kasama pamphlet shaping the kasama project pdf

8/6/2019 Kasama Pamphlet Shaping the Kasama Project PDF

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KASAMA ESSAYS FORDISCUSSION

Shaping theKaSama project

contributing torevolutionS

long march

by enzo rhyner, j.b. connorS, john Steele,KobayaShi maru, miKe ely,

rita Stephan, and roSa harriS


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Published as pamphlet May 2009

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States Licence.Feel ree to reprint, distribute or quote this with attribution.

Kasamais a communist project that, in theory and practice,

ghts or the orcible overthrow o all existing social conditions.

website: kasamaproject.orgemail: [email protected]

Contributing to Revolutions Long Marchis a discussiondocument written be ore Kasamas Eastern Regional Con

erence in February 2009. Te text has been re edited orpublic publication.

Tis is a discussion o the Kasama Project not just o themore visible Kasama website , but the network o communistrevolutionaries that has started to pull together over the lasttwo years.


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Part 1: Grabbing Pitch ork orTeoretical Kni e

Overcoming wo AbsencesLi e on earth is wracked by contradiction. Each

moment, especially in our era, throws up new and par ticular contradictions starkly.

In just the rst year o Kasama, weve seen the riseo Obama with all it has meant, including in thethinking o progressive people. And we are standingamid the early shockwaves o a wrenching, global eco

nomic crisis has awakened and alarmed hundreds o millions o people, and re injected the word socialisminto public discourse.

And meanwhile, there really is not yet any sense o a revolutionary or communist alternatives on the po litical radar screen. Te intermediate are alarmed andpanicky, while many o the most consciously progres sive are (in a way never seen in our li etime) looselygathered around the new U.S. government.

In uture moments, millions o people will organizethemselves into upsurges and seek new ways to think,to live and to die. And at such moments, there may bemuch demanded o communists. o make revolution,large orces need to be united around programs andcommon visions or an alternative uture and theyneed to be materialist plans that have an actual hope o achieving liberation.

Tis world calls out or earless actions, and thedisciplined sacri ce to carry them out. Urgently. Al

ways urgently. Answers will be needed in the midst o major social conjunctures. Lines o demarcation willneed to be drawn at each point along the way.

And yet, there is: At this moment, it is not clearwhat revolution in the U.S. would look like, or how de termined revolutionaries can help advance the condi tions or revolution. And there is, at this moment, noexisting revolutionary organization with prospects o developing signi cant roots among oppressed peopleand their potential allies.

Tese two absences o revolutionary strategyand organization in the U.S. have existed or a longtime (despite deception and sel deception). Te whole

point o orming our Kasama Project is to make a com mon contribution to lling those voids.

A Sketch o the Kasama Project So FarWe are trying to build something new and very

revolutionary rom scratch based on the 9 Letterscall or a radically di erent kind o communist politics,and based on the work we have done together sincethat call.

And we exist. Tat alone is remarkable. Our Kasa

ma Project has emerged as a network o revolutionariesunder some di cult conditions:

Tere was not any clear split rom existing revo lutionary organization, that provided us with anational ramework, structure, or initial organiza tion.

Contributing toRevolutions Long MarchBy Enzo Rhyner, J.B. Connors, John Steele, Kobayashi Maru,Mike Ely, Rita Stephan, and Rosa Harris


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We developing within a generally non revolution ary climate in a year marked by all the re ormistenthusiasms o Obamas rise.

And we have done this in a period combining warand mounting economic crisis with relative ebb instruggle and where revolutionary and commu nist politics are largely o radar, even or extremelydiscontent people within the U.S.

And at this point we have accomplished a ewthings over the last year:

We developed an initial set o critiques aimed at aprevious revolutionary trend the RevolutionaryCommunist Party.

We have started a process o organizational re

groupment by attracting a loose network o revo lutionaries to our 9 Letters and our Kasama de bates.

