The American Leftist Redstar2000

[9]

what were redstar2000's politics anyway? he stopped posting here before i started.

[Le Libérer]

Heres his page (http://rs2kpapers.awardspace.com/).

[The Man]

Heres his page (http://rs2kpapers.awardspace.com/).


Just curious, does he ever still add to it?

[Os Cangaceiros]

what were redstar2000's politics anyway? he stopped posting here before i started.

non-Leninist Marxism is prob. the best way to describe it

[Le Libérer]

Just curious, does he ever still add to it?

How could he?

[The Man]

How could he?

Yeah.. I was thinking like he had some sort of secretary or something.. That's really unfortunate.. :(

[Le Libérer]

Yeah.. I was thinking like he had some sort of secretary or something.. That's really unfortunate.. :(

Unfortunately they dont supply scribes or secretaries to welfare nursing home recipients.

I was scribing for him when I wasnt working due to illness, but I've been back in the trenches myself for 2 years.

[The Douche]

what were redstar2000's politics anyway? he stopped posting here before i started.

Some sort of mixture of anarchism, left-communism, and orthodox marxism.

A lot of the organizations that he had hopes for or though were potentially on the right track failed.:( I was in two of them.

[9]

Heres his page (http://rs2kpapers.awardspace.com/).


non-Leninist Marxism is prob. the best way to describe it


Some sort of mixture of anarchism, left-communism, and orthodox marxism.

A lot of the organizations that he had hopes for or though were potentially on the right track failed.:( I was in two of them.

yeah, I'd had the impression - no idea what it is based on - that his politics were sort of similar to Miles'. was he part of any organization?

[Manic Impressive]

Heres his page (http://rs2kpapers.awardspace.com/).
bookmarked thanks

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

From syndicat (http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1989680&postcount=8):

he was a southern white communist who was on the national board of Progressive Labor Party in the '60s. he was an influential activist for PL in SDS in the late '60s (and is mentioned in Kirkpatrick Sale's book SDS). due to PL's manipulation of SDS in 1969-70, he and his PL group in New Orleans quit PL and developed a critique of Leninism. They became a libertarian socialist group -- the New Orleans Socialist Union which published a monthly paper in the big easy in the '70s, The Louisiana Worker. They were influenced by the London Solidarity group, Maurice Brinton, Castoriadis, and a reading of various council communist and anarchist authors.

In a more recent online profile he described his politics as "council communist" and I think that is a fair description. in the late '70s he moved to San Francisco and was involved in the Anarchist Communist Federation in 1978-80 (which had both councilist and syndicalist members), and wrote for their paper "North American Anarchist" and for the later independent version "Strike!". I had many conversations with him in the '80s when he was still living in San Francisco.

[black magick hustla]

I don't think he was a council communist. He was too much of a stagist to constitute as one. I always thought his politics where wack tbh he gave critical support to third world nationalist movements because "capitalism needs to be developed first before communism".

[coda]

"capitalism needs to be developed first before communism". that's Lenin--- and he detested Lenin.

I spent much time in the same threads as he over years.. and myself an orthodox anarchist would have put him toward council communist with huge anarchist tendencies.

He never actually stated a position here that I'm aware of.

[The Douche]

yeah, I'd had the impression - no idea what it is based on - that his politics were sort of similar to Miles'. was he part of any organization?

Not recently. He had interest in/hope for RAAN and the Direct Action Tendency, which I have been a member of in the past.

I think he also had expressed interest in/affinity for the Communist League.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

He called himself a communist and said his politics and writings were "communism without the crap."

He expressed interest in the Communist League when it first appeared and said:


It looks to me like the Communist League is "trying something different"...and can anyone here seriously deny the need for some fresh approaches?

I will watch how they do with considerable interest -- they look to me like they are worth paying attention to.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Here you go: The Communist League -- A Preliminary Investigation (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/wyl/socdem/redstar/redstar45.html)

[The Man]

He called himself a communist and said his politics and writings were "communism without the crap."

He expressed internet in the Communist League when it first appeared and said:

[FONT=Microsoft Sans Serif][SIZE=3]

How does anyone express internet? :lol:

[Le Libérer]

I don't think he was a council communist.

He is a council communist. We have had hours and hours on the subject.

