September 10, 2018 Prison Radio broadcast from Mumia Abu-Jamal on the significance of a “lock down” that has been instituted for the entire state of Pennsylvania.
Geography Archives: Americas
South America, Central America, United States & Canada
Popular economy workers and social Argentinian leaders, imprisoned
A group of union leaders, popular economy advocates, Senegalese street vendors, and militants from the Excluded Workers Movement and CTEP (MTE-CTEP) were taken into jail by Argentine police, in a situation marked by a high dose of violence and violation of their human rights Buenos Aires City.
Global instability and the development project: is the twenty-first century different?
Ever since the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, the trajectory of the world economy has been hesitant, unstable and prone to many risks. Output recovery has been limited and fragile; and, more significantly, even in the more dynamic economies, it has not increased good-quality employment or reduced inequality and material insecurity.
Socialism is about workers, not wealth funds
The Social Wealth Fund plan is insidious in the sense that it has the capacity to redirect vast amounts of energy and resources toward a goal presented as “socialist” when in reality it is fundamentally incompatible with socialism. We must bring the discussion out into the open to prevent such seductive ideas from compromising the […]
The new class-blindness
Legal advocates have scored some major class-related victories in 2018. In January, an appellate court held that the administration of California’s money bail system violated the Fourteenth Amendment rights of indigent defendants.
Boldness in the Marxist thinking of Samir Amín
The great social thinker, Samir Amin, has died. The social sciences have lost three unique figures in this year. First, the Brazilian Theotonio dos Santos, who inspired many to study the world system from a radical perspective. He was followed by the Peruvian Aníbal Quijano, who posed the concept of “cultural revolution” to give the […]
Dossier 8: The uprooting in Haiti
In 1980, the magazine Tricontinental, published by the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL), dedicated its issue no. 119 to Haiti. The editors wrote, ‘Very little is known about the Haitian people’s struggle,’ as the imperialists have ‘erected a wall of silence around Haiti.’
Censored documentary exposes Israel’s attack on Black Lives Matter
Israeli operatives and their U.S. lobbyists sprang into action when the Movement for Black Lives came out in support of the boycott Israel movement.
Maduro’s Beijing visit spooks a U.S. plotting Venezuela’s isolation
Given the humble goal of Caracas to free itself from the domineering whims of a U.S. imperialism keen on reviving the notorious Monroe Doctrine, it is obvious why the U.S. would see sinister motives in the fraternal reception Beijing has offered to the Venezuelan head of state.
Review of River of Dark Dreams
This marvelous work of history is a must read for anyone trying to understand the dynamics of slavery in the United States in the pre-Civil War period. Walter Johnson locates slavery as playing a central part in the development of a particularly racialised and oppressive capitalism in the slave states.
Stop blaming workers for Trump’s right-wing authoritarianism
The search for explanations of our current political climate, especially the rise of nationalists like Marine LePen in France, Narendra Modi in India, and our own president in the United States, has led pundits to return to the concept of “authoritarian” tendencies as a psychological phenomenon.
The New York Times Editorial opposing military intervention in Venezuela may do more harm than good
U.S. establishment liberals are using their opposition to Trump’s military threats as a cover to back economic sanctions currently wrecking the Venezuelan economy, argues Professor Steve Ellner.
U.S. public school teachers: declining pay, growing militancy
Strikes continue to be an effective way for teachers to improve their living and working (and by extension student learning) conditions. And, polls show that a strong majority of parents continue to support them. Popular support for teacher strikes remains strong The education pollster PDK recently asked adults what they thought about teacher salaries and […]
Venezuela poses no ‘threat to the world’—but WaPo’s claim that it does is dangerous
The phrase “a threat to the world” has a hyperlink to an earlier Tharoor piece (3/1/18), which includes the claim, “As many as 4 million Venezuelans—more than 10 percent of the population—have already left the country, according to the Brookings Institution,”
Race, class and social strategy
Marxists have long understood that the workplace is the primary strategic site of class struggle, and that class struggle is essential for cohering a radicalized working-class majority with the capacity and will to overthrow capitalism in favor of socialism. At the same time, Marxists recognize our moral responsibility to oppose—and the strategic necessity to fight—all […]
Sadly, there is no strike wave
In a September 8 post to the Jacobin website, Eric Dirnbach announced that “U.S. workers are striking again.”
We love the CIA!—or how the left lost its mind
“The Resistance” is steering so much of the left into a hard-right turn — including even Pacifica’s KPFA Radio-Berkeley.
Marronage meets Bolivarian Socialism: Maroon Comix, a Review
VA’s Jeanette Charles reviews Maroon Comix, a book that tells the tales of maroons’ fight for freedom and self-determination and their legacy for today’s struggles.
By inviting and disinviting Bannon, New Yorker fell into its own trap
Corporate media just can’t stop cluelessly digging their own grave.
The UK government is being shamed in the Hague over its colonial record (again)
On 3 September, a four-day legal challenge to the UK’s sovereignty over the Chagos Islands began in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The islands are part of an archipelago located in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), and home to U.S. airbase Diego Garcia.
