The Writers' Thread

[Mujer Libre]

Hi all.

After requests from a few users, and my thinking this is a good idea, I've decided to start up and pin this thread. It's somewhere were people can ask questions about writing (writing anything, prose, poetry, creative non-fiction, lyrics, whatever), post links to good websites with writing advice and share their own writing experiences.

I'll post some links to poetic forms once I find the websites I've used.

poets.org (http://poets.org/) - I found this site really handy when looking for a few forms to play with. They have a decent section on Asian forms like the ghazal, pantoum and haiku- yay! I don't normally like structure in my poetry, but it can be fun to play with them as long as you don't stick with structure for its own sake.

Poetry forms and terminology (http://thewordshop.tripod.com/forms.html) - A very comprehensive list of links to deal with almost everything about poetry.

[luxemburg89]

The thing I use, I hope to be a writer (prose, poetry whatever I'm up for all of it) is the 'Writer's and Artist's yearbook' but that is only for publishing in Britain. If Comrades in other countries can find their nation's equivalent to that book get it, I can promise it is really helpful. It has tips and advice (from writers past and present) and lists publishers and what they want to see from the prospective authors. It also tells you what you need to get published.

Hope this helps, Lux :)

[Mujer Libre]

I've unpinned the 'publishing' thread because it was so inactive, but I'm going to post the links from that thread that are still active in this one. So here goes

Channel 4's talent program (http://www.channel4.com/4talent/)
List of poetry journal, mainly Canada (http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/index_mags.html)
A guide to getting published (http://poetry.com/getpublished/getpublished.asp)
Single Cell Press (http://www.singlecellpress.co.uk/)

[which doctor]

Does anyone know a site (maybe a discussion board) where I could submit things to get reviewed/editied/criticized?

[Mujer Libre]

You could try FictionPress (http://www.fictionpress.com/). You can post works there, but they also have a forum where people may be up for critiquing your work.

[RedCommieBear]

Well, I've tried writing a story a few times, and my biggest problem has been this: One night, I come up with a decent plot, characters, setting, etc. The next day, I try writing the first draft, and after about 2-10 pages, the process gets boring and tedious. The story then comes off as choppy. At this point, I usually drop the whole idea to do something else, which then is dropped to do something else, and so on and so forth. How do I keep my atttention span without the whole thing becoming a chore?

-Thanks

[Led Zeppelin]

Originally posted by [email protected] 03, 2007 09:01 pm
Does anyone know a site (maybe a discussion board) where I could submit things to get reviewed/editied/criticized?
There's this forum which allows you to do that, it's not too bad: http://www.writersbeat.com/

I wrote two articles on writing myself, which can be read on my blog thing here:

The Philosophy of Writing? (http://revolutionarysina.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!88041FC2EFF5B751!242.entry)

The Art of Writing (http://revolutionarysina.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!88041FC2EFF5B751!246.entry)

[Led Zeppelin]

Originally posted by Red [email protected] 10, 2007 02:45 am
Well, I've tried writing a story a few times, and my biggest problem has been this: One night, I come up with a decent plot, characters, setting, etc. The next day, I try writing the first draft, and after about 2-10 pages, the process gets boring and tedious. The story then comes off as choppy. At this point, I usually drop the whole idea to do something else, which then is dropped to do something else, and so on and so forth. How do I keep my atttention span without the whole thing becoming a chore?

-Thanks
I have that problem myself, a lot of great writers have had it. The point is, I think, to see it as a job, that is, as something that has to be done in a certain period of time, instead of seeing it as a pointless passtime, thinking like "oh, it won't be published anyway, no one will read it, so who cares?".

If you start taking it more seriously, the attention span won't be a problem, though there still will be times that you get bored and tired of it, it won't make you give up on the story altogether. Trust me, I've given up on dozens of stories in such a manner myself, but the one I'm doing now is staying until I finish. :P

[Jazzratt]

Originally posted by Mujer [email protected] 04, 2007 02:03 am
You could try FictionPress (http://www.fictionpress.com/). You can post works there, but they also have a forum where people may be up for critiquing your work.
The forum would probably be more useful as most people won't read and review a story up on fictionpress unprompted. At least that was my experience.

I'm very good at descriptions of places and events (blowing my own trumpet a little but if pushed I will produce evidence) but I have a lot of problems with dialogue and describing people. Even the prodigious amounts of reading I do doesn't seem to help this, any suggestions?

[Mujer Libre]

Originally posted by Jazzratt+June 13, 2007 01:05 pm--> (Jazzratt @ June 13, 2007 01:05 pm)
Mujer [email protected] 04, 2007 02:03 am
You could try FictionPress (http://www.fictionpress.com/). You can post works there, but they also have a forum where people may be up for critiquing your work.
The forum would probably be more useful as most people won't read and review a story up on fictionpress unprompted. At least that was my experience.

I'm very good at descriptions of places and events (blowing my own trumpet a little but if pushed I will produce evidence) but I have a lot of problems with dialogue and describing people. Even the prodigious amounts of reading I do doesn't seem to help this, any suggestions? [/b]
I recently did a workshop on writing dialogue, and I'll post my notes from it as soon as I get my notebook back. It's being marked as we speak!

I have similar problems to you, but I also struggle with plot. I think when it comes to describing people, what you have to do is think about how you evaluate someone when you first meet them, and then attempt to capture that in writing. Maybe take a notebook and sit on a park bench and watch people and take notes about it? Possibly creepy. Possibly good practice.

[Jazzratt]

Originally posted by Mujer [email protected] 14, 2007 01:57 am
I recently did a workshop on writing dialogue, and I'll post my notes from it as soon as I get my notebook back. It's being marked as we speak!
That'll be good. Hope you get good marks.


I have similar problems to you, but I also struggle with plot. I think when it comes to describing people, what you have to do is think about how you evaluate someone when you first meet them, and then attempt to capture that in writing. Maybe take a notebook and sit on a park bench and watch people and take notes about it? Possibly creepy. Possibly good practice.

Now there's a good use for my notebook if ever there has been.


I've noticed something recently and thought I should share it in case it is of interest(although I'm aware that the number of people to whom it applies will be fairly limited): I've found that I write best if I've recently been playing a pen & paper roleplaying game. I think this is because the structure of the game encourages inventive and descriptive thinking as well as, of course, sparking the imagination. Won't help with dialogue much though (at least not the way I play them).

[RedCommieBear]

Leninism, thank you very much for the advice. I came up with a good opening sentence for a story, and I'm going to run with it wherever it takes me.

After going over some of my writing, I realized part of my problem: I wasn't using "my" language. I'm not from the 17th century, so I shouldn't try sounding like it. Using bigger words for the sake of sounding upscale can come off as ridiculous. If the smaller word is honest and works fine, keep it. Don't exchange the word "heart" for aortic pumps.

[Mujer Libre]

Jazz, I got my journal back, and I'm about to attempt to put my (very short) notes up in a usable form. Here goes.

1) Call-response is the most basic form of dialogue. ("Hello." "How are you?" "I'm fine, how are you." "Fine.") It's only good for short pieces of dialogue.

2) Use pauses realistically- when characters don't know what to say, when they're tense etc. (I read my dialogue out loud to know when and for how long)

3) Silence. Longer version of the pause, allows the narrator to be descriptive and fictive, to fill out the backstory or scene.

4) Repetition. If one character is bombarding another, or if they're preoccupied with an issue.

5) Using the power differences (if any) between the characters to create dialogue. This will affect who speaks when, how much and which of them sits around in silence.

6) Interpolation. This is when one character uses large slabs of dialogue that are usually rambling and have the effect of stunning the other into silence. Apparently the word was invented by Althusser.

7) Stream of consciousness- characters may contradict themselves or ramble. People don't normally speak in perfectly polished sentences.

8) People speaking to one another may have two completely different agendas that are reflected in their conversation. It can be almost as though they aren't speaking to one another at all.

That's basically it. We went through the list in class and applied each strategy with a single starter sentence- which I oddly enough remember to be "Have you seen Sam? He didn't come home last night." It might make more sense if you do something similar.

I hope it's helpful!

[rune2402]

I am a newby writer, and I have written a story about a young Hispanic-American who kicks a cops ass. I would like to find a place where I can get professional crits. I mean where someone can help me with punctuating dialogue,etc.

Ideally, I'd like a place where I can share stories with others, but unfortunately since my story deal with the plight of the ethnic minority in the United States, I tend to get shunned by the nazi types.

Any help appreciated. Does anyone know where ethnic minority types like me can get their stories reviewed whithout discrimination?

[Mujer Libre]

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/guide/hum/english/E_creative.html

A very comprehensive list of creative writing links from Adelaide University, which seems to have a whole range o fantastic free online resources. There are links to academic type websites, peer support forums, websites about writing. I'm looking forward to having a browse.

[The Sloth]

Does anyone know a site (maybe a discussion board) where I could submit things to get reviewed/editied/criticized?

here, submit something to dan schneider via www.cosmoetica.com

also, for workshop poetry, pffa.org is an excellent source.

[The Sloth]

I am a newby writer, and I have written a story about a young Hispanic-American who kicks a cops ass. I would like to find a place where I can get professional crits. I mean where someone can help me with punctuating dialogue,etc.

