Welcome to the March! (FAQ)

What is this?

A blog.

Well, thanks, that was informative. Why have you created this blog?

It's an attempt to keep my political rants and rambles away from my Live Journal, and try and have that focused more strictly on more personal things, mostly to not bore my LJ friends to death with political stuff. Still, I have a feeling there will be some overlap. We shall see which gets posted to more. So this blog intends to be very political.

Okay, that makes some sense. But why call it "The Long March of the Penguins?"

There are a couple reasons for that. Partially, this project was inspired by a another blog I read, known as the Squirrel Vanguard (or Red Squirrel's Lair), a fine group of communist squirrels based in Scotland. They posted something a little while ago about a blog called The Red Wombat Hole, and referenced some sort of "revolutionary species international." And I'm just building on that, with an American section comprised of penguins.

Also, the title is dual reference to "March of the Penguins", a film about penguins narrated by Morgan Freeman, and "The Long March", which was a march undertaken by Mao Zedong and much of the Communist Party of China in 1934 in order to escape from the anti-communist Nationalists headed by Chiang Kai-Shek. Hence, both communism and penguins.

Ah, I see. So are you Maoists? And why penguins; they're not native to the US.

No, I am not a Maoist. Broadly defined, I consider myself a revolutionary democratic socialist and a Trotskyist (though I freely admit I'm somewhat under-read on the matter). As for other bloggers that may contribute here in the future, their particular brand of socialism cannot be narrowed down since they're not known yet! However, it's reasonable to say that they'll be revolutionary-oriented socialists (ie, probably not social democrats) interested in some sort of regroupment effort, which may include Maoists.

As for the penguins, you're right that they're not native to the US. I just like the animal, that's all.

So this blog will cover topics relating to socialism?

Well, yes. Specifically, I tend to focus on labour/union issues, elections and political work, some youth rights stuff, the Fourth International (in its various incarnations, though I'd consider myself in the orbit of what's commonly known as the USFI), the Middle East (in particular highlighting movements in opposition to both US/Western imperialism and political Islam), and leftist sectology and general sectariana.

Are you a member of any socialist organisation?

A couple, actually. I am (as of writing this) national Vice-Chair of the Young People's Socialist League, as well as a member of the Socialist Party USA, and an "official sympathiser" in Solidarity. My hope is that some time in the future, I won't need to list all these groups, as they'll have merged together (with YPSL coming more into its own as a proper party youth section.)

That's really it to start out, so hopefully other questions will be answered as posts commence. So, enjoy the blog, and remember: