Thanksgiving Is Ruined

The Personal is Political. The Political is Personal.

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November 23, 2017
 






Remembering the Ten Days that Shook Thanksgiving


 


 


To pick up on the thread of TiR’s previous (and as always, pointless) post:


This month’s 100-year anniversary enables the further ruthless interrogation of this blog’s (pointless) namesake proposition, with another dive into the historical record.


. . . Especially to attempt to answer further the question:  Why exactly did it all kick off, anyway? 


Was it the desire for bread? 


For peace?


For freedom? 


 


Of could there have been some other, heretofore overlooked factor??


 


TiR leaves it to the reader to decide that last question, by means of the below VI quotes – each from throughout that crucial year exactly a century ago, presented chronologically.   Perhaps the attentive reader will detect a certain recurring, drumbeat theme.


Each quote reproduced guaranteed 100% verbatim – TiR    a s s u r e s    you.   


 


 


 


3/19/17:


The following is an absolute secret. Please reply to me immediately and, perhaps, best by express (I think we won’t ruin the Party OR ITS THANKSGIVING (EDIT: TOO LATE ON THE LATTER) by a dozen extra express letters), so that I can be sure no one has read the letter.




 


 


3/26/17:


However, it was not our impatience, nor our wishes, but the objective conditions created by the imperialist war that brought the whole of humanity to an impasse, that placed it in a dilemma: either allow the destruction of more millions of lives and utterly ruin European civilization AND BY EXTENSION ITS THANKSGIVING, or hand over power in all the civilised countries to the revolutionary proletariat, carry through the socialist revolution.




 


 


3/30/17:


The least confidence in this respect either in Milyukov or in Kerensky (an empty chatterer, an agent of the Russian imperialist bourgeoisie in his objective role) would be simply ruinous for the working-class movement and for our Party AND FOR OUR THANKSGIVING.




 


 


4/17:


The masses must be made to see that Blancism is ruining THANKSGIVING and will utterly ruin the further success of the revolution UNTIL IT EVEN MORE CLOSELY RESEMBLES THANKSGIVING IN THIS RESPECT.


Blancism


 


 


4/4/17:


It’s all talk! Talk, flattery of the revolutionary people, is the only thing that has ruined all revolutions AND ALL THANKSGIVINGS. . . . This point of view spells ruin for socialism, AND  EVEN THE MOST UNLETTERED PEASANTS  KNOW THAT TO SPELL “RUIN” IS EFFECTIVELY ALSO TO SPELL “THANKSGIVING.”


Report at a meeting of Bolshevik Delegates to the All-Russia Conference of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies”


 


 


4/14-22/17:


All countries are on the brink of ruin (OVER THE BRINK OF WHICH ALREADY HAVE FALLEN THEIR THANKSGIVINGS); people must realise this; there is no way out except through a socialist revolution.




 


 


4/24-29/17:


The present war, therefore, has brought humanity to an impasse and placed it on the brink of ruin, AND IF IT PLUMMETS OVER THAT BRINK, WHAT WILL IT FIND THERE WAITING?  PRECISELY THIS: THANKSGIVING.


From The Seventh All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(Bolshevik)


 


 


4/29/17:


Small and middle enterprises are being squeezed out and THEIR THANKSGIVINGS ARE BEING ruined at a faster rate than ever.




 


 


5/3/17:


Before the revolution the land belonged to the landowners. That was not called anarchy. And what did that lead to?  It led to a break-down all along the line, to “anarchy” in the fullest sense of the word, i.e., to the utter ruin of the country’S THANKSGIVING, WHICH IN THIS RESPECT WAS REFLECTED IN the ruin of the majority of population.




 


 


5/4/17:


What started this war, what is it being waged for?  . . .They are carving up colonies and seizing territories in the Balkans and in Turkey -- and for this the European peoples must be ruined AS BADLY AS IS THEIR THANKSGIVING, for this we must die, for this we must witness the ruin OF THANKSGIVING (IF WITNESS IT WE DARE), NOT TO MENTION, starvation and death of our families.