Ideally, I'd like a place where I can share stories with others, but unfortunately since my story deal with the plight of the ethnic minority in the United States, I tend to get shunned by the nazi types.

Any help appreciated. Does anyone know where ethnic minority types like me can get their stories reviewed whithout discrimination?

well, here's the thing. people react negatively to oppression/minority stories because the vast majority of them are crap. a "message," or "social commentary," etc., is not a substitute for CRAFT.

do you read a lot of fiction / classics ?

[black magick hustla]

Yeah this. I really hate the "realist" and "naturalist" literary eras, that dealt with that. There where certainly a few gems here and there but most of is shit.

[abrupt]

Well, I've tried writing a story a few times, and my biggest problem has been this: One night, I come up with a decent plot, characters, setting, etc. The next day, I try writing the first draft, and after about 2-10 pages, the process gets boring and tedious. The story then comes off as choppy. At this point, I usually drop the whole idea to do something else, which then is dropped to do something else, and so on and so forth. How do I keep my atttention span without the whole thing becoming a chore?

-Thanks

That's something I do aswell. I have tried to write stories and just never finish. I have wrote about 3-4 songs that I have stopped half way through and for reasons of not thinking it's good enough or mental block or just no more motivation or time.

You can't really force yourself to write too much, but I think it's possible to just keep pressuring yourself to at least finish after a period of time. It seems slightly hypocritical coming from me, but I think it can work.

[Mujer Libre]

I have the urge to do some writing at the moment, but I can't find any inspiration. What do other releft writers do to inspire themselves?

[Led Zeppelin]

I get inspiration from reading history books or other stories.

[Colonello Buendia]

I write rarely but when I do I barely get past the first page. any suggestions on how to counter that?

[RedAnarchist]

I write rarely but when I do I barely get past the first page. any suggestions on how to counter that?

Try to plan out your story first. Whats going to happen, who is it going to happen to? What will happen in the start, middle and end?

Try to from your characters before you start. Its also a good idea to research the plot, so that you know what you're writing about.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

If interested, a group devoted to "aspiring authors" has been established. Due to the nature of this Vbulletin modification, groups can't discuss topics until there's enough people for a forum to develop, so please join if interested in critiquing your works, or learning how to improve yourself, or figuring out the publishing industry: http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?groupid=47

[politics student]

Joined. One day I want to write on marxism and modern politics.

[thejambo1]

ive just joined, very interested in publishing etc.

[Sean]

Concerning the organisation of your writing. My problem is that I feel most creative when I'm outside in a forest or halfway up a mountain but unfortunately this is also when I'm most exhausted and barely able to write more than one or two sentances (plus laptops hate getting wet and my typewriter is a bastard to fit in a backpack :P). So I always at least carry a pen and a notepad with me wherever I go and write down things that pop into my mind, things people say, etc. I'm sure it looks eccentric, but it does the trick for me and catches little gems of creativity that would probably be forgotten by the time I got back to my keyboard.

When I come back to my computer I used to organise them in FreeMind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page), a handy little java app that allows me to map out snippets of text. I definately recommend it to anyone while planning out the book.

Other software I've found handy and I'm most productive with is the famous MediaWiki (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki)written for Wikipedia, although the process of setting up a server and database just to run it on your machine if you haven't already is probably too complex for non-geeks.

Even without having other collaborators (unless you actually do have a coauthor), nothing for me surpasses a wiki for drafting, expanding, revising, annotating and generally organising lots of text. Also, I'm sure that when I open it for proof reading to friends, it'll be easier for them to critique.

As far as writer's block, is concerned I get seriously crippled by it for long periods of time, and a good way to shake it is reading and posting in communities like this one. It keeps your mind ticking over without the pressure associated with writing the great Irish novel (I wish!).

[ev]

I want to be able to write some films, I have some ideas but I'm not sure how to present the dialogue and if writing a script is the right thing to do when writing a film. Can anyone help me out? (I'm reading up on how Quentin Tarantino learnt to write his trademark dialogue but what else do i need besides the dialogue??)

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

There is some useful info in this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmmaking

[Dimentio]

I have written a book, but must find some cheap ways to print it to send it to publishing companies.

[Mujer Libre]

I found a site called Language is a Virus (http://languageisavirus.com/)
That has prompts, hints and ways to overcome writer's block. Some of them are pretty good! Especially the story prompts.

[Faust]

Haha, I post my writing and Poetry up on Deviantart, it's a pretty good website, but you have to be really good in order to get noticed

faust-xviii.deviantart.com

That's me.

Here is a sample of my writing, hope you dont mind =]

Take from my hands this fickle rose
It's petals begin to fade
And place it where the other grows
In a place of peaceful shade

Remember when, in time long passed
I gave to thee that graceful token
In hopes our love would last?
Nevermore to be so broken..

But love, as all things be
Ne'er is an easy road
But rough, as far as I can see
So weighted by this heavy load

I'll never forget those moments shared
Beneath the grinning sky
When each one of us, so truly cared
"Until the day we die"

Take from my hands this fickle rose
Take it from my failing grasp
For this breath, I've coldly chose
To be my dying gasp



I know it's angsty and all.. but I like the rhyme =]
It doesn't apply to anything in my life. XD

[ev]

There is some useful info in this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmmaking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenwriting would have been more helpful ;)

Thanks though

[Pogue]

I think i'd be imitating authors I like too much if I tried writing.

[#FF0000]

I think i'd be imitating authors I like too much if I tried writing.

There's really nothing wrong with that unless you're a professional. Not everyone has a unique voice when they start writing.

[RedRise]

I'm trying to write a fiction book at the moment. It's coming along well but it's tiring. It'd probably be in the same genre as Harry Potter. Any ideas for places where I could get it reviewed or publishers to go to when I finally get the bloody thing finished?

[Pogue]

I suppose there is nothing wrong with it, it just made me feel I was being a bit crummy.

[which doctor]

It's pretty safe to say that nearly all beginning writers start by imitating their favorite authors and as they mature as writers, their own voice begins to emerge.

[mel]

That shouldn't be a problem really. Most authors have influences from other authors. I'm sure its alright (as long as you don't plagiarize:D).


There's really nothing wrong with that unless you're a professional. Not everyone has a unique voice when they start writing.


It's pretty safe to say that nearly all beginning writers start by imitating their favorite authors and as they mature as writers, their own voice begins to emerge.

this. Nobody has a unique voice when they start writing. When I write something, my voice is pretty much a direct imitation of whatever I read last, or whatever sort of language I heard most recently.

Sometimes when I'm watching a shakespeare play or something like that, I start to talk on instant messengers and forums using sentence constructs that are more characteristic of that time period than ours. :-p

[MilitantAnarchist]

I find when i write, i just write like i talk... like i would tell a story to anyone, but i make it up... i guess it ISNT copying as such, but i read alot of the beat writers and such, so in just turns out like that... but, thats how i talk anyway... If that makes any sense....
Whilst i'm here, im always looking for writers to chat with and bounce ideas off, if anyone wants to talk on MSN or anything, just message me.

Cheers & Beers

[Ele'ill]

I have a few pieces of writing that I'm going to submit for publishing this year (new years resolution). Mainly because I've sat on them for a while and the peer review feedback suggests they're liked better than previous pieces published.

This is the first time in eight years I've looked forward to the coming year. I'm going to be doing some things differently.

[Sixiang]

This thread is dead... Anyways,


I have a few pieces of writing that I'm going to submit for publishing this year (new years resolution). Mainly because I've sat on them for a while and the peer review feedback suggests they're liked better than previous pieces published.

This is the first time in eight years I've looked forward to the coming year. I'm going to be doing some things differently.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing. My brother has recently gotten published into a few poetry magazines and journals and he's working on a novel.

I'm yet to publish or share any of my stuff. Most of my writing is journaling and/or note-taking. My notebooks started out as journals in which I talked about my days and feelings, but now I pretty much just use them to take notes on whatever book I'm reading and write down analysis and quotes. I do more reading than writing. I wouldn't mind writing poetry and I do occasionally write a few lines here and there, but not very often. I don't think I have the patience for writing a long work like a novel or even a novella. Maybe some day I will. And I can write really, really short stories. I find that if I can't write it all in one sitting, then I can't finish it. I have no problem coming back to edit, though. I probably over-edit, in fact.

[myownminerva]

For editing and grammar, try the Chicago Manual of Style.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Prayers for Bobby: Its Psychology Explained


During the course of the made for TV movie Prayers for Bobby the viewer will surely cry. With a plot based on a true story the viewer cannot help but emotionally shed themselves after they witness the many ordeals of the main character, Bobby Williams. The story focuses on the life of a gay teenager and his troubles in living within a highly religious household, his struggle with his family after ‘coming out,’ and, halfway through the movie, his tragic suicide. Taking themes from psychology such as alienation, depression, isolation, suicide, regret, sorrow, and occasionally joy, the viewer is not just watching a movie, but instead going on an emotional rollecoster.


The movie begins with a happy enough scenes: the family all outside playing in the summer sun in the backyard. Laughing, and good times are had highlighting the American tendency to openly display happiness and joy as visibly as possible. However, shortly after this the movie turns darker and the viewer is taken to a birthday scene where the family’s grandmother says, after a mock display of what passes for ‘queer,’ “…well if you ask me all queers need to be lined up and shot.” Such an outlandish, and hurtful, statement is indicative of that generation and the close minded nature of people following the Stonewall rebellion.


