wheels within wheels

by **Dreams End** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 6:07 pm

On what really happened I find this link to a call for a general strike on Nov. 2. It's called: "The World Can't Wait" <a href="http://www.worldcantwait.org/">www.worldcantwait.org/</a> This style of naming of an action rings a bell. Now, I'm in favor of a general strike. Eerily, I was going to put something in the gatekeeper thread about we'll know who is gatekeeper and who isn't when the general strikes come. I'm just as naive as anyone...here comes that call. But I see the slick website, and the style of the name and I can only thing one thing: Revolutionary Communist Party. They are "ultra left" and though I have no proof, I behave when around them as I would if I knew for sure that they were FBI. They tend to spend a lot of time disrupting other left events, and so I don't trust them. Anyway, ran a whois: It's C. Clark Kissinger. <a href="http://www.dissident.info/index.htm">www.dissident.info/index.htm</a> While I win the prize for being able to spot their style, I offer this up for discussion. No one ELSE is trying to organize a general strike. My view is that by stepping in to do so before anyone else, they are co-opting and likely discrediting any future moves to do so. On the other hand, one could argue: RCP got to it first, so we should just follow their lead. It's the same idea as with Answer, although RCP isn't nearly as well known in the mainstream. Assuming this gains momentum among folks who don't have the same aversion or knowledge of RCP...do you a)participate b) quietly sit it out or c)actively make people aware that it's probably not a good idea to ally with these guys WITHOUT making it look like you are redbaiting and simply refusing to work with communists/socialists. Discuss.

by **Dreams End** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:41 pm

I'm going to bump this obnoxiously 'cause I'd like some opinions on this. It may be that this call for a strike goes nowhere, but if it does and these guys are in charge...what say you? Oh, dang...I should've signed on under a fake name and pretended to respond. Oh well, next time.

by **GDN01** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 11:19 pm

I'm poking around the RCP website. I don't have an aversion to what I've read so far, or to communism in general. What specifically is your aversion? And if this general strike catches on, I'll probably participate.

by **Homeless Halo** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 2:24 am

Well I'm currently out of work, save for my web activities, so a strike wouldn't really alter my lifestyle dramatically. I don't think it would work though. Not enough people. I just don't think that many people would be willing to punish themselves in order to make the "them" lose a few nickels. I would suggest other things. For example, traffic here in Detroit (the worst place to drive in the first world) generally causes more loss to business, through tardiness than through the absence of individual workers. I propose that everyone take a day off work and drive on the freeways leading into major cities very very slowly. This would make lots of people late for work besides, creating more disruption than simply not showing up yourself. That's just me though.

by **Dreams End** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:25 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>What specifically is your aversion?<hr></blockquote> As I mentioned, it's not that they are communist...it's just this particular group and my own experience of their style. On several occasions I've seen them come to events by other leftists with the intention of disrupting that event. Provoking fights with counterprotesters. Even on one occasion coming to a march that had been agreed to as a "silent march" and bringing loud whistles. The FBI etc often sets up small, ultra left parties for a variety of reasons. Disruption, attracting folks who might otherwise go to other groups so they can track them, provocateur activities. I can't prove this about RCP...but they seem too well funded to me for such a small party. And there are the activities I mentioned above. The fact that they were first on the scene with this call also suggests that they are pre-empting other groups who might have called for such a strike. If it actually gains any momentum, I suppose the best way to proceed would be to have so MANY organizations join the call that they could no longer be "directing it". But I guarantee that all the contacts they have listed in different cities are also RCP so if they are FBI or whatever, they will have a nice list of people willing to join and organize such a strike. This is NOT one of those times when I can document my concerns though I haven't really tried yet, to be honest. If this thread generates some interest, I'll go and do some more research..but I'll end with a story I've told here before. Way back in 1985 there was a movement for something called "No Business as Usual Day." A planning meeting was held at the university I was attending at the time. The main planners were RCP and I think also the Spartacist league, about whom I have similar feelings. The RCYB folks (youth arm of RCP) were mostly pretty cool, though there were a couple who openly talked of going to a bar or club that night just to start fights. They referred to potential violence by suggesting that humans were really just a collection of chemicals worth only a few dollars. One of the adult leaders...it wasn't Avakian, I don't think, as I think he was in "exile" by then, but someone high up in the party said the following about their revolutionary strategy (I'm not making this up...I'll never forget it.) "Everyone get a gun and when the time is right, start shooting." "How," asked I, "will we know the time is right?" His reply? "I'll tell you." I look at RCP sort of like the fake terrorist activity carried out by "leftists" in Italy in the 70's that actually was carried out by state forces in conjuncion with that weird p-2 lodge in order to get mainstream society to agree to more draconian security measures. Research Italy and "strategy of tension" to get an idea how it works. I'm not calling RCP terrorists, but I just think of them as filling a similar role. Your mileage may vary, which is why I posted this thread.

