On Principles and Direct Action
An Offer of Alignment, Ukraine, Critique and The Qiao Collective and Ho Chi Minh
Morning Comrades.
I was dreading writing today’s email a little to be honest. At this point it appears that the world, be it on a personal level to everything at large is heading towards a perfect storm. It always amuses me a little when my own predictions about the future are totally off, only because it slaps my own arrogance back into my face and makes me re-think, well everything. I certainly hadn’t had “everything” on my plate this soon, but yet here we are. Predictability is a sure way into (academic) arrogance, so I welcome it all, but obviously wish that I wasn’t so bloody wrong in regards to the direction. From all perspectives- ecologically, geo-politically, societal to whatever else is happening behind this screen - never become a writer / artist comrades, it is a bread-less endeavour littered with equal measures of cynicism and rage - this whole construct we were thrown into seems to be, quiet literally, going up in flames, and I am not even willing to throw in the psychological impacts of this damn pandemic, or the latest news from the IPCC -Yet here we are, having to carry on because…yeah, why, I ask myself that more often than not? Granted, the material conditions imposed on us such as rent, the fact that we have to pay for food, healthcare, breathing, seemingly require the participation in all this nonsense - but I am drifting off-topic here. I was dreading writing this today out of fear of repeating myself - something I utterly despise doing, despite its necessity. There are a number of topics I will share with you after all this, all of which are rewarding and interesting but before that, I wanted to have a brief chat with you all, a way to offer another alignment for you to take with you in these brutally uncertain and confusing times. Oddly enough, I found a glimmer of hope and energy by being reluctantly dragged to the pub yesterday after a day of not achieving what I had set out to do - not that anything “miraculous” transpired, but rather the unvalued ( by the system at play ) reality of talking shit about metal bands for 2 hours with a mate.
“It is only in revolutionary struggle against the capitalists of every country, and only in union with the working women and men of the whole world, that we will achieve a new and brighter future-the socialist brotherhood of the workers.” -Alexandra Kollontai, Our Tasks
With all that is going on I wanted to offer an affirmation that if WE band together, offer hope, aid, care without ever losing focus on the realities that existence in the western imperial core is defined by our revolutionary actions against the capitalists, individually, mutually and systematically, we will get through this. Not alone, but together. We have, must and will continue to recognize that we, the workers of the world have more in common with one another than with those who have drawn the lines on maps, through violence taken the riches of this planet and cast us into servitude. Whilst their realties shape our material conditions upon which have to react to, it is precisely our unwavering solidarity that will topple this brutal, death-cult.
I know, sounds all quiet obscure but philosophical concepts usually are on the surface, especially when we recognize that specific “guidelines” offering help usually involve some sort of vertical hierarchies based around power, and I am not here for that. I felt like I needed to get that off my chest before getting on with today’s topics. Get together. Build alternative realities of how you want to exist. Help. They want us to be rabbits in the headlights and the only way out of this spiral is together.
"Service To Others Is The Rent You Pay For Your Room Here On Earth." -Muhammad Ali
There is heaps to be said about the ongoing war in Ukraine but I am unwilling to debate tactical realities, disinformation and what not. I will say this, No War But Class War. All elites on all sides are beyond reason and morality and our utmost purpose, as it was from the get go, is to disregard their capitalists racist bullshit, open the borders and organize the support of ALL refugees - that’s it. I am reminded of a text I read from Ron Jacobs over on Counter Punch back in 2015 that still holds true today:
“The people of Ukraine are fighting battles in which they are ultimately pawns. Arming either side is cynical and manipulative and paves the way for an expansion of the war perhaps even beyond Ukraine’s borders. A truce should be agreed to that leaves all forces in place while the warring sides and their sponsors negotiate an end to the armed conflict. The motivation for this war resides in the desire to control resources and territory, directly and otherwise. Those Ukrainians desiring independence from Russia are seeing that desire being manipulated by Washington and local politicians with their own designs. Those desiring independence from the new Kiev government are experiencing a similar scenario. The longer the war continues, the more it will be influenced by Washington and Moscow. And the more blood will be spilled.”
