Art in our Times

By Ammar Aziz

Art, in the “free world” we live in, has become the monopoly of the ruling classes which suits the basic nature of their exploitative system by doing both, generating profits and keeping the people in a state of confused contentment

An art exhibition was going on in a posh gallery of Lahore. Installation art was the medium and you could find strange ‘art objects’, hanging and placed, in all the dimensions of space. The gathering – filled with high class ‘intellectual socialites’ and art critics – was enough to represent a ‘positive image of Pakistan’. That positive yet so unrealistic image consisted of the postmodern works by many famous artists. While passing from one side of the gallery, I looked at an art piece. It was one and a half brick, placed on a tiny table with the artist’s name. I kept moving and found a blank canvas, hanging in the middle of a wall. A few art critics were trying to understand the “depth of white” from that blank canvas while others were satisfying their intellectual thirst by relating those bricks to the complications of “consciousness and unconsciousness”. At the end of the gallery, at one corner, a couple of multicolored electric wires were exhibited on the floor. I found that art piece the most interesting of all. I was still trying to figure out what that meant when all of a sudden a man – probably an electrician who was working there – came, grabbed the wires and went away!

Art in our times has lost everything – content – form – meaning and purpose.

It has become a possession of a minority that has not only commodified its very social nature but also has destroyed its aesthetic beauty. This approach, however, has been viewed as the ‘next big thing’ in the philosophical premises of art and being highly praised by the West. One wonders, what’s the reason of promoting a meaningless generation of art in the name of intellect or, more precisely, postmodernism? Why is there a rising trend of obscure and pretentious creations that create a wedge between the intellectuals and the masses? This chaos, known as art, shows the philosophical and ideological conflicts of the 2oth century and their tragic consequences after the end of the cold war. This emerging craze of strictly meaningless art has its roots back in the political interests of the Western Imperialism. The advocates of ‘free-market’ who talk about ‘artistic freedom’ negate the social relevance of art, by limiting it to merely subjective and usually nihilistic themes if not completely meaningless. What on earth is that artistic freedom that rejects the objective truth? The philosophy behind such art is as perplexing as the art itself. Chomsky while criticizing the postmodern theorists said, ““Now Derrida, Lacan, Lyotard, Kristeva, even Foucault…write things that I also don’t understand but don’t hold: no one who says they do understand can explain it to me.”

The realism- phobia that started during the cold war era still exists in the capitalist West and its intellectual-allies throughout the world, including Pakistan. I remember how one of our ‘liberal’ art history teachers at NCA viciously declared social realism merely as a propaganda while romanticizing abstract expressionism as “the avant-garde” art form.

I feel it’s important here to discuss briefly the origin of this irrational fear of realism. In order to counter the ideologically strong, realistically significant and aesthetically appealing Socialist Realism of the Soviet Union, the CIA came up with a secret policy in the 1950s– known as ‘long leash’ – to promote that sheer nonsense known as abstract expressionism in order to prove the “intellectual freedom” of the US. Donald Jameson – a former CIA officer – conceded in an interview, “yes the agency saw Abstract Expressionism as an opportunity, and yes, it ran with it. It was recognised that Abstract Expressionism was the kind of art that made Socialist Realism look even more stylised and more rigid and confined than it was.”

The materialist analysis of history reveals that art has always been important to people, since its earliest beginnings from the dark caves of France to the present day. What’s the element that has kept those prehistoric cave paintings alive even after tens of thousands of years? Their ability of being understandable owing to their astonishing realism! This not only drives our attention to the fact that art’s initial beginnings were based on the representations of the actual world but also enforces the idea that art was meant for some social purposes. Do you think those prehistoric people would have gone that deeply, crawling into the inaccessible recesses of the dark caves to draw something for the sake of decoration? I highly doubt it. Such drawings were an important ritual among those hunter gatherer societies – a ritual they used to perform for the success of hunting animals for food! Thus, art started evolving as a social activity rather than an individual act.

