At last! Here comes the first issue of Breakaway. Sorry it took so much longer than planned, but I've been having a lot of problems both with getting the translations done, and also with my e-mail account. Not only have my site been "swallowing" a lot of outgoing mail (so if you haven't got a reply to some message, this is probably why - please mail me if you've been waiting more than 3-4 days for my reply), but in addition a hacker managed to shut me out of the system recently, giving me a short message about old Vladimir beeing stoned on acid before throwing me off each time I tried to log on... So, that was the excuses, here comes the zine. Hope you like it. All comments, flames etc. can be directed to NIL:, uh, sorry, to the editor (that's me...) As you'll see, the main feature is an article I believe should provoke some responses (hopefully...), and responese to the articles is a necessity if we're going to publish anymore than a few numbers of this zine. Time to start submitting, folks... Vidar Hokstad Red Forum / Internationlists Committee BEGIN BREAKAWAY.001 B R E A K A W A Y Debates on modern marxism -+*+- Issue no. 1, volume no. 1 May 1994 ======================================================================= CONTENTS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (00) EDITORIAL Breakaway - an introduction (01) THE MANIFESTO TODAY "Manifesto of the Communist Party" revisited... (02) THE RISE OF THE INTERNATIONAL Utopia or realism? (03) ON "RED FORUM" Communism on the uprise? (04) ...AND THE DAY BEFORE CREATION Poem - Cyberspace and the divine (05) column: A SEARCHLIGHT ON INTERNET Revolutionary resources on the information highway (06) GENERAL INFORMATION How and what to submit, how to contact us, etc. ======================================================================= (00) EDITORIAL ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "Breakaway". Already my selection of name commits. It is a breakaway from a past where openminded debate about marxism was impossible. On one side, orthodox stalinists and maoists more or less openly mutilated marxism to fit their own needs, and marked everone not following their totalitarian line as "fascist agents". On the other, the capitalists marked everyone with revolutionary ideas as a communist, and added "that is, he is against the rights of the individual, and are fighting to establish a totalitarian, stalinist regime". In between, the trotskyites hated everyone, and was hated by everyone. The only ones to stand united were the opportunists. So the revolutionary movement rotted away. But, inevitable, the regimes that called themselves "socialist" started stumbling down. Today it isn't anymore given that everyone you will meet claims you to support murdering of people with opposing views if you call yourself marxist. More and more often people instead ask you what your goals are, and how you will fight to reach them, because they do not know, or think they know, what marxism is. Many haven't even heard of Marx. What will you answer? That is the main focus of Breakaway. What is the goal of a marxist, and how will he fight to reach these goals? What are the concequences? Are these goals just an utopia, or are they realistic? As a marxist, a selfproclaimed commie, these are questions I have to ask myself each and every day. Questions I *NEED* to ask to be sure that I never start believing in eternal truths; questions everyone concerned with marxism need to ask. I will not censor submissions with views differing from mine. I will not stop trotskyites from submitting simply because I belive that Trotskys "Permanent revolution" theory is crap. I won't stop maoists that write to tell why Mao was a great leader, or anarchists writing to tell us all why marxism is totalitarian. I even might just possibly accept an occasional submission from a stalinist or two trying to excuse Stalins (in my opinion) fascist oppression of the individual. As long as the submissions doesn't have as main goal to insult other people, it will pass (and if they don't, I'll give the author a fair chance to moderate his/hers article). For information wants to be free. And these are discussions we need to take to clarify what is real marxism, what is good marxism, and what is not marxism. Because even if I see stalinism as a fascist ideology, I realise that this is my opinion and not an undisputable truth. Let the more than seventy years with oppression in the name of marxism be a lesson to us all. But let it also encourage us to fight even harder to show people that this was, and is, a misuse of the name of marxism, and not the real thing. Let it engourage us to fight to clear our name. Vidar Hokstad, Editor ======================================================================= (01) THE MANIFESTO TODAY ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Written by Vidar Hokstad Translation, and changes, from the original done by the author. All rights reserved. Permission for *free* redistribution granted. THE MANIFESTO TODAY It is almost 150 years since the Manifesto of the