Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2019-2020–Humanity’s choice: Freedom and revolution or fascism, war and genocide

April 27, 2019

Draft thesis for discussion about where the world is heading, and what to do about it from a revolutionary standpoint. Part I: Two events that happened almost simultaneously on March 15 dramatically reveal the tectonic forces ripping at this disintegrating capitalist society: the international climate strike carried out by youth and the racist massacre at New Zealand mosques. The first reveals a profound reach for a new human future. The second a reach in the opposite direction for a mythic past—one rooted in the actual past of slavery and oppression, but purged of the freedom struggles.

May-June News & Letters pdf is online

April 24, 2019

Two opposite directions for humanity are making themselves apparent: one, the massive actions from below demanding a social transformation radical enough to achieve serious climate action, from the Youth Climate Strikes to the Extinction Rebellion; two, the series of terroristic massacres that would drag the world in a reactionary, suicidal direction, from New Zealand to [=>]

Share your story in the next issue of News & Letters: May-June deadline

April 9, 2019

The deadline for the May-June 2019 issue of News & Letters is Sunday, April 14.

Share your story with the world in our special Draft Perspectives issue! Send in reports on your workplace, your town, your country; conditions, events, ideas, and debates. Send in Readers’ Views responding to articles in News & Letters and/or to the [=>]

Chicago vigil for Syria

March 26, 2019

Participant report of a Chicago vigil in solidarity with the Syrian people against Assad.

San Francisco Youth Climate Strike

March 25, 2019

Report on the March 15, 2019, Youth Climate Strike in San Francisco.

Chicago meeting: Women bearing the brunt of reaction lead the resistance

March 21, 2019

WHEN: Wednesday, March 27, 2019, 6:30 PM
WHERE: News and Letters Library, 228 S. Wabash Ave., Room 230, Chicago

Some of the thousands of Indian women who recently marched for dignity across 200 districts in 24 states to raise awareness of rape and rape culture. Photo: Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan.

News and Letters Committees invites you to [=>]

March-April 2019 issue of News & Letters is now online!

March 20, 2019

Lead article: Women bearing the brunt of reaction lead the resistance; Editorial: Is nuclear war on the horizon?; From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Women’s liberation, experimentation and revolution in permanence; Genocide is happening now in Idlib; Editorial: Fighting gun violence; Venezuela is at the crossroads; Essay: What is Socialism? Socialism and a philosophy of revolution; Oakland, Calif., teachers strike; Chicago charter school teachers strike; World in View: Rise of Far Right threatens ‘Europe’; Letter from Mexico: Maquiladora workers strike in Matamoros; Presidents Day demonstration in Oakland, Calif.; more…

Bruno Latour’s ‘Down to Earth’ buries human revolt

March 11, 2019

Bruno Latour’s new book “Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime” wants to comprehend the era of global warming but takes a very wrong turn, substituting “Earth” for human subjects of revolution.

PDF of March-April 2019 issue of News & Letters

March 6, 2019

The new March-April issue of News & Letters is at the print shop and will be mailed out later this week. The lead for International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month is “Women bearing the brunt of reaction lead the resistance.” It can be viewed online now as a pdf, available on the web at [=>]

News and Letters Committees Call for Plenum 2019

February 25, 2019

Official Call for national gathering of News and Letters Committees to work out Marxist-Humanist perspectives for 2019-2020

Genocide in Idlib

February 24, 2019

In-person report from Idlib province, Syria.

Share your story in the next issue of News & Letters: March-April deadline

February 22, 2019

The deadline for the March-April 2019 issue of News & Letters is Sunday, February 24.

Share your story with the world! Send in reports on your workplace, your town, your country; conditions, events, ideas, and debates. Send in Readers’ Views responding to articles in News & Letters and/or to what is happening in the world. What is your view of the state [=>]

Chicago meeting: Revolutionary Journalism: Do you have a story to tell?

February 14, 2019

WHEN: Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 6:30 PM
WHERE: News and Letters Library, 228 S. Wabash, Room 230, Chicago

News and Letters Committees invites you to a meeting on:

Revolutionary Journalism: Do you have a story to tell?