Where we to take this a bit further we could analyze it in the following fashion: the grandmother’s statement does not have to do with age and generational differences as it has to do with societal expectations. In American culture men are expected to act ‘manly’ (I,e tough, macho, womanizer) and women are expected to act ‘womanly’ (I,e subordinate, pretty, caring, dress wearing doll who always remains silent). Any who fall out of this paradigm are outcasts and treated as such. They are ostracized, forgotten, and as is most often, especially lately with the rash of gay teen suicides, bullied into ‘obedience.’ Homosexuals-gay men and Lesbian women-as illustrated in this movie are not perceived to fall into such a category.


The movie proceeds to a brief scene in which Bobby turns down an opportunity for sexual relations saying to the young women, whom he is technically partnered with, that he is not ready. This scene is a classic example of a person knowing that they are not included in a predefined sexual orientation. The inner knowledge which was acquired without any effort shows how evolution hardwired our brains to different genetically inspired ‘preferences.’ This scene is but one of many which reveals the inner turmoil young Bobby is beginning to discover.


Fast-forwarding past several scenes in which Bobby tries to talk about his feelings and evaluating his desires, we come to the next big event in the movie: his almost takes an overdoes of painkillers to kill himself. Already, not even 20 minutes into the movie, young Bobby is feeling the pressures from heteronormitive society to conform but knowing that he can’t. This feeling can only be summed up in Bobby’s own powerful words, “I used to have these flying dreams and I was so free, but now as I fly I am afraid; there are telephone lines and electrical wires [sic]…how painful it would be to run into one. Will I ever be free again?” A moving statement that describes how one’ metaphysical life can so abruptly change.


Following a charged scene in which Bobby’s brother informs their parents of Bobby’s homosexuality, and thus betraying Bobby’s trust, Bobby finds that he has awoken to his mother placing index cards all throughout the house with each card home to a Bible quote. After this he is sent to a psychiatrist who “cures” homosexuals (I,e guilt trip to conform). This starts a whole new series of events which strains the family even further as Bobby’s mother becomes more and more fanatical in her bigoted beliefs.


Eventually the despair and isolation generated from the hate convinces Bobby to drop out of high school. Another scene, where some of Bobb’s friends come to his house to pick him up, his mother is outraged by their cross dressing and a large fight ensues in which his mother shouts why he continues “to choose” his lifestyle. This leads Bobby to going to Portland to see family there and escape his life. Once there he goes to clubs and begins Dating David, whom as predicted, family rejects upon his return.


Family infighting ensues and Bobby’s mother denounces Bobby. After this Bobby moves to Portland to be with his lover. During the farewell greetings everyone in Bobby’s family wishes him safe travels and hugs him; the only absentee his mother who looks outside from the window barely keeping her tears in. Her withdrawal indicates her own increasing levels of despair (though for different reasons than why Bobby is in despair). The family is essentially torn now and Bobby’s mother is the primary reason for this happening.


During this time Bobby becomes even more depressed. Even though he is with his lover and within a state that is more ‘accepting’ of him, the distance and words between his mother (her rejection) takes a toll on his well-being. To Bobby family is the most important thing and never again will this be his to enjoy. His mother will not change and this destroys him.


Soon afterwards he decides to take his life via falling from a bridge into oncoming traffic; he is killed instantly when a large tractor-trailer truck impacts him. Before he jumps from the bridge a saddening montage flashes before his eyes of his loved ones condemnations; “it is unnatural,” and ‘I won’t have a gay son” echo in his ears. Crying, now at the level of misery which only religiously induced hypocrisy can inflict, Bobby ends his own life.


Following this his family hears of the news and is devastated. While his sisters, brother, and father are sometime later eventually able to find a sense of peace with Bobby’s suicide and move on, as we all must do in difficult situation, Bobby’s mother is the exception.


A series of events chronicle her spiral into penultimate sorrow: at Bobby’s funeral as she lies a rose before his picture she once more is barely able to hold back her tears. Her face shows the lines of a women in thought almost as though her expressions says, “what went wrong?” Next she begins to have dreams in which Bobby is still with her and nothing ‘was wrong.’ Next she begins reading Bobby’s diary, while holding herself in his room and the thoughts of her son fills her with guilt. She starts having breakdowns at work and cries profusely in the restroom. She starts down the path of trying to understand hers on and homosexuality but her beliefs still hold strong until the climax.


She wants to make peace with her son’s suicide but does not know whether or not he attained ‘salvation.’ This search drives her to go to a church and talk with a preacher who Bobby briefly associated with. Talking with him she gains a better insight into the Bible and slowly becomes more accepting of homosexuality. Eventually the guilt drives her mad and in a progressive frenzy rips all of the prayer index cards off the walls and travels to the church Bobby went to. There she breaks down and cries beginning god for forgiveness; for forgiveness for contributing to Bobby’s death.


Suicide is a highly preventable action that if countered by addressing the sources of a person’s problems can be resolved with that person leading a happy life. In the case of Bobby, however, his problems continued to worsen because of his mother’s incessant demand that he change when change was clearly impossible.


Prayers for Bobby showcases so many psychological elements, as does many movies if you but look hard enough, that anyone could write multiple volumes concerning the individual elements. But for me this movie is about tragedy and loss. The loss of yourself, the triumph of bigotry, and the death of who you once were are the outstanding features of this movie; more lessons than features, we all could learn a thing or two from the ordeals of the Griffith family: love, conquers all.

[MotherCossack]

I'm very good at descriptions of places and events (blowing my own trumpet a little but if pushed I will produce evidence) but I have a lot of problems with dialogue and describing people. Even the prodigious amounts of reading I do doesn't seem to help this, any suggestions?

i am the exact opposite..... innit wierd.... dialogue is a piece of piss for me... in fact i genuinely enjoy it... and writing about thoughts and people (whats in their heads, anyway) is not bad, if i am in the mood for it.
but the rest, the stuff you can do well, ouch... yawn... its like drawing teeth....
and it never seems to gets any easier...

still, i aint gonna give up.... i'm determined to see it through... this time...my self esteem depends on it.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

One of the essays I wrote for my ENG101 class last semester.
_____________________


REINVENTING AMERICA: SOCIALISM’S PROMISE


“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need”

-Karl Marx


Truer words could not have been spoken. Such a statement was spoken by a man who believed that it was society’s responsibility to “spread the wealth.” Why did he think that way? Because he had a vision for society in which there were no social classes, and no poor; an ideal utopia is what he envisioned. While this reality is distant, we as Americans can take the first step forward by doing the following: redistributing the nation’s highly concentrated wealth. Completion of such a task would yield a renewed infrastructure, the dissolution of the class system, and a higher quality of education; the first baby steps towards a people’s republic as promised by socialism.

Socialism is a builder of nations, for capitalism demands money in exchange for labor while Marxism asks simply for a unified workforce. In foregoing of the bourgeois economic model, America would have in its place a stable Marxist system. Within such a system great deeds would be accomplished. One example would be the creation of infrastructure; an honest replacement to our current decayed framework.

America is rapidly falling apart into the clutches of disrepair. All of our services are wasting away, yet continuously this is allowed to happen; pushed aside as trivial. Bridges, damns, clean drinking water, schools, transit, energy and aviation are but a few of the sectors which received a score no higher than a “ C “ on the A.S.C.E’s 2009 report card. Many experts now describe our situation as “dire,” and envision great tragedy if nothing is done to remedy this problem.

Long has our infrastructure been poorly maintained, for ever since its founding, the scope of the project was never meant to last. Our highways, parks, and railroads were created during the heyday of capitalist development; a sign to the rest of the world to what was possible under capitalism. However, grand though it was, resources to maintain our great creation never was allocated in the necessary quantity (instead these went to the military and large corporations). Soon, waste, the killer of modernity, crept in to our construct. Fast forward several decades later and one can see the true damage of the neglect; a poison which has made America’s “sudden and violent descend into a third world country” all the more real.

Reality, of course, is a concept which is difficult for the capitalists to accept. Never will they realize that throwing petty amount of money at a gigantic problem will never fix a problem.

A problem which needs a tremendous amount of resources to correct is what we now shoulder. Estimates to correct even a small portion of this problem are mind-boggling, and are made all the more devastating when seen for one ’s self.

Dams: $2.6 billion
Rails: $63 billion
Bridges: $930 billion

Did anyone hear that last one? Our system is in such decay that just to correct those three sectors would cost us over $995 billion dollars! However, as cruel as it sounds, there are many other segments of the infrastructure which need attention as well. So the question is: how much is the total bill? The amount needed to repair of nation, our “ D “ graded skeleton, is approximately 2.2 trillion dollars!

Building a new structure or the American nation, requires great amounts of money (as previously demonstrated). So, naturally it is expected that someone would ask “where is this money going to come from?” The answer is three fold: from the military, profits from legalizing hard and soft drugs, and from increasing taxes on the rich.

Wealthy is but a single word to describe the military. The United States Military is the largest conventional fighting force in the world; nearly uncountable billions flow into this beast’s belly. The total approbations used to finance this giant is, according to the Pentagon’s “Budget Request Overview,” 708.2 billion dollars! This is but the cost for a single year and does not, however, include the price of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. If one includes the price for waging over a decade of imperialist warfare, the reader would see an additional tag of over four trillion dollars (this is including the price for oil, weapons and ammunition, salaries and interest on borrowed cash); vital money wasted on war making!

