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The capitalist workday, the socialist workday : Michael A. Lebowitz

Wed, 2008-04-30 20:25 | Michael A. Lebowitz
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1. For workers, May Day does not celebrate a state holiday or gifts from the state but commemorates the struggle of workers from below.

2. The initial focus of May Day was a struggle for the shorter workday.

3. The struggle for the shorter workday is not an isolated struggle but is the struggle against capitalist exploitation.

4. The struggle against capitalist exploitation is an essential part but not the only part of the struggle against capitalism.

What Are the Origins of May Day? : Rosa Luxemburg

Wed, 2008-04-30 20:15 | Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg

The happy idea of using a proletarian holiday celebration as a means to attain the eight-hour day was first born in Australia. The workers there decided in 1856 to organize a day of complete stoppage together with meetings and entertainment as a demonstration in favor of the eight-hour day. The day of this celebration was to be April 21. At first, the Australian workers intended this only for the year 1856.

Antonio Gramsci -The Man And His Thoughts : EMS Namboodiripad

Sun, 2008-04-27 10:47 | E.M.S
Gramsci

Pragoti pays homage to Antonio Gramsci and commemorates his death anniversary on April 27.Gramsci was one among the most influential Marxist thinkers of 20 century, and had made forays into new fields of thought and enriched Marxism, his thoughts on hegemony and ideological state apparatuses remain as original contributions to Marxism.

Today there is a trend among bourgeois historians and social scientists to reduce Gramsci’s thoughts into “sociological Marxism” .Gramsci is often quoted by post modernists in prosaic academic papers on subaltern studies,often the concept of hegemony is portrayed as an anti-thesis to class analysis.

Gramsci was a Communist revolutionary, the most feared foe of Italian fascism, which wanted to “Stop his brain from working for twenty years”. The most influential and significant works of Gramsci were written during his incarceration. The attempts of bourgeois sociologists to misinterpret and reduce Gramsci’s thoughts to suit their purpose, has to be exposed.

Reproduced below is an article written by E.M.S.Namboodiripad,on Gramsci and his thoughts .

Contours of Leninism - Nandan Maniratnam (Part V)

Tue, 2008-04-22 00:00

That in an age of bourgeois hegemony, Leninism, through the proletarian homogeneity and tempered solidity of organization, presents the sole path for the proletariat to wage a class struggle in most decisive and revolutionary manner possible.

V: Vanguard

“The reorganization of all Party work on new revolutionary lines, with a view to training and preparing the masses for revolutionary struggle” - J.V. Stalin

Thesis VII: Leninism enables the proletariat to wage and sustain a thoroughly revolutionary class struggle

Contours of Leninism - Nandan Maniratnam (Part IV)

Tue, 2008-04-22 00:00

Leninism handles the class struggle in an integral manner by eliminating the inherent moral determinacy of an issue. It thereby enables an assessment of any issue based on its scheme interactive position in the scheme of its internal and external relations and its bearing on the class struggle.

IV: Materialism

“Marx’s Philosophy is a consummate philosophical materialism which has provided mankind, and especially the working class, with powerful instruments of knowledge” - V.I. Lenin

Contours of Leninism -Nandan Maniratnam (Part III)

Tue, 2008-04-22 00:00

The practice of Leninism, therefore, is the effective calibration of the actions of the proletariat’s Dictatorship to achieve Communism.

III: Democratic Dictatorship

“The Dictatorship of the proletariat implies a recognition of the necessity to suppress the resistance of the exploiters by force, and the readiness, ability and determination to do it-V.I. Lenin

The State Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Thesis III: Leninism is the relative contextualisation of the State Dictatorship of the proletariat

Contours of Leninism - Nandan Maniratnam (Part II)

Tue, 2008-04-22 00:00

Leninism, having drawn from the historical experiences and errors of the Paris Commune, was alone capable of being the Marxism of the era of imperialism and hegemony

II: Marxism

“Leninism was thus a development and enrichment of, not departure from, the Marx-Engels theory that socialist revolutions take place”-E.M.S. Namboodiripad

Marxism & Leninism

Thesis II: Leninism is the Marxism of the current stage of Historical Development

Contours Of Leninism - Nandan Maniratnam ( Part I )

Tue, 2008-04-22 00:00
Lenin

Pragoti team pays tributes to Lenin on his birthday.

Pragoti is publishing "Contours of Leninism" written by Nandan Maniratnam,in parts. Nandan carries out an incisive analysis of all facets of Leninism and concludes that"In an age of bourgeois hegemony, Leninism, through the proletarian homogeneity and tempered solidity of organization, presents the sole path for the proletariat to wage a class struggle in most decisive and revolutionary manner possible"

I: Theory

REMEMBERING EMS NAMBOODIRIPAD : A Special Tribute From The Pragoti Team

Wed, 2008-03-19 00:00

Today marks the 10th year since Comrade EMS Namboodiripad breathed his last. EMS, as he was known to everyone, was a pioneer in applying Marxism-Leninism to the Indian context and a towering revolutionary by sheer dint of achievement.

Remembering Karl Marx

Fri, 2008-03-14 00:00

Today the world commemorates the 125th anniversary of Karl Marx's demise. Pragoti pays homage to the memory of the great thinker whose thoughts had tilted the empires upside down and armored millions and millions of people across the world in their fight for a better tomorrow.

Reproduced below is the speech delivered by Frederick Engels,the life time companion and Comrade of Karl Marx, at the Grave. Engels,in words condensed with grief, shows optimism on the eventual triumph of the thoughts of the one whose mortal remains were laid to rest, the thoughts which would change the course of history.