Some thoughts on the M-L corner of the blogosphere

This post is a bit self-referrential I suppose, but it seems like a good time to check in on the state of the Marxist-Leninist / Marxist-Leninist-Maoist corner of the blogosphere. Over the past year or so a definite milieu of US-based ML/MLM blogs has emerged that refer to and interact with each other. This milieu didn't exist in the same way a couple years ago. It seems we're at a juncture right now, with some of the best blogs from the past year in neglect or folding up shop, and with the birth of a few new, promising ML blogs. So lets talk about where we're at and how we got here.

It seems that first, back in the ancient history of the blogosphere like 2003-2004, there was a scattered assortment of individual ML blogs, operating mostly in isolation from each other and not usually lasting long. I only knew of a few at that time; there was Left Link blog, DW Vents Spleen, Dave Dudley's Dialectical Diary, People's War blog, the Stationmaster (blog by Magnus, the creator/moderator of Leftist Trainspotters playful sectariana email list, and a few others I can't remember anymore. Many came and went after a few posts in these early days of the ML blogosphere, and almost none generated discussion.

One breakthrough came around 2005 when a rash of RCP-supporter blogs appeared (the appearance of a bunch around the same time gave the sense of a party deicision to jump into the blogosphere). The best of those was Sunsara's World, the blog of RCP spokesperson Sunsara Taylor. But around the same time Comrade Carl's blog appeared (Carl Dix), as well as blogs by a few other RCP/RCYB supporters like Osage Bell, LA Writers Collective, Lives We Might Live, Sweep of History, Steel this Blog, and Reason in Revolt Now Thunders!.

While they jumped into the blogosphere with a big splash, only a couple of those blogs have continued to regularly update with original content. And the RCP-milieu bloggers almost are almost entirely self-referrential; as far as I can see they don't link to, engage with or post comments on other blogs outside their milieu. For a while Sunsara's World was the place to be, with regular updates and some lively discussion. Then the discussion started attracting some rather onerous trolls, and soon after Sunsara stopped regularly updating the blog. Lately she has only posted the occasional reprint of her articles that appear in Revolution newspaper. The two best RCP-milieu blogs that have so far stood the test of time are Lives We Might Live and Reason in Revolt Now Thunders!. Lives We Might Live, which is run by Araby Coltier, has a very literary focus, with interesting thoughts from a communist perspective on things going on in the literary and cultural world. It isn't updated very regularly anymore, but when it is the content is worth reading. I've read a couple books that I first heard about on Lives We Might Live blog, and that is quite a compliment I'd have to say, if a blog can convince you to read a book you wouldn't have otherwise read. Reason in Revolt Now Thunders, by Carl Miller, is updated regularly with Carl's thoughts on theoretical issues as well as recounting of experiences and stories with the left. It is very earnest and I enjoy reading it, even though I don't always agree with the political line.

As the flurry of RCP-inspired blogs hit the web, there were a few others that popped up from the circles of the two Freedom Road Socialist Organizations (FRSO (Marxist-Leninist) and FRSO (Left Refoundationist)). Stan Goff started a blog which attracted quite a bit of discussion, much of it interesting and on a fairly high theoretical level. There also appeared the Pottawatomie Creek blog, which is also sympathetic to the Left Refoundationist FRSO. Stan's blog has continued to be updated regularly, though lately the updates are often reprints rather than original content, and I've found the discussion harder to follow lately, though his posts consistently generate discussion, even the reprints. Pottawatomie Creek started off with frequent new content - including an interesting mix of local interest and personal posts along with some fairly high level polemics, such as a critique of the Marxist-Leninist FRSO that generated debate that spilled onto at least three other blogs as well (LeftSpot, Comrade Zero, and Celtic Fire). But Pottawatomie Creek has been relatively neglected lately, with very few new posts.

On the ML FRSO side of things, there was the (now-defunct) Take a Left blog. Later in this milieu came Comrade Zero's Marxism-Leninism blog, and yours-truly's LeftSpot blog.

There was/is a milieu of ML and MLM blogs that cohered on Xanga, which is an insular platform, so these blogs just interact with each other but not with blogs in the 'outside world'. Some from that milieu include(d) the 4th Flame, Maoist Disciple, Johnny Attero, I Wor Kuen, Roque Dalton Lives, etc. If you want to find what's up there now check the Marxism-Leninism blogring, Marxist Revolutionaries blogring, or some other similar blogrings. Again, these are all Xanga-only blogrings. The xanga-imposed insularity is annoying; it's aginst the open spirit of blogging and the web itself.

Then there is the milieu of ex-RCP supporters or RCP supporters with some clear line differences that they state publicly and debate on their blogs (as opposed to the RCP-supporter blogs listed above that do not publicly state any line differences with the RCP). Pivotal in this milieu is the burningman's Red Flags blog. Red Flags is run by burningman, an Maoist who is close to the RCP but has his critiques of them too, while also actively engaging other tendencies in the socialist left in a way that other RCP-supporter blogs don't. Red Flags took the scattered, disparate blogs of RCP, FRSO-ML, FRSO-LR, and ex-RCP milieus and brought everyone together to hash it all out in one place. While other blogs would post something and be lucky to get two or three comments (or in the case of Stan Goff, maybe 10 or 20), suddenly Red Flags blog was having threads of 100, 200 or more comments.

