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You don’t have to be a Marxist to appreciate the fact that few people have ever been so skilled at building polemic arguments as V.I. Lenin. Consider this passage from his 1915 work New Data on the Laws Governing the Development of Capitalism in Agriculture in which Lenin set out to refute the assertions of a prominent Russian economist of the day:
All these assertions are monstrously untrue. They are in direct contradiction to reality. They are a sheer mockery of the truth. Their incorrectness ought to be explained in detail for a very good reason…
The argument that follows this introduction is as painstakingly detailed and spot-on as required, which is a necessity given the subject matter at hand. From the caustic polemic follows a methodical deconstruction that is then buttressed by a wealth of relevant statistical data. The balance of the piece is a resounding quod erat demonstrandum.
Such an introduction to a complex and multifaceted debate immediately compels the reader to accept the infallibility of the forthcoming counterpoint(s). It’s a methodical attack, meant to undermine the fallacious claims of an opponent while simultaneously and explicitly asserting the validity of the immediate arguments.
This method is among the more useful and effective tactics in both the most simple and complex of political debates.
Soviet Russia Today March, 1944 issue On the cover: Soviet guerilla heroine T. Galavenskaya
A couple of years ago, I discovered Steve Trussel’s great Howard Fast archive on his website EclectiCity. I was working on a new project at the time and Steve had some important material in his Fast archive which he generously shared with me for my project. I have always appreciated Steve’s efforts in building such a great archive and it was really kind of him to share his transcription of a relatively rare work.
I recently purchased a vintage issue of Soviet Russia Today (the March 1944 issue to be precise) from an eBay seller and as I was excited to find a short book review written by Howard Fast near the back of the magazine. The review was of the book Konstantin Simonov's Short Stories. Steve’s website was the first thing that came to mind and I quickly wrote to him to share news of my discovery. After we corresponded a bit, I sent him a transcription of the review along with the scan of the cover of the magazine. The full text of the review is now posted on online as a permanent addition to the Howard Fast section of the EclectiCity. Click here to view the text.
A new page entitled “Articles and Texts” features links to a number of Internet articles dedicated to Zoya’s story. Included in this section are two new texts transcribed exclusively for greeklish.org. One text is an excerpt entitled "The Heroic Struggle Waged by the Soviet Partisans," taken from the multi-volume set A History of the USSR which was published by Foreign Languages Publishing House in 1947. We have also added the full transcription of the article "Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya" from the 1947 volume Soviet Calendar: Thirty Years of the Soviet State, 1917-1947, also published by Foreign Languages Publishing House.
Additionally, we have posted a new image gallery entitled, "Statues, Busts and Monuments," which features pictures of some of the many sculptural representations of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.
We are particularly grateful to Benedicte P. S. for granting us permission to use her fantastic photo of the statue of Zoya from the Partizanskaya Metro Station in Moscow. This photo is from Benedicte’s "sleep in the fog" gallery.
Our friend Nina Lebed provided translations of some of the captions for the images in our galleries. Большое спасибо, Nina!
May 9 marks the anniversary of the victory of the Red Army of the USSR over the forces of German Fascism. Over 20 million Soviet soldiers and citizens died in the fight to liberate the world from Nazi oppression.
The Marxists Internet Archive now features a Great Patriotic War History Archive featuring important documents related to the struggle against fascism, from the origins of the war and Operation Barbarossa to the Fall of Berlin and beyond. The archive is currently under construction.
The following document is from the new Great Patriotic War Archive which was officially launched May 9, 2008 in observance of this important anniversary.
Germany Surrenders! Reported by Lieutenant-Colonel L. Vysokoöstrovsky and Lieutenant-Colonel P. Troyanovsky (in Krasnaya Zvezda, 9th May 1945)
Source: Episodes of the Great Patriotic War (Booklet), 74-76. Originally published in the USSR, 1947. Transcription/HTML: Mike B. for MIA, 2008 Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2008). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Before the 8th May 1945 the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst was not in any way famous. It gained historical fame on that day when representatives of the allied powers gathered in a building to dictate the terms of the unconditional surrender to Germany.
Let us follow the events of the day. We will begin at the big Berlin aerodrome of Tempelhof. The centre of the aerodrome has been cleared of wreckage and put in order. Around the edges of the field there are still large numbers of burnt and battered German aircraft that have been piled up there.
