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I am Ben Seattle, information theorist and infrastructure architect.

My website, with an index to my theoretical work, is at http://struggle.net/ben/

My recent work includes: How to Build the Party of the Working Class and
Workers' Rule: Is it Dead or Alive? (See my website above for more.)

I also draw an occasional cartoon (see below).
Click to see more of Ben's cartoons

Ben's page on Kasama

Since I have made a number of posts to the Kasama site I thought I should create a page to sum up my views on and contradictions with the Kasama project and its leadership.

Recent Postings

Date Site Title Description
Nov 16 Kasama threads Kasama's future and the need for mass democracy, How do we make good on our potential ? This is the post that Mike removed from the blog thread (see Nov 11 thread below) for supposedly being too lengthy and having a lecturing tone.
Nov 12 Kasama blog Mike Ely: The Strange Way It Started Fresh Five questions and seven answers related to creating a mass revolutionary organziation and Kasama's future direction
Nov 12 Kasama threads The "sects" of Marxist theory... I made two posts (on page 2 of the thread). I replied to Andrei and to Chegitz.
Nov 12 Kasama threads Leninist Party Building, What is it? Iris asked about "Leninist party building" and "democratic centralism" and what these terms mean in relation to the tasks for Kasama. I guess I have been waiting for someone to be interested in this.
Nov 12 Kasama threads What's the place for authority in the future rev?, Opening a debate on Anarchism and Communism New Day asked about some of the contradictions in theory between communism and anarchism. I briefly described the anarcho-leninist debate on the state
Nov 11 Kasama blog Kasama Plans: Summing Up, Moving On, Digging In I made 4 posts to this thread. Some were delayed by moderation and one was deleted. It can be seen here. There is also a substantive post on this thread by Nando in which he points out that there different models of revolutionary organization and the best model depends on the tasks that are most important and the times and conditions.
Nov 9 pdximc The ISO's socialism conference vs. the need for a mass revolutionary organization Brief report on ISO's refusal to allow me to speak at their public meeting. Plus some brief exchanges with a sideline cynic.
Nov 9 seaimc ISO's 2008 Northwest Socialist Conference I raised my hand repeatedly to speak in the session on the need for a revolutionary party--but the ISO would not allow me to speak.
Oct 24 Kasama blog Bill Martin On Conception & Collectivity: Pt. 5 New Forms After an Exhausted Project Bill said: "I don’t know what the next phase of organization will look like, though I am willing to work with others who believe in a communist future and a revolutionary road toward it to figure this out." I replied with a link to my How to Build the Party of the Working Class article. My post was held up in moderation for three days until the thread was dead. I got no reply.


Kasama Threads
Below are some of my threads on the Kasama site (ie: refugees from RCP clustered around their former editor Mike Ely)

Title or topic Topic / Who participated
How to build the party Mike gave me a topic page to present my views on how to build the party of the working class. Unfortunately the comments and discussion reflected a fairly low level of interest in this topic. (March 2008)
Election Illusions, McCain’s Attraction, and Revolutionary Hope Ben, Frank and autocritique take on Mike Ely on the question of reformism. (Feb 2008)
Ben Seattle's views Mike gave me a topic page to give my views on our long-term goals. (Feb 2008)
Rescuing Lenin from the Leninists Chegitz Guevara gives his own take on Cargo-Cult Leninism. (March 2008)
A rough overview of our theoretical project John Steele outlines his views on the questions of revolutionary strategy, understanding and history that must be part of the organizational, theoretical and practical plans for developing a revolutionary project. (April 2008)
The Kasama-RCP polemic Most of the RCP's criticism of Kasama is bullshit. But one of their central criticisms appears to be correct. Mike Ely and he Kasama community do not appear to be focused on building organization or taking up the tasks which are decisive. (May 2008)

Wikipedia Articles
To which I have added edits:


BenSeattle
BenSeattle 		Latest page update: made by BenSeattle , Nov 23 2008, 8:41 PM EST (about this update About This Update BenSeattle Edited by BenSeattle


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