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Annual Mayday Report
for May 2001
Ben Seattle
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Annual report for May 2001 is posted at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pof-100/message/8
Annual report for May 2000 is posted at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pof-100/message/5
Annual report for May 1999 is posted at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pof-100/message/4
I believe it is useful for communist militants to post, by May
1st every year, a summary of their activity over the past year
and plans for the coming year. (Apologies for being two days late
this year.)
Capitalist corporations give a public annual report to
stockholders every year. Our "stockholders" are the workers
and oppressed of the world who, by their own struggles,
inspire us and give us strength. An annual report can
assist communist militants to better understand the work,
activity and priorities of other communist militants. This
can be a small step in the direction of transparency and
eventual greater coordination of effort.
To set an example, and declare my work and priorities before
friend and foe alike, I submit the following:
Contents
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1) Accomplished in the last year
2) Plan to accomplish in the coming year
3) Problems that came up and solutions that were developed
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1) Accomplished in the last year
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(a) polemical work--debate on Proletarian Democracy and Cuba
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In June-August 2000 I debated José G. Perez on Louis Proyect's
marxism list. The central issue in the debate was whether or not
proletarian democracy requires that workers have the right to
create independent organizations. It does. The opposite view
cannot be defended without denial and evasion. There were
altogether more than a dozen posts over this period. One of my
concluding posts (which summarizes the discussion and José's many
zig-zags) is posted in three parts at:
"Proletarian democracy requires independent organizations"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theorist/message/37
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theorist/message/38
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theorist/message/39
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(b) polemical work--activity on the "Iskra" list
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Between August 2000 and February 2001 I took an active role in
the debate on the "Iskra" email list concerning the campaign in
Russia against Putin's new labor code. This debate, to an
extent, reflected a debate between opposing trends within Russia
itself. One trend is centered around Oleg Shein (a leftist
member of the Duma) and the Zashita trade union in Russia and has
adopted a more-or-less reformist position of greatly exaggerating
the significance of the anti-labor code campaign. The other
trend is centered around the Samara Stachkom/PDP -- a relatively
small group with a history of militant struggle. Eventually, the
principled criticisms made by Perry Vodchik (a supporter of the
Stachkom/PDP trend) and myself resulted in our expulsion by the
Iskra owner, Steve Myers--who attempted to keep our expulsions
secret from other list members. Some background to this is given
at:
"Why we were expelled from ISKRA"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ISKRA/message/1096
Other posts which may give more background are at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ISKRA/message/1097
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ISKRA/message/1095
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(c) infrastructure work--the pu-pc "microportal"
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This site, at
http://struggle.net/pu-pc represents an attempt to
create a "microportal" that could be of use in organizing a lot
of information (including email threads). The pu-pc site
includes a lot of scripting aimed at giving several people the
ability to easily edit it and keep it up to date. So far the
only editors to use the site have been Perry Vodchik and myself.
And the site (aimed at allowing Western activists to gain a quick
picture of who's who and what's what in and around the left in
Russia) is still very much unfinished. Nor is it clear that it
ever will be complete enough to be at all useful to activists.
However I am confident that the basic concept of a "microportal"
that can be easily kept up-to-date by a team of editors--is a
sound one and I believe that the work I have poured into it will
eventually bear fruit.
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(d) list work--the proletarism list
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Since January 2000 I have been heavily involved in helping to
build the "proletarism" list which is owned by the Stachkom/PDP
trend in Russia (see above). There have been a number of
difficulties with this list centered around the fact that the
list owners and the other moderator have so far been unable to
see the necessity of creating a list with a strong focus. At the
end of March I resigned my position as a moderator of this list,
having come to the conclusion that, essentially, I was wasting my
time working to build a list in which there was no one in charge
that I could talk to. I would have been doing a disservice to
the PDP if I had remained as a moderator and pretended that
things could move forward in circumstances where necessary
changes to the list are blocked. My proposal for this list, and
some of the discussion between Perry and myself on how to build
it, can be seen at:
http://struggle.net/proletarism and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/p-d-focus
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(e) list work--the proletarian democracy list
------------------------------------------------------------
There is little point in my criticising others for how they are
not doing the right thing to build a list--if I do not offer an
example of how it should be done. Therefore I have created a set
of two lists that are intended to focus on the theoretical issues
centered around proletarian democracy. My opening essay
(recently finished), and links to these lists, can be seen at:
http://struggle.net/proletarian-democracy
Of these two lists, the "open" list is ready today for
subscribers and participants. So if you, dear reader, want to
participate in this list, click on the link above and get in on
the action.
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2) Plan to accomplish in the coming year
============================================================
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(a) [polemical] -- again I pledge to cut down
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As usual, I am pledging to cut down on my polemical work this
year in favor of work on infrastructure projects. Readers of my
annual reports may recall that I made the same pledge in May 1999
and May 2000. I hope to do better this year.
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(b) [infrastructure] -- continue work on "microportals"
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The "microportal" concept (see item "1c" above) will, I believe,
eventually rock. I intend to continue work on this. If nothing
else, it will allow me to much more easily organize public
display of my own work, activity, postings, threads and projects.
And I am confident that it will eventually make it easier for
others to create microportals of various kinds.
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(c) [infrastructure] -- the "List of Lists"
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My existing work on this (15 months out-of-date and badly in need
of site automation and a team of editors) can be seen at:
http://marxism.org
The "List of Lists" is my most important project for this coming
year. If I continue to neglect it this year, as I did last year,
I am a complete fool and not deserving of consideration as a
sober-mined and serious revolutionary.
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3) Description of problems that came up
--and solutions that were developed
============================================================
The main problem that came up in the past year was my allowing my
time and energy to be consumed in activity centered around the
proletarism list (see item "1d" above). My time on this tangent
was not wasted: I made some valuable contacts and had an
opportunity to work with Perry Vodchik and some comrades from
Finland (ex-Maoists, like myself) and I believe that I will work
with these comrades on various projects in the future. However
the time has come for me to be more serious about focusing on my
core competency: the creation of infrastructure. If I continue
to ignore this I will betray the working class.
Sincerely and with revolutionary regards,
Ben Seattle
----//-// 3.May.2001
http://Leninism.org
http://egroups.com/group/theorist/
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How will economics, politics and culture work
when the working class runs modern society?
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Help shape the future at:
http://struggle.net/proletarian-democracy
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