Community Organizing: Seizing Power, Creating Socialism

Cross-posted by Maggie at Maggie’s Notebook

[transcription of above] Our final goal is the destruction of imperialism, the seizure of power, and the creation of socialism. Our strategy for this stage of the struggle is to organize the oppressed people of the imperial nation itself to join the colonies in the attack on imperialism. The process of attacking and weakening imperialism involves defeat of all kinds of national chauvinism and arrogance; this precondition to our fight for socialism.

The above from Prairie Fire – written by William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn

Zomblog has copies of a rare Weather Underground newspaper known as Osawatomie. Published in 1975 as William Ayers and Bernardine Dohn were hiding from authorities, and as Zomblog put it:

“transitioning from terrorism…”

to inside work for the revolution…what we now know was a plan to overthrow the government of the United States, tells us what community organizing is all about, and it’s all about the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis.

If you are beyond weary of hearing about William Ayers’ connection to Barack Obama, Zomblog makes THE point, and I’ll use it here, because it cannot be said better:

Ayers was not simply protesting “against” the Vietnam War. Firstly, he wasn’t against war in principle, he was agitating for the victory of the communist forces in Vietnam. In other words: He wasn’t against the war, he was against our side in the war. This is spelled out in great detail in Prairie Fire. Secondly, and more significantly, the Vietnam War was only one of many issues cited by the Weather Undergound as the justifications for their violent acts. As you will see below, in various quotes from Prairie Fire and in their own list of their violent actions (and in additional impartial documentary links), Ayers and the Weather Underground enumerated dozens of different grievances as the rationales for their bombings — their overarching goal being to inspire a violent mass uprising against the United States government in order to establish a communist “dictatorship of the proletariat,” in Ayers’ own words.

The plan was to overturn the government by “creativity and AUDACITY.”
The following from Osawatomie:

[transcript]… the system itself is inhuman, and socialism is a real alternative; the energy crisis is the fault of Rockefeller and the oil companies, not the Arab people; unemployment is caused by capitalism not “illegal aliens” stealing jobs; war in Indochina or the Mideast is part of the problem, not the solution; political and social action can change things.

[transcript of above] Organizers must be intimately aware of every problem and each injustice, and they must show that underneath each particular problem lies another problem, and another and another until you reach the system of imperialism itself. The system is designed to create problems for poor, Third World and working-class people. Organizers need to find small solutions to small problems and great solutions to great problems. Our solutions should be drastic.

We need to build a successful struggle, strong organization and a winning revolutionary party. This is a process, which will not emerge full-blown from our minds. It will emerge and change and grow from practice. We know where to begin.

It is with all this in mind that we have created OSAWATOMIE, the revolutionary voice of the Weather Underground Organization.

The following from Ayers and Dohrn’s book, Prairie Fire (more at Zomblog):

William Ayers is a communist. But don’t take my word for it. He said so himself:

[transcript of above] We are a guerrilla organization. We are communist women and men, underground in the United States for more than four years.

[Zomblog] And not some nicey-nice peace-and-love kind of communist. Through his group the Weather Underground, Ayers was planning to “seize power” in a violent communist takeover of the United States:

[transcript of above] We need a revolutionary communist praty in order to lead the struggle, give coherence and direction to the fight, seize power and build the new society.

Manufactured Crisis:

[transcript of above] Our job is to tap the discontent seething in many sectors of the population, to find allies everywhere people are hungry or angry, to mobilize poor and working people against imperialism.

You’ve heard by now that Prarie Fire was dedicated to U.S. “political prisoners,”…one of those deemed a “political prisoner” is Sirhan Sirhan – the murderer of Robert F. Kennedy. Here it is, scanned directly from the book:

Visit Zombietime.com for more.

Sarah Palin To John McCain: ‘Take The Gloves Off’

Cross posted from Wake up America

YouTube URL to the video above, found here.

Over the weekend Sarah Palin made a reference to Barack Obama’s ties to questionable characters, but there is another area where Palin believes John McCain should “take the gloves off”, Obama’s association with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

In the video above Sarah Palin speaks to a crowd of supporters and references, not by name, but by actions, Barack Obama’s association with William Ayers, a man who was a domestic terrorist and part of a group, Weatherman Underground, that quote launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and US Capitol.

Sarah Palin On Obama’s Ties and Associations.

