Participant report of a Chicago vigil in solidarity with the people of Syria, Yemen, Crimea, and other lands.
Articles
V. What to do in a world in upheaval
The revolt is a beginning that has prevented Trump’s retrogression from becoming the new normal, but the resistance is not the absolute opposite of capitalism in its degeneracy. How can we make sure that a banner of total human liberation as the absolute opposite of degenerate capitalism can act as a pole of attraction and organization for today’s revolts and social movements?
IV. Humanity’s never-ending quest for liberation
Revolt keeps springing up across the world, showing that the human quest for liberation cannot be killed, and why ruling classes are willing to tolerate economic disruption caused by the counter-revolutionary mob as long as it attacks the revolt. Subsections take up revolt by youth, labor, women, African Americans and prisoners.
III. World crises in economy, politics, ideology—and the missing link of philosophy
Exploring the roots of world crises in capitalism’s 1970s structural crisis and 1980s restructuring, 1990s genocides, the Arab Spring and counter-revolutions against it—and the philosophic void on the Left.
II. Remaking the world order in the image of the far right
The far right is pushing to remake the world order in its image. Neither liberal democracy nor Chinese state-capitalism offers a fundamental alternative, as all these trends try to save capitalism.
Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2019-2020–Humanity’s choice: Freedom and revolution or fascism, war and genocide
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, 2019Two 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 [=>]
From the writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: The economy and dialectics of liberation
April 23, 2019Raya Dunayevskaya’s archives column explores taking “a further look into the [1976] economy, to measure the depth of the recession, not for statistical purposes, but for the relationship of dialectics of liberation to economic ills.” It bears striking relevance for what is happening in 2019.
Voices From the Inside Out: Served the time but kept in prison
Robert Taliaferro writes of the harm done to prisoners by then Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson’s actions in the 1990s to keep prisoners behind bars despite the laws for mandatory release.
Review: Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women’s Work
Adele reviews “Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women’s Work,” by Jenny Brown.
Women WorldWide: May-June 2019
30,000 in Italy protested World Congress of Families; Sudan’s first female-run radio show; survivors of prostitution marched from France, arriving to Germany for Survivor’s Day; Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center in Nigeria provides pro bono legal services and research to fight civil rights violations and violence against women.
Woman as Reason: Algerian women at the forefront
There is no question that women are a vital part of the movement in Algeria since it erupted on Feb. 22, fighting to bring down le pouvoir—the power structure—that has been running the country and their lives since 1999.
Abahlali baseMjondolo speaks out for immigrants
April 4, 2019South African shackdwellers state: “We believe that there is only one human race and that the borders created by colonial rule should be irrelevant to our project to build solidarity among the oppressed and to ensure that South Africa belongs to all who live in it.”
California Uber/Lyft workers strike!
Ex-Lyft driver reports on the strike of Uber and Lyft drivers in California and explains the hell that ridesharing businesses are foisting on their workers, the environment, and their customers.
Gaza’s Twin Reality/Brutality
April 1, 2019Palestinians in Gaza face a double brutality: Israel’s blockade and bombardment, and Hamas’ brutal repression.
Chicago vigil for Syria
March 26, 2019Participant report of a Chicago vigil in solidarity with the Syrian people against Assad.
San Francisco Youth Climate Strike
March 25, 2019Report on the March 15, 2019, Youth Climate Strike in San Francisco.
March-April 2019 issue of News & Letters is now online!
March 20, 2019Lead 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…
Oakland, Calif., teachers strike!
March 14, 2019On Feb. 22 over 3,000 Oakland teachers went on strike, demanding better wages, smaller class sizes, more nurses and counselors and a stop to school closings. Many students and their families showed up on the picket lines.
Chicago charter school teachers strike!
Chicago Teachers Union paraprofessionals and teachers won a nearly two-week strike against charter school company CICS on Feb. 18, 2019. Teachers will achieve pay parity with Chicago Public School teachers by the end of the four-year contract, while paraprofessionals gain parity immediately.
Letter from Mexico: Maquiladora workers strike in Matamoros
On Jan. 25 more than 30,000 workers from 45 maquiladoras (foreign-owned factories on the border exempt from certain duties) in the northern city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, began a strike demanding a 20% salary increase and an annual bonus amounting to $1,700 USD.
People of Taiwan wary of China’s reach
China Airlines pilots in Taiwan won a strike over safety and staffing, while survivors of the bloody repression perpetuated by Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang beginning Feb. 28, 1947, demonstrated to remember those killed 72 years ago and to campaign against the threats of forced reunification under Xi Jinping.
World in View: Rise of Far Right threatens ‘Europe’
March 13, 2019The Far Right threatens to make significant gains in the European Parliament elections this May. What inheres within the “idea of Europe” that can destroy fascism as idea and reality is the humanism that became its internal critique, Marx’s humanism.
World in View: Trump-Kim summit
The second summit meeting between Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, in Hanoi on Feb. 27, ended without any new agreement. But it achieved what it aimed for as theater.
World in View: Haitians rise up against corruption
Haitians took to the streets Feb. 7 against a long-simmering background of anger at government corruption.
World in View: Netanyahu’s peril
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allied with the fascist Jewish Strength party, disciples of Meir Kahane. This alliance has crossed a line for many former supporters.