With the division of labor and evolution of private property – that culminated in the division of mankind into classes, separating mental labor from manual labor and art from craft, the very basic character of art lost its social significance and became a commodity – a meaningless commodity whose nasty importance is based on its price like any other thing in a capitalist society. For example, Van Gogh, who died in extreme poverty, is amongst the most ‘valuable’ painters of the world whose paintings change hands at auctions for millions of dollars. If, somehow, his works go out of fashion tomorrw, these so-called art lovers would divest themselves just like the dealers get rid of the falling shares on the floor of the stock market. Thus, art, in the “free world” we live in, has become the monopoly of the ruling classes which suits the basic nature of their exploitative system in two ways: a) it generates profit b) it keeps people in a state of confused contentment. That minority always use and abuse the role of art and culture for their own gluttonous interests. In The German Ideology, Marx and Engles explain, “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force”.

Every sensible rational mind should understand that the cultural aspects of any society (superstructure) can not be fully understood when separated from the material economic conidtions of that society (base). Every society is shaped by the relations of production and exchange (economics) that form its base. History’s most liberating event – the October Revolution – when the working-class played the most important role in striving for a society free of exploitation, alienation and oppression – started an era of undying art that was the outcome of the very basic philosophy their revolution was based on: Dialectical Materialism which has an inseparable relation with realism. The opposing forces of proletarian revolution saw their art – that reflected their liberation and motivated them to struggle – as one of their biggest enemies. But the artists, all over the world, who emerged after the revolution, were able to base themselves on a very rich and progressive tradition of Social and Socialist realism. Progressive Writers Movement is the Pakistani chapter of that internationalist movement of art.

Consider a situation where entertainment no longer works as industries but only as activities necessary to human well-being. Art loses its exclusive and individual character under Socialism and becomes the ownership of all. It doesn’t only reflect the matter but plays its heroic role in changing that too. The masses, so long bound to submit in silence, find a new voice and witness a radical transition. An artist’s role is to fight for the economic emancipation of mankind to gain the lost soul of humanity. Art has played an important role since the birth of mankind and this role will not only conitnue but be greatly enhanced and gloroified when art would become a cause to beautify life. That would be “humanity’s leap from the realm of neceassity to the realm of freedom” in the words of Engles. Diego Rivera, the Mexican Communist Muralist painter, concluded the aims of revolutionary art at the end of his Manifesto, which is the need of our times:
“The independence of art for the Revolution”

Author is an independent film-maker, a political activist, and he also teaches film theory at NCA lahore.

“The hope of a new dawn”

by Danish Khan

Here comes another 14^th august, a day celebrated by the state of Pakistan as its independence day, but for an average citizen of the country, it is just another day with ever-growing troubles and sorrows. During the last 64 years, lots of things have changed but the Independence Day
celebrations on official levels are still very much the same, the putrid display of militaristic insanity, which does not suit a state where poverty and hunger is spreading like a viral infection, fake and oblivious patriotic songs, which try to deny the existence of different nationalities in a federation of Pakistan, and try to patronize people with the Pakistani Nationalism by suffocating the rich and diverse culture and history of Balochis, Sindhis and the Pakhtuns. And to wrap up the celebrations prayers are offered at official level to please the theocracy of the country, and the ruling elite pardon for forgiveness from the omnipotent for all the crimes they have committed all year long against the people of Pakistan. But now days the lack of interest in the independence day celebrations among the common citizens is a mere reflection that  an average citizen is completely fed up of this onslaught of fake patriotism which has been continuously thrown upon him for last six decades to cover up the wrong deeds and doings of the ruling elites of this country.

“ yeh daag daag ujaala yeh shab-guzeda sahar,

woh intezaar tha jiska yeh woh sahar tu nahi”

On the eve of 14th august 1947, on the creation of the state of Pakistan, Faiz wrote one of the historical poem of its kind  titled as                    “Subah-e-Azaadi” (Dawn of Freedom), at that moment when everyone was celebrating the so called freedom, Faiz was not too much enthusiastic about it. In his poem he tried to raise a point that things would not change too much for an average citizen in this kind of Pakistan. Isn’t it turned out to be true after the long and bleak experiences of 64 years?

