The January-February 2017 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 62, #1, is available on the web.
View the issue online or as pdf.
Lead: Inauguration of neo-fascism faces widespread revolt
The lightning move by Republicans in Congress to prepare to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare—before Donald Trump even took office, with only the vaguest idea of what is to replace it, and with full knowledge that a large majority of Americans oppose the repeal of its most important provisions—gave a sign of how far the new single-party government intends to roll the clock back, with dizzying speed.
Democracy in the streets votes Trump out!
Reports from the huge Women’s March from participants in Chicago, Ill., Detroit, Mich., Oakland, Calif., Nashville, Tenn., Memphis, Tenn., Los Angeles, Calif., and New York City.
From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Why Phenomenology? Why now?
Because of the urgency of the question of how to make new beginnings in such a reactionary world situation, we excerpt two of Dunayevskaya’s last philosophical writings, which confront “where to begin” as part of her work on dialectics of philosophy and organization.
Editorial: Freedom and terror define Syria
Editorial taking up the present situation in Syria, where the smoke of destroyed East Aleppo, of ravaged Free Idlib, East Ghouta, Wadi Barada, and other revolutionary communities raises Trump’s fascist banner. While President Obama is no friend to the Syrian Revolution, Trump delivered: surrender or death.
Workshop Talks: Roots of Trumpism in swamps of history
Htun Lin’s Workshop Talks column takes up his experience as a refugee from Burma to the U.S. and today’s plight of the Rohingya, who are experiencing ethnic cleansing at the hands of the state and Buddhist nationalists in Burma today.
Voices From the Inside Out: Castro absolved?
Black prisoner Faruq looks critically at Fidel Castro’s legacy, especially his turn to a one-party state and the importance of freely associated labor for a true revolutionary process.
Woman as Reason: Syrian women as force and revolutionary Reason
Terry Moon writes about the revolutionary force and reason of Syrian women including those in Raqqa fighting ISIS, in East Aleppo fighting Bashar al-Assad, in Salamiya and Daraya–documenting the forms they chose to fight for freedom.
As Others See Us: From the Preface to the new French edition of Marxism and Freedom
Frédéric Monferrand introduces the new French edition of Marxisme et Liberté (Marxism and Freedom) by Raya Dunayevskaya. This excerpt concentrates on how the work reconstructs the Hegelian philosophical consistency of “Marx’s Marxism” so that it comes to life–from the 1844 Manuscripts to Capital, through the idea that history is the history of the efforts of humanity to make itself free.
Oakland, Detroit march on Martin Luther King Day
Reports by participants of celebrations and protests on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Oakland, Calif., and Detroit, Mich.
Letter from Mexico: Indigenous organize to contest 2018 vote
The National Indigenous Congress in Mexico announced that 430 communities had created an Indigenous Governing Council to prepare for selecting a woman to contest the presidential election in 2018, not with the goal of taking power through the ballot box, but to elicit the voices and actions from below.
Trump and unrest confront China
Just weeks after Donald Trump—with Vladimir Putin’s help—claimed his Electoral College victory, he put the spotlight on U.S.-China relations by taking a call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, creating the possibility that the U.S. might abandon the “one China” policy.
More
Page 2
Review: Wombs in Labor
Women WorldWide
Confronting fanatics
Page 3
Postal workers stop Staples
Columbia University stalls union victory
Women prisoners: ‘Shout Their Names’
Page 6 to 7, Readers’ Views
Readers’ Views, Part 1
Readers’ Views, Part 2
Page 8
Justice still denied for Stephon Watts
Continued discussion of “Prisoners’ Human Rights Movement Blueprint”: What is our true human nature?
The movie Loving, Karl Marx and ‘real life’
Page 9
Handicap This!
Chelsea Manning is not yet free
Queer Notes
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Transgender Day of Remembrance
Page 11
The Ghost Ship fire
Page 12, World in View
Cuban Revolution’s dual heritage
Brazilians resist return to neoliberalism
The past is prologue
Page 13
Youth in Action
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