Archive | July, 2021

When the American journalist, I.F. Stone, published The Hidden History of the Korean War at the height of the military conflict in 1952, its message did not find a warm welcome at home.

Karl Marx’s analysis of capitalism provides the key to understanding the environmental catastrophe we’re witnessing, and to gaining a clearer picture of what’s needed to repair our damaged relationship with the Earth.

The United States was never satisfied with having lost the Cuba subjected to its ambitions. Therefore, shortly after the victory of the guerrillas of the Sierra Maestra, they tried to invade the island with mercenary troops. They were defeated in April 1961. The following year, President Kennedy decreed the blockade of Cuba, which continues to this day.

A new report from Berkeley is a rare piece of good news for American labor—and a bracing reminder of what real organizing looks like.

You cannot argue with mass hypnosis. You can keep a diary, write a chronicle that reveals the falseness of the spirit of the age to hopefully enlighten future readers, because, as we hear in another of the main points of Bulgakov’s novel Master and Margarita, “manuscripts do not burn.” That is what I do….

Despite facing the world’s worst pandemic of the last century, rich countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO) have blocked efforts to enable more affordable access to the means to fight the pandemic.

In 2020, the U.S. government perpetually wavered in acknowledging COVID-19 as a real danger. We lived through screens, bombarded by commercial messages professing how corporations were here for us, how we were in this together, that we should be optimistic. This is strange, indeed, but to be more specific about a pandemic’s root causes would not sell products and would not reassure people to go back to normal.

Esther Bejarano’s death hits hard, leaving a painful gap in Germany’s anti-fascist scene. Most media and many politicians voiced their praise and mourning—after almost totally ignoring her in life and attacking and trying to squelch organizations she was active in, as an avowed Communist.

After legally receiving a Christmas gift of 24,000 euros from her party, Annalena Baerbock somehow neglected to report it in her tax returns. No big deal, some might think, but after the scandals about Christian Democrats nobly enriching themselves when purchasing face-masks, and two far bigger scandals hanging over the head of the Social Democrats’ chancellor candidate Scholz (currently still Finance Minister), the squeaky clean reputation of the Greens had been a major asset. No longer!

Don’t speak ill of the dead, they say, but if I were to choose candidates for a Hall of Evil Fame, I’d have to ignore such advice; the late Donald Rumsfeld would be close to the top of my list.

In countries where public health restrictions were in place, they were half-baked or have been lifted too soon. Where they are imposing them now, it’s too late; the Delta variant of the coronavirus is surging around the world.

A Marxist, activist and scientist, Lewontin fought a lifelong battle against racism, imperialism and capitalist oppression. He is among the most influential scientists in the field of biology and evolution.

Felipe Bascuñán responds to a debate on the Left about the relationship between oppression and class and why getting the answer right is essential to forging a united class struggle.

Urban crime is the golden child of local media, as recent FAIR coverage (6/21/21) has shown. But as FAIR’s Julie Hollar recently noted, the amount of attention given to a topic does not always reflect the seriousness of the situation.

With deep sadness and respect, Organizing Upgrade is sharing a few more tributes to movement elder Betita Martinez, who died June 29. In her 95 years she lived many lifetimes, and brought her commitment, wit and political clarity to several of the most significant social movements of our day.

Electoral authorities concluded an electoral review in which the leftist.

Climate change is already leading to rising sea levels, threatening island and coastal communities and devastating food security and access to fresh water. Long-term drought and changes in weather patterns are causing hunger and destroying farming land.

Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral was born September 12, 1924 in Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau, one of Portugal’s African colonies. On January 20, 1973–48 years ago today–Cabral was murdered by fascist Portuguese assassins just months before the national liberation movement in which he played a central role won the independence of Guinea-Bissau.

Comments by the former British ambassador to Syria came hours after the chairwoman of the Syrian mission to the OPCW said the U.S. and its allies had lowered the status of the international watchdog, and turned it into a political tool to level baseless accusations against Damascus and exert pressure on it.

In March, hundreds of thousands of Haitians took to the streets of Port au Prince to demand an end to corruption and the departure of President Jovenel Moïse, whose term of office had expired.