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required the existence of a social class freed from the drudgery of producing its own food and other basic material needs and thus able to devote large amounts of its time to learned pursuits and this in turn required that these basic activities be performed for them by others - slaves, servants and peas- ants. moreover, the maintenance of such a state of affairs was possible only with the development of a strong central author- ity standing above society and exercising a virtual monopoly of decisive physical force, i.e. a state, willing and able to act, whenrequired by the interests of the dominant class, with extreme barbarity. however, speaking personally for a mo- ment, it was the actual experience of vis- iting various museums and galleries that brought home to me just how direct and in- timate has been the relationship between many of the highest achievements of hu- man culture and the extremes of human barbarism. rembrandt’s the return of the prodigal son in the hermitage museum in st. pe- tersburg, part of the winter palace of the tsars, there hangs rembrandt’s the re- turn of the prodigal son . the central fea- ture of this wonderful painting is the father placing his hands on the back of his kneel- ing son in a gesture of exceptional tender- ness, love and acceptance. the picture was bought for the hermitage in 1766 by the 48empress catherine the great who came to the throne by means of a coup against her husband paul iii in 1762 in which she had him murdered. remove your gaze from the painting and turn to the nearby gallery window. it looks out on the infamous peter and paul fortress which stands directly on the other side of the neva river. the fortress was, of course, the legendary place of incarcer- ation of political prisoners under tsarism. in 1718 peter the great had his own son, alexei, tortured to death there because of his involvement in a conspiracy. in venice there is the famous bridge of sighs which runs from the doge’s palace to an adjacent building. the doge’s palace is one of the main landmarks in venice vis- ited by millions annually. it contains work by titian, palladio, tintoretto, veronese, tiepolo and many other masters. the bridge of sighs is also a famous sight be- neath which pass gondolas. but it was not from the romantic sighs of lovers that the bridge got its name: rather it derives from the fact that the bridge led directly from the court room in the palace to the dungeons and torture chambers next door. the bridge of sighs, veniceflorence is the leading city of the early renaissance and one of the most impor- tant centres of art in the world - the city of giotto, massaccio, piero della francesca, botticelli, leonardo and michelangelo. it has two focal points: the extraordinar- ily beautiful duomo (cathedral), with its magnificent dome designed by brunelleschi and its campanile (bell tower) built by giotto, and the piazza della signoria con- taining a replica of michelangelo’s david , cellini’s great perseus and the magnificent palazzo vecchio. palazzo vecchio in the piazza della signoria, florence in 1478 a long standing conflict be- tween the medici family who ruled flo- rence at the time and their banker ri- vals, the pazzi family came to head. the pazzis, in alliance with the silviatis (pa- pal bankers in florence) and with the tacit support of pope sixtus iv, launched a coup. on sunday 26 april during high mass at the duomo before a crowd of 10,000 they attacked lorenzo and giuliano de medici. giuliano was stabbed nine- 49teen times and bled to death on the cathe- dral floor but lorenzo, though wounded, escaped and rallied his supporters who counterattacked, capturing and killing the conspirators. one, jacopo de pazzi, was thrown from a window of the palazzo, then dragged naked through the streets and thrown into the river arno. others were hung publicly from the walls of the palace. twenty years later in 1498, the rad- ical preacher, girolamo savanarola, who denounced the corruption of the church and was much admired by botticelli and michelangelo, was hung and burned at the stake in the piazza della signoria after be- ing subject to torture by the strappado1. this unity of opposites between culture and barbarism is nowhere as clear as in rome. rome of the high renaissance and michelangelo’s sistine chapel was also, of course, rome of the papacy (held at var- ious times by the borgias, the medicis, the della roveres and the farneses) which was legendary for its corruption, decadence and murderous intrigues and which to- gether with the jesuits and the inquisition launched the counter-reformation at the council of trent in 1545. so the rome of st.peter’s and the vatican museums is also and simultaneously the rome of brutal re- pression such as the public roasting in the campo de’ fiori of giordano bruno, for the ‘crime’ of heresy. but it is the ruins and art of ancient rome - the colosseum, the forum, the capitoline museums, the thermal baths of caracalla - that most starkly embody the culture/barbarity relation. this is because they were and are so bound up with insti- tution of slavery. the colosseum, even its ruined state, is a building of awe-inspiring splendour but the purpose it served was unspeakable: the systematic slaughter of human beings and animals for ‘sport’.unfortunately the dependency of art on barbarism has not ended to this day al- though the links are more indirect and less overt. the new york museum of mod- ern art, generally regarded as the most influential museum in the history of mod- ern art, was the creation of and run by the rockefeller family who amassed their vast fortunes through standard oil (fore- runner of exxonmobile); no reader of this review should need reminding of the link between blood and oil. another of amer- ica’s leading art museums, the getty in los angeles, is also based on oil money - in this case the fortune amassed by jean paul getty via the getty oil company. new york’s second most important mod- ern art museum is the guggenheim, housed in a famous building designed by frank lloyd wright. the guggenheim differs from moma and the getty in that it arose not from oil money but from gold mining in the yukon. in the uk the tate britain was built on the sight of the old millbank prison with money made by henry tate whose fortune derived from the sugar trade which had its roots in slavery in the caribbean. by coincidence, if you look across the river thames from the steps of the tate what you see is vauxhall cross, the ziggurat like headquarters of mi6. vauxhall cross, london 1a gruesome mechanism that broke the shoulders. 50and for most of the last 30 years the contemporary art scene in britain has been dominated by charles saatchi who made his wealth through the saatchi & saatchi advertising agency which established it- self by running margaret thatcher’s elec- tion campaign in 1979. people who have worked for saatchi testify not only to his ruthless capital accumulation but to his personal brutishness- a fact confirmed by his public assault on his wife, nigella law- son. one of the largest collections of african art in the world is housed in the royal museum of central africa in tervuren in belgium. how did that art get there? it is only necessary to pose the question to grasp the answer. it was hardly donated by the congolese in gratitude for the kind- ness bestowed on them by king leopold and his associates2. these examples can be multiplied al- most indefinitely because marx’s state- ment that ‘the ruling ideas of any age are the ideas of the ruling class’ applies with as much force to the area of the arts as it does to philosophy, law, religion or ed- ucation; indeed even more so where paint- ing, sculpture and architecture are con- cerned because the physical and monetary resources for the making, storage, display etc of such work are more than are needed to write a book or a poem. and because, to quote marx again, ‘if money comes into the world with a congenital blood- stain on one cheek, capital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.’3 therefore the question is what are the implications of this intimate associa- tion between culture and barbarous op- pression? one view, much favoured by tyrants, rulers and their agents and apolo-gists is that the cultural achievements jus- tify or redeem the barbarism. this was concisely expressed by the deeply cynical harry lime in the third man . like the fella says, in italy for 30 years under the borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they pro- duced michelangelo, leonardo da vinci, and the renaissance. in switzerland they had broth- erly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? the cuckoo clock. an opposite, and in my view preferable, position is that no art, no matter how won- derful is worth a single human life. then there is also the attitude, common in left wing and radical circles, that all art and culture of the past and all ‘established’ art of the present is so contaminated by and implicated in the barbarity and bru- tality of the ruling classes that it should be totally rejected in favour of a new ‘peo- ple’s’ or working class art. this was the view taken, for example, by the dadaists in zurich in world war 1. it was the cul- ture and art of the past, they argued, that had culminated in the mass slaughter in the trenches, which claimed 10 million lives or more, and therefore it deserved only to dispensed with and destroyed. a similar position was taken by the proletarian cul- ture movement (known as proletcult) in russia immediately after the 1917 revo- lution; they rejected all ‘bourgeois’ art in the name of a new working class art that they believed they were in the process of creating. walter benjamin himself, with whose observation this article began, stopped 2belgian colonial rule in the congo, especially under king leopold, is legendary for its extreme brutality. 3karl marx, capital , vol i, london 1974, pp.711-12. 51short of outright rejection but concluded that because the cultural treasures of the past ‘have an origin which he cannot con- template without horror’ the historical ma- terialist ‘views them with cautious detach- ment’. however, the classical marxists such as marx and engels, lenin, trotsky and rosa luxemburg took a rather less detached and rather more positive view of the great art of the past. they argued that this cultural heritage - despite its roots in slave, feu- dal and capitalist society - was something which the modern working class should not reject or destroy but should aim to take over from the bourgeoisie and make widely available to the masses. marx, for example, is known to have been a great enthusiast for the literature of an- cient greece, especially aeschylus, and for shakespeare. engels particularly admired balzac (despite his reactionary views) for his realistic depiction of french society. lenin regarded the plans of the proletkult as rather juvenile ultra-leftism and trot- sky variously defended dante, shakespeare and pushkin on the grounds that reading their work, regardless of its overt political stance, would enrich the human personal- ity and our understanding of life. in support of this latter position, i would add that although humanity’s ‘cul- tural heritage’ was, and remains, dom- inated and largely owned by the rul- ing classes and thus unavoidably associ- ated with and tainted by their barbarism, the relationship between the art (and the artists) and the rulers is also marked by many contradictions.for example, the medici family, over- all, dominated florence during the renais- sance and after4, and also were patrons of the young michelangelo. nevertheless there was also resistance to medici rule and michelangelo’s david was commissioned by the city council to celebrate the suc- cess of the city in deposing them and it is clear that michelangelo himself was hostile to the medicis, just as he also had conflicts with pope julius ii who commissioned the ceiling of the sistine chapel. similarly, the tsars may have bought up paintings by rembrandt but rembrandt himself, and his art, was a product of the dutch revo- lution which was broadly anti-imperial and progressive in character.5and the rock- feller family’s moma in new york may have promoted picasso but picasso | left | Classify the text into political left or right and return the answer as the corresponding classification .
