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.
Alerts & Appeals
May-June 2017 N&L available on the web
May 18, 2017The 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. [=>]
Immigrants and allies challenge Trump’s inhumanity
April 22, 2017As 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.
Trump won’t smash Assad’s genocidal regime—support the Syrian Revolution!
April 9, 2017Assad’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.
Share your story in the next issue of News & Letters: May-June deadline
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 [=>]
Time Warner workers strike and rally
April 5, 2017Workers 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.
March-April 2017 N&L available on the web
March 24, 2017The 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 [=>]
Close to 5,000 celebrate International Women’s Day in New York
March 12, 2017On March 8, International Women’s Day, Washington Square Park in New York City was overflowing as close to 5,000 women, many dressed in red, rallied to hear speakers denounce the anti-woman steps taken by the Trump administration and to speak of the need to deepen women’s sense of unity.
Flint-Selma International Women’s Day Solidarity March
March 7, 2017An International Women’s Day March in Flint in solidarity with the Selma-to-Montgomery March 52 years ago highlighted Flint residents’ ongoing struggle for civil and human rights.
News and Letters Committees Call for Plenum 2017
February 26, 2017Official Call for national gathering of News and Letters Committees to work out Marxist-Humanist perspectives for 2017-2018
Share your story in the next issue of News & Letters: March-April deadline
February 17, 2017The deadline for the March-April 2017 issue of News & Letters is Sunday, February 26.
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—such as Trump’s moves to pull the world far [=>]
Web only: Black History Month; Trump’s American fascism; ongoing protests; more
February 7, 2017Links to articles found only on our website. Topics include: African American History Month; Trump’s American fascism; reports of ongoing U.S. protests; Youth in Action; Mexico teachers’ union statement; Chinese “Marxism and Freedom” book.
Detroiters oppose school closings
Report of the “Emergency Community Meeting on School Closings” in Detroit, MI, taking up and condemning Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to close 38 schools, most of them in Detroit.
Florida students rally for immigrants
Participant report of a 500-strong student rally at the University of South Florida in Tampa in support of immigrants and calling for divestment from companies whose products harm the environment or which produce weapons and supplies for the military.
Voices From the Inside Out: African-American History Month
February 5, 2017Prisoner Faruq looks at how African-American History Month came to be, stressing the importance of Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s vision and how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy included a critique of cultural and social relations as well as race, concluding that history is necessary for formerly enslaved people to move towards freedom.
January-February 2017 N&L available on the web
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 [=>]
Trump’s American fascism must be defeated!
January 30, 2017Protests against Trump’s Muslim ban, and his reorganization of the National Security Council after the model of Hitler’s Reich Main Security Office, signal a profound struggle to be waged over what kind of society the U.S. will be.
‘City of Immigrants’ rallies against Trump
January 29, 2017Breaking news: participant report of New York protests against Trump’s anti-immigrant actions.
Mexico: National Coordination of Education Workers statement
January 20, 2017NATIONAL COORDINATION OF EDUCATION WORKERS
PRESS RELEASE January 9, 2017
Translated by David Turpin Jr.
The National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) recently celebrated 37 years of struggle. Throughout these years we have fought for three strategic objectives: union democracy, democracy in education, and democracy in our country. Within and outside our ranks it is recognized that the [=>]
Chinese translation of Marxism and Freedom available on pdf
December 18, 2016Now available at the News and Letters Committees website as a pdf file:
Marxism and Freedom, from 1776 until Today: Chinese translation
Raya Dunayevskaya’s classic explication of Marxism in Chinese. The first book on Marxist-Humanism, it was originally published in 1958 and has been in continuous publication. It has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, [=>]
November-December 2016 N&L available on the web
December 4, 2016The November-December 2016 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 61, #6, is available on the web.
View the issue online or as pdf.
Lead-Editorial: No to Trump’s counter-revolution! No to fascism! Fight for a new human society!