The flags of the U.S.S.R., the U.S.A. and Great Britain are flying over the aerodrome. A military band is playing and its music drowns the noise of the fighter aircraft ready to take off from the aerodrome.
A number of cars drive up to the aerodrome bringing generals and other officers of the Soviet Army representing the units that captured Berlin. They are the High Command of the Soviet Army who have come to meet the High Command of the allied armies.
A few minutes later a huge aircraft with white stars on its wings appears over the aerodrome. This is the American Military Mission that has flown from Moscow to take part in the historic proceedings.
At 12:43 p. m. the engines of the Soviet fighters roar more loudly. At 12:45 p. m. they take off in twos and fly away to the south-west. In nineteen and a half minutes they will reach
the allied aerodrome on the Elbe to meet the allied aircraft bringing the other generals to Berlin.
An hour and five minutes pass, and the sky is again filled with the roar of engines. Three transport planes, one British and two American, have arrived. The British plane lands first and British Air Marshall Tedder, American General Spaats, Admiral Barrow and others alight.
While Soviet Army General Sokolovsky. Colonel-General Berzarin, Commandant of Berlin, and Lieutenant-General Bokov are greeting the newcomers, somebody notices that a German aircraft has arrived on the other side of the aerodrome. Keitel, Friedenburg and Stumpf.
Representatives of defeated Germany, tread warily on the field where they once strutted at the head of military parades.
Then the French delegation arrived. All the allied officers took their places in the waiting cars and were taken to Karlshorst.
The Soviet, British and American delegations arrived at the building where the Act of Surrender was to be signed. A little later the French delegation, headed by General Delatre de Tassigny took their places in the conference hall.
The building where this historic act was to take place was quite a simple one. In the hall there were three rows of tables covered with soft cloth and a long table for the heads of the allied delegations. At the end of the hall stood a small palm. On the wall were the flags of the four allied powers. the Soviet Union, Great Britain, the United States of America and France.
The heads of the allied delegations enter the room. Soon the room is filled with secretaries, reporters and cinema cameramen. Marshal Zhukov, head of the Soviet delegation, suggests that they begin work and then orders the German delegation to be brought in. In a few minutes the Germans enter. "Have you the proper authority to sign the Act of Surrender?" Zhukov asks Keitel.
Keitel hands him a document signed by Admiral Doenitz.
Then begins the ceremony of signing the act of Germany's complete and unconditional surrender to the allied powers.
The faces of the allied generals are stern but triumphant. Keitel and the other Germans are gloomy, they stand staring down at the floor. Only a short time before this they were shouting to tell the whole world of their victories.
The allied leaders sign the act of surrender, and then Keitel signs. The lips of his adjutant, standing behind him, tremble as he puts his pen to the paper.
Germany has surrendered. How much pride and joy is included in these simple words!
Many thanks to our dear friend Clara Statello for the "Victory over Fascism" logo! Viva la Libertà e la Giustizia!!!
The bust as pictured in the original eBay listing; Click on the picture to view a larger image
In the past, I've written a bit on our site about my interest in art from the "Soviet Realism" school and it's probably pretty apparent that I have a specific affinity for pieces related to the Soviet heroine Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Over the years, I have wondered if I would ever have the good fortune to happen upon a bust or statuette of Zoya K. and I must admit that one more than one occasion, I actually shuddered when considering what I might be willing to spend to add such an item to my collection. Until very recently, my collection of Zoya K. memorabilia had been comprised mostly of ephemera and books, although in recent years, I have been lucky enough to acquire some authentic Soviet-era propaganda posters featuring her likeness (here's one). Late in 2007, I also obtained an original oil-on-canvas painting of Zoya K. from an eBay seller in Ukraine, but because the portrait is so big (almost four feet in height), it remains in storage for now.
