University of Illinois, Springfield, faculty members have been working since Aug. 16, 2021, without a contract and on April 21 filed an intent-to-strike-notice.
class struggle
Youth: Marx speaks to youth alienation
May 8, 2021Young people keep taking matters into our own hands. Our time of total crises calls for a philosophy to help us understand the problems at the root of our misery and give us hope we can create a new society. This makes Marx a contemporary for youth, looking for a way out of life under capitalism’s hopeless future.
Earthquakes in Mexico: a wake-up call
September 26, 2017An 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.
Readers’ Views: September-October 2017, Part 2
September 5, 2017Readers’ Views: Marx’s concept of theory; we are not a game; voices from behind bars.
The Ghost Ship fire
January 26, 2017A view of the fire at the Ghost Ship that takes into account the capitalist nature of rents, evictions, land use, and how youth, by the way the live their lives, are fighting back.
Readers’ Views: September-October 2016, Part 1
September 14, 2016Readers’ Views on: Racism and Revolt Put U.S. on Trial; Life and Death Under the Class Divide; Environmental Struggles; War and Atrocities; and Women’s Lives at Stake.
Editorial: Black Lives Matter NOW!
June 28, 2015The video of Cpl. Eric Casebolt’s June 5 attack on Dejerria Becton and other kids at a pool party in McKinney, Texas, went viral because it was simultaneously shocking and commonplace. In 2015 USA, protests were inevitable and were heard around the world.
From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: The dialectic and women’s liberation
April 30, 2015The article excerpts a summary of a talk by Dunayevskaya to a conference on Women’s Liberation in Detroit. The purpose of the meeting was to help Dunayevskaya work out the final chapter of her book then in progress, Philosophy and Revolution. That last chapter would take up the “New Passions and New Forces” for the reconstruction of society. The Conference was also the beginning of the News & Letters—Women’s Liberation Committee.
Detroiters fight to keep their houses
March 7, 2015The number of Detroiters helping their neighbors resolve property tax foreclosure has grown by leaps and bounds as community groups all over the city host meetings on what can be done.
From Ferguson to Staten Island: The logic of racism is genocide
December 5, 2014Protests erupted after the cops who murdered Michael Brown and Eric Garner were let off. They mark a new moment of rebellion against a social order in which Black youth are made to live continuously suspended over an abyss of non-existence.
The passion to tear up this deeply racist society by the roots calls for the fullest development in activity and thought.
NYC fast food strikes
September 29, 2013The fast food workers of New York, along with those in seven other cities, are on the move and demanding nothing less than to be treated as human beings on the job, not replaceable parts in a giant fast food industry machine.
BART workers face strike-breaking tactics
September 28, 2013Several hundred rallied in support of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) workers trying to negotiate a contract with a modest raise and no more takeaways.
Recreating Detroit
September 12, 2013A different Detroit is struggling to be realized in the minds and hearts of its citizens: individuals (unrecognized thousands of whom routinely maintain nearby abandoned property) as well as organizations—from churches and small businesses to youth and athletic programs, block clubs and neighborhood associations, and social and environmental justice organizations.
Detroiters organize in class war
May 8, 2013The entire state of Michigan voted against the harsh emergency manager law, Public Act 436, last November only to have the lame-duck state legislature vote it right back in before year’s end. On the day, March 28, that Act 436 took effect, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager fired the interim superintendent of schools. … Meanwhile, neighborhoods languish under mounting piles of trash, abandoned houses, stores, factories and vehicles. City services are reduced by mandatory budget cut “furloughs.” The challenge for Detroit residents is: can we stand up and organize ourselves for quality living and working conditions, some of which includes wresting support and services from our unelected new leaders? Can we articulate and realize a future Detroit developed for human needs?
Workshop Talks: Capitalism trashes union democracy
July 16, 2012Workshop Talks
by Htun Lin
The “Great Recession” we’re living in will continue so long as we accept that there is no alternative to capitalism. It is a lie perpetuated by the dominant ideology.