Trump’s electoral victory by appealing to racism and sexism menaces all freedom movements. It is the index of this system’s crisis and bankruptcy of thought, which needs [=>]
New issue! Lead-Editorial on Trump’s election. Editorial on Dakota Access Pipeline. More…
November 29, 2016The November-December 2016 issue of News & Letters has been mailed out and can be viewed online in pdf form.
The Lead-Editorial of this new issue takes up the election results: “No to Trump’s counter-revolution! No to fascism! Fight for a new human society!” A second editorial on the struggle over the Dakota Access Pipeline is [=>]
No to Trump! No to fascism! Fight for a new human society!
November 12, 2016Trump’s electoral victory by appealing to racism and sexism menaces all freedom movements. It is the index of this system’s crisis and bankruptcy of thought, which needs to be met with a truly revolutionary vision.
Why Indigenous Peoples Day
October 22, 2016Participant report from Indigenous Peoples Day observation in Tucson, celebrating expanding human freedom rather than colonialism and imperialism.
Policies of exclusion challenged across the board and across the border
October 15, 2016Participant report of a cross-border protest at Nogales, Mexico, and Nogales, Arizona.
Brooklyn, New York, teachers win big
October 3, 2016Teachers at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York, with support from students and staff, won their strike against the University who locked them out after they refused to accept a bad contract.
Chicago solidarity action with Native resistance to oil pipeline in North Dakota
September 22, 2016As part of over 200 solidarity actions on Sept. 13, 150 people gathered in Chicago to support the people of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe fighting to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
September-October 2016 N&L available on the web
September 21, 2016The September-October 2016 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 61, #5, is available on the web.
View the issue online or as pdf.
Lead-Editorial: Fascism rising from Russia to India, from the U.S. to the Philippines
An expansive look at the rise of fascism worldwide, beginning in the U.S. with Donald Trump and the U.S. election, and taking in European fascism, and the situations [=>]
Share your story in the next issue of News & Letters: Sept.-Oct. deadline
August 17, 2016The deadline for the September-October 2016 issue of News & Letters is Sunday, August 28.
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.
July-August 2016 N&L available on the web
July 16, 2016The July-August 2016 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 61, #4, is available on the web.
View the issue online or as pdf.
Lead article: Fires in Canada, drought in India inspire creative revolt
The wildfires sweeping Alberta’s tar sands region provide a window onto the state of the environment and the multidimensional worldwide struggle against pollution and [=>]
Britain’s hate-driven referendum a victory for the Far Right
June 26, 2016With Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, the Far Right has been emboldened worldwide. As the economic and social crisis deepens, so does the brutality, while the Right seeks scapegoats for the results of capitalism’s objective laws, which only have force as long as humanity’s struggle to be free is not yet complete. The only solid ground for opposing this latest stage of reactionary retrogression is that of revolution in permanence.
Mass Killing in Florida is a Measure of Society’s Dehumanization
June 14, 2016We stand in solidarity with those murdered and wounded in the attack on a Gay Florida nightclub, and their families and communities. The struggle for LGBTQI freedom must continue unabated. A response requires developing, practically and philosophically, the uncompromising assertion of human freedom and dignity common to the Black Lives Matter movement, the Arab Spring and the Syrian Revolution, which has long struggled against ISIS and its related ideologies. It means uncompromising solidarity with the LGBTQI community, the target of reactionary attacks across the world, from Trump’s America to Putin’s Russia to ISIS’s “caliphate.”
Deadline for July-August 2016 News & Letters
June 10, 2016The deadline for the July-August 2016 issue of News & Letters is Sunday, June 19. 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.
May-June 2016 N&L available on the web
May 18, 2016The May-June 2016 issue of News & Letters, Vol. 61, #3, is available on the web.
View the issue online or as pdf.
Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2016-2017
The need for new beginnings in thought and in action
Contents:
Introduction
I. Discontent, revolt and reaction in the U.S.
II. The worldwide war against women
III. Chinese labor in revolt
IV. Counter-revolution and revolution in the Middle East and North [=>]
Save Aleppo! May Day Solidarity with Free Syrians
Participant report of Chicago May Day demonstration in solidarity with the Syrian Revolution.
