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; [=>]
The Oct. 27 massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue was a modern pogrom, with assault weapons, social media presence, and poisoned roots in the current stage of world counter-revolution represented by Trump, Putin, and their like.
News and Letters Committees statement on Donald Trump’s latest attack on Trans people by trying to claim that the word “sex” in Title IX does not include them. Trump has chosen to dehumanize a group of people whose whole lives have often been fraught with brutal violence and discrimination, those who are Transgender.
Given the moral bankruptcy of Congress and Donald Trump, it was no surprise that Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court was pushed through Congress. The surprise was the vibrancy, strength and determination of the fight against that nomination…
Just before the final confirmation vote elevating Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put out a confluence of messages that slandered the act of protest itself.
Youth in Action that takes up how half of the student body at Yale Law School held a sit-down strike in university hallways and refused to go to class on Sept. 24, 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…;
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.
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 [=>]
Nearly 200 students and 150 adults participated in a three-day march in opposition to the construction of a second airport on Jeju-Do, South Korea.
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 [=>]
Special offer for the book “Russia: From Proletarian Revolution to State-Capitalist Counter-Revolution: Selected writings by Raya Dunayevskaya.”
Participant report: 60,000 demanded “Families Belong Together!” in Chicago, with 700+ protests nationwide.
In-person report of one of the demonstrations in Chicago, Ill., on June 23, against Trump’s inhuman policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S. border.
Report of a meeting in Los Angeles to commemorate the April 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion, which was a reaction to an accumulation of racist actions and policies in Los Angeles and the country, directed against Black people day after day and generation after generation.
Nearly 1,000 college-age youth jammed the street in front of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) in Delhi when official questions to exams were found on social media on Feb. 28.
Iraq’s court system has been blind to the element of coercion as they rush to put to death not only ISIS fighters but their hostages as well. On one April afternoon, two hours was all a judge needed to convict 14 women…
The May-June 2018 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 63, #3, is available on the web.
View the issue online or as pdf.
Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2018-2019: Fighting Trump and his fascist allies in practice and in theory
Contents:
I. Donald Trump’s war show
II. Spreading revolt opens new doors
III. The reality and the myth of contemporary capitalism
IV. Marx, Lenin, Marxist-Humanism and the philosophy [=>]
Hershu Habeel is a story by Syrian Najm Aldin Samman that attempts to show the the extent of Syrians’ love of their homeland, and the genocide that is happening in Syria at this moment.
Students demonstrate at the University of Vermont in Burlington over racial inequality on campus, calling for mandated diversity and equity training for university staff as well as increased recruitment and retention of faculty and staff of color.
In-person report from the Philippines.
On a bitter cold morning on March 24, 2018, over 85,000 of us jammed into Union Park on Chicago’s west side to be part of the March For Our Lives and to join with protesters in 800 other cities across the U.S. and the world.
In-person report of the demonstration of women street vendors in Los Angeles on International Women’s Day fighting for their jobs and for dignity.
Lead: #MeToo, Women’s Marches show the resistance deepens; Editorial: China–Xi Jinping’s global power grab; Editorial: Youth confront the NRA; From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Rosa Luxemburg as feminist; Fight for $15 and labor’s full potential; Uprising in Honduras; Woman as Reason: Iranian women embody revolt; Charles Denby’s life story: the story of the struggle for freedom; Review: Specters of Revolt; Voices From the Inside Out: What is the objective of prisoner unity?; Struggle against solitary confinement continues!; World in View: Syria and International solidarity; More…
OFFICIAL CALL FOR CONVENTION
to Work Out Marxist-Humanist Perspectives for 2018-2019
February 25, 2018
To All Members of News and Letters Committees
Dear Friends:
The deeply ingrained rape culture, already widely known but often hushed up, has been exposed in the broadest way yet by the #MeToo movement. How deep and total is the needed uprooting [=>]
It is no accident that the most recent wave of protests in Iran was preceded by a brave act of a woman in Tehran taking off her hijab in a very public way. Ever since Iran’s Revolution was usurped by Islamic clerics, women have been at the heart of every movement.
Lead: Iranian workers, youth reach for new revolutionary beginnings; Editorial: Alabama Blacks beat Trump-Moore; Help keep News & Letters behind bars; Voices from the inside out: Prisoners discuss impact of 13th Amendment; From the writings of Raya Dunayevskaya–Iran: Unfoldment of, and contradictions in, revolution; New French edition of Indignant Heart: A Black Worker’s Journal; World in View: Visage of Hitler rises in Austria; Woman as Reason: The humanism of #MeToo; In Memoriam: Narihiko Ito (1931-2017); Syrians & Iranians unite in D.C. rally; Letter from Mexico: Zapatistas and science for humanity; Another brutal winter of war in Yemen; more …
LALIT reports on their banned protest of U.S. military base on Diego Garcia, and our statement of solidarity.
Students and others rally in support of an immigrant former staff member of Christian college Azusa Pacific University, after he suffered retaliation for reporting sexual harassment.