Los Angeles, Calif., teachers from the Hawkins school district rally and strike on Jan. 14, 2019.

Come to an editing session [=>]

January-February 2019 issue of News & Letters is now online!

February 4, 2019

Lead article: Trump aids capitalism’s attack on labor, and workers strike back; Editorial: Brazil under Bolsonaro’s heel; From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Rosa Luxemburg’s revolutionary life and legacy; The Green not-so-great New Deal; Voices From the Inside Out: Wisconsin’s prison system on trial; Woman as Reason: Anti-Semitism mars Women’s March; Essay: How dead thought failed Syrian revolution’s living history; Unity in Los Angeles teachers’ strike; Sudan rises against genocidal Bashir; Women in Spain say: ‘We are all Laura!’; Former prisoners speak on contradictions in support work; World in View: French ‘Yellow Vests’; more…

From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Rosa Luxemburg’s revolutionary life

Jan. 15, 2019, marked the 100th anniversary of the day Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered by the forces that suppressed the 1918-19 German Revolution. To highlight how Luxemburg’s revolutionary life and thought are pertinent today, we present a critical review by Raya Dunayevskaya of “The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg,” edited by Stephen Eric Bronner.

No to U.S. Intervention in Venezuela! No to 21st Century State-Capitalism! Yes to Self-Determination of Venezuela’s Masses!

January 31, 2019

Maduro’s authoritarian rule must not give a green light to intervention from without, or to supporting a coup from within. That cannot be allowed to cover up the way that the attempt to construct socialism from the top down was no substitute for a social transformation from below.

Review: ‘Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator’

January 30, 2019

Review by January of “Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator” by Greg Jaczko.

Tlahuelilpan deaths not accidental

The horrendous tragedy in Tlahuelilpan, Mexico, when an oil pipeline explosion killed over 100 people, has shaken all of Mexico.

PDF of January-February 2019 issue of News & Letters

January 29, 2019

Get a preview of the January-February 2019 issue of News & Letters!

The Green not-so-great New Deal

January 24, 2019

Calls for a “green new deal” risk the kind of state/party co-optation of movements from below that was involved in the 1930s New Deal.

Chicago meeting: Do you have a story to tell? Bring it to the Editing Session of News & Letters

January 3, 2019

When: Wednesday, January 9, 2019, 6:30 PM
Where: News and Letters Library, 228 S. Wabash, Room 230, Chicago

News and Letters Committees invites you to an Editing Session

Bring your article or story to the Editing Session and learn about revolutionary journalism at the same time. Get a preview of what will be in the January-February issue and add your own [=>]

Share your story in the next issue of News & Letters: January-February deadline

The deadline for the January-February 2019 issue of News & Letters is Sunday, January 13.

Share your story with the world! Send in reports on your workplace, your town, your country; conditions, events, ideas, and debates. Send in Readers’ Views responding to articles in News & Letters and/or to what is happening in the world. What is your view of the state [=>]

Capitalism’s failures, and the struggles against it

December 26, 2018

We post this Dec. 24, 2018, commentary by Mohammed Elnaiem as a discussion article which begins: “On these holidays, we mourn for the Kurds in Syria who hopelessly fear an upcoming Turkish invasion, we mourn for the yellow vests in France who rise up in an empire built on colonial wealth but which continues to make destitute its working and unemployed poor…”

Michigan post-election voter suppression

December 18, 2018

Report from Detroit about the Michigan legislature passing bills to reverse the results of the election, and about plans to oppose from below the suppression of democracy.

Rally to end war in Yemen

December 16, 2018

Rally in Chicago calling for end to war in Yemen, including U.S.-supported Saudi military campaign. 44 blue backpacks represent children killed when the Saudi coalition dropped a U.S.-supplied bomb on a school bus packed with children.

First ever charter school teachers’ strike

Teachers speak about why they struck Chicago’s Acero charter schools on Dec. 4-9, expanding the wave of teacher strikes to the first charter school strike in the nation.

November-December 2018 issue of News & Letters is now online!