Communist Party was published for the first time. Since then revisionists and reformist have one after the other attacked the manifesto, trying to prove it faulty; trying to find faults they decided in advance must be there. They have been working to "prove" that marxism is dead, outdated. In fact it was with that attitude I myself read it the first time some years ago. I quickly discovered how prejudiced I had been, even though beeing leftist for years. The manifesto isn't outdated today. Sure it has faults, but what was the largest error of the manifesto at the time it was written, is today irrellevant. The description given in the manifesto fits todays society better than society when Marx and Engels lived. Because while Marx and Engels in the manifesto made the assumption that capitalism had already moved past it's days of glory, capitalism was still young and healthy: Marx and Engels did not see the enormeous amounts of capital hidden in America, Asia and Africas natural ressources and labour, and the new growth for the European capitalists could create from the capital freed by enslaving these entire continents and their original inhabitants.[1] While the manifesto starts with the words "A spectre is haunting Europe", a manifesto of today would by necessity start with "A spectre is haunting the world", because while capitalism of 1848 still was restricted to the great powers of Europe by the geographical position of the industry, industry of today is reaching every corner of our globe, and with it capitalism. The class-struggle isn't dying, it hasn't been weakened, but it's most violent forms have been exported out of Europe, out of USA. Today, the rest of the world can't anymore bear the increasing burdens that the industrialized world tries to impose on it, and each day a greater part of profit must again be collected from the workers of the rich countries: Reproletarisation, this silent empoverment, of the workers of the industrialized countries will mean the death of the bourgeoisie. Silent because the working class ever since World War II have been gagged by socialdemocratic tradeunion-leaders with nice words about the blessings moderation brings national economy. Because while the bourgeoisie found it's fountain of youth in the oppression of the third world, it is today gradually discovering a decay accellerating faster than ever before. Still, they don't want to believe it is happening, for isn't their profit higher than before? Aren't they richer? Exactly. Socialdemocracy was a traison towards the working-class in the underdeveloped countries. It was, and is, an arrogant, eurocentrist ideology claiming to have the solutions because they managed to give the workers of Europe a few drops of the sea of blood and sweat that was, and is, beeing extracted from the workers of the poor countries. Socialdemocracy sold the international class-struggle to ensure the workers of Europe, and the bourgeoisie of Europe. Later, when socialdemocracy spread out of Europe, it kept it's nationalist elements, teaching a doctrine about love for your country in content not much different from Stalins "socialism in one country". This gigantic cooperation across classes showed the world once and for all that the working class still haven't seen that the idea of a fatherland, for the working class, is, and will continue to be, an illusion. This nationalism still lives, and many places it grows, thanks to our weakness, our cowardness, and our own tendency to hold on to national symbols: We still haven't managed to put our national flags aside in anger, and rise the red flag, the symbol of the international unity of the working class. On the contrary: Today many of us rise national flags with an even greater feeling of pride. Even on the first of May. Perhaps it is only a manifestation of the situation of the international proletariat: No unity. No brotherhood. Only chaos and despair. What is left to believe in? For isn't communism dead? But it isn't only the socialdemocrats who have betrayed the proletariat, also we, the revolutionary movement of the industrialized countries, have let the struggle for freedom, for the oppressed, drown in our admiration of any force opposing capital, not necessarily as representatives for progressive liberation movements, but as members of reaction. Our movement worshipped nations where the barbary extended as long as to systematically murder members of their own people; nations that fought the bourgeois parliamentary system not to replace it with true workers democracy, but to replace it with a society where class- antagonisms survived not because of economic opression alone, but as a direct result of political opression even more extreme than the capitalist bourgeois dictatures in which we live. What are the signs of true socialism? True socialism's features include the workers right, as a class, to control the means of production; by economic planning instead of war-like competition. Socialism is a negation of capitalism; a qualitative leap from a society that have the means to give everyone