Palin made the point saying one of Obama’s earliest supporters was a domestic terrorist, then going on to say about Obama “This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America. We see America as the greatest force for good in this world. If we can be that beacon of light and hope for others who seek freedom and democracy and can live in a country that would allow intolerance in the equal rights that again our military men and women fight for and die for for all of us. Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country?”

When criticized by the Associated Press for bringing up the association between Obama and Ayers, with their analysis saying Palin brining up Obama’s past associations was, in their view, racist, Palin shot back with “The Associated Press is wrong. The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn’t been talked about, and I think it’s fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy’s living room.”

As was reported earlier by Barbara Sowell, information is still coming to light about further Ayers/Obama connections.

Those comments received a lot of play in the press over the weekend, but today there is a report from the New York Times’ columnist William Kristol about a conversation he had with Palin, showing that Ayers is not the only topic where Palin believes John McCain and the campaign’s “gloves” should be taken off.

Palin told Kristol the campaign should be more aggressive is telling the American public “who the real Barack Obama is,” stating Obama had played down his relationship with Ayers and then went on to state she believed another important aspect to speak about is Jeremiah Wright.

Jeremiah Wright.

Jeremiah Wright was the pastor for Barack Obama’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ. Obama met Wright and joined his church in the late 1980s, while he was working as a community organizer in Chicago. Wright officiated at the wedding ceremony of Barack and Michelle Obama, as well as their children’s baptism. In 2007 Wright was appointed to Barack Obama’s African American Religious Leadership Committee. In March of 2008, when videos of Wrights controversial sermonds became public, it was announced that Wright would no longer serve as a member of that committee.

Jeremiah Wright hit the headlines, in a massive manner, when videos of some of his sermons went viral on the Internet, showing him saying things like “God Damn America”, speaking of 9/11 and saying it was the chickens coming home to roost and many other comments to which some have said were racially divisive.

On March 14, 2008, Barack Obama wrote an entry at Huffington Post where he denounced the words from Wright, which had become public, and stated in that post “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation…”

Four days later, Barack Obama gave a speech and in that speech, he again denounced the words of his former pastor, but refused to denounce the man himself, as well as admitting that he did, indeed, hear controversial comments made by Wright while sitting in his church.

For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

In April, Wright made a series of media appearances, as reported by ABC’s Political Punch, where he dismissed Obama’s criticisms of Wright’s controversial comments, saying Obama was doing so because it was “politically expedient.”

After those appearances from Wright, Obama spoke more forcefully against Jeremiah Wright, saying he was outraged and saddened by his behavior, and in May Obama resigned his membership in the church.

Sarah Palin on Jeremiah Wright.

While speaking with Bill Kristol, he asked Palin if Ayers was a legitimate issue, what about Obama’s long standing association with Jeremiah Wright?

Palin responded by saying “To tell you the truth, Bill, I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that — with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave — to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up.”

Many have been speaking out about McCain’s hesitance in regards to Obama’s connection with Jeremiah Wright, especially after Obama himself admitted in an interview with Chris Wallace, it was a “legitimate political issue.”

WALLACE: Question: Do you think that Reverend Wright is just the victim here?

OBAMA: No. I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past. The fact he’s my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue. So I understand that.

I think that it is also true that to run a snippet of 30-second sound bites, selecting out of a 30-year career, simplified and caricatured him and caricatured the church.

And I think that was done in a fairly deliberate way, and that is unfortunate, because as I’ve said before, I have strongly denounced those comments that were the subject of so much attention. I wasn’t in church when he made them.

But I also know that, you know, I go to church not to worship the pastor, to worship God. And that ministry, the church family that’s been built there, does outstanding work, has been, I think, applauded for its outreach to the poor.

He built that ministry, and I think that, you know, people need to take a look at the whole church and the whole man in making these assessments.

At the end of the Kristol/Palin interview, Kristol asked if Palin had any advice for John McCain, she said she would tell him the same thing he told her before she walked out onto the debate stage for the vice presidential debate, which was to have fun and be yourself, then she added one more piece of advice, which was “Take the gloves off. ”

.

Sarah Palin To John McCain: ‘Take The Gloves Off’

Cross posted from Wake up America

YouTube URL to the video above, found here.