 


 


5/5/17:


Economic AND THANKSGIVING-RELATED ruin, crisis, the horrors of war, an impasse from which there is no way out—this is what the capitalists have brought all the nations to.




 


 


5/15/17:


The old division was based on the fact that Britain, in the course of several centuries, had ruined THE THANKSGIVINGS OF her former competitors. . . . This rapid development of capitalism in Germany was the development of a young strong predator, who appeared in the concert of European powers and said: “You ruined THANKSGIVING! ALONG WITH Holland, you defeated France, you have helped yourself to half the world now be good enough to let us have our fair share.”




 


 


5/16/17:


To cloak an unpleasant truth with a deceptive phrase is most harmful and most dangerous to the cause of the proletariat, to the cause of the toiling masses. The truth, however bitter, must be faced squarely. A policy that does not meet this requirement is a ruinous policy AND BY “POLICY” WE NON-DECEPTIVELY MEAN “THANKSGIVING.”




 


 


5/19/17:


The alternatives are either utter ruin OF, YOU GUESSED IT, THANKSGIVING or a revolution against the capitalists. That is how the question stands. That is how the very trend of events poses it.




 


 


5/23/17:


“The country’S THANKSGIVING today is heading for ruin,” says Izvestia’s editorial. Correct. For that very reason it would be unwise today to rely on the conciliatory policy of the petty bourgeoisie, the Narodniks and the Mensheviks, with regard to the capitalists. The country cannot be saved from ruin in that way – NOR, YOU FINE NARODNIKS AND MENSHEVIKS, CAN ITS THANKSGIVING!




 


 


5/29-30/17:


Without universal labour service, the country cannot be saved from THE INEVITABLE ruin OF ITS THANKSGIVING . . . Every person is bound to stand for such measures if he really wishes to save tens of millions OF THANKSGIVINGS from ruin and disaster.




 


 


6/1/17:


Socialists are out to make only the landowners and capitalists “abdicate”. To deal a decisive blow at those who are defying the people the way the colliery owners are doing when they disrupt and ruin production, IF YOU COULD CALL IT THAT, OF THANKSGIVING, it is sufficient to make a few hundred, at the most one or two thousand, millionaires, bank and industrial and commercial bosses, “abdicate” their property rights.




 


 


6/13/17:


It’s like a madhouse, with the capitalists acting in collusion with the bourgeois section of the Provisional Government (among the members of which are Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries), with the capitalists using obstruction and wrecking tactics, and doing nothing to ship their products, without which the country is facing ruin – AS HAS ALREADY FACED THANKSGIVING, WHICH, CONSEQUENTLY AND TO REPEAT, WILL FEEL THAT IT’S LIKE A MADHOUSE.




 


 


7/5/17:


The masses will learn from their own experience. The sad experience of the new stage of the war (a stage already begun), of further ruin OF THANKSGIVING (AND WE SAY “FURTHER” BECAUSE, THE EXPERIENCE OF THE MASSES IS THAT IT ALREADY IS), accentuated by the offensive, will inevitably lead to the political downfall of the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik parties.




 


 


Fall 1917:


The government violates the law by adopting, in the interests, of the rich, the landowners and capitalists, a measure which ruins the whole business of control AND THE WHOLE BUSINESS OF THANKSIVING, food supply and the stabilisation of the extremely shaky finances.


The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It: Government Disruption of the Work of the Democratic Organisations”


 


 


9/14/17:


These words contain the most thoughtless, the most monstrous untruth concerning the most important Issue of the revolution, an untruth, moreover, which has most often been put about, in vastly differing countries, among the petty-bourgeois democrats and has ruined the greatest number of revolutions AND THE ENTIRE NUMBER OF THANKSGIVINGS.




 


 


9/22/17:


The revolutionary proletariat would never do anything worthwhile in the Soviet as long as the Tseretelis were allowed proportional participation; to let them in meant depriving ourselves of the opportunity to work, it meant the ruin of Soviet work AND OF THANKSGIVING.  THANKS A BUNCH, TSERETELIS!




