“The name’s Joey Homicides,” Bob McGlynn said, shaking my hand.
That was in the fall of 1988, when I first visited New York. I have vivid memories of the city’s vibrant anarchist/ultraleft milieu, with folks from WBAI (many from the old Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade), the Libertarian Book Club (LBC), Anarchist Black Cross, THRUSH, and McGlynn’s group Neither East Nor West. I was Bob’s friend and a long-distance part of that community, returning to visit almost annually for the next 15 years. We believed capitalism was on its way out and what would replace it was up for grabs. The drab “real existing socialism” of the day—the Soviet bloc and Third World national liberation axis—versus our vital libertarian socialism of collectives and communes, workers’ councils and popular assemblies, spontaneous uprisings and international solidarity.
Libertarian activities were happening all over. The influence of Poland’s Solidarity labor movement pervaded Eastern Europe with similar actions and movements. We were mere months away from the Revolutions of 1989 that would see the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and bring the old Soviet Union to the verge of its historic collapse. Two months before, a violent NYC police riot against 700 squatters, punks, homeless and protesters—Bob included—carrying banners proclaiming “Gentrification is Class War” turned Tompkins Square Park into a “bloody war zone” with nine arrested and 38 injured. The LBC—before Objectivists and Rothbardians took it over—had put on a forum grandiosely comparing the Tompkins Square Riots to the 1871 Paris Commune the weekend I arrived for my 10-day vacation. The refusal of radical National Guard soldiers in Paris to disarm after the armistice with Prussia that transformed an insignificant French Republic administrative division equivalent to civil townships—the commune—into the Paris Commune much lauded by the Left will be discussed below. Continue reading →
March 1, 2020
Categories: "Lefty" Hooligan, "What's Left?", 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, China, Class War, communism, Gang of Four, in the weeds, Karl Marx, left communism, leftism, Leninism, Mao, Maoism, Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, national liberation, New York City, Paris Commune, Poland 1970, Poland 1980, Politics, Red Guards, Russia 1905, Russia 1917, Russian Revolution, Soviet Union, Third World, ultraleftism . Tags: "Gentrification is Class War", "People's Commune of China", Anarchist Black Cross, “January Storm”, “Long Live the May 16 Movement”, bike messenger, Bob McGlynn, class war, collectives, communes, Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), council communism, French communes, Gang of Four, Great Leap Foward 1958, Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR), Hunan Provincial Proletarian Revolutionary Great Alliance Committee, in the weeds, infantile Leftism, international solidarity, Jiang Qing, Jodi Dean, Joey Homicides, Joey Homicides aka Bob McGlynn, Joey Ramone, left communism, Lenin, Leninism, Libertarian Book Club (LBC), libertarian socialism, Lin Biao, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Marx, Marxism-Leninism, MIM-notes, Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, Neither East Nor West, New Communist Movement, New York City, NYPD, October League, On Gogol Boulevard, Paris Commune, People's Commune, people's communes, People's Liberation Army (PLA), Peoples Republic of China, Poland’s Solidarity labor movement, police riot, popular assemblies, real existing socialism, red bourgeoisie, Red Guard, Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, Revolutionary Union, Revolutions of 1989, Russia 1905, Russia 1917-21, Seth Tobocman, Shanghai People’s Commune, Shengwulian, Shengwulian “manifesto”, Soviet bloc, Soviet Union, soviets, spontaneous uprisings, The Paris Commune 1871, Third World, Third World national liberation struggles, THRUSH, Tompkins Square Park, Tompkins Square riots, ultraleftism, Viewpoint Magazine, voluntarism, Warsaw Pact/Soviet Bloc, WBAI, workers' councils, Wuhan Incident, Zhou Enlai . Author: leftyhooligan . Comments: Leave a comment
What's Left? 