El Suicidio de Maleva Ferreyra

This is the Spanish translation of Public Suicide Fad Hits Argentina by Frederick Furby from Argentina.

I am looking for people to to translate this post into German and Korean. Email me if you are interested.

French translation here (en Français).

Warning! Graphic footage! Do not watch if you are easily upset!

La moda del suicidio público se ha expandido a Argentina. Arriba esta el video en vivo del suicidio de Mario "Malevo" Ferreyra, un ex-funcionario policial argentino. Se suicidó en vivo en la televisión en la provincia de Tucumán, Argentina. Hay una version de 8,4 MB del video con mejor resolución que se puede descargar en este sitio.

Malevo Ferreyra era Jefe de la Brigada de Investigaciones de Estado de Tucumán en Argentina en los finales de 1970 en el apogeo de la Guerra Sucia. En 1993, fue condenado por asesinar a tres ladrones en 1991.

Él se escapó de la corte agarrando una granada de mano en cada mano (!) y más tarde se entregó después de que el ex gobernador de la provincia redujera su sentencia. Cumplió siete años por los asesinatos. Él gobernó Tucumán con mano de hierro, antes, durante y después de la Guerra Sucia.

Se emitió una orden de arresto contra él por la Guardia Nacional ayer por secuestro y tortura durante la Guerra Sucia. Los crímenes fueron cometidos cuando se sirvió en un depósito secreto de armas convertido en un centro de detencion durante la Guerra Sucia. Justo antes de que la policía viniera a arrestarlo, se suicidó enfrente de su esposa e hijos en TV nacional.

Él recien terminaba la entrevista con el canal de TV Cronica en la cima de un tanque de agua en su casa rural en Tucumán. Su casa estaba rodeada por policias y él iba a ser arrestado en pocos minutos. El protesto su inocencia, y después dijo "Hasta siempre, Maria (te amare por siempre, Maria)," desenfundó una pistola calibre .45 de su bota y se disparó detrás de la oreja. Murió camino al hospital unos momentos después.

Después de que se disparara en la cabeza, su hijo lo abrazo y su hija entró en pánico.

Familiares de las víctimas dijeron que el suicidio era parte de un pacto de silencio que aseguraba que Ferreyra no testificara contra sus ex-colegas.

La política argentina es asquerosa, y algunas veces mortal, negocios, con mucha impunidad, pero eso parece que esta cambiando.

Una foto típica de "El Malevo" con su usual sombrero. Parece una forma dificil de vivir compañeros. Su nombre tal vez viene de la famosa película muda de un muy conocido director argentino José A. Ferreyra (mismo apellido) de 1921 llamada La Maleva. No estoy seguro de qué trata la película. Ferreyra es un apellido común en Argentina. El nombre puede ser también en honor a un famoso futbolista argentino llamado Osmar "Malevo" Ferreyra (video).

Aquí hay otra foto de "El Malevo". No estoy seguro de qué esta pasando aca, ni quién es la mujer. Él parece tener un caracter muy rudo. Al igual que esos hombres al rededor de él. La política provincial argentina es desagradable, es cosa dura y difícil. Una especie de mezcla entre siciliano y mexicano. Muchos de los tipos duros en el poder usan todo su peso político, no nada de constitucional, las detenciones políticas y los ataques, el hostigamiento y los ataques a periodistas, jueces corruptos y venales. Las cosas usuales.

Tucumán es un algo en retroceso, "central" provincia en el interior de la Argentina. Es agrícola allí en su mayoría, con una gran cantidad de cultivo de caña de azúcar. Los policías y los políticos en esta parte de la Argentina son algunos de los más brutales, venales, exclusivistas y corruptos del país.

La Mode du Suicide en Public Arrive à l'Argentine

This is the French translation of the Public Suicide Fad Comes to Argentina post, translated by Natalie from France.

I am looking for people to to translate this post into German and Korean. Email me if you are interested.

Spanish version (en Español).

Attention! Personnes sensibles s’abstenir!!!

La mode du suicide en public s’est répandue en Argentine. Ci-dessus la vidéo du suicide en direct à la télé de Mario « Malevo » Ferreyra, un ancient policier. Il s’est suicidé en direct dans la province de Tucumàn en Argentine. Ici vous pouvez télécharger la vidéo avec une résolution plus haute.

Malevo Ferreyra était le chef de la brigade d’investigation de l’état du Tucumàn en Argentine dans les dernières années ’70 au plus fort de la sale guerre. En 1993, il fut condamné pour le meurtre de trois voleurs en 1991.

Il s’est échappé du tribunal en empoignant une grenade dans chaque main et plus tard s’est livré à la police après que le gouverneur de la province ait réduit sa peine. Il a fait sept ans de prison pour les meurtres. Il a dirigé Tucuman d’une main de fer, pendant et après la sale guerre.

Le mandat d’arrêt emis hier par la Garde Nationale pour enlevement et torture durant la sale guerre. Les crimes ont été commis alors qu’il était en service dans un dépôt secret d’armes « déguisé » en centre de détention. Juste avant que la police vienne l’arrêter, il s’est suicidé devant sa femme, ses enfants et les caméras de la télé nationale.

Il venait à peine de terminer une interview pour la chaine Cronica, juché sur une citerne d’eau, dans sa demeure à Tucuman. Sa maison était cernée par la police et il aurait été arrêté sous peu. Il a clamé son innocence, puis dit « Hasta siempre, Maria (je t’aimerai toujours Maria), ensuite il a sorti son calibre 45 de sa botte et s’est tiré une balle derrière l’oreille. Il est mort sur le chemin de l’hôpital peu après.

Après qu’il se soit tiré dans la tête, son fils l’a pris dans ses bras et sa fille a paniqué.

Les familles des victimes ont affirmé que le suicide faisait part d’un pacte secret qui assurerait que Ferreyra ne puisse témoigner contre ses anciens collègues.

La politique argentine est moche, et quelquefois mortelle, les affaires se font parfois en toute impunité, mais il parait que cela est en train de changer.

Une image typique de "el malevo" avec son sombrero habituel. Un air de mauvais garçon. Le nom vient peut-être du film muet dirigé par le très connu réalisateur argentin José A. Ferreyra de 1921 appelé La Maleva. Je ne suis sûr de l’histoire du film. Ferreyra est un nom de famille très répandu en Argentine. Le nom pourrait venir aussi d’un jeu de mots sur le pseudo d’un footballeur argentin nommé Osmar "Malevo" Ferreyra (vidéo).

Voici une autre photo de El Malevo. Je ne suis pas sûr de ce qu’il se passe ici, ni de qui soit la femme. C’est un individu brutal et les gars qui sont avec lui le sont également. La politique locale est extrêmement pourrie. Une sorte de croisement entre la Sicile et le Mexique. Un tas des robustes gars au pouvoir sévissaient dans le coin, pas trop légalement, commettant des arrestations arbitraires, agressions, harcèlement à des journalistes, corruption de juges. Comme d’habitude.

Tucuman se trouve quelque peu en arrière, c’est une province de l’arrière-pays argentin. Très rurale, avec beaucoup de champs de canne à sucre. Les flics et les hommes politiques de cette partie de l’Argentine sont parmi les plus brutaux, avides, fermés et corrompus du pays.

Il y a encore des Indiens qui vivent dans cette partie d’Argentine et les gens sont bien plus métissés que dans le reste du pays. Ce n’est pas la terre des gauchos et non plus la Pampa. Ça ressemble plutôt aux contreforts des Andes.