### text:
required the existence of a social class freed from the drudgery of producing its own food and other basic material needs and thus able to devote large amounts of its time to learned pursuits and this in turn required that these basic activities be performed for them by others - slaves, servants and peas- ants. moreover, the maintenance of such a state of affairs was possible only with the development of a strong central author- ity standing above society and exercising a virtual monopoly of decisive physical force, i.e. a state, willing and able to act, whenrequired by the interests of the dominant class, with extreme barbarity. however, speaking personally for a mo- ment, it was the actual experience of vis- iting various museums and galleries that brought home to me just how direct and in- timate has been the relationship between many of the highest achievements of hu- man culture and the extremes of human barbarism. rembrandt’s the return of the prodigal son in the hermitage museum in st. pe- tersburg, part of the winter palace of the tsars, there hangs rembrandt’s the re- turn of the prodigal son . the central fea- ture of this wonderful painting is the father placing his hands on the back of his kneel- ing son in a gesture of exceptional tender- ness, love and acceptance. the picture was bought for the hermitage in 1766 by the 48empress catherine the great who came to the throne by means of a coup against her husband paul iii in 1762 in which she had him murdered. remove your gaze from the painting and turn to the nearby gallery window. it looks out on the infamous peter and paul fortress which stands directly on the other side of the neva river. the fortress was, of course, the legendary place of incarcer- ation of political prisoners under tsarism. in 1718 peter the great had his own son, alexei, tortured to death there because of his involvement in a conspiracy. in venice there is the famous bridge of sighs which runs from the doge’s palace to an adjacent building. the doge’s palace is one of the main landmarks in venice vis- ited by millions annually. it contains work by titian, palladio, tintoretto, veronese, tiepolo and many other masters. the bridge of sighs is also a famous sight be- neath which pass gondolas. but it was not from the romantic sighs of lovers that the bridge got its name: rather it derives from the fact that the bridge led directly from the court room in the palace to the dungeons and torture chambers next door. the bridge of sighs, veniceflorence is the leading city of the early renaissance and one of the most impor- tant centres of art in the world - the city of giotto, massaccio, piero della francesca, botticelli, leonardo and michelangelo. it has two focal points: the extraordinar- ily beautiful duomo (cathedral), with its magnificent dome designed by brunelleschi and its campanile (bell tower) built by giotto, and the piazza della signoria con- taining a replica of michelangelo’s david , cellini’s great perseus and the magnificent palazzo vecchio. palazzo vecchio in the piazza della signoria, florence in 1478 a long standing conflict be- tween the medici family who ruled flo- rence at the time and their banker ri- vals, the pazzi family came to head. the pazzis, in alliance with the silviatis (pa- pal bankers in florence) and with the tacit support of pope sixtus iv, launched a coup. on sunday 26 april during high mass at the duomo before a crowd of 10,000 they attacked lorenzo and giuliano de medici. giuliano was stabbed nine- 49teen times and bled to death on the cathe- dral floor but lorenzo, though wounded, escaped and rallied his supporters who counterattacked, capturing and killing the conspirators. one, jacopo de pazzi, was thrown from a window of the palazzo, then dragged naked through the streets and thrown into the river arno. others were hung publicly from the walls of the palace. twenty years later in 1498, the rad- ical preacher, girolamo savanarola, who denounced the corruption of the church and was much admired by botticelli and michelangelo, was hung and burned at the stake in the piazza della signoria after be- ing subject to torture by the strappado1. this unity of opposites between culture and barbarism is nowhere as clear as in rome. rome of the high renaissance and michelangelo’s sistine chapel was also, of course, rome of the papacy (held at var- ious times by the borgias, the medicis, the della roveres and the farneses) which was legendary for its corruption, decadence and murderous intrigues and which to- gether with the jesuits and the inquisition launched the counter-reformation at the council of trent in 1545. so the rome of st.peter’s and the vatican museums is also and simultaneously the rome of brutal re- pression such as the public roasting in the campo de’ fiori of giordano bruno, for the ‘crime’ of heresy. but it is the ruins and art of ancient rome - the colosseum, the forum, the capitoline museums, the thermal baths of caracalla - that most starkly embody the culture/barbarity relation. this is because they were and are so bound up with insti- tution of slavery. the colosseum, even its ruined state, is a building of awe-inspiring splendour but the purpose it served was unspeakable: the systematic slaughter of human beings and animals for ‘sport’.unfortunately the dependency of art on barbarism has not ended to this day al- though the links are more indirect and less overt. the new york museum of mod- ern art, generally regarded as the most influential museum in the history of mod- ern art, was the creation of and run by the rockefeller family who amassed their vast fortunes through standard oil (fore- runner of exxonmobile); no reader of this review should need reminding of the link between blood and oil. another of amer- ica’s leading art museums, the getty in los angeles, is also based on oil money - in this case the fortune amassed by jean paul getty via the getty oil company. new york’s second most important mod- ern art museum is the guggenheim, housed in a famous building designed by frank lloyd wright. the guggenheim differs from moma and the getty in that it arose not from oil money but from gold mining in the yukon. in the uk the tate britain was built on the sight of the old millbank prison with money made by henry tate whose fortune derived from the sugar trade which had its roots in slavery in the caribbean. by coincidence, if you look across the river thames from the steps of the tate what you see is vauxhall cross, the ziggurat like headquarters of mi6. vauxhall cross, london 1a gruesome mechanism that broke the shoulders. 50and for most of the last 30 years the contemporary art scene in britain has been dominated by charles saatchi who made his wealth through the saatchi & saatchi advertising agency which established it- self by running margaret thatcher’s elec- tion campaign in 1979. people who have worked for saatchi testify not only to his ruthless capital accumulation but to his personal brutishness- a fact confirmed by his public assault on his wife, nigella law- son. one of the largest collections of african art in the world is housed in the royal museum of central africa in tervuren in belgium. how did that art get there? it is only necessary to pose the question to grasp the answer. it was hardly donated by the congolese in gratitude for the kind- ness bestowed on them by king leopold and his associates2. these examples can be multiplied al- most indefinitely because marx’s state- ment that ‘the ruling ideas of any age are the ideas of the ruling class’ applies with as much force to the area of the arts as it does to philosophy, law, religion or ed- ucation; indeed even more so where paint- ing, sculpture and architecture are con- cerned because the physical and monetary resources for the making, storage, display etc of such work are more than are needed to write a book or a poem. and because, to quote marx again, ‘if money comes into the world with a congenital blood- stain on one cheek, capital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.’3 therefore the question is what are the implications of this intimate associa- tion between culture and barbarous op- pression? one view, much favoured by tyrants, rulers and their agents and apolo-gists is that the cultural achievements jus- tify or redeem the barbarism. this was concisely expressed by the deeply cynical harry lime in the third man . like the fella says, in italy for 30 years under the borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they pro- duced michelangelo, leonardo da vinci, and the renaissance. in switzerland they had broth- erly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? the cuckoo clock. an opposite, and in my view preferable, position is that no art, no matter how won- derful is worth a single human life. then there is also the attitude, common in left wing and radical circles, that all art and culture of the past and all ‘established’ art of the present is so contaminated by and implicated in the barbarity and bru- tality of the ruling classes that it should be totally rejected in favour of a new ‘peo- ple’s’ or working class art. this was the view taken, for example, by the dadaists in zurich in world war 1. it was the cul- ture and art of the past, they argued, that had culminated in the mass slaughter in the trenches, which claimed 10 million lives or more, and therefore it deserved only to dispensed with and destroyed. a similar position was taken by the proletarian cul- ture movement (known as proletcult) in russia immediately after the 1917 revo- lution; they rejected all ‘bourgeois’ art in the name of a new working class art that they believed they were in the process of creating. walter benjamin himself, with whose observation this article began, stopped 2belgian colonial rule in the congo, especially under king leopold, is legendary for its extreme brutality. 3karl marx, capital , vol i, london 1974, pp.711-12. 