🔵 WHAT DO I KNOW, AND HOW DO I KNOW IT?

■ Karl Marx and the Freemasons (no, it's not a new music band!)

A lot of material like the following has been circulating again among good and honest people who have been politically active recently in the Movement for Medical Freedom and the Movement to preserve our Constitutional and Human Rights, which mobilized in the face of the coronacrisis and the Medical Dictatorship that was set up almost overnight all over the planet. As we all know the dictatorship received support through authoritarian Hygienic Fascism initiatives by a large section of our terrorized and misinformed populations. These authoritarian initiatives included ALL sections of the (former) Left, the Right, the Center, the all around and in between, and all colors of political affiliation and identity who sided with illegitimate authority and State-sponsored terrorism.

From a friend's letter who has been active in the Movement:

"Scroll down to the photo of Karl Marx.  Notice his hand inside his jacket.  This is how Napoleon always posed, and how Ted Cruz poses.  Why?  Because it's a signal of being a member of a secret Masonic society called The Hidden Hand."

The material below is published in an effort to restore some clarity on this subject.


■ A Photograph, and the Private Property issue

A.
The way a person poses for a photograph is not necessarily "proof" of anything, especially during an era when photographers were known to pressure their subjects to appear this way and that, saying "this is how it must be done", or creating an atmosphere where a person fit a particular "composition" the photographer had in mind, or took ten different photos of varying poses under direction, and only chose to release one of them. In this article there's a number of authentic photos of myself which can be used to "prove" anything about me.

But closer to the substance of the issue, what people mean today when they say "Freemason" is entirely different from what it meant in the 1800's. And also very different from what it was in the 1700's.

In the 1700's, Freemasons were one of the organizations of the newly-formed class of the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois artisans, merchants and capitalists; they stood opposed to feudal ruling classes (kings, royalty, gentry, etc.) and were dedicated to the values that were embodied the French Revolution, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" - which eventually spread all over the world as feudalism came tumbling down with serial revolutions lasting about 150 years, especially in the West, and a new form of class society (somewhat more democratic) replaced it.

The Freemasons also had a spiritual dimension to their shared values, but it was not much more than a shared faith that the Divine is a unitary (single) spiritual entity.

Due to this, and especially due to their revolutionary character, the Freemasons were opposed vehemently by all supporters of the feudal ruling class, with the reactionary feudal church at the head of a propaganda machine aimed against them, demonizing them and targeting them with every imaginable accusation.

By the 1800's and as more and more countries tore down feudalism and installed bourgeois (capitalist) democracy, the Freemasons became one of the many unofficial formations and secret fora of the new ruling class - the capitalists - who soon became dominant the world over as they conquered, expanded, and embodied a global capitalist Imperium. This Imperialism became even more pronounced toward the late 1800's, early 1900's.

Marx was OPPOSED to the power of ALL formations of the capitalist class, and especially opposed to their secret societies.

By the mid-twentieth century the worldwide revolutionary movement of the nineteen sixties and seventies popularized the revolutionary Left's opposition and resentment of the secret societies that belong to the ruling class, and especially the Freemasons. And so a grand alliance was formed in the sphere of ideological warfare which brought together the medieval feudal church's argumentations and accusations against the Freemasons (they are "satanists"; they are "evil"; they "sacrifice children", etc.), with the argumentations and accusations of the modern capitalist class against the revolutionary Left in a very clever false-flag operation. The operation aimed to channel the natural hatred of the people against the rulers' secret societies and use that hatred against the revolutionaries themselves ("they will take away the little bit that you own"; "they will take away your freedom"; "they will install a dictatorship"; "they are working with the Freemasons", "they ARE Freemasons", etc.)

As we entered the reactionary era of the 21st century with its failed uprisings, failed mobilizations, extreme deepening of poverty and extreme centralization of the Empire's dictatorial structures, we witnessed an almost complete takeover and co-optation of most of the Left's organizations, institutions, and slogans, and the absorption of entire sections of the (former) Liberation Movement into the machinery of the Empire: our people were left rudderless, ideologically ungrounded, unprepared for this, helpless, and under constant bombardment from the propaganda war machine.  

The Empire's propaganda war has been successful to a large degree, and it has managed to generate a large number of people who "know", or who believe that Socialism or Communism is a monstrous conspiracy of the ruling class itself, a campaign of the banksters, and that Karl Marx is this or that - without them having ever read a single book or pamphlet or even an article by Marx. They just "know" it all; memes and slogans on social media, or claims by people whose sources are entirely without validity... are all the "proof" they need.

A person needs to STUDY in order to understand what all this means and how to deal with it.

One fundamental question that EVERY person needs to grapple with is "WHAT DO I KNOW, AND HOW DO I KNOW IT?" "What are my sources? And how do I know they are valid? How do THEY know (or prove) what they claim is true?"

Instead of a large number of people within the Movement engaging in this self-appraisal - immersing themselves in the process of questioning everything they know or think they know, in order to arrive at what is truly valid - what we see is millions of people who are absolutely certain that they "know" the truth (about Marx, or about anything) without being able to trace within themselves a single clue about how they came to "know" this thing. Nor are they willing to engage in pursuing the answer.


On the particular questions regarding Karl Marx and the Freemasons, here are some very good starting points:

a.
Hand-written Manuscripts of Marx, prove that he wrote extensively AGAINST the Freemasons - here is an excerpt:
«...Marx is also of the opinion that the First International Organization (International Workers’ Association) was destroyed from within by the hidden hand of freemasonry. In the "Reports and Documents Published by the Socialist Democratic League and the International Workers’ Association in accordance with the decision of the International Hague Congress", Marx talked about "freemasonry" in two places. Marx clearly stated: "Hidden behind the international Geneva branch is the Central Bureau of the Secret League; behind the international branches of Naples, Barcelona, Lyon and Jura, the secret branches of the freemasons are hidden. This is a freemasonry organization, and ordinary members of the international community and their leadership centres should have no doubts about such a (destructive) organization."»  
■ The Opposition of Marx to Freemasonry - BUDDHIST - MARXISM ALLIANCE (UK)
https://buddhistsocialism.weebly.com/the-opposition-of-marx-to-freemasonry.html

Archived here:
https://archive.ph/NPIia


b.
There's been a long struggle waged by Freemasonry against the organized revolutionary labor movement, socialism and communism. The following article documents large sections of the history of this struggle. The authors belong to an anti-stalinist communist organization.
[The article contains some typographical errors, you may need to read some sentences twice to get the meaning. There are 8 occurrences where the word "the" is mistyped as "me.]
■Workers' Movement: Marxism against Freemasonry | International Communist Current
https://en.internationalism.org/content/3741/workers-movement-marxism-against-freemasonry

Archived:
https://archive.ph/Wka5y


c.
Freemasons themselves address the question of whether Marx was one of them. Their answer is quick and easy: "he would have never qualified" as a member!
■ Was Karl Marx A Freemason
https://free-masons.livejournal.com/46309.html

Archived:
https://archive.ph/AWjsB


d.
What did Marx himself say about the accusations that supposedly the revolution which gave birth to the Paris Commune was the result of a conspiracy by secret societies? Here is his answer given during an interview for the "New York World" magazine, July 18, 1871. This is from the Freemason website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia & Yukon.
■ Karl Marx on Freemasonry
https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/marx_k.html

Archived:
https://archive.ph/ydvtT


B.
Regarding the issue of private property

The issue is very simple, but it appears complex. Marx and revolutionary Socialists use a specific terminology that contains particular meanings. When those terms are taken and twisted out of context, instead of history what we get is twistory.

