Demonstrate
in NYC & Fayetteville, N.C.
• All
Out for March 19!
Anti-War
Stand of Americans Again Affirmed
• 48
Vermont Towns Vote Against Iraq War
Opposing
U.S. War Crimes
• World Tribunal on Iraq: Media Held Guilty of
Deception -
Dahr Jamail, Inter-Press Service
• Vietnamese
Case Against U.S. Use of Agent Orange Goes Forward
• New
Study Shows Depleted Uranium Munitions Killing Thousands
The
Fight for Change
•
Views on the Crisis of Representative Democracy
•
The Anachronism of "Representative Democracy" and
the Immediate Need for Democratic Renewal - Communist Party
of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
Demonstrate in NYC & Fayetteville, N.C.
All Out for March 19!
As the Bush administration continues its assault on the Iraqi people, with war crimes daily occurring in Iraq, Americans across the country are taking their stand to demand End the War Now! Troops Out Now! Not One More Dime for War! The action at Ft. Bragg, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is shaping up as a major convergence point, not only for people across the South but for activists from throughout the country. New Yorkers will be going to North Carolina to join many veterans, military families, peace, religious and labor activists to take our stand directly against the military and its role in aggression worldwide. This action also serves as a means to support the many soldiers refusing to go or to return to Iraq, those demanding conscientious objector status and the many joining in resisting the war.
Momentum continues to build for local actions in nearly every state nationwide. Every state in the South is holding actions, exposing the lie of the Bush propaganda that the South supports reaction. Many western and midwestern states are also taking part. In Vermont, 48 towns across the state passed resolutions in town meetings, where town residents came forward to propose, discuss and pass resolutions against the war.
The actions in NYC, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago are also serving to rally a very broad representation of the people, with individuals and organizations of all kinds uniting against the war and taking their stand with the world’s people who will also be in action.
The responsibility of Americans is clear and compelling. Let no one accept the criminal brutality of the Bush administration against Iraq, against Americans, against all the peoples. As one with the peoples of the world let us continue to build our resistance and make our contribution to ending war and building another world that defends humanity and puts defending the rights of all at the center of social development.
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Anti-War Stand of Americans Again Affirmed
48 Vermont Towns Vote Against Iraq War
In an effort organized by a variety of forces, including Military Families Speak Out and the Iran Resolution Campaign, participants in Town Meetings in 48 Vermont towns passed resolutions opposing the war in Iraq and calling on the President and Congress to get the troops out of Iraq. The Meetings culminated an organizing effort by people across Vermont to provide a space for discussion and decision-making by the people.
Participants in an anti-war rally following the November elections decided that Town Meetings were an important arena to raise the issue of the Iraq war and pass resolutions against it. Town Meetings are traditional to the New England area and are open to all members of the town to participate in discussion and decision-making on various issues. However it takes considerable work to get those issues of greatest concern to the people on the agenda. Organizers had to secure petitions of 5 percent of the voters in support of the Resolution to have it placed on the agenda. They also had to contend with pressure that matters such as war and peace do not belong on "town" agendas.
The organizers mobilized throughout the state, utilizing the work as a further opportunity to discuss the issues. Vermont has the highest number of deaths per capita for their National Guard troops sent to Iraq. One of the issues raised by the resolutions was the broad impact to families and communities, including issues like fire protections and other public safety matters, when so many of those involved in such work are sent and kept in Iraq.
People worked together to draft a resolution which was then sent to the towns. Vermont Military Families Speak Out described the resolution in this way: "The resolutions point to the erroneous claims that were used to take the U.S. into this war. They also point to the substantial costs of the deployment of the Vermont National Guard, including deaths, injuries and trauma for the troops, as well as hardships on families and employers. According to the group Military Families Speak Out, Vermont communities have been placed at risk due to the deployment of essential public safety personnel. Extended deployments in a war that should never have been fought leave Vermont without its full contingent of troops in times of emergency or natural disaster and also threaten the long-term viability of the Vermont National Guard as enlistment and re-enlistment rates decline."