by **AnnaLivia** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 12:00 pm

Hey, I’m interested…just way too flipping busy to get into it right now. Didn’t even read the link and dunno ‘bout the group. (just guessing it’s like most…the tadpoles have good intentions, the big frogs at the top may have quite “other” plans?) (and we know I don’t think communism is the way to solve our trouble). But real briefly, a strike has to be thought out very carefully. Very Carefully, I say! The government has all the law on its side, and can and will break strikes by deadly force. Duh. Organized labor is a NIGHTMARE for the corporate feudalists, and what do the troops protect again, kiddies? That’s right, extreme wealth and power remaining where it is. Umm, you can take it to the bank. Or rather, “they” can. Localities can get hurt bad if the strike ain’t large enough. Market forces and all that. You’ve GOT to have the numbers, or forget it. So, this kind of general strike would have to be planned way far in advance for it to get creds from me. yep I think holding a strike NOT well planned could do immense harm now, and yes I think it could badly hurt a future effort. that's a VERY bad thing. There’s a quote I can’t remember exact, nor author of (I should know this one, dammit…where’s proldic or morganwolf?)…but says basically the workingman has all the power when his hands are firmly in his pockets. While I agree (what I wouldn’t give to see a successful global work-stoppage!!), I realize a strike is a very complicated tool to use successfully. Maybe they announced it a year ago. I don’t know. But if I was serious, I’d announce it at LEAST that far in advance. At any rate, yup, there would be a LOT of interference coming from every direction. They’d throw everything they have at what even began to smell like the possibility of a unified labor front of any size. There’s also “slow-motion boycotts”, but sorry I don’t have info on hand…u can google? (if there are readers who don’t know about labor struggles (and why you should read about labor struggles!), go read Howard Zinn or the biography of Eugene V. Debs. Both great reads.) if somebody does say "don't strike" yr just gonna have to do what yr doing; dig into whether they say it trying to derail progress, or whether they say it as caution that it can backfire. because i think it sure can backfire, myself. it really is playing with fire, and the working people of the world are already getting burned. i'd be looking for some patient plans laid with utmost care and detailed forethought for the contingencies. fwiw.

by **Seventhsonjr** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 12:41 pm

This is a subject I know quite a bit about as I worked for a law firm which actually represented the leadership of the RCP at one point. First, NO ONE (hardly) is going to support a strike by a group calling itself the "Revolutionary Communist Party". The RCP (actually through its splinter the Spartacist League) is a well known cointelpro type operation which uses Moonie recrutiment and indoctrination tactics to recruit avid followers and extremists. These are then used to discredit the legitimate groups out thewre. If you think ANSWER and Ramsey Clark are suspect, then these guys are like the epitome of a cointelpro front group. Avakian himself is the son of a federal judge (or former or late federal judge) so his credentials are suspect as well. The tactics of the RCP, who have lots of legitimate followers and true believers, despite the manipulation of the group, are often well-meaning SOUNDING. But they inevitable attract wild fringe and even wacko and violent crazies who are recruited by provocateurs to start fights. I was a legal observer , "marshall" in a peace march in Washington and the marchers were brutally attacked by RCP Spartacists who were retreated and were protected by mounted police in Malcolm X (Meridian Hill) Park. They were carousing with the cops (they had been banned from the march for refusing to aree to obey the parade route which had been permitted and were threatening to break windows, march straight to the white house and cause trouble, etc., so they were cordoned off from the main march (they were self identified anyway, only those WANTING to be crdoned off actually were)) and they were drinking beer etc. Only abotu a half dozen or so actually particpated in the violence, but it was harsh and brutal, and seemingly well organized (reminded me of the assassination scene in the film "Z". Anyway, I learned this as an activist and not from my legal work for them. Avakian might be legit, but his movement is a sponge for loonies, agitprop rightwing agents and his lower levels in the organizaion are full of spooks, and provocateurs, recruited off the street without screening and encouraged to start trouble and be not just anrachic, but violently so. Avakian was set up by provocateurs,leading to his exile,who violently attacked DC cops in a truly unnecessary and clearly intentional assault getting the leadership of the RCP indicted for assault and conspiracy counts facing some 160 years in prison. But THAT could have been a setup too to make Avakian look credible. Foregt these assholes. Nobody cares about them and they are too riddled with COINTELPRO provocateurs to trust a damn thing any of them say. I would follow an ANSWER or Moveon strike. But i think the labor and human rights movement are the places for starting a general strike if anyone wants to follow those leads.

by **Dreams End** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:54 pm

thanks, seventhsonjr. It is helpful for people to get educated about how these sorts of things work. I disagree with one part of your assessment, though, and that is that no one will follow a RCP-led event. Maybe, but it doesn't say RCP on the strike call. I have heard "Refuse and Resist" spokespeople at pretty mainstream events. I think (may be remembering wrong) that they got a pretty well known military c.o. to be a sort of figurehead for that movement...and of course, it's an RCP group but not advertised as such. However, you are probably right about this because a general strike is a MUCH bigger deal and I doubt they have enough base support and contacts to begin to move something that huge. Still, I feel as if the national political dialogue is moving in the direction (still pretty far off) of thinking in terms of a national strike so the fact they got their first is of interest. Thanks for the firsthand knowledge.

wheels within wheels

wheels within wheels

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