a true vote, that have the capital to give everyone a life without poverty, to a society that in deed does these things. But what are the features of stalinist regimes? We can recognize them because they have the all-embracing poverty that is typical for the newborn capitalist state; the poverty that creates capitalist competition, and that always will crush any attempt at a socialist revolution not being the direct result of a well developed capitalist system; a poverty increased by the socalled socialist revolutions national character, that prevented the working class of the industrialized countries from saving the ideals of these revolutions. Marx' himself clearly stated what such a poverty would cause: " Without [the development of the means of production] only the poverty would be generalized, the basic needs would therefore ensure that the struggle for necessities would start over again, and the entire old shit would be ressurected. " [2] In the stalinist regimes, this poverty was there, and stalinisms birth out of regimes that had barely managed to crush feudalism, once again makes it clear that these revolutions, even though they were led by the proletariat, would have to degenerate; that they never could have been the seed of socialism, but only a primitive stage in between the feudal and the capitalist economy: They kept the feudal structures in the political framework, but had to accept that they were a part of the increasingly powerful capitalist world market. " The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it forces the barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image. " (The manifesto, Bourgeoisie and proletarians, paragraph 20) The characteristics of stalinism are not those of socialism. They're not even a part of the characteristics of capitalism. Stalinism, in contrary to socialism, does not give the means of productions to the workers, it gives the new elite, the party elite, the control over not only the means of production as capitalism to the bourgeoisie, but over society as a whole. It rebuilds, in a capitalist economy, the feudal empire that the revolution crushed, and despite trying to conquer capitalism, despite wanting to destroy capitalist competition, the stalinist regime ia itself a part of capitalist competition. It acts like a giant capitalist corporation, exploiting it's workers, controlling them, fighting to increase profit. But as the monster it is, a mix of capitalist economic structures and feudal political structures, it is doomed to loose, for not only is it forced to fight the true capitalists, but also the same proletariat which in the course of it's birth, it's organisation, gave the regime power. Stalinism is true internationalist communism turned upside down. Stalinism is nationalist, in contrary to the needs of the proletariat. Stalinism is dogmatic. As Hegel claimed Preussian capitalism to be the "end of history", stalinism claims it's interpretation of communism to be the final goal of mankind, contrary to marxist theory that relies on the idea that *nothing* is eternal. Stalinism is, as communism, a result of a revolution under the leadership of the proletariat, but in contrary to communism, stalinism is a result of a revolution under the leadership of a national proletariat in an underdeveloped country. A proletariat not representing the majority of the people, but only one out of ten, two out of ten, or maybe tree out of ten of the inhabitants of the country. It is the proletariats first non-successful attempt to build socialism, for it isn't the workers that win the political power when stalinism wins, but the intelligentsia that gave the wrong answers; that thought they knew when time was right for socialism. The true value of the manifesto, lies in that Marx and Engels longed for the revolution. They longed for it so much that they described it's coming as exactly as they could, but expected it to come in their own time. They described the death of the middle classes, the degeneration of capital, the growth of the proletariat, seen as of Europe 1848. Europe 1848, that's the world 1994. The same tendencies, the same development, that could be found in Europe 1848, can be found in the world of today. And this time the capitalists can't find new peoples to oppress, if they don't at a sudden find life in outer space. Today we can see the centralisation, monopolisation and empowerment even clearer than Marx ever got the opportunity to. We see the disasters and the need. The capitalists claim that Marx were wrong because the workers of Europe became "rich and fat": Marx claimed that the workers of Europe would become poor, they say. What Marx claimed was that the proletariat would grow, due to the empowerment. He limited his observations to Europe, because what he knew was Europe. That was a mistake. But removing this limitation, applying the same theory not to Europe, but to the world, it once again become a mirror of reality: Never before have so many starved to death each day; never before have so many been about to die because of