Dans le milieu des années 70 cette région fut le fief du mouvement d’un foyer révolutionnaire peu connu, piloté par le ERP (l’armée révolutionnaire du peuple). Il a échoué comme tous les autres mouvements. Le ERP fut ensuite anéanti par la sale guerre, il a abandonné la lutte armée et est devenu un mouvement politique qui existe encore aujourd’hui.

Quelqu’un veut un Budd Dwyer? Ici la vidéo de son suicide en direct à la télé (attention). Le sang sort de son nez comme une cascade....

J’ai trouvé le dossier de Christine Chubbuck, un autre suicide en public, cette fois d’une présentatrice de journal télévisé pendant son émission (!), c’est particulièrement poignant.

Trouble de la personnalité évitante.

Je n’aime pas diagnostiquer la mort, mais il semble qu’elle ait les symptômes du trouble de la Voilà une bonne vue d’ensemble de la maladie. Je pense que je n’ai jamais rencontré une personne ayant ces symptômes. Le signe principal est une grande susceptibilité au rejet ou au refus. J’ai connu des gens ayant en partie ce symptôme, si on les critique ils semblent sur le point de fondre en larmes, souvent ils se mettent en colère. Et ce sont des adultes, mûrs, de 40 ans. Je pense qu’ils sont des bébés, mais peut-être devrais-je être plus indulgent, car je ne suis moi-même pas tout à fait normal.

Je consultais un psychanalyste dans le temps, à qui j’ai demandé si j’étais un "évitant." Un de mes jeux favoris est le syndrome du patient psychiatrique , il consiste à parcourir le DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Manuel Diagnostic et Statistique des Troubles Mentaux.) en ayant peur d’avoir toutes les maladies du livre. Il m’a répondu que non, parce qu’il m’avait critiqué et que je l’avais bien pris. Il a dit qu’il avait eu 7 ou 8 évitants, et que dès qu’on les critiquait en thérapie ils se levaient et partaient du cabinet pour ne plus jamais revenir. C’est dire la gravité de la chose.

Pour dire la vérité, je ne me soucis guère que les gens m’aiment ou pas, tant qu’ils ne me tournent pas autours. Je serais très content d’avoir de jolies femmes qui viennent par ici tous les jours, me baisent, en prétendant m’aimer, alors qu’elles me détestent profondément. Tant qu’elles prétendent que je leur plait, tout va bien. Peu m’importe ce qui ce passe dans l’âme autrui.

Je ne crains pas non plus d’être rejeté. Au bout d’un million de fois, on s’habitue. J’imagine que si j’étais effrayé par chaque refus essuyé, je serais probablement tout le temps dépressif. On doit s’y faire, tout le monde n’est pas obligé de vous aimer, nous sommes dans un pays libre. De plus, j’ai moi-même rejeté des tas de gens, donc on récolte ce que l’on sème.

Chubbuk semblait être dans un terrible état de régression, presque une enfant lorsqu’elle quittait le boulot, en dépit d’une grande professionnalité au travail. Un cas étrange.

Je n’avais jamais entendu parler du cas Dwyer ou Chubbuck avant internet.

Il n’y a pas de vidéo disponible concernant le suicide de Chubbuck, mais ici il y a une courte séquence d’elle sur Youtube. Il y a aussi un morceau tiré de Boulevard of Broken Dreams, une émission de variété (video). La police a confisqué tous les enregistrements du suicide, comme preuves, puis les a remis à la famille.

Dans l’excellent film Network (1976) le personnage principal, un présentateur télé menace de suicider en direct.

Public Suicide Fad Hits Argentina

I am looking for people to to translate this post into German and Korean. Email me if you are interested.

French translation here (en Français). Spanish version (en Español).

Warning! Graphic footage! Do not watch if you are easily upset!

The public suicide fad has spread to Argentina. Above is the video of the live TV suicide of Mario "Malevo" Ferreyra, an Argentine former police official. He killed himself on live TV in Tucumán Province, Argentina. An 8.4 MB version of the video with better resolution can be downloaded on this site here.

Malevo Ferreyra was Chief of the Brigade of Investigations of the State Tucumán in Argentina in the late 1970's at the height of the Dirty War. In 1993, he was convicted for murdering three robbers in 1991.

He escaped from the courthouse clutching a hand grenade in each hand (!) and later turned himself in after the former governor of the province reduced his sentence. He served seven years for the killings. He ruled Tucumán with an iron fist before, during and after the Dirty War.

A warrant was issued by the National Guard yesterday for his arrest for kidnapping and torture during the Dirty War. The crimes were committed when he served at a secret weapons-depot-turned-detention center during the Dirty War. Just before the police were coming to arrest him, he committed suicide in front of his wife and kids on national TV.

He had just finished an interview the TV station Cronica on top of a water tank at his rural home in Tucumán. His home was surrounded by police and he would be arrested shortly. He protested his innocence, then said, "Hasta siempre, Maria (I will love you forever, Maria)," pulled out a .45 caliber revolver from his boot and shot himself behind the ear. He died on his way to the hospital shortly afterward.

After he shot himself in the head, his son embraced him and his daughter panicked.

Families of the victims say that the suicide was part of a pact of silence that would ensure that Ferreyra would not have to testify against his former colleagues.

Argentine politics is nasty, and sometimes deadly, business, with a lot of impunity, but that seems to be changing.

A typical image if "El Malevo" with his usual sombrero. Looks like a hard-living fellow. The name may come from a famous silent movie by the well-known Argentine director José A. Ferreyra (same surname) from 1921 called, La Maleva. I'm not sure what the movie is about. Ferreyra is a common surname in Argentina. The name may also be a play on a nickname of a famous Argentine soccer player Osmar "Malevo" Ferreyra (video).


Here is another photo of El Malevo. I'm not sure what is going on here, or who the woman is. He looks like a pretty rough character. So do those guys around him. Argentine provincial politics is nasty, hardcore stuff. Sort of a cross between Sicily and Mexico. Lot of tough guys in power throwing their weight around, not much of a rule of law, political arrests and attacks, harassment of and attacks on journalists, corrupt and venal judges. The usual stuff.

Tucumán is a somewhat backwards, "provincial" province in the hinterlands of Argentina. It's mostly agricultural back there, with a lot of sugar cane cultivation. The cops and politicians in this part of Argentina are some of the most brutal, venal, clannish and corrupt in the country.

There are still Indians living in this part of Argentina, and people are much more Mestizo here than in the rest of the country. It isn't gaucho country, and it's not the Pampas. More like the foothills of the Andes.

In the mid-70's, this province was the scene of a little-known foco revolutionary movement led by the ERP (People's Revolutionary Army). It failed, as all foco-inspired movements did. The ERP was then devastated by the Dirty War - they were history 1 1/2 years into the counterinsurgency. The ERP has long since abandoned armed struggle and now exists as a political movement.

Budd Dwyer, anyone? Video of Budd Dwyer's live TV suicide here (warning: graphic). Jesus Christ man, the blood runs out of his nose like a waterfall.

I found the case of Christine Chubbuck, another public suicide, this time of a newscaster on live TV during her broadcast (!) to be particularly poignant.

I don't like to diagnose the dead, but it looks like she had traits of Avoidant Personality Disorder . It's something like social phobia, but a lot more pervasive. What's odd is that she had such an extroverted job and most avoidants are serious introverts.

The symptoms are there: the lack of romantic relationships despite a tremendous desire for one and her beauty, good job, education and brains; the unrequited love for a colleague at work who would not reciprocate.

And at the same time, whenever people at work made friendly gestures towards her, she would blow them off. This is the "get them before they get me" mentality. I will reject them before they reject me. It's perverse, but like a lot of perverse stuff, has its own crazy logic.