Within the body of work known as Scientific Socialism, the phrase "private property" refers to the fact that the most important means of production (ie. factories, manufacturing facilities, mines, etc.) that produce and distribute what humanity needs (food, clothes, buildings, computers, vehicles, infrastructure)... are all held under private ownership. Even though they are operated collectively by working people, the fruit of that combined labor is stolen at the point of production and SOLD BACK to us at a price. If we want to have what we created together with our combined labor, we have to buy it as a commercial product at the market.

Scientific Socialism's primary tenet is that this conflict between the manner of production (collective) and the form of ownership (private), generates all of the modern world's strife and suffering. And it will be resolved only when all of the means of production and distribution (ie. factories, manufacturing facilities, etc.) come under our collective ownership. In that sense, they become the collective property of all of us combined together, ie. belong to all of society. So that what we produce together through our combined labor (everything that humanity needs such as food, clothes, buildings, computers, vehicles, etc.) will also be distributed to all of us collectively.

The phrase "private property" does NOT refer to your shoes, your clothes, other items of your personal usage, or anything that most people own that is outside of the cycle of
production->market->profits.

The aim of Socialism is to INCREASE what you own, so that in addition to whatever you use and own privately (toothbrush, shoes, clothes, your home), you will also become a co-owner of all the social means of production and distribution, and have a say in how they are used and to what purpose.

The way this happens is through the combined action of working people who seize and occupy the factories and other means of production, place them under a decision-making process of direct democracy where people decide things together in councils, and begin to operate them for human needs instead of profits. This act of expropriation is what Scientific Socialism identifies as "abolition of private property"; it is the act of rendering the means of production into collective property, owned by all of us together.

In contrast to this, the goal of most (especially the pettiest) of the members of the ruling class, is to actually take everything you own so that you'll be working all your life and never be able to get back even a small fraction of what you produce.

► Revolutionary Socialists want to take everything owned privately by the capitalists and render it into collective property - social property - that will be owned and controlled by you, and by all of us together, all of the people collectively.
► The pettiest of capitalists want to take everything YOU own.

The fact that some of our people confuse these above two types of appropriation is an act of mostly just plain ignorance, repeated without thinking about the meaning, or about the history of peoples' struggles through the centuries.

Among people who know what they're talking about, equating these two forms of "private property" expropriation is criminal propaganda It is aimed at poisoning people's minds against Socialism in order to support the capitalist ruling class in its war against the radical Left.


So to summarize:

► There is no proof that Karl Marx was ever positively involved with the Freemasons except a clever misinterpretation of a photograph. While there is PLENTY of proof in his writings, his statements, and his legacy that he stood against the Freemasons of his era.
► Claiming that Karl Marx wanted - or that Socialism wants - to take away the little bit that you own is a lie.

All you have to do is read and study a little, and talk with some Socialist you trust. You might discover a world of joyful truths and enjoy the relief of living without the lies that constrain you in your social activism for Freedom.

Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net

Further Readings and Resources

■ Left Lockdown Sceptics
"Left Lockdown Sceptics is a forum for critiques of ‘new normal’ societal changes from anarchist, feminist, Marxist and socialist perspectives. We stand for an informed, open debate and discussion about everything relevant to the Covid phenomenon and its related issues..."
https://leftlockdownsceptics.com/about/?doing_wp_cron=1662649092.0787079334259033203125

■ Revolutionary Communist Group
https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/explore-topics/covid-19

"Humanity faces a profound crisis: a devastating pandemic, soaring poverty, inequality and insecurity, with escalating rivalries between the world’s wealthiest nations, leading to global conflicts and wars. Environmental destruction and climate change already devastate the lives of millions of people and threaten humanity’s extinction. We are in a race against time to prevent this outcome. The only answer is to fight for socialism: a system in which resources are democratically controlled and rationally organised to meet humanity’s needs rather than those of a tiny minority.
...No capitalist ruling class has ever given up power voluntarily; it will take mass direct action, a revolution led by the working class and its most oppressed layers. The RCG exists as a vehicle to strengthen the revolutionary anti-racist, anti-imperialist trend within the working class..."
https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/about/6248-what-we-stand-for-2

■ If you have the clarity and presence of mind to study the opposition, please see what a FORMER radical Leftist has to say in these troubled times. You can trace the ideological shift from radical Left opposition to the ruling class all the way to... not just acceptance of its propaganda, but a willing participation in the propaganda war being waged by the Corporate State, on their side! Here:
■ It’s shocking to see so many leftwingers lured to the far right by conspiracy theories
George Monbiot
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/22/leftwingers-far-right-conspiracy-theories-anti-vaxxers-power

■ Thank You Greece! Thank You SYRIZA!
"...the political
program of the Left CAN NOT be actualized without active mobilization
and physical-emotional participation of the people, without a hands-on
tangible involvement of the population in the process...
...No one is talking about organizing the farming brigades and worker's
brigades that will be required to re-vitalize the country's ability to
feed and clothe itself; i.e. to create a self-sustaining economy for the
country. It seems that both the party and its supporters are assuming
that all that can achieved by conventional "investment and development"
procedures (State-directed investment by the banks; in other words a
humane management of capitalism). No one is talking about the need to
mobilize people for occupations and seizures of productive units (idle
factories, housing units, hospitals, etc.) No one is talking about
mobilizing the reserve soldiers into the self-organized defence teams
(some sort of militia) that will be required to protect the country from
Turkey's military aggression or from resistance to the popular
mobilizations mentioned above that might be thrown up by the fascist
elements of the Police.
Socialism cannot be "proclaimed"; it can only be achieved by active
participation of the multitude..."
https://web.archive.org/web/20150914184141/http://cyprus.indymedia.org/node/4968

■ For a Hellenic Socialist Revival
"Some features of this project, or junctures of this political period, might necessitate some of the following:
    Seizure, occupation and operation by the people of many industries and branches of agriculture, and the introduction of workers' control with direct democracy;
    The establishment (and empowerment) of people's councils throughout the whole of the country, through which the day-to-day activities will be administered. These can be based in the neighborhoods, the workplaces, the schools, and within the security services (military, police, etc.);
    Social or State control of foreign trade;
    Self-organization of labour-brigades along the lines of a modern democratic People's Army, and militarization of labour (more on this below);
    Seizure or requisition of agricultural, industrial or trade surpluses for decentralized (community determined) distribution among the population;
    If social assets and production dwindle and the country is forced into a state of emergency, it might become necessary to introduce rationing of food and of most other commodities, with distribution to the people according to need and availability;
    Encourage and support small private enterprise alongside with enterprises by collectives, communes, bands, worker-owned businesses, which should receive priority;
    Social control of the railways, highways, airports, telephones, electricity, water and other large scale elements of the social and economic infrastructure, ensuring that these will serve the people's needs..."
https://web.archive.org/web/20161002011438/http://cyprus.indymedia.org/node/5021

■ Endo~Media / Socialism
https://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/search/label/socialism

■ Endo~Media / Revolutionary Politics
https://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/search/label/revolutionary%20politics

* * *

Was 1968 our global 1905?

