Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 05:00:57 +0200 (MET DST)
From: rolf.martens-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Rolf Martens)
Subject: M-G: UNITE! Info #65en: 1/9 The panicky closing of M-G


UNITE! Info #65en: 1/9 The panicky closing of M-G
[Posted: 23.05.98]

Note / Anmerkung / Note / Nota / Anm=E4rkning:
On the UNITE! / VEREINIGT EUCH! / UNISSEZ-VOUS! /
=A1UNIOS! /  F=D6RENA ER! Info en/de/fr/es/se series:
See information on the last page / Siehe Information auf der
letzten Seite / Verrez information =E0 la derni=E8re page / Ver
informaci=F3n en la =FAltima p=E1gina / Se information p=E5 sista sidan.


INTRO NOTE:

This is sent to the Marxism-General mailing list (still)
managed by the Spoon Collective (M-G) and to newsgroups,
i.a. to 'alt.society.revolution'.

Chapters in the below are:

01.  	The closure of the Marxism-General mailing list (M-G)
	and what it means and indicates
	(In part 1/9)

02.	Some particular reasons why the reactionaries got
	panicky about M-G - shown again in some last-minute
	postings
	(In parts 1/9-2/9)

03.	A comment on the making of contacts and exchanging
	of information
	(In part 2/9)

04.	A comment on a recent joint action by some M-G
	subscribers as one small part of international
	class struggle
	(In part 2/9)=09

05.	A comment on Mao Zedong's continuation of the line of
	Marx and Lenin, his exposure and repudiation of
	revisionism, social-imperialism and hegemonism, and
	the panicky railings of some people against this
	(In parts 3/9-4/9)

06.	A comment on the Marxist-Leninists' exposure of and
	consistent counter-attacks against the reactionaries'
	"green" warfare in mad defence of their rule, and
	the panicky railings of some people against this
	(In part 4/9-5/9)

07.	A few points concerning the history of M-G and its
	predecessor "M1"
	(In part 5/9)

08.	"M-G murder plan at Spoons': Massive protests!" 
	(Jan '98 - M-G subscribers on curtailment plan then)
	(In parts 6/9-8/9)
=09
09.	My posting yesterday "M-G closes - where to go?"
	(In part 9/9)


Another "UNITE! Info" I'm posting today, #66en in 9 parts,
will have the title "Detecting some Net cops, I.".

End of intro note


01.	THE CLOSING OF THE MARXISM-GENERAL MAILING
	LIST (M-G) AND WHAT IT MEANS AND INDICATES

As was announced in April and rather recently specified in time
by the Spoon Collective (based for hardware at the university
at Jefferson Village, Virginia, USA), M-G and also their other
lists having to do with Marxism will be closed down today (as
reckoned by GMT, when this is posted, or tomorrow, Jefferson
time), Saturday, 23.05.1998. So far, no replacement for that
open list is in sight.

This of course is a setback for the 120 or so present subscri-
bers to M-G and/or its Digest, and to what one may call the
progressive community as a whole in the world.

I'm opposing and protesting against that measure, which no doubt
has been decided on on account of pressure from the reactionary
US and other ruling circles.

The open, uncensored and unmoderated M-G has been - as was its
predecessor up until Oct '96, "M1", too - a quite important
international forum, for several reasons.

Its openness charter - violated for all to see by its adminstra-
tors from last January on and beginning to be undermined on the
sly some months earlier - was and is an excellent document con-
cerning democratic principles, carrying further those traditions
which, it's clear, exist in the USA since the time of its war
of liberation, 1775-1783, and its anti-slavery civil war, 1861-
1865, in clear opposition to the arch-reactionary, imperialist
and hegemonist character of that country as such today.

Marx once pointed out that when the bourgeoisie comes to see
itself as really threatened in its rule by the proletariat,
then it abandons its earlier slogans, of the 1789 French revo-
lution and the contemporary North American war of liberation,
"liberté, égalité, fraternité", and openly replaces them with
"infanterie, cavalerie, artillerie!" - repression against the
masses of people.

This on principle is what is taking place now concerning M-G.

In the USA, during a long time earlier actually or supposedly
a relatively democratic and tolerant bourgeois state, something
resembling the present action against M-G actually did take
place rather long ago too, and marked a certain turning point
in that respect then, namely, the expulsion from that country
- the first time this was ever done on political grounds - of
some Bolshevik representatives of the revolutionary regime in
Russia, in 1919.