Over the weekend Sarah Palin made a reference to Barack Obama’s ties to questionable characters, but there is another area where Palin believes John McCain should “take the gloves off”, Obama’s association with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

In the video above Sarah Palin speaks to a crowd of supporters and references, not by name, but by actions, Barack Obama’s association with William Ayers, a man who was a domestic terrorist and part of a group, Weatherman Underground, that quote launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and US Capitol.

Sarah Palin On Obama’s Ties and Associations.

Palin made the point saying one of Obama’s earliest supporters was a domestic terrorist, then going on to say about Obama “This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America. We see America as the greatest force for good in this world. If we can be that beacon of light and hope for others who seek freedom and democracy and can live in a country that would allow intolerance in the equal rights that again our military men and women fight for and die for for all of us. Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country?”

When criticized by the Associated Press for bringing up the association between Obama and Ayers, with their analysis saying Palin brining up Obama’s past associations was, in their view, racist, Palin shot back with “The Associated Press is wrong. The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn’t been talked about, and I think it’s fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy’s living room.”

As was reported earlier by Barbara Sowell, information is still coming to light about further Ayers/Obama connections.

Those comments received a lot of play in the press over the weekend, but today there is a report from the New York Times’ columnist William Kristol about a conversation he had with Palin, showing that Ayers is not the only topic where Palin believes John McCain and the campaign’s “gloves” should be taken off.

Palin told Kristol the campaign should be more aggressive is telling the American public “who the real Barack Obama is,” stating Obama had played down his relationship with Ayers and then went on to state she believed another important aspect to speak about is Jeremiah Wright.

Jeremiah Wright.

Jeremiah Wright was the pastor for Barack Obama’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ. Obama met Wright and joined his church in the late 1980s, while he was working as a community organizer in Chicago. Wright officiated at the wedding ceremony of Barack and Michelle Obama, as well as their children’s baptism. In 2007 Wright was appointed to Barack Obama’s African American Religious Leadership Committee. In March of 2008, when videos of Wrights controversial sermonds became public, it was announced that Wright would no longer serve as a member of that committee.

Jeremiah Wright hit the headlines, in a massive manner, when videos of some of his sermons went viral on the Internet, showing him saying things like “God Damn America”, speaking of 9/11 and saying it was the chickens coming home to roost and many other comments to which some have said were racially divisive.

On March 14, 2008, Barack Obama wrote an entry at Huffington Post where he denounced the words from Wright, which had become public, and stated in that post “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation…”

Four days later, Barack Obama gave a speech and in that speech, he again denounced the words of his former pastor, but refused to denounce the man himself, as well as admitting that he did, indeed, hear controversial comments made by Wright while sitting in his church.

For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

In April, Wright made a series of media appearances, as reported by ABC’s Political Punch, where he dismissed Obama’s criticisms of Wright’s controversial comments, saying Obama was doing so because it was “politically expedient.”

After those appearances from Wright, Obama spoke more forcefully against Jeremiah Wright, saying he was outraged and saddened by his behavior, and in May Obama resigned his membership in the church.

Sarah Palin on Jeremiah Wright.

While speaking with Bill Kristol, he asked Palin if Ayers was a legitimate issue, what about Obama’s long standing association with Jeremiah Wright?

Palin responded by saying “To tell you the truth, Bill, I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that — with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave — to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up.”

Many have been speaking out about McCain’s hesitance in regards to Obama’s connection with Jeremiah Wright, especially after Obama himself admitted in an interview with Chris Wallace, it was a “legitimate political issue.”

WALLACE: Question: Do you think that Reverend Wright is just the victim here?

OBAMA: No. I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past. The fact he’s my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue. So I understand that.

I think that it is also true that to run a snippet of 30-second sound bites, selecting out of a 30-year career, simplified and caricatured him and caricatured the church.

And I think that was done in a fairly deliberate way, and that is unfortunate, because as I’ve said before, I have strongly denounced those comments that were the subject of so much attention. I wasn’t in church when he made them.

But I also know that, you know, I go to church not to worship the pastor, to worship God. And that ministry, the church family that’s been built there, does outstanding work, has been, I think, applauded for its outreach to the poor.

He built that ministry, and I think that, you know, people need to take a look at the whole church and the whole man in making these assessments.

At the end of the Kristol/Palin interview, Kristol asked if Palin had any advice for John McCain, she said she would tell him the same thing he told her before she walked out onto the debate stage for the vice presidential debate, which was to have fun and be yourself, then she added one more piece of advice, which was “Take the gloves off. ”

.