December 15, 2018

Lead article: Election deepens illegitimacy of Trump’s minority rule; New book: Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution in Permanence for Our Day; From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Karl Marx’s continuous development of the philosophy of revolution in permanence; Essay: Marx’s concept of permanent revolution as philosophy: Exploring it today with Dunayevskaya; Editorial: Massacre of Jews and rising racism; Immigrant caravan born in the USA; Voices From the Inside Out: Learning the meaning of parole; Women as Reason: Solidarity with Trans; California fires are not ‘natural’ disasters; Counter-revolution redefines EU, OPEC; Letter from Mexico: Rejecting fake choice in airport referendum; Bolsonaro’s fascism threatens Brazilians; more…

Iranians remember

December 14, 2018

Iranians gathered in Santa Monica in remembrance of the victims of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1979-1989 regime.

New book: Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution in Permanence for Our Day

New book published for the 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth–Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution in Permanence for Our Day: Selected writings by Raya Dunayevskaya

Readers’ Views, November-December 2018

Readers’ Views on: Capitalism vs. the Planet; Anti-Semitism’s Inhumanity; Kavanaugh Travesty; Youth Rock!; Freedom Movements vs. Fascism across the Globe; Catholic Church Crisis; Voices from behind Bars

World in View, November-December 2018: Counter-revolution redefines EU, OPEC

December 11, 2018

In OPEC powers’ participation in the counter-revolutionary attacks on the revolutions in Syria and Yemen, and in the anti-immigrant reactionary reshaping of European politics, we see the next stage of bourgeois politics taking shape.

Chicago meeting: Socialism and Women’s Liberation

December 8, 2018

WHEN: Wednesday, December 12, 2018, 6:30 PM
WHERE: News & Letters Library, 228 S. Wabash, Room 230, Chicago

News and Letters Committees invites you to a meeting on:

Socialism and Women’s Liberation

♀ Does socialism—which historically has been interpreted to be about labor—speak to women’s struggle for freedom; to the #MeToo movement; the struggle to end rape culture; [=>]

Chicago meeting: Socialism and Ecology

November 30, 2018

WHEN: Wednesday, December 5, 6:30 PM
WHERE: News and Letters Library, 228 S. Wabash Ave., Room 230, Chicago, Illinois

News and Letters Committees invites you to a meeting on

Socialism and Ecology

Can socialism reverse the environmental damage and spiraling climate change caused by fossil-fueled industrial capitalism?
What can we learn from the terrible environmental record of so-called Communist countries?
Can strategies such as a “green new deal” or [=>]

read the rest!

Share your story in the next issue of News & Letters: November-December deadline

October 30, 2018

The deadline for the November-December 2018 issue of News & Letters is Thursday, November 15.

Share your story with the world! Send in reports on your workplace, your town, your country; conditions, events, ideas, and debates. Send in Readers’ Views responding to articles in News & Letters and/or to what is happening in the world. News & Letters will run articles and Readers’ Views about [=>]

Chicago meetings: What is Socialism in 2018-2019?

October 25, 2018

Selected Wednesdays at 6:30 PM
starting Wednesday, October 31, 6:30 PM
at the News and Letters Library, 228 S. Wabash Ave., Room 230, Chicago, Illinois

News and Letters Committees invites you to a series of four discussions on:

What is Socialism in 2018-2019?

► What is the relationship between what Karl Marx worked out in Capital to what Bernie Sanders calls socialism?

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September-October 2018 issue of News & Letters is now online!

October 7, 2018

Lead article: Masses vs. capitalism: Climate chaos hangs in the balance; Editorial: Stop the coming slaughter in Idlib!; Editorial: Catholic Church’s sins laid bare; Thousands of Mexican students STRIKE!; 30,000 march for the climate in San Francisco; Voices from the inside out: The need for unity; From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Religion, racism and capitalist crisis; Discussion article: The Left’s response to Syrian genocide; Nicaraguans rise up against Ortega; Israel’s reactionary nation-state law; Say ‘No!’ to life without parole; U.S. prisoners strike; More…;

Discussion article: The Left’s response to Syrian genocide

A U.S. activist in Syria solidarity criticizes the broad Left’s failure to practice revolutionary solidarity and outlines the dangerous political consequences.

