saludable en sus participantes. A veces, errores tienen consecuencias desastrosas. Los que van en una situación de ciegos y privados de la teoría o la historia inevitablemente se quedan en el camino a pesar de su valor y la inventiva. Esta ha sido la experiencia de todas las revoluciones anteriores y no esperamos que sea diferente en el siglo 21.

La cuestión clave es cómo llegar a estas personas. No va a ser realizada por aquellos que dicen ser marxistas, conferencias por personas que les dicen que "debe" unirse o leer este sitio web. Tales esfuerzos causan risa teniendo en cuenta el reproche que merecen correctamente.

Aquí están algunas ideas para los manifestantes a considerar:

1. "Socialismo para los ricos, capitalismo para los pobres" -  es una forma muy popular de caracterizar el rescate de Wall Street por BushObama mientras que a decenas de millones de trabajadores y la clase media se han ejecutado la hipotec,por pérdida de empleos o no pueden encontrar trabajo. Sin embargo, hace que te preguntes: si el socialismo es bueno para los ricos, ¿por qué no se da para todo el mundo?

2.Ustedes necesitan saber a dónde van, si alguna vez va a llegar. Movimientos sin una meta no tienen una dirección, y se convierten en fácil presa para desviar o cooptar.

3."No creer en alguien que te dice que el sistema puede ser fijo y los políticos pueden ser presionados para hacer lo correcto. Nada es más peligroso que una crisis de ilusión. Lea lo que dice Wall Street y usted pronto verá que en  el mejor de los casos es de  hay un escenario para una década de depresión económica y  austeridad, asumiendo que no hay un crack en toda regla. ¡Una década! Para los jóvenes esto significa ser condenados a una vida arruinada - para no tener la oportunidad de una carrera, un trabajo estable, un lugar decente para vivir. No tenemos ningún interés en este sistema. No tenemos nada que perder - y todo para ganar - por deshacernos de él.

4.No crean en los que tienen interés en el sistema, especialmente los políticos demócratas y líderes empresariales de los sindicatos. Las únicas personas en las que podemos confiar son los que se encuentran en el mismo lado de la brecha económica como  nosotros mismos - la clase obrera.

5. Tenemos que estar organizados. Nuestros enemigos lo están. La Organización no es  enemiga de la democracia. Por el contrario, la democracia sin organización significa que la energía del movimiento se disipa, reducida a un mínimo común denominador. Esto significa que el movimiento nunca se plantea un serio desafío para el sistema, nunca van a más allá de ser un espectáculo político.


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