Red Flags was the breakthrough blog for the ML/MLM left. For a stretch, Red Flags was posting new content almost daily. And it was content with some thought behind it, designed specifically to draw out key line questions for communists in the US. Just sharp enough to make everyone want to argue, and just open enough to keep everyone feeling welcome and coming back for more. It is a testament to Red Flags that even now that burningman has posted almost no new content for a couple months, the debate still continues there with at least a few new comments on the old threads every day. While burningman has announced plans to launch a new, improved Red Flags site with threaded discussions, it hasn't happened yet. But the desire for such a space is clearly there, noted in the fact that people keep commenting on his blog even as he has left it in a state of relative neglect. The one frustration that I think many people have felt with Red Flags is that almost every thread at some point evolved (devolved?) into a heated debate about the RCP's 'culture of appreciation' around Bob Avakian. Figuring out how to avoid having every discussion turn into that will be a challenge for a relaunched Red Flags, whenever that might occur.

There are two other blogs I'd throw in the political category with Red Flags. These two are blogs that are done by people who used to put out the RCP line down-the-line on their old blogs, but have developed differences with the RCP that they are very public about on their new blogs. The first is the recently-shuttered Celtic Fire blog, and the second is the Bronx Bolshevik blog done by ShinethePath. Celtic Fire was posting new content nearly every day, and attracting a healthy, regular group of commenters (usually 10-20 comments on most posts). Many comments were by other communists but there were always a few people coming in asking questions who weren't familiar with it and Celticfire would write very long and detailed posts on their questions, whether they were key line questions or more obscure historical questions. Celtic Fire has also been a frequent commenter on many of the other blogs listed here. He consistently raised the level of discussion and debated out differences on high-level questions (summing up Stalin, democracy under the dictatorship of the proletariat, etc) in a principled way. In his last couple months of his blog, Celtic Fire developed a new innovation (at least for this milieu) of posting original interviews on his blog. The interviews were very interesting and thought-provoking, and then sparked debate in which the person interviewed would sometimes participate as well. Some examples are his interviews with Grover Furr, an academic expert on Stalin (part 1) (part 2); revolutionary writer and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz; and Rob Los Ricos, an anarchist former political prisoner. Hopefully other ML bloggers will learn from Celtic Fire and develop new kinds of original content. Anyone wanna take a stab at a regular ML podcast?

The Bronx Bolshevik ins't updated much but ShinethePath is a frequent commenter on some of the other blogs listed here. And when it is updated the content is at times very deep and substantive. ShinethePath seems to have alot of knowlege about the history of the USSR for example.

So in a sense it feels like the end of a phase of ML blogging, with the slowing-down of Red Flags, the end of Celtic Fire, and the slowing to a trickle of a few others (Pottawatomie Creek for example). But at the same time, some more new promising ML blogs have recently been born, and their authors are on a tear, posting lots of new, original content. My two new favorites are Black Man With a Library, run by Kazembe Balagun, and All Out for the Fight, run by the Modern Pitung. I must give All Out for the Fight props for inspiring the writing of this post. His inaugural post All Out for the Fight - To Incite Through Insight on the development of the 'web 2.0' and what it means for us was indeed insightful and got me thinking about the historical development of the ML/MLM corner of the blogosphere. So thanks to the Modern Pitung for getting me writing on this topic!

What I have given here is a vaguely chronological development of the US-based ML/MLM blogosphere, as I have experienced it since 2003. I am doing this from memory and I'm sure there are some important blogs I've left out. I also have not put the development of these blogs in their proper political and historical context. An important point I'd like to make in that regard is the role of the revolutionary situation in Nepal in the coalescing of our corner of the blogosphere. At first there were a few of us, Red Flags and Take a Left that I remember most specifically, that were posting regularly about developments in Nepal, the advancement of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), and what that might mean for the left here as they move forward and if they were able to actually win power in Nepal. Stan Goff then had some discussion on Nepal, in which a burningman and a few others mixed it up. And I think the rise of Red Flags and Celtic Fire blogs specifically can be tied to the advance of the CPN(M) up to the point of the popular uprising that made the king blink and created the situation of dual power that exists now, as Nepal prepares for a constituent assembly that might abolish the monarchy and create a democratic republic. The CPN(M), by coming the closest to winning a socialist revolution that anyone has come since...Nicaragua in 1979 (?), has created a rare point of unity for basically all the self-identified non-Trot and anti-revisionist forces in the US. The CPN(M) is part of the RIM, the same international grouping as the RCP. So the RCP-aligned folks have followed those events and discussions closely (though interestingly there has been very little about Nepal on the closely-aligned RCP blogs - they seem to be taking an approach of studying the matter quietly as things unfold rather than publicly engaging the day-to-day developments). But supporters of both FRSO's as well as other non-aligned ML/MLM folks in the US see in the practice and theory of the CPN(M) some echose of some of the same criticisms that they have had of the RCP and some other RIM parties. So the rise of the CPN(M) to international prominence has played a key role in cohering our corner of the blogosphere, in my opinion. Interestingly the CPN(M)'s politics have also in some ways shaped the debate on other historical questions, that have been most sharply taken up and propogated by burningman and Celtic Fire, and debated by others (such as the question of how to sum up Stalin, the quesiton of multiple parties under socialism, questions around how to carry out the united front and the mass line, etc). Comrade Zero has also engaged the question of Stalin sharply on his blog, challenging many of the assumptions of the critics of Stalin. Klement's Rebelion in Justified blog has also taken inspiration from the revolution Nepal and has published materials from the CPN(M) that are not otherwise available online, including some important articles from issue 10 of the CPN(M)'s international journal, the Worker.

So, here we are, at the end of August 2006, with an evolving ML/MLM blog milieu. I hope to see more blogs with more original, quality content and discussion. I hope to see important questions discussed frankly among folks with various lines and from various organizations. I hope to see further unity among Marxist-Leninists in the US. What role can blogs play in building the Marxist-Leninist left in the US, and helping in the ongoing task of communists to rebuild a Communist Party in the US? I don't know. But I think it's clear that blogs (and other web communication technologies) are playing an increasingly important role. Let's see where things go from here.