In 2004, Means made a guest appearance on the HBO program Curb Your Enthusiasm. Russell expressed support for guild socialism. The aspect of Russell’s book which remains the most timely is nevertheless his critique of the “theory” of Bolshevism, or the “materialist theory of history.” Once again, that has very little to do with Marx, even though it is true that Marx had a taste for apodictic formulas giving the impression of a mastery of the laws of historical development. Russell was both a liberal and a socialist, a combination that was perfectly comprehensible in his time, but which has become almost unthinkable today. Means was married five times; the first four marriages ended in divorce. Residents complained of intimidation by Wilson's private militia. The “democratic” Western left has shown little interest in opposing all those forms of imperialism, with the exception of a few particularly dramatic conflicts, such as the wars in Algeria and Vietnam. Means announced the withdrawal by a small group of Lakota people. It was the dogmatic certainly with which the communists defended their doctrines that shocked Russell (and with him all free thinkers) even more than the doctrines themselves. We can only speculate on the type of society such a situation would create, but it might very well resemble the socialism that was dreamed of before 1914. He saw in Lenin an intellectual aristocrat, but one with an extremely dogmatic belief in the doctrines he took to be those of Marx. In the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections, Means supported independent Ralph Nader. Europe Means said that he preferred "American Indian", arguing that it derives not from explorers' confusion of the people with those of India, but from the Italian expression in Dio, meaning "in God". Normand Baillargeon is a professor of education at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Russell’s liberal ideas have enjoyed considerable success. He appeared in Natural Born Killers (1994), as Jim Thorpe in Windrunner (1994),[29] as Sitting Bull in Buffalo Girls (1995), and had a cameo in the miniseries Into the West (2005). Both Branscombe and Means accused Vernon Bellecourt, a high-ranking leader of AIM, of having ordered her execution. As for the developed countries, their hegemony over the rest of the world is in constant decline; if the day comes when these countries are obliged to solve their own problems without being able to shift them abroad, the question of another form of social organization will arise once more. Means and a delegation of activists declared the Republic of Lakotah a sovereign nation, with property rights over thousands of square miles in South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana. Unceremoniously shown the door, he went to Moscow to complete his political education and went on to make history under the name of Ho Chi Minh. Many records were taken or destroyed, and more than $2 million in damage was done to the building.[2]. [8] He had a total of ten children: seven biological children and three adopted children, who were "adopted in the Lakota way" (Sherry Means, March 4, 2014, based on probate papers of October 19, 2014), including Tatanka Means who is also an actor. While at the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota, he developed severe vertigo. In 1974, Means resigned from AIM to run for the presidency of his native Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST) against the incumbent Richard Wilson. delivered 30 January 1989, Washington, D.C.; Incidentally, without Lenin, the name of Marx himself might well have ended up in the same category, since most of the socialist movement was moving away from his ideas in the early years of the twentieth century (leaving aside the question as to what extent Lenin really propagated the ideas of Marx, rather than a considerably distorted version). No one knows how these upheavals will end. [35] Songs include "Une Gente Indio", "Hey You, Hey Indian", "Wounded Knee Set Us Free", and "Indian Cars Go Far". The disagreements between doctrines discussed in Russell’s book deal with what should be done “after the revolution”: what should be the role of the state, how much economic and social constraint should weigh on individuals, and what form of democracy is desirable—direct, representative, or by means of councils representing producers and consumers. "[2], In August 2011, Means was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. They can influence elections, either directly by financing candidates, or indirectly by threatening governments that resist their demands with economic reprisals (capital flight, plant delocalizations). He was also an admirer … Russell was, prior to being a socialist, a Georgist. [17][18] In addition, Means noted that since treaties and other legal documents in relation to the United States government use "Indian", continuing use of the term could help today's American Indian people forestall any attempts by others to use legal loopholes in the struggle over land and treaty rights. Why wouldn’t much more sustained assaults provoke similar reactions in other countries? [2] His mother was a Yankton Dakota from Greenwood, South Dakota and his father, an Oglala Lakota. , It was perhaps in response to that objection that Russell maintained that the four most powerful men in history were the Buddha, Jesus Christ, Pythagoras, and Galileo, none of whom enjoyed official support in their lifetime nor disposed of any power other than that of persuasion.7 The underlying idea being that the force of arms carries the day in the short time, but in the long-term ideas win out. First of all, far from having disappeared, the working class is still in formation on the world scale: in Asia and in Latin American, the transformation of peasants into workers is underway, while in Africa it is only beginning. [7], Means