We have consciously worked to develop a distinc tive political culture. It is a culture that takes criticalthinking and engagement seriously it combinesan explicit communist approach to burning mat ters, with a substantive engagement with opposingviews.We have rejected cheap demonization o op ponents seeking debate that embraces civility

but not a relativist liberalism. Our initial organizational li e has continued a 9

Letters Style that values mutual consultation, can did debate, horizontal discussion, and a welcomingo new ideas and new people. We have started todevelop a movement with a sense o communityand solidarity in contrast to an instrumental ist approach o using and manipulating people thatmarks so much o the society (and the le t).

We have made some initial, tentative suggestionso how to step orward.At our April 08 con erence, a ter a day o debate,

we adopted a simple statement o purpose:

Kasama is a communist project that, in theoryand practice, ghts or the orcible overthrow o all existing social conditions.

It is a statement o radical end goals, but not yeto methods or strategy. It is the opposite o the move

ment is everything, the nal goal is nothing. Here thenal goal is upheld, and the orms o movement are le topen.

Alain Badiou has raised the issue this way:

Te communist hypothesis remains the goodone, I do not see any other. I we have to abandonthis hypothesis, then it is no longer worth doinganything at all in the eld o collective action.However, to hold on to the Idea, to the existenceo this hypothesis, does not mean that we shouldretain its rst orm o presentation which wascentered on property and State. In act, what isimposed on us as a task, even as a philosophicalobligation, is to help a new mode o existence o the hypothesis to deploy itsel .

Without endorsing all o Badious views, we tooshould unite around our communist end goals andnot be collectively bound by their earlier orms o pre sentations.

Te current basis o unity de nes our project: TisKasama Project is not animated by a movementist im pulse. We are not just revolutionary socialists seekingsome wel are state by militant means.

And that sketches where we are.Now we must ourselves decide our duty, we must

decide and do it well.Many di erent Kasama Projects are possible

with very di erent results. And we have to pushorward with a mix o care and urgency to rebuild arevolutionary movement. Te ollowing document isan attempt to put some ideas on the table or discus sion, to provide something to bounce o o .

Pitch orks or Teoretical Kni eIn the 1960s, the world was wracked with revolu

tion and huge upsurges o the people. New commu nists and revolutionaries were emerging in large num bers certainly in the hundreds o thousands. Andthe times demanded immediate engagement. Youngcommunists rushed o to political battle ronts (as theythemselves said at the time) like peasants going to war.Tey grabbed up whatever theory and politics was ly ing around like a village o peasants might grab theirpitch orks or ails or axes and waded into the ray.


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And probably, they couldnt have done any di er ent.

Out o that experience, a new communist move ment developed a rather rich experience with politicalwork in the U.S. (not just the more radical work o the

RCP, but also including the attempts at third party andle t democrat electoral work, the Panther style servethe people programs, and the attempts to build a so cialist movement out o rank and le unionism.)

One way to understand the Kasama Project is tosketch two other alternatives:

We could rush o again, like peasants to war, dis perse ourselves deeply among the people and justdo it wielding the political understandings wehave at this moment, take up urgent struggles and

expect to develop new strategy and theory romthat process.

Or we could rush to encapsulate ourselves as a newlittle political sect carve quick lines o demar cation, proclaim strategy and theory based on thepolitical understandings we have at the moment,and rush out to proclaim it to the world.

Tese two alternatives both assume that we have,in our hands (there or the taking) su cient summa tion to simply dig in and take o . I we could quicklydetermine (based on what we already know) where tomake a ew, quick structural re orms to our inherit ed theory then we should make those changes, andthrow ourselves back into practical work on that basis.

But a basic assessment o the Kasama project isthat we have a need and an opportunity to do some thing very di erent. And that requires a break bothwith Avakians claims, but also with a deeper compo nent o existing Maoism.

Te two absences are the outgrowth o objectiveconditions (non revolutionary decades, relative stabil ity o U.S. imperialism) and some signi cant ailureso previous revolutionary attempts here in the U.S.,including in the orms o Marxism that they adoptedand popularized.

I there were somewhere (in the world, in someclassics or in the past) an adequate orm o pre existingMarxism then we could just seek it out and move(relatively quickly) toward applying it.

