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.
Articles
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.
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.
Democracy in the streets votes Trump out!
January 23, 2017Reports 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.
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.
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 [=>]
Feminism and THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
January 9, 2017From the December 1998 issue of News & Letters
Column: Woman as Reason
by Maya Jhansi
This past year, there has been much discussion on Marx inspired by the 150th anniversary of THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO, from journalistic discourses on Marx’s prescient descriptions of globalized capitalism to more scholarly meditations on its rich history. What is troubling, however, [=>]
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 [=>]
Morocco rises up against the Makhzen
December 2, 2016Report on the protests that exploded in Morocco after the murder of fish vendor Mouhcine Fikri by the police. The article also explores the connections between these protests and the 2011 Arab Spring.
East Europe elections
Article about the recent elections in Bulgaria and Moldova and their possible connection with Vladimir Putin’s fascist influence in East Europe.
Handicap This! November-December 2016
December 1, 2016A woman is fired because her daughter was regarded as disabled; how Knott’s Berry Farm had to shut down an attraction giving distorted views of mental illness; the U.S. Department of Labor awarded grants to six states as part of its Disability Employment Initiative.
No! to ‘Urban Shield’
First hand report of demonstration at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton to protest the growing militarization of police departments and their attacks on minority communities.
Uber scams drivers
November 30, 2016A woman ex-Uber driver details how they exploit their drivers with late fees, turning off your car, and their desire to get rid of their drivers altogether.
Union betrayals
Latina union activist in Detroit questions how working people lost out in the school board elections and the ballot measures in the recent election and, noting that the AFL-CIO supported the Dakota Access Pipeline, asks, “Which side are you on?”
Long Island University-Brooklyn teachers break lockout
Long Island University-Brooklyn locked out their teachers but were not prepared for the support the teachers received from students and staff and finally had to end their lockout.
Youth in Action: November-December 2016
International look at youth activism including the Fees Must Fall movement in South Africa; students at Boston College rallying against an anti-gay atmosphere; the CDC leaving out Transgender students in a survey on suicide; and Native American youth protesting polluted water in the Klamath Strait Drain in Oregon.
Not my president!
In-person report of Oakland, California, demonstration against Donald Trump’s election win.
Where to now for the Middle East?
A look at the situation in the Middle East in light of Donald Trump’s election that takes up Syria, Yemen and the arming by the U.S. of varying forces–some of whom are fighting each other.
Essay: The masses in Latin America face a duality
The essay takes a critical look at the “Latin American Pink Tide” (a decade of progressive governments in South America), its limits and contradictions, and poses the question: Is there a way forward that does not substitute statism for the action and thought of the masses?
Cry ‘Free Syria!’
November 27, 2016First hand account of Chicago demonstration on the International Day of Solidarity with Aleppo on Oct. 1, 2016.
Readers’ Views, November-December 2016, Part 2
Readers’ Views on The Dialectic of History Vs. Retrogression; Prisoners, Supporters Speak.
Review: White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
Review of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg.
Movement for human emancipation
Bro. Faruq writes regarding the need of a philosophy of revolution that includes and, at the same time, goes beyond particular emancipatory actions.
Readers’ Views, November-December 2016, Part 1
Readers’ Views on Election Stirs Battles in Thought and in Life; Deep Racism in the USA; Women Fight Back; Indigenous Struggles; Global (In)Humanity; Why Read N&L?
Shared journey inside solitary
Excerpt from part 2 of “Shared Journey inside the Tombs of California’s Solitary Confinement Torture Chambers” by Baridi “X” Williamson.
Long-term solitary continues in Pennsylvania
Shared story of a prisoner experiencing solitary confinement in Pennsylvania.
Need for lifelong self-development
Shared story from Jesse Perez, prisoner in solitary confinement in a California prison.
Free Russian radical Ildar Dadin!
In-person report of a vigil in Chicago against the torture of Ildar Dadin and other political prisoners in Russia.
Spontaneity of action and organization of thought: In memoriam of the Hungarian Revolution
On the anniversary of the Hungarian revolution, we present a letter by Dunayevskaya whose concept of the relationship of spontaneity and party, and its inseparability from organization of thought, speaks to the dialectics of organization and philosophy.
Women WorldWide: November-December 2016
November 26, 2016Women’s news worldwide including a march against rape culture in cities in Canada; a march across Israel for peace by Israeli and Palestinian women; and South African teenagers challenging health clinics to give young women contraceptive information.
Demand Indigenous Peoples Day
Participant report from Indigenous Peoples Day observation in Tucson, celebrating expanding human freedom rather than colonialism and imperialism.
‘Pussy grabs back!’
Report by a participant of the “Pussy grabs back!” demonstration in Chicago at Trump Towers against Trumps sexism, racism, and everythingism on Oct. 18, 2016.
Review: Nature’s God
Review of Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic by Matthew Stewart, showing how the founders of the U.S. wanted democracy and not a theocracy.
Woman as Reason: Polish women show path forward
As women in the U.S. face a bleak future when it comes to abortion rights, they can learn from Polish women who recently stopped anti-abortion legislation in its tracks, showing the need for revolutionary thought and activity.
Solidarity with Standing Rock: Water Is Life
Participant reports of Chicago and Oakland actions in solidarity with the Standing Rock Lakota who are fighting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. #NoDAPL
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 to be met with a truly revolutionary vision.
Voices From The Inside Out: Wisconsin prison destroys books
Prisoner Robert Taliaferro tells of how a Wisconsin prison destroyed all library books that had been damaged in any way, thus depriving prisoners of their rights and adding “fuel to the fires of revolution.”
Letter from Mexico, Nov.-Dec. 2016: Teachers and Indigenous Congress
The protests by the teachers against the “educational reform” in Mexico ended and The National Indigenous Congress and the Zapatistas proposed an Indigenous Governing Council, represented by an Indigenous woman who will participate in the 2018 presidential elections.
Editorial: Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline now!
The resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline has become a beacon for all opposing the ruling system—and has been assaulted with ferocious repression. It is a powerful manifestation of the vast forces putting American civilization on trial. The time is now to support this struggle in practice and in thought.
Revisiting Fanon
Report of a discussion following the showing of the new movie “Concerning Violence” which took on Frantz Fanon and Black movements of the present.
LALIT confronts colonization of Diego Garcia
A member of LALIT in Mauritius speaks of their Action Conference on the situation of Diego García Island, which Britain has refused to give back to the original inhabitants after more than 50 years of struggle, and which it rents to the U.S. for a military base.
Queer Notes: November-December 2016
A worldwide view of Queer news including vigils for murdered Transgender woman T.T. Saffore; problems some in Japan have with LGBTQ youth; an investigation in Pakistan against a Transgender woman; and a kiss-in organized in response to a complaint against two men holding hands in public in England.
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 [=>]
Freedom for the Chagos Archipelago!
September 20, 2016What has for 50 years been a secret site in the Indian Ocean—Diego Garcia, the most beautiful atoll in the world, the site of the most hideous U.S. military base—is suddenly being exposed to public scrutiny. LALIT is calling for your support for reunification of the Republic of Mauritius and for the right to return.