Puerto Ricans suffer as Donald Trump plays to his racist base; Editorial: Save the Rohingya, stop the genocide!; Editorial: Abuser-in-chief trashes women; On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution: Historic initiative of the masses and Lenin’s philosophic break; New book–Russia: From Proletarian Revolution to State-Capitalist Counter-Revolution: Selected writings by Raya Dunayevskaya; Detroit Women’s Convention shows women persist; World in View: U.S. ‘democracy’ enters crisis mode; Workers’ revolts threaten Xi Jinping; Woman as Reason: #MeToo; Letter from Mexico: Earthquake: Mexico’s wake-up call; Kris Kobach has something to hide; Judy Tanzawa (Judy Tristan), 1939-2017; Dan Perron, 1959-2017; more…
Women’s liberationist and managing editor of News & Letters Terry Moon writes about why she posted #MeToo on social media and how women’s experiences must impact what revolution has to mean.
We condemn the racist response of the Trump administration to the desperate situation in Puerto Rico. What we are seeing there is nothing less than a physical and moral apocalypse.
An in-person report of the recent devastating earthquakes in Mexico and how social conditions including capitalism, government corruption, etc., negatively affect rescue efforts; how everyday people’s self-organization makes a significant difference.
The September-October 2017 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 62, #5, is available on the web.
View the issue online or as pdf.
Lead article: Rising U.S. racism challenges all freedom movements
A Marxist-Humanist analysis of the history and meaning of the rising of the right-wing neo-Nazi white supremacist movement, its relationship to President Donald Trump and his administration, and its challenge to the [=>]
Hundreds demonstrated Aug. 31 outside Chicago offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, supporting Genoveva Ramirez and all others being threatened with deportation.
Web-only articles: Fascist show of force in Charlottesville; Chicago auto mechanics strike; Venezuela crisis; Keolis Transit strike; online Archives Guide.
A striker speaks from one of the auto mechanics’ picket lines at 140 car dealerships in the Chicago area. .
Analysis of the violent invasion of Charlottesville, Va., the significance of the broader advance of fascism, and the opposite to it in human forces and reason.
As Venezuela’s social crisis deepens, the contradictions always present in Chavismo are coming to a head. A look at the Bolivarian Constitution, Chavismo’s relationship to the Arab Spring, and its dependence on high oil prices and a top leader illuminate the crisis.
Mechanics went on strike at Foothill Transit in Pomona, Calif., and were joined on the picket line by bus drivers.
The new online Guide with links to all the documents is an extremely useful finding tool that helps the reader or researcher locate items and grasp the structure of the Archives. The website of the Raya Dunayevskaya Memorial Fund presents the Raya Dunayevskaya Collection as she organized it, together with the Supplement.
The July-August 2017 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 62, #4, is available on the web.
View the issue online or as pdf.
Lead article: The struggle for immigrants’ rights challenges humanity
The massive increase in inhuman attacks against immigrants and undocumented people in the U.S. is spurring new activism and urgency.
From the writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: A concrete [=>]
An activist reports on the June 4, 2017, action by anti-fascist protesters against a rally of hate made up of Proud Boys, Militiamen, and Nazis who were protected by Portland cops who attacked anti-fascists.
From a prisoner’s perspective, Faruq reviews “I Am Not Your Negro,” a documentary film and companion book produced by Raoul Peck that concentrates on the writings and life of James Baldwin.
The May-June 2017 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 62, #3, is available on the web.
View the issue online or as pdf.
Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2017-2018: Philosophy and revolt confront Trump’s drive to fascism
Contents:
Introduction
I. Trumpism as an excrescence of world capitalism’s crises
II. The capital relation
III. U.S. forces of revolt as reason; philosophy as force of revolution
IV. International crises
V. Lies, facts and ground
VI. [=>]
As the Trump administration ramps up deportations and related abuses, strikes, protests, and sanctuary cities are proliferating. The oppression of a lower caste of workers and the discrimination and violence faced by immigrants present a challenge to the Left, labor and the rest of humanity.
Assad’s chemical attack on civilians reveals the lie the world has been living. Trump’s limited counterstrike was a response to the unprecedented mass opposition to him, not an abandonment of his counter-revolutionary agenda. It is crucial to take the living freedom struggles in Syria and globally as our basis, to oppose the lie that “there is no alternative,” and to clarify what we are for, not just against.
The deadline for the May-June 2017 issue of News & Letters is Sunday, April 16.
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. Demonstrations and discussions have mushroomed since the [=>]
Workers striking Spectrum-Charter explained that they had struck at the end of March because the new corporation was slashing pension and health plans and because the workers had not had a union contact since 2013.
The March-April 2017 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 62, #2, is available on the web.
View the issue online or as pdf.
Women take the lead against world retrogression
An in-depth Marxist-Humanist view of the state of the women’s movement in the U.S. and worldwide as it responds to the rising fascism of U.S. President Trump and other world leaders.
Women’s liberation, in fact [=>]