Te 9 Letters to Our Comradesmakes a di erentand controversial assessment. A ter saying Tere isreal glory and continuing value to Maoism, as a bodyo thought and as a movement or liberation, Letter 4writes:

But since Mao died in 1976, this Maoist move ment has not been a ertile nursery o daring anal yses and concepts. A mud streak has run throughit. Even its best orces o ten cling to legitimiz ing orthodoxies, icons, and ormulations. Tepopularization o largely correct verdicts o tenreplaces the high road o scienti c theory al lowing Marxism itsel to appear pat, simple andcomplete. Dogmatic thinking nurtures both sel delusion and triumphalism. In the name o tak ing established truths to the people, revolutionarycommunists have o ten cut themselves o romthe new acts and creative thinking o our times.

Letter 9 says communism needs to clean its Au gean stables uprooting this legacy o dogmatism,deepening its struggle against various orms o capitu lation, and tackling long standing philosophical andstrategic problems that stand as real obstacles to com munist revolution.

Tis is an argument that we cant just make a ew

quick adjustments to our inherited theory and then getback to some previous political routine.Letter 9 argues, that it is not a matter o dumping

Avakians worst idealism, and just returning to a modeland plan similar to the RCP:

We dont need a remake o the RCP, but better.Te theoretical kni e must cut deeper than that.Tere needs to be negation, a rmation, and thena real leap beyond what has gone be ore. We needa movement o all the way revolutionaries that

lives in this 21st century. Not some reshufing o old cadre, but the beginning reshufing o a wholesociety.

Te theoretical kni e has to cut deeper than that.Tat is a basic assessment. And it impacts how we pro ceed.


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Digging into Reconceive as We RegroupWe need to break down our slogan Reconceive as

We Regroup.First it states an intention to be part o regroup

ing: that conscious revolutionary orces need to cometogether, engage each other, develop common under standings, and (through inevitable struggle and demar cation) orm organizational orms o common revolu tionary work.

Part o the assumption here is that the orms o regroupment (and communist organization generally)are themselves problematized. (Problematize means totreat a subject as a problem or solution, not as a settledquestion.)

In other words, how we regroup, how and when weorm more highly disciplined organizations or parties,is part o what we are working to creatively uncover.

Tere is no given, universal ormula or how toorm revolutionary organization that we simply needto uncover and apply. Form ollows unction, not ormollows ormula.

Every real revolution has (inevitably) had di erentorms o revolutionary organization or all di erentstages o their process (initiation, revolutionary prepa ration, revolutionary collisions leading the people, sei

zure o power, creation o new orms o power, neweruptions o continuing revolution).

Tis discussion o revolutionary organization isone example o the reasons we have conceived o Kasa ma as a communist project de ned in many ways byquestions not by a pre existing, elaborate set o an swers.

Tere is a contradiction here: On one hand wehave an initial basis o unity. Tere are things we knowand believe. But, at the same time: Tere are things

that we dont yet know. Tere are things we believe asindividuals, but that are not yet our common propertyas a new political trend. And, there are things that eacho us currently believe that we will discover are, in act,wrong.

We are envisioning a process o creative trans or mation rom which all o us, and our Project, emergeschanged. And we intend to train ourselves to listen andthink critically as a precondition or creation. We

are giving ourselves permission to mentally let the cray ola dri t outside previous lines to see what kinds o new art is possible.

As we said in Come Walk the Revolutionary RoadWith Us

We are open to learning, una raid to admit ourown uncertainties. At the same time, we will notshrink rom what we do know: the solutions can not be ound within the current world order orthe choices it provides. We are or revolution. Weseek to nd the orms o organization and actionor the people most dispossessed by this system toree themselves and all humanity.

Within the RCP, questions about the partys viewswere considered agnosticism. And opposition to thepartys views was considered revisionism. Not sur prisingly, the Kasama conception here has (as is wellknown) been labeled agnosticism and revisionism. Itis neither. It is a necessary and di cult work we havebeen handed.

Our presumptuous work does not (o course)start rom nowhere. And we are not alone in taking iton. We have a number o things to draw on:

Te rich experience o over a century o commu nist theory and socialist revolution with Marx ism in its complex development as a power ul basisor critical and materialist analysis.