When he was young he was a hipster (http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g17/tmt45z9/11-26-06/edclark.jpg).

Hes also getting married.

I feel very compelled to move this to the members forum and split and rename it. lol

[ChrisK]

He is a council communist. We have had hours and hours on the subject.

When he was young he was a hipster (http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g17/tmt45z9/11-26-06/edclark.jpg).

Hes also getting married.

I feel very compelled to move this to the members forum and split and rename it. lol

Please do so. This is serious subject matter and chit chat too often degrades into bullshit (fun bullshit, but bullshit nonetheless).

[Devrim]

I don't think he was a council communist.
He is a council communist. We have had hours and hours on the subject.

I suppose it depends how you define 'council communist'. If you define it as those who were in the tradition of the German/Dutch left, i.e. the historical council communists, then he clearly wasn't.

However, there is a tendency in some quarters to define it as those who argue for communism based on workers' councils, in which case it includes people like Castoriadis, Johnson and Forrest in the US, and RedStar 2000.

I think that the first definition defines what was a real defined current whereas the second serves more as a big box to put people in who developed some critique of leninism.

Devrim

[coda]

<<However, there is a tendency in some quarters to define it as those who argue for communism based on workers' councils, in which case it includes people like Castoriadis, Johnson and Forrest in the US, and RedStar 2000.>>

yes, absolutely.

[Luís Henrique]

what were redstar2000's politics anyway? he stopped posting here before i started.

Those are the most interesting polemics I had with him:

http://www.revleft.com/vb/reformism-t39648/index.html?t=39648&highlight=redstar2000

[/URL][URL]http://www.revleft.com/vb/lenin-sex-and-t41130/index.html?t=41130&highlight=redstar2000 (http://www.revleft.com/vb/lenin-sex-and-t41130/index.html?p=625530&highlight=redstar2000#post625530)

I think they are quite demonstrative of his politics.

Luís Henrique

[southernmissfan]

Generally I would sum it up as Marxism that abandons dialectics as well as Leninism. There were certainly anarchist (and other) influences as well.

I started reading his site back when he still posted, when I was still very new to leftist politics. Certainly a huge influence on me personally, as I had arrived at similar thoughts about dialectics, religion and Leninism (for the most part). So it was nice to have a more theoretically versed person express those views better. Naturally many leftists have significantly different ideas but I still think his writings are worth a read. If nothing else, his multiple arguments as to why communists should oppose religion are pretty necessary.

[Le Libérer]

So...go open a soup kitchen.

Like all reformists, you would have us here believe that "Marxism" is social work.

Nothing wrong with social work for those who like that sort of thing...you get to feel good about yourself because you're "really helping people".

It just doesnt have anything to do with Marxism or revolution at all. You may deny that unpleasant truth...but it&#39;s still true.

As you will learn, no doubt.

Leninists have been following your "recipe" for some seven or eight decades in the "west"...and it's been a long time since your ideological "soup kitchen" actually served any soup.

Even at McDonald's, people eat better.

Being dependent on the social workers at his nursing home now, his views have softened a bit. :lol: That and my being one and sharing my day in the trenches of fighting for rights of those who cannot speak for themselves.....

Hes often felt sympathy for the overworked orderlys and the social workers just trying to get necessities for all the people in the facility....

I know this is just a personal observation but I wanted to share insight from my being face to face with him almost daily in the beginning now not so much.

And his writing as much more cynical than the real man, with incredible blue gentle eyes and real compassion for his fellow man.

[Luís Henrique]

Being dependent on the social workers at his nursing home now, his views have softened a bit. :lol: That and my being one and sharing my day in the trenches of fighting for rights of those who cannot speak for themselves.....

So, quite unhappily, it was not me who learnt something on the issue.


Hes often felt sympathy for the overworked orderlys and the social workers just trying to get necessities for all the people in the facility....

I know this is just a personal observation but I wanted to share insight from my being face to face with him almost daily in the beginning now not so much.

And his writing as much more cynical than the real man, with incredible blue gentle eyes and real compassion for his fellow man.

Thanks for that, Debora.

