On The Run!

ON THE RUN!

-a column by John Sinclair-

This column is the second in a series which began in the last issue (no. 36) of the SUN, and which will probably run, with some emergency interruptions, for the next few issues of this paper, so people who are interested in following the course of these writings would probably be best off taking it from the beginning and following it from there instead of someplace in the middle. Copies of the first installment (in SUN no. 36) are available at the Rainbow House on Hill Street if you want one.

What I want to try to talk about is what I would call rainbow economic development, or the process by which our people begins to develop its vast economic potential into what will soon become a powerful people's weapon for mass-scale revolutionary social change; and what I would want to start with is the dual principie of self -determination and self-reliance, which I would propose as one of the two basic principies of rainbow economics. The other principle would be communalism, or the organization of economic life along non-profit, non-exploitative, non-competitive lines, with the interests of the people as a whole and not an elite monied class at the center of its concerns.

But before we can talk about these principles we have to talk about the context in which they are effective, that is, the condition of peoplehood which generates the idea and the necessity of independent economic development among the people and which in turn makes such independent economic development possible. If we are a people -- rainbow people -- then we can begin to talk of rainbow economic development, and we can move to institute programs and projects which will advance us closer to our goal of self-determination, self-reliance, communalism and freedom for all the people on the planet.

On the other hand, if we reject the idea of peoplehood for rainbow people, as many brothers and sisters continue to do out of a variety of reasons, then the idea of rainbow economic development is meaningless and we are left with the proposition that what we call rainbow people are merely a subclass of the Euro-American "middle class" (whatever that means!) with no economic life distinct from that of the capitalist marketplace. In other words, if we're not a people then we're just honkies who are wholly integrated into honkie society and its wierdo capitalist economic institutions, and the communalist economic forms we've begun to develop are merely historical aberrations or freak accidents of fate which have no objective basis.

But l'll start again with the proposition that we are a people, an oppressed and exploited people which has been created out of the contradictions inherent in capitalist society in its final stage, and that our peoplehood has a content all its own which not only clearly distinguishes our people from other peoples, but which is unique to what we call rainbow people. That content is communalism, and it manifests itself in the political and cultural spheres as well as in the economic arena; it is a system of organization and not merely a conglomeration of scattered ephemeral phenomena; and it is without any doubt the organizational form of the future, the system which is irreversibly destined to replace the capitalist order altogether.

Let me try to bring this a little closer to the ground: when we talk about capitalist society we mean a social order which is structured upon the principle that some people -- a tiny minority (under 3%) at most -- have the right to oppress and exploit the rest of the people in that society so they themselves can amass huge amounts of wealth which they use only in their own selfish interest. We mean a society in which one tiny class of people owns and/or controls almost all the means of mass production, and uses them primarily to bring vast profits to themselves at the expense of the rest of the people in that society. We mean a society which is characterized by dog-eat-dog-ism, cut-throat competition, unparalleled avarice and greed, exploitation, class and racial (national) oppression, tremendous waste of resources n the interest of private gain, mass brainwashing, "every-man-for-himself-ism, insensitivity, hatred and fear -- a society such as the social order into which all of us were born here in Babylon, and which constantly increasing numbers of people are determined to bring to an end as quickly as possible.

When we talk about communal society we mean just the opposite: we mean a social order which is structured upon the principle that no human has the right to exploit or oppress other people, and particularly that no class of people has the right to exploit or oppress any other class of people. We mean a social order which is designed to deal effectively and creatively with the needs of all the people as ts first term, and which has no place for private gain for a few at the hands of everybody else. We mean a society which holds its means ot production in common and uses them for the common good, not for the private gain of an individual or a cartel of individual capitalists.

We mean a social order in which the principles of communalism extend throughout every phase of social life, from the economic to the political to the cultural life of the people; a society in which the profit motive, selfish competition, racism, sexism, and the rest of the worn-out baggage of western civilization have been left far behind in the dust of history. We mean, finally, a social order which is functionally the opposite of the capitalist society which presently surrounds us, and a social order which is just beginning to be envisioned and developed by rainbow people in general, and by rainbow people in Ann Arbor in particular.

But the first thing we have to deal with if we're going to talk about communal society, is the fact that communal society is not going to spring full-blown into being overnight, it will develop over a period of years out of the struggle of masses of people to free themselves from the ravages of capitalism and to create a humane social order which is capable of dealing with all the needs of all the people, and it will pass through many transitional forms before it reaches its maturity and establishes itself as the prevalent form of social organization on the planet.