51short of outright rejection but concluded that because the cultural treasures of the past ‘have an origin which he cannot con- template without horror’ the historical ma- terialist ‘views them with cautious detach- ment’. however, the classical marxists such as marx and engels, lenin, trotsky and rosa luxemburg took a rather less detached and rather more positive view of the great art of the past. they argued that this cultural heritage - despite its roots in slave, feu- dal and capitalist society - was something which the modern working class should not reject or destroy but should aim to take over from the bourgeoisie and make widely available to the masses. marx, for example, is known to have been a great enthusiast for the literature of an- cient greece, especially aeschylus, and for shakespeare. engels particularly admired balzac (despite his reactionary views) for his realistic depiction of french society. lenin regarded the plans of the proletkult as rather juvenile ultra-leftism and trot- sky variously defended dante, shakespeare and pushkin on the grounds that reading their work, regardless of its overt political stance, would enrich the human personal- ity and our understanding of life. in support of this latter position, i would add that although humanity’s ‘cul- tural heritage’ was, and remains, dom- inated and largely owned by the rul- ing classes and thus unavoidably associ- ated with and tainted by their barbarism, the relationship between the art (and the artists) and the rulers is also marked by many contradictions.for example, the medici family, over- all, dominated florence during the renais- sance and after4, and also were patrons of the young michelangelo. nevertheless there was also resistance to medici rule and michelangelo’s david was commissioned by the city council to celebrate the suc- cess of the city in deposing them and it is clear that michelangelo himself was hostile to the medicis, just as he also had conflicts with pope julius ii who commissioned the ceiling of the sistine chapel. similarly, the tsars may have bought up paintings by rembrandt but rembrandt himself, and his art, was a product of the dutch revo- lution which was broadly anti-imperial and progressive in character.5and the rock- feller family’s moma in new york may have promoted picasso but picasso
### label:
left |
for the party and trade-union member. the editors believe such discussion to be useful and necessary for the health of the movement. the labour party annual conference is coming round again. this year we can expect it to be a little more alive than usual, a little more militant than usual and a little more important than usual. for the tories have bared their fangs in a way that we cannot afford to ignore – redundancy, higher rents, higher prices inadequately reflected in a distorted cost of living index, sipping at school-children’s milk and eating into their meals. all of these will harden the delegates’ tone. conference might once more reflect some of the more militant demands of the labour movement. there is a second reason for conference to be more than usually important. this year is rules revision year. it is a year which offers opportunities to crack the monolithic right-wing control over the official voice of the movement. conference can be expected to attack fiercely the block vote that supported german re-armament against rank and file opinion, that bulldozed gaitskell into the party treasureship despite the obvious mass support for bevan. but conference must not only be “expected” to do this or that. conference must also be shown how to do it. we must pass the right resolutions in our local organizations now. june is the month to do it in. these resolutions must reflect the mass unrest that is developing under tory rule. they must also be sufficiently unique to be sure of getting a hearing without being so watered down by compositing that they come to mean nothing. in other words we must present conference with clear resolutions embodying clear-cut demands. the leadership must be forced to take a stand on concrete issues and not be allowed to escape into nebulous phrasemongering. this conference deplores the growing estrangement between its industrial and political wings and resolves to build labour party wards in the factories. in other words, conference must realise that the politics of the labour movement is hammered out – or should be – at the factory bench and not in the seclusion of parliament; that there can be no enthusiasm to turn out to the polls unless the voters feel and know from experience that in the industrial sphere the labour party comes down on the side of the workers just as regularly, just as normally, as the tories come down on the side of the bosses. after all, who votes labour if not the industrial working class? who shows militancy today if not the industrial working class; and whose interests are most abused by the block vote if not that same industrial working class? we must bring politics to the factory and the factory to politics by building labour party wards in the factory. this conference resolves to press for the forty-hour week without loss of present earnings, the forty-hour week to held guaranteed week with cither work or full maintenance. here we could tie in with the aeu campaign for a shorter work week while at the same time demanding the right to place ourselves as a first priority over and above the boss’s profits. short-time working may be inevitable under capitalism now and then, as the automotive workers have learned to their cost, but why should we carry the can? this conference resolves to press for a new cost of living index to be formulated and periodically reviewed by a committee, elected, from rank and file trade-unionists and working-class housewives. this resolution explains itself, especially when it is remembered that the new tory index lists motor cars as an essential ingredients in working- class budgets while reducing the weighting given to food. this conference demands the freeing of the many trade-unionists and political prisoners – wherever they may be – in russia and her satellites, in the british empire or in the us sphere of influence. i don’t think there is any need to go into this. it is a resolution that should find many supporters. this conference demands the withdrawal of foreign troops and the ending of imperialist occupation, whether it be british, american or russian. again, there is no need to enter into detail; the record of the powers is a powerful indictment to which nothing need be added. finally, a word about tactics. readers should use these suggestions – for which i take full personal responsibility – circumspectly. | left | Classify the text into political left or right and return the answer as the corresponding classification .
### text:
for the party and trade-union member. the editors believe such discussion to be useful and necessary for the health of the movement. the labour party annual conference is coming round again. this year we can expect it to be a little more alive than usual, a little more militant than usual and a little more important than usual. for the tories have bared their fangs in a way that we cannot afford to ignore – redundancy, higher rents, higher prices inadequately reflected in a distorted cost of living index, sipping at school-children’s milk and eating into their meals. all of these will harden the delegates’ tone. conference might once more reflect some of the more militant demands of the labour movement. there is a second reason for conference to be more than usually important. this year is rules revision year. it is a year which offers opportunities to crack the monolithic right-wing control over the official voice of the movement. conference can be expected to attack fiercely the block vote that supported german re-armament against rank and file opinion, that bulldozed gaitskell into the party treasureship despite the obvious mass support for bevan. but conference must not only be “expected” to do this or that. conference must also be shown how to do it. we must pass the right resolutions in our local organizations now. june is the month to do it in. these resolutions must reflect the mass unrest that is developing under tory rule. they must also be sufficiently unique to be sure of getting a hearing without being so watered down by compositing that they come to mean nothing. in other words we must present conference with clear resolutions embodying clear-cut demands. the leadership must be forced to take a stand on concrete issues and not be allowed to escape into nebulous phrasemongering. this conference deplores the growing estrangement between its industrial and political wings and resolves to build labour party wards in the factories. in other words, conference must realise that the politics of the labour movement is hammered out – or should be – at the factory bench and not in the seclusion of parliament; that there can be no enthusiasm to turn out to the polls unless the voters feel and know from experience that in the industrial sphere the labour party comes down on the side of the workers just as regularly, just as normally, as the tories come down on the side of the bosses. after all, who votes labour if not the industrial working class? who shows militancy today if not the industrial working class; and whose interests are most abused by the block vote if not that same industrial working class? we must bring politics to the factory and the factory to politics by building labour party wards in the factory. this conference resolves to press for the forty-hour week without loss of present earnings, the forty-hour week to held guaranteed week with cither work or full maintenance. here we could tie in with the aeu campaign for a shorter work week while at the same time demanding the right to place ourselves as a first priority over and above the boss’s profits. short-time working may be inevitable under capitalism now and then, as the automotive workers have learned to their cost, but why should we carry the can? this conference resolves to press for a new cost of living index to be formulated and periodically reviewed by a committee, elected, from rank and file trade-unionists and working-class housewives. this resolution explains itself, especially when it is remembered that the new tory index lists motor cars as an essential ingredients in working- class budgets while reducing the weighting given to food. this conference demands the freeing of the many trade-unionists and political prisoners – wherever they may be – in russia and her satellites, in the british empire or in the us sphere of influence. i don’t think there is any need to go into this. it is a resolution that should find many supporters. this conference demands the withdrawal of foreign troops and the ending of imperialist occupation, whether it be british, american or russian. again, there is no need to enter into detail; the record of the powers is a powerful indictment to which nothing need be added. finally, a word about tactics. readers should use these suggestions – for which i take full personal responsibility – circumspectly.