Frivolous spending is a hallmark of capitalism, however. This even extends to the public sector and “The War on Drugs.” Since the year 2000 (A.D), the national drug control budget has been steadily increasing. Per year, the government has spent upwards of forty billion dollars in order to wage this phony war; what’s more is that they have made no progress-not on curtailing drug use or on the actual sale. Today, illicit drugs are cheaper to buy (when compared to the 1980’s) and easer to obtain (source: The Drug Policy Alliance).

As a result of this failed policy, new prisons were needed to incarcerate the many millions of arrested youth. Of the nearly the million people imprisoned within the U.S (a number more than any other industrialized nation) over 500,000 are “drug offenders.” Building these new prions comes at the cost of cutting other services; services such as education, libraries, colleges and universities, and of course, health care. By slashing the budget of these other programs, the lawmakers are only exacerbating the problem: if one cannot educate himself and locate a job, than it is very likely the said individual will turn to crime in order to feed his family. The continued use of this policy not only cheats the population out of potential benefits, but also out of a healthy-crime free-future.

A destiny which the super-rich know all too well as they have never known financial suffering. Not only do these individuals lead a lifestyle which grants them perfect medical treatment. As George has said, “class effects more than lifestyle and material well-being. It has a significant impact on our physical and mental well-being as well (314).” However, they also hold a key to our future. The super-rich billionaires control over 50% of the nation’s wealth, using that immense amount of resources on pointless toys such as yachts, mansions, personal servants, and large amounts of land. Under a socialist government, where at least 60% of the elitist’s wealth is taken, one could expect a surge of hundreds of billions of dollars.

What we see here is staggering: a mere ten percent of the population owning the entirety of America, yet leaving it to rot. Redistributing wealth, while simultaneously implementing drug and military reforms, would grant a revolutionary government, on average, over 1.5 trillion dollars per year; an amount of money which is more than enough to improve the lives of the American citizenry.

Creating such an effort would be a mammoth accomplishment when finished; thereby creating a entirely new structure for the United States. This new structure would manifest its self as several new creations. Creations such as: building modern schools to replace the old ruins of the past, paving new roads, and erecting desperately needed houses and recreational centers. Those, along with many other necessities, would come into existence as a result of the new distribution of wealth.

The existence of such an undertaking is nearly impossible under capitalism, due to the entrepreneur’s main objective: make money. No capitalist willingly hands over free resources to build shelters for the homeless. The same goes for public works projects and other life enriching activities. Only through tax breaks do the bourgeoisie let go of a petty portion of his amassed capital. He does this not to be a good person, but to save money, and to appear as beneficial to the remainder of society. As a result, our society stagnates, as great portions of our population live in unrelenting poverty.

Depression, which if left unchecked, can grow to be such a cancer that it consumes all of society. Obviously cancer cannot allow to prosper, and yet, year-after-year we citizens allow it to spread. In George Mantios’s essay “Class in America” he commented on the accommodation to this disease.

“Approximately 13% of the American population- that is nearly one out of eight people in this country-live below the official poverty line…an estimated 3.5 million people-of whom nearly 1.4 million are children-experience homelessness in any given year.(306)

Such a fact has remained an unchanging feature on the social landscape of America. All of this unrelenting poverty could be ended under a socialistic system, yet, as of now, continues to be forced on the middle and lower classes.

Within socialism, the money based caste system of capitalism would be a thing of the past. Thus, is how the disbanding of the social economic system would begin within the United States. Currently, American society is invisibly divided into artificial constructs called “classes.” These parasites anchor themselves on every human and feast off their race, nationality, religion, and sexual orientation in order to keep themselves alive.

However, capitalism would never allow such an event to transpire, for its very existence depends on people being divided. Abraham Lincoln once said, “A house divided cannot stand.” Currently, the working class does not even have a house, and as such, it is impossible for them to do anything but grovel for leftovers. To survive, capitalism demands everyone bicker amongst themselves regarding superficial occurrences. Occurrences which have no real basis in reality, or within human behavior; monetary occurrences, is the exact problem in other words.

Release from wage slavery would carry enormous benefits for the working class. No longer would people be forced to work strenuous hours for little pay and even less respect. No more would co-workers feud over petty differences, no more would bosses and employees tear at each other throats, arguing over management; and finally, no more domineering overseers screaming the impossible.

All of those results bring nothing but progress. Progress for workers, progress for families, and progress for humanity is all delivered. Socialism brings into existence order where before there was chaos. It does this but using another transformation used in conjunction with the elimination of classes; the absolution of poverty. According to George Mantios’s “Class in America” essay “The wealthiest 1% holds 34% of the national income. (306)” An astronomical statistic for anyone who ever saw one! Redistributing wealth for use towards more social oriented purposes not only would halt this gross misdistribution, and halt “…the level of inequality…(308)” but germinate productive citizenry as well.

Without the need to possess an occupation which subjects the worker to grueling hours, every person would be free to spend their time as they wished. Play, family rearing, and independent education would inevitably grow exponentially, which in turn would create happier more productive workers during their shifts. The beneficiary to this change would be the gross national output, a statistic which would grow to incredible heights since more people would be working and producing more. This would, in turn, provide a higher quality of education to everyone, instead of to a privileged minority. No more would humankind exploit one another- such a destiny is impossible under capitalism however.

Within a socialistic system these indispensible people-teachers-would be treated with the respect, and wages, that they deserve. All educators would belong to a union, one which fights for better wages and tenure. Also included would be a failsafe system which protects these vital peoples from unjust right-wing attacks. These promotions would increase classroom learning, thereby giving even more spirit for teachers to better their pupils. Pupils would, in turn, begin formulating new ideas about the world around them, instead of recycling the old ideas of the past; as Mantsios said, “In primary and secondary education…formulating new issues in terms of class is unacceptable, perhaps even un-American. (306)” Such a belief would be eradicated under socialism, and all would be free to develop as they pleased.

Bettering would also extend to the school itself, not only to the students. Modern school systems are in a dismal state of disrepair. These are the buildings which literally collapse on the students’ heads, holes in bathroom walls, no heat, and an infestation of roaches and other unwanted pests. These events occur because within a capitalist society racial demographics make up a sizable reasoning behind funding for districts. For those who possess prejudice, it is an easy task to give predominately back and Latino schools less funding than overcrowded white schools.

The solutions to these problems lie in the creation of a new state; a just system which gives to all, instead to but a few. Erecting such a future will not be easy, for there are bound to be many challenges to overcome from reactionary conservative and fascist forces. The will of the people, though, is unstoppable, and such elements will be quickly defeated as will be their lies concerning money. The resources to fulfill these dreams do exist, and must be used for the people. The reward for doing so is a great one: a socialized America, a peaceful America- a reinvented America.

[x359594]

One of the essays I wrote for my ENG101 class last semester.
_____________________


REINVENTING AMERICA: SOCIALISM’S PROMISE


“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need”

-Karl Marx...


A small caveat about your fine essay. The quote above comes from Louis Blanc originally and was repeated by Marx who certainly made it popular.

[Ele'ill]

Sometimes I get way too hung up with creation with not enough time spent on just getting the skeleton out and on paper. As someone else mentioned about music and writing I do find that I use music to edit more than I use it to help with a creative process. Throw it down and rearrange afterwards. You can't rearrange it in that purgatory between mind and paper- that doesn't work very often.

[Firebrand]

I'm trying to see if I can avoid giving any physical description at all of any of the characters in my current project. They do have set genders because of pronouns, but aside from that absolutely nothing. It's partly to prove a point about characters not being defined by their appearance, and it's partly because I think a lot of books spend far too much time on physical descriptions which disrupt the flow of the story, and distract from thoughts and dialogue. (Or I could just be being lazy, and avoiding the things i'm not good at and don't enjoy)

[Futility Personified]

I finished a book of 30 poems a while back, my friend is a graphic designer who's arranging it all for me for free. I'm also trying to write a book, which is up to the eyeballs in drugs, despair, rioting, fear and eventually revolution, but because of it's explicitly political content I don't think anyone would agree to publish it. Can self-publishing bring in enough money to stop me having to work so I can work on the next book?

[Firebrand]

Try sending it in to publishers anyway, you might get lucky. Its surprising some of the stuff they're willing to publish provided they think it will sell. Remember individual capitalist organisations are often perfectly willing to go against the more generalised interests of capitalism in the interests of making a quick buck. If you can get a publisher to publish it it will probably sell a lot better and you are more likely to make enough money not to have to work. If you can't get anyone to publish it then self publish, sometimes if something does well self published a publisher will then pick it up as something with proven potential.

[Firebrand]

Just brought this book "Steering the Craft" by Ursula leGuin, best decision I made all month. Its got loads of useful writing exercises and proper explanations of why things do and don't work.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steering-Craft-Exercises-Discussions-Navigator/dp/0933377460/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391950509&sr=1-1

[Futility Personified]

Thanks for the advice Firebrand! (Sorry for late reply).

[Anarkko]

What do u think?

