[Peace-discuss] 10,000 @MoveOn: Tap Sen. Ron Wyden to Head NSA

[Carl G. Estabrook]

I agree whole-heartedly with David's excellent statement & would join him in wearing that label.

"Ultra-leftism" as David explains it is quite close to Chomsky's "libertarian socialism" (where libertarian is used in the older, European sense - not the recent American one). It's a critique of Marxism-Leninism - *from the Left*.

The most famous opponent of ultra-leftism was of course Lenin himself, in "'Left-Wing' Communism: An Infantile Disorder" (1920).

In the present situation, Bob Naiman's rejection of what he calls 'ultra-leftism' leads him to embrace a lesser-evilism (e.g., Brennan for Petraeus, if you can believe it), appropriately criticized by Jeffrey St. Clair this week:

"The politics of lesser evilism remains a crippling idée fixe for most of the Left, despite the carnage strewn across the landscape by the politicians they have enabled over the last two decades: from the Clintons to John Kerry and Obama. The Democratic Party itself has become a parody of a political enterprise, a corporate-financed ghost ship for the gullible, the deluded and the parasitical. For all practical purposes the party has been superceded as a functional entity by pseudo-interest groups like MoveOn and their new house organ, MSNBC, which provide daily distractions from and rationalizations for each new Obama transgression..." 
(Full column at <http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/18/empire-of-the-senseless/>.) 

--CGE


"I think that the libertarian socialist concepts - and by that I mean a range of thinking
that extends from left-wing Marxism through anarchism - are fundamentally correct
and that they are the proper and natural extension of classical liberalism
into the era of advanced industrial society."
--Chomsky, "Government in the Future" (1970, 2005)


On Oct 20, 2013, at 10:10 PM, David Johnson <davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net> wrote:

>  [...]
> "The term originated in the 1920s in the German and Dutch workers movements, originally referring to a Marxist current opposed to both Bolshevism and social democracy, and with some affinities with anarchism. The ultra-left is defined particularly by its breed of anti-authoritarian Marxism, which generally involves an opposition to the state and to state socialism, as well as to parliamentary democracy and wage labour. In opposition to Bolshevism, the ultra left generally places heavy emphasis upon the autonomy and self-organisation of the Working class. "
>  
> I can agree with and support most of this definition, with the exception of opposition to parliamentary democracy.
> I think parliamentary democracy, ie. elections, can be a very usefull tool that we should use as long as we are supporting REAL pro-Working class candidates and NOT pro-corporate / anti-Working class candidates like Obama and other corporate dems.
>  
> Too many people who say they are " Left " are actually liberal democrats in denial, and defend the democratic party regardless of their horrible anti-Working class / pro-corporate / pro-war / pro-austerity policies. 
>  
> If you want to call me " ultra Left " : because I criticize Obama and the corporate dems, then so be it.
> That will be a label I will be PROUD to wear !
>  
> [...]
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Robert Naiman
> To: E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森
> Cc: Peace-discuss List
> Sent: Sunday, October 20, 2013 9:27 PM
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] 10,000 @MoveOn: Tap Sen. Ron Wyden to Head NSA
> 
> I'm worried about landing a blow by any means possible. 
> 
> In the run-up to the aborted US bombing of Syria, I personally led the charge on the left to force Obama to go to Congress. The stupid, dogmahead, no-brain ultra-left denounced me. "What difference does it make if Obama goes to Congress? You should say no bombing under any circumstances whatsoever!" But if Obama hadn't been forced to go to Congress, the bombing would not have been stopped. Someone has to do the work of making a toehold. Obviously, the stupid, no-brain, dogmahead ultra-left is not going to do it.
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 7:27 PM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森" <ewj at pigsqq.org> wrote:
> Did you know that since the NSA was created in 1952 during McCarthyism?
> 
> END the NSA!!!!
> 
> The very existence of the NSA is yet another example of the US government wiping its butt
> with the US Constitution.!!!!
> 
> And you are worried about who heads it up????
> 
> 
> 
> On 10/21/13 6:35, Robert Naiman wrote:
>> Did you know that since the NSA was created in 1952 during McCarthyism, it's never been headed by a civilian? And now here come 10,000 Americans, saying not only that the head of the NSA should be a civilian, but that the civilian should be the top Congressional critic of the NSA wiping its butt with the U.S. Constitution. 
>> 
>> http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/pres-obama-tap-sen-ron?source=c.url&r_by=1135580
>>