Good overview of APD. I don't think I have ever known one. The primary symptom is extreme hypersensitivity to rejection. I've known people who have some of the hypersensitivity though. If you criticize them, they look like they are going to burst into tears. Then they often get really angry. These are grown "adults", say 40 years old. I think they are babies, but maybe I should be kinder, since I'm not exactly normal myself.

I had a therapist once and I asked him if I was an avoidant. One of my games is "Psychiatric Medical Patient Syndrome" - going through the DSM and worrying I have every illness in the book. He said, no, because he had criticized me and I took it well. He said he had had 7-8 avoidants, and as soon as you criticize them in therapy, they get up and walk out of the office and never come back. That's about the size of it.

Truth is, I really don't care if people like me or not, as long as they hang around with me. I would be perfectly content to have beautiful women coming over here every day, screwing my brains out, pretending to like me, but actually hating my guts. As long as they pretend to like me, it's all good. I don't care what's in someone's deepest soul.

I'm also not freaked out by rejection. After about the millionth time, you pretty much get used to it. I figure if I freaked out about every little rejecting encounter I get, I'd probably be continuously suicidally depressed. You have to make it through life somehow. No one has to like you anyway, it's a free country. Plus I've rejected lots of people myself, so what comes around, goes around.

Chubbuck also seemed to be awfully regressed into an almost childhood state when off work, despite being an uber-professional on the job. Strange case.

I had never heard of Dwyer's or Chubbuck's case until the Internet.

There are no available videos of the Chubbuck suicide, but there are five seconds of Chubbuck footage here on Youtube. There is also a Chubbuck segment on The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, a TV show (video clip). The police confiscated all of the Chubbuck suicide tapes as evidence of a crime and turned them over to the family.

In the excellent movie Network (1974) "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!", the lead, a TV newscaster, threatens to commit suicide on live TV.

Updates From the "Defeated" FARC

In the 3-month period encompassing August, September and October, 107 FARC guerrilla attacks took place. That is over one attack per day. During that period, the Colombian military suffered 131 killed and 358 wounded, for a total of 489 casualties. The military suffered over 1 killed and 4 wounded per day, or almost 6 casualties a day. Pretty good for a guerrilla army on the verge of defeat.

489 casualties, and not one word on any of it from the US corporate media. No wonder Americans think the guerrilla is near defeat.

20 businesses were attacked in various cities and towns,including Bogotá, for refusal to pay revolutionary taxes. 2 helicopters were shot down and 6 more were hit by guerrilla fire.

Apparently these figures are for the Eastern Bloc of the guerrilla alone, but a Spanish speaker may want to look that over, because my Spanish is not that great.

Make no mistake about it, the FARC is undergoing some hard times. But only six years ago, they were said to be on the verge of taking over the country. This army has been around for 43 years and they have been on the verge of defeat for real many times. They recovered every time. It is probably not possible to defeat the FARC militarily.

Red Resistencia is an interesting FARC website, with very regular and well-done communiques from the "defeated" guerrillas. ANNCOL, the New Colombian News Agency, is frankly nothing more than the news agency of the FARC, but it is very well done, with many new stories filed every day. I can't understand how a defeated guerrilla army does such a great job of keeping up these websites.

ANNCOL-Brasil (in Portuguese) is the support network of the "defeated guerrillas" in Brazil, where they have long had a large support base, especially with members of the PT ruling party (though probably not the Lulaistas - the supporters of the moderating Presidency of Lula).

The website of the Colombian Communist Party, and its famous newspaper, Voz. FARC has always been nothing more than the armed wing of this party. The PCC site is also very well-done. The nicely-done website of the "defeated" FARC Eastern Bloc.

The FARC is deeply allied with both the Cuban regime and with Chavez' government in Venezuela (Yes, the propaganda is true.). As far as how deep that alliance goes, I have no idea. Apporea is a leftwing, pro-Chavez site out of Venezuela.

The FARC is also allied with the FSLN Sandinista party (and presumably the Sandinista government) of Nicaragua (Yes, this is true too.). The website of Chavez' Telesur TV out of Venezuela, designed to provide a progressive alternative to the rightwing Latin American media. Mundial is a leftwing radio station out of Venezuela, also run by the Venezuelan government - this is their website, with lots of text on it.

All of the above is in Spanish only.

Great Site On Ethnic Groups In China

From the Chinese government.

That isn't really the homepage; I can't find the homepage, so just click to the left on any ethnic groups you want to read about.

Lists all of the official minorities, with a good anthropological background for them, along with a good history, a bit about the language, customs, religious beliefs, culture, etc., then onto recent history.

The history and recent history is written according to Marxist economic analysis, and shows how the coming of the Chinese Revolution really did improve things for many minorities.

I've been scared to read the part about the Tibetans and Uighurs.

I'm sure in the case of Tibet it will talk about how the revolution ended feudalism (Yes, there was real feudalism in Tibet.) in Tibet and made life better for most Tibetans. One thing no one tells you about the Free Tibet crowd was that the Dalai Lama presided over a particularly horrible modern form of feudalism, complete with castes and out and out slavery.

The site does provide a tremendous amount of evidence that the Chinese revolution has resulted in tremendous improvements in the lives of many Chinese minorities. Anti-Communists seem to be blind to that fact. Life in China in 1949 and the decades prior was no picnic!

It's pretty cool to have an anthropological overview of lots of interesting ethnic groups written strictly from a Marxist perspective. More typical is this one, still very well-done, but written by hardline Estonian anti-Communists. It deals with the ethnic groups of the Former Soviet Union.

I wasn't aware that the USSR had destroyed every single ethnic group in the country until these stalwart Balts informed me. I realize the Balts are pissed, but it needn't taint your scholarship.

Yet Another Fake Quote

This one making the rounds of White nationalist, White Supremacist, etc. sites:

In 1922, the Bolshevik leader Selenkov stated in Moscow: "We must create a climate of anti-nationalism and anti-racialism amongst Whites. We must reduce patriotism and pride of race to meaningless abstractions and make racialism a dirty word."

Not only that, but obviously Selenkov was Jewish. Or he was named Zelenkov. Or whatever.

There never was any Bolshevik leader named Zelenkov/Selenkov, and for all I or others can tell, this is yet another fake quote.

You can usually tell these fake quotes just be looking at them, because it seems like no sane prominent person would ever be caught dead saying something so outrageous.

Also, fake quotes are usually manufactured by nationalists. They place the quotes in the mouths of politicians they don't like and make them say they are going to hatch some kind of conspiracy against the ethnic group or nation in question.

See my previous post, Lord MacAulay's Speech to British Parliament 1835, for a particularly famous example made up out of whole cloth by Hindutva Indian Hindu nationalists. I get hits for that post from Indians from all over, and I get the distinct impression that they still don't understand that the quote is a fake.

The Left Opposition In China

Here in the West, we don't get to hear much about the Left opposition inside China, or better yet, inside the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For all the MSM tells us, it may as well not even exist.

So this document, from an Old Guard CCP member who is a member of the Left Opposition in the party, is interesting. What do they want? What are their beefs with the present regime? I really don't have time to analyze this document now, so I will just throw it out there and let you all go at it.

His critique of the present regime is trenchant, though. This is a classic Marxist document full of typical Marxist language, though, so for those who can't handle such things, you might want to forgo reading it.

I'm not taking a position on the Left opposition in the party right now except to say that they raise some interesting critiques about the present day party. I'm curious about what sort of economic outcomes the Left's project would result in.

Recall that under Mao, China had economic manufacturing growth of 10% per year during the entire period, even in the Cultural Revolution. Agricultural production grew at 3% per year, and by the mid-70's, the perennial problem of hunger in China seemed to have been solved. Under Mao, life expectancy doubled from 32 to 65 in a record shortest period of time, breaking the record set by Stalin earlier.