World in View: Prisoners of Rukban
In the Rukban camp along the Jordan/Syria border, at least 41,000 displaced Syrians, including women and children, are suffering the ravages of winter weather, hunger, lack of medicine, and the terror of being threatened by the forces of the genocidal Bashar al-Assad regime.
Bruno Latour’s ‘Down to Earth’ buries human revolt
March 11, 2019Bruno 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.
Pipeline tragedy in Mexico
The horrendous oil pipeline explosion in Tlahuelilpan, Mexico, which killed over 100 campesinos and injured many more, has shaken all of Mexico. This was a tragedy long in the making.
Readers’ Views: March-April 2019, Part 2
Readers’ Views on: Rosa Luxemburg’s revolutionary life; the Green New Deal; and voices from behind bars.
Readers’ Views: March-April 2019, Part 1
Readers’ Views on: workers strike back, genocide and Facebook, Mauritius victory, Syrian Revolution under fire, “55 Steps,” debating yellow vests, women’s struggles, and why read News & Letters.
Review: ‘Politically Incorrect Feminist’
March 10, 2019Feminist Adele reviews Phyllis Chesler’s book “A Politically Incorrect Feminist: Creating a Movement with Bitches, Lunatics, Dykes, Prodigies, Warriors, and Wonder Women,” seeing in it an important first-person history that can help today’s movement.
Detroit women rally
An in-person report of the Jan, 19, 2019, “sister march”–sponsored by Women’s March Michigan, a separate organization from the National Women’s March–which brought nearly 1,000 women to a rally at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History.
Women WorldWide: March-April 2019
Women WorldWide takes up the South Korean Escape the Corset movement, Greta Thunberg’s work against global warming, and the struggle by BethAnn McLaughlin to draw attention to the harassment of women in science by prominent men.
Woman as Reason: Church abuses nuns
The rape, forced abortion, and sexual abuse of nuns is the newest scandal to plague the Catholic Church. The do-nothing attitude of the Church on this abuse has continued for centuries. Will anything change now?
From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Women’s liberation, experimentation and revolution in permanence
An interview of Raya Dunayevskaya by Katherine Davenport which aired on WBAI radio in New York City on International Women’s Day, March 8, 1984. It brings together women’s liberation and revolution in permanence, as Dunayevskaya discusses what life might be after revolution.
Essay: What is Socialism? Socialism and a philosophy of revolution
What is socialism? From Left to Right, this question is becoming central to political discussion. For me, it raises another question, too: What is philosophy? This is where I will begin, with the young Karl Marx.
Venezuela is at the crossroads
Many in Venezuela oppose both U.S. intervention—in league with the right wing and Juan Guaidó—and the government of President Nicolás Maduro and his generals. At the same time we cannot forget that what passed for constructing “21st Century socialism” has been a problem.
Presidents Day 2019 demonstration in Oakland, Calif.
With just 72 hours notice, over 50,000 people came together in 48 states in almost 300 events to protest Donald Trump on Presidents Day. While the events were organized by MoveOn.org as a response to Trump’s fake emergency declaration, their call was answered spontaneously by many.
Queer Notes: March-April 2019
Queer Notes on the Auckland Pride Festival; Denise Ho Wan-sze; two newly-elected Democratic governors making strides for Queer rights; and a history of Compton’s Transgender Cultural District in San Francisco.
Youth in Action, March-April 2019
School students in Oakland, Calif. support striking teachers; Belgian environment minister resigns after attacking Strike 4 Climate Action; high school students walk out in Vancouver, Canada, protesting tar sands; medical students’ direct action at Gandaki Medical College in Pokhara, Nepal, against tuition theft.
Voices from the Inside Out: Importance of community support
March 9, 2019In Madison, Wisc., during the 1980s, a solitary Black woman roamed the hallways of the Dane County Courthouse for the purpose of attending trials of Black defendants. Her goal was to ensure that every Black woman, man, and child would see at least one Black face in the courtroom other than their own.
‘Poverty and Profit’
Matthew Desmond’s book “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” is an important contribution to understanding the workings of exploitative housing, although he fails to appreciate that, under the capitalist system, the best-intentioned programs will always become conduits to extract money from the poor.
Handicap This!, March-April 2019
Handicap This! column on Black Disability History; maltreatment of children with disabilities; and bill aimed at phasing out the subminimum wage paid to over 150,000 disabled workers.
Editorial: Fighting gun violence
March 6, 2019New passions and forces alive in the U.S. ensured that the toll of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year would not fade into the political ether.
Editorial: Is nuclear war on the horizon?
The retreat from even modest efforts to control nuclear weapons has brought humanity closer than ever to annihilation. President Donald Trump’s suspension of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with Vladimir Putin’s Russia gins up an already accelerating new arms race.
Women bearing the brunt of reaction lead the resistance
In a year marked by the contradiction between deepening women’s revolt and activism and neo-fascism rising across the globe, women have been fighting back in unprecedented numbers and ways.
What Is Socialism? Socialism and Philosophy
March 3, 2019This is the first in a series of four presentations on “What is Socialism?” Shorter versions will be published in News & Letters. The second essay is “Socialism, labor and the Black dimension”; the third is “Socialism and ecology”; and the last is “Socialism and Women’s Liberation.”
News and Letters Committees Call for Plenum 2019
February 25, 2019Official Call for national gathering of News and Letters Committees to work out Marxist-Humanist perspectives for 2019-2020
Genocide in Idlib
February 24, 2019In-person report from Idlib province, Syria.