[bluemangroup]

Here's the first section to my alternate history entitled Beneath the Crimson Banner, which posits a world in which the Soviet Red Army seized Warsaw during the Polish-Soviet War (you can find the link to it in my signature):
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It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

-Jim Connel, “The Red Flag”
---
Beneath the Crimson Banner: A Timeline
---
The Capitulation of White Poland

At the Second Communist International (Comintern) Congress held from July-August 1920, delegates looked on in awe at a large map placed on the wall of the assembly hall as miniature red flags marking the progress of the Red Army moved day-by-day westwards deep into Poland. The Bolsheviks were scoring a rapid flurry of victories there. It was hoped that its conquest would serve as a bridge into Germany, eagerly coveted by Lenin as the October Revolution’s saving grace, which hinged on the success of a European-wide revolution. Over the corpse of White Poland would come the long-awaited world revolution, or so he and the gathered Comintern delegates eagerly believed. Just by looking at the map, red flags constantly shifting, the delegates realized how far their Russian comrades had truly come in the war overall.

The Polish-Soviet War began with several intermittent skirmishes between the Polish and Soviet armies, starting with the taking of eighty Red Army prisoners by the Polish Wilno Detachment at Bereza Kartuska in February 1919. The skirmishes took place along the disputed borderlands, which extended up towards Lithuania and into Belorussia, reaching down south through the Ukraine and beyond. These early clashes were hectic and chaotic, occurring at crossroads, forest trails, and in hedgerows throughout.

The land itself could be cruel, at once oven hot in the summer and icy cold in the winter respectively, the temperature changing with a moment’s notice. A nice autumn afternoon could give way to Siberian extremes with the quick arrival of an east wind. A western storm, if and when it came through a region in colder months, reduced its snowy environs to mud and slush. Frostbite, scathing heat, thick mud, and the like proved to be the bane of an army’s existence, besting even the greatest of generals. It didn’t matter if the terrain to be passed over was that of the northernmost stretches of frozen land, consisting of tiny lakes and vast forests, extending for some six-hundred miles from Warsaw to Moscow. Nor did it matter if it was the centermost system of streams, ponds, and canals interspersed with meadows, willow glades, and birch groves running from Minsk to Smolensk and down into Kiev; the borderlands remained entirely inhospitable for troops on the march. The Soviets, taking to the offensive and on the move, faced off against an enemy willing to utilize every topographical advantage at its disposal to defend the infant Polish nation from foreign invasion.

Both sides wanted to dominate these forbidding borderlands, and for different reasons; the Poles yearned for a reclamation of soil once considered a part of the expansive seventeenth-century Kingdom of Poland, a proud state stretching from the Baltic to the Black Seas, encompassing the Oder and Dnieper Rivers. The Bolshevik regime, on the other hand, saw the borderlands as a bridge into Europe, through which they could spread revolution abroad. Needless to say, the Soviets would cross through the borderlands first.

As the Allied Powers made peace with an exhausted Germany, Soviet troops had initially ventured into the borderlands hoping that the fragile Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania-Belorussia (LBSSR) would remain intact in the heady year of 1918, when the global revolutionary conflagration seemed just within reach. The Polish Army meanwhile, possessing a varied assortment of weapons gathered up from foreign fronts, attacked the LBSSR’s capital at Wilno with the aim of establishing Greater Poland. Pilsudski personally led the campaign for its control, the city falling quickly despite fierce fighting after workers unexpectedly switched sides. The Soviets, spread thin between Wilno and Lida with control over a key railway junction, were met by a Polish force feinting an assault on Lida and moving to seize Wilno with rapidity. The cavalry of Colonel Belina-Prazmowiski, along with infantry under General Smigly-Rydz, covered great distances through marsh and forest in a successful attempt to take the city Pilsudski hoped to make the centerpiece of his planned federation.

The erstwhile capital of the LBSSR moved to Minsk, the short-lived state having been effectively liquidated after the Polish seizure of the major Belorussian city.

As consequent peace talks between the Bolsheviks and Poland faltered at Mikaszewicze, the Poles eventually received much sought after Allied aid in the form of rifles, ammunition, uniforms, and aircraft which arrived in force despite the onset of winter. In the spring of 1920 the Reds, having more or less won against the Whites militarily, soon amassed tens of thousands of soldiers on their Western Front in anticipation of settling accounts with Poland.

At once yearning for a restored Polish-Lithuanian federation, Lithuania’s refusal to form one prompted Pilsudski to set his sights on the defunct Ukrainian nationalist government of Simon Petliura, recognized as the head of state of the Ukrainian People’s Republic whose army was put under the total control of the Polish high command. Heading into northwestern Ukraine, the XIV and XII Red Armies were easily pushed aside as the Poles entered Kiev unchallenged. As before, the Bolsheviks were at a severe disadvantage. Short on men and materiel, the vastness of the land and a numerical deficient worked against the Reds. Besides enjoying superiority in numbers, the Poles could count on a mutiny of the XII and XIV Armies’ Galician brigades and the hit-and-run tactics of Nestor Makhno’s anti-Bolshevik guerilla fighters. Kiev’s defenses crumbled as the Bolshevik forces retreated from the city.

General Mikhail Tukhachevsky was given command of the Western Front to meet this grave threat, Pilsudski’s forces having crossed the Dnepr River and formed a bridgehead along the eastern bank. The Poles could look towards Moscow, victory seemingly in sight. If there was a time when the war seemed irretrievably lost for the Reds, it was then, however temporary this fact proved to be.

A young nobleman who had turned his expert military services over to the Bolsheviks, Tukhachevsky possessed military cunning and a knack for the daring offensive, planning to strike north against the invading Poles from his headquarters in Smolensk. He was to win much glory for implanting Bolshevism into Poland, likening himself to the conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte, his idol. The class war, or the national war according to some, would be waged against Poland with the full might of the Red Army behind the youthful general.

Elsewhere on the Western Front, the 1st Red Calvary Army, formed from a smattering of former Cossacks, partisans, and bandits, prepared to hit back against Pilsudski after having recently annihilated the counterrevolutionary Army of South Russia under Denikin. Armed to the teeth and grouped together around four divisions, backed by three air squadrons along with an armored train set aside for each division, the so-called Calvary Army under Semyon Mikhaylovich Budennyi was a force to be reckoned with.

Budennyi, a Red cavalry officer, would serve valiantly throughout the war with Poland. Tall, athletic, and an excellent rider, Budennyi caught the notice of his superiors during the civil war in Tsaritsyn whereat he distinguished himself through his daring behavior and industriousness. Put in command of the Konarmiya, the Cavalry Army, the dashing horse rider had found his niche in the civil war-era Red Army.

Consisting of thousands of mounted horsemen, their sabers shining resplendently in the sun and wearing brown cloaks and astrakhan caps, Budennyi’s cavalry was to take part in the Red Army’s counteroffensive in the Ukraine. The plan to take back Kiev would see the XII Army headed by Golikov cross the Dnieper and cut Kiev off from the Korosten railway to the north. Budennyi’s riders pierced through the Polish line on June 5th, the Korosten railway cut shortly there afterwards, encircling the Polish III Army. Kiev was evacuated on June 10th. Due to the breakthrough, the Red Army would make steady headway into the south, meeting little opposition from Pilsudski’s troops and allowing for the fight to be taken to Poland.

With the Western Army Group based in Belorussia under Tukhachevsky, and the Southwestern Army Group in the Ukraine under Commander-in-Chief Kamenev, the Red Army launched a massive counteroffensive. Tukhachevsky pushed forwards, crossing the Berezina and Gaina Rivers before rolling up his opponents’ left-wing and taking back Minsk. Commanding the XVI, III, XV, and IV Red Armies along with the 3rd Calvary Corps under the Armenian Bolshevik Gaia Gai, Tukhachevsky continued his ambitious assault. The 8th, 10th, and 5th divisions belonging to the IV Army managed to encircle the Poles and take Grodno. At once having driven the Polish forces out of the eastern borderlands completely, Tukhachevsky and his armies crossed the river Bug after meeting a determined Polish counterattack, which was effortlessly defeated. The Red Army had now positioned itself a few miles from Warsaw, expecting not only Warsaw but all major European cities to turn red in the immediate future.

Colonel Kamenev had sent some of his forces northwards towards Brest to support Tukhachevsky, the columns of Budennyi and Egorov moving in the direction of Warsaw. Backed by the additional XII and XIV Armies belonging to Kamenev, Tukhachevsky overwhelmed the stubborn Polish commanders defending Warsaw through sheer force of numbers and his own tactical genius. Despite the best efforts of the Polish generals Sikorski, Haller, Latinik, Raszewski, and Zielinski, who were put in charge of the defense of the northern Wkra River front and the northeastern Vistula bridgehead, they squared off against Tukhachevsky armed with Napoleonic era artillery at worst and the occasional machine gun or tank at best.

Pilsudski made his stand, withdrawing his forces to Warsaw to make the Russians cross vast distances in an effort to buy time. As before, the immense expanse of land worked to his advantage, allowing him to make serious preparations to hold the capital at all costs. Shut away in the Belvedere Palace, he must have contemplated the fate of his newborn nation as the Red Army reached the gates of Warsaw, eager to take it and thus end Poland’s independence in one broad stroke.

