Some background: "Anti-Joseph" is concerned with two events. The first event is the death of the Marxist Leninist Party in November 1993. The second event is the rebirth, early in the next century, of a worldwide communist movement worthy of the name. I seem, at the present time, to be the only person in the entire world who believes that these two events are linked. They are linked, not by simple cause and effect, but by history: the forces which destroyed the MLP are the same forces which will usher forth the proletariat as a class whose time has come. I have given my principled arguments, both in summary form, and at length, on countless occasions. I have shown how we in the MLP did all this incredible work over more than 20 years to assist workers in their struggles and win their attention--so that they would listen to us. And when they have listened to us--what have they heard ? Leaving aside the dreamy proclamations about classless society and so on--the "underlying message" consisted of three points which can be seen in their clarity from: Joseph's single-point-of-control theory, Joseph's view that there will be no political life in the future, Joseph's stonewalling on these questions and his attempts to suppress all real discussion. What have we been telling those workers who would listen to us ? We plan to build a society which will produce LESS WEALTH than capitalism. Our plan for the future of humanity involves the extinguishing of all political life. Any questions about the above-- will be answered when hell freezes over. These were the concentrated features of our real political line on the nature of communist society--which the workers got NOT from bourgeois propaganda about "what communists believe"--but from us. I leave it to the reader to conclude whether there has been any relationship between what we have been telling workers and what Joseph has called the "great demoralization". Ben Seattle (cyberRed) September 27, 1996 ----//-//

Ben 11.Dec.94	Ask Comrade Science featuring Dr. Itzalzo Sympul Professor of Dialectical Materialism (Remember: "He knows more than you do")	cRed-68 4,200 words 48k
Mark 17.Dec.94	Ben Loses His Nerve	Det-69 10k
Ben 24.Dec.94	Mark Gets Burned How Mark Uses Stalin's Theory to Attempt to Extinguish the Living Flame of Marxism (and gets burned for his efforts)	cRed-72 11,100 words 110k
--- (click to see contents) --- ====================== Contest is Asymmetric ====================== ......Ben Is Relentless ============================================ How Mark and Tim Trivialize Stalin's Crimes ============================================ ......Lenin at the 11th Congress ......How Our Sectarians Mummify Theory ......Stalinist Roots of the MLP's Implosion ......Mark wants tenure =================================================================== How Mark Equates "Cooperative Anarchy" with "Anarchy of Production" =================================================================== ......Assumption # 1 -- "only capitalism can organize competition" ......Assumption # 2 -- "what the hell's the difference anyway ?" ......EVERYTHING Complex is Made Up of Independent, Conflicting Processes ......Capitalist Competition ......Communist Competition ......Competition Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat ......Cooperative Anarchy ================================== Conclusion: Barbarian at the Gate ================================== ==================================== Appendix: Comrade Ray's 1988 Letter ====================================
Joseph Green 28.Jan.95	(part one): Left-wing neo-conservatives The reflection of neo-conservatism in socialist thinking	Det-74 7,900 words 81k
--- (click to see contents) --- The abandonment of communism The magic of the marketplace The marketplace and the environment Ben and the marketplace Anarchy of production What replaces the invisible hand? Ben pictures capitalist society A crippling framework Notes for part one
Ben 3.Feb95	The Confabulator Has No Clothes: Why is Joseph Afraid of Consciousness ? How Joseph Revises Marxism to Equate the Consciousness and Initiative of the Masses with the Action of the Capitalist Marketplace and thus Attempts to Bar the Door Forward to the Theoretical Development of Communism for the Sake of the Organizational Stability of the Detroit-Chicago Sectarian Grouping	cRed-76 19,400 words 208k
--- (click to see contents) --- ============================================ I. Is Communism Possible ? ============================================ Agitation with its Heart Cut Out Would-be Thought Police in Action ============================================ II. Joseph's Red Sweater ============================================ "Anarchy of Production" "Cooperative Anarchy" How Charlatans Play with Names ============================================ III. How the Hand and Brain Work Together ============================================ Joseph -- the Royal Inquisitor Joseph's Questions: Ben's Answers (preface): Ben's Answers (content): Example #1: "Our Children Are Our Future!" The Real Respect Accorded a Tribal Elder Joseph and Mark Declare War On Bottom-up Methods Joseph's Problem is with "Distributed Intelligence" The Sectarian Struggle Against Revisionism is A STINKING CORPSE How Would