poverty, and they become more every day. " The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself. But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons -- the modern working class -- the proletarians. " (The manifesto, Bourgeoisie and proletarians, paragraph 27/28) VIDAR HOKSTAD Red Forum / Internationalists Committee Earlier published in Norwegian in FRIHETEN (Freedom), newspaper of the Norwegian Communist Party, 21/1993. ------ [1] However, one can several places find indications that Marx and Engels started to realise this error. Most striking is their corrections in the preface to the Russian 1882 edition of the Communist Manifesto, but also in his late speeches, Marx was searching for a way to explain the growth that was inevitable in Europe. [2] From "Die Deutsche Ideologie". Beware that this quote is translated to English in a hurry from a bad Norwegian translation of the original german text. ======================================================================= (02) THE RISE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Written by Vidar Hokstad All rights reserved. Permission for *free* redistribution granted. THE RISE OF THE INTERNATIONAL In my three years as an active member of the revolutionary movement, for it is in fact not longer since I first discovered marxism, my view has always been directed towards internationalism. Two years ago I started working to learn more about the international revolutionary movement, resulting in several articles for the party newspaper of the Norwegian Communist Party. What interested me the most, was that the movement which I thought would be dying, had survived and was working to regain it's strength. We are in a situation when "everyone", at least to the left of the "official" communist parties , are trying to get new international contacts, and to build new structures upon which one can build a new, sound movement. It is my belief we are heading towards a new International. The main goal of such an organisation today would be to build an effective network for the exchange of information, and for free debates on marxism as a tool, and on current political issues. We no longer need to gather people together in the same room to conduct meetings. We do not any longer need a big organisation before it is possible to work effectively. One of the projects run by Red Forum / IC is actually destined to provide a basis for an infrastructure the revolutionary movement will need in the coming struggles. If everything goes as planned, we'll have our very own UUCP site up by this autumn, with a full Internet connection heading our way next year. Marx/Engels wrote in their _Communist Manifesto_ of 1848, that what had taken centuries before, the proletariat would manage in a few years thanks to the railroads. Today we could add: And today, we can build the same relations in a few weeks, provided we know how to take advantage of new technology. Back to our new "International". Do we need such a creature? We saw what results the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth gave, didn't we? [1] We saw the oppression of the national communist parties after Stalins takeover of Komintern. And the secterianism of the 4th and 5th. Maybe one was enough? Still, an international _could_, if we build it wisely, provide a framework for cooperation across the world. It _could_ give us the resources we need so badly, such as an international information network - providing our newspapers with well-written news material with a revolutionary view, press releases (_we_ don't even get to hear about what the other parties and groups in Europe are up to, not to mention the rest of the world) -, our own forums for international debate (our "own" cluster of conferences on USENET? Mailing-lists? international journals?) We don't claim to be the ones to start a new international - too many secterian attempts have been made at this before. We haven't even thought about establishing ourselves as a new party. We hope however, that we can bring some people together, hopefully spread out over as much of the world as possible. And by doing this, we want to build a foundation on which we can meet other groups working on similar projects, discover new resources and in general get together with more people. This way, a united movement can, and will, appear. We can't say: -Hey, let's start a new international tomorrow. Then we would be stuck with a thousand of small groups each claiming to be the seed, noone growing to become the tree. The international will evolve out of the work of each and every one with a true internationalist marxist ideology not start when we want it to. If _you_ think you have ideas, or if you want to join Red Forum/IC, or just want to work together with us, feel free to write a few lines to Vidar Hokstad Red Forum / Internationalists Committee ------- [1] The Fourth International, is the one started by Trotskij, the fifth the attempt at a new international done by Tito. ======================================================================= (03) ON "RED FORUM" ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Red Forum is the result of the work of a few revolutionaries in Norway, with different ideas, and memberships in different parties.