One evening in mid-January, I pulled up eBay on my computer and I started running my daily searches for various items of interest when I stumbled upon what would surely be the jewel in my small collection: A genuine, Soviet-era bust of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The piece was cast in aluminum and bigger than a small "desktop" bust or statuette but not so big as to be a life-sized replica. At the time, I had figured it might be about the size of the bust of La Pasionara that I had purchased some time ago. The representation appeared to be based on the memorial statue of Zoya K. in St. Petersburg (Leningrad). I was astonished to find this item up for auction, as it seemed to be more spectacular that anything I could have ever imagined. The starting bid was kind of pricey – more than I'm accustomed to spending on eBay stuff, for sure – and since the bust was located in Ukraine, shipping would be rather costly. Moreover, I figured that other collectors would surely be as interested such an outstanding piece and I doubted that I could really "hang" with some of the high-rollers of eBay. Over the years, I have seen some pretty wild finishes on auctions for rare Soviet items. Nevertheless, less than 24 hours into the auction, I put my fist bid down – a decent bid, at that – but I pretty much figured I would lose in the end.
Original oil painting, c. mid-1950s; Click
on the picture to view a larger
image
The next day – much to my horror – I saw that someone had already bid against me. I was still the high bidder because the competing bid was only a couple of dollars. But still, this was enough to throw me into something of a panic. A quick consultation with my pal Randy – a kindred spirit of sorts – revealed that Randy himself was the party responsible for the new bid. As a general rule, we try not to bid against each other, but the seller of the bust had made the listing a "private" auction, so users could not see the IDs of their competitors. Because Randy is such a great guy, he kindly said he would not bid against me any further and he urged me to do everything I needed to do to win the sculpture. We would correspond and talk by phone several more times over the agonizing week that followed, and each time we "chatted," Randy would share words of encouragement and support. I tried everything possible during the 6 or 7 days of the auction to stay calm and to avoid obsessing over whether or not I would end up with the bust, but I was pretty much a basket case at every turn. I even tried an old "thought-stopping" technique I learned as a counselor in which I would wear a rubber band on my wrist and snap it hard when I felt myself obsessing. The short blast of pain kind of forces one's mind to "re-set" itself, thereby temporarily breaking repetitive or obsessive thought cycles. The auction was set to end on a Saturday afternoon and by the morning of that particular day, I had two rubber bands on my wrist (a fat one and a thin one) to provide me with varying levels of pain whenever I needed to change my focus and stop spiraling. But nothing really worked.
In early afternoon on the last day of the auction, Stupsi had slipped out into our garage and tried to make a break for outside as the big overhead garage door was coming down. I chased her out into the garage and tried to stop her from slipping under the door. I barely managed to stop her from getting crushed under the door but I got my leg caught under the heavy door in the process. It hurt like hell and Thomai thought I had been seriously injured. The whole time I sat on the couch with the girls trying to decide if I needed to go to the hospital for a broken leg, I remained fixated on the impending end of the auction. With an hour left to go, I limped upstairs to play several rounds of Fire Pro to try and keep my mind off the end of the auction. I couldn't relax, though, and I ended up returning to the computer with about 20 or 30 minutes left to go so I could watch the finale in real time.
Finally... Safe and home in my
library! Click on the picture to view a larger image
I had been obsessively checking the listing all week – at least 20 times a day – and I had edged my total bid up a number of times to the point of what I knew to be an absolutely absurd level. I thought I was pretty secure in what I had settled on as my high bid and I was optimistic at the fact that nobody other than Randy had bid against me on the item for about five whole days. But within the last half-hour or so, things changed rather quickly. The price jumped a bit, but I still had a decent "cushion" to go. I "white-knuckled" it to the very end, hitting "refresh" every 10 to 15 seconds. The price jumped by almost $100 in the final 10 seconds, but then it was all over. When I saw the "Congratulations!" message on my screen, I knew I had finally come out on top. I was absolutely drained. I slowly walked upstairs and found Thomai in our dining room boxing up Christmas decorations and I plopped down in a chair and whispered...with my voice slightly cracking..."I won." I also told her that I never wanted to be so completely consumed with the pursuit of a material object again. She sat down next to me and hugged me. I am so lucky that she understands me.
The bust made it from Ukraine to Ohio just under two weeks, thanks to an efficient and conscientious eBay seller. I unpacked it after work last Friday. For a few days, I kept it on our kitchen table while I prepared some space in my library room. The girls are pretty impressed with the piece and I have to say that it is a truly magnificent piece of statuary. The details are remarkable, from the quilting on Zoya's coat to the barrel of her rifle and the piece of scarf that flies above her shoulder. The piece is truly the "brass ring" of my years of collecting. We sat at the dinner table for a while on Friday night talking about the bust. K. was particularly interested in where the bust came from and where the real Zoya lived during her lifetime, so we talked a little and we got the globe out of the library to look up Ukraine, Russia, and other relevant places. She told me that she didn't know of anyone else with a dad who collects such cool stuff – and teaches his kids about it, too! It is nice to be appreciated at so many levels.