The resolutions call on the Vermont state legislature to examine how National Guard deployments impact the people of the state. It calls on the Vermont Congressional delegation to assess the impact of the Iraq war and also to look into the issue of the role of the states, not the federal government, in determining deployment of the Guard. They also call on the President and Congress to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq. Organizers produced buttons to popularize the resolutions saying "Only Resolution Can Stop War."
A total of 56 towns, or 1/5 of Vermont towns, organized to produce similar resolutions and have them discussed and voted on at the March 1 Town Meetings. Forty eight of the towns passed the resolution, three voted it down and three tabled it.
People across the state and those following the story around the country agreed that the stand was representative not only of Vermonters, but Americans as a whole. Military Families Speak Out is working on organizing similar state-based campaigns all across the country.
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Media Held Guilty of Deception
- Dahr Jamail, February 14, 2005, Inter-Press Service -
ROME — A peoples tribunal has held much of Western media guilty of inciting violence and deceiving people in its reporting of Iraq.
The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), an international peoples initiative seeking the truth about the war and occupation in Iraq made its pronouncement Sunday after a three- day meeting. The tribunal heard testimony from independent journalists, media professors, activists, and member of the European Parliament, Michele Santoro.
The Rome session of the WTI followed others in Brussels, London, Mumbai, New York, Hiroshima-Tokyo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Lisbon. The Rome meeting focused on the media role.
The informal panel of WTI judges accused the United States and the British governments of impeding journalists in performing their task, and intentionally producing lies and misinformation.
The panel accused western corporate media of filtering and suppressing information, and of marginalizing and endangering independent journalists. More journalists were killed in a 14-month period in Iraq than in the entire Vietnam war.
The tribunal said mainstream media reportage on Iraq also violated article six of the Nuremberg Tribunal (set up to try Nazi crimes) which states: "Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes (crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity) are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such a plan."
The panel that heard testimonies included Francois Houtart, director of the Tricontinental Centre in Belgium that has backed several peoples movements in Latin America, and Dr. Samir Amin, director of the Third World Forum in Dakar, Senegal. Dr. Haleh Afshar, who teaches politics and women's studies at the University of York in Britain, and Italian author and newspaper editor Ernesto Pallotta witnessed the proceedings.
"This is not simply an exercise to denounce the mainstream media for their bias and incompetence," said Dr. Tony Alessandrini, a human rights activist who has published several articles on the U.S. colonization of Iraq. "These denunciations have been going on for months. Here in Rome, we must go further.."
Alessandrini, who helped organized the WTI added, "What we are being asked to consider is not simply media bias, but rather the active complicity of media in crimes that have been committed and are being committed on a daily basis against the people in Iraq."
Several experts gave strong testimony. Dr. Peter Philips, director of `Project Censured' at Sonoma State University in California where he teaches media censorship provided taped testimony. He said that at no time since the 1930s has the United States been so close to "institutionalized totalitarianism", and added, "U.S. society has become the least informed, best entertained society in the world."
The WTI Rome session also heard testimony from Dr. David Miller from Scotland, author of `Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq'. "This is about condemning journalistic complicity of war crimes," said Dr. Miller, who is also co-editor of Spinwatch, a group that monitors public relations and propaganda.
Miller said the Pentagon "does not recognize the concept of independent journalists, because they are providers of unfriendly information", and that mainstream media in the United States and in Britain was "complicit in furthering the selling of the invasion, and ongoing occupation. All studies conducted on mainstream media show dominance by government policies, and wartime coverage of TV news in the UK was generally sympathetic to the government's case.."
Fernando Suarez, who lost his son Jesus during the invasion of Iraq when he is said to have stepped on an illegal U.S. cluster bomb, also testified at the tribunal.
Suarez testified that he was first told by the Pentagon that his son died from a gunshot to the head, then that he died in an accident, and then that he had died in `friendly fire'.
On inspecting his son's body Suarez said he discovered that his son had died from stepping on a cluster bomb.
"I never had the truth from them," Suarez added. "I found the truth, and the truth was very simple. On March 26 the Army dropped 20,000 cluster bombs in Iraq, but only about 20 percent exploded. The other 80 percent are in the cities and the schools and acting like mines."