Luís Henrique

[Le Libérer]

I sat there with him as I watched him cry and yell solidarity at the television during Egypts recent uprising. If nothing else, he saw a glimpse of what hes worked for all his life. I cried with him, as I held his hand. It was such a moving experience.

[Manic Impressive]

I've just spent the last few hours reading through some of his site and the impression I've come away with is how Refreshing it is to read someone not just discussing the failings of previous movements but thinking about solutions in how to overcome these problems and not sticking to some rigid plan for revolution which did not succeed. In general we have too many ideologues and not enough people thinking for themselves, Red Star certainly seems like the latter.

[La Comédie Noire]

Unfortunately some of his particularly good post collections are down on awards space, but you can find them if you look hard enough.

[Le Libérer]

Unfortunately some of his particularly good post collections are down on awards space, but you can find them if you look hard enough.

The link to the other pages are here. (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/wyl/socdem/redstar/index.html)

[southernmissfan]

I may have already said this elsewhere, but CotR, I think it's great what you've done/are doing for him. I can only imagine how much it must mean to him.

[syndicat]

And his writing as much more cynical than the real man, with incredible blue gentle eyes and real compassion for his fellow man.

and a great sense of humor.

[Le Libérer]

and a great sense of humor.
Which is much easily interpreted by reading than being face to face with him. He has such a poker face when expounding wit, I often have to look him in the eye before laughing just to make sure the joke isnt on me. :lol:

[Invader Zim]

Why is this in the history forum? Seems like you're writing him off.

[Le Libérer]

Why is this in the history forum? Seems like you're writing him off.

Not at all, its history in the making.

[Invader Zim]

Not at all, its history in the making.

So, by very definition, not history then.

[Le Libérer]

So, by very definition, not history then.

History in the making plus 40 years of his life. Somewhere in that is history.

[Invader Zim]

History in the making plus 40 years of his life. Somewhere in that is history.

There is no such thing as "history in the making", it is a cliché that people with a misplaced sense of topical optimism use. Rather history is the product of cultural memory made long after the fact and very much conditioned by the culture producing it, and often (given the inherent problem of trying to describe something you cannot actually observe) with only passing relevence to the events described. Given that Red Star is still alive, calling him history strikes me as rather like the kind of comment made by a 1950s comic book villain prior to unveiling a devious scheme to destroy the hero as well as a rather tasteless act of board hagiography. Though I do find it wryly amusing to see a thread on Red Star hovering directly adjacent to one on Stalin. I'm sure Redstar enjoys the irony of that too.

[Le Libérer]

That's a very nice observation IZ. Ill be sure to share it with him.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[Le Libérer]

Given that Red Star is still alive, calling him history strikes me as rather like the kind of comment made by a 1950s comic book villain prior to unveiling a devious scheme to destroy the hero as well as a rather tasteless act of board hagiography. Though I do find it wryly amusing to see a thread on Red Star hovering directly adjacent to one on Stalin. I'm sure Redstar enjoys the irony of that too.

i read this to him on my phone, and he had quite a chuckle at it. :)

[Dumb]

i read this to him on my phone, and he had quite a chuckle at it. :)

To be honest, all the references to calling him history made me think he was dead until I read this post.

[Le Libérer]

To be honest, all the references to calling him history made me think he was dead until I read this post.

Hes far from dead. He is about to be married.

[Dumb]

yeah, I'd had the impression - no idea what it is based on - that his politics were sort of similar to Miles'. was he part of any organization?

Who was Miles? Was that his last name?

[Le Libérer]

Who was Miles? Was that his last name?

We dont do last names on this board. He is referring to the user Uncle Sam

[La Comédie Noire]

Hes far from dead. He is about to be married.

????

[Dumb]

Oh, got it. I was having one of those moments where I thought, "Ooo, maybe they're talking about this obscure leftist figure I made contact with three months ago!"

...Never mind.

[Eastside Revolt]

Hes far from dead. He is about to be married.

Well fill us in is it impossible for him to use a computer still, has he changed any, what's his deal??????