### label:
left |
end in sight. as the gi death toll climbs toward and soon past one thousand (total “coalition” deaths have already reached this plateau) with another 20,000 wounded, popular sentiment on the “american street” will turn increasingly against this illegal war. our armed forces are stretched so thin that the pentagon has had to break its promise to limit combat tours in iraq and afghanistan to one year. nearly half of the army’s 32 combat brigades are deployed to the persian gulf, with two more serving in afghanistan. replacing them with fresh units will require cutting back on military deployments in other parts of the world. defense secretary rumsfeld has already endorsed, in principle, the reduction of u.s. force levels in south korea and germany. bush and his generals have also imposed “stop loss” orders that freeze discharges and separations for gis serving in essential military jobs. this has allowed them to keep more than 50,000 gis on active duty past their discharge date. these “band-aid” measures may be effective in the short run, but they can only stave off deeper problems for so long. troops who are subjected to lengthy or repeated combat tours will be less likely to enlist. these measures may also have a chilling effect on enlisting new recruits. thousands of reservists, who signed up thinking they were committing to part-time duty, are being given an ever-larger share of the combat burden in iraq. in july 2004, the pentagon announced that it would reduce the number of active duty brigades in iraq from twelve to nine, while increasing national guard brigades from three to six. this means that about 40% of all troops currently serving in iraq are reservists who’ve been involuntarily activated. in an effort to alleviate the manpower crunch, rumsfeld recently ordered most reservists to spend an additional three to five months in iraq. in the weeks before the invasion of iraq, defense secretary rumsfeld publicly castigated then-army chief of staff eric shinseki for predicting that at least 300,000 u.s. troops would be needed to successfully occupy iraq. he also ridiculed shinseki’s observation that bush’s initial plan didn’t provide sufficient armored vehicles to protect the troops. another ploy to bridge the personnel shortages has been bush and rumsfeld’s encouragement of “privatization” of the armed forces. originally this scheme consisted of turning over tasks such as food service, building maintenance, laundry and even guard duty to corporations who then hired civilian workers to replace gis or civil servants while receiving minimal benefits and rock bottom wages. once bush invaded iraq, over 10,000 “private soldiers” or “security consultants” were hired, under lucrative no-bid contracts to conduct a wide range of military jobs in iraq. these corporations no doubt found ways to show their gratitude by filling the coffers of various gop campaign funds. when the systematic torture of detainees by u.s. personnel at abu ghraib and other military prisons became major international news in april, 2004 it was disclosed that caci and titan, two large american consulting firms, had assigned the job of interrogating detainees to private “specialists” some of whom had earlier honed their skills in apartheid south africa or pinochet’s chile. these mercenaries perform key war fighting roles while pretending to act only as advisers or instructors. in fact, special forces units like the army’s rangers or green berets have complained that their ranks are being thinned by corporate “raiders” who hire away their most experienced people by doubling or tripling their pay. some of the problems confronting the american military today were foreseeable when congress established the “all volunteer force” (avf) over thirty years ago. avf planners predicted that an active force of two million volunteers could be recruited if three basic reforms were adopted: first, that pay and benefits be raised to compete with civilian jobs; second, that females be aggressively recruited (today, they constitute about 16% of all gis); and third, that reservists be trained to fight with the active duty force when war breaks out. for three decades, the avf plan worked fairly well. although enough gis were recruited to fill the ranks, there were often high rates of attrition. however, since the united states waged only one brief war, in the persian gulf in 1991, the shaky motivation or poor military skills of some recruits didn’t pose a serious problem. (the 1980s invasions of grenada and panama weren’t significant combat; the marines suffered major casualties in the 1983 lebanon barracks bombing but were quickly withdrawn.) over time, the steadily escalating pay hikes, generous bonuses and college assistance being dispensed to volunteers forced the pentagon to make a choice. since congress continued to demand that billions be spent on big ticket military hardware manufactured by contractors in their home districts, eventually the pentagon budget makers were forced to cut the active force. in 1991 there were 2.1 million active duty gks, but by 2003, this force had been scaled down to 1.4 million. since the military’s far flung workload in 130 foreign countries remained unchanged, this reduction predictably has affected both the readiness and deployability of the force. one in every six gis (one in five in the air force) on active duty today is female. surveys of female gis in all branches consistently report high rates of sexual harassment and assault by their male counterparts. yet their commanders seem unable (or unwilling) to use the criminal justice system to root out such behavior. this may be partially the result of a clash of values between a macho military mindset which reveres “warrior values” and females who demand respectful treatment as equals. as the bush gang pushes its “war on terrorism” in iraq and afghanistan, the dark arts of its “special operations” soldiers gain new status and influence. elite units such as the rangers, seals, or secretive delta force stoke a robust machismo within their closed circle. for these soldiers, any label which even hints at femininity is the grossest of insults. although it was rarely discussed during the 2000 campaign, bush’s circle had hatched a master plan for rebuilding a military they believed president clinton had allowed to deteriorate. this plan, entitled rebuilding america’s defenses, was originally designed by a right wing “think tank” to serve as a blueprint to ensure that america’s military remained dominant in a post-soviet world. its preface describes the core objective as follows: “at present, the united states faces no global rival. america’s grand strategy should aim to preserve and extend this advantageous position as far into the future as possible.” since being elected, president bush has been able to implement some of the plan’s key recommendations. he dropped the ultra-costly comanche helicopter and placed the accident-plagued v-22 “osprey” heli-plane on hold. he has vigorously funded the “star wars” missile defense shield project, which if fully deployed will consume tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. by skillfully exploiting the fear and anger caused by the september 11 attacks he achieved another objective—congressional approval for annual increases of $15–20 billion in the pentagon’s budget. the huge outlays needed to pay for bush’s iraq war will be in addition to these increases. note that the kerry-edwards campaign has already endorsed this steady increase in military spending. a popular movement against bush’s war plans grew up very quickly throughout the world. on the weekend of february 15, 2003, several million protesters mobilized in over a hundred cities worldwide. the largest antiwar movement in history continued to express opposition to america’s occupation of iraq in one way or another. however, this broad antiwar sentiment has not translated into acts of resistance by any significant number of active-duty gis. to date, only four gis have publicly refused to deploy to iraq. marine corporal steven funk and staff sgt. camilo mejia both went awol in defiance of orders to fight in iraq. in mejia’s case, which received worldwide attention, he based his legal defense on his duty, under international law, to refuse to commit war crimes he’d already witnessed during an earlier combat tour in iraq. both resisters were tried by special court martials and each received the maximum one-year jail sentence and a bad conduct discharge. the other two, army specialist jeremy hinzman and pvt. brandon hughey, have both sought exile status in canada as political refugees after going awol from their stateside units. their applications are pending before a canadian immigration panel; unlike those during the vietnam war, however, military deserters can no longer seek “landed immigrant status” after they’ve arrived in canada. i think there are several factors which help explain why, at least to date, there has been considerably less public opposition to this war by gis occurred during the first gulf war. first, the terrorist attacks of september 11th deeply stunned america and convinced many that it is necessity and just to “fight fire with fire.” recently, i got into a discussion about the current war with a woman in a new york coffee shop. after arguing for a few minutes, she stood up and pointed south to where the world trade towers once stood. “that’s my reason for supporting this war,” she shouted. second, in 1990–91, america had not endured a major war in nearly a quarter of a century. the rapid military mobilization which sent nearly 700,000 gis half way around the world came as a shock to many, especially military reservists who’d never seen combat in any form. third, because of the tough economic conditions faced by many youth entering the job market, i think young soldiers today are more willing to put up with injustice and abuse. finally, there were over four times as many troops deployed to the gulf during the 1990–91 war as serve there now. one counselling service, the gi rights hotline, which is operated by the central committee of conscientious objectors and other peace groups, reports that it has been receiving about 3,000 phone inquiries a month from gis during 2004. this is up from an average of 2,400 monthly calls the previous year. the quaker house, which is located outside ft. bragg, n.c., reports that it has been talking with about 200 gis each month. citizen soldier has also received dozens of calls from anxious gis and their families. numbers released by the army suggest that the rate at which gis go awol or file conscientious objector (co) applications have not been rising during the iraq war. according to a chicago tribune story published in march 2004, the army reported 2,713 desertions (defined as being awol more than 30 days) in the fiscal year ending last september 30, 2003. they had had 4,013 desertions in fiscal year 2002 and 4,598 in 2001. the army told the newspaper that in fiscal 2003 it had received only eleven co applications, of which five were approved. the previous year, 17 out of 23 applications were accepted. this low rate may be partially explained by the difficulty many gis report in getting accurate and timely information about applying for co status from their command. as the occupation of iraq drags on, there may be a change. the british newspaper, the guardian, reported in their august 18th issue that for the first five months of 2004, the pentagon listed 1,470 awols. if this rate held steady for the rest of the year, it would indicate an approximate 25% rise in desertions over the previous year. bush’s unilateral invasion of iraq, aided only by british troops, has placed a severe strain on the military’s ability to deploy for its worldwide missions. two left-liberal black congressional representatives, charles rangel (d-ny) and john conyers (d-mi), anticipated this personnel crunch and proposed a return to a draft at the end of 2002. three months before the u.s. invaded iraq, they introduced their universal service act, which would require every able bodied american male and female between the ages of 18–26 to perform two years of compulsory service either in the military or the public sector. the president would determine the number of military draftees needed and the means for selecting them. there would be no deferments for college or “critical skills” as there were during the vietnam war. “if our great nation becomes involved in all out war,” rangel argued, “the sacrifice must be shared equally. for those who say the poor fight better, i say, give the rich a chance.” in an op ed in the new york times, rangel added, “i believe that if those calling for war knew that their children were more likely to serve and be placed in harm’s way, there would be more caution and a greater willingness to work with the international community (on) iraq.” defense secretary donald rumsfeld responded defiantly, with a declaration that there was no absolutely no need for a draft. “the disadvantages of using conscription to bring in men and women are notable,” he told reporters. he also attacked rangel’s claim that congress or bush officials might be more willing to support a war if their children or those of friends didn’t have to fight it. “i don’t know anyone in this building (the pentagon) who thinks that (we) should go to war lightly.” to no one’s surprise, rangel and conyers’ bold proposal gained no other supporters. the silence of their democratic colleagues in congress, including senators john kerry and john edwards, has been deafening. the democratic candidates have carefully avoided even mentioning the dreaded “d” word or other alternatives that might be required if our occupation of iraq (which they support) drags on indefinitely. on july 21, 2004, a new york times story reported that the army was being forced to accelerate the process of bringing recruits onto active duty because of manpower shortages. in the past, recruits have remained in the delayed entry program for up to twelve months before being placed on active duty. “i worry about recruiting and retention every single day,” lt. gen. franklin hagenbeck told the times. “we are recruiting a volunteer force during a time of war. we’ve never done that before.” registration for the draft has been required for male youth since president carter reinstated it in 1980. males between 18 and 26 must provide their names and current addresses to the selective service system. congress could broaden the registration requirement to include women with a simple resolution. a comprehensive network of thousands of draft boards and appeal boards is already in place. they could resume the drafting of conscripts in a matter of weeks. the only unresolved issue is whether the president and congress can reach consensus on the need to resume conscription to attract at least some military recruits. for over thirty years, every institution of government, including the military has treated the “all volunteer force” concept as a sacred cow. however, once the 2004 election returns are in, either bush or kerry is going to have to take a long, hard look at its continued viability. this writer believes that the odds are still against a political consensus forming to support the resumption of the draft, but if unforeseen developments impose new pressures on the military this could change, as soldiers like to say, “in a heartbeat.” it is difficult to see how the pentagon can reduce its military stake in iraq, at least in the short term. the type of low intensity warfare it’s now waging there depends not on “smart bombs” or high-tech weaponry but on the skill and courage of ordinary foot soldiers using age-old small unit tactics. military contractors led by boeing were drooling over a $92 billion program which would fill their order books for years to come. although the project’s designers claim that the delays are unrelated to our iraqi or afghani interventions, it seems obvious that the claims of those wars on defense dollars have forced at least a postponement. richard clarke, the former terrorism expert in bush’s white house, recently wrote in the new york times: “we are seriously threatened by an ideological war within islam. radical islamists are striking out at the west and at moderate muslims. it is a battle not only of bombs and bullets but chiefly of ideas. it is a war that we are losing as more and more of the islamic world develops antipathy toward the united states.” with a u.s. withdrawal from iraq, a bloody civil war among various shia, sunni and kurdish factions may ensue. al qaeda-type terrorists might well find the iraqi sanctuary which they’ve lacked in the past. but absent any viable alternative, the american people may reach a point where their demand for unilateral withdrawal can no longer be denied. so far, the u.s. antiwar movement hasn’t developed an effective strategy for reaching out to gis or supporting those who might consider personal acts of resistance to the war in iraq. a few counselling groups such as citizen soldier, the gi rights hotline, and the quaker house at ft. bragg, n.c., have been shouldering nearly all the burden of providing antiwar-minded gis with information about their legal options. as the vietnam war ground on relentlessly, american antiwar activists organized a loosely knit support network which reached out to gis serving at most of the major u.s. army and marine bases. in addition, there were support projects in heidelberg, germany and on okinawa. | left | Classify the text into political left or right and return the answer as the corresponding classification .
