Living in cronavirusworld 53: Without struggle there can be no progress

5/14

"Without a struggle there can be no progress"

Around mid morning, I get a call from one of my communist friends. (I’m really going to have to write that essay sone day!) Let me be clear….I categorically reject the broadly held opinion that there is a moral equivalence between  communism and Nazism. I  am fully aware of the death counts accumulated by Stalin and Mao.  The objective fact is that every one of our major belief systems, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Communism….has shown themselves to be fully capable of murder. Period. Communists have been some of the most honorable people I have known.  Humble, dedicated, disciplined, capable of self sacrifice and with a deep love of humanity. Nazism, all forms of fascsim, ultimately has no love of people and is built on the idea that some people are superior to others and that there is no obligation to the common good. Even Christianity is based on an ultimately negative view of humankind.  Communism, on the other hand, is perhaps, hopelessly utopian its view of humanity, which is its blessing, and to me  as a reformed Christian, perhaps its curse. Recent studies are showing that the velvet revolutions of the 1980's were not fought to end communism or socialism. The desire was to replace the sclerotic system of  nomenklatura with an authentic socialist structure. As in all systems , the nomenklatura was nimble and was driven to figure out how to simply shift their power into a new configuration. This was not as Fukuyama called it, the end of history. It was not the victory of liberal democracy but of gangsterism. The Soviet Union was no more communist than the US was a democracy.  So that’s enough of that for now, just don’t give me the moral equivalent line, OK?

My  friend is interested in what is going on out there. Especially among progressives. The fact is, we are at an unprecedented moment. Six months ago, when my friends were seeking to “drive out the Trump-Pence regime now,”and were working to build an actual revolution now, I felt they were badly out of touch with society. Bernie Sanders had made the word socialist acceptable in polite society.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad were giving marginalized peoples representatives who looked and sounded like them, as if voting could actually also result in a voice to be heard. Elected congresspeople could  actually express criticism of Israel on the floor of congress  and survive.  It was not a good time to try and convince people that there was no real difference in who you voted for when objective reality seemed to tell a different story. But that was then. The democratic liberal elite closed ranks to quash the Sanders candidacy and promoted the all but finished Joe Biden whose moribund campaign had been all but buried with obituaries.  And then the Coronavirus invaded and the whole world ground to a hault. (Meanwhile, Sanders will not even be on the New York primary ballot,  because he’s “not running” anymore  and AOC has been bounced from the ostensibly socialist Working Families Party line.) The world has changed.

I told my friend that it was clear to my circle that we are at a critical moment and nothing will ever be the same again. The virus has exposed the abject failure of this  system to protect, to care for, the lives of its people, and globally speaking, any people. The US in particular has been revealed to be a failed state incapable of rational response to a health crisis. In the popular view, we have gone from being admired…or feared…to being pitied. And beyond that there is the thought that there might be more method to the madness than we’d like to know. That they may know exactly what they are doing. There is no going back. The question is, where do we want to go and how do we get there?

I have been profoundly moved by the presence of nurses and other  health care workers on the lines with Amazon and fast food workers and signage that says clearly  that nothing changes as long as capitalism rules. 

I urged my friend to get his colleagues to seriously engage people around the proposed Constitution for the New Socialist Republic inNorth America. ( Can be read at https://revcom.us/socialistconstitution/SocialistConstitution-en.pdf)  

The work of Revolutionary Communist Party Chair Bob Avakian, (or BA as his followers call him,)  the constitution is the most comprehensive detailed projection of how a truly socialist republic might function that I have seen. Whatever else you might say about Avakian, no one else from the radical left has gone this far in their vision. Avakian is nothing but thorough. Often annoyingly, irritatingly so. ( I can’t imagine asking BA for an “elevator speech.”) I suggested to my friend that their cadre ought to commit to a 1000 conversations, engaging friends and neighbors over the question of so what is a better way of doing things? The way the corona virus crisis has been mishandled in this country provides the  perfect opportunity to define what a humane and effective policy regarding pandemics would  look like.  The most interesting  aspects of Avakian’s alternative are that it is proactive, international and cooperative by nature and actually takes science seriously.  It’s a great place to begin a conversation. A thousand conversations. (A thousand flowers?)

Be clear, I am only saying what I am saying, nothing more.  But the conversation about where we are going needs start now. The fact is, we also need to be aware of what the  stakes are.  Those currently in power  will not move aside any easier than the nomenklatura gangsters. They’re simply gangsters with different tailors. The 50th anniversary of Kent State (and Jackson State) reminds us of how the power structure responds to threat. As do the assault weapon armed thugs who shut down the Michigan state house. At the end of the day, this is serious business. 

I needed a long walk.  At the Fredrick Douglass Houses I saw a sign. “Without struggle, there can be no progress.” 

In another window, I see lyrics by Si Kahn:

 The more I study history, the more I seem to find

That in every generation there are times just like that time

When folks like you and me who thought that we were all alone

Within this honored movement found a home.  

...in every generation...

I go to pick up  a prescription and walk all the way home. Noticing the restaurants reopening. And those who have given up already, their windows filled with the “never coming back” brown paper.  There are “thank you’s” everywhere.

Starbucks wants us to know they love us.

Starbucks loves us

Governor Cuomo has apparently become a sex symbol.

apparently the governor has become a sex symbol

I am truly thankful for his leadership. He has truly risen to the occasion and spoken to the people with clarity and compassion.  Nevertheless, I am still appalled at the lack of response to those whose lives are treated so cavalierly in prisons and homeless shelters. On the way home, I see a blocked off street as part of the city’s new plan to open up more space for people to move about. 

open streets 

I am clearly feeling worn. I’m tired of this.