Readers’ Views on: Capitalism vs. the Planet; Anti-Semitism’s Inhumanity; Kavanaugh Travesty; Youth Rock!; Freedom Movements vs. Fascism across the Globe; Catholic Church Crisis; Voices from behind Bars
Israel
Discussion article: The Left’s response to Syrian genocide
October 7, 2018A U.S. activist in Syria solidarity criticizes the broad Left’s failure to practice revolutionary solidarity and outlines the dangerous political consequences.
From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Religion, racism and capitalist crisis
October 4, 2018With hate crimes, anti-Semitism, racism and anti-immigrant xenophobia on the rise, Israel’s “Jewish nation-state” law and fascism brewing globally, we excerpt two pieces addressing roots of these phenomena in capitalism’s crises.
World in View: Israel’s reactionary nation-state law
September 26, 2018On July 18-19 the Israeli Knesset passed a law creating outrage among Arab and Druze citizens who see it as writing their second-class citizenship into law. It encourages the growth of illegal settlements on the West Bank and the continued dispossession of Palestinians.
World In View: Gaza March of Return challenges Israel
May 9, 2018The March of Return is a Palestinian national event—reaching toward a new politics that would transcend the failures both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
Iranian workers, youth reach for new radical beginnings
January 28, 2018The recent uprisings in Iran start where the 2009 revolt left off. This analysis focuses on the rebellious working-class youth as well as the interconnections to the Arab Spring, Vladimir Putin’s interference, Donald Trump’s racist agenda, and the philosophic-historic significance of the Bosnian and Syrian struggles against genocide.
SlutWalk hijacked
August 31, 2017In-person report of the Aug. 13 SlutWalk in Chicago including how it was highjacked by A Wider Bridge and the Chicago Police.
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.
Counter-revolution in Middle East shows crisis of humanity
August 28, 2015From the signing of a nuclear weapons agreement by the U.S. and Iran, to the ongoing war in Syria including the roles of Turkey and of the Left, this wide-ranging article delves into the Middle East situation with an emphasis on the forces fighting for genuine freedom and a multi-ethnic society.
Refugees risk death fleeing war, terror and climate chaos
June 28, 2015Worldwide, the refugee crisis is unprecedented and is fueled by war, terrorism and climate change. The worldwide response is paltry with country after country turning away or deporting frantic and desperate people in search of a safe haven.
Things fall apart
May 6, 2015In the absence of successful social revolution, today’s total crisis is shown in a world capitalist order that is falling apart economically, politically, environmentally, and in thought. That does not mean that we can wait for capitalism to collapse and step aside for a new society. On the contrary. Its desperation makes it that much more vicious, and it threatens to doom all of humanity with it.
Readers’ Views, March-April 2015, Part 1
March 8, 2015Revolt and Counter-Revolution, from Greece to Syria; Here Come the Reformers; Women’s Freedom; Against Racism
Britain’s recognition of Palestine
November 24, 2014London—You could be forgiven for being surprised at the recent UK Parliament vote last month, with a sizable majority, to recognize Palestinian statehood. After all, when the Palestinians won a hard-fought campaign for recognition at the UN last year, Britain joined a chorus of nations ambivalent or hostile to their efforts. Look beneath the surface, however, and it becomes clear that the British government has little intention of putting words into action….
Debate On Middle East, Revolution And Counter-Revolution
November 23, 2014From the November-December 2014 issue of News & Letters
Readers’ Views, Part 3
I loved the way “Israel decimates Gaza as world faces global counter-revolutions” (Sept.-Oct. N&L) begins by highlighting how Gazans’ suffering represents global counter-revolution. The Left often takes the side of the underdog, the “lesser of the evils” fighting “U.S. or [=>]
Racist election deepens reactionary direction of U.S.
November 20, 2014The U.S. government took an ominous, reactionary political turn in the 2014 midterm elections, with Republicans taking control of the Senate. Extreme pro-war Senators like Joni Ernst in Iowa and Tom Cotton in Arkansas join veterans like Senator “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran” John McCain, who will now control the Armed Services Committee and is hell-bent for new “boots on the ground” in Syria and Iraq. The whole Republican campaign—including these pro-war, pro-fossil-fuel, pro-“fetus is a person” candidates—ran on a cynically deceptive anti-Obama mantra….
United Kingdom arming of Israel is challenged
August 31, 2014The UK government may have a fight on its hands as activists and lawyers tighten the noose on British weapons sales to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).
Comments from the new News & Letters website
From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters
Regarding “New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, police show pattern of violence against Black people” (Aug. 11 N&L web statement): In 2009 in the UK we saw something similar. Police officers killed a man in the vicinity of a political protest, then told the press [=>]
Readers’ Views, September-October 2014, Part 2
From the September-October 2014 News & Letters
THE FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT AND THE BLACK REVOLUTION
I am in the movement still because of the Free Speech Movement (FSM)—it turned my life around. I studied everything about the New Left. I came to Berkeley and decided this is where I needed to be. [=>]
Protests stop Israeli ship from unloading
August 30, 2014From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters
Oakland, Calif.—On Saturday Aug. 16 thousands of marchers descended on Pier 57 at the Port of Oakland to prevent unloading of an Israeli ZIM Lines cargo ship. “Block the Boat” organizers say the Piraeus, originally scheduled to dock at 5:00 AM, rescheduled to 3:00 PM [=>]
Israeli freedom graffiti
A slideshow presented in Oakland Aug. 16 displayed a range of