 


 


9/22-24/17:


There is not the slightest doubt that at the "top" of our Party there are noticeable vacillations that may CAUSE THANKSGIVING EVEN MORE COMPLETELY TO become ruinous, because the struggle is developing; under certain conditions, at a certain moment, vacillations may ruin the cause OF THANKSGIVING EVEN MORE THAN IT IS.




 


 


9/29/17:


If even the experience of the Kornilov revolt has taught the "democrats" nothing, and they continue the destructive policy of vacillation and compromise, we say that nothing is more ruinous to the THANKSGIVING OF THE proletarian revolution than these vacillations.




 


 


10/17:


The Bolsheviks would be traitors to the peasants, for to tolerate the suppression of the peasant revolt by a government which even Dyelo Naroda compares with the Stolypin government would be to ruin THANKSGIVING AND EVEN the whole revolution, to ruin it, AND BY “IT” WE OF COURSE MEAN THE PEASANTS’ THANKSGIVING,  for good . . . For it is my profound conviction that if we "wait" for the Congress of Soviets and let the present moment pass, we shall ruin the revolution AS COMPLETELY AS IF IT WERE THANKSGIVING.




 


 


10/1/17:


If the Bolsheviks were to yield in any form and in the slightest degree to the philistine stupidity of this argument they would ruin their Party, THEIR THANKSGIVING (WE MEAN: EVEN FURTHER, WHICH WOULD BE THE VERY DEFINITION OF PHILISTINE STUPIDITY) and the revolution. . . . That is why I say that if the Bolsheviks were to give in to these moods they would ruin both their Party and their revolution AND THEIR THANKSGIVING, NOT THAT MY WRITING STYLE IS REPETITIOUS OR ANYTHING.




 


 


10/6-8/17:


War and THANKSGIVING’S economic ruin have forced all countries to advance from monopoly capitalism to state monopoly capitalism. This is the objective state of affairs.




 


 


10/7/17:


We must admit that unless the Kerensky government is overthrown by the proletariat and the soldiers in the near future the revolution is ruined, AS IS THANKSGIVING, TO WHICH KERENSKY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN INVITED ANYWAY.




 


 


12/6/17:


The people will not allow the rich to ruin THANKSGIVING ANY MORE THAN IT ALREADY IS, NOR the cause of peace they uphold.


“Draft Of A Manifesto To The Peasantry: From The Second All-Russia Congress Of Soviets Of Peasants’ Deputies”


 


 


12/14/17:


The imperialist war, the war between the biggest and richest banking firms, Britain and Germany, that is being waged for world domination, the division of the spoils, for the plunder of small and weak nations; this horrible, criminal war has ruined THANKSGIVING EVEN MORE CONSISTENTLY, RESOLUTELY AND DECISIVELY THAN WAS PREVIOUSLY THE CASE, ALONG WITH all countries.




 


 


12/14/17:


This is the way of the bourgeois intelligentsia, of all conciliators, who ruin everything, WHICH LOGICALLY ENCOMPASSES THANKSGIVING, with their constant agreement in principle and disagreement in practice. . . . The adoption of the decree is urgent, otherwise opposition and sabotage will ruin us – AND YOU KNOW WHAT WE WOULD THEN BE EXACTLY LIKE? THANKSGIVING. (Stormy applause.)


“Speech On The Nationalisation Of The Banks: Delivered At A Meeting Of The All-Russia Central Executive Committee


 


 


12/24-27/17:


The war, brought about by the conflict between capitalists for the division of the spoils of depredation, has resulted in untold ruin OF THANKSGIVING, WHICH, WHILE “UNTOLD,” DOES NOT EXCLUDE THE LIKELIHOOD THAT I WILL WRITE ABOUT IT AT GREAT LENGTH.




 


 


The world-historical implications of the above discoveries are obvious and, of course, staggering.