### text:
end in sight. as the gi death toll climbs toward and soon past one thousand (total “coalition” deaths have already reached this plateau) with another 20,000 wounded, popular sentiment on the “american street” will turn increasingly against this illegal war. our armed forces are stretched so thin that the pentagon has had to break its promise to limit combat tours in iraq and afghanistan to one year. nearly half of the army’s 32 combat brigades are deployed to the persian gulf, with two more serving in afghanistan. replacing them with fresh units will require cutting back on military deployments in other parts of the world. defense secretary rumsfeld has already endorsed, in principle, the reduction of u.s. force levels in south korea and germany. bush and his generals have also imposed “stop loss” orders that freeze discharges and separations for gis serving in essential military jobs. this has allowed them to keep more than 50,000 gis on active duty past their discharge date. these “band-aid” measures may be effective in the short run, but they can only stave off deeper problems for so long. troops who are subjected to lengthy or repeated combat tours will be less likely to enlist. these measures may also have a chilling effect on enlisting new recruits. thousands of reservists, who signed up thinking they were committing to part-time duty, are being given an ever-larger share of the combat burden in iraq. in july 2004, the pentagon announced that it would reduce the number of active duty brigades in iraq from twelve to nine, while increasing national guard brigades from three to six. this means that about 40% of all troops currently serving in iraq are reservists who’ve been involuntarily activated. in an effort to alleviate the manpower crunch, rumsfeld recently ordered most reservists to spend an additional three to five months in iraq. in the weeks before the invasion of iraq, defense secretary rumsfeld publicly castigated then-army chief of staff eric shinseki for predicting that at least 300,000 u.s. troops would be needed to successfully occupy iraq. he also ridiculed shinseki’s observation that bush’s initial plan didn’t provide sufficient armored vehicles to protect the troops. another ploy to bridge the personnel shortages has been bush and rumsfeld’s encouragement of “privatization” of the armed forces. originally this scheme consisted of turning over tasks such as food service, building maintenance, laundry and even guard duty to corporations who then hired civilian workers to replace gis or civil servants while receiving minimal benefits and rock bottom wages. once bush invaded iraq, over 10,000 “private soldiers” or “security consultants” were hired, under lucrative no-bid contracts to conduct a wide range of military jobs in iraq. these corporations no doubt found ways to show their gratitude by filling the coffers of various gop campaign funds. when the systematic torture of detainees by u.s. personnel at abu ghraib and other military prisons became major international news in april, 2004 it was disclosed that caci and titan, two large american consulting firms, had assigned the job of interrogating detainees to private “specialists” some of whom had earlier honed their skills in apartheid south africa or pinochet’s chile. these mercenaries perform key war fighting roles while pretending to act only as advisers or instructors. in fact, special forces units like the army’s rangers or green berets have complained that their ranks are being thinned by corporate “raiders” who hire away their most experienced people by doubling or tripling their pay. some of the problems confronting the american military today were foreseeable when congress established the “all volunteer force” (avf) over thirty years ago. avf planners predicted that an active force of two million volunteers could be recruited if three basic reforms were adopted: first, that pay and benefits be raised to compete with civilian jobs; second, that females be aggressively recruited (today, they constitute about 16% of all gis); and third, that reservists be trained to fight with the active duty force when war breaks out. for three decades, the avf plan worked fairly well. although enough gis were recruited to fill the ranks, there were often high rates of attrition. however, since the united states waged only one brief war, in the persian gulf in 1991, the shaky motivation or poor military skills of some recruits didn’t pose a serious problem. (the 1980s invasions of grenada and panama weren’t significant combat; the marines suffered major casualties in the 1983 lebanon barracks bombing but were quickly withdrawn.) over time, the steadily escalating pay hikes, generous bonuses and college assistance being dispensed to volunteers forced the pentagon to make a choice. since congress continued to demand that billions be spent on big ticket military hardware manufactured by contractors in their home districts, eventually the pentagon budget makers were forced to cut the active force. in 1991 there were 2.1 million active duty gks, but by 2003, this force had been scaled down to 1.4 million. since the military’s far flung workload in 130 foreign countries remained unchanged, this reduction predictably has affected both the readiness and deployability of the force. one in every six gis (one in five in the air force) on active duty today is female. surveys of female gis in all branches consistently report high rates of sexual harassment and assault by their male counterparts. yet their commanders seem unable (or unwilling) to use the criminal justice system to root out such behavior. this may be partially the result of a clash of values between a macho military mindset which reveres “warrior values” and females who demand respectful treatment as equals. as the bush gang pushes its “war on terrorism” in iraq and afghanistan, the dark arts of its “special operations” soldiers gain new status and influence. elite units such as the rangers, seals, or secretive delta force stoke a robust machismo within their closed circle. for these soldiers, any label which even hints at femininity is the grossest of insults. although it was rarely discussed during the 2000 campaign, bush’s circle had hatched a master plan for rebuilding a military they believed president clinton had allowed to deteriorate. this plan, entitled rebuilding america’s defenses, was originally designed by a right wing “think tank” to serve as a blueprint to ensure that america’s military remained dominant in a post-soviet world. its preface describes the core objective as follows: “at present, the united states faces no global rival. america’s grand strategy should aim to preserve and extend this advantageous position as far into the future as possible.” since being elected, president bush has been able to implement some of the plan’s key recommendations. he dropped the ultra-costly comanche helicopter and placed the accident-plagued v-22 “osprey” heli-plane on hold. he has vigorously funded the “star wars” missile defense shield project, which if fully deployed will consume tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. by skillfully exploiting the fear and anger caused by the september 11 attacks he achieved another objective—congressional approval for annual increases of $15–20 billion in the pentagon’s budget. the huge outlays needed to pay for bush’s iraq war will be in addition to these increases. note that the kerry-edwards campaign has already endorsed this steady increase in military spending. a popular movement against bush’s war plans grew up very quickly throughout the world. on the weekend of february 15, 2003, several million protesters mobilized in over a hundred cities worldwide. the largest antiwar movement in history continued to express opposition to america’s occupation of iraq in one way or another. however, this broad antiwar sentiment has not translated into acts of resistance by any significant number of active-duty gis. to date, only four gis have publicly refused to deploy to iraq. marine corporal steven funk and staff sgt. camilo mejia both went awol in defiance of orders to fight in iraq. in mejia’s case, which received worldwide attention, he based his legal defense on his duty, under international law, to refuse to commit war crimes he’d already witnessed during an earlier combat tour in iraq. both resisters were tried by special court martials and each received the maximum one-year jail sentence and a bad conduct discharge. the other two, army specialist jeremy hinzman and pvt. brandon hughey, have both sought exile status in canada as political refugees after going awol from their stateside units. their applications are pending before a canadian immigration panel; unlike those during the vietnam war, however, military deserters can no longer seek “landed immigrant status” after they’ve arrived in canada. i think there are several factors which help explain why, at least to date, there has been considerably less public opposition to this war by gis occurred during the first gulf war. first, the terrorist attacks of september 11th deeply stunned america and convinced many that it is necessity and just to “fight fire with fire.” recently, i got into a discussion about the current war with a woman in a new york coffee shop. after arguing for a few minutes, she stood up and pointed south to where the world trade towers once stood. “that’s my reason for supporting this war,” she shouted. second, in 1990–91, america had not endured a major war in nearly a quarter of a century. the rapid military mobilization which sent nearly 700,000 gis half way