In the past year, the Occupy Movement has given many of us hope that things can change. One idea in the movement is that [=>]
Trade unionism and revolutionary syndicalism
July 13, 2012by Michael Gilbert
The theory and practice of how to organize workers to take power into their own hands and fight for a new social order has always been uppermost in the minds of all true revolutionaries, even in the darkest moments of capitalist and state-capitalist repression. Following Marx, the founder of Marxist-Humanism, Raya Dunayevskaya, has [=>]
Justice still overdue for 29 murdered coal miners
April 10, 2012Detroit—A new break in late February signaled a giant step forward in the prosecution of officials at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, where a methane gas and coal dust explosion two years ago killed 29 miners in the worst mine disaster in 40 years. The break came when federal prosecutors filed [=>]
Speakout for the 99%
March 1, 2012Chicago—Dozens of activists from Occupy Chicago, Jobs with Justice, the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, Iraq Veterans Against the War, News and Letters Committees and other groups rallied outside the American Economic Association (AEA) conference here on Jan. 6.
The establishment economists were invited to share a sidewalk meal of Rahm-en noodles (named in honor of anti-labor [=>]
Class enemies in union clothing
November 27, 2011Workshop Talks
by Htun Lin
The spreading Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has gripped the attention of the country. Some signs in these tent cities say “Occupy Everything!” The police continue to look for leaders while city leaders try to figure out a way to remove the tent cities.
The California Nurses Association (CNA) declared its support for [=>]
‘You can’t evict an idea whose time has come!’: The Occupy movement defies police state attacks
November 21, 2011A statement from News and Letters Committees:
‘You can’t evict an idea whose time has come!’
The Occupy movement defies police state attacks
City governments have carried out police raids on occupations across the U.S. in a vain attempt to crush the movement with brute force. A new level of violence was achieved in mid-November, as raids from [=>]
In solidarity with Occupy Wall Street
November 18, 2011Below is the text of a leaflet issued by News and Letters Committees members in New York.
News & Letters Committees stands in solidarity with the Occupy movements. We denounce the 1%-orchestrated forceful actions to stop our protests, from evictions at home to state-sponsored murders of innocent Syrian youth!
To help this young movement develop to its [=>]
Occupy Wall Street strikes deep chord, challenges rulers
November 8, 2011by Gerry Emmett and Susan Van Gelder
The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, since beginning in New York City’s Zuccotti Park–renamed Liberty Plaza–on Sept. 17, has spread to hundreds of cities and towns across the U.S. and linked with the occupation movements in Europe. On Oct. 15, Occupy demonstrations took place in 951 cities in 82 [=>]
Readers’ Views, September-October 2011
October 7, 2011From the September-October 2011 issue of News & Letters:
Readers’ Views
Contents:
- REVOLUTION AND COUNTER-REVOLUTION: ARAB SPRING AS CROSSROADS IN HISTORY
- KARL MARX AND WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
- REMEMBERING CHRISTINA SANTIAGO
- THELONIOUS MONK
- CANADA AS ‘CONTESTATAIRE’ SOCIETY
- MAN-MADE DISASTERS: NUCLEAR POWER AND WORLD WAR
- LABOR STRUGGLES IN 2011
- WHY WRITE FOR N&L?
- VOICES FROM BEHIND THE BARS
REVOLUTION AND COUNTER-REVOLUTION: ARAB SPRING AS CROSSROADS IN HISTORY
The West supports any revolution where they [=>]
Permanent army of the unemployed
October 3, 2011Detroit–The unemployment crisis is reaching far into the future. Whereas many government and private economists have been predicting that the economy will pick up in the next quarter or the next year, new reports conclude that in 50 U.S. metropolitan areas, it will take at least a decade to regain employment lost since the 2008 [=>]
Workshop Talks: ER certainties: death and co-pays
September 23, 2011by Htun Lin
A patient shows up in the emergency room, expecting care, and wanting to be seen by a doctor. But the gulf between the patient’s expectations and the reality of HMO practice is right out of “The Twilight Zone.”