In its embryonic state communalism will certainly reflect its origins in capitalist society and will even appear at times to resemble the standard capitalist forms, but the point is that communalism is in no way any kind of outgrowth or permutation of capitalism -- in fact, it actually represents the first major step away from capitalism, even though it will adopt in its infancy many of the techniques and methods developed by the capitalist system. It will do this in order to better facilitate the establishment of an economic base distinct and somewhat independent from the capitalist order, but it will do it strictly within the context of communalism and strictly in order to advance the progress of communalist society.

One more thing and maybe some of this will start to make some sense: if we're talking about being a people and recognizing our peoplehood and moving together in it to bring about some of the changes our people need, then we have to begin to deal with the question of the class nature of our society and what it means in our daily lives, particularly in the common life of our people We see that our principal enemy, or the force principally responsible for our oppression, is the old, white, male, Euro-American rich-folks class, and we see that the contradiction between our class (rainbow people) and the Euro-American ruling class (the rich honkies) is not only the primary contradiction in our lives, but is also an implacable contradiction which cannot possibly be amicably resolved. In order for our class to survive and grow into its full potential as a revolutionary force on this planet, the class which oppresses us and which is most directly threatened by our bare existence will have to be eliminated from the face of the earth - not the individuals particularly but the class as an entity must be eliminated, and our class (rainbow people), whether all of us are aware of it or not, is in the process of eliminating (slowly) some of the power held by these creeps, and eventually their entire putrid class and its obscene lifeways.

We stand fast against capitalism in essence and in substance because it is incapable of dealing with the needs of our people, because it exploits and oppresses people in the interest of private gain by individuals, and because it is so alien, finally, to the way many many of us live our daily lives. But there are different ways of relating to the phenomenon of capitalism, and there are also different forms of capitalism, some of which are less regressive and less reprehensible than others.

In a situation such as ours, where a rising people is being exploited and oppressed (our capitalists along with the rest of us, although less severely) and subjected to the lowest forms of racism and white-cultural chauvinism, we see that it is not only necessary but it is also in our best interests as a people to unite with all the progressive elements in the rainbow colony -- including some elements of the rainbow capitalist class -- in order to exert the strongest possible force against our principal enemy, that is, the Euro-American ruling class.

Again, if we are a people then we can distinguish among a number of classes which taken altogether make up the tatality of what we call rainbow people. We see the emergence of a national bourgeosie, or native capitalist class; a petit bourgeosie, or a class of merchants and professional people; an intelligentsia, or intellectual class; a working class; and a class of lumpen-proletariats, or unemployed/unemployables. We also see that, due to the peculiar nature of our situation, there is a strong national character; and a high degree of progressivism among what we call the rainbow national bourgeosie: which is comprised primarily of professional and music-business figures on the one hand and large-scale dope dealers on the other hand.

We also see that there is an equally strong national character among the merchant class, particularly in this community where the rainbow merchants support the community newspaper (through advertising and through offering their space for benefits, as in the case of the Blind Pig, Floods, and the Odyssey),the Community Parks Programs (through buying sponsorships for the free concert broadcasts over WNRZ), and other communalist moves in the community.

We see that many of the large scale capitalists in the rainbow colony, although they are capitalists without a doubt, are also considered outlaws and criminals by the mother country's capitalist class, which only serves to heighten the contradiction between rainbow people on the one hand and the EuroAmerican ruling class on the other. We see that it is important for us to unite with these brothers and sisters from the rainbow colony against the chomps and punks and honkies from the mother-country ruling class and its appendages, who wish only to stomp out all freeks, no matter how much money those freeks might have. We see the mother-country authorities driving our sisters and brothers closer and closer to the rest of us all the time because we all share a common oppression at the hands of the Euro-American bandits who control this society, and we all share a common interest in dousing the pigs off the set completely.

I hate to leave this off in the middle again but I don't have any more space at all this time, so l'll try to take up again here where I'm leaving off for the next issue and see if I can get this shit advanced a little bit further before I have to quit again. If this is all a bunch ot gobbledegook to you, please let me know and l'll try to do better, but it's hard enough getting anything written these days to begin with and l'm trying as hard as I can. 

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!