Break on Through
By PETER MOLENAAR
After a tearful goodbye in mid-August, my companion and I returned from the snow-capped peaks of central Oregon, a place where a mere 2,700 years ago, molten lava had inundated the valley. Sadly now, my younger sister suffers a terminal cancer, likely the result of prolonged use of chemicals in the cleaning of rustic second homes owned by the rich. Yes, we all struggle to make ends meet.
Hey, after 25 years of my having resided in one place, a 3rd landlord within three years demanded that I empty my basement storage locker, after which he would raise my rent by $150. Note: under the previous lease that voluminous space was filled to the brim with books from the long gone Paul Robeson Marxist Bookstore, and no, I did not relish being temporarily enslaved. Moreover, over a projected 20 years, I was to become bankrupt! So, I gave notice.
So then, immediately upon my return from Oregon, I was the subject of an interview with the Cityview Condo Co-op Board, which offered housing north of Franklin on Eliot Avenue. Gosh, I was exhausted and suffering from a lung infection or perhaps I had failed to pull up my zipper. In any case, they turned me down.
What came next? Within two weeks, I searched and then determined my move. It was to be a condo unit in an old Whittier Neighborhood fourplex. Then, a zombie spirit fostered the nonstop motion moving through heat and humidity. But, oh my, the decor has begun to unfold splendidly.
Looking back, going forward…
Naturally, the moving process revealed many of my written articles submitted to the alley Newspaper over the course of the last quarter century. You will allow me a serene smile.
Some themes from the past:
- The capitalist system is unjust, unstable, and unsustainable.
- Everything, including social systems, embodies a unity of opposing forces which imparts motion, and occasionally qualitative leaps.
- We remain in the quantitative phase of the revolutionary process, the “great leap forward” is yet to come.
Additionally:
- Not every capitalist exploiter is fascist minded.
- Given our history of slavery and genocide, a fascist potentiality exists here.
- Anti-fascist Marxists must deploy the ‘Popular-front’ strategy here and now, even as they project a socialist transformation of property relations.
- The unity of Labor with the oppressed nationalities will prevail, i.e. the imposition of a fascist state is bound to fail here.
Hey, in the words of Jim Morrison: “Break on through to the other side.”
Peter Molenaar advocates a broad united-front, even as he describes socialism as the future solution.