Even before the patient gets to see the doctor, a healthcare worker like me walks in [=>]
What UAW workers must take back
August 12, 2011Detroit–Many challenges face the rank-and-file auto workers as the stage is being set for auto contract negotiations in July. Their future is not promising, despite the rhetoric of United Auto Workers union President Bob King that emphasizes the restoration of benefits lost through contract concessions and the General Motors (GM) and Chrysler bankruptcies.
The losses began [=>]
California’s real history
June 9, 2011Rulers & Rebels: A People’s History of Early California, 1769-1901 by Laurence H. Shoup.
Laurence H. Shoup presents the history of California from the European incursion of Native America by the Spanish to the Great San Francisco Waterfront Strike of 1901. His interest is agency from below in the form of direct action: “The stories told in [=>]
Remember Ssangyong
May 22, 2011It has been two years since the management of Ssangyong Motor Company in Pyongtaek, South Korea, announced layoffs of 1,000 workers. Shortly thereafter, those workers occupied their plant and held it for 77 days, from May to August 2009, when they finally succumbed to a massive police and army assault.
In the aftermath, many militants were [=>]
Workshop Talks: Air safety pinned on isolated controllers
May 17, 2011by Htun Lin
Threatening to fire every air traffic controller who has been “sleeping on the job,” Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said, “We will not sleep” until this problem is solved. It’s easy to vilify ordinary workers. The truth is, those who control the conditions of work, like LaHood, are really the ones who have [=>]
Militant labor and corporate attacks
May 15, 2011Detroit–A new militant spirit in labor is now coming into play, sparked by the militant struggle against the onslaught of Wisconsin unionized public workers. This opposition is re-energizing the union movement and producing new leaders who are expressing their opposition to their own union leaders and their concessionary mentality. There is positive promise in these [=>]
May-June 2011 issue of News & Letters is available online
May 6, 2011News & Letters, Vol. 56, No. 3
May-June 2011
Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2011-2011
Revolution and counter-revolution take world stage
Revolution and counter-revolution have forced their way to the center stage of history. In Tunisia and Egypt, revolutions have opened tremendous possibilities and spread the fire of their passion all across the Arab world and from China to the [=>]
Protest Brown’s cuts
April 8, 2011Hundreds of low-income and unemployed people and people with disabilities marched through San Francisco on Feb. 28 wearing signs identifying services they would lose under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed draconian cuts. They chanted, “They say lie down and die/we say organize,” and demanded budget solutions that do not devastate lives. Their sentiment was that the [=>]
In-person report: Wisconsin at front line of class war
March 23, 2011Madison, Wisc.–Day after day, tens of thousands of people–and over 100,000 on Feb. 26–have taken to the streets around the Wisconsin State Capitol building. They filled the Capitol rotunda with protest signs and rallies for over a week. As you walk towards the Capitol you can hear loud chanting and drum playing spilling out of [=>]
Corporate assaults on workers and women
March 20, 2011Editorial:
As the national assault against the working class in the U.S. increases, most openly evidenced by the orchestrated attacks aimed at destroying public employees’ unions, workers and their unions are challenging these vicious attacks. The most blatant attack, by Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin–who introduced legislation to eliminate the right of public worker unions [=>]
Mine owners and Congress desecrate 29 miners’ graves
February 24, 2011Detroit–Following the coal mine explosion that killed 29 miners at the Massey Coal Company’s Upper Big Branch mine last April, Congressional hearings disclosed the horrendous safety violations at that mine and produced a lot of breast beating and outraged outcries vowing to pass mine safety legislation that would “never allow this to happen again.”
At that [=>]
Workshop Talks: Losing nurses and patients for profit
February 17, 2011by Htun Lin
Recently, two nurses were killed on the job by patients at state healthcare facilities in California’s Bay Area. Contrary to management’s attitude, these are not isolated incidents. More than 50% of emergency room nurses, for example, experience violence by patients on the job. For many years, like nurses all across the country, the [=>]
World in View: South Africa’s ‘Class Apartheid’
December 6, 2010South Africa’s ‘Class Apartheid’
Two decades after Nelson Mandela was freed from prison, South Africa has actually increased the apartheid-era race and class inequality. Neoliberal capitalist economic policies have resulted in massive unemployment and poverty that has been termed “class apartheid.” So extreme is the situation that the unemployment rate for Black youth has reached almost [=>]
European worker revolt
December 4, 2010World in View
European worker revolt
In Europe, capitalism’s deep economic crisis continues to unfold in ways that threaten the social benefits and social safety net that working people have fought for over decades.