■ A special appearance by friends and comrades Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers in Santa Fe - the precious town known to some Cypriots as "Kyrenia of the high-altitude desert".
■ "“Whatever the so-called ’60s was, it was mainly a prelude to what we need to do today”, said Ayers."
 

It's an essential and burning question that keeps recurring to people who are actively engaged in the revolutionary process, in the study of its history and the theoretical foundations that might guide better guide us in understanding its curious developments in order to help bring the revolution to a VICTORY (or to a new beginning): it's the question of 1968 - the need to understand the historical role of the planetary-scale revolutionary period of the "sixties and seventies" symbolized by the year 1968.

Students of revolutionary Socialist history often see the 1905 revolution in Russia as a launching pad (a dress-rehearsal) of the 1917 revolution in Russia which gave birth to the Soviet Union. Could it be that the revolutionary period exemplified by 1968 can act as a prelude to another and more SUCCESSFUL global revolution? Can this happen even though two whole generations have already passed, and we're in the process of losing many of the people who were the bearers of the Light, Love and Consciousness from that time?

Is it possible that the Socialist revolution possesses qualities that are transcendental (like a number?), going beyond the boundaries of the particular experiences of individual persons or specific populations, embodying a transpersonal reality capable of actualizing a "small 'c' communist" society all over the globe in the same sense that we witness the materialization of Archetypes? In that sense, it would be reasonable to assume that the next global prairie-fire can be self-igniting, without the necessity of being mediated by people who have lived through 1968. Or, to say it differently, it might be possible that those would who bring that spark over across time from 1968 to the present, might be able to re-ignite the prairie through a discarnate process, through an incorporeal abstraction acting on and through objective reality.

Could it be that the contradictions discovered within capitalism and global Imperialism by marxian science keep generating the Consciousness necessary for humanity to overcome them and replace them with the socialist ~ communist ~ anarchist ~ feminist ~ green ~ autonomist society we yearn for?

What about the social and political conditions? Is it possible to envision a global collective coordinating body that will harmonize and coordinate the Movement? Are modern populations emotionally and politically capable of overcoming the individualism and narcissism enforced on us by the commodity shopping culture and the Spectacle; by narrow perceptions of collective struggle confined by the mental borders of the nation-state; and move forward to removing the obstacles to unity found among the communities and populations of the present? Of the future?

Where is the radical culture that can bind us together? Where is the organizational structure ("One Ring to free them all: One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the Light to bind them")? Where are the radical Jedi, radical Bene Gesserit, the witches and guerillas, the musicians and healthcare workers, the geeks and "fairy weirdos" who will serve as the cadre of a future revolutionary party that can emerge as a Conscious force on the stage of history to embody the Last International?

Is it viable to work in that direction? Is it premature? Are there radicals consciously and knowingly engaged in building that network? Does it already exist, hiding in plain view and gently guiding us in the direction of planet-wide Liberation?

Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Radical activists to discuss next steps of resistance
By Megan Bennett / Journal North Reporter
Friday, September 22nd, 2017 at 12:02am
https://www.abqjournal.com/1067393/radical-activists-to-discuss-next-steps-of-resistance-ex-former-weather-underground-members-to-join-sfais-equal-justice-residents-on-panel.html

SANTA FE, N.M. — Two members of the Weather Underground, the 1960s-70s radical activist group most famously known for protesting the Vietnam War and black oppression through bombings of government buildings, will speak at the Santa Fe Art Institute Sunday about current-day issues and creative solutions for fighting back.

Though they are most famous for their activism in their teens and twenties, husband and wife Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, both now in their seventies and living in Chicago, say they are not stuck in the past. The two are still activists in what Dohrn called “perilous times” with the election of Donald Trump.

“We’re not looking wistfully at a ship that already left the shore,” said Ayers. “We’re very much living toward the future. Whatever the so-called ’60s was, it was mainly a prelude to what we need to do today.” He said what he and his wife were fighting for then, like stopping the “underlying causes of war” and white supremacy, still need resolution today.

Both Dohrn and Ayers began their activism in college protesting against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and for the Civil Rights Movement, a period during which Ayers said he participated in sit-ins and was arrested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

They later helped organize the Weather Underground – sometimes labeled, then and now, as a terrorist group – that detonated small bombs at places like the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon to protest war and other social issues. Three members of the Weather Underground died in 1970 at a New York townhouse while creating an explosive.

Ayers and Dohrn, who was once on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, were on the run for several years until 1980 when they turned themselves in. By then, most of the charges against them had been dropped. Dohrn served less than a year of jail time for refusing to testify in a case, then went on to a career as a legal advocate and in teaching law. Ayers became an education professor in Chicago – whether he had any significant associations with Barack Obama there became an issue in presidential politics.

“My whole life I’ve been told that won’t work, that’s extreme or that’s crazy,” said Ayers about criticism of radical activism throughout the years. But he said activists can’t rely on what polls or powerful figures are saying about a movement and, sometimes, unpopular or new ideas are necessary.

Now, they’re retired college professors who keep up with movements like Black Lives Matter, as well as activism on climate change, women’s rights, protection of undocumented immigrants and other issues.

The two will participate in an “inter-generational” panel with several SFAI Equal Justice Residents, a group of local and national artists invited to work on political or social movement-related art pieces, to discuss alternatives to addressing today’s political climate.

The couple will offer a discussion of their lives, during which people can ask questions. They’ll be available afterward to sign copies of their books if audience members bring them. Dohrn said the couple welcomes all opinions and perspectives in the discussion, including those who disagree with their past tactics.

While there is no “road map” for activism, Dohrn says everyone has something they should be doing right now in response to today’s political situation. She hopes the conversation with artists will evoke some innovative ways of resistance.

“We need to talk to each other, we need to think deeply about other domains, other than just talking in which we can impact, inspire, ignite and imagine a different world,” said Dohrn.