November 7 marks the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Under the Julian Calendar, which was in use by Russia at the time of the Revolution, the date was October 25, 1917, hence the term "October Revolution" is still used to refer to this watershed event. Vladimir Lenin To the Citizens of Russia! Source: marxists.org The Provisional Government has been deposed. State power has passed into the hands of the organ of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies--the Revolutionary Military Committee, which heads the Petrograd proletariat and the garrison.
The cause for which the people have fought, namely, the immediate offer of a democratic peace, the abolition of landed proprietorship, workers'control over production, and the establishment of Soviet power—this cause has been secured.
Long live the revolution of workers, soldiers and peasants!
Revolutionary Military Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies
ты мне ваньку не валяй (Don’t make yourself more stupid than you are.)
For the second time in just over a year, George W. Bush has decried the name of V.I Lenin, raising the specter of Lenin as a "boogeyman" in Bush's polymorphic "war on terror." His most recent jab at the revolutionary leader came during a November 1, 2007 speech at a so-called "conservative think tank":
"History teaches us that underestimating the words of evil, ambitious men is a terrible mistake," Mr. Bush said. "Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. And the question is, will we listen?" (source)
Prior to this, Bush made similar comments during September 2006 speech:
"Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them," he said. (source)
It's hard to say why exactly George Bush has developed this tendency to lump Lenin in with the likes of Hitler and Bin Laden. At the height of McCarthyism, it was Joe Stalin who was a preferred target of scorn for red-baiting American demagogues. Then again, I suppose that for the duration of the Cold War, it was usually the current (living) Soviet Premier who was the focus of the bulk American ire and rhetoric. I guess it's always more effective to have a living boogeyman than a dead one. Even still, these days I would think that Stalin would be an "easier sell" as some sort of ghostly bad guy. It's obvious that critique of Chairman Mao is off-limits to the Bush propaganda machine so long as China is still willing provide scads and scads of low-cost, cheaply made trinkets to the teeming hordes of America's consumer class. But there's still Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung on the left. I think they might easier for Bush to cast in his "dead rogue's gallery" than, say, Pinochet or Mobutu who both rose to dictatorial power with the assistance of the United States Government.
My guess is that one of Bush's speech writers feels like "Dubya" will come across as more of an "intellectual" by avoiding old stand-by foils like Castro and Khomeini in favor of pre-Depression, anti-Bolshevik agitprop in the form of nebulous attacks on the life and legacy of Lenin. It's either that or Bush just really, really hates the Beatles.
Some classic Cold-War shenanigans: “Uncle Joe Stalin” hatches a wild scheme in G.I. Joe #11 (April-May, 1951; Ziff Davis series)
Our good friend Andy Blunden, author of books such as For Ethical Politics and creator of the Hegel-by-Hypertext web archive (among many others), has kindly written the following article for greeklish.org.
25 October this year marks the 90th anniversary of one of the most astounding events in all history. On24 Februarythe Russian people had risen up, overthrown the Tsar and demanded an end to the war.Eight months later, when the democratic government which had taken over from the Tsar had still failed to pull Russia out of the War, workers and soldiers overthrew the government in an almost bloodless revolution, and installed aBolshevikgovernment in its place.
The Bolsheviks made good on their promises and on 3 March 1918 they signed aPeacewith Germany and allowed the Germans to carry away almost everything that could be moved in ‘reparations’ later handed over to the Allies for Germany’s reparations. But the Russian people had put an end to the war insofar as it was in their control and the peasants dumped their guns and went back to their farms!
And what thanks did the Russian people receive for their contribution to world peace? Did Lenin and Trotsky get the Nobel Peace Prize for being the first politicians ever to pull their own country out of a war – and while on the winning side to boot! No, as soon as the war with Germany was over, the young republic, already decimated by war wasinvaded by 14 armieswith the aim of putting big business back in control of Russia. Russia was levelled: Famine and plague stalked the land.
But the Soviet Union did survive, albeit through enormous suffering, and survived for a further 70 years, surviving blockade, invasion and the threat of nuclear annihilation.