around the world came as a shock to many, especially military reservists who’d never seen combat in any form. third, because of the tough economic conditions faced by many youth entering the job market, i think young soldiers today are more willing to put up with injustice and abuse. finally, there were over four times as many troops deployed to the gulf during the 1990–91 war as serve there now. one counselling service, the gi rights hotline, which is operated by the central committee of conscientious objectors and other peace groups, reports that it has been receiving about 3,000 phone inquiries a month from gis during 2004. this is up from an average of 2,400 monthly calls the previous year. the quaker house, which is located outside ft. bragg, n.c., reports that it has been talking with about 200 gis each month. citizen soldier has also received dozens of calls from anxious gis and their families. numbers released by the army suggest that the rate at which gis go awol or file conscientious objector (co) applications have not been rising during the iraq war. according to a chicago tribune story published in march 2004, the army reported 2,713 desertions (defined as being awol more than 30 days) in the fiscal year ending last september 30, 2003. they had had 4,013 desertions in fiscal year 2002 and 4,598 in 2001. the army told the newspaper that in fiscal 2003 it had received only eleven co applications, of which five were approved. the previous year, 17 out of 23 applications were accepted. this low rate may be partially explained by the difficulty many gis report in getting accurate and timely information about applying for co status from their command. as the occupation of iraq drags on, there may be a change. the british newspaper, the guardian, reported in their august 18th issue that for the first five months of 2004, the pentagon listed 1,470 awols. if this rate held steady for the rest of the year, it would indicate an approximate 25% rise in desertions over the previous year. bush’s unilateral invasion of iraq, aided only by british troops, has placed a severe strain on the military’s ability to deploy for its worldwide missions. two left-liberal black congressional representatives, charles rangel (d-ny) and john conyers (d-mi), anticipated this personnel crunch and proposed a return to a draft at the end of 2002. three months before the u.s. invaded iraq, they introduced their universal service act, which would require every able bodied american male and female between the ages of 18–26 to perform two years of compulsory service either in the military or the public sector. the president would determine the number of military draftees needed and the means for selecting them. there would be no deferments for college or “critical skills” as there were during the vietnam war. “if our great nation becomes involved in all out war,” rangel argued, “the sacrifice must be shared equally. for those who say the poor fight better, i say, give the rich a chance.” in an op ed in the new york times, rangel added, “i believe that if those calling for war knew that their children were more likely to serve and be placed in harm’s way, there would be more caution and a greater willingness to work with the international community (on) iraq.” defense secretary donald rumsfeld responded defiantly, with a declaration that there was no absolutely no need for a draft. “the disadvantages of using conscription to bring in men and women are notable,” he told reporters. he also attacked rangel’s claim that congress or bush officials might be more willing to support a war if their children or those of friends didn’t have to fight it. “i don’t know anyone in this building (the pentagon) who thinks that (we) should go to war lightly.” to no one’s surprise, rangel and conyers’ bold proposal gained no other supporters. the silence of their democratic colleagues in congress, including senators john kerry and john edwards, has been deafening. the democratic candidates have carefully avoided even mentioning the dreaded “d” word or other alternatives that might be required if our occupation of iraq (which they support) drags on indefinitely. on july 21, 2004, a new york times story reported that the army was being forced to accelerate the process of bringing recruits onto active duty because of manpower shortages. in the past, recruits have remained in the delayed entry program for up to twelve months before being placed on active duty. “i worry about recruiting and retention every single day,” lt. gen. franklin hagenbeck told the times. “we are recruiting a volunteer force during a time of war. we’ve never done that before.” registration for the draft has been required for male youth since president carter reinstated it in 1980. males between 18 and 26 must provide their names and current addresses to the selective service system. congress could broaden the registration requirement to include women with a simple resolution. a comprehensive network of thousands of draft boards and appeal boards is already in place. they could resume the drafting of conscripts in a matter of weeks. the only unresolved issue is whether the president and congress can reach consensus on the need to resume conscription to attract at least some military recruits. for over thirty years, every institution of government, including the military has treated the “all volunteer force” concept as a sacred cow. however, once the 2004 election returns are in, either bush or kerry is going to have to take a long, hard look at its continued viability. this writer believes that the odds are still against a political consensus forming to support the resumption of the draft, but if unforeseen developments impose new pressures on the military this could change, as soldiers like to say, “in a heartbeat.” it is difficult to see how the pentagon can reduce its military stake in iraq, at least in the short term. the type of low intensity warfare it’s now waging there depends not on “smart bombs” or high-tech weaponry but on the skill and courage of ordinary foot soldiers using age-old small unit tactics. military contractors led by boeing were drooling over a $92 billion program which would fill their order books for years to come. although the project’s designers claim that the delays are unrelated to our iraqi or afghani interventions, it seems obvious that the claims of those wars on defense dollars have forced at least a postponement. richard clarke, the former terrorism expert in bush’s white house, recently wrote in the new york times: “we are seriously threatened by an ideological war within islam. radical islamists are striking out at the west and at moderate muslims. it is a battle not only of bombs and bullets but chiefly of ideas. it is a war that we are losing as more and more of the islamic world develops antipathy toward the united states.” with a u.s. withdrawal from iraq, a bloody civil war among various shia, sunni and kurdish factions may ensue. al qaeda-type terrorists might well find the iraqi sanctuary which they’ve lacked in the past. but absent any viable alternative, the american people may reach a point where their demand for unilateral withdrawal can no longer be denied. so far, the u.s. antiwar movement hasn’t developed an effective strategy for reaching out to gis or supporting those who might consider personal acts of resistance to the war in iraq. a few counselling groups such as citizen soldier, the gi rights hotline, and the quaker house at ft. bragg, n.c., have been shouldering nearly all the burden of providing antiwar-minded gis with information about their legal options. as the vietnam war ground on relentlessly, american antiwar activists organized a loosely knit support network which reached out to gis serving at most of the major u.s. army and marine bases. in addition, there were support projects in heidelberg, germany and on okinawa.
### label:
left |
série ii no. 3, 1973) with the titles, "errance de l'humanité; conscience repressive; communisme," and "declin du mode de production capitaliste ou declin de l'humanité?" the author of these essays, jacques camatte, worked with amadeo bordiga and the group of marxist theoreticians who were known as the italian communist left. after the events which took place in france in may of 1968, camatte, together with his comrades on invariance, began a critical analysis of the activities of the italian communist left, the work of bordiga as well as the work of marx. the title of the journal originally referred to "the invariance of the theory of the proletariat," the theory of the league of communists and the first international. by 1973 critics said of this journal that "nothing varies more than invariance." camatte and his comrades, pursuing the critical analysis they had begun, were led to conclude that "what is invariant is the aspiration to rediscover the lost human community, and this cannot take place through a reestablishment of the past, but only through new creation." their theoretical quest led them to a complete rejection of the theory of revolutionary parties and organizations, the theory of revolutionary consciousness, the theory of the progressive development of productive forces. "the french may movement showed that what is needed is a new mode of living, a new life." (the above quotations are from the last article in invariance no. 3, 1973.) (...) the essays in the present work were translated from french by fredy perlman with assistance from camatte; the illustrations were | left | Classify the text into political left or right and return the answer as the corresponding classification .