The existing state of Pakistan without any shadow of a doubt is a state which has been run by the military for last six decades. It is not surprised when people say that military is the most stable and strongest institution of the country, but I would rather say that military is such a hegemonic institution of the country which has not allowed any other institution to sustain and develop itself to challenge the hegemony of the military. Thus if this country has been a home of misery, poverty, hunger and darkness for last six decades, most of the credit goes to the military of the Pakistan. But wait a minute, what about the religious clergy (Mullahs), feudal landlords and the Bourgeois of the country?

Well military has been such a hegemonic force that, all these above mentioned forces of the society have been forced directly or indirectly to support and back the hegemony of the military. Furthermore, they all represent the reactionary and the privileged classes of the society, thus directly or indirectly their interests have been amalgamated with the interests of the military establishment. Thus the contemporary state of Pakistan is a state which defends and protects the interests of Military Generals, Religious clergy (Mullahs), feudal lords (jagirdaar) and the Bourgeois class.  So, if you do belong to the any of the above mentioned fragments of the society, you might have a reason to be joyous on this Independence Day, but if not, and odds are very much against you, then it is the time to realize and rationalize a change which can bring about necessary socio-economic changes to shackle this stranglehold of these monstrous forces.

All of these powerful forces have been very smart and clever, they have kept an average citizen in confusion by blaming each other for the economic and social troubles of the country, but in reality all of them are just different phases of the same rotating cycle. The military blames the political ruling elite as the reason for country’s dire situation, the Mullahs (religious clergy) blames music, dance, film, women in shirtsleeves as the reason behind all the troubles of the country including poverty, hunger and disparity among the people. While in very mellow and disguised words the Bourgeois class blames military (not as an institution, but just one general who turns out to be a dictator) and the feudal lords for the lack of democracy and prosperity in the country, and the feudal lords claim that it is only the media which is exaggerating things, otherwise
country is doing pretty good.

On contrary, an average citizen of Pakistan collectively blames and considers all these sects of the society responsbile for all the pain and misery of the people of Pakistan. The living conditions of the working class people of Pakistan tantamount to slavery. Even after the long 64 years, if a state is unable to provide the basic necessities of life, i.e. food, clean drinking water, electricity etc. then it would be crime to not ask those who have been in power to be accountable in the court of the people. But it is a tendency among the corporate mainstream media and in the Bourgeois culture to discourage such questions and debates which point out the real contradictions of the society. That is the primary reason, when anyone talks about the accountability of the military of Pakistan, the patriotism of that person is doubted upon. But we the youth of Pakistan opted to rebel against this norm and tradition, we are not going to stay silent, we are following the pathways of Sajad Zaheer, Hassan Nasir, Habib Jalib, Nazir Abbasi and Faiz Ahmad Faiz, and all those brave matrys who resisted against this system of oppression and exploitation.

Even in such miserable conditions, there is still a dawn of hope in the hearts of the people, for some reasons they have realized that things only get worsen to get better. After every dark night, there is a new dawn, which brings the hope of a better tomorrow for the people of Pakistan. The class consciousness among the people of Pakistan has been increasing steadily because of their harsh material experiences and realities, and due to the sound and consistent political activism by the revolutionaries of the country. Now the people have realized that being passive will not do them any better, instead of being reactionary they have to be proactive and revolutionary. The tales of French revolution, Russian revolution
and the Chinese revolution have been widely discussed among the intellects of the society, and now this debate is slowly but surely spreading among the youth and the working classes of the country. Now it is upon the people of Pakistan and on their class consciousness to learn from the histories of the great revolutions of the past, and try to relate and localize them according to their existing material conditions. It would be too early and speculative to say that when and which way the pendulum of revolution would swing, but the one thing is certain, the emancipation and the welfare of the majority of the population would be the center of the gravity of any coming change in Pakistan.