If Senates and Houses of Representatives can’t stop Presidents and Prime Ministers from making war, then surely the Russian Revolution showed the way. If you leave politics to the politicians then you can’t complain if what you get is war and terror.
Books (texts not yet online) The Bolshevik Revolution: Its Impact on American Radicals, Liberals and Labor by Philip S. Foner (includes writings by John Reed, Eugene Debs and others) An Illustrated History of the Great October Socialist Revolution: 1917, Month by Month by Albert Nenarokov Russia in Revolution: 1900-1930 by Harrison E. Salisbury
The full text of Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya's book The Story of Zoya and Shura is now posted online. The book is a biography of two Heroes of the Soviet Union, Zoya Kosmodemayenskaya and her brother Alexander Kosmodemyansky (“Shura”), as written by their mother. This non-copyrighted book was originally published in 1953 by Foreign Languages Press (Moscow). All 286 pages of text and photos are now available through our website.
It's taken me quite a while — probably a bit too long — to transcribe the whole book and given the length of time involved, I wish that I could say that the transcription is flawless. I have spent quite a bit of time cleaning up typos and OCR in the text, but I am sure there are some minor errors here and there that will come to my attention as time goes on.
It was no easy time: the enemy was closing in on Moscow.
One day Zoya and I were walking along the street, and on the wall of a house we noticed a big placard from which the determined face of a soldier looked at us severely. The keen piercing eyes were looking straight at us, the words printed underneath rang in our ears as if they had been spoken aloud in an urgent voice, "What have you done for the front?"
Zoya turned away.
"I can't pass that placard calmly," she said bitterly.
"But you are still young, and you have been to the labour front—that's also work for the country, for the Army."
"Not enough," answered Zoya doggedly.
For some minutes we walked along in silence, and suddenly Zoya said in quite a different voice, cheerfully and with an air of finality, "I am lucky. Everything I want comes true."
"What are you thinking about?" I wanted to ask, and did not. But my heart was heavy with foreboding.
On April 20 I found a letter in the letter box. Shura's field post office number was on the envelope, but the address was not in his handwriting. I stood holding the letter for a long time, afraid to unseal it. Then I tore open the envelope and read the first lines. The room went dark before my eyes. I drew a deep breath, started reading again, and again could not read on. Then I gritted my teeth as hard as I could and read to the end.
"April 14, 1945
"Dear Lyubov Timofeyevna,
"It is hard for me to write to you. But I beg you to summon all your courage and strength. Your son, Senior Lieutenant of the Guards Alexander Anatolyevich Kosmodemyansky, died the death of a hero in battle with the German invaders. He gave up his young life for the freedom and independence of our Motherland.
"I will say only one thing. Your son is a hero, and you may be proud of him. He defended his Country honourably, and has proved himself worthy of his sister.
[...]
"In the fighting for Königsberg on April 6, Alexander Kosmodemyansky's self-propelled gun mount was the first to force a canal thirty metres wide and open fire at the enemy, destroying an artillery battery, blowing up an ammunition dump and killing nearly sixty Hitlerite soldiers and officers.
"On April 8 he was the first to break into the fort of Konigin Luisen, where 350 prisoners were captured together with nine tanks in good condition, 200 lorries and a petrol dump. In the course of the fighting Alexander Kosmodernyansky was promoted from commander of a self-propelled gun mount to battery commander. In spite of his youth he commanded the battery successfully and carried out all battle tasks in exemplary fashion.
"He was killed yesterday in the fighting for the locality of Vierbrudenkrug, west of Königsberg, which was already in our hands. Your son was one of the first to break into Vierbrudenkrug, wiping out nearly forty Hitlerites and crushing four antitank guns. An exploding enemy shell cut short the life of our dear comrade, Alexander Anatolyevich Kosmodemyansky.
"War and death are inseparable, but it is so much more difficult to be reconciled with death on the eve our Victory.
"Be courageous. With sincere respect and sympathy, "Lieutenant-Colonel of the Guards Legeza. "
I love to come here, to walk along the dear familiar corridors of my children's school, which now bears Zoya's name. I look into the classrooms. I go up onto the third floor and approach the doors where there is an inscription: "Heroes of the Soviet Union Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Shura Kosmodemyansky studied in this classroom."