[syndicat]

was he part of any organization? he was on the national exec committee of Progressive Labor Party in the '60s, representing the south. He quit PL circa 1970 due to his criticism of PL's manipulation of SDS...failure to respect its autonomy as a mass movement. From there he and the ex-PL group in New Orleans developed a critique of Leninism, influenced by people like Castoriadis and the London Solidarity Group.

in 1972-74 he and his New Orleans group were affiliated to the New American Movement, which at the time of its founding viewed itself as a revolutionary socialist non-Leninist group. His group in New Orleans published a mass socialist newspaper in New Orleans, the Louisiana Worker, sold thru coin boxes. they left NAM when it became clear it was moving in a social-democratic direction (it merged into DSA).

After he moved to San Francisco, he joined the Anarchist Communist Federation when it was formed in 1978 and was a member of that organization til it split apart in 1980. i met him from also being a member of NAM and ACF at the same time he was.

When i and another of his comrades & friends in San Francisco, Jeff Urban (now deceased), joined WSA in the early '80s, he didn't follow our example because WSA is syndicalist whereas he's more of a council communist...he advocated a workers assembly movement when he was in ACF.

[Red Storm]

I just wanted to say thanks for posting a link to Redstar2000's site. By chance I stumbled into something he wrote that I had been searching for. My only regret is that I wasn't fortunate enough to know him. Once again thanks.:)

[Taboo Tongue]

Hes far from dead. He is about to be married.
Last I knew (before reading this) he was in very poor health.
Does anyone have any updates on RS2k?

[Manic Impressive]

He passed away late last year

[Le Libérer]

Hes far from dead. He is about to be married.

Yes, this was over a year ago, he passed away in November. I was his only survivor. His parents are deceased, no siblings, and no children.

I miss him terribly and theres not a day go by I dont think about him. Now that he is passed, I can share a pic of him when he was in his 20s. Some have seen this pic but I feel it appropriate to place it in this thread as well.

He was one cool mfer.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/296501_10150354159052876_1809344977_n.jpg

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

I don't know what's happening in this particular thread, but I do know of his death. That is very sad and I give my condolences. May he rest in peace (sorry if I am posting in an inappropriate place).

[Le Libérer]

I just came across this pic of Ed when he first came to me. He was malnourished and very thin. As you can tell from the later pic, hes life became much better.

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu210/lovebadgirl/friends%20over%20the%20years/ed.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/397748_10150458349803577_506143576_8551146_1426020 771_n.jpg

[Prometeo liberado]

Thank you for that CotC. Thanks.

[Le Libérer]

Today I received rs2ks remains from the medical hospital where he donated his body. They had completed work on this cadaver. I will now contact his girlfriend and start searching an appropriate urn.

It's going to be the next chapter in our life together. Now to find his final resting place.

[Lardlad95]

Wow...I used to come to this place back when it was Che-Lives. Redstar2000 was one of the most intelligent, fascinating, and witty posters I've ever encountered on any forum. I'm sorry to hear that he passed away.

[Urban Rubble]

Damn. I joined this site over 10 years ago after reading a Che Guevara biography. Although I had leftist tendencies, I had no real understanding of political philosophy and only a slight understanding of the history of the left (I had no excuse, I was 20 years old at the time). The 3 or 4 years I spent actively posting on this forum were, by far, the most important of my life in terms of political maturation and personal development. When I decided to go to University in 06 my posting on the forum fell off almost entirely, but I'll always be thankful that I received a sound political education here prior to that. Without chelives/revleft I cannot imagine what the University of Washington's liberal establishment would've succeeded in teaching me!

When I think back to the old days of posting here I think of RedStar first. Never involved in the gossip or social drama of the old school Che-Lives forum (Ok, maybe "never" is too strong), RS2K was the mean old man who you always knew was right when he called you an idiot. I was generally too scared to engage with him, but the times that I did were always memorable. (Sidenote: My favorite posts EVER on this forum were when him and Comrade RAF used to fight, two old dinosaurs from opposite sides of the leftist spectrum, it was beautiful, haha).

Anyway, this is the first I'd heard of his death. Thanks for everything you did for him CoR :(

[Le Libérer]

I am homebound now from meeting up with several RevLeft members in San Francisco. We memorialized him by scattering his ashes in the bay followed by singing the Internationale. Once I have rested I will add the video and pics to this thread so all of us can be a part of it.

[Le Libérer]

RS2K's ashes being put to rest in the San Francisco bay. RIP Edward
http://vimeo.com/72325397