From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Religion, racism and capitalist crisis

October 4, 2018

With hate crimes, anti-Semitism, racism and anti-immigrant xenophobia on the rise, Israel’s “Jewish nation-state” law and fascism brewing globally, we excerpt two pieces addressing roots of these phenomena in capitalism’s crises.

Masses vs. capitalism: Climate chaos hangs in the balance

September 28, 2018

With disastrous consequences of climate change making themselves felt, both scientists and movements are pointing to the need for a radically different direction, but capitalism has blocked the way and even put a cult of climate denial in the White House.

Idlib: Syria’s 21st century concentration camp

September 10, 2018

Syria’s Idlib province faces imminent slaughter by Russia, Iran, and Assad regime forces, which have already made it into the model of the 21st century concentration camp. We call upon all of humanity to oppose this and to demand protection for these millions whose only “crime” was to fight for freedom against a fascist regime.

Share your story in the next issue of News & Letters: September-October deadline

September 5, 2018

The deadline for the September-October 2018 issue of News & Letters is Sunday, September 9.

Share your story with the world! Send in reports on your workplace, your town, your country; conditions, events, ideas, and debates. Send in Readers’ Views responding to articles in News & Letters and/or to what is happening in the world. News & Letters will run articles and Readers’ Views about [=>]

Climate change, capitalism, and Trump

Climate change, capitalism, and Trump

Presentation to the Chicago Local of News and Letters Committees
By Franklin Dmitryev, August 27, 2018

“…the spirit of the time, growing slowly and quietly ripe for the new form it is to assume, disintegrates one fragment after another of the structure of its previous world. That it is tottering to [=>]

Chicago meeting: Climate change, capitalism, and Trump

August 21, 2018

WHEN: Monday, August 27, 2018, 6:30 PM
WHERE: News & Letters Library, 228 S. Wabash, Room 230, Chicago

News and Letters Committees invites you to a meeting on:

Climate change, capitalism, and Trump

Demonstrators at Standing Rock making their ideas known.

Movements of youth, Indigenous peoples, and environmental justice show the possibility of a radically different direction. Their [=>]

Chicago meeting: The nuclear threat in the age of Trump-Kim

August 2, 2018

WHEN: Hiroshima Day, Monday, August 6, 2018, 6:30 PM
WHERE: News and Letters Library, 228 S. Wabash, Room 230, Chicago

News and Letters Committees invites you to a meeting on:

73 years after Hiroshima/Nagasaki
The nuclear threat in the age of Trump-Kim

Since the Non-Proliferation Treaty was agreed to 50 years ago, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel have [=>]

July-August 2018 issue of News & Letters is now online!

July 25, 2018

The July-August 2018 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 63, #4, is available on the web.

View the issue online or as pdf.

Lead article: Millions denounce Trump’s heinous immigration abuses
Marxist-Humanist analysis of the nature of President Donald Trump’s inhuman immigration policy, the damage it is causing and the outcry against it, including from his own base.

Editorial: Trump-Kim ‘peace’ threatens masses
Marxist-Humanist analysis of [=>]

L.A. is fighting Trump

July 24, 2018

Los Angeles was one of hundreds of cities in mass protests in June against Trump’s “zero tolerance” agenda against migrant refuges looking for asylum.

Readers’ Views, July-August 2018, Part 2

July 23, 2018

Readers’ Views on: Marx’s New Moments and Today’s Need for Revolution and Philosophy; Fetish of Property vs. Humanity and the Planet; Voices from Behind Bars

Readers’ Views, July-August 2018, Part 1

Readers’ Views on: Fighting Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Hysteria; Women’s Liberation; Attacks on Gays; Support Restaurant Workers; Swords into Plowshares; Human Rights Struggles in Iraq…; …And in Russia; Arthur Gursch in Memoriam

From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: A return to the Humanism of Marx

July 22, 2018

At a time when the social crisis is total—political, economic, cultural, ideological—this clarion call for a return to the original form of the Humanism of Marxism speaks to today’s need for more than just political change, but for a total view and a total solution to global retrogression.

‘Families Belong Together’–Chicago

July 2, 2018

Participant report: 60,000 demanded “Families Belong Together!” in Chicago, with 700+ protests nationwide.

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