Message to LALIT for their Labor Day (May Day) gathering
April 30, 2016
Dear Sisters and Brothers of LALIT,
We in News and Letters Committees are honored to send you whole-hearted revolutionary greetings and hopes for a successful Labor Day gathering. Your struggles against capital in league with the Mauritius government are a reminder of how capital is now global, and so are the struggles [=>]
In-person report: North Carolinians protest extreme anti-LGBTQ law
March 31, 2016Thousands take part in a wave of protests against North Carolina’s House Bill 2, one of the most anti-LGBTQ laws to ever hit the books in our country.
March-April 2016 N&L available on the web
March 30, 2016The new issue is available on the web. Lead: Women battle war, terrorism and anti-abortion fanatics; Editorial: Syrian Revolution continues; Racism, workers and freedom ideas; The anguish that is Flint, Michigan; much more…
Maâti Monjib’s trial
March 13, 2016The International Committee to Support Maâti Monjib and the Six Activists reports on upcoming trials, hunger strikes, and petitions.
Program on ‘(in)Justice System’ leaves out ‘the heart’ of the issue
An article by a formerly incarcerated person who gives a critical review of a conference on the criminal (in)justice system that leaves out the heart of the issue because it leaves out those most impacted by incarceration.
Russian imperialism’s genocidal attack on Syria aims to destroy the revolution
March 3, 2016Russian airstrikes create havoc in Syria, embodying a philosophy of unfreedom. Revolutionary unity in Syria isn’t just a tactical issue, but a philosophic question, on the revolution’s ground of freedom and dignity, needing philosophic as well as material solidarity.
‘You have to share the pain I feel’: A Yemeni doctor speaks
March 1, 2016A Yemeni doctor in Taiz tells of a little girl who has lost her limbs in the war and others he has treated, revealing a stark picture of the physical and mental toll of this war on civilians.
Call for Convention 2016
February 28, 2016Official Call for national gathering of News and Letters Committees to work out Marxist-Humanist perspectives for 2016-2017
New! N&L as ebook
February 5, 2016New! N&L (January-February 2016) as an ebook (epub 2.0.1 format). This is useful:
1. For people who are blind or visually impaired or have difficulty reading visually. This format is ideal for text-to-speech applications.
2. For reading on a smartphone or small tablet. Unlike a pdf, text in an epub can be magnified to [=>]
January-February 2016 N&L available on the web
January 26, 2016The new issue is available on the web. Lead: Paris climate accord’s suicidal complacency spurs protests; Editorial: Chicago’s racism on trial; Editorial: Erdogan slaughters Kurds; Olga Domanski, 1923-2015; much more…
Praxis en América Latina # 6 (enero-febrero 2016)
January 23, 2016Ya está listo Praxis en América Latina # 6 (enero-febrero 2016) en su versión digital, y en unos días estará impreso.
Distribúyanlo, por favor, entre sus contactos y redes.
Recibimos sus comentarios y críticas a este correo
Praxis en América Latina
Olga Domanski, 1923-2015
January 7, 2016The world has lost a great fighter for liberation. Olga Domanski, one of the founders of News and Letters Committees, whose life’s work was the development and projection of Marxist-Humanism and the growth of its organizational expression.
Paris climate accord vs. humanity’s future
December 19, 2015Paris Accord reveals limits of what capitalism will do even in the face of catastrophe. The question is what kind of development can people in all kinds of countries achieve? So long as the vision of an alternative, liberatory path of development is not made concrete as the energizing principle of a movement, a vacuum is left for false alternatives.
Against ISIS attacks in Paris and Beirut: Counter-revolution must be defeated everywhere!
November 23, 2015We condemn these horrific massacres and the reaction that feeds upon them. To destroy ISIS and all other counter-revolutionary forces will require a battle of ideas, even more than a struggle of arms.
In-person report: Yemenis battle war, famine, disease, sectarianism
November 22, 2015Economic problems are worsening crazily because of this war, but that is no longer the only major problem in Yemen. There are at least four major problems/risks being horribly worsened as the war continues. They are: famine, epidemics, the expansion of extremist groups, and sectarianism.