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I am Ben Seattle, information theorist and infrastructure architect.

This page is outdated but can be used to post your comments.
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Please click here for a concise overview of my work.

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


(everything below is more than a year old)


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, 2008 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, 2008 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, 2008 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, 2008 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, 2008 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, 2008 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, 2008 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, 2008 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, 2008 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 ********. 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 , Dec 2 2009, 8:39 PM EST (about this update About This Update BenSeattle Edited by BenSeattle

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Anonymous Transparency 0 Jan 11 2011, 1:10 PM EST by Anonymous
 
Thread started: Jan 11 2011, 1:10 PM EST  Watch
Hi Ben, Zeke here. Looked up your site after talking at the rally at the court house last night. I understand your transparency thing better now after looking, that's good work. Also like your Timeline of Transition, I don't agree with some details, but I think this is a good study tool. In your Cartoon Guide to the Left in Seattle I liked many of your cartoons, including the one about sectarianism, but then your cartoons about ISO/FSP/RCP seem kind of sectarian in tone and flavor to me. Also I have to disagree with your criteria for a calling someone a cult. Anyway, just a note to say hi provide some general feedback. Hope to see ya around.
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Anonymous Balls 1 Apr 11 2010, 11:40 AM EDT by BenSeattle
 
Thread started: Jan 25 2010, 2:33 AM EST  Watch
Sherman Austin would disagree with you.
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GREGORYABUTLER "Security Culture" 3 Apr 11 2010, 11:35 AM EDT by BenSeattle
Thread started: Dec 19 2009, 11:23 AM EST  Watch
In your recent article, you talked about the alleged need for a 'security culture' on the left.

i disagree.

To be leaders of our class, we need to put ourselves out in front, and that means being public about who we are and what we do.

That's why all of my political writing is done in my legal name, the one I was given at birth, the same name that's on my birth certificate, my New York State drivers license, and my Carpenters Union membership card - "Gregory A. Butler".

This is not Iraq or Saudi Arabia - we live in a country where the capitalist class is strong enough and rich enough to buy the loyalty of the entire middle class, and a huge layer of privileged workers (the Labor Aristocracy) as well - and the middle class and the labor aristocrats keep the rest of the working class and the poor in line for the capitalists.

They don't need a police state here (despite the paranoid fears of far too many American leftists).

Since we can operate openly, we should.

As for the possible danger of future repression - well, that's just how it is, and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Nobody ever made a revolution without martyrs.

Beyond that, in my experience in 24 years on the American far left, 'security culture' is used to create an insular clubby atmosphere and to exclude outsiders - it has NOTHING to do with 'security' and EVERYTHING to do with putting a "members only" sign up on the door to keep out new folks.

It's profoundly unhealthy and for that reason alone needs to be utterly and totally discarded.
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