The Polish Northern Front, commanded by General Haller, was tasked with defending a front going from the northern Prussian border to Pulawy, situated on the Vistula River. It was hoped that Haller could keep Tukhachevsky occupied while simultaneously defending Warsaw. The Southern Front, commanded by General Waclaw Iwaszkiewicz, would be tasked with defending Lvov and the key Drohobycz oilfields. Pilsudski would lead the Central Front, situated along the Wieprz River, with which he would use to attack Tukhachevsky’s vulnerable underbelly before carrying the multipronged attack into his adversary’s hopefully undefended rear. As he did so, in order for his plan to work, four Bolshevik armies would have to be engaged with the troops of the Northern Front. His striking force, as it was called, would either make or break the successful defense of Warsaw.

Tuckhachevsky, likewise, drew up separate battle plans as well. Gai’s 3rd Calvary Corps would move beyond Warsaw to the west, his orders being to sever the Warsaw-Danzig railway upon crossing the Vistula. The IV Army, under Aleksandr Shuvayev, would advance alongside Gai and cross the Vistula as to position itself squarely northwest of Warsaw. Kork’s XV Army would attack Modlin before moving south. Lazarevich’s III Army was to shift its full weight onto Warsaw from a northeasterly direction. Sollohub’s XVI Army would hit the capital from the east, the Mozyr Group protecting its flank. Tuckhachevsky’s own flank would be secured by the XII Army and Budennyi’s Calvary Army, both of which were now attached to the Western Army Group, pleasing Kamenev greatly. The colonel’s concern that Tuckhackevsky’s rear would remain insecure was soon enough alleviated. As such, Tuckhackevsky was able to shift his newly arrived forces around to a certain degree across other fronts, while still being able to adequately protect his flank.

Pilsudski left Warsaw for nearby Pulawy, the site of his new headquarters, appearing tired and depressed. Realizing that his gamble might not work, or that he wouldn’t get a chance to even carry it out, he had already made preparations to resign as commander-in-chief of the army and head of state. Taking over the reins of the army himself as he had at Wilno, he banked the fate of the nation on the ability of his striking force to enter the battle at the exact moment.

Sollohub of the Red Army would make the first move, attacking General Fraciszek Latinik’s dug-in position along the east bank of the Vistula. The Polish I Army’s 11th division fled in the course of the assault, chased to the town of Radzymin, which fell as the 11th division left the town.

While Radzymin was to be retaken, the Northern Front’s V Army under Sikorski would spearhead an offensive away from the town. However, the V Army was badly outnumbered and outgunned. Furthermore, the frontline running between East Prussia’s frontier and Modlin was broken through by Gai’s 3rd Calvary Corps. Ordered by Haller to lead a diversionary attack to relieve pressure from I Army’s impending counterattack at Radzymin, the commander of V Army found himself in a tight predicament. He dutifully struck out at the XV and III Red Armies with his scant forces regardless, meeting defeat. Much of the Wkra River fell to the advancing Reds as a result, just as the I Army made its move.

The attempt to take back Radzymin was rebuffed, the Red Army seizing control of Ossow, henceforth putting itself one step closer to victory. In fact, Sollohub was in a prime position to take Warsaw in one fell swoop. He just had to seize the opportunity.

In Warsaw proper, Bolshevized workers carried out acts of sabotage. Citizens prayed at churches packed with people, expecting the Virgin Mary to save them in their nation’s darkest hour. Pilsudski’s underground military organization started to stockpile grenades at the windows of buildings scattered throughout the city, gun toting scouts and a women’s battalion the only forces on hand to defend the streets of Warsaw.

The honor of capturing Warsaw fell to Sollohub, who readily and eagerly exploited his fortuitous momentum as he advanced forth from Ossow. He would enter a city that had lost the will to fight. The scouts and the women’s battalion offered up no tangible resistance, harmlessly melting away into nothingness when faced with the unsettling prospect of fighting a superior, professional force. The only serious fight back came from the buildings within which Pilsudski’s men had been gathering up grenades at the windows. They fought the Reds until vanquished, the valiant soldiers who were fervently loyal to Poland holding their ground nearly down to the last man. Survivors, however few, were simply shot.

The rest of the Polish Army ingloriously caved in upon hearing of Warsaw’s sudden and unexpected takeover, losing the stomach to fight along with its faith in Pilsudski. As it was, he hadn’t been able to utilize his striking force, a fact rendered null and void by what had just transpired. Furthermore, whether or not the Polish Army was still capable of beating the Red Army in the field, even after the soul shattering fall of Warsaw, would prove to be a moot point as well. Considering the dire circumstances facing the Polish defenders, it would have been highly unlikely, given the superiority in leadership, numbers, and morale of the Red Army. Perhaps they could have won, perhaps not. It would’ve taken nothing short of a miracle, it can be said, for the Poles to have won the Battle of Warsaw and therefore ensure the continued independence of their stillborn nation. But counterfactuals, ‘what ifs’ as they are popularly known amongst the general public, are seldom pondered by the scholar of history. For the historian, understanding what actually happened is more important than otherwise fruitlessly wondering how our world would have been had events turned out differently.

A coup occurring not long after Warsaw’s fall allowed the Bolsheviks to bring Lithuania back into the fold as a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). The Lithuanian SSR was promptly rewarded with Wilno and neighboring lands, the spoils of war.

The delegates to the Second Comintern Congress had adjourned before the seizure of Warsaw, although the best representatives of the international proletariat nonetheless traveled back to their respective countries no doubt hearing shortly thereafter of White Poland’s capitulation. The anticipated European-wide revolution did not occur immediately, however. Instead, the resulting Peace of Minsk carved up Poland in a shrewd show of realpolitik. The Belorussian and Ukrainian SSRs were significantly enlarged, the Ukrainian SSR having been given control over Lvov and the surrounding region encompassing the industrial city. Upper Silesia, the Polish Corridor, and other border territories were ceded to Weimar Germany, the triumphant Red Army linking up with the Reichswehr to aid the Germans in their revanchist endeavors. The remaining central-most portion of Poland barring Galicia was reorganized into the Polish SSR under the leadership of the Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee, which at once set to work nationalizing factories and redistributing land to gain the support of Polish workers and peasants, the capital of the embryonic Polish SSR based in newly-conquered Warsaw. An independent Poland, so shortly after having been formed out of the chaos of world war, was no more.

[bluemangroup]

Here's the second section to my alternate history Beneath the Crimson Banner, entitled Look to the West:

---
Look to the West
---

The Second Comintern Congress had, prior to adjourning, formulated several important decisions, the most notable of which was the twenty-one conditions laying down strict guidelines for entry by a new party into the Comintern.

The congress also took a stance on the utilization of traditional forms of struggle, primarily parliamentary politics and trade unionism, to further the interests of revolutionaries operating in Europe. This recommended form of revolutionary strategy was in keeping with Lenin’s views hashed out in his influential ‘Left-wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder, attacking the communist ‘lefts’ for their aversion to participation in parliaments and trade unions. With its emphasis on making tactical compromises at the expense of stubbornly held ideological principles, the important work set the stage for the upcoming congress, the book itself having been given out to congress delegates upon their arrival.

Communist parties were actively encouraged to struggle within parliament, running candidates and participating in elections with the final aim of smashing the bourgeois representative institution. All that was needed to achieve this goal, in the opinion of Lenin and his fellow Bolsheviks, was the winning of mass support. At the same time, the communists were to remain pure and close knit. Still, this was harder said than done, no doubt contradictory in practice.


The struggle within the trade unions went side-by-side with the running of candidates in parliament, with a similar logic behind both tactics. British, Italian, and American participants in the Second Comintern Congress, feeling that the trade unions associated with the moribund Second International had betrayed the workers, were eager to gather communist workers into independent bodies separate from the old unions. Zinoviev, likewise, proved to be a staunch supporter of creating a new international organization designed to consolidate the much talked about red trade unions as an alternative to yellow unionism. As such, a rebirth of the European trade union movement was eagerly sought by the Russian Marxists, albeit one distinct from the reformist Amsterdam International linked to the traitorous Social-Democrats. A Red International of Trade Unions was eventually formed, spreading propaganda with the intent of winning over workers from yellow unions.

European communists were slow to organize.

In Britain, there existed only a desperate smattering of various left leaning groups operating throughout the country. Trade unionists, shop stewards, feminists, and various others advocating struggle both legal and illegal would coalesce into the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Sylvia Pankhurst’s Socialist Workers’ Federation spearheaded the push to form the CPGB, effectively gathering up all of these isolated movements into a single large grouping. Her party, at its founding congress held on August 1st, 1920 in London, advocated participation in parliament and affiliation with the Labour Party.

A French communist party had been formed from the French Socialist Party, the latter of which was considered a reformist party that had committed the grave sin of supporting the war effort. A scattering of French syndicalists, confused by the French Socialist Party’s betrayal of class struggle and lacking any decisive leadership, gingerly opened up diplomatic channels with the broader European left. Loriot and Rosmer, two ardent French radicals, soon took the initiative and orientated their budding communist movement closer to the Comintern. In time, the Communist Party of France (PCF) would be created out of the ashes of the defunct Second International.