### text:
série ii no. 3, 1973) with the titles, "errance de l'humanité; conscience repressive; communisme," and "declin du mode de production capitaliste ou declin de l'humanité?" the author of these essays, jacques camatte, worked with amadeo bordiga and the group of marxist theoreticians who were known as the italian communist left. after the events which took place in france in may of 1968, camatte, together with his comrades on invariance, began a critical analysis of the activities of the italian communist left, the work of bordiga as well as the work of marx. the title of the journal originally referred to "the invariance of the theory of the proletariat," the theory of the league of communists and the first international. by 1973 critics said of this journal that "nothing varies more than invariance." camatte and his comrades, pursuing the critical analysis they had begun, were led to conclude that "what is invariant is the aspiration to rediscover the lost human community, and this cannot take place through a reestablishment of the past, but only through new creation." their theoretical quest led them to a complete rejection of the theory of revolutionary parties and organizations, the theory of revolutionary consciousness, the theory of the progressive development of productive forces. "the french may movement showed that what is needed is a new mode of living, a new life." (the above quotations are from the last article in invariance no. 3, 1973.) (...) the essays in the present work were translated from french by fredy perlman with assistance from camatte; the illustrations were
### label:
left |
farmer was usually forced to borrow up front from the landowner and then left little more than a subsistence amount after harvest. eventually concluding, as many blacks did, that they would be better off in the north, the hickmans joined the great migration, where they immediately faced a new set of challenges in chicago. foremost for the hickmans was the challenge of housing. constrained to live in certain areas by restrictive covenants, blacks were at the mercy of landlords who divided buildings into ever smaller units and charged ever higher rents to the pool of tenants limited to the black neighborhoods’ boundaries. after months of searching, james found an apartment through a david coleman, as long as the family was willing to stay temporarily in a tiny attic apartment. coleman promised a more reasonably-sized apartment on the second floor in a matter of weeks, but never followed through on the promise, leaving the hickmans in one room, accessed by a narrow staircase, with one window, and no water, toilet or electricity for month after month. when james threatened to have coleman arrested if he didn’t return the hundred dollar security deposit the hickmans had given him so they could look for another place, “#8220;he said he had a man on the east side ready to burn the place up if i had him arrested.” hickman didn’t know it at the time, but a number of coleman’s other tenants had received the same threat during confrontations about the building, whether around demands for repairs or resistance to efforts to further divide units. even without the services of an arsonist, the building was subject to regular fires. during the first five months of the hickmans’ tenancy two small fires broke out, bringing the building to the attention of city inspectors who ordered coleman to reduce the illegal overcrowding of many apartments, exterminate rats, and repair the plumbing (due to broken pipes no one had running water). fire fighters noted the hickmans’ attic room as particularly concerning, with its single narrow staircase the only escape route aside from the fourth floor window. in fact, all across the city and especially in black neighborhoods fires broke out with regularity due to poorly maintained heating systems and landlords who ignored fire safety regulations. in a three month period at the end of 1946 and beginning of 1947, 751 fires occurred in chicago. the hickmans’ alarm increased when they repeatedly heard footsteps late at night on the attic stairs in the week before the fire, although all the attic units but theirs were now vacated. then came the night when james was at work and annie woke to smoke coming around the door, which revealed a wall of fire when opened. as the room rapidly filled with intolerable heat and smoke, a dire scene unfolded. the four youngest children found their way under the bed, while annie’s older son urged her to the window where the two eventually jumped. they survived with broken bones, and corpses of the little ones were found soon after, huddled together beneath the remains of the mattress. james hickman came home the next morning to a burned out apartment and the worst kind of news. as the children’s deaths hit the papers, socialist workers party organizer mike bartell (whom i knew decades later in san diego, when he had dropped his party name, as milt zaslow), decided to see how the party could help the hickmans. bartell’s wife, edith, was already involved in tenant organizing and had spearheaded the citywide chicago area tenants union, which had developed relationships with civil rights activists concerned with housing issues in the emerging black communities. the swp, with mike bartell as organizer, had also recently supported the congress of racial equality in an ultimately successful effort to integrate the appropriately named white city roller rink. this story mike/milt recounted to me some time after i’d met him, the first that i learned of his extensive experience as a highly successful organizer in chicago and elsewhere. reading of the hickmans and the fire, bartell decided to see what could be done. beginning that first day, bartell met with the tenants of coleman’s building (the fire had not gone below the level of the attic, so most remained) and an impromptu meeting soon developed into the west side tenants union, whose core demands to the city were: (1) add firemen, equipment, and more fire escapes in dangerous areas; (2) construct emergency housing for tenants of unsafe buildings; and (3) abolish restrictive covenants and initiate a construction program to build low-cost housing. meanwhile, the county coroner held a series of hearings on the young hickmans’ deaths. mike myers, an swp lawyer who had spent the previous year working on tenant issues, was retained to represent the hickman family. the jury ultimately declared that there was insufficient evidence to prove the fire was intentionally started, but recommended that the building be condemned and a further investigation pursued by the state’s attorney, “#8220;with emphasis placed on housing conditions, particularly in segregated areas, affecting human lives.” but david coleman received nothing more than a few fines for code and permit violations, totaling $600. the lack of serious consequences to those responsible for his children’s death proved too much for james hickman to bear. he was a religious man who had vowed to god with the birth of his first of nine children that he would protect and support them. james was particularly hopeful for his last four, of whom he said, ‘“#8220;these youngest children — i had told them all one night — ‘it seems like i can see a future for you.’ i see in those four children that they possibly would be great men and great women some day ... i had a vision and the spirit said they would be great.” one can assume that the move to chicago came with the hope that there his children could fulfill this promise in a way that would not have been possible working someone else’s land in mississippi. james became a changed man. from being outgoing, he spent more and more time alone. he spoke often of his lost children. he bought a gun, and exactly six months after the fire, his intermittent depression and agitation about whether to use it gave way to a shaky resolve. finding coleman in laughing conversation with two other men on the street, hickman confronted him. when coleman was dismissive of hickman’s expressed concerns, james shot him several times. after the first shot, coleman offered to pay james the $100 security deposit, mentioned by hickman before he fired. hickman responded, “#8220;it’s too late now. god is my secret judge. you started the fire.” “#8220;yes, i did,” was coleman’s reply. upon hearing of the shooting, bartell and myers (who was still defending the remaining tenants from an eviction attempt) stepped up again. when the cook county grand jury indicted hickman, claiming that he with “#8220;malice aforethought by shooting did kill and murder david coleman,” a defense committee was formed and frank fried of the swp was hired to staff it. the campaign had a national scope. many people of influence, from local labor and civil rights leaders, to willard motley, a bestselling author, and the stage and screen star tallulah bankhead, all agreed to lend their names, resources and printed and public speech to the cause. mass rallies were organized and black chicagoans, especially, were united in their support for hickman, identifying with his story of thwarted effort to support his family. leon despres and prominent black attorney william temple formed, with myers, james hickman’s legal defense team. with a psychiatrist they built a case of “#8220;temporary insanity,” brought on by the trauma of the verbal threat of fire and the subsequent death of his children, whom hickman believed had been picked by god for great things. days before the trial the prosecution announced it would not be seeking the death penalty, but going for the minimum sentence of 14 years, a tacit admission that the defense campaign was working. the first day of the trial, willoughby abner of the hickman defense committee spoke to a rally outside the courthouse: “#8220; although james hickman stands in the defendant’s dock today, it is society that is really on trial. society has created the conditions making hickman cases and hickman tragedies inevitable. society is unconcerned about the loss of hickman’s children; unconcerned about the miserable housing conditions that hickman and his family of nine had to live under. the same government which failed to heed the need of hickman and millions of other hickmans is now trying to convict hickman for its own crimes, its own failures.” after two and a half days of deliberation and eight votes, the jury announced that they were unable to come to agreement and a mistrial was declared. while this was good news for hickman, bartell soon realized that sustaining the defense campaign through a second trial would be difficult. so the hickman defense committee sent out a call for letters from supporters across the country demanding that the state’s attorney drop the case. soon an offer was forthcoming. the lead prosecutor contacted myers with a deal. if james would plead guilty to manslaughter, the prosecution would drop the murder charge and recommend to the judge a sentence of two years’ probation. standing before the judge, the prosecutor stated that a major reason for dropping the charges was the overwhelming public support for hickman coming from all across the country. holding up a bundle of letters, petitions, and telegrams, he stated: “#8220;… [t]he general opinion is to the effect that mercy ought to be shown to an individual who, under the stress of the loss of four children, has been punished to such an extent that society can be magnanimous and afford him a chance to return to his remaining children and his wife, and spend the rest of his lifetime in peace. … [t]he state feels that this man has paid enough with the loss of his children.” people wasn’t made to burn is an inspiring story about how a group of revolutionary activists combined forces with broader community members and achieved a measure of justice for james hickman and his family — people who had not experienced a high degree of justice before this moment. but this brief retelling of the heart of the story leaves out much of what makes the book captivating, and also what gives it value. interspersed within the hickman chronicle, adding depth and texture to it, are stories of many others. mike bartell’s background is related in some detail. born milton zaslow in 1918 in new york city, bartell was introduced to political activism at city college of new york, where he began in the young communist league, the youth group of the communist party. when he was perceived to display trotskyist sympathies during the ongoing discussions in the college cafeteria, bartell was expelled from the ycl. he promptly joined with other trotskyists, becoming a founding member of the socialist workers party. including his history in the book, along with that of numerous other key swp figures in chicago, adds to the record of trotskyism in the united states, a history left out of textbooks. a particular strength of the book is how allen builds a larger picture from smaller stories. one example begins, of course, with the hickmans, then shifting to another black family who also lost four children to fire in the month before the hickman children died. these four had been members of the billiken club, a children’s group started by the storied black newspaper the chicago defender. we learn that the billiken club was a major social institution for decades, with nearly a million members around the country. when four of them died in a fire, the group organized hundreds of local children in a campaign around fire safety and prevention. fire safety is linked to the issue of housing, and here allen shifts to the housing reporter for the defender, vernon jarrett. after telling of his childhood, and how he came to report for the defender, his first reporting experience with the paper is related. jarrett accompanied a black veteran to a new housing complex for veterans that had been unexpectedly, and controversially, opened to blacks. a race riot ensued and escalated until the moment when the veteran jumped out of the car. he had seen combat in italy and ripping open his shirt and exposing a battle scar, he said to the hostile crowd, in english and then italian, “#8220;this happened in anzio!” one of the italian american leaders of the mob was clearly taken aback by this, and at | left | Classify the text into political left or right and return the answer as the corresponding classification .