These are some of the achievements of the Chinese revolutionaries under Mao. We all know the costs - the media never tires of telling us.

Translated from the website Hongqiwang.

Some Thoughts Regarding Our Future Revolution by a Revolutionary Old Guard

Wei Wei

After 30 years of Reform it is time for the real Communist Party to draw its conclusions.

Changes in the past 30 have meant that capitalism has basically been restored in China. The principal contradiction in our country is still the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, but the principal aspect of the contradiction has changed from the proletariat to the bourgeoisie. A new revolution is now facing the proletariat and the working masses.

The basis of the revolution before us is upholding the great banner of Mao Zedong's continuing revolution and carrying out the great socialist revolution against corruption, against selling out our country and against capitalist restoration.

The dictatorship of the proletariat no longer exists; therefore, our continuing revolution is no longer one being waged with the dictatorship of the proletariat. Instead, our continuing revolution is being waged against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The road ahead will be difficult and have many twists and turns.

Our revolution's main targets are the capitalist roaders and cliques of revisionist traitors within the Party who have seized the power from our Party. The revisionist groups are false communists who continue to hold onto the titles and stature of the Communist Party.

They have not thrown it away, because by inheriting the Party's title, they fool people and legitimize their rule. During the 17th Party Congress they held up the Thoughts of Deng Xiao-ping, Jiang Ze-ming, and Hu Jing-tao as an independent theories and uses them as guiding principles against Marxism, Leninism, and Mao Zedong thought.

The reason why they mentioned Marx, Lenin, and Mao in the Party Charter was because they feared that without using them as a cover they would lose their legitimacy, which would lead to their downfall. Therefore, they will continue to name and refer to Marx, Lenin, and Mao to use as cover until the end.

The targets of our revolution are the bureaucratic and comprador bourgeoisie this is the essence of their class nature. They have wildly sold out the interests of our country and our people, and recently started opening up the financial sector of our economy, thus handing over the economic lifeline of our nation to the foreigners.

What they have done is beyond what reasonable people can understand. Their behavior shows that their connection with foreign powers run so deep that their interests can no longer be separated. They have already moved their families and assets abroad. They have sold themselves and their country out completely to act as slaves of foreigners.

They launched large-scale privatization movements and sold off State owned enterprises. Through the recently passed "Asset Ownership" law they raised the salaries of those in charge of the remaining State enterprises to very high levels. This means that qualitative changes have taken place. In terms of national consciousness they cannot even match (Russia's) Vladimir Putin.

Putin has at least dared to stand up to the United States. These people have lost all national aspiration; the way they try to appease the foreigners is comparable to how the officials acted in the Qing dynasty.

The State apparatus is totally corrupt. After our revolution succeeds we can no longer use the old State apparatus. We have to completely smash the State apparatus just like Lenin said in the State and Revolution. However, we need to understand that there are still many un-corruptible and exemplary Communist Party members. They will be our main strength.

The proletariat or the working class is still the leading class of our revolution. Among them, migrant workers are new additions. Peasants and working intellectuals are still trusted allies of the working class. It has been proven from our social practice that the proletarian class has shown unshakable faith in socialism, because their fate is so closely connected to that of socialism.

A worker poet, Wang Xue-zhong, wrote a poem called "The State Enterprise - Our Mother." Who else could write a poem like that? Only workers have such affection toward socialist State enterprises.

The Communist Party that the revolutionary Left wants to rebuild is a genuine Marxist revolutionary Communist Party which engages in struggle. We need to declare that the real Communist Party is the one that follows Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought. We are fighting against revisionists and bureaucratic and comprador bourgeoisie cliques.

They are traitors who seized power from the Party and who have betrayed the revolutionary line of Marxism and Mao Ze-dong. They are false communists and are corrupted and qualitatively different from the real communists. This could lead to a problem.

The masses in our country have been protesting against the many injustices they face - if a sudden incident inflames the people, the anger of the masses could bring the demise of both the real and the false communists.

Such a danger exists, because the masses now regard the Communist Party as negative. However, what the masses want to destroy is the corrupted Communist Party, which has been selling out our country and is only interested in enriching itself. They do not want to destroy the Communist Party of Mao's era.

Therefore, in our propaganda to the masses we need to clearly distinguish the real Communist Party from the false Communist Party. We need to begin to use the terms "real" Communist Party and "false" Communist Party and explain the difference between them in our writings and talks. Otherwise the masses may try to destroy the real with the fake, like what had happened in Hungary.

If that moment arrived, it would be too late for us to try to explain. For example in the June 4th incident, the majority of students and masses were protesting against corruption, but the ultra right leader Fang Li-zhi used the masses and the protest ended in tragedy.

Our slogan should be: We are the real Communist Party which represents the suffering masses. We are not the false Communist Party which represents the corrupted bourgeoisie! What we want is socialism based on public ownership.

In the past, when we talked about returning to Mao's revolutionary line, some people misunderstood and thought that that we wanted to return to the past completely. We need to admit that in the past we were not able to fully realize the masses' right to supervision.

Our goal now is to rebuild a new and even better socialist country following the principles of the Paris Commune. We need to promote real socialist democracy at a high level. Only proletarian democracy is real democracy in the broadest sense.

People and the masses should have the right to practice management, supervision, and elections, and have the right to impeach. We need to reduce the wage differentials and to limit bourgeois rights. These are principles of the Paris Commune.

In terms of forming a united front, we need to understand that our society is made up of three main forces. The first is revisionists who have the political power, the second is the proletariat and revolutionary masses, and the third is the ultra Right, which organized the Xi-shan Conference 1.

Because the bureaucratic and comprador bourgeoisie have been selling off our country, some people on the Left may think that we should unite those on the Right to fight those in power. We need to distinguish who our worst enemies are.

The main difference between the revisionist clique and the ultra Right is the revisionists are still wearing the cloak of communism, and in doing so, sometimes write articles that on the surface sound correct.

However, if the ultra Right seizes power, they will ruthlessly and bloodily suppress the masses. Those big capitalists, such as Wang Zhao-jun, who attended the Xi Shan Conference, hate communists in their bones and they are anti-communist to the end.

The current regime let these people get rich first and then welcomed them into the Party. They thought that doing so would win their gratitude. But the fact is, these people are full of hatred toward the Communist Party and they are hastily trying to construct legal proceedings to get rid of it.

The ultra Right is these people's political representatives. In the future we will be fighting the ultra Right to gain power. We on the Left are the common enemy of both the revisionist clique and the ultra Right. Our united front slogans should be:

Unite everyone on the left under the banner of fighting against capitalist restoration.

We will communicate with each other to exchange our views and give mutual support and encouragement.

We will find common ground and not to be bogged by minor differences.

All patriots untie under the banner of fighting against those who sell out our country.

All people unite under the banner of fighting against corruption.

Currently there is a strong tendency for government officials to deceive people. They have the advantage of all of the power and run the propaganda machine. The media shows that they frequently visited miners' family when accidents happen shedding tears in the homes of workers and peasants.

Their acting has confused some young people. Acting is one thing but we need to pay attention to what they actually do. After the 17th Party Congress these people took another step toward the Right. They insisted on continuing the Reform and sold off the last few State owned enterprises.

They forced more lay-offs, cut more workers' tenure, and further forced those who used to be the masters of the enterprises into wage labor. They are now going into realm of "labor laws". What they are doing is the same as American politicians who send soldiers to fight in Iraq and then go to the war front holding platters of turkey to thank them.