Women’s Revolution

by Danish Khan

The science of Genetics and Human Anatomy can not rationalize the oppression faced by women, and their supposed inferiority relative to the men in today’s society. The oppression and exploitation of women are not rooted in their biology, instead they are originated from certain socio-economic conditions. If you travel across the globe you will see women in different roles and in different clothing. But the one thing that all women share in common is the highest degree of oppression and exploitation. It is true that in advanced industrialist societies women are enjoying relatively more freedom and rights as compared to the ones in underdeveloped feudal remnant societies.

To understand the discrimination and the oppression of women in advanced Capitalist countries, we need to completely understand their economic system which is Capitalism. Capitalism depends on the subjugation of women for its very survival. Sexism, racism and every other divisive tool the capitalists possess are vital wedges needed to drive apart male workers from their female comrades in order to prevent the rise of Workers Unity that can defeat this system of oppression. Women have been stringed in such an intense and rigorous life style, they have to take care of their children, home and they also have to work to make both ends meet. Shouldering this extra weight leaves the women workers with little free time to become politically active. This leads women to being forced into the most exploitative living conditions.

While on the other hand when we analyze the material conditions of women of Pakistan and Kashmir, it really reflects the true nature of feudal remnants and tribalism. Women in our society are the most vulnerable creatures. They have been restrained from any economic activity which results in to their role as secondary citizens. Women in our societies are still living in the slavery mode. The ruling class of the country is taking the most advantage of this miserable situation of 49% of the population.

Women in Pakistan and Kashmir are living under strict religious, family and tribal customs that essentially force them to live in submission and fear. Women are subjected to discrimination and violence on a daily basis due to the cultural and religious norms which are the by product of the socio-economic system. According to the recent report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, only 2 percent of Pakistani women participate in the formal sector of employment. 93 percent of rural women and 72 percent of urban women are illiterate. The Male dominance and commodification subjects women to violence on a daily basis in Pakistan. Approximately 70 to 90 percent of Pakistani women are subjected to domestic violence. The murder in the name of “honor,” is one of the worst practices of our society. The rape occurs in Pakistan every two hours with one in every 12,500 women being victims of rape. Five women per day are killed. These are the drastic and terrifying statistics pleading to us to take immediate action for the emancipation of these oppressed women. Although there are feminist groups working in Pakistan but they are funded by certain lobby groups, thus their efforts and willingness is very limited because they are trying to improve the living conditions of women in the jurisdiction of the present socio economic system. Thus the only real hope for the emancipation of oppressed women is the revolutionary Marxists of the country. While a common theme shared by liberal feminist groups and the conservatives that men and women have competing interests. We totally reject this kind of thinking, we understand that Bourgeois class has an interest in maintaining gender divisions, while we Marxists have an interest in breaking them down. We fight along class lines for justice and equality not because as some academics have asserted, “Marxism doesn’t understand the women’s struggle”, but for precisely the opposite reason. Marxism is infused with over 150 years of experience in the struggle against the exploitation and oppression of women. In February 1917, it was the women of Petrograd who marched from factory to factor, rousing their sons, brothers and fathers out into the streets. In February 2009, two Iranian female political activists were sentenced to 100 lashes in public for attending a May Day rally.

It is understood that in the limits of the present socio economic system it is almost impossible to improve the living conditions of women. The only real solution to the problems of Pakistani and Kashmiri women is the revolutionary Marxism. We believe there can be no revolution without the emancipation of women. The progressive revolutionary movement is starting to revive again in our society. It is the prerequisite of our revolution to educate and aware our women. We believe women are going to play the most decisive role in the success of our Red Revolution.

In Defense of the Leninist Party

by Taimur Rahman

How does a weak, poor, destitute, illiterate oppressed force win over a better-educated, better-armed, better-equipped, and better-financed oppressor?

