The Communist Jesus Club

As the twenty-first century unfolds, humanity appears to profoundly get
on our nerves. Despite the significant achievements of the past two
centuries, Western societies are nevertheless bent upon crippling and
bombing their way to enrichment. Increasingly, progress is equated with
the blind acceptance of a cold rationalism based solely on the logic of
commodity society. Across the world, new forms of prejudice and
irrationalism gain credence in the face of this totalizing ideology.

The Communist Jesus Club invites all those who are concerned about these
retrograde developments to collaborate in formulating a positive
alternative. We seek to reclaim the questioning and creative elements of
the Enlightenment, religions ancient and modern, and communism. We are
dedicated to the idea that human beings can make
their own history.

The Communist Jesus Club is being initiated by Frank Bruno, Josie and
the Pussycats, Shaquile O’Neill, Bill Oddie, Dylan Thomas, James
Council, the IRA, Omad Djalili and Freddie Starr. Our objective over the
next few months is to gain agreement on a series of basic human
principles, and to draw
up a manifesto for our times. Debates will occur in our heads and in the
pub.

As a starting point, we offer the following elastic and critical
positions:

1. We are committed to the pursuit of the City of Gold.

2. We support experimentation in all its forms – scientific, social
and personal.

3. We support the development of the human potential, individual
self-determination, and the human community.

4. We uphold a human-centred perspective. You might think position 3
makes this clear. So be it.

5. We uphold a universalist orientation to some of the problems facing
the world, while not disputing the fact of uneven development.

6. We seek to critically build upon our heritage, to use and abuse all
traditions that contain the seeds of human community.

Those who are interested in becoming involved should carry their own
cross.

thecommunistjesusclub@gmail.com

ps- I think I’m going to be in the UK for the conference in Leicester in May.

A constant theme running through George Jackson’s Soledad Brother is how can one live with dignity even in the most adverse circumstances? And this means struggle. Not because struggle is somehow noble or worthy, but because not to struggle means to accept inhumanity and indignity: the only way to be(come) human in such circumstances is to struggle.

Or as Assata Shakur sings on Asian Dub Foundation’s “Committed to Life” (on Community Music), we’re reluctant warriors, we do it because we’re committed to life:

I’ll be honest with you:
I hate war in all it’s forms-
Physical, psychological, spiritual… emotional… environmental
I hate war…
And i hate having to struggle – i honestly do
Because i wish i had been into a world where it was
Unnecessary.
This context of struggle and being a warrior and being a
Struggler
Has been forced on me by oppression.
Otherwise i would be a sculptor, or a gardener,
Carpenter – you know, i would be free to be so much more…

I guess part of me or a part of who i am, a part of what i do
Is being a warrior – a reluctant warrior, a reluctant struggler
But… i do it because i’m committed to life
We can’t avoid it, we can’t run away from it
Because to do that is to be… cowardice-
To do that is to be subservient… to devils, subservient to
Evil and so that the only way to live on this planet
With any human dignity at the moment is to struggle.

Dignity is a class concept! — John Holloway’s argument in “Dignity’s Revolt” (in Zapatista! Reinventing Revolution in Mexico).

But this also relates to “lifestyle” politics, “ethical” consumption, “fair” trade, etc.: drivent by people’s desire to live without fucking over people over.

These are questions which we’re faced with daily. How do I go to work and yet remain human? How can I bring up my children so that they can become human yet stay out of prison? How do we interact with our friends, lovers, colleagues, neighbours…? How can we live a life?

Seems questions of “morality” and “ethics” always been preserve of liberalism/bourgeois thought. If we’re attempting to reclaim the notion of entrepreneurship, perhaps we need to reclaim ethics too, notion of a collective, communist ethics.