First came the rescue of the banks and bankers–paid for through the public treasury. Privatize the profits; socialize the debt! Now all government talk [=>]
Secret UAW-GM deal
November 27, 2010Secret UAW-GM deal
Detroit–More than 100 UAW workers from Michigan, Ohio and Indiana picketed the UAW headquarters here Oct. 16 to protest a two-tier wage agreement made secretly by UAW leaders with General Motors (GM). It would permit GM to pay 40% of the workers about $14 an hour, half the regular $28 an hour. Workers [=>]
Workshop Talks: Who lost to SEIU?
November 23, 2010From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:
Workshop Talks: Who lost to SEIU?
by Htun Lin
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced the results of the recent union election at Kaiser Permanente in California. The media declared that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had won a “decisive victory” to continue to represent some 45,000 [=>]
Superheroes in Honeywell lockout – Metropolis, Ill., at the uranium conversion plant.
November 15, 2010From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters: “Superheroes in Honeywell lockout” – Metropolis, Ill. at the uranium conversion plant.
Superheroes in Honeywell lockout
Metropolis, Ill.–As you approach the tiny town of Metropolis, as far as 25 miles out you begin to see the lawn signs declaring “Proud Supporter of USW Local 7-669.”
Metropolis is known as [=>]
California nurses strike for healthcare
November 14, 2010From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:
California nurses strike for healthcare
California nurses strike for healthcare
Oakland, Cal.–On Oct. 12-14, nurses at Oakland’s Children’s Hospital staged a three-day strike over the proposed takebacks in their healthcare benefits. Practically all the nurses (95%) walked out. Here is what some said:
Martha: I’ve worked at Children’s Hospital, [=>]
Chilean miners’ rescue evokes many views
November 12, 2010From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:
Chilean miners’ rescue evokes many views
It is Oct. 13 and I am visually and sonically inundated with blow-by-blow descriptions of the Chilean miner rescue operation. TV, radio and newspapers have whipped themselves into a frenzy reporting the rescue of 33 miners from a collapsed mine in Chile. [=>]
French workers vs. state and union leaders
November 11, 2010From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:
French workers vs. state and union leaders
What follows are excerpts from an in-person report.
Montpellier, France–People ask me what it’s like living in France during these massive one-day strikes and popular mobilizations against the conservative Sarkozy government’s pension “reforms.” These cuts would push the minimum retirement age from [=>]
Essay: Dunayevskaya’s place in the history of the Left
November 9, 2010From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:
Essay: Dunayevskaya’s place in the history of the Left
by Kevin Michaels
Raya Dunayevskaya deserves a prominent place in the historical self-understanding of the U.S. Left. She was acknowledged in her lifetime not only as a leader in theory by working-class militants like Charles Denby, author of Indignant Heart: A [=>]
Campaigns intensify counter-revolutionary onslaught
November 6, 2010Here’s a link to the Lead article from the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:
It is sadly ironic that at this moment, when the crisis of capitalism has shown itself as both deep and intractable, some of the most reactionary impulses from U.S. history have moved to take center stage. The bankruptcy of bourgeois [=>]
Race, class, gender and revolution: Gloria Joseph on the Centenary of Raya Dunayevskaya
August 14, 2010Essay
Race, class, gender and revolution
by Gloria I. Joseph
Gloria I. Joseph is an educator and feminist. Her most recent book is On Time and In Step: Reunion on the Glory Road (Winds of Change Press, 2008).
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While perusing writings by Raya Dunayevskaya, I came across the following comment on her book, Women’s Liberation and the [=>]