Suarez said: "Bush sent my son because he said Iraq had illegal weapons, and my son died from an illegal American weapon, and nobody has spoken about this. The media will not talk about the illegal American weapons."
Several witnesses testified about media disinformation over the siege of Fallujah. They were presented copies of the award winning documentary `Weapons of Mass Deception' by journalist and film-maker Danny Schechter, who is also executive editor of Mediachannel.org, an online media issues network.
Alessandrini said evidence of active complicity of the mainstream media in wrongs committed against the people of Iraq, and the wrongs of deception and incitement, was now overwhelming.
"We work from the understanding that history will recall the crimes committed against the people of Iraq by the U.S.," he said. "It is our responsibility to record these crimes in order to ensure these crimes are never again repeated."
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Vietnamese Case Against U.S. Use of Agent Orange Goes Forward
A class action civil suit brought on behalf of millions of Vietnamese is going forward in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. The suit charges the chemical monopolies responsible for producing Agent Orange, such as Dow chemical. It charges the companies with war crimes for supplying the U.S. military with banned chemical weapons. The suit seeks billions in damages and that the U.S. pay for the environmental clean-up needed in Viet Nam.
Agent Orange contains dioxin, one of the most toxic substances for both humans and nature. The U.S. essentially "carpet bombed" whole areas of Viet Nam with Agent Orange, resulting in immediate deforestation and the death of humans, plants and animals, as well as decades of deaths, birth defects and illnesses. The impact of Agent Orange in Viet Nam continues to this day and is expected to last many more decades. The U.S. refuses to provide reparations and pay for the environmental devastation it caused.
The Justice Department (DoJ) is intervening in the civil case, even though the government is not charged. It is urging the judge to simply dismiss it. In a brief and in arguments before the court, the DoJ claims that the suit poses a "dangerous threat to the president's power to wage war," and represents a "breathtaking expansion" of the power of the federal courts to decide war crimes. The government argues that there should be no restrictions on the president concerning use of chemical weapons. The DoJ also raises the concern that if this suit succeeds, other peoples devastated by U.S. crimes, such as the Koreans, would have a stronger basis for their demands for reparations.
The chemical monopolies claim they were just following the government's orders and making the Agent Orange according to military specifications. They say use of these chemical weapons was necessary to "protect American soldiers." They are also making the argument that Agent Orange was merely a "herbicide" and therefore did not qualify as a chemical weapon.
The readiness of the U.S. to continue committing such war crimes can be seen in current use of depleted uranium munitions, also highly toxic and with long-term impacts to humans and the environment. It too is supposedly not a "chemical" weapon.
The judge in the case, Jack B. Weinstein, has said the case faces many legal hurdles but that it raised important issues and "has to go forward seriously." During hearings he asked whether legal precedents concerning the treatment of makers of Zyklon B, the hydrogen cyanide gas used in Nazi death camps, were applicable to the claims against the companies that supplied Agent Orange. Two manufacturers responsible for producing the gas were convicted of war crimes and their top officials executed.
This case was part of the fierce struggle against fascism after World War II. Trials, such as the Nuremberg Trials, were held as part of efforts to hold war criminals responsible and prevent such crimes in the future. Nazi government officials and monopolies were charged and tried. Accords such as the Geneva conventions and others outlawing the use of chemical and biological weapons and targeting of civilians became norms of international law. In attempting to have the case dismissed, the U.S. is using the case to justify its dismissal of these norms and block efforts to have Bush and Rumsfeld charged with the present war crimes.
It is also the case that far from "protecting" Americans, Agent Orange also caused death and illness among American soldiers, much as the deleted uranium munitions are doing today. In 1984, the same chemical companies involved settled a suit brought by American Viet Nam war veterans, who proved that it caused cancer, birth defects and other health problems. Seven American chemical companies paid $180 million to settle the suit. Judge Weinstein also heard that case.
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New Study Shows Depleted Uranium Munitions Killing Thousands
A recent article in "Preventive Psychiatry E-newsletter," provides information on a special report that names depleted uranium (DU) munitions as the source of Gulf War syndrome. The syndrome widely effected soldiers from the first Gulf War, as well as having devastating effects on the Iraqi people and environment. The U.S. government has long claimed it "did not know" the source of the problem.