If you go

WHAT: “SFAI Presents the Weather Underground: A Night of Radical Imagination” panel discussion, Q&A and book-signing.
WHERE: James A. Little Theater, New Mexico School for the Deaf, 1060 Cerrillos Rd.
WHEN: Sunday, 6-8 p.m.
TICKETS: Free, but comes with the option to include a $10 or $25 donation to help fund the Equal Justice residency. Go to sfai.org for tickets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Originally published here:

Was 1968 our global 1905?
http://cyprus.indymedia.org/node/5166 

and archived here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20171003183813/http://cyprus.indymedia.org/node/5166

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

Yunanistan ve Kıbrıs isyanı

Solon Antartis: “Hristofyas Stalin kafasında...”

Hristofyas’ ınistifasını isteyen eylemcilerden, bağımsız medya ağı Cyprus Indymedia aktivisti Solon Antartis, Güney’ desiyasive sosyal gelişmeleri değerlendirdi:
“Hristofyas Stalin kafasında...”

Sayfa 1
http://cyprus.indymedia.org/Solon,Havadis,024-1.pdf

Sayfa 2
http://cyprus.indymedia.org/Solon,Havadis,025-1.pdf


Hasan YIKICI ve Baraka çok teşekkürler !!
~~~~~~~~~~~

Baraka Kültür Merkezi
http://www.baraka.cc



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dana Beal Sentenced to Prison

Dana Beal, at age 64 is still a devoted freedom fighter and totally committed to the Medical Marijuana Movement - in the defense of which he is going to prison.

Please read the specifics of his sentencing below and details from the trial that include testimonies of support that were made in Court by witnesses. Also, watch the half-hour video of his statement to the Court that summarizes a lot of his work in setting up support networks for Cannabis patients and his promotion of the anti-addiction herbal medicine called Ibogaine.

Through his work with Ibogaine, Dana has helped a lot of addicts to become free from heroin, crack cocaine, alcohol and other killer chemicals.

Dana is a co-founder of the Yippies, comrade of notable revolutionary activists such as Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Stu Albert, and he is the "superpower", mastermind and initiator of the Global Marijuana March campaign that sees annual gatherings and protests by thousands of Friends of Cannabis in several hundreds of cities around the planet every MayDay.

Video: Dana's Statement to the Court {please click on the image, or the link below} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKgOh_VSQe0&noredirect=1

Contact
You can communicate with Dana through his lawyer:
Byron Walker, Attorney At Law,
P.O. Box 10, La Farge, WI 54639

Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beal gets prison, extended supervision
J. Patrick Reilly, Editor/Co-Publisher

Those who came to the Iowa County courthouse Tuesday to testify on Irvin (Dana) Beal's behalf would not be shocked if he walked on water.

Beal has that affect on those he has helped. But the fact the 64 year old Beal was transporting 180 pounds of medium grade marijuana through Wisconsin when his 1997 Chevrolet Astro van was stopped last January 6 for expired registration, missing bumper and cracked tail light couldn't let him walk out of the courthouse a free man.

Instead, Circuit Judge Robert P. Van De Hey sentenced Beal to five years in prison, 2 1/2 under incarceration and 2 1/2 under extended supervision. Van De Hey also gave Beal credit for time served (267 days) and granted eligibility for early release. That is a better deal than the four years prison and four years extended supervision asked for by assistant DA Timothy Helmberger.

It is a way better deal than the 15 years and $50,000 fine that is the maximum allowed by law. Van De Hey reminded the crowded courtroom that while the passionate testimony offered by people from as far away as New Zealand, California, New York and Minnesota made valid points, he was forced to make a ruling that includes prison time.

"We are a country of laws," he said. "People have acknowledged his deeds but it is not fair to give him a free pass especially with that much marijuana on board. He has committed the offense and now must be held accountable."

"I have no problem with medical marijuana," Van De Hey said. "But I have to keep in mind the 180 pounds he had in his vehicle." "I don't make the laws but I have to enforce the laws as they are written," he said.

This will be Beals's sixth conviction. He was convicted of drug related offenses in 1971, 1987, 1993 and 2006. He was on probation for an arrest in Nebraska when his vehicle was stopped in Iowa County.

Beal testified prior to sentencing and told the judge he would not do that particular thing again. "I am too old," he said. "I need a different job."

He said he was taking the marijuana to be used for medical purposes in Michigan, New York and Washington, DC where it is legal. "Would law enforcement be upset if I was moving medical marijuana to where it was legal?" he asked.

A woman from New Zealand told the court how Beal had come to her country to help set up clinics and with the use of ibogaine, a drug that cures heroin addiction. Ibogaine is not legal in the United States. "If you put Dana away his work will stop," she said. "He has helped a lot of human beings in New Zealand and was planning to do the same in Australia. He is an expert and has paid for those who need treatment. This will all stop if he goes away. Help save our people from drug abuse."

Ed Rosenthal came from California to testify. "I have known Dana for 30 plus years," he said. "Dana saves lives. He is not a drug dealer. You talk community service? Dana has put in 30 years of community service. Don't be part of a system where a person is jailed for his efforts."

Rabbi Issac Freese from Brooklyn said he has known Beal for 20 years and only knows good about him. "He helped us open a medical co-op. He sacrificed himself. He lost money. He went ahead and did it anyway, not for himself but so people could get the help they need." "Dana is needed today by the people he has helped. He has given them shelter, relief and a trusting heart."

A former meth addict credited Beal with getting her sober. "Dana helped me get treatment," she said. "Now I am sober and have a beautiful four year old daughter." Manhattan attorney Doug Green called Beal a champion of medical marijuana and ibogaine. Dennis Brennen, formerly of New York and now of Wisconsin, turned to Dana when he couldn't afford medical marijuana at $30 to $40 per gram. "He could get it for me at $10 per gram. He has helped many get affordable medical marijuana."

Jackie Rickard testified from her wheelchair and credited Beal with helping her get medical marijuana for her condition.

Paul DeReinzo, a school teacher in New York, compared Beal to Galileo who was eventually proven right in his theories after 300 years. "Let's not take 300 years to prove Dana right," he said. "Dana's been right all along. We can do the right thing here for future generations."

Beal may eventually answer charges against him in other states.

From: http://www.thedodgevillechronicle.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=1869

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Valis is Valid
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Entheogens/message/3172

Free Dana Beal, Free Ourselves
http://www.facebook.com/groups/143405647913

Dana Beal is out of Jail - Freedom for all Friends of Cannabis! http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2009/11/dana-beal-is-our-of-jail-freedom-for.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Odyssey Dawn

Poetry and the Slaughter of Libya

"Those hypocrite imperialist wolves participating in the so called Dawn Odyssey operation against the people of Libya should keep in mind that Homer's true Odyssey lasted for 12 years, if not more. And after the war, the participating heroes and their families faced tragic consequences for the atrocities they committed in Troy! Most of the Greek tragedies are related to that message - that whatever you do, your actions and their repercussions will catch up to you. You will find them in front of you sooner or later, one way or the other, either in life or after death which is certain for all."
- Comment from a Cyprus IndyMedia supporter who writes under the penname "L1".

It's bad enough that the Imperialists are using Homer's poetry to colourize the bombing of Libya with "poetic respectability". But much worse is the sad and sickening fact that they have no understanding of the Politics of Karma they have stirred up with their lethal attacks. That was Homer's message in the Odyssey, a moral and political lesson they refuse to accept even as their Empire is crumbling from the inescapable diminishing rates of profit at home and large popular revolts abroad. The consciousness of the oppressor is always the epitome of ignorance and arrogance.

As the Peace Movement in the West begins to react to the new war against Libya, protests are beginning to arise various forms. Street protests, art, even mainstream television are infected with a spirit of opposition to the illegal and immoral military intervention in Libya.

Please watch Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, ripping it all apart - the pretentions, pretexts and hypocrisy of the bombings:

Odyssey Dawn - Unconstitutional War

[click]

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-21-2011/odyssey-dawn---unconstitutional-war

There are millions of Americans whose only contact with anti-government dissidents, with the Peace Movement, the radical and progressive community, is through Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Given this astounding reality, it's truly remarkable that such a clear political analysis and definite opposition to the war is able to surface and propagate through such a mainstream venue.

Protest at Downing Street, the UK Prime Minister's residence:

From:
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/7932

No Intervention - the Libyan People can Manage it Alone


From:
Party of the Laboring Masses - Philippines
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/03/476398.html

And in addition to bad poetry, the imperialist camp is plagued by more severe problems: the "coalition of the willing", the alliance of those who are involved in the attacks on Libya, is beginning to fall apart.

Competing interests, differences in strategy and tactics, lack of a unified command, all have contributed to a rather quick disarray among the Crusaders. Even the imperialist Corporate media recognize this and have dedicated long hours of research and worry over it:

"Analysis: Don't expect a quick ending for Gadhafi"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110322/ap_on_an/us_libya_stalemate_analysis

Even within NATO itself, things are not going very well:

“The problem about getting NATO involved is very simple. Possibly a majority of European member nations are very dubious about this operation,” said Jonathan Eyal, director of studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
Keeping NATO out of Libya airstrikes suits US and France
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/reuters/2011/03/23/295748/Keeping-NATO.htm

Plus, the global allies who had allowed and enabled the attacks by abstaining at the crucial UN Security Council meeting last week are now re-thinking their stance. Nuclear giants China and Russia are going through a re-evaluation of how much leeway they want to give to the US, UK and to other NATO countries and the Arab Corporate States to intervene in Libya.