I enter this room, where the portraits of my children look down at me from the walls. There is the second desk in the middle row—Zoya used to sit there. Now another girl sits at this desk, and she has Zoya's clear eyes. And there that desk at the back of the next row—that was Shura's place. The girl who sits there now looks up at me. She is wearing a brown frock with a white collar and black apron, and she has such a grave thoughtful face.
[...]
Here is a young woman with a kind, pleasant face coming down the corridor to meet me. She is Katya Andreyeva. She has done what she intended to do; she has become a schoolmistress teaching at her old school, the school where she studied together with Zoya and Shura.
My children's classmates are now engineers, doctors, teachers. They continue the work for the sake of which their comrades gave up their lives.
I walk along the familiar corridor. The door of the library is open. Shelf alter shelf along the walls is full of books, a great number of books.
"Before the war we had twenty thousand volumes. Now we have forty thousand," says Katya to me.
I go outside. The school is surrounded with green trees. There they are, the trees the children planted. And I seem to hear Zoya's voice:
The
text was written in 1913 during a rather critical time in the
development of the Russian economy, so some of the facts in the work
are obviously rather dated, to say the least. It is a sure sign
of the times when Lenin quotes statistics of his day regarding oil
production: “In 1900 Russia and America together produced over
nine-tenths of the world’s oil and in 1910 they produced over
eight-tenths.” Compare this to the figures
regarding the top oil producers for 2004 and you’ll find that Russia is
presently still in the position of the second-largest producer behind
Saudi Arabia, although it is important to note that prior to its
disintegration, the USSR was consistently the number one producer for
an extended period. The United States ranked third in annual production in 2004. (source)
But while the facts of Lenin's text may be somewhat dated, the key concepts and rhetoric of the piece deserve a closer look.
In
Lenin’s piece, he notes, “America now extracts three times more
oil...(than Russia)” but he also stresses that it was Russia who
felt the pinch of the “‘world-wide’ phenomenon of price increase” much
more so than the United States. The U.S. was still the largest
consumer of oil in 2004 (for non-OPEC countries), using 20.5 million
barrels per day. Russia was ranked fifth, behind China, Japan and
Germany. The difference in daily consumption between the U.S. and
Russia was a difference of almost 19 million barrels per day. (source)
There
is, of course, a new worldwide phenomenon of price increase and each
record high oil price is somewhat of a predictable surprise, so to
speak. But the imbalance of the market remains the same – The US
produces less, uses more and pays less than much of the rest of the
world. And while the US feeds its ravenous “oil hunger,” developing
nations survive on crumbs to curb their own pangs of hunger.
Although
Lenin’s work was written almost a century ago, certain passages still
accurately describe the current global superstructure which guides and
shapes world petroleum production and supply. Consider Lenin’s
mirror-image “portrait” of the Duma’s Markov the Second, drawn from the
very image of the Russia’s oil tycoons and millionaires. He
describes the tension between the two sides as “a quarrel between two
plunderers of the people’s property.” How similar is this image
to the scene earlier this year when the heads of US oil companies were
before a government inquiry to explain their record profits? And
what, exactly, was the explanation that was provided by the
magnates? Does anybody remember? The mantra of the day for the US oil companies back in
March 2006 was that a significant proportion of their profit went back
into “research and development.” Very clever.
That’s
all good and well for the American companies (if you really
believe
it), but evidently, research and development is does not extend to oil
industry infrastructure for British-owned BP. BP’s decision to
close the Prudhoe pipeline is purportedly necessary due to extensive
corrosion...caused by years of neglect and disrepair, to be more
precise. BP claims that the poor timing of this issue is simply
an unfortunate coincidence (with respect to recent surges in oil prices
due to wars and the 2005 hurricane season) and that the necessity of
the closure is
somewhat of a surprise. But perhaps Lenin’s words from 1913 still
ring true, both for the American oil companies and BP:
What lies at the bottom of the oil question?
First
of all it is the shameless inflation of oil prices by the oil kings
accompanied by the artificial curtailment of oil-well and refinery
productivity by these “knights” of capitalist profit.
The argument that follows this introduction is as painstakingly detailed and spot-on as required, which is a necessity given the subject matter at hand. From the caustic polemic follows a methodical deconstruction that is then buttressed by a wealth of relevant statistical data. The balance of the piece is a resounding quod erat demonstrandum.