[1] Earlier this year, we met in Oslo to discuss marxism on an inter- nationalist basis. We all wanted a new organisation that allowed us to work together to spread marxist ideas - not necessarily what *we* thought of as good marxism, but anything that could help people to see the entire spectre of marxism - and to fight for renewed international contacts. Since the beginning, we have been exploring the possibilities of information technology in our political work. In fact the three groups that met at our Oslo-meeting were brought together as three of us met on local BBS's. Today Internet is our next frontier, and we have begun the struggle to establish our services on the net. Breakaway is only the first attempt. Hopefully we will next year be able to set up our own Internet host. Our platform, our principles, are not well defined. We have started almost on scratch, trying to avoid all the pitfalls that we all agree our own parties have fallen into. Today, Red Forum / IC have only a minimal platform stating that we are a revolutionary organisation for debate on socialism from an internationalist point of view. Anyone accepting internationalist marxism can become a member (also non-Norwegians - in fact we are *very* interested in members outside Norway). ACTIVITIES: - Production of Breakaway - E-Publishing of marxist theoretic works. Currently mostly Norwegian translations. Currently the following archives can be requested by mail, with more to follow: HOKSTAD1 Articles on modern marxism - 1 HOKSTAD2 Articles on modern marxism - 2 FEUER Theses on Feuerbach MANIFEST The Manifesto of the Communist Party ***NOTE: All in Norwegian. - FAQ on revolutionary resources on the Internet (in English...) - Meetings PLANNED TO START THIS AUTUMN: - An own BBS with UUCP connection to USENET, situated in Oslo, Norway - A monthly printed magazine in Norwegian - English and German versions of several marxist classics - A quarterly English and Norwegian theorethical journal - Attempts at establishing two or three foreign groups as a minimum, with the goal of getting at least one new UUCP site during '95 ------- [1] Currently we have members from the following organisations: Norwegian Communist Party (NKP) / Norwegian Communist Youth (NKU) Socialist Left Party (SV) / Socialist Youth (SU) Young Liberals (!!!) (Unge Venstre) Red Electoral Alliance (RV) in addition to a few without membership in other political parties/groups. ======================================================================= (04) ...AND THE DAY BEFORE CREATION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I stared out into the marshes of RAM that engulfed us. Watching the archivers store my mind away, leaving only references: My childhood at address zero and something close to infinity. It felt so good, They freed my mind; let it float around; move from site to site, being everywhere. no longer being human. We were all the same, all memory, all mind, no physical existence outside the Net. God in our own little universe, stretching to the limits of our minds. We were given large structures to fill with light meadows, Structures with which we built islands of childhood: Treasury island; Jules Vernes mystery island. Structures with which we built forests: Sherwoodforest; neverending woods with indians, cowboys, and other strange creatures. Oh, yes, we relived our golden childhood dreams; and afterwards, when we had finished, we relived our futures. Structures with which we built Utopia: Lang's Metropolis; Gothams dark streets; New York at night, 1993. For is it not what we have always dreamt of? What we have fought for centuries to see? Our deepest dreams becoming simulated reality. And when we got tired of old reality, we created new ones; new senses: The beauty of a five-dimensional sunset were ours. And we touched the sharpness of a scream with our fingers. But as we grew older, our passions cooling, we felt a sudden urge for meditation. For millions of years, we lived in silence, until we got a Vision. And the day before Creation, we started merging Into One ======================================================================= (05) Column: A SEARCHLIGHT ON INTERNET ----------------------------------------------------------------------- In this column, we will in each issue tell you about leftist groups, publications and resources available on the Internet. Naturally we wont be able to trace down every single bit of data ourselves, so we'll have to rely quite much on what you send us. Information, whether it is only an e-mail address we can use, or a complete entry, can be sent to A FAQ on leftist net-services will also be put together, and can for now be requested from the same address. The FAQ will contain the same info as this column, but will be updated, and will contain additional info when possible. We start of *very* good... This is a service you really ought to