"The Communist Party's flagship newspaper, The People's Daily, said in a commentary that the United States and its allies are violating international rules and that in places like Iraq “the unspeakable suffering of its people are a mirror and a warning.”
Putin joins fierce opposition to Libya ‘crusade’
Russian PM slams 'US foreign policy trend of interfering in other countries' affairs.'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4045538,00.htm

and
Communist leader slams Moscow’s passive stance on Libya
http://rt.com/politics/communist-russia-passive-libya/

And More Protests are Underway

Greek Communists protest attacks on Libya
http://m.thehindu.com/news/international/article1559035.ece/?secid=3044

Some Americans already protesting U.S. military involvement in Libya
http://m.ibtimes.com/libya-us-125486.html

There's already a new kind of motion on the map. US President Obama is seeking to pass off the leadership of the attacks against Libya to "some other power", and to reduce US involvement, even as the military industrial complex seeks a deeper US involvement because, war, now is the only major source of profits for the dying Empire.

And the unexpected upsurge of the Arab revolt, turned upside down now by imperialist intervention in Libya, has opened up the "wild card" of consequences. Is it possible that this war in Libya, the continued occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Cyprus, the revolts and fermentation in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Kurdistan, Pakistan, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, are going to have any effect other than to harden and deepen the peoples' desire for freedom and self-determination?

In the modern era of Imperialism, it always comes back to what Che Guevara taught: "Create two, three...many Vietnams".

In the now famous all over the globe "Message to the Tricontinental" that he wrote in 1966, he explained:

"...let us develop genuine proletarian internationalism, with international proletarian armies.

...Every drop of blood spilled in a land under whose flag one was not born is an experience gathered by the survivor to be applied later in the struggle of one's own country. And every people that liberates itself is a step in the battle for the liberation of one's own people....

We cannot evade the call of the hour. Vietnam teaches us this with its permanent lesson in heroism, its tragic daily lesson of struggle and death in order to gain the final victory.

Over there, the soldiers of imperialism encounter the discomforts of those who, accustomed to the standard of living that the United States boasts, have to confront a hostile land; the insecurity of those who cannot move without feeling that they are stepping on enemy territory; death for those who go outside of fortified compounds; the permanent hostility of the entire population. All this is provoking repercussions inside the United States. It is leading to the appearance of a factor that was attenuated by imperialism at full strength: the class struggle inside its own territory.

How close and bright would the future appear if two, three, many Vietnams flowered on the face of the globe, with their quota of death and their immense tragedies, with their daily heroism, with their repeated blows against imperialism, forcing it to disperse its forces under the lash of the growing hatred of the peoples of the world!"

Indeed!
Cyprus IndyMedia Collective
http://cyprus.indymedia.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guevara: `Create Two, Three, Many Vietnams'
Excerpts of the Message published by the Militant
http://www.themilitant.com/1996/6036/6036_33.html

"Message to the Tricontinental" - the full text
http://www.marxsite.com/guevara.htm

Che Guevara on Cyprus

"The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China have given serious warning to the United States. Not only the peace of the world is in danger in this situation, but also the lives of millions of human beings in this part of Asia are being constantly threatened and subjected to the whim of the United States invader.

Peaceful coexistence has also been put to the test in a brutal manner in Cyprus, due to pressures from the Turkish Government and NATO, compelling the people and the government of Cyprus to make a firm and heroic stand in defense of their sovereignty.

In all these parts of the world imperialism attempts to impose its version of what coexistence should be. It is the oppressed peoples in alliance with the socialist camp which must show them the meaning of true coexistence, and it is the obligation of the United Nations to support them.

We must also say that it is not only in relations between sovereign states that the concept of peaceful coexistence must be clearly defined. As Marxists we have maintained that peaceful coexistence among nations does not encompass coexistence between the exploiters and the exploited, the oppressor and the oppressed."
From:
Colonialism is Doomed
Speech delivered before the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 11, 1964
http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1964/12/11-alt.htm

Libya: as the Civil War Expands
Research and Dialogue on the Reality of the Conflict's Background
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/libya-as-civil-war-expands.html

Libya! - Amid the Massacres and Machine-gun Fire: Questions and Answers
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/libya-amid-massacres-and-machine-gun.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Libya! - Amid the Massacres and Machine-gun Fire: Questions and Answers

The Arab Revolution Spreads to Libya, Trigerring a Civil War and a Myriad Question Marks

How did the Gaddafi power structure, that used to be a long-standing progressive, anti-Imperialist and anti-colonialist political force with large significance for the Left regionally and globally, become an autocratic authoritarian regime and then ended up joining the "Western umbrella" in recent years transforming itself into an ally of Imperialism, oppressing the people with guns and tanks bought from the US and the UK, now bombing the cities in rebellion with aircraft supplied by the West?

And where is the revolution going? In some of the towns and cities being "liberated" by the armed insurgents, the new flag of the revolution is... the old flag of the pro-capitalist Monarchy, overthrown by Gaddafi long ago. Where is this conflict headed?

Please study this quarter of an hour video program with Professor Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University, exploring some of the history, the forces, and the questions involved in the Libyan uprising in dialogue with Paul Jay, of the Real News Network. The Real News Network is an independent news source that has evolved within the US Left (please use the link, or click on the picture):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AvfATCBmJg

Class Politics

...of course play a significant role in shaping current events in Libya, especially valuable when seen from the perspective of the old feudal class structures being replaced by pre-socialist formations in the transition from a pre-industrial to a modern industrial political economy.

Part of the reason why the uprising has quickly escalated to open armed insurrection and is now an open civil war is the nature of the administration that Gaddafi's revolution had created when remaking the country decades ago. With Gaddafi's help and under his initiative during his progressive and revolutionary phase, Libya made a transition from a highly centralized feudal-capitalist authoritarian Monarchy to a system of administration based on popular participation and local power with many Leftist values embedded in the structure, utilizating the petroleum industry to fund some of these social changes and to benefit the people. In Libya there is a system of decentralized direct democracy founded on peoples' power called the Jamahiriya, which does not rely on a web of central administration. Instead, power is vested in local and regional Committes that are the instruments of and the forums through which the population (at least in theory) exercices power.

Even after Gaddafi made peace with the Western Imperialist powers (in the middle of the last decade), the progressive system of local and regional social self-administration remained in place. It is this system that the population is now activating, arming itself and fighting against the oppressive regime.

The same thing had occured when the Soviet Union and its satellite countries underwent an uprising that did away with the Soviet system. Despite the Western media lies about the Soviet Union there was no "iron fist" to crush the opposition. The population utilized the local Committees and labour organizations to mobilize against the regime, and even though the Soviet Union had a much more centralized and hierarchical system of administration, the uprisings were mostly peaceful and very few people were killed in the process of the Soviet Union's dissolution. Unfortunately, instead of advancing forward to improve and deepen the socialist formations, they re-installed capitalism.

As the capitalist media apply themselves to try to explain what is going on in Libya, they try to fit the country's decentralized administration model into their "explanations" of events, but do not succeed in making much sense:

"The system of rule created by Khadafy — the "Jamahiriya," or "rule by masses" — is highly decentralized, run by "popular committees" in a complicated hierarchy that effectively means there is no real center of decisionmaking except Khadafy, his sons and their top aides."
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_17448006

"The country is nominally run as the “state of the masses,” a socialist, decentralized system of Mr. Gadhafi's own devising known as a jamahiriya, where local committees have wide leeway."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/the-people-are-powerful-in-the-face-of-gadhafis-terror/article1915042/

"CNN -- Libya's Moammar Gadhafi is clinging to power despite a wave of opposition due in part to a legacy of decentralized authority and divided tribal politics that has been reinforced during the embattled strongman's four-decade rule, analysts told CNN Tuesday."
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/22/libya.gadhafi.support/

There Is a Great Danger

...now that the revolution in Libya might open the doors to Western Imperialism in a more complete and influential way than before. If Gaddafi's alignment with the Western Capitalist powers in recent years was disastrous - and it was - enabling further incursions by the Empire into Libya to dominate and exploit its oil and population will be catastrophic.

So far there are no indications that the revolutionary forces have any undestanding of this, nor any political positions at all other than righteous and courageous opposition to the regime. We hope that this courage will be complemented with political knowledge and wisdom as to the dangers ahead and that the revolution will aim to preserve and deepen the gains of the Jamahiriya, rather than attempt to get rid of them.

All power to the people!
Cyprus IndyMedia Collective
http://Cyprus.IndyMedia.org
~~~~~~~~~~