A Communist Economy Actually Work ? Every Thought, Word and Action The Only Good Society is a Dead Society Complex Struggles within the Communist Society and Economy Who Tells People What to Think ? Concert for Bangladesh Environmental Clean-up The Mother of All Poisons Permission to Go to the Bathroom How Charlatans and Demagogues Select Examples The Mother of the Mother of All Poisons A Mockery of the Struggle Against Anarchism =================================================== IV. Joseph's Theory in Action: Ray's 1988 Letter =================================================== A Message to my Opponents ================================================================== Appendix: "J. Edgar Hoover" or "Information Theory" -- You Decide ================================================================== What is parallelity ? Parallelity in Nature Parallelity in Computers Parallelity in the Party Von Neumann Party Architecture Massively Parallel Processing Party Architecture Which Architecture is Better ? Parallelity and the conscious activation of the party's base Joseph von Neumann
Ben 10.Aug.95	A reply to Joseph's article "Communism as a science": Six months of evasionism Why is Joseph afraid of communism as a science ?	cRed-79 2,100 words 26k
--- (click to see contents) --- The "Miracles" The principal outstanding question of communism as a science Joseph seeks escape Joseph agrees with capitalist apologists "Bottom-up" methods are destined to rule The silence of the spams How Joseph turns Engels into a revisionist Joseph's courage has failed him Theoretical passivity of sectarians Others are not succumbing Decide for yourself Sterile daydreams and real cockroaches
Joseph 15.Sep.95	Left-wing neo-conservatives (part two): The mailed fist behind the anti-authoritarian phrase After 11 years of delay and many repeated requests, Joseph has finally posted this article to the web.	This article is, at last, available here 6,500 words
Ben 24.Oct.95	But will the trains run on time ? Why is Joseph Afraid of the Masses ? Joseph's worst nightmare turns out to be anti-revisionist communism	cRed-80 24,400 words 250k
--- (click to see contents) --- I. An Interview with Comrade Science ------------------------------------------------ II. Returning to Capitalism ------------------------------------------------ Competition Amplifies Struggle Against Corruption What is the kind of corruption that the masses would oppose ? Force "like gravity" would be resisted by actions of the masses Joseph's Islands Joseph's word games Production units bound together by unitary needs of the masses ------------------------------------------------ III. Leninism and single-point control theory ------------------------------------------------ Insight into Corruption Joseph's Alternative: Elections without Politics "The Vote" is only a single tool in a toolbox Joseph opposes discussion IV. Taking Communist Theory to an Expanded Audience ========================================================= Appendix A: A reply to Joseph on more specific issues: ========================================================= 1. Joseph's Chemical Poisoning 2. Joseph's Trade Secrets 3. Joseph's Re-education ------------------------------------------------ 4. Censorship of the Mass Media ------------------------------------------------ The truth will out Information wants to be free Information warfare Joseph's charge of censorship Censorship by boycott Censorship by labor action Censorship by false appeals Censorship by secondary boycott Censoring the fat Elvis (the masses and interactive design) How would the cultural struggle be waged on Joseph's planet ? Censorship will be impossible A scenario -- the struggle over focus and attention Joseph's brand of _1984_ censorship Dr. Strangelove salutes the Ministry of Truth ------------------------------------------------ 5. Ben's program for Joseph and the sectarians ------------------------------------------------ Joseph opposes the development of Marxism Let's fight in the daylight 1) Let readers decide for themselves what they want to read 2) Give me realistic space to speak for myself 3) Let the fight be broadcast live -- let's have action in real time 4) Lighten up on the spam & encourage participation in discussion 5) Can the spam about censorship 6) Joseph should get a job Time for the roto-rooter ========================================================= Appendix B: A reply to Fred on "The Tragedy of the Commons" ========================================================= Aluminum Jigs vs. Extra Hours Output must exceed input Capitalism cannot handle externalities Concrete vs. Asphalt Driveways Fred's question: Diamond Drills vs. Hardened Steel Drills The Tragedy of the Commons Joseph's central planning How a complex adaptive system deals with "the Tragedy of the Commons" The merger of work with its measurement ----------------------------------- 1) The information indices ----------------------------------- Perfect is the enemy of good enough Easy access to indices Labor time indices Environmental indices Joseph's binary logic applied to pollution from hamburgers Joseph's bell curve Who assigns the ratings ? Other kinds of indices Indices which indicate what others are doing ----------------------------------- 2) The self-correcting mechanisms ----------------------------------- Different kinds of out-of-equilibrium conditions The Congress of Diamond Drill Producers Confronts ........the Congress of Diamond Drill Consumers
