Erik Houdini Speaks | Their Greatest Weapon is the Illusion That It’s Too Late to ResistDoesn’t it feel like we’re being occupied—maybe even invaded—by the regime's forces? By ICE and similar goon sourcing orgs like the National Guard? Doesn’t it seem like the regime is deliberately escalating violence, hoping for a violent response so they can justify even more repression? Picture this: You’re just sitting at brunch with your girlfriend, enjoying a normal day in America. Then, out of nowhere, 12 to 20 heavily armed, masked ICE agents storm the restaurant. Flashbangs go off. Screams. "Everybody up! Immigration enforcement!" as they storm the restaurant in full military gear. How long until they are trained to shoot to kill while doing these raids in our communities? Imagine this: You’re at your child’s fifth-grade graduation, a proud moment. Your family’s been in America since the gold rush, 1865 at least. Grandparents, great-grandparents, all American. You’re there with grandma, ready to cheer, take photos, celebrate. Then, armed ICE agents in tactical gear storm in, no badge numbers, no remorse. They rip kids off the stage, arrest families, beat people in front of children, you're children aren't "illegals" but they still lose their graduation. This isn’t about immigration—it’s about destroying communities, ramping up violence, and enforcing cruelty to sow chaos. These ain't isolated incidents—it's happening in cities across the country. Consistently, and with actions escalating every day. Each raid more violent than the last. Blackhawk helicopters unloading muntions that would be used on who? Doesn’t that strike you as completely outrageous? This affects entire communities, not just undocumented immigrants. Your family might have been here 150 years, but your kids’ caregivers or coworkers could be undocumented. Some of the hardest-working people in this country are undocumented. Solidarity belongs with working-class people, not with those who decide who’s "illegal" to enrich themselves. They’d label you illegal if it lined their pocketbooks.
https://erikhoudini.com/#post?id=060070&title=erik-houdini-speaks-their-greatest-weapon-is-the-illusion-that-it-s-too-late-to-resist Iranian Marxism and its main challenges Two days before Israel launched an attack on Iran, the Tel Aviv branch of the Communist Party of Israel (Maki) hosted a meeting on the topic of Iranian Marxism. This was as part of the series of lectures on Marxism in the Middle East. The meeting, held online, included a lecture by N., an exiled Iranian Marxist, who asked that his name not be published. The lecture opened with introductory remarks: One of the central characteristics of the Marxist movement as a whole is the ability to learn from failures and see them as setbacks in a long struggle. This requires theoretical and strategic development that will allow for reorganisation and the ability to seize the revolutionary moment when it arrives. Marxism as a theory, N. noted, has several important elements. One of them is the revolutionary horizon, which aspires to reach beyond capitalism. Therefore, a Marxist analysis of wars must include that revolutionary horizon. Some of the greatest achievements of the world communist movement have been achieved against the backdrop of murderous wars that often emerged from crises. Wars are a kind of crisis management strategy of capitalism. Thus, war can be an opportunity for the communist movement or an existential threat to it. Iranian Marxism must be examined in conjunction with anticipation of the future. According to N., in a rough division, Iranian Marxism had four main historical stages: from the October Revolution of 1917 to the end of World War II; from the end of World War II to the coup and overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953; from the 1960s to the 1979 revolution; and from the early 1980s to the present day.
https://www.idcommunism.com/2025/07/iranian-marxism-and-its-main-challenges.htmlThe Conquest of Bread by Peter KropotkinChapter 13: The collectivist wages systemIn their plans for the reconstruction of society the collectivists commit, in our opinion, a twofold error. While speaking of abolishing capitalist rule, they intend nevertheless to retain two institutions which are the very basis of this rule – Representative Government and the Wages’ System. As regards so-called representative government, we have often spoken about it. It is absolutely incomprehensible to us that intelligent men – and such are not wanting in the collectivist party – can remain partisans of national or municipal parliaments after all the lessons history has given them – in France, in England, in Germany, or in the United States. While we see parliamentary rule breaking up, and from all sides criticism of this rule growing louder – not only of its results, but also of its principles – how is it that the revolutionary socialists defend a system already condemned to die? Built up by the middle classes to hold their own against royalty, sanctioning, and, at the same time strengthening, their sway over the workers, parliamentary rule is pre-eminently a middle-class rule. The upholders of this system have never seriously maintained that a parliament or a municipal council represent a nation or a city. The most intelligent among them know that this is impossible. The middle classes have simply used the parliamentary system to raise a protecting barrier against the pretensions of royalty, without giving the people liberty. But gradually, as the people become conscious of their real interests, and the variety of their interests is growing, the system can no longer work. Therefore democrats of all countries vainly imagine various palliatives. The Referendum is tried and found to be a failure; proportional representation is spoken of, the representation of minorities, and other parliamentary Utopias. In a word, they strive to find what is not to be found, and after each new experiment they are bound to recognize that it was a failure; so that confidence in Representative Government vanishes more and more.
It is the same with the Wages’ system; because, once the abolition of private property is proclaimed, and the possession in common of all means of production is introduced, – how can the wages’ system be maintained in any form?
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/1892/bread.htm#chapter13