They choose not to make public or mention or criticize anti-communist articles written by Xie Tao, a leading anti-communist. They invited Li Rui, an open anti-communist, anti-Maoist to the 17th Party Congress. They ignored four letters written by Wang Zhao-jun in Anhui Province challenging the Communist Party.

On the other hand they arrested Zhang Qian-fu and sent him to jail for memorializing Mao Zedong. They shut down many websites on the Left. Isn't it clear what they really represent? What they call liberated thinking is in fact abandoning the three principles: abandoning Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought; abandoning workers, peasants and the masses; and abandoning revolution.

On the other hand, what they are leaning on are: the private market economy, the selling off of our country and domestic and foreign bourgeoisie, and the corrupt State machine to carry their fascist dictatorship.

Some people say that old cadres are privileged among the proletariat, because they have benefited from Third Plenary of the 11th Party Congress. They have received higher wages and are enjoying a good life, satisfied with their good health and peaceful old age. This is also true of intellectuals and other white-collar workers; they are happy about the current situation and think it is better than the past. They are satisfied with the current regime.

It is true that the old cadres are being treated well. Their expenses are being paid, but they are also being isolated. They do not know how to use the internet and have trouble understanding the real situation in our country.

We should do more propaganda work with them. After all, they lived through the struggles of earlier revolutionary times. They still have the ability to tell right from wrong. The majority of them are firmly against corruption and against selling off our country.

We on the Left basically agree on the nature of the Reform. Within us there are still differences on what the correct tactics should be. What are the correct tactics that will lead us to victory?

The correct tactics have to follow the correct overall strategy. Strategy is a matter of principle. We cannot go against principle, but tactics can be applied with flexibility. Revolution does not negate struggles within the legal system. We on the Left should use every opportunity to fight the ultra Right in all battles.

For example, people such as Li Rui, Xie Tao, and Yuan Ruo-fei are shameless, poisonous traitors and spies. On the other hand we also need to firmly oppose the Reform. Some suggest that we should make use of Deng and what he said - but Deng was a devious cheater and the root of all problems. We should not quote what he said anymore, lest we further confuse the masses and lead them in the wrong direction.

We should, instead, expose and tear open the falseness and pretense of these cheaters. We should do this on the internet and anywhere we can express what we think and propagate our views in order to win over the masses and expand our battlefields. When we do our propaganda we should refuse to follow our opponents' lead and avoid arguing in the framework that they define and set forth.

Our Slogans: Because of the nature of our revolution, our slogans are clear and will create heart-felt excitement:

We raise high the banner of Mao Zedong's continuing revolution. We will carry forward the great socialist revolution against revisionism, selling out our country, and the restoration of capitalism. (See point 6 for coalition slogans.)

Of course we do not just shout slogans. We need to do a lot of difficult work. In the past Deng Zhong-xia dressed himself as a worker and went to workers' homes to visit and to wait. Eventually he organized the big strike in Hong Kong that shook the world and turned Hong Kong (Fragrant Harbor) into a Foul Harbor. Another example is the heroic strike led by Lin Xiang-qian.

The reason that the Left is weak and being ignored is because we have not connected with the proletarian class and the great masses. We still do not have strong leaders. A few years back when there was a group protest in Da-qing, workers demonstrated their extraordinary capabilities, organizing for an orderly occupy an office building in Da-qing.

The economic status of the proletarian class determines that they are revolutionary and the most radical class. In order to move forward, intellectuals must ally themselves with workers and peasants.

We are now under the fascist dictatorship. We are not allowed to speak up. We need democracy. Lenin said that there is no pure democracy, there is only class democracy. We do not want bourgeois democracy. Americans say, "We can curse out our President in the streets." However, when the American government sent troops to fight in Korea and Vietnam, to bomb Iraq and send Americans there to die, they had to obey!

What we want is democracy of the proletariat, the real democracy of the broad masses. The Communist Party is the vanguard of the proletariat and it must be supervised them. If the proletariat do not have the right to supervise and impeach Party representatives, then we are powerless when the Party Central Committee adopts revisionism.

Who says that whoever becomes the Party Secretary will have a higher level of understanding of Marxism? It is a joke to think whoever becomes the Party Secretary will also be a theoretician and can equal Chairman Mao! The position of Party Secretary is merely a job. The class as a whole needs to have power and political consciousness.

Only class can supervise the Party and manage the Party. Only when we reach that level of democracy the proletariat can control the Party and is the Party able to lead the proletariat. Then we will no longer be afraid of the Party's Central Committee becoming revisionist. This is our great historical lesson.

They posses the machine of dictatorship on all fronts the military, the political machine, the legal system and the media First they arrest you and give you a talking to (the lightest penalty), then they put you under surveillance We face many difficulties, and we need to again carry out revolution. This should be a ground up mass movement.

We will organize the working class to smash those in power. If we do not succeed the first time, there will be a second time and a third time. We need to do painstaking mass work. People want revolution; if they do not yet have the political consciousness, they will develop it. They will want revolution in the future, and we need to trust the masses.

Both the subjective and the objective conditions have not yet reached maturity, so we have to be careful and not become too anxious. We need to work underground and establish various kinds of study groups in many locations and hold discussion sessions and forums. We will create favorable conditions and work hard on mass work to raise the political consciousness of the masses.

There will be a day when the conditions reach maturity we can connect all the different segments in society and become a Party. Once the loose groups are organized, there is no force that can stop us.

New Sendero Attack

The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.

On October 20, 30 Senderistas (members of Sendero Luminoso or the Shining Path) invaded a mining site run by the Doe Run Mining Company in Huancavelica and took dynamite, radios, food and medicine.

One of the things that sustained Sendero in its long insurgency was a ready supply of explosives. There is all sorts of dynamite to be had in Peru, a country with a huge mining industry. Most bombs made by Sendero were apparently fashioned from dynamite.

The region is famous for mercury mining. Doe Run is probably involved in copper mining in the region. Sendero has traditionally had a strong presence in this region.

The Huancavelica Region in Peru. The capital city of Huancavelica has 400,000 mostly Indian inhabitants and is one of the poorest cities in Peru.

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Latest News on the FARC in Colombia

The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.

Here are some of the latest updates in the war the FARC is waging against the fascist, criminal oligarchic dictatorship that has always ruled Colombia. Please note that this blog supports the FARC's campaign to the hilt. The system in Colombia is shit, and it needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth.

September 22: An Ecuadorian patrol occupied a FARC base along the border with Colombia, setting off a firefight in which 1 soldier was wounded.


October 8: The Ecuadorian Defense Minister noted that the border area of Ecuador and Colombia is is very thick with FARC guerrillas, which is amazing considering that the group is on the verge of collapse and defeat.


October 8: A force of 30 soldiers waded into a minefield in Barbacoas municipality in Nariño Department. 8 soldiers died in the ensuing explosions. Through August, the FARC, despite tottering on the edge of collapse, has somehow managed to kill 70 Colombian soldiers with landmines.

Barbacoas municipality in Nariño Department. This department borders on Ecuador.


Nariño Department in Colombia. The FARC is very active in this area along the border with Colombia.

October 12: The FARC bombed two small hotels in Neiva, a city in the south of the country, killing 1 person and wounding 12 more. The motive for the attack was not known.


October 14: A community organizer was assassinated by paramilitaries while participating in a community meeting in Curvaradó in Choco Department. Walberto Hoyos Rivas was a community leader for two Afro-Colombian communities in the Bajo Atrato region of Choco Department.

Chocó Department in Colombia. This area has a large population of Afro-Colombians and there has been fierce fighting here for a long time. The fighting probably started in 1993 when the EPL, A Maoist force, appeared. Since then, paramilitaries have taken over much of the province, but obviously, they haven't helped anyone.