Bordiga, representing the left-wing in the Italian Socialist Party, arrayed his supporters against the right and center factions of the party. At the party’s congress held at Leghorn in January of 1921, Serrati’s hundred thousand strong center pushed the right out of the party, not willing to tolerate divergence from the official party line. After the predominately center congress voted to leave the Comintern, Bordiga and the left consequently went on to form the Italian Communist Party. (PCI)

New communist parties would appear throughout the whole of Europe, in the center as in the periphery, most of which remained relatively minor.

The most important major communist party in Europe to the Bolsheviks, without a doubt, was the German Communist Party (KPD). Leaders of the Spartakusbund, during the tumultuous German revolution, would form the KPD.

The revolution was sparked by mass unrest sweeping through the naval base in the port city of Kiel, lowly sailors turning against their officers in the waning days of the Great War.

The Navy High Command, eager to retain its honor, ordered the High Seas Fleet to steam out of harbor with the intent of locking horns with the much stronger British Grand Fleet. Realizing that they would all surely perish in a clearly lopsided battle against the British, which could only end in the total destruction of the High Seas Fleet, on the third of November around twenty thousand enraged sailors and dockworkers gathered at an exercise field just outside of the city. The many sailors hailing from the German Empire’s few remaining battleships and destroyers refused to commit suicide, all in the interest of safeguarding the ‘honor’ of their officers. Opting instead to liberate 180 of their fellow sailors from the battleship Markgraf, they marched up Feldstrasse singing the Internationale and carrying blazing torches, emboldened by fiery speeches from such colorful men as the naval stoker Karl Altelt and Arthur Popp of the Independent Social-Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), both of whom called for the Kaiser’s immediate abdication and the creation of a workers’ and sailors’ soviet. The marchers were promptly fired upon by counterrevolutionary volunteer sailors under the command of the reactionary Lieutenant Steinhauser, resulting in the deaths of numerous individuals within the sizable crowd.

Consequently, after having regrouped shortly after the shootings, the mutineers broke into arms lockers found both on their respective ships as well as on the mainland. The German revolution had begun.

Makeshift soviets embracing workers, peasants, soldiers, and sailors were formed nationwide, deepening the revolutionary foment spreading across an ailing nation tired of war.

Events moved quickly.

The Imperial German Army continued to fight fiercely on French and Belgian territory, machine gunners selflessly allowing their comrades-in-arms making up the bulk of the army to retreat by tying down tens of thousands of U.S. forces streaming through the Argonne Forest in droves.

General Ludendorff, getting cold feet upon seeing his forces crumble before him in the face of total defeat, found himself out of power as the Kaiser replaced the dictatorial military junta with a civilian chancellorship under Prince Max. The new chancellor, eager to put a final end to the bloody and entirely pointless fighting on the Western Front, ridded himself of the likes of Ludendorff, which allowed him to begin the gradual process of negotiating a binding peace treaty strictly on President Woodrow Wilson’s terms; the U.S. president did not want to hammer out a lasting peace with either paternalistic generals or even the Kaiser himself.

The monarchy was fatefully ended by Prince Max on November 9th by having the humiliated Kaiser abdicate from the throne, as a pragmatic means to put a lid on rising discontent in the capital and elsewhere. The long ruling and proud Hohenzollern dynasty had ceased to exist.

Germany was now a republic.

At the behest of Prince Max and fellow Majority Socialists, Friedrich Ebert was declared the new chancellor during a brief meeting in Berlin at the Chancellery Library. Prince Max simply wished him the best of luck before leaving Ebert to his own devices, probably half expecting to himself that the overweight forty-seven-year-old saddle-maker turned party stalwart could make do with what little means he had at his disposal.

Dissent faced the new, unproven chancellor on all sides.

In Bavaria, a nascent republic wholly independent from conservative, highly centralized Prussian rule was decisively proclaimed by a workers’ and soldiers’ soviet just two days before the Kaiser’s reign had ended. The aging Jewish social-democrat Kurt Eisner, a former amateur satirist and vocal antiwar political prisoner, merely strode into the local Munich parliament with his supporters close behind him and took charge. This was made possible after the traditional state leader, Ludwig III of Bavaria, a family member of the royal House of Wittelsbach, fled the disorder rocking the state in the wake of the collapse of the Reich. The plain fact that he had the broad support of the masses staunchly behind him was underscored by the gigantic crowd that had gathered on the westernmost side of the Theresienwiese field, enamored by powerful rhetoric delivered by dedicated socialists telling their audience to take power.

Although Bavaria possessed a long history first of independence and then loose autonomy after the unification of all German kingdoms, duchies, principalities, and free cities by Bismarck after 1871, Eisner chose to recognize the authority of Chancellor Ebert’s Berlin regime. The hero of the people had spoken. He had managed to put aside his many differences with the ruling chancellor as to offer up reconciliation, soon to be followed by the complete reintegration of the self-proclaimed Republic of Bavaria back into Germany. It was no surprise, then, that the Munich Landtag elections held on January 12th proved overwhelmingly favorable to the somewhat short, big black hat wearing suited politician and his Independent Socialist comrades.

Berlin, on the other hand, was blighted by a bloody uprising led by the Spartakusbund. Chancellor Ebert had every right to feel nervous as he walked ceaselessly around his office, for Berlin had been gripped by a feverish frenzy of riots and strikes in recent days. The streets were devoid of police, the guns from the local police headquarters distributed generously amongst liberated political prisoners by the Independent Socialist and new ‘police commissioner’ Emil Eichhorn. While Karl Liebknecht rallied Berlin’s surging proletariat around the red banner of labor, Rosa Luxemburg worked relentlessly on Die Rote Fahne, as to best get the revolutionary word out through the use of a captured printing press seized from a more conservative, soon to be dissolved political force.

Chancellor Friedrich Ebert, luckily, not only had the support of the army behind him but that of the Freikorps as well. War veterans bound together as brothers through the hell of a war that had been ended only months before on November 11th, these defeated but proud warriors were eager to cleanse Berlin and ultimately all of Germany of the traitorous Red menace.

Communist units, sporting red armbands that had spontaneously become symbolic of the quickly unfolding revolution, took over Berlin’s railway stations. Crack shots situated high above the city atop the Brandenburg Gate covered the main avenue leading into the very heart of the capital. Ever patient, the first Freikorps men of the Potsdam Regiment entered the city while the iron was still hot on the ninth of January, chewing up an office building defended by the Reds with trench mortars and machineguns. Holes were blasted into the collapsing roof while machinegun fire cut through windows mercilessly. As heavy artillery was brought to bear against the defenders, now cowering deep within the walls of the office building, tanks and armored cars tore away at the already collapsing structure with awesome firepower. Potato masher grenades, for good measure, were thrown through shattered windows bathed shortly thereafter in fire sent forth from hulking flamethrowers wielded by the most daring of Freikorps veterans. The white flag of surrender had been raised by the few surviving communists without any hesitation.

The Freikorps next fanned out through the city, seizing control of ‘Red Berlin’ in its entirety, facing almost no opposition as they did so.

Searing, bright searchlights shone directly onto buildings emanating from armored cars, which ran their way lazily down the streets of Berlin’s working-class districts. Armed foot patrols only added to the sense of sheer terror that must have been felt by the average proletarian watching in stunned silence the grim spectacle unfolding before them. Luxemburg and Liebkneckt, both hiding from the marauding counterrevolutionary bands of ex-soldiers in the same nondescript apartment building, managed to slip away undetected in the dead of night. They fled south to Bavaria in search of refuge. All that it would have taken for them to be arrested and probably murdered was a simple tipoff given by an informed citizen passing by a foot patrol. But no such informed citizen came by a patrol who was at the same time eager to see the two treasonous radicals executed.

In the aftermath of the crushing of the Red uprising in Berlin, the defiant KPD leadership held the Heidelberg Congress, which got its name from the Hamburg neighborhood in which it was secretly convened.

Levi, the thirty-six-year-old son of a banker with a penchant for luxurious bourgeois living, led the party congress in the absence of Luxemburg and Liebkneckt, both of whom were welcomed with open arms by the Independent Socialist Eisner once they finally arrived safely into Munich.

The Zentral asserted that the German revolution was to be a long, drawn out process of trial and error. Levi likewise asserted at the congress that the KPD should focus solely on participation in the Reichstag and in the trade unions respectively. In this way, class consciousness could and ultimately would be developed slowly amongst the proletariat by the communists.

The model of federalism within the party was adopted, as to better unify the KPD’s scattered local activists. A motion condemning passive resistance and sabotage was furthermore narrowly carried by a vote of 25 to 23, much to the disappointment of the leftist faction in the KPD; the leftist faction was represented by a varied grouping of men such as Laufenberg, Wolffeim, Wender, Becker, and numerous others, all of whom disagreed sharply with Levi’s antagonistic policies.

However, the KPD would remain wholly united despite deep divisions brought forth by the several controversial motions passed as part of the overarching theses. Radek managed to get a letter sent to Levi just in time while the congress was still in session, discouraging the petty-bourgeois intellectual from forcing an unnecessary split in the party. Levi, agreeing upon reading it, simply dropped the motion forcing leftist dissenters out of the KPD.

The finalized theses as championed by Levi was promptly adopted by an overwhelming majority of delegates.

Although the leftist opposition grumbled a bit, they regardless stayed within the ranks of the party.

