Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the video below
with Abby Martin
teleSUR English on Nov 7, 2017
Nov. 7, 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the seizure of power by workers and peasants in the Russian Revolution, regarded as the most world-altering event in the history of civilization.
To understand the context of this first socialist experiment, how it happened and what caused the many problems it faced, Abby Martin sits down with Brian Becker, long-time socialist organizer and co-author of the new book Storming the Gates: How the Russian Revolution Changed the World.
***
Why did the Russian Revolution Happen? 1 minute answer
with Caleb Maupin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Caleb Maupin (website)
Caleb Maupin (Facebook Page)
November 7, 2017
Caleb Maupin on Nov 4, 2017
Caleb Maupin is a radical journalist and political analyst who resides in New York City. Originally from Ohio, he studied political science at Baldwin-Wallace College. In addition to his journalism, analysis, and commentary, he has engaged in political activism. He was involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement from its planning stages in August of 2011. He has worked against police brutality, mass incarceration, and imperialist war. He works to promote revolutionary ideology, and to support all who fight against the global system of monopoly capitalist imperialism.
from the archives:
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
What If Workers Ran Society? by Elizabeth Schulte
Caleb Maupin in Red Square: Let’s Talk About Communism!
The Difference Between Socialism, Communism, and Marxism Explained by a Marxist
Dandelion Salad 
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“Many worlds’ many histories. This is a most welcome narrative from Brian Becker. Excellent summary ~ and a valuable observation from Caleb Maupin.
I’ve been listening to a couple of recent talks by Chris Hedges, and also to the new interview he recorded with Abby. I have enormous respect for the scope of his intellect and the depth of his experience as a journalist. His analysis is uncompromising and his reading of (American) reality profoundly sobering.
When it comes to revolutionary talk about resistance and advocating revolutionary protest ‘in the streets,’ I begin to worry about the implications of this uncompromising polemical approach given the enormous power of the (nuclear) state, to eagerly repress by force any threatening manifestations of ‘civil disorder.’ Hedges claims that in the USA there are no means left to initiate intelligent reform.
Many years ago, it occurred to me that Chris Hedges was indeed ‘Presidential timber.’ A strange expression, suggesting that the individual would be robust enough to cope with the stress and weight of governance. He purports to reject any aspiration to exercise governing authority and run for a political office. I’m not sure that may necessarily be the case in the years ahead. If anyone can reason their way into a position of effective influence, someone with his gifts and devotion to the moral cause of a just society, must be no exception.
However, his dire Jeremiads seem to me to have a missing component, namely a capacity for interrogating one’s own bias; self-skepticism, a willingness to question one’s most heartfelt convictions. He is after all a Christian socialist. I suppose, if it is impossible to tease apart or unpick such a tightly bonded life-long psychological conviction, herein lies a potential dilemma: should we expect our leaders to be perfect?
One thing is sure, idealism is insufficient. In fact it can be a liability. That does not mean we have to accept cynicism, but in politics, legitimate pragmatism is essential. We must expect honesty; but that demands real wisdom ~ not wishful realism.
At this centennial moment, as we reflect upon the Russian experience in the grim context of the C20th, and its technological changes, I think it is essential to approach our history fearlessly, as Chris Hedges and other commentators and activists do; but it is also quintessentially important not to extrapolate imaginal futures from a formulaic or limiting ideological interpretation of ‘the past.’ There are the cumulative records of that infinitely receding past and there are the existential truths of our (metaphysical) present. We should not confuse the planes; but respect the symbolic logic, be creative, resourceful, innovative and heed the logoi of the wise.
Not so many decades ago, the imperialist slogan was “Britannia Rules the Waves.” We should understand what that meant, how it came to be and how the world has changed. To take such a cliche literally is clearly absurd these days. Nobody can rule the Seas. It is sheer juvenile hubris, like presuming to ‘harness the power of the Sun.’ We might just end up burning our clever little fingers, or in the former instance ~ deluged..
‘Our’ (Lunar synchronized) Ocean is the ecosystemic planetary force that determines all fates. Make no mistake! Conserving the seas and managing the resources of these thriving ecosystems are the first priorities of a universal survival stratagem. True intelligence is ecological. Anything short of that is now a mere anthropocenic footnote to the great narrative of Life Itself.
Thanks for your commentary, David, as always.
Hedges would never consider running for president, in my opinion, although there is a Facebook Group called “Chris Hedges for President.”
Also, what new video with Abby Martin and Hedges are you referring to? I’ve posted three in the past, but the most recent is from February this year.
Thanks Lo. You’re right; it was that excellent February conversation; I thought it was familiar and that I must have heard it before, but was misled by a YouTube posting with the wrong date. I’m normally very careful about these details, but so far, I haven’t yet traced it back, just too much personal internet history this past week…..!
Was it this one? https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/abby-martin-and-chris-hedges-donald-trump-and-christianized-fascism/
Lately, youtubers have been taking other people’s videos and uploading on their channel and putting the current date on them in order to get views. I’ve seen this especially with Chris Hedges’ videos. The easiest way to know it’s not a recent video is to do a search on the title, and/or look at the source of where the video is coming from (just some guy’s youtube channel or RT America or TeleSur or other more well known source).
Yes, good advice; that’s what I usually do, I’ll have to go back in my history and figure out how I misread that ~ probably fatigue!
Why bother going through your History? I clear my cache and history and cookies several times a day. Mostly have been using Epic Privacy browser for Facebook, Youtube, and any searches I do. Epic doesn’t keep any record of your history, cache, cookies, etc. on your computer, so it runs more smoothly, too. https://www.epicbrowser.com/
Thanks Lo, good plan, downloading it.
I really do prefer it over Firefox. You can also change the proxy to another country and see videos on Youtube that are blocked in your own country but not in others.
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