In all respects of social, political, or economic life, the individual proletariat is infinitely inferior to the individual bourgeois. The individual bourgeois swallows up hundreds of families. In their factories, mines, and fields the ‘fortunate’ proletarians works for starvation wages. The ‘unfortunate’ starve to death begging on the street or silently in their homes from easily curable diseases. They die of malnourishment, over-work, exhaustion, ill-treatment, and side effects from industrial pollutants. They die of their own ignorance, their misery, apathy and degradation. In all respects, the proletariat is the modern day slave of the bourgeoisie.

A small bunch of intellectuals essentially from non-proletarian backgrounds raise their voices and argue that these proletariats, who cannot make ends meet and cannot prevent themselves or their children from dying of starvation, will rise up and inherit the earth. This depraved proletariat will not only learn to read and write but will master that awfully difficult theory of dialectical materialism and overthrow the power of the ruling class that is superior in every respect. Moreover, they claim that they will build a society without exploitation that will be more just and will out-produce current society. In fact, they even claim that they will open up a new chapter in history; they call it the end of the realm of necessity and the beginning of the realm of freedom.

Judged from the sober eye of a “realist” it would appear that these communist intellectuals have had a little too much to eat, a little too much time to think and that their idealistic youthful fantasies have got the better of their rational selves.

Utho meri duniya ke ghareeboN ko Jaga do (Farman-e-Khuda)

The RedDiary is posting this interesting rendition of Allma Iqbal’s famous poem ‘Farman-e-Khuda’ by A Nayyer:

For background of this this poem, please read Lenin Before God.

Study of Marxism

by Imran Barlas

“According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life. Other than this neither Marx nor I have ever asserted. Hence if somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one, he transforms that proposition into a meaningless, abstract, senseless phrase.” — Engels

To derive a more accurate conclusion of whether the economic and philosophical theories of Marx can work or not, it would be beneficial to:

• Study the economic theories themselves

We spend the entirety of our school, college, university years learning about capitalism. We cannot rely on a simple booklet which was never intended to form the basis of economic/philosophical theory anyway. On the contrary, we study in depth about subjects to arrive at truly accurate analyses about how the world works.

After all, something is clearly wrong with how the world works today. Today, we are in what is being termed as the Great Recession. Had the major capitalist economies not regulated or intervened through the state, it would have been quite likely that we would have entered a Depression. And that would have been even more disastrous.

Why is it then that despite having Ivy League graduates at the helm of businesses, top professionals from the highest ranking universities regarded as some of the smartest people in the world, that the interlinked economies were quite helpless in preventing the crisis? The answer is that the crisis is systemic. No matter how smart one is or how moral one is, the nature of the system is such that recessions and depressions, i.e. perpetual failures will continue to result due to the irreconcilable antagonism between labor and capital.

The effects on people of a recession are obvious. Hundreds of thousands are thrown out of their jobs. Those workers that remain begin to see reductions in their wages so that the owners/shareholders may continue to stay rich! The ‘symbiotic’ relationship between capitalists and workers that is so often claimed in university text books ends without a second thought. Resource based wars start brewing for the retention of profitability and economic vitality. And so on.

Capitalism: A Love Story

TRAILER: Michael Moore’s ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’

“It’s a crime story. But it’s also a war story about class warfare. And a vampire movie, with the upper 1 percent feeding off the rest of us. And, of course, it’s also a love story. Only it’s about an abusive relationship.

“It’s not about an individual, like Roger Smith, or a corporation, or even an issue, like health care. This is the big enchilada. This is about the thing that dominates all our lives — the economy. I made this movie as if it was going to be the last movie I was allowed to make.

“It’s a comedy.” — Michael Moore

Check back for updates at http://www.michaelmoore.com

In Theaters October 2nd

On Youth

Since 1992, the International Communist Seminar (ICS), organised every year in Brussels (Belgium), gathers parties and organizations which defend marxism-leninism and proletarian internationalism, and which oppose revisionism. In total, about 150 organizations of Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia and Europe have participated to its sessions.