Decades o experimental attempts to gain a revolu tionary oothold in the U.S.

Current revolutionary movements internationallyare there to be critically studied or their theo retical insights and example.

Te work o others in the U.S. who despitemany disagreements we may ultimately have

are exploring important questions in provocativeways.

Te insights we will gain rom our own emergingrevolutionary practice.

Stages Ahead o UsOur conception is to orm a communist project

that does not rush, prematurely, to mark lines o de


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marcation or to prematurely establish rigid structures.Instead the idea has been to initiate both practice andtheoretical work with an aim o discovering and invent ing a new revolutionary road or the U.S.

Tis assumes that the process o building a new

revolutionary movement will have stages and thatour current Kasama Project has speci c characteristicsthat ow rom this early stage.

At this point, given the two absences, the processo reconception has a de ning impact on how we arecurrently regrouping. Tis ows rom our basic assess ment o how deep the theoretical kni e needs to go.

In Maoist terms: Reconception is the principal as pect o the contradiction. Te demands o the processo reconception (its investigation, debate, creations and

initial demarcations) is shaping how we are regroup ing.Tere will be other stages, where other aspects

come to the ore and de ne our work and structure:Without making assumptions now about those stages,we can oresee, or example, that there will be uturemoments where we help trans orm crisis into revolu tion, and where the revolution demands hardenedorms o organization capable o acting and leading ingreat storms. And then where the organization o com munists participates in the creation o new power rela tions within a new society.

But this current moment o reconception and re groupment has its particularities: distinctive orms o organization that serve its unction, standards o mem bership and engagement that are di erent than theywill probably be later.

We intend to create and keep a culture o lively de bate and resh thinking. We intend to always encouragepeople to speak their minds, and pose raw questions.Our sense o discipline will never coincide with no tions o con ormity. Tis must always be true butit must also be especially true now, as we problematizea number o key issues, and develop the basis or newunity.

We need a communist, revolutionary tent now, butit needs to be a broad one and we need to welcomeit when camels stick their noses into that tent.

Part 2: Revolutionary Workand the Pull o the Sect

Revolutionary Practice and ExperimentWhat is the relationship o theory and practice in

our current moment?Kasama has been ormed out o an impatience

to develop real roots or the revolutionary movementamong the people. We need (as the9 Letterssaid) a cul ture o organizing. Reconception is not a call or somenew encapsulated bubble.

We need to develop communist practical work,now, among the people. It is one o the challenges thatcon ront us in our second year.

Leading up to this con erence a number o newsuggestions have been raised. In some quarters suchideas would quickly be dismissed as social democraticor social work including among people trained by theRCP in a negative summation o the Panthers Servethe People programs.

Or, another example: Tere has been a movementto orm workers centers o diverse kinds o ten cen tered on organizing undocumented immigrant work ers. Some people have simply dismissed that work aseconomist without even bothering to learn rom thedi erent strategies at play.

Our Kasama approach needs to be an openness toexperimentation and resh thinking. We should lookagain a orms o developing contact, politicization andalternative institutions among the people and thinka resh about ways such activities can contribute to rev olutionary movement.

Quick, knee jerk dismissal runs against what weneed to be doing. It runs against the need to do deep

investigation It runs against the need or a new genera tion o revolutionaries to learn rom their own experi ence (as well as rom summations o previous experi ence).

Te Kasama Project will pursue a relatively smallnumber o speci c work areas. But we also need toleave the door open or local and personal projects, orexperimentation, or new ideas, or welcoming people


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with other priorities and or learning rom a widerange o radical e orts.

Regroupment needs to takes place in the context o reconception. But these priorities could change quick ly: Crucial events and struggles may suddenly demand

our attentions.We may nd our Mississippi. (Te Mississippi

Freedom Summer attracted the most courageous earlyactivists o a generation, radicalized them, and shookthe country.) By nd our Mississippi we dont mean just becoming activists in the next mass movement toarise. We are talking about being alert to an event orstormcenter that could suddenly start galvanizing ageneration and shape how this ugly society is perceivedand challenged.