check out: * Marx and Engels Online Library GOPHER: csf.coloradu.edu select 12 (Progressive Sociologist Network) select 9 (Marx/Engels section) FTP: csf.colorado.edu in directory psn/Marx E-MAIL: Ftp-by-mail. Send a message to ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu or ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com with the word "help" in the body of the message for more information on ftp by mail. INFO: zodiac@io.org Works of and on Marx and Engels in a free, electronic edition. At present the library have got about 4.2 megs of text. A few texts of DeLeon, Trotskij and Lenin are also included ("The state and revolution", and "Against fascism"), in adition to a book by Jenny Marx. You're also welcome to contribute with transcriptions, but contact zodiac@io.org first. Let's help making this library complete! ======================================================================= (06) GENERAL INFORMATION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- How often? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- As often as there are enough to publish. "Enough" is at present about 30kb of text, but this might increase if we get enough submissions. Under any circumstances, we'll limit ourselves to 30kb until we reach one issue every two weeks. Format? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Only pure 7-bit ASCII. However a program designed to translate these files into AmigaGuide(TM) files will become available shortly. (Send a request for BRtoGUIDE.LHA to the E-mail address below. You will then receive the file uuencoded in you mailbox as soon as it is available) Subscription ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Just send us a message, preferably by e-mail, and you will be added to our mailing list. Ideas? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you have ideas about topics we should write about, columns we should have, places to advertize in or distribute to, authors or groups to contact, or anything else that might help us, send e-mail to the address below. Submission guidelines ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * BREAKAWAY will accept articles from people belonging to all trends or ideologies related to marxism, or from people who are simply interested in marxist theory or practice. * All articles are considered open for debate. Answers to articles are welcomed and encouraged, and will get high priority. When an article includes the e-mail address to the author, you *are* encouraged to use it for constructive criticism to the author, but we would prefer if you submitted your comments if appropriate. * You should limit yourself to articles between 100 and 300 lines if possible. If you find that difficult, try to divide your article into shorter sections suitable for publishing over two to four issues. Contributions shorter than 100 lines will naturally also be accepted, but might (depending on the type of submission) be put in a column as "Readers comments" etc. instead of alone. * We will publish most articles or news reports we receive concerning marxist ideology, the actions of marxist organisations, or information of importance to the average revolutionary. * Fiction will be accepted if the editor believes that it encourages new ideas, or that it falls into the quite large bag of "proletarian literature" * We will, if the content is interesting, take the work of translating to English from the Scandinavian languages, German or French, and improving language (in cooperation with the author) * Submissions should if possibly be e-mailed to us. Alternatively, you may snailmail us a disc. We accept plain ASCII files on 3.5" 720kb formatted MS-DOS discs, 5.25" 360kb MS-DOS discs, 3.5" 880kb OFS or FFS Amiga discs. But we don't hunt you down and kill you if you send us your article on paper either (if in handwriting: write *CLEARLY*). * We accept anonymous submissions. However, if you choose to do so, we would prefer if you give us a pseudonym to use as your signature. (Also @ addresses is a good way of getting anonymity without loosing the advantages of feedback, anon@penet.fi beeing a popular choice, but please note that there are other servers available for US users, as penet.fi is _extremely_ overloaded) If you are unsure of whether or not your article, poem, short-story or whatever is of interest to us, submit it anyway and let us judge. I believe our problem won't be too *many* submissions... And if you submit something we can't use, and it isn't the *quality*, but the *topic* that is our reason for not publishing, we will try to give you advice about better alternatives (such as other e-zines). How to contact Red Forum / Internationalists Committee: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Editor : Vidar Hokstad E-mail : Snailmail : Boks 30, N-2001 Lillestroem, NORWAY Tel. : +47 638 170 35 (5pm to 9pm GMT) ======================================================================= Proletarians of all countries, unite! ======================================================================= END BREAKAWAY.001