Now again, as in 1919, the conclusion can be drawn that the
reactionary US ruling circles see considerable reason to fear
the ideology of Marxism. So their panicky closure of M-G also
should be taken as a signal to the peoples of the world that
the prospect of international proletarian revolution is one
that some of its main adversaries today consider a very real
one.


02.	SOME PARTICULAR REASONS WHY THE REACTIONARIES
	GOT PANICKY ABOUT M-G - SHOWN AGAIN IN SOME
	LAST-MINUTE POSTINGS

For those who favour proletarian revolution, the M-G has been
(as was "M1") a very valuable forum, for several reasons:

1.	International contacts could be made on and information
	sent to and received from the list - uncensored

2.	The list held out the possibility for people in
	various countries, and of rather varying views, to
	discuss and perhaps agree on some joint action

3.	It provided a so far unparallelled opportunity for
	all those forces in the different countries claiming
	really to represent Marxism - to the extent that they
	had Internet access at all - to engage in ideological
	debate and struggle with each other, under the scrutiny
	of everybody (present), and thus the conditions for the
	phony to suffer defeat and the correct to come out as
	the victorious, for all to see.

On these things and how they've actually worked out on M-G (and
"M1") I shall comment more specifically in chapters 03-06 below.

They no doubt all have contributed towards the reactionaries'
getting more and more horrified by the existence of M-G.

Concerning point 1 and also point 2 above, it's clear that one
very important stratagem by the imperialists is and has long
been the withholding of information, coupled with very big
misinformation campaigns in their media, and in connection
with this the cutting off internationally from each other of
those political forces who absolutely need to unite.

Also, the enormous wealth of experience which the workers'
movement, the national-liberation movements and other really
progressive movements have caused to exist in various parts of
the world today is something that the reactionaries likewise
must want to bury, to prevent from being shared by others in
other places, and even to wipe out of existence if only they
could.

And quite in particular, the rulling small minority of openly-
bourgeois rulers in the world and of such rulers who falsely
in some way or other pretend they're "socialist" have a great
fear of that political line which really favours the over-
whelming majority of all people and which actually shows them
the road to international proletarian revolution, namely, the
basic line of Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong.

These reactionaries not only openly engage in vilifying Marxism
as massively as they can and totally denigrate the important
successes of socialist construction in the early Soviet Union
and the even greater ones in the formerly socialist China.

They also are trying to portray such evidently revisionist,
bourgeois policies and lines as those of the infamous traitors
and enemies of the people Trotsky, Khrushchov, Brezhnev, Gorba-
chov, the 4-gang (in China), Deng Xiaoping, etc, etc, as "Marx-
ist", "communist" policies and lines, in order totally to dis-
credit Marxism and communism in the eyes of the masses.

Not only this, they themselves fanatically engage in trying to
subvert and lead astray or bring over to their side all politi-
cal forces who show any sign of being genuinely communist, and
profusely spawn completely rotten phony"Marxist" organizations
of their own, including the setting up of entire phony "Inter-
nationals" such as the CIA-controlled "RIM", which are "allowed"
purportedly to attack them as "radically" they like, pretend
they're "Mao Zedong adherents" and everything, so as to make up
an "advanced defence line" for continued reactionary rule.

And even more: Since two-three decades back (at least), the
main ruling reactionaries have such a great fear of conditions'
inevitably maturing for international proletarian revolution -
despite the many-decades-long "reprieve" that capitalism has
gotten by developing into imperialism in the world - that they
are massively engaging in economic measures, covered up and
supported by a complete turn-about in their political and ideo-
logical superstructure, to curb industrial growth and scienti-
fic and technological development, and even renounce important
parts of their own capitalist profit prospects, in this pro-
status-quo "green" warfare of theirs directed against the
peoples of the world. "Environmentalism" and "sustainable de-
velopment" are just two of their many watchwords for this.

These manouevres however have all been publicly exposed and
counter-attacked precisely on M-G, and all forces which - out
of ignorance or out of malicious, pro-bourgeois intent - have
ventured forward here to try to defend them have been soundly
refuted in detail on the concrete matters and forced to turn
tail or restrict themselves to some intermittent wailing and
sniping.

This - it's no exaggeration to say - even has had a certain
impact on the general international political situation today.

[Continued in part 2/9]



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