The article refers to a report by scientist Leuren Moret, investigating the impact of DU munitions. Moret's report concluded that Gulf War syndrome is caused by DU munitions.
Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, brought out in the article that "Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in [the first Gulf War], of them 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of `Disabled Vets' means that a decade later 56 percent of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems." The known disability rate for wars of the last century was 5 percent, for Viet Nam it was 10 percent. The number of vets from the first Gulf War on medical disability of some type numbers 518,739. Bernklau brings out that "The long-term effects have revealed that DU is a virtual death sentence."
Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist, retired from Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, says the new and rapid malignancies in soldiers are a matter of great concern. Asked whether the main purpose of the DU munitions was to kill people, she said "I would say it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people."
The fact that the U.S. government and specifically the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) knows the deadly impact of the munitions and continues to use them in the current war against Iraq Gulf War, further shows the ruthless character of the U.S. and its readiness to commit war crimes as it strives for world domination. The U.S. also continues to make these weapons, even though they are banned by international law that the U.S. is required to uphold.
The deadly radioactive munitions continue to kill for decades, cause massive birth defects and other harm to children, as well as poisoning the environment. The far larger numbers of deaths and medical problems for the Iraqi people will continue for many decades to come.
Use of these weapons is a war crime and those responsible from the top down must be charged and punished.
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Views on the Crisis of Representative Democracy
With this issue, Voice of Revolution will begin regularly publishing views on the crisis of Representative Democracy from around the world, as well as those from the U.S. on the crisis of U.S.-style democracy in particular. We consider the article below, "The Anachronism of `Representative Democracy' and the Immediate Need for Democratic Renewal" to be of great significance as it provides essential guides to the thinking and action required at this time as peoples everywhere work to win change that favors them and all humanity. We particularly draw readers' attention to the analysis on the assault on public opinion as part of the efforts of the ruling circles to block development of a democracy that favors the people.
We are witnessing a major attack on the existing public opinion that says government has a responsibility to society and must play its role in providing for the rights of the people, such as the right to education, healthcare, a livelihood and secure retirement. Every effort is being made to justify barbaric cuts to social programs and create the opinion that the problem is "too much" government and that everyone is "better off" fending for themselves. We are seeing the elimination of elected governance and any space for discussion at a time when the people are demanding their right to become the representatives, to increase their role in governance. We urge all are readers to study and discuss the article below and send us your comments and views on the vital issue of advancing the struggle for political empowerment.
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The Anachronism of "Representative Democracy" and the Immediate Need for Democratic Renewal
- Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) -
We are pleased to inform you that this year the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its founding. This year the Party has also embarked on the third five-year plan of its Historic Initiative so that in this defining moment for the peoples of the world, consciousness plays its decisive role. Considering that bringing the role of consciousness into play will create the subjective conditions to open society's path to progress, CPC(M-L) is going all out to mobilize the Canadian working class and people to find a way out of the crisis on a basis that favors their interests, not those of the international financial oligarchy. In this regard, the sharpest class struggle is taking place on the question of what kind of democracy and system should be established in every country according to each people's needs, concrete reality and thought material.
We are striving to create the kind of party which can intervene in the present situation in a manner that puts the working class at the head of a nation-building project so that it vests sovereignty in the people. It must end the block to the progress of society posed by those who have usurped power and rule in the interest of a tiny minority. Our Party firmly believes that every effort must be devoted to enable the people at every level of society, in every endeavor, to participate in providing the problems they face with solutions in a manner which favors them.
In the opinion of CPC(M-L), the work for the democratic renewal of the political process to get rid of the Anglo-American imposition of the system called representative democracy is crucial. Today, more than ever before, this system is being used to marginalize the peoples, not only depriving them of political power but of any access to a political process which would permit them to have a say in the decisions made in their name. This anachronistic and reactionary system permits the most degenerate and backward elements in the society to take decisions which deepen the all-sided crisis, block society's progress and pose an ever greater danger of fascism and war. In this regard, we are not merely dealing with an intensification of the anti-social offensive as a result of the neo-liberal agenda. We are also seeing the transformation of the state, from social democratic arrangements in the service of monopoly capital as existed in the post-war period, to fascist arrangements in the service of the most reactionary sections of monopoly capital.