More on the Arab Revolution:

The Rising of Egypt's Working Class
The real “intelligence failure” of the ruling class
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/rising-of-egypts-working-class.html

Αλεξάνδρεια: Έκπτωτος ο Βασιλεύς Μουμπάρακ
Ο Λαός Πανηγυρίζει στους Δρόμους !
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/blog-post_12.html

Two Members of Cyprus IndyMedia Assaulted
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/two-members-of-cyprus-indymedia.html

Η Αιγυπτιακή Αντίσταση
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/blog-post_06.html

When the Moon Rises on The One You Love
The Arab Revolution
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-moon-rises-on-one-you-love.html


About the Photos:

The two photos above were published widely on the internet by the establishment press with the following text.

Residents stand on tank
Residents stand on a tank inside a security forces compound in Benghazi, Libya on Monday, Feb. 21, 2011. Libyan protesters celebrated in the streets of Benghazi on Monday, claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting, and anti-government unrest spread to the capital with clashes in Tripoli's main square for the first time. (AP Photo/Alaguri)

Residents stand
Residents stand on a tank holding a pre-Gadhafi era national flag inside a security forces compound in Benghazi, Libya on Monday, Feb. 21, 2011. Libyan protesters celebrated in the streets of Benghazi on Monday, claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting, and anti-government unrest spread to the capital with clashes in Tripoli's main square for the first time. (AP Photo/Alaguri)

The Rising of Egypt's Working Class

The real “intelligence failure” of the ruling class

"... revolutions are not just about changing institutions. Most profoundly, they are about the dramatic remaking of the downtrodden. Revolutions are schools of profound self-education. They destroy submission and resignation, and they release long-repressed creative energies – intelligence, solidarity, invention, self-activity. In so doing, they reweave the fabric of everyday life. The horizons of possibility expand. The unthinkable – that ordinary people might control their lives – becomes both thinkable and practical." - David McNally

The following article by David McNally documents the conscious rising of the working class in Egypt and how its participation in struggles in recent years provided a foundation for the political uprising that took place just now in the country. And it traces how the political uprising, in turn, gave rise to an even wider participation of working people in the political uprising, enriching it with labour strikes, occupations and self-organized revolutionary institutions including peoples' clinics, security forces, instruments of direct democracy, and the spreading of self-organization model throughout all levels of society, from the streets to the universities and the workplaces, from the the occupied factories to the front lines of street battles.

Liberation is an act of simultaneous conscious awakening and direct action, a concrete engagement with Reality guided by a freed Consciousness, a massive collective labour of love that conjoins praxis and theory; it's a spiral in which labour struggles and political struggles fuel and nourish each other to turn in a widening rising helix. As that helix turns, it brings in more people into its process, sculpting an expansion of the liberated community outwards and higher. David McNally's article paints a picture of how this took place in Egypt and anchors it to the work of other prominent revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, who had a lot to say about the revolutionary moment, and its process.