In March, 2007, it was reported that 50 kids starved to death here in less than three months. This is some of the richest land on Earth, but most of the population lives in horrible poverty. Most of the land is controlled by a tiny, murderous elite who are always seizing new peasant lands, using the Colombian military and the paramilitaries as their enforcers.

There is 400 inches of rain here, making this area the rainiest lowland on Earth. Nevertheless, the capital of the Department, Quibdó, has no water supply. The population here is mostly Afro-Colombians and Zambos (Black and Indian mixed race)

He led groups that opposed armed seizures by the fascist Colombian military of peasants' land by rich scum in order to convert peasant farms into palm oil plantations and cattle ranches. If peasants oppose the armed seizure of their lands, this is what happens to them.

People here wonder why I support the FARC. This is why. There is no space for democratic opposition to the murderous Colombian elite. If you go against them, you may just die. Under those circumstances, the entire unarmed Left may as well just take up arms instead of waiting for the army to come out and kill you.

Furthermore, this is why the FARC even exists in the first place. If the government and the oligarchy didn't run around murdering people who went against, the FARC would never have needed to take up arms in the first place.


October 15: A private helicopter carrying a commander of the Army's 8th Mobile Brigade went down during an operation against the FARC in Tolima Department. 4 soldiers, including the commander, were killed. The helicopter was apparently shot down by the FARC.

Tolima Department in Colombia. Large agriculture is big here, in particular large plantations.

October 16: Ecuadorian forces carried out raids on FARC camps in Buena Vista and along the Putumayo River in Sucumbios Province. Guerrillas abandoned the camps and fled across the border to Colombia. The Ecuadorians may be doing this because Colombia is threatening them over the presence of FARC camps in Ecuador.

Sucumbios Province in Ecuador. Long a FARC haven. My understanding as of a couple of years ago was that most of the peasants in this region supported the FARC, but I don't have any recent data.

October 19: FARC Guerrillas passing a military checkpoint in La Momposina in the department of Guaviare on a motorcycle threw explosives at the soldiers as they rode by, killing 3 and wounding 15 more. Guaviare is swarming with FARC guerrillas, which is amazing considering that the organization has been decimated and is on the brink of defeat.

Guaviare Department in the jungles of Colombia, swarming with nearly-defeated FARC guerrillas hiding behind just about every bush. I believe there is a lot of coca growing and cocaine production in this department.

October 20: Reports indicate that the FARC has actually made alliances with some of the demobilized paramilitary gangs which were used as death squads to carry out the government's dirty war against the Colombian people.

A number of new organizations have sprung up in the wake of the demobbing of the paramilitaries, but the FARC has entered into nonaggression pacts with some of them, such as the "Don Mario" organization and Pedro 'Cuchillo' Olivero Guerrero's gang, while waging war on others, such as the Águilas Negras.

The fact that pacts are being made with some of these new paramilitaries shows that they are more interested in control of drug trafficking than anything else.


October 30: An excellent article by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), Colombia’s Political Horizon: The Rise of a New Left, notes the rise of a new leftwing political party in Colombia, the Polo Democrático Alternativo (PDA, or Polo).

The PDA somehow managed to get 22% of the vote in the last Presidential election, which is amazing for a country in which leftwing candidates are typically murdered like flies. The party's ideology ranges from moderates to hard Left. Some demobbed guerrillas from the ELN are reportedly participating in the party.

In Bogotá, the country’s capital, PDA mayoral candidate Samuel Moreno defeated the Urubista candidate, so the PDA now controls the capital city itself.

Uribe's support is high but thin. 80% of the population lives in poverty, and Uribe has deep ties to the murderous oligarchy that has always run the country, including personal ties to the paramilitary death squads.

He has run on a security first ticket, and he has indeed pursued the war with the FARC vigorously. The FARC is now under the worst pressure that any Latin American guerrilla group has ever been under and they have suffered some serious blows.

As representative for the murderous elite, of course, Uribe has not and will never do anything to improve the shitty lives of the overwhelming majority of Colombians.

When he ran for office, Uribe formed a new political party, splitting off from the Liberals and Conservatives, two oligarchy-based parties that hate each other, despite being almost identical ideologically. He played off the fact that people are sick and tired of these corrupt, horrible and decrepit parties.

Uribe was elected by a wide margin in the last election, but 75% of Colombians didn't even bother to vote. Political surveys are done by phone, and most rural Colombians don't even have one. So a vast section of the electorate has nothing whatsoever to do with national politics.

The Polo has a Leftist platform similar to that of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Rafael Correa in Ecuador. The Polo has been making inroads in devastated slums that no major candidate would ever think of entering.

The Polo also has a good approach on the insurgency. Their idea is apparently with a Polo government in power, the FARC would probably disarm or declare a ceasefire and go into electoral politics. I think that analysis may be correct. Electing the Polo may be the best way to end this long civil war.

Great article - highly recommended! Finally, some good news to come out of this tragic country.

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Maoists Are Ruling Nepal

The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.

Updated December 7:

The news has been pretty confusing for a long time coming out of Nepal. The Nepalese Maoists laid down their guns and gave up armed struggle for a variety of reasons, after a brutal civil war in which 13,000 people were killed, 10,000 of them by the security forces.

The Maoists decided to try to seek power by peaceful means. They seem to have won about 1/3 of the vote in the nation's first real democratic elections. They got into power, apparently in a coalition with some other parties.

They are now part of a ruling coalition in Nepal. One of the first things this new government did was to get rid of the Nepalese monarchy. The next agenda was to call for a Constituent Assembly, apparently in order to rewrite the Constitution. This was their program toward the end of the war - an end to monarchy, a constituent assembly, a true multiparty democracy with the right to dissent.

I've been reading quite a few interview with these guys, especially with their leader, Prachandra. He has taken the position that Marxists need to toss out Stalin, Lenin and even Mao, or at least not follow them to the letter. He says that they all had some good ideas too, but Marxism has moved beyond them. In particular, he takes the fascinating position that modern Marxists should support full democracy.

His argument is that in Nepal, the Maoists' program will be so popular that they hope to get re-elected over and over. It is true that this party has managed to get huge support on the ground. He also says that socialism has to be completely democratic, with civil liberties for all.

One of Prachandra's arguments is that with the world in such a death grip of imperialism these days, Communists have to adjust themselves to that reality and try to make some sort of peace with imperialism, at least in order to survive.

This has caused quite a rift in the International Communist Movement. Most non-Maoists haven't had much to say about it, but the debate in Maoist circles has never quit. There are supporters of the CPN-M and opponents of them.

The opponents take the line that the CPN-M should not take part in parliamentary politics ("parliamentary cretinism", according to Lenin) and instead should have a dictatorship of the proletariat and a people's republic. Prachandra seems to take the position that the dictatorship of the proletariat is through.

If it really is over, we can say goodbye to some of the harshest criticism of Communists for being cruel and wicked dictators who denied basic civil liberties and deliberately killed millions of people. I feel this is an albatross off the neck of the movement. Capitalism does such a great job of killing people as it is. Why should Communists be killing anyone once they get into power. Leave the killing to the capitalists. They do it so well.

The CPN-M seems now to have split into two lines - a hardline faction wanting to go straight to a people's republic (And dictatorship of the proletariat?) and the more moderate faction surrounding Prachandra and his followers.

Prachandra has made some disturbingly pro-imperialist statements, including saying he wanted to work with the World Bank and the IMF. But maybe in today's Nepal, if you blow off the World Bank and the IMF, you are screwed.

The people around Prachandra also want a positive relationship with China, and have taken tours to China to see Chinese socialism (or socialism with Chinese characteristics) in action.

