About This Issue

          Much of DB110 is taken up with the revolutionary literature fallout generated by the terrorist network that acted on September 11. Within a few days the DB began receiving leaflets, editorials, and statements from the groups and journals of the revolutionary groups that use the DB as a forum. Of course there were far too many to publish in their entirety. Rather than try to select the "best" for publication, I decided to print the concluding portions of all that had arrived here-or that I had obtained-by mid October. Although there are minor differences in style and emphasis, the conclusions are remarkably consistent in the point they make: That the cause of the private terrorism of those responsible for bombing the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is the same as the state terrorism that is currently being visited on Afghanistan - the capitalist system.

          The single exception to the decision to print only the conclusions is the statement of a group who sign themselves "Some Internationalist Communists." Published here in full, their leaflet, aimed at Islamic workers in Europe (France and Belgium), differs from the other messages, which were intended for Western workers. Much of it seeks to explain the relationship between Muslim ruling classes and those of the oil-thirsty West.

          The two articles by Karl Carlyle present a thoughtful explanation of the economic aspects of the Muslim religion and the role they play in determining fundamentalist political strategy. Left-Wing Communism an Infantile Disorder was originally the title of Lenin's polemic against the revolutionary socialists who resisted the hegemony of the Bolsheviks in the new international that was in the process of being formed. Although this essay implies that the only targets of Lenin's ire were the Bordigists in the Italian socialist party and the German and Dutch critics of the official communist line, Lenin also took aim at the Socialist Labour Party of Great Britain and the American SLP and IWW. Russian policy at that time required the establishment of new mass communist parties that would have the numbers and thus political clout in their respective countries. The anti-reformism and anti-trades unionism of the Italians, Dutch, and German left communists as well as the British and American SLP and the IWW would have alienated the reformist wing of the old socialist parties which Lenin and the Bolshevik strategists counted on to furnish the numbers in the new communist parties. Herman Gorter's reply to Lenin, mentioned in the essay was translated by the DeLeonist wing of the IWW, the Workers International Industrial Union (WIIU) and published in their newspaper, The Industrial Union News in 1921. This essay was sent to me so long ago that I am not sure of the source. The names Melmoth/Hayes don't ring a bell with me. But I suspect from the typeface of the xerox copies I have that it is from an early issue of the International Review, the International Communist Current's English language theoretical journal.

          Council Communism is the name taken by the movement that developed from the Dutch-German wing of the "left-wing communism" that Lenin fulminated against in the pamphlet described above. Like all the rest of the left-wing revolutionary groups that opposed the Russian-dominated Communist parties, it exists in much reduced circumstances, both here and in Europe. The essay apparently was written around 1995, and I suspect I got it from the internet, although I'm not sure.

          Arnold Petersen, the author of the letter to Lenin, was national secretary of the Socialist Labor Party from January 1914, a few months before De Leon's death, until 1969-a 55-year tenure. Written a year after the revolution, it demonstrates the problems revolutionary socialists had in obtaining information about the Bolsheviks and vice versa. This copy of the letter came from the July 1984 issue of the De Leonist Society Bulletin. Included in that issue was a detailed comment on it by Alan Sanderson. Readers interested in Sanderson's essay can obtain a copy from me for the asking.

          Both of the next two letters relate to our perennial debate on labor time vouchers. Alan Kerr raises another argument that sems to support some method of rationing in a post revolutionary society - that of capitalist sabotage of production. The De Leonist Society of Canada re-examines The Gotha Program and finds what seems to me to be an argument for the dictatorship of the proletariat. And I comment on both letters.

          Next Martin Glaberman protests my treatment of him in DBs 108 and 109, the result of what he sees as my ignorance of Troskyism, my lack of interest in the thinking of CLR James, and my habit of basing conclusions on insufficient evidence. I comment on his letter. As usual we end with some notes, announcements, and short reviews.

Finances

I don't think I'm up to relating the financial health of the Discussion Bulletin to international terrorism. Suffice it to say that we did not hold our own financially during September and October. One more thing in this connection. Until further notice, please do not mail non-U.S. currency to the DB. The local bank has been swallowed up by a mega-bank headquartered in Cleveland and now charges $20 for each transaction involving foreign currency.

Contributions: Tony Laffan $5; Joe Tupper $20 (for the abolition of capitalism); Anthony $5; Jack Rosenquist $1; Mighty Slow Walkin' $3; T. Gelsthorpe $10; Adam Buick $9.01; Chris Faatz $2; Harry Siitonen $12; Tony Wong $14; Fred Whisler $9. Total $90.01. Thank you, comrades.

BALANCE August 26, 2001
$ 211.25

RECEIPTS
Contributions $ 90.01
Subs and Sales 68.00
Total $158.01

DISBURSEMENTS
Postage $ 156.21
Bank Charges 13.00
Printing 36.29
Postage Due 10.26
Total $ 215.76

BALANCE October 25, 2001
$153.50

Fraternally submitted,
Frank Girard