18th International Communist Seminar

“The youth – The situation of the youth, the responsibility of the Communists Parties vis-à-vis the youth, the work of the communists among the youth, and the incorporation of the new generations in the Communist Parties”

BRUSSELS, 15-17 MAY 2009

General conclusions

1 THE SITUATION OF THE YOUTH IN THE CAPITALIST WORLD

In its large majority, the youth comes from the working classes. It is also directly member of the working classes in case of young workers, or destined to join the working classes (upon graduation from school or college).
The world over, the youth is one of the very first victims of the capitalist system. This system in crisis and degradation has no future to offer them, no more than to the workers in general.
The youth also constitutes a major target for the bourgeoisie. The latter continuously tries to influence the values and hopes of the youth in order to divert them from organized political struggle and class struggle. The bourgeoisie certainly does not want the youth to become conscious of the common class interests that link them to the workers as a whole.
While the youth is suffering numerous attacks, a large part of it is very present on the front of resistance, while another part rests on a position of contradiction with class struggle. There is a permanent struggle to orient the youth either towards the working class or towards the bourgeoisie.

1.1. THE WORKING YOUTH AS FIRST VICTIMS OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

The young workers are the first to pay for a crisis they are not responsible of.
The bourgeoisie uses the youth as a very cheap and ultra-flexible reserve labor force. Upon graduation, many youth remain jobless or are integrated in the job market as interim workers or with contracts that are of short duration and/or part-time.
They are the first to lose their job and join the huge ranks of jobless. This constitutes an unbelievable waste of productive force and of human potential. Like the entire working class, the young workers are sacrificed on the altar of profit. The fundamental contradictions of capitalism are expressed, among other things, in the following absurdity: the youth experience ever more problems to find a stable job, while retirement age is being postponed from 60 to 65 years, or even from 65 to 67 and up to 70 years, implementing the reactionary plans of the US, the European Union, the IMF and other imperialist forces.
This job insecurity renders the youth fragile and prevents them from emancipating themselves from the family nucleus and build their own independent and decent lives. This situation also renders the incorporation of the youth in the organized working class movement more difficult, and makes the transfer of traditions of struggle and organisation more complicated.
Sacrificing the youth in this way is not without consequences for many among them. Many young people end up in delinquency, victims of an ever more brutal system of repression. This is not only the result of poverty and the inability to escape from it, but it is also — as explained below — the consequence of the bourgeoisie’s ideological offensive in the field of morality.
Young jobless workers are also the first to be sent as cannon fodder to the dirty wars of imperialism.

1.2. THE SCHOOL AND STUDENT YOUTH UNDER ATTACK FROM ALL SIDES…

The school and student youth are not spared either. Plans for rationalization, privatization and austerity appear throughout the world of education.
In most countries, study costs are ever increasing, making access to education ever more troublesome for working class families.
Implementing the employers’ directives, governments, whether conservative or social-democratic, privatize more and more education and research institutes, in secondary, higher and university education. This happens particularly through Public-Private Partnerships or the direct intervention of big capitalist enterprises in the management of education and research.
Throughout the capitalist world, education is acutely becoming more elitist, “categorized” and hierarchical. This phenomenon is mainly developing through an ever fiercer competition between education institutions, growing under-funding of public education and commercialization of education.
This results in the increasing inequality among schools and universities, the exclusion of an important section of the youth from education and the worsening of class-based obstacles to access to education. This generates a contemporary form of illiteracy.
Young workers with a diploma are increasingly either unemployed or doing jobs for which they are overqualified.

1.3. IN THE THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES

In Third World countries, the youth often comprise the vast majority of the population.
Young people from underdeveloped countries have long suffered the worst economic and social conditions in the world. In the new conditions generated by the crisis, the youth more than ever suffer extreme conditions of deprivation, exploitation and oppression.
The school and university population is decreasing. Reactionary states are nor able to further develop the public education system neither to give workers’ and peasants’ children the opportunity to attend school and higher education.
Often, poor families want their school-aged children to go to work and increase family income. But jobs become scarce, both in the normal and the informal sector of the economy.