The hardline Maoist position that China has reverted to capitalism is not correct. Chinese villagers still live much better than Nepalese villagers, and the differences are in large part due to the achievements of Chinese socialism. The countryside still retains a cooperativist and collectivist nature, and in general, private ownership of farmland is not yet allowed, although this may be about to change.

This article from a couple of years ago shows us just how much the Maoists have achieved in Nepal in the course of their revolution.

At the time, CPNM controlled 80% of the countryside in the country. The rural situation is dire because most Nepalese are cut off from trade, schools, hospitals, mostly due to the lack of roads. The monarchist regime in Nepal has had a century to build roads in the country and they have completely failed.

In an extremely sexist nation, the Maoist army had a very large number of female fighters - 40% of PLA was female. The All-Nepal Womens Association (Revolutionary) - has 2 million women members. The situation for women in Nepal is horrible -women cannot own land or vote, die 13 yrs sooner than men, and are routinely trafficked as sex slaves to India at age 10.

Prior to the revolution, land could not support the people, but due to the changes instituted by the Maoists, now it does. Previously, men had to migrate to other areas to work at day labor to survive.

The party has placed solar panels in many villages to wire them up for electricity, and has set up seven party radio stations that broadcast in different languages. Language rights is one thing that Communists have generally pushed better than most groups.

Nepali is the language of the feudal upper class (yes, Nepal still has a feudal to semi-feudal land tenure system) and languages other than Nepali are banned in Nepal for official purposes such as education. The Maoists have instituted mother tongue education and literacy classes. Literacy figures in Nepal are horrible - below 50%, much lower figures for women and in rural areas.

It's pretty amazing that here we are in 2008, and a Maoist Communist Party is leading the government of a country after a successful revolutionary war. They have re-evaluated the many long-held Marxist tenets and are calling for a radical re-evaluation in Marxist thinking. Here's hoping they succeed.

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Many New NPA Attacks in the Philippines

The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.

Updated November 3:

The NPA* has staged a wide variety of attacks all over the Philippines in the past few weeks. In addition, the AFP has gone on the offensive in Mindanao in Negros Oriental.

October 29, 8 AM: In Pantukan town, Compostela Valley Province, Mindanao, NPA guerrillas on a motorcycle shot dead a policeman as he was waiting for a bus . Later, 1 of the NPA team was shot dead and 2 more were wounded in a firefight.

Pantukan municipality in Compostela Valley Province in Southern Mindanao. The NPA have been very active here for some time now.

October 29, 10:20 AM: In Santa Teresita village, Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur Province, Mindanao, 20 NPA guerrillas raided the Jose C. Aquino rubber company here, seizing firearms and a laptop computer.

Bayugan municipality of Agusan Del Sur Province on Mindanao.

October 29: In San Jose village, Prosperidad town, Agusan del Sur Province, Mindanao, Guerrillas set up a checkpoint and stopped a civilian bus on the road, confiscating the weapons of a government soldier on the bus. My, what humanitarian rebels! They didn't even kill the guy.

Prosperidad municipality in Agusan Del Sur Province of Mindanao.

October 29: In Negros Oriental, the NPA warned biofuel corporations in SE Negros such as the Tamlang Valley Agricultural Development Corp that they would carry out punitive operations against them because they worsen the food crisis in the Philippines and cause military harassment of villagers.

Negros Occidental. This island has been practically ruined. 96% of the tropical forest here has been cut down and the rest is under continuous threat. There are many rare and endangered species on this island, some of them critically endangered. In addition to habitat loss, some critically endangered animals here face hunting pressure. An AFP offensive against the NPA is currently underway in this area, where the NPA have been building up forces for some time now.

October 26, 6:15 PM: A large NPA force dressed as Drug Enforcement agents attacked the Quezon Provincial Jail in Lucena City, Quezon Province, Luzon and freed 7 NPA prisoners. 2 policemen and 2 civilians were wounded in a shootout afterward.

The city of Lucena in Quezon Province, Luzon, near Manila. Despite the proximity to the capital of the Philippines, the NPA has a heavy presence in Quezon.

October 25, 10 AM: NPA guerrillas attacked militiamen in Barangay Luna Sur, Makilala town, Cotabato Province, Mindanao, killing 1 and wounding 4 more. They also seized 16 weapons.

Makilala municipality in Cotabato Province on Mindanao. There has been some heavy fighting in this area recently.

October 23, 5 AM: NPA guerrillas attacked government militiamen in Paradise Embac, Paquibato district, Davao City, Mindanao, killing 1 militiaman and wounding 2 more. 1 NPA guerrilla was killed in the attack.

Davao City in Davao Del Sur Province in Mindanao. This is one of the larger cities in the Philippines.

October 25, AM: The NPA attacked an AFP Special Forces outpost in Canidkid village, Montevista town, Compostela Valley Province, Mindanao, killing 1 soldier.

Montevista Province in Compostela Valley Province in Mindanao. There has been some very heavy fighting in this area lately.

October 25, 11 AM: NPA guerrillas attacked government soldiers in Barangay Olaycon, Monkayo town, Compostela Valley Province, Mindanao, while they were carrying the body of one of 8 soldiers who were killed in guerrilla attacks in the area the previous day to another town. The attack wounded 1 soldier.

Monkayo municipality in Compostela Valley Province. NPA guerrillas recently killed 8 AFP forces here.

October 24: NPA guerrillas ambushed a military truck with a roadside bomb and then strafed it with gunfire in Monkayo town, Compostela Valley Province, Mindanao, killing 7 soldiers and wounding 2 more.

October 23, 3 PM: There was a shootout between militiamen and the NPA in Barangay Hilawan, San Andres town, Catanduanes, but there were no casualties on either side.

Catanduanes is an island that is also a province. It's off the southeast coast of Luzon. This is a map of San Andres municipality in Catanduanes Province. I didn't even realize that the NPA were active here.

October 19: NPA guerrillas attacked a hacienda, Hacienda Santa Ana, in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental Province, causing 1 million pesos in damage. In the past eight months, guerrillas here have caused 30 million pesos in property damage.

Cadiz City municipality in Negros Occidental Province.

NPA guerrillas overpowered and disarmed a policeman in Balintawak village, Escalante City, Negros Occidental Province recently. A lot of times these guys just refuse to fight and hand over their weapons.

Escalante City municipality in Negros Occidental Province.

Guerrillas attacked the Globe Telecom cell phone tower in Cauayan municipality, Negros Occidental Province recently.

Cauayan municipality in Negros Occidental Province.

*This blog supports the NPA to the hilt. Our view is that system in the Philippines is such total crap that it needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth.

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Great Video About Socialism

The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.

Updated October 24:

This is a video of a lecture by Richard D Wolff, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, on the latest economic chaos and recession in sweeping the world.

Wolff is a Marxist, and the lecture is from a Marxist POV. However, it is interesting in many ways.

One thing that is clear to most sensible folks with an understanding of economics is that Marx's analysis of capitalism is one of the greatest ever done by anyone. For a long time, it was taught in all economics departments. With the advent of crazy Friedmanite neoliberalism in the past 30 years or so, Marx may not be being taught so much, but that's a mistake.

It's sometimes said that Marx is great for analyzing either what capitalism does well or poorly, but not the opposite. Not true. Marx is great for analyzing capitalism both when it is doing well and when it is doing poorly.

In my opinion, where Marx has problems is in proposing alternatives to capitalism, and history has born this out to some extent. Capitalism, with all of its chaos and problems and horrors and deaths, may just be the only way forward for the time being. Like death, disease and taxes, it may be a necessary evil.