I such a moment comes (this year, next, or when ever) it must not nd us groggy or scholastic. We needto make sure we are exible enough to change plans.

Our work o reconception needs to help developthe mental exibility to perceive and participate in cre ative new processes happening around us. We need theability to be trans ormed without abandoning our de ning communist nature and analysis. We need to be raveling Light and Coming From Within.

Te Pull o the SectTere is a well worn path that we need to avoid(and it wont be easy).

Here is the method: You gather like minded peo ple. You document the things you already agree on. Youadopt your agreements as a basis o unity. And yournew grouping rushes out into the world to proclaimyour politics and put them into practice. Drawing lineso demarcation is key and that is done on the basiso the politics you walked in with.

For people trained in revolutionary communistpolitics, we could complete all o this in one or two a ternoons o relatively easy work declaring our loy alty to well known ideas associated with communism(democratic centralism, dictatorship o the proletariat,vanguard party, materialist dialectics, and so on). Wecould demarcate our view rom others and assignthem the label revisionist. We could then rush out intothe world to proclaim our politics.

Kasama has opposed orming itsel as such a newlittle sect but the temptation keeps popping up be cause o training and concerns that pull on us all:

1. We have o ten been taught to assume some o those things we should now problematize.

2. Te su ering o the people and the press o eventsgives us all a power ul sense o urgency. Andaround the RCP, a deliberate training has hypedthat sense o urgency in moralist and anti theo retical ways.

3. It is sometimes said that perhaps doing anythingis better than doing nothing. And the creativework o reconception can be portrayed as doingnothing.

4. Tere is an assumption that the theory we need canemerge rom the summation o our own direct po litical practice and so the initiation o practice(almost any practice) is the prerequisite or soundtheoretical work.

5. Sometimes the very idea o creating a new theoretical ramework and then a political program isalien territory. I your training is in the narrow rou tines o mass work, then our presumptuous workrequires a real break (including personal trans or

mation).6. Tere is a dogmatic legacy that says the problems

o revolution have been solved by existing MLM.Te logic says that solutions arise rom deepergrasp o orthodoxies and rom the repeated criti cism o any departures rom orthodoxy. Te veryidea o creative reconception sometimes triggersear o sliding into an abyss.

7. It is not easy to ully con ront the implications o the two absences special theoretical and practi cal tasks that all on communists when they donthave a party.

8. Tere is o ten not an understanding that there isboth major line struggle raging among the worldscommunists and major gaps in communist under standing all o which needs attention and reso lution by appropriate methods.


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9

We should not orm a little group that play acts asthe seed o a uture party. Te process we oresee willbe ar more contradictory than that. Most initiatingprojects sprout several trends (or none at all).

We will not arrive on the scene like some magical

galvanizing thunderburst to tell everyone else what tothink and do. Lets have some scienti c non messianicmodesty and not perpetuate Avakian style grandiosity.We will strain to make real contributions. Tere maybe contributions that only we can make. And that mat ters. But we expect much rom many other people.

Forming a new sect would be not breaking withthe errors that brought us here. Te theoretical kni ehas to cut deeper.


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Other pamphlets available at kasamaproject.org:

Kasama Articles: On the Maobadi and the Crisis in Nepal

wo Lines Over Maoist Revolution in NepalFive Letters rom the Communist Party o Nepal (Maoist)and the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

Avakians Assessment o Tomas Je erson:A Critical Reading

By Pavel Andreyev

Avakians Away With all Gods!:Critiquing Religion Without Understanding ItBy Pavel Andreyev

9 Letters to Our Comrades:Getting Beyond Avakians New Synthesisby Mike Ely

At a Fork in the Road:A Debriefng o the RCPby Bill Martin

Cost o Empire: ime Bombs, Anarchy, Guns and the New Depressionby Eddy Laing

Slipping Into Darkness:Te Last Revolutionary Years o the Communist Party (1929- )

by Mike Ely


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kasama pamphlet shaping the kasama project pdf

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