The Right and the Left are not the problem, it is the Corporate Elite, dividing and mis-informing. Too often the misinformed are labeling the Left as Socialist, Anarchist, or Liberal Hippy. More often than not, the lack of understanding about each philosophy leaves displaced anger towards what is not true. The basic principle of Lefts, no matter which ideology they follow, and not limited to the three mentioned, is that freedom and justice for all protects and nurtures all individuals regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual preference, and religion.
Like the misunderstanding of religions world wide, the common principle of all religions is: don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, love your neighbors, love your family, and respect each other. Somehow over time, principles all get fucked up by a few individuals that claim that his definition of what his action represents is symbolic for an entire political or religious belief.
Corporate Greed feeds off of the misunderstandings between two groups that have been too busy fighting one another than to focus on the main neglecting unaccountable culprit.
Throughout the 1940’s, CLR James, Grace Lee Boggs and Raya Dunayevskaya, were nearly inseparable as they discussed Marxism and Human Rights amongst a conservative-polarized society of McCarthyism. They had each experienced different forms of racism and persecution. During the 1940’s it was rare to see an educated black man from Trinidad, an educated Jewish woman, and an educated Chinese-American woman all walking down the streets together discussing politics. While today, this can be quite common in most cities. These were voices from the Left, who theorized and activated their energies toward the Civil Rights Movement, the Labor Rights Movement, and the Women’s Rights Movement, which are all inclusive to Human Rights and dignity.
Grace Lee Boggs later in her career alongside her husband James Boggs, an activist as well, stated: “Our goal was to create the kind of organization in which women are equal to men and every member is developed into a theoretical and practical leader, participating in creating the ideas and prepared to lead struggles at a community level.”
“Every statement was a challenge to the reader to transcend the victim mentality that impedes us from making the moral and social choices necessary for our survival and health of our inclusive community”(Boggs). Black, White, Asian, Muslim, or Other who use race or religion as an excuse for crimes towards others is not a goal of the Left or Right, but is a fearful escape of distressed individuals. In truth social evolution is inevitable. Complex societies have to accept in the growing globalized world that we are not alone, we were never alone, others were here before us, they have been here all along, come join us.
Our old identifications with how we understand our self and others need to be re-thought and strongly re-understood. Sometimes the ideology of Marx and other important Left idealists are outdated in today’s struggle, and sometimes some of the theories that have been misinterpreted by the Right, can actually help both polarities with a new eye of understanding. Some of Gramsci, Luxemburg, Emma Goldman, and Mother Jones’, etc. unique voices are quite important beyond the time period that they came from. Their hard struggles were made to benefit the betterment of society beyond corporate and imperial control, and the tendency to resort to fascism by those who have power and fear of losing their command smear and intentionally undermine the Left goal. Especially, when the same Corporate Elite control the mainstream media. Never just follow one form of media, read and listen to multiple sources.
Raya Dunayevskaya reminds us that the Woman’s Rights Movement and the Civil Rights Movement are actual human struggles toward freedom and need to be more than just ‘auxiliary’. These rights are important for all of us legal and illegal, nationally born or over in a country we are bombing. The first fighters of both struggles were Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, powerful black women who after freeing themselves from slavery, dedicated their lives to free all men and women from slavery.
In order to change and transform the world we have to first administer self-interrigation and transform and change ourselves. The History of America is not the History of Freedom, and if we claim that the prior is about freedom, we have to bring into our history all the crimes that our government and corporations have committed with no justification towards Native Americans, African-Americans, Women, and inclusive of all our overseas ventures that crippled freedom in most regions of the world, too many to list.
The mere bickering between Left and Right, or the narrow political debate to the corporate owned Democrat and Republican base, is not going to make social change if we do not understand why we believe what we believe, and come to terms with our own limitations.
President Obama is not a Socialist, by far. Previous limiting labels to freedom of speaking about freedom do not make people anymore than stereotypes. The line by Coleman Young comes to mind, “If being for human rights makes me a Communist, then I am a Communist.” Or as Bernard Shaw, the famous play-write concluded, “Christianity in truth is Socialism, because Jesus’ belief and life-style was socialistic. He fought for the poor, believed that materialism was unhealthy, and felt everyone was equal in his eyes regardless of sex or race.”
The Left believe in a more hybrid approach to reality. The Left web out in diverse directions because they don’t all have the same hyper focuses: Environmentalism, Labor Unions, Anarchism, Socialism, Hippy-love, End War, Stop Hate, Gay Rights, Responsible Adults making Responsible decisions, and more and more. Of course there are always exceptions that take matters into their own hands and brand direction-ing as fundamentalism.
Our Government is not Left or even Right, it is controlled by a Corporate Elite who lobby with greed to make sure that they are protected while everyone else suffers during hard economic times. The previous Presidents regardless of Democrat or Republican have never made significant policy decisions to support our communities without the significant push from outside the government. Laws for Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, have only come to our society from movements of passionate people shaking up the system and demanding change.
What the Left understand, is that, change is inevitable. Conservancy does not work in a world where human beings of all backgrounds are now, with the technological boom and global market system, more interconnected than ever before. We just have to remember to be Responsible, not just for ourselves but towards others, in the way, we want to be treated.
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