Wolff describes how US workers saw 150 straight years of growth and improvement in their living standards, from 1820 to 1970. This is correct. He doesn't lay out how this happened, but there are many explanations for this. He also says that this scenario was rare to unheard of in the rest of the capitalist world.

After 1970, things changed. Productivity kept going up, but wages went flat or even went down. A US worker in the late 1970's made more per hour than a worker working today. As productivity rose and wages went flat, capitalists began raking in incredible profits.

This is what has happened to the US economy over the past 35 years, as neoliberalism took hold and 80% of the population saw its wages stagnate or go down. The top 20% of the population, and especially the top 1%, saw its income explode. But the vast majority of workers of every race got screwed.

As workers got more and more screwed and the capitalists, the owners, those who lived off the labor of others, saw their incomes skyrocket, confused workers began advancing all sorts of explanations about why this was happening. Anti-Semites, as usual, blamed the Jews. White nationalists and White Supremacists blamed Blacks and Browns. Lots of middle class and working class Whites blamed Big Government.

The truth was that the culprits were the business owners who were reeling in superprofits while workers got the shaft.

As this process continued, capitalists found more ways to keep the cost of labor down. They began importing massive amounts of legal and especially illegal immigrants as labor to drive labor costs down even further. They began moving many enterprises offshore and later, began offshoring work via the Internet.

Confused workers scrambled to keep up their standard of living. Others in the family, often the wife, began taking a job, bringing in a second income. Then one or more persons in the household began to work second and third jobs. Americans worked more and more hours, setting new records for workers in the West.

The despicable US media extolled this fact, and praised US workers for working themselves nearly to death, taking pains to point out how tough and hard and slaving-away Americans are compared to pampered, wussy, "soft" Europeans kicking back under socialism.

It's true - part of the US war against European social democracy has been to declare that Europeans are soft, wimpy, sissified and woosy. How did they get this way? Socialism turned hard self-reliant European men into soft, pampered girlymen. Americans were hard, tough and macho. They didn't need no nanny state to help them out. They could do it on their own. The American worker as Marlboro Man.

Wolff points out that that extra workers did not necessarily fix matters, as when the wife started working, it turned out that she needed many things, for instance a vehicle to get to work in.

Working more than one job didn't seem to work very well, nor did having others in the household go out and work, but it did the trick for a while.

After some time, Americans would have to turn to some new tricks to try to keep up their standard of living. They turned to loans. At first they ran up their credit cards. Americans were setting records for going into debt on credit cards and were among the Western world's poorest when it came to saving money.

This isn't really very good personal economics, but the vile media cheered it on nonetheless. Silly, wimpy Europeans and Japanese saved their money for a rainy day, presumably because they were too neurotic to enjoy life. Americans went for the gusto! They spent ever nickel they earned and then went in debt up to their waders! Cheers, cheers, cheers!

After the credit cards were maxed out, there was an explosion in US housing prices. Call it a housing bubble. This came at a propitious moment, for it enabled Americans to use as collateral the biggest asset they owned, their homes. Americans borrowed on their homes, refinancing them, taking out second mortgages and using the money like a credit card to continue to pursue the standard of living to which they had become used.

The capitalists continued to reel in the dough from the leveling of wages, now via outsourcing and use of immigrant labor, and now the capitalists found a new tool - debt.

They loaned money to their own workers! It was like the old days when you lived in a company town, bought at the company store and ate at the company diner, all deducted from your check. Not only will we pay you a crap wage, we will snag every dollar you spend on food, rent and shopping too.

These same capitalists were now swimming in ultraprofits with the money they were making off loaning money to workers and home mortgages (just another type of loan). They had so much money they did not know what to do with it. They threw it into the stock market, and the market for high-end goods of all sorts went through the roof.

Conspicuous consumption came back with a vengeance, and the scummy media once again sang and danced the praises of the most idiotic and obscene ways the rich chose to blow their unneeded and often unearned cash.

A whole new financial industry, a parasitic industry on the economic body of the nation, sprung up, an industry that created no products and no real wealth. It was nothing but a gigantic casino on Wall Street.

All sorts of funky instruments that no one understood were dreamed up - derivatives, CDO's, mortgage securities and all sorts of other stuff that probably shouldn't even be legal. Almost no one understood these things and no one seemed to understand what they were worth.

The inevitable bubble came and the party crashed, as it always does when capitalist bubbles go bust.

The root causes were the destruction of the regulations put in in the 1930's, during the Depression, in order to prevent another Depression. As soon as these regulations were put in, the capitalists began plotting and working to get rid of them.

Over the next 80 years, the capitalists created a Gramscian cultural hegemony that attacked socialism, government and regulation and exalted free market capitalism. Socialism, government and regulation were described as possibly good ideas, but doomed to failure. The only way to avoid the inevitable failures of socialism, government and regulation was to completely deregulate the economy. Anything less was the road to ruin.

With their money, the capitalist interests bought up all the media and most of the politicians. They used this to get rid of the Depression-era regulations and create the manipulate US culture to where your average worker thought that was a great idea, if he understood it at all.

There are various proposals for how to deal with this economic mess. As discussed in a previous post, conservatives, reeling and increasingly discredited, have tried to blame the catastrophe on too much regulation, not too little. Even the slimy media that normally goes along with this crap is finding this too much to buy.

White racists are promoting the racist notion that liberals (via affirmative action and anti-discrimination laws), niggers* and beaners* are the ones that destroyed the US economy. The Republican Party has to some extent bought into this, as has the business press, their amen corner in the mass media, and their academic hacks, but the argument is too slimy and racist for most decent people, plus there isn't an ounce of truth to it.

Steve Sailer, an excellent writer who is widely read, is the latest to promote this racist travesty, much to his shame. Sailer is looking more and more like a Republican Party hack than a really deep-thinking, independent and empirical author.

Furthermore, Sailer has been skating on the edges of racism for some time now without really going over. More often, he seemed to be giving the racists lots of nice talking points. Now he's finally pushing an explicitly racist discourse, and it's not even true. Too bad.

Rate of subprime mortgage defaults by race:

Whites       19%
Blacks       19%
Hispanics    19% 

End of discussion!

Liberals, Leftists and social democrats have proposed re-regulation, but the problem here is that we are probably going to re-do the 1930's experience all over again. We will put in a bunch of great regulations and as soon as we put them in, the capitalists and their mass media machines will start plotting to get rid of them.

Then the capitalists and their media machines will launch a jihad, for as many decades as it takes, to reverse all these regulations and get back to total deregulation again. In time, workers will forget why they put the regulations in in the first place, and they will go along with it.

The capitalists will buy most of the politicians all over again, and the politicians will vote to deregulate again. The capitalists will work to recreate their Gramscian cultural hegemony, and the average worker will once again think deregulation is the smart thing to do. The economy will blow up again and we will be right back to 1929 and 2008.

Wolff suggests that there is a third alternative. He describes a paper done by a colleague that describes Silicon Valley workers who hated their jobs. They had to dress up, sit in a cubicle and take orders and crap all day from a bunch of assholes. Can they pay anyone enough to put up with that? With the destruction of the Silicon Valley workforce, these workers were laid off.

A number of them got together and formed IT worker-run cooperatives, a non-capitalist form of ownership along the lines of anarcho-syndicalism. The study found that these workers said that they had never been happier. They were manufacturing software, selling it to buyers and dividing up the profits among themselves. The workers themselves were the new owners.

Wolff said that as a condition of the bailouts to the financial industry, we should mandate that they staff their board of directors with workers, not management, as a first step towards workers democracy.

Wolff also said that he had been giving speeches like this for 25 years now and he has had more interest in the past five weeks than in the previous 25 years.

That's ending on a hopeful note for now. Enjoy the video.

*Used sardonically

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