Equally, we need to up our efforts to stop the cheerleading for this insanity. The collective western “press” is frothing at their mouth, aiming to escalate this war to serve their paying masters - mostly billionaires and armament manufactures - no one in power in the west is actually willing to let the Ukraine join the EU or NATO, nor are the weapons being sold actually making it to the Ukraine - for several reasons - one, stock prices, second, actual large scale weapon deliveries will only incur more warfare. The media and Twitter are once again obsessing over gaffes from Boris Johnson, and other grave matters of state. Will we still see pictures from Ukraine at the top of news broadcasts in four weeks' time? In four months' time? Is it possible that Putin waits until we are distracted before he unleashes his deadliest weapons? The west did not care all that much about cluster bombs in Aleppo and nor will they in Ukraine. This hypocritical, mass-delusional cheerleading for war needs to be put to an end. Again, no war but class war. Direct your efforts to ending this insanity, ignoring the racist, cynical bullshit from our respective governments and give aid, in whichever way you can, to aid in the refugee crisis. It is beyond time to accept the death and destruction from these empires.
What Does Critique Do? — On the Critical Predation of China
In addition and in total relation to the above I wanted to share this excellent piece by the Qiao Collective. I do not even remotely know enough about China to talk about its role, intentions and realities, both internally and internationally but am extremely interested and thus pay attention to comrades who do know more. Qiao Collective is one such source and I would highly recommend you pay attention to them also. The relationship of this piece to the above is multilateral. The ultimate goal of Western Unilateralism is the containment, a horrible hyperbole for domination really, of China, even within the confines of the discourse on Russia. It is beyond doubt that China is and has been the major player in regards to an emerging different world order than we in the imperial core have known and with that volumes of opinions on their intentions have and will continue to be published, many of which are deeply rooted, at the very least, in the maintenance of the Western domination of the world. This essay offers a multitude of perspectives in regards to the western capitalist narrative that I have found interesting and helpful. I especially cherished their marxist perspectives on several narratives such as this one for example
“It’s tempting for Western leftists to assume a mastery of world-historical knowledge. But this hubris, endemic to imperial cultures, serves none but the victor, inculcating him in an arrogant delusion that he knows what’s best and may act on others’ behalf. “Ideology in action,” as the postcolonial critic Gayatri Spivak reminds us, “is what a group takes to be natural and self-evident, that of which the group, as a group must deny any historical sedimentation. It is both the condition and the effect of the constitution of the subject (of ideology) as freely willing and consciously choosing in a world that is seen as background.”
If Western leftists are to be truly principled, truly accountable to the world-historical situation, “we” must disentangle ourselves from the imperialist ideologies that dominate the discursive landscape the West takes for granted.”
Again, I claim no authority on this topic other than a committed interest in learning more and this piece is part of the puzzle. Especially once you apply the analysis offered and use it for a broader spectrum of possible realities.
Selected Ho Chi Minh
Lastly, I wanted to share these extremely exciting news as this book is now, finally, available for pre-order. Edited by none other than Vijay Prashad for Left Word this is a long-awaited beginning to collect and offer the many writings of Ho Chi Minh to everyone outside of Vietnam.
“For a revolutionary whose name is immortalised in songs and slogans worldwide, astonishingly little of Ho Chi Minh’s writing is available to a global readership. This volume seeks to fill that gap in some measure.
It is often said of Ho Chi Minh that he was not a theorist and that he did not leave behind a corpus of theoretical texts. This is a narrow and false judgment. Ho Chi Minh did not have the time to set out a major theoretical treatise on the nature of the Vietnamese Revolution, but the texts he left behind – a fraction of them collected in this volume – help us to understand the theory that enabled him to lead the Indochinese Communist Party and then the Workers Party to victory against imperialist aggression and to start the process of constructing socialism in Vietnam.”
I also wanted to leave you with a little anecdote from little ol’ Germany today to illustrate why I so rarely talk about this place. A perfect little analogy for the small-minded bureaucratic bullshit ( aside from the institutional racism/sexism and so on ) of this place. Parliament has been debating whether or not to implement a vaccine mandate against Covid-19 and without this being a joke, the union of health insurance companies publicly stated that due to a PAPER SHORTAGE a vaccine mandate would be impossible as not every citizen could be notified. That was promptly followed by a statement from the union of paper manufacturers that indeed, there was no shortage and thus the debate was halted. Not an inch of critical thinking, no interest in problem solving as long as the right stamp is affixed to the right document, filed and issued. It remains bewildering to live here.
With that little story out of the way, that’s it for today comrades. I hope my offer of alignment, hope and examples of direct action helped a little in your day-to-day. Once again, I thank you for your patronage, time and attention.
Yours, without compromise,
V.