By March of 1920, discontent amongst officers with the Treaty of Versailles that had been forced onto the country against the prestige of the military simmered. The officers wanted known war criminals to be sent back to Germany as free men, discontented further still by the strict provisions of the treaty that significantly chipped away at the size and strength of the armed forces.

General von Luttwitz, who believed himself to be the direct successor to Hindenburg, sought to protect the honor and tradition of the army whatever the costs.

The ambitious general absolutely loathed the Weimar government, which he viewed as fickle. Martial law was to be the answer to the impotence of the republic. To do this, he arranged a conspiracy with generals Enrhardt and Ludendorff along with the Prussian director of agriculture Wolfgang Kapp, the latter of whom installed himself in the Chancellery after Enrhardt occupied Berlin with his troops.

Imperial tricolor flags flew on all public buildings once the autocracy was firmly established in place of republicanism as personified and led by Defense Minister Gustav Noske and President (formerly Chancellor) Ebert. In a panic, both leaders along with bureaucrats too numerous to name would flee to Dresden hoping to be protected by the loyalist General Maerchker.

The organized left was quick to act. Legien, a staunch revisionist and notorious supporter of class collaboration, nonetheless immediately convened a meeting of the General Commission of Trade Unions to oppose the putsch. The defense of the republic was to be the watchword of the day.

Due to the glaring differences between the moderate socialists and their radical counterparts, two separate centers of struggle based off of the trade unions were formed. The All-German General Trade Unions (ADGB), the Free Trade Unions (AFA), and various civil servants’ associations were led by the SPD, while the USPD and the KPD drew together left leaning labor union leaders around them in Berlin, Rusch, and elsewhere.

Fights soon erupted between workers and soldiers across Germany.

In Chemnitz, an Arbeiterwehr was created to defend the nascent committee of action, which included all trade unions and workers’ parties. The hastily formed workers’ militia took over control of the local police station, post office, and city hall. A similar committee of action inspired by the one created in Chemnitz was also formed in Stettin.

Armed clashes raged in Leipzig, Frankfurt, Halle, and in Kiel where another munity had taken place, the sailors of the Wilhelmshaven port arresting their commander Admiral von Leventzow and a coterie of officers.

A Ruhr Red Army was hastily cobbled together in Hagen by the miner Stemmer and the metal worker Josef Ernst, who sent off 2,000 armed workers to Wetter to bolster workers there battling the local Freikorps. In time, Dortmund would be seized by the Ruhr Red Army.

In the economically depressed region of Erzgebirg-Vogtlang, KPD activist Max Hoelz organized a Red Guard made up of the unemployed and youth. His loose, ragtag force stormed the prison at Ploven as its first dramatic act of resistance. To finance his army, bank and shop assets were seized. The daring commander, who was treated by workers as a modern-day Robin Hood after having improved the food supply to working-class districts, would continue to harass isolated Reichswehr detachments during the opening stages of the German Civil War. Although his adventurous actions were condemned by the KPD Zentral at first, his urban guerilla warfare tactics were reluctantly recognized as decisive in the fight against the reactionaries once the civil war initially began. As a result, Max Hoelz was given a surprising amount of autonomy even after the creation of a formal, national Red Army in the early days of the conflict.

Back in Berlin, the Kapp regime couldn’t even get a single poster set up as the trains stopped and the trams all the same. Water, gas, and electricity supplies were also severed. Kapp would desperately open up negotiations with Vice-Chancellor Schiffner, representative of the legitimate Bauer government. Meanwhile, General Groener began negotiations with President Ebert around the same time.

By March 17th it looked as if the tottering regime of Wolfgang Kapp would swiftly crumble.

But the dying order brought to power by military fiat chose to go down with a blaze of glory. Against the wishes of Berlin’s leading industrialists, General von Luttwitz ordered the mass shooting of workers in the capital. The first shots were fired in the Berlin working-class district of Neukolln, which only resulted in much bloodshed and, detrimentally to the military dictatorship, a mass demonstration of workers down the streets of the capital. Armed with weapons given to them by fraternizing Reichswehr troops, the Chancellery where Kapp still stayed despite everything was stormed by the unwashed masses who clashed with any remaining Reichswehr men outside who had yet to see the writing on the wall.

In only a few days of fierce fighting, the capital was under the total control of armed workers, who at once set up a committee of action and an accompanying military committee to oversee the creation of a Red Guard workers’ militia.

The legitimate Weimar government leaders, now based in Stuttgart under the protection of General Bergmann after Maerchker had earlier fallen out of favor, were furious. However, with the capital firmly under the control of the Red Guard, there was little that that they could do about it.

Meanwhile, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebkneckt ventured forth from Munich over to Berlin. The capital had changed greatly since it first fell to those wishing to restore the Reich; the KPD, SPD, and USPD party branches had been revived, while a Berlin Soviet had been setup by the masses just prior to the reestablishment of traditional party politics.

Luxemburg at once began working on Die Rote Fahne again, writing a relentless flurry of fiery articles calling primarily for the convening of a Second All-Germany Congress of Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies to take place in the capital.

At the time, there were only two soviets, one in Chemnitz and the other in the Ruhr. However, the nation was pockmarked due to the unrest by a series of vollusrate or executive committees, which would quickly push to form proper regional soviets. These regional soviets would immediately dissolve all municipalities, fix rents and rates, and implement universal labor service, in doing so effectively dissolving the bourgeois state at the local level.

It was amidst this hopeful atmosphere that Radek returned to Berlin with the reopening of the Russian legation.

The nature of what form the new revolutionary regime would take took center stage in the various debates and speeches put forth at the fractious, heated, and sometime chaotic Second All-Germany Soviet Congress.

Radek, along with Luxemburg, Liebneckt, and the three fellow German communist leaders Pieck, Heckert, and Brandler had Lenin’s sincere endorsement when it came to the creation of a multiparty ‘socialist-communist’ government.

Already, while in Munich, Luxemburg and Liebneckt had taken the left faction of the wavering USPD with them. The majority left faction merged with the KPD, greatly augmenting the already powerful presence of the KPD at the congress. The KPD, due to the merger, would become known henceforth as the United Communist Part of Germany (VKPD)

It became clear, as the tense proceedings wore on, that the right-wing SPD deputies had become sidelined by those left SPD deputies not willing to take orders from President Ebert in far off Stuttgart. The left deputies voted unanimously in favor of a ‘socialist-communist’ government, which would be ruled jointly by the VKPD and the left-wing of the SPD respectively. (The SPD leftists soon took to calling themselves ‘Left Social-Democrats,’ forming a splinter party) The right-wing Congressional section consisting of a rump USPD and the rightist, now separate SPD remained in direct opposition to the nascent Soviet government, whose delegates vacated the Congress hall and vowed to staunchly support the ‘proper authorities’ in Stuttgart.

A new Council of People’s Deputies was created at the Congress to replace the old one, with Liebneckt serving as Volksbeauftragten Chairman and Luxemburg as Secretary.

The Second All-Germany Soviet Congress wrapped up by announcing the holding of a tribunal to punish Generals Ludendorff and Hindenburg, among others, for their part in leading the proletarian masses to their deaths in the Great War (The measure was passed at Rosa Luxemburg’s behest, who had proposed such a measure in her earlier writings dating back to the first revolutionary setbacks of 1918-19, much to her utmost pleasure) and the creation of a security organ designed to combat counterrevolution; yearning to distance themselves from naming it after the dreaded Cheka, the Congress delegates on Levi’s urging agreed to name the regime’s new security organ the VolksPolizeiamt (People’s Police Office).

At its closing, the delegates elected an executive committee to function as the supreme organ of executive and legislative power to govern when the Soviet German Congress was not in session. Work also began on the drafting of a constitution for the United German Socialist Republic, the laborous process put aside only because the defense of the revolution was paramount at the moment. Regardless, a preamble modeled closely after the Bolshevist Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People was nonetheless created to be implemented in the future constitution.

Swiftly, the Volksbeauftragten sprang into action, issuing a seemingly relentless torrent of revolutionary decrees. Decrees were issued unifying Berlin’s numerous factories under factory committee control, nationalizing banking and, at Luxemburg’s insistence, socializing childcare and providing quality care for the elderly and universal healthcare.

Ever zealous, Luxemburg sought to not only abolish the nation’s war and munitions industries but also to collectivize agriculture. Liebkneckt, as Volksbeauftragten Chairman, had the final say, however. After consulting with the respective People’s Deputy for Trade and Industry and the People’s Deputy for Agriculture, he chided her.

He pointed out to her that the revolutionary regime must be armed, up to an including the formation of a ‘Socialist Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’ on the Bolshevik model. As for the agricultural question, he merely pointed to Lenin’s failed attempt to organize Committees of Poor Peasants in the Russian countryside. Luxemburg had wanted to mobilize the landless proletarians and poorer peasants against the rich ‘rural bloodsuckers.’ As for collectivization, assuming that it was to begin at all, the bold move would have to be a gradual process of trial and error. For the time being, he told her, the Soviet government must refrain from antagonizing the peasantry as a whole by abolishing small land holdings and inciting class warfare in the villages. A Decree on Land was promptly issued by Liebkneckt, clearly announcing the redistribution of land and nothing more.

Hungary, too, likewise caught the attention of the Bolsheviks. The young soviet republic there would serve to add a second European nation to the revolutionary camp. Despite its backwardness, developments in the small nation of Hungary were watched closely.