participated in the 1969 Alcatraz occupation. In keeping with the fact that his critique is aimed more against power than against private property as such, Russell displays none of the economic reductionism often found among Marxists, which constantly sees ideological phenomena as the expression of economic relations. Rushmore. [43] Later, he said that his tumor was "95% gone. April 10, 2011 by admin1 Filed under Media. Even those who maintained that the USSR was not “genuine socialism” (expression which presumes that another socialism is possible) for the most part declared after 1991 that socialism itself was a failure. Socialism, Places: He was given the name Wanbli Ohitika by his mother, which means 'Brave Eagle' in the Lakota language. On December 29, 1997, Means was arrested for assault and battery of his 56-year-old (then) father-in-law Leon Grant, a member of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. One cannot overstate the difference between Marx and Lenin. Russell Means Freedom, Russell Means Reminded the World of the Real America, Russell Means: Welcome To The Reservation, DENVER CELEBRATES THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF RUSSELL MEANS. But the prospect of socialization of the means of production within a democratic framework, which was also one of his fundamental aspirations, seems more remote than ever. An answer to that question is perhaps provided by the fact that after 1991, far from seeing the rise of a radical “non-Stalinist” left, such a left has completely vanished, as social democracy has become neoliberal and the left intelligentsia has turned to the joys of postmodernism and identity politics, while European green movements have abandoned their pacifism to support “humanitarian wars.”. , [7] Means appeared as a spokesman and prominent leader. (The Bolsheviks in Power, p. 325). [7] In 1971 Means was one of the leaders of AIM's takeover of Mount Rushmore, a federal monument. , Fascination with the former would confuse the radical part of the left as much as fighting against the latter would absorb all its energy. As Russell stressed, the idea that men act according to rational calculations of how to increase their share of commodities underestimates “the ocean of insanity upon which the little barque of human reason insecurely floats.” It neglects human passions, the most politically significant being the various forms of religion and nationalism. If Russell can be criticized for his terminology, which was that of his era, he was far ahead of others in adopting an anti-imperialist attitude and commented ironically on the colonial exploitation that a socialist government would perpetuate. The report of a government investigation confirmed problems in the election, but in a related court challenge to the results of the election, a federal court upheld the results. Soviet Union (USSR) [8] Some AIM members supported the Sandinistas of the national government, although they had forced removal of thousands of Miskito from their traditional territory. And this raises the question as to who was right in the end, Russell or Lenin and the Bolsheviks. [8] He told the Associated Press that he was rejecting "mainstream medical treatments in favor of traditional American Indian remedies and alternative treatments away from his home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation". These attachments are due to human psychology and are inexplicable in terms of profit-seeking or manipulation by the ruling class. He appeared as Arrowhead in the made-for-TV movie The Pathfinder (1996), his second appearance in a movie adapted from a novel by James Fenimore Cooper. Subscribe to the Monthly Review e-newsletter (max of 1-3 per month). In 2001, Means began an independent candidacy for Governor of New Mexico. Means was born in Porcupine, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,[1] to Theodora Louise Feather and Walter "Hank" Means. He came to believe that the Miskito as a people were being targeted for elimination. Means appeared as a character in the adventure video game Under a Killing Moon,[38] by Access Software, in 1994. He published his autobiography Where White Men Fear to Tread in 1995. On this point, Russell foresaw what would be the source of one of the major tragedies of the twentieth century: the use, first by European powers and then by the United States, of systematic subversion, direct or indirect assassination or coups d’état to “kill the hope” aroused by reformist movements and leaders in the third world: notably Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran, Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, Patrice Lumumba in Congo, João Goulart in Brazil, Sukarno in Indonesia, and Salvador Allende in Chile. But he had a solid distrust of state power, well before his 1920 visit to Soviet Russia. [12] Means and Branscombe accused three indigenous people: Arlo Looking Cloud, Theda Nelson Clarke and John Graham, of having been directly involved in the kidnapping and murder of Aquash. Means said that an AIM tribunal had banned the Bellecourt brothers but tried to keep the reason for the dissension internal to protect AIM.[11]. He had been there once before, to occupy it for 24 hours under the lead of his father, Walter "Hank" Means, and a few other Lakota men in March 1964. Of course, Russell never denied that every war is accompanied by enormous propaganda in its favor, but he notes that there are some things that even the most intense propaganda fails to accomplish: for example, to make Irish Catholics into Englishmen, and more generally to manage to alter the sentimental attachments that bind a human group to its identity, religion or nation. Finally, the revolution did not take place—at least not the one pre-1914 socialists were thinking of, and no new world emerged from the war.
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