### text:
farmer was usually forced to borrow up front from the landowner and then left little more than a subsistence amount after harvest. eventually concluding, as many blacks did, that they would be better off in the north, the hickmans joined the great migration, where they immediately faced a new set of challenges in chicago. foremost for the hickmans was the challenge of housing. constrained to live in certain areas by restrictive covenants, blacks were at the mercy of landlords who divided buildings into ever smaller units and charged ever higher rents to the pool of tenants limited to the black neighborhoods’ boundaries. after months of searching, james found an apartment through a david coleman, as long as the family was willing to stay temporarily in a tiny attic apartment. coleman promised a more reasonably-sized apartment on the second floor in a matter of weeks, but never followed through on the promise, leaving the hickmans in one room, accessed by a narrow staircase, with one window, and no water, toilet or electricity for month after month. when james threatened to have coleman arrested if he didn’t return the hundred dollar security deposit the hickmans had given him so they could look for another place, “#8220;he said he had a man on the east side ready to burn the place up if i had him arrested.” hickman didn’t know it at the time, but a number of coleman’s other tenants had received the same threat during confrontations about the building, whether around demands for repairs or resistance to efforts to further divide units. even without the services of an arsonist, the building was subject to regular fires. during the first five months of the hickmans’ tenancy two small fires broke out, bringing the building to the attention of city inspectors who ordered coleman to reduce the illegal overcrowding of many apartments, exterminate rats, and repair the plumbing (due to broken pipes no one had running water). fire fighters noted the hickmans’ attic room as particularly concerning, with its single narrow staircase the only escape route aside from the fourth floor window. in fact, all across the city and especially in black neighborhoods fires broke out with regularity due to poorly maintained heating systems and landlords who ignored fire safety regulations. in a three month period at the end of 1946 and beginning of 1947, 751 fires occurred in chicago. the hickmans’ alarm increased when they repeatedly heard footsteps late at night on the attic stairs in the week before the fire, although all the attic units but theirs were now vacated. then came the night when james was at work and annie woke to smoke coming around the door, which revealed a wall of fire when opened. as the room rapidly filled with intolerable heat and smoke, a dire scene unfolded. the four youngest children found their way under the bed, while annie’s older son urged her to the window where the two eventually jumped. they survived with broken bones, and corpses of the little ones were found soon after, huddled together beneath the remains of the mattress. james hickman came home the next morning to a burned out apartment and the worst kind of news. as the children’s deaths hit the papers, socialist workers party organizer mike bartell (whom i knew decades later in san diego, when he had dropped his party name, as milt zaslow), decided to see how the party could help the hickmans. bartell’s wife, edith, was already involved in tenant organizing and had spearheaded the citywide chicago area tenants union, which had developed relationships with civil rights activists concerned with housing issues in the emerging black communities. the swp, with mike bartell as organizer, had also recently supported the congress of racial equality in an ultimately successful effort to integrate the appropriately named white city roller rink. this story mike/milt recounted to me some time after i’d met him, the first that i learned of his extensive experience as a highly successful organizer in chicago and elsewhere. reading of the hickmans and the fire, bartell decided to see what could be done. beginning that first day, bartell met with the tenants of coleman’s building (the fire had not gone below the level of the attic, so most remained) and an impromptu meeting soon developed into the west side tenants union, whose core demands to the city were: (1) add firemen, equipment, and more fire escapes in dangerous areas; (2) construct emergency housing for tenants of unsafe buildings; and (3) abolish restrictive covenants and initiate a construction program to build low-cost housing. meanwhile, the county coroner held a series of hearings on the young hickmans’ deaths. mike myers, an swp lawyer who had spent the previous year working on tenant issues, was retained to represent the hickman family. the jury ultimately declared that there was insufficient evidence to prove the fire was intentionally started, but recommended that the building be condemned and a further investigation pursued by the state’s attorney, “#8220;with emphasis placed on housing conditions, particularly in segregated areas, affecting human lives.” but david coleman received nothing more than a few fines for code and permit violations, totaling $600. the lack of serious consequences to those responsible for his children’s death proved too much for james hickman to bear. he was a religious man who had vowed to god with the birth of his first of nine children that he would protect and support them. james was particularly hopeful for his last four, of whom he said, ‘“#8220;these youngest children — i had told them all one night — ‘it seems like i can see a future for you.’ i see in those four children that they possibly would be great men and great women some day ... i had a vision and the spirit said they would be great.” one can assume that the move to chicago came with the hope that there his children could fulfill this promise in a way that would not have been possible working someone else’s land in mississippi. james became a changed man. from being outgoing, he spent more and more time alone. he spoke often of his lost children. he bought a gun, and exactly six months after the fire, his intermittent depression and agitation about whether to use it gave way to a shaky resolve. finding coleman in laughing conversation with two other men on the street, hickman confronted him. when coleman was dismissive of hickman’s expressed concerns, james shot him several times. after the first shot, coleman offered to pay james the $100 security deposit, mentioned by hickman before he fired. hickman responded, “#8220;it’s too late now. god is my secret judge. you started the fire.” “#8220;yes, i did,” was coleman’s reply. upon hearing of the shooting, bartell and myers (who was still defending the remaining tenants from an eviction attempt) stepped up again. when the cook county grand jury indicted hickman, claiming that he with “#8220;malice aforethought by shooting did kill and murder david coleman,” a defense committee was formed and frank fried of the swp was hired to staff it. the campaign had a national scope. many people of influence, from local labor and civil rights leaders, to willard motley, a bestselling author, and the stage and screen star tallulah bankhead, all agreed to lend their names, resources and printed and public speech to the cause. mass rallies were organized and black chicagoans, especially, were united in their support for hickman, identifying with his story of thwarted effort to support his family. leon despres and prominent black attorney william temple formed, with myers, james hickman’s legal defense team. with a psychiatrist they built a case of “#8220;temporary insanity,” brought on by the trauma of the verbal threat of fire and the subsequent death of his children, whom hickman believed had been picked by god for great things. days before the trial the prosecution announced it would not be seeking the death penalty, but going for the minimum sentence of 14 years, a tacit admission that the defense campaign was working. the first day of the trial, willoughby abner of the hickman defense committee spoke to a rally outside the courthouse: “#8220; although james hickman stands in the defendant’s dock today, it is society that is really on trial. society has created the conditions making hickman cases and hickman tragedies inevitable. society is unconcerned about the loss of hickman’s children; unconcerned about the miserable housing conditions that hickman and his family of nine had to live under. the same government which failed to heed the need of hickman and millions of other hickmans is now trying to convict hickman for its own crimes, its own failures.” after two and a half days of deliberation and eight votes, the jury announced that they were unable to come to agreement and a mistrial was declared. while this was good news for hickman, bartell soon realized that sustaining the defense campaign through a second trial would be difficult. so the hickman defense committee sent out a call for letters from supporters across the country demanding that the state’s attorney drop the case. soon an offer was forthcoming. the lead prosecutor contacted myers with a deal. if james would plead guilty to manslaughter, the prosecution would drop the murder charge and recommend to the judge a sentence of two years’ probation. standing before the judge, the prosecutor stated that a major reason for dropping the charges was the overwhelming public support for hickman coming from all across the country. holding up a bundle of letters, petitions, and telegrams, he stated: “#8220;… [t]he general opinion is to the effect that mercy ought to be shown to an individual who, under the stress of the loss of four children, has been punished to such an extent that society can be magnanimous and afford him a chance to return to his remaining children and his wife, and spend the rest of his lifetime in peace. … [t]he state feels that this man has paid enough with the loss of his children.” people wasn’t made to burn is an inspiring story about how a group of revolutionary activists combined forces with broader community members and achieved a measure of justice for james hickman and his family — people who had not experienced a high degree of justice before this moment. but this brief retelling of the heart of the story leaves out much of what makes the book captivating, and also what gives it value. interspersed within the hickman chronicle, adding depth and texture to it, are stories of many others. mike bartell’s background is related in some detail. born milton zaslow in 1918 in new york city, bartell was introduced to political activism at city college of new york, where he began in the young communist league, the youth group of the communist party. when he was perceived to display trotskyist sympathies during the ongoing discussions in the college cafeteria, bartell was expelled from the ycl. he promptly joined with other trotskyists, becoming a founding member of the socialist workers party. including his history in the book, along with that of numerous other key swp figures in chicago, adds to the record of trotskyism in the united states, a history left out of textbooks. a particular strength of the book is how allen builds a larger picture from smaller stories. one example begins, of course, with the hickmans, then shifting to another black family who also lost four children to fire in the month before the hickman children died. these four had been members of the billiken club, a children’s group started by the storied black newspaper the chicago defender. we learn that the billiken club was a major social institution for decades, with nearly a million members around the country. when four of them died in a fire, the group organized hundreds of local children in a campaign around fire safety and prevention. fire safety is linked to the issue of housing, and here allen shifts to the housing reporter for the defender, vernon jarrett. after telling of his childhood, and how he came to report for the defender, his first reporting experience with the paper is related. jarrett accompanied a black veteran to a new housing complex for veterans that had been unexpectedly, and controversially, opened to blacks. a race riot ensued and escalated until the moment when the veteran jumped out of the car. he had seen combat in italy and ripping open his shirt and exposing a battle scar, he said to the hostile crowd, in english and then italian, “#8220;this happened in anzio!” one of the italian american leaders of the mob was clearly taken aback by this, and at
### label:
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"has paid a heavy price for speaking out. he is kept in total isolation – he has no television and(...TRUNCATED) | left | "Classify the text into political left or right and return the answer as the corresponding classific(...TRUNCATED) |
"destruction of homes, mosques and hospitals, the depopulation of muslim villages and the creation o(...TRUNCATED) | left | "Classify the text into political left or right and return the answer as the corresponding classific(...TRUNCATED) |
"primitive man heard thunder or saw the lightning, he could not account for either, and therefore co(...TRUNCATED) | left | "Classify the text into political left or right and return the answer as the corresponding classific(...TRUNCATED) |
"our memories and our enrichment from the encounter. june was able to help people find the poetry in(...TRUNCATED) | left | "Classify the text into political left or right and return the answer as the corresponding classific(...TRUNCATED) |
"hillman, philip murray and above all walter reuther. those who look for a critical perspective on t(...TRUNCATED) | left | "Classify the text into political left or right and return the answer as the corresponding classific(...TRUNCATED) |
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