Observing the events of Russian Revolution of 1905, she wrote that they unfolded contrary to the expectations of dogmatists and authoritarian committee-men: "Instead of the rigid and hollow scheme of an arid political action carried out by the decision of the highest committees and furnished with a plan and panorama, we see a bit of pulsating like of flesh and blood, which cannot be cut out of the large frame of the revolution but is connected with all parts of the revolution by a thousand veins."

A brilliant analyst and thoroughly committed revolutionary, Rosa Luxemburg saw the complexities of the revolutionary phenomenon and called it as it is, a pulsation of Life affirming itself:

"The mass strike, as the Russian Revolution shows it to us, is such a changeable phenomenon that it reflects all the phases of the political and economic struggle, all stages and factors of the revolution. Its adaptability, its efficiency, the factors of its origin are constantly changing. It suddenly opens new and wide perspectives of the revolution when it appears to have already arrived in a narrow pass and where it is impossible for anyone to reckon upon it with any degree of certainty. It flows now like a broad billow over the whole kingdom, and now divides into a gigantic network of narrow streams; now it bubbles forth from under the ground like a fresh spring and now is completely lost under the earth. Political and economic strikes, mass strikes and partial strikes, demonstrative strikes and fighting strikes, general strikes of individual branches of industry and general strikes in individual towns, peaceful wage struggles and street massacres, barricade fighting – all these run through one another, run side by side, cross one another, flow in and over one another – it is a ceaselessly moving, changing sea of phenomena. And the law of motion of these phenomena is clear: it does not lie in the mass strike itself nor in its technical details, but in the political and social proportions of the forces of the revolution."
http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1906/mass-strike/ch04.htm

Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net
~~~~~~~~~~

Mubarak's Folly:
The Rising of Egypt's Workers

by David McNally

Rarely do our rulers look more absurd than when faced with a popular upheaval. As fear and apathy are broken, ordinary people – housewives, students, sanitation workers, the unemployed – remake themselves. Having been objects of history, they become its agents. Marching in their millions, reclaiming public space, attending meetings and debating their society's future, they discover in themselves capacities for organization and action they had never imagined. They arrest secret police, defend their communities and their rallies, organize the distribution of food, water and medical supplies. Exhilarated by new solidarities and empowered by the understanding that they are making history, they shed old habits of deference and passivity.

It is this – the self-transformation of oppressed people – that elites can never grasp. That is what explains the truly delusional character of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's speech on Thursday, February 10, where he prattled on in surreal disconnection from events. But while the aging dictator may be uniquely out of touch, he merely reflects the biases of his class. For it is a general characteristic of our rulers that they imagine those below them to be inherently stupid and deferential. They treat the downtrodden as labouring drones and cannon fodder for military adventures. They feed them lies and empty promises and send in the riot police when the subjugated get unruly. And most of the time they get away with it.

That is why popular revolutions are inexplicable to them. As ordinary people cast off resignation and obedience, as they take control of their communities and reclaim the streets, they become unrecognizable to their rulers. This is the real “intelligence failure” of the ruling class. Contrary to the terms of debate in security circles, it is not that they missed some indicators of institutional change; it is rather that all their models are based on the presumption of popular passivity. “Ordinary Egyptians have a reputation as fatalists,” pronounced a former Canadian diplomat to Egypt in the early days of the revolution, explaining that Egypt would not go the way of Tunisia, where dictator Ben Ali was toppled only weeks earlier.[1] In so doing, the diplomat revealed not only his own foolishness, but also the tone deaf incapacity of elites to comprehend people's power.

People's Creative Energies

After all, revolutions are not just about changing institutions. Most profoundly, they are about the dramatic remaking of the downtrodden. Revolutions are schools of profound self-education. They destroy submission and resignation, and they release long-repressed creative energies – intelligence, solidarity, invention, self-activity. In so doing, they reweave the fabric of everyday life. The horizons of possibility expand. The unthinkable – that ordinary people might control their lives – becomes both thinkable and practical.

All of this eludes bosses, bureaucrats, generals, politicians, and the vast majority of journalists because they do not understand the inner heart of a genuinely revolutionary process – that having taken to the stage of history, oppressed people are never again the same.

It is this error that explains the frantic tacking and turning of rulers confronted with mass insurgency. One moment they make concessions, the next moment they send in the goons – all in the belief that ordinary people can be beaten back into submission, or bribed with crumbs from the tables of the rich. But the longer they do this, the more they force the mass movement to broaden its base and deepen its struggles. President Ben Ali made this mistake in Tunisia; Mubarak keeps making it in Egypt. And by clinging to power in the face of mass opposition, they give the lowest layers of society the time and space to enter the political sphere. The result is that popular revolutions open the doors to great upsurges of working class struggle.

That has been Mubarak's greatest folly. It is why Egyptian capitalists, parts of the Egyptian regime and the U.S. state have concluded that he has to go. But the genie of the Egyptian workers having now been awakened, it will be very hard to put it back in the bottle.

The Birth of Popular Power

Philosopher Peter Hallward is among those few commentators who have grasped the inner workings of the Egyptian Revolution. Writing in the Guardian of London, he observes:

“Every step of the way, the basic fact of the uprising has become more obvious and more explicit: with each new confrontation, the protestors have realised, and demonstrated, that they are more powerful than their oppressors. When they are prepared to act in sufficient numbers with sufficient determination, the people have proved that there’s no stopping them. Again and again, elated protestors have marvelled at the sudden discovery of their own power.”[2]

Participants repeatedly describe how their fear has lifted. “When we stopped being afraid we knew we would win,” Ahmad Mahmoud told a reporter. “What we have achieved,” proclaimed another, “is the revolution in our minds.” The significance of such a revolution in attitudes is inestimable. But such shifts do not happen at the level of consciousness alone; they are inextricably connected to a revolution in the relations of everyday life – by way of the birth of popular power. And these new forms of people's power and radical democracy from below have emerged as steps necessary to preserve the Revolution and keep it moving it forward.

So, when violently attacked, as they were on February 2, 2011, by undercover police and goons of the ruling party wielding guns, knives, Molotov cocktails and more, the insurgents held their ground and fought back, holding Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. In the process, they extended their grassroots self-organization. As reporters for the Washington Post noted, the rebels of Tahrir Square created popular prisons to hold undercover security forces, and people's clinics to care for the wounded:

“Refusing to end their 10-day old demonstration, protesters set up makeshift hospitals in alleyways off the square to treat their wounded, and fashioned a holding cell in a nearby travel office to detain those they suspected of inciting the violence. Organizers said they had captured more than 350 ‘thugs of the government’ among the pro-government demonstrators, some carrying police identification cards, and turned them over to the Egyptian army.”[3]

In the same spirit, the movement has formed People's Protection forces, staffed by both women and men, to provide safety and security in neighbourhoods and in the mass marches and assemblies. In some towns, like El Arish, the biggest city in the northern Sinai, official police and security forces have melted away only to be replaced by armed Popular Committees, which have maintained the peace.[4]

Developing alongside these forms of popular self-organization are new practices of radical democracy. In Tahrir Square, the nerve center of the Revolution, the crowd engages in direct decision-making, sometimes in its hundreds of thousands. Organized into smaller groups, people discuss and debate, and then send elected delegates to consultations about the movement's demands. As one journalist explains, “delegates from these mini-gatherings then come together to discuss the prevailing mood, before potential demands are read out over the square's makeshift speaker system. The adoption of each proposal is based on the proportion of boos or cheers it receives from the crowd at large.”[5]

Tahrir Square and public spaces in Alexandria, Suez and dozens of smaller cities, are now sites of ongoing festivals of the oppressed. Describing the popular security services and people's “food supply chains,” demonstrator Karim Medhat Ennarah proclaims, “We have already created a liberated republic within the heart of Egypt.”[6]

Enter the Workers

Years of courageous struggle by Egypt's workers were decisive in creating the conditions for the popular uprising. And now, mere weeks into the upsurge, tens of thousands of workers are mobilizing, raising both economic and political demands as part of a rising wave of strikes. The consequences could be momentous.

Social movements generally have been on the move recently in Egypt. The years 2002-03 saw important stirrings of political protest in solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada and in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Shortly after this, the Kefaya (Enough) movement organized for democratic reform and the feminist group, We Are Watching You (Shayfenkom) came out in defence of women's rights.

But by 2004 it was strike action, sit-ins and demonstrations by workers that comprised the most determined and persistent oppositional activity – most of it illegal under the emergency edicts and laws that deny workers the right to form independent unions. Over the past six years or so, more than two million workers engaged in thousands of direct actions. Most importantly, they regularly won significant concessions on wages and working conditions. The result was a growing confidence among workers – so much so that genuinely independent unions began to emerge in a society where the official unions are effectively extensions of the state.

In 2006-07 mass working class protest erupted in the Nile Delta, spearheaded by the militant action of 50,000 workers in textiles and the cement and poultry industries. This was followed by strikes of train drivers, journalists, truckers, miners and engineers. Then 2007-08 saw another labour explosion, with riots at the state-owned weaving factory in Al-Mahla Al-Kobra. The youth-based April 6th Movement emerged at this point in support of workers’ strikes. Meanwhile, workers began to address the general interests of all working people, particularly the poorest, by pressing the demand for a substantial increase in the minimum wage.

Now, workers are again throwing their collective power onto the scales of the political struggle in Egypt. And Mubarak and his cronies will live to regret it.

In the course of a few days during the week of February 7, tens of thousands of them stormed into action. Thousands of railworkers took strike action, blockading railway lines in the process. Six thousand workers at the Suez Canal Authority walked off the job, staging sit-ins at Suez and two other cities. In Mahalla, 1,500 workers at Abul Sebae Textiles struck and blockaded the highway. At the Kafr al-Zayyat hospital hundreds of nurses staged a sit-in and were joined by hundreds of other hospital employees.

Across Egypt, thousands of others – bus workers in Cairo, employees at Telecom Egypt, journalists at a number of newspapers, workers at pharmaceutical plants and steel mills – joined the strike wave. They demanded improved wages, the firing of ruthless managers, back pay, better working conditions and independent unions. In many cases they also called for the resignation of President Mubarak. And in some cases, like that of the 2,000 workers at Helwan Silk Factory, they demanded the removal of their company's Board of Directors. Then there were the thousands of faculty members at Cairo University who joined the protests, confronted security forces, and prevented Prime Minister Ahmed Shariq from getting to his government office.[7]

What we are seeing, in other words, is the rising of the Egyptian working class. Having been at the heart of the popular upsurge in the streets, tens of thousands of workers are now taking the revolutionary struggle back to their workplaces, extending and deepening the movement in the process. In so doing, they are proving the continuing relevance of the analysis developed by the great Polish-German socialist, Rosa Luxemburg. In her book, The Mass Strike,
http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1906/mass-strike/
based on the experience of mass strikes of 1905 against the Tsarist dictatorship in Russia, Luxemburg argued that truly revolutionary movements develop by way of interacting waves of political and economic struggle, each enriching the other. In a passage that could have been inspired by the upheaval in Egypt, she explains,

“Every new onset and every fresh victory of the political struggle is transformed into a powerful impetus for the economic struggle... After every foaming wave of political action a fructifying deposit remains behind from which a thousand stalks of economic struggle burst forth. And conversely. The workers condition of ceaseless economic struggle with the capitalists keeps their fighting spirit alive in every political interval ...”
http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1906/mass-strike/ch04.htm

And so it is in the Egyptian Revolution. Tens of millions of workers – in transportation, healthcare, textiles, education, heavy industry, the service sector – are being awakened and mobilized. They are fusing demands for economic justice to those for democracy, and they are among the hundreds of thousands building popular power and self-organization. Moreover, should the rising of the workers move toward mass strikes that paralyze the economy, the Egyptian Revolution would move to a new and more powerful level.

What the coming weeks will bring is still uncertain. But Mubarak's folly has triggered an upsurge of workers’ struggle whose effects will endure. “The most precious, because lasting, thing in this ebb and flow of the [revolutionary] wave is . . . the intellectual, cultural growth of the working class,” wrote Rosa Luxemburg. ["Development of the Mass Strike Movement in Russia":
http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1906/mass-strike/ch03.htm ]

In Tahrir Square and elsewhere thousands of signs depict Mubarak accompanied by the words “Game Over.” For the workers of Egypt it is now, “Game On.” •


David McNally teaches political science at York University, Toronto and is the author of the recently published, Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance (PM Press)
http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=DavidMcNally#bookinfo
This article first appeared on his blog, http://davidmcnally.org

Endnotes:
1. Michael Bell, “Will Egypt go the way of Tunisia?” Globe and Mail, January 27, 2011:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/article1884022.ece

2. Peter Hallward, “Egypt's popular revolution will change the world,” Guardian, February 9, 2011. Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/09/egypt-north-africa-revolution

3. Leila Fadel, Will Englund and Debbi Wilgoren, “5 shot in 2nd day of bloody clashes; amid outcry Egyptian PM apologizes,” Washington Post, February 3, 2011:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/02/AR2011020202176.html

4. Tobias Buck, “Palestinians hope for change and resumption of border trade,” Financial Times, February 8, 2011.

5. Jack Shenker, “Cairo's biggest protest yet demands Mubarak's immediate departure,” Guardian, February 5, 2011:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/05/egypt-protest-demands-mubarak-departure

6. Quoted in Hallward.

7. My sources on workers’ protests include Aljazeera, Al-Masry Al-Youm, the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, newsocialist.org, and socialistworker.org. Special thanks to Jack Hicks for documents and reports.

The article was published by "The Bullet", an organ of the Socialist Project from Canada:
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/460.php

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Αλεξάνδρεια: Έκπτωτος ο Βασιλεύς Μουμπάρακ
Ο Λαός Πανηγυρίζει στους Δρόμους !
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/blog-post_12.html

Η Αιγυπτιακή Αντίσταση
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/blog-post_06.html

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