Ben and Pete 10-26-95 thru 11-25-95	Spam addicts can run but they can't hide: Wanted--A Strap-on Spine Whether it's "what you don't know can't hurt you" or "fling shit and flee", an interview with one of his supporters reveals how Joseph's "CVO" attempts to cling to life under the flimsy shelter of "information isolation".	cRed-82 17,800 words 184k
--- (click to see contents) --- ================================================================== Ben to Pete - Thurs - Oct 26, 1995 ================================================================== Whatever happened to the idea that we embody, represent and serve the highest aspirations of humankind? ================================================================== Pete to Ben - Sat - Oct 28, 1995 Ben to Pete - Sat - Oct 28, 1995 ================================================================== Will workers face economic insecurity under communist competition? Do we discuss how a communist economy would work or not? Is coordinating the activity of revolutionary activists social-democracy? Do you have something to contribute to a discussion? Am I responsible for the views of those I talk to? On Stridency Action List ================================================================== Ben to Pete - Sat - Nov 4, 1995 Pete to Ben - Sun - Nov 5, 1995 ================================================================== 1) Is Ben the last of the Maoists? 2) What's the reference on 1984? 3) Isn't your distinction between coercive censorship and economic censorship a bourgeois distinction? 4) Aren't the independent, competing economic enterprises in your version of communism "single points of control"? And aren't these just what we call corporations? ================================================================== Ben to Pete - Sat - Nov 11, 1995 ================================================================== How you exchange dishonesty for honesty I stand for honesty -- and interactivity Maoist straw men? Single vs. multiple points of control Is communism capitalism? Dreaming of straw men Are web sites just for the rich? When do we "Can the spam" about censorship? Action List Action Item # 1 Essay Question # 1 ================================================================== Pete to Ben - Fri - Nov 17, 1995 Ben to Pete - Sat - Nov 18, 1995 ================================================================== The reference on 1984 Your own evasion of issues of principle The last action item ================================================================== Ben to Readers - Sat - Nov 25, 1995 ================================================================== Kids in a Treehouse
Alex and Joseph 12-8-95 1-5-96	An unequal battle: David 1: Goliath 0 "You think me a dog that you send after me a simple shepherd boy!" roared the mighty Goliath. But a new voice, inexperienced in polemics, and armed only with honesty and humility, reduced Goliath of the thunderous mouth, to utter silence with a single paragraph.	Goliath 4,400 words 45k
--- (click to see contents) --- A New Voice (introducing Alex) Ben has secret documents ! ================================================================== Stonewall Joseph, in his "Open Letter to Alex", explains why he will not reply to Ben's accusations ================================================================== Alex replies to Joseph Joseph is struck dumb
Joseph 1630 A.D.	The Crime of Galileo Joseph at last responds to Ben	Galileo 4k

And finally, one of the key documents
that started this all:

Ben 10.Mar.94	Ben's 19 Points: The Party of the Future Democracy Rooted in Scientific Culture is the Basis of Unity of the Proletarian Trend of Trends	cRed-43y 29k 2,100 words
--- (click to see contents) --- 1) Intuitive Concepts 2) No Single Set of Rules 3) Fingers of Hand cannot Always form a Fist 4) Competition as well as Unity between Proletarian Trends 5) A Party of Interdependent Parties 6) Unity Depends on Practice and Ideological Development 7) Experience and Common Sense Can Guide Vehicles of Mass Democracy 8) The Proletarian Organizational Spectrum: .....Submerged Component Trends are "Schools of Thought" 9) The Proletarian Organizational Spectrum: .....Looser Trends Conduct Warfare via "Civilized Norms" 10) Rapid Movement along Spectrum ......as Internal/External Conditions Change 11) Base of Trends not Kept in Dark -- ......Open information would counter-act pressure ......of sectarianism and opportunism 12) No Pretend Unity with Opportunism 13) Mechanism to Bring Opportunism into the Light of Mass Democracy 14) Isolating Opportunism and Severing its Power and Influence 15) Formal and informal commitments for "information community" ......would guarantee ceaseless "information war" 16) Class struggle makes necessary "parallelity" ......and "information wants to be free" 17) Proletarian journals would give readers access to Opposition 18) All guaranteed universal right of voice and ear 19) Modern communications sometimes decisive ......to struggle between trends and organizational democracy