The U.S. imperialist chieftain George W. Bush used the occasion of his inauguration as a fraudulently elected president for a second term to threaten the world with more terrible consequences if the peoples refuse to elect governments on the basis of this system. On the basis of fraudulent elections, we are witnessing new measures to negate the people's right to self-determination, which means their very right to be. Meanwhile, public institutions — from the parliaments, courts, armed forces and public service to political parties, trade unions, cultural, social and educational institutions and even charities — are being turned into appendages of the state which defend monopoly right. This is also accompanied by massive disinformation. For example, the U.S. imperialists' self-serving argument applied to the fraudulent elections held in Iraq was as follows:
• Saddam Hussein = dictatorship = occupation
• U.S. occupation = elections = democracy
Canada uses the same irrational argument to justify its interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries in the name of the "responsibility to protect" and "human security."
This shows that today it does not matter which question is taken up, the bourgeoisie cannot find a solution. It activates the anti-human factor/anti-consciousness and for its own vainglory has embarked on a brutal path of destroying everything humankind has achieved in the past. In this regard, one of the salient features of the system of representative democracy is to criminalize all the problems arising from differences in ideology, politics, culture and social forms. Far from such problems of life being dealt with, they are made the target of law and order and thus turned into permanent problems. This form of democracy has become so anachronistic that there is no possibility for the working class and broad masses of the people to defend their interests within it. The only recourse the working class and people have is to overthrow it and replace it with a democracy that is consistent with the demand of the people to govern themselves and exercise control over their lives.
In the opinion of CPC(M-L), the right of each people to determine the kind of system they want is not merely a political point. For us to have proletarian internationalism, to create one human race, the precondition is the development of the thinking of all people within their own national conditions. This is the first step to seizing power, the kind of power which is the result of the claim of the oppressed class and peoples for definite aims. By intervening in the real life struggles of the people with the aim of empowering them, we learn and gain the confidence to go from one level of struggle to the next. This is what safeguards the revolutionary interest and ensures that we remain revolutionary Marxist-Leninists, as the people demand of us.
Our hearts throb with the throbbing of the hearts of millions upon millions of workers. It is this which gives us our ideology, which tells us what is truth and what is falsehood, and on this basis we advance. We are not wrong when we put real life as the basis of our development and Marxism-Leninism as our guide. On this basis we identify with those who have taken up the task to carry out everything consciously and with a plan.
Within this context, it is of utmost importance to deal with the role of wrecking and disinformation which is used to deprive the people of their ability to think, find their bearings and set their own agenda.
The Wrecking of Public Opinion
However else public opinion is defined, it must at least be spoken of in terms of what is public and what is opinion. Opinion refers to the views held about issues based on personal judgment. These views can be the expression of a general assessment, evaluation or conclusions drawn from the investigation of facts. Public refers to the concerns or relations of the people as a whole. Society has developed to a stage where it is necessary for the various needs of the people to be provided for socially and not individually: there is the need for public health, education, culture, etc. There is also a need for an enlightened society, fit for all its members, with a healthy natural and social environment.
Public opinion refers to the general feelings, attitudes and views expressed especially in respect to decision-making in the body politic. What is the relation of personal judgments (opinions) and public opinion in the polity? Is public opinion the summation of all individual and personal opinions? How does this work? Minimally, it stands in opposition to what is detrimental to the public. Public is the opposite of private. Those concerns relating to the people as a whole or to the general interests of a society are opposed to the narrow, secretive and private concerns of those who have usurped power, using royal prerogative, impunity and privilege. The general interests would be those that affect the whole of society, for example, issues of war and peace, the environment, poverty, etc. Individuals and collectives need to be able to harmonize their conflicting interests with the general interests of society. For this, there is a need for people to assemble, speak, take stands, etc., all of which are public needs. Public rights must be guaranteed through public law that allows for governance of the people by the people and for the people in opposition to the claims of the cliques of narrow self-interest, big business and their supporters, who are today's wreckers. Also, what is known, all the achievements and results of class struggle and struggles for production and scientific experimentation (including culture) belongs to and is of the public, as are all the experiences gained by the people participating politically, etc. Public opinion is connected to the right to conscience and enlightenment.
The very existence of public opinion and the right to conscience is under threat from the wrecking activities of Bush and others who direct their wrecking at anything public. Wrecking is directed at all the personalities of enlightenment and the achievements of the natural and social sciences. Wrecking is also directed at the legacies and traditions of the people in resisting oppression and fighting for democracy and independence.
Disinformation is the weapon used by the wreckers. The purpose of disinformation is to destroy public opinion, and thereby leave all the public treasures vulnerable to the onslaught of the wreckers. An atmosphere of medievalism is created to replace public opinion. Wrecking takes place in order to prevent new content from being provided with a new form that would unleash an energy that would be an advantage to the people. If this energy, the result of the productive power of the people, is expropriated in service of the usurpers, the new content produced will not have its appropriate form. The energy as collective intelligence must be used to create these new forms. Otherwise, this energy is a destructive force used against new content. This content, in other words, must be in-formed. The people who are the essence of this new content require this information, an aspect of public life. Wrecking takes aim, destroying form and content with disinformation, the destruction of the informing energy. Just as modern science was developed first against creationism, etc., this disinformation must be rejected, i.e., public opinion must be created that overcomes the medieval atmosphere of the wreckers. A modern and enlightened public opinion is needed, and then there will be raised in clear relief the power of the disinforming wreckers on the one hand and the power expressed in world public opinion on the other.
The Negation of Direct Experience
Direct experience involves the active participation in or exposure to events, things or phenomena. Direct experience results in knowledge and skills due to the involvement in what happens. An awareness is created from this involvement and contact and from the resulting knowledge. This awareness is of the past and the result of what has happened. It is awareness of a beginning and end. And because direct experience is an objective phenomenon, this beginning and end, past and present, exists as part of an integral whole. Calling experience direct emphasizes that it exists in itself, and that it actually exists means that it can be indicated with accuracy and precision. But this indication or naming is not the concrete content of the experience itself.
Direct experience exists on the basis of its immediate inter-connections, without somebody or something intervening, and no mediation or intervention can alter the fact of its existence. Based on the way people produce and reproduce what's needed for life, they enter into definite relations with one another and with nature. They produce food, clothing, shelter, etc. They also produce social relations, society, etc. Needs for all these things are also produced, along with the continuous creation of new needs. By engaging in class struggle and struggles for production, culture and scientific experimentation, people directly experience their conditions of life and can take up problems for solution. Direct experience in this sense is connected to the underlying relations locally, nationally and internationally.
Direct experience is based on definite interconnections with nature and society and this is expressed by people's interests and passions. Interests and passions are expressed by individuals and their collectives in relation to nature and society. All of this really exists and because it is reality it is social and natural matter. All of these connections are reflected on the human brain and all of this creates awareness. In other words, the consciousness we have of all these connections and changes also exists objectively, and because of this existence, direct experience becomes the basis of transforming consciousness into matter and matter into consciousness.
Public opinion is developed on the basis of direct experience of individuals in their collectives and society in general. Public opinion pertains especially to the polity and questions of decision-making. Public opinion is the expression given to the general attitude and feeling around particular issues of concern. Issues of general concern stand in relation to the interests of individuals, collectives and society, all of which are filled with contradictions. Within the polity the conflict among all the interests is expressed as the conflict of the popular will and the legal will.
The negation of direct experience is based on the destruction of public opinion. The negation of direct historical experience includes annihilation of consciousness that objectively exists in the form of laws, governance, political wisdom, common sense. This negation is directed against a consciousness of past and present.
Civil Death: Infamy and the Assault on the Inviolability of Direct Experience
Direct experience, whether of an individual, collective or society, involves participation in activities or events resulting in knowledge and skills. The awareness of this involvement, and the sum of things that have happened along with past acts, affects, etc., is taken as an integral whole. It is the connections of everybody with everything else and the sharing and caring that humans are capable of that makes direct experience not simply part of reality but inviolable. The direct experience of actual historical circumstance is inviolable because in spite of all mediating factors this experience is simultaneously connected to and dependant on everything else in its own time and space.
Wrecking exists by negating direct experience. A claim is made by those who have usurped power by force that direct experience whether growing out of the class struggles or out of the struggles for production and scientific experimentation is not the basis for knowledge of reality. In this way there can be no common awareness of all of the achievements in these areas. In fact, direct experience is not considered part of reality. This suggests reality is merely the opinions and wishes of those who have usurped power by force. They impose their views as abstraction, independent of the concrete content of reality.
This is the heart of Bush's second term and explains the program being pursued by the United States at home and abroad, by the British and other powers of Old Europe, by Canada and other countries referred to by Winston Churchill as the "fraternal association of English-speaking peoples" when he launched the Cold War. For example, Bush's inaugural address, full of references to the medieval Crusades in the name of "freedom as an eternal right," presents the future as one of every form of infamy and slavery. The heart of his attack centers on the inviolability of direct experience. He attacks the historical experience of the world's people and throws out all the knowledge they have of how the world operates. He says all the world needs is his abstract notion of freedom as an "eternal right."
The reason everyone has these rights, according to Bush, is because they are created in the image of an abstraction by an abstraction, his god. They have these rights as long as they accept their direction from the "author of life" (authority) which is put forward to smash all of the self-consciousness and consciousness that comes from all of the struggles and achievements of the peoples of the world. This absolute negation of historical direct experience is given by Bush as the claim that his form of justice always has been, is and will always be the same. Paraphrasing from Abraham Lincoln, he states that those who are opposed to his freedom (slavery) must be deprived of their freedom. A further expression of "you are with us or with the terrorists," Bush is not merely acting the hypocrite speaking fine words while carrying out reactionary policies, nor is he simply trying to deceive the people with further lies. Bush is putting forward his theological medieval worldview under modern conditions rooted in the law of slavery and its policy of infamy.
The U.S. Constitution, which emerged from the enlightenment movement of the 18th century, promoted the role for conscience within the domain of public opinion as the basis for governance to avert tyranny. White men of property were for the most part the ones to benefit. Still, the authors of the Constitution saw a particular need for destroying the power of medievalism and clericalism by removing the power of government to infame its citizens.
The use of infamy by political or religious authorities was a central aspect of feudal rule. By means of infamy, the state could strip people of their legal personality and humanity. Those infamed were subjected to all the tortures and debasements allowed to the condition known as Capitio Dimunitio, or civil death. This was the position of chattel slaves. Today, under the sway of the wrecking of the bourgeoisie, the use of infamy by the government authorities is reintroduced in full form. It has become the basis to enact laws governing all spheres of life. This is the case within the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries of the so-called civilized world. It is the basis of attempts by these countries to reform the United Nations and establish the so-called New World Order in which they and they alone usurp the decision-making power internationally. With civil death as a condition of life for growing numbers of the people, in the United States public opinion is under full attack, as is the Constitution that was supposed to guarantee it within a republican form of government. Meanwhile, the reactionaries who have usurped power by force in the U.S. seek to impose the same onto the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean which refuse to cooperate with the U.S. dictate. The law of slavery begins to gain among those who have usurped power by force. The weapons of reaction in their wrecking activities include ignorance (against science, enlightenment), incompetence (against validity in law and science, against the skills and intelligence needed for civilization), intolerance (racism, exceptionalism, eurocentrism, metaphysics of Indian hating), infamy (civil death and law of slavery) and impunity (rule by dictate, privilege, prerogative).
It is thus important to recognize that today our work to create a bulwark of humanity which can defeat the dangers of fascism and war by opening our societies' paths to progress requires the work of the communists to elaborate modern communism and develop the enlightenment movement against the wrecking of public opinion and the negation of direct experience.
The immediate need is to involve the working class and people in providing themselves with a political theory which places the people at the center stage of development. A political process based on this theory would facilitate the people governing themselves. Now is the time to replace the brutal system of representative democracy under whose aegis all the public institutions of our societies are being transformed into appendages of a fascist state. A form of democracy is needed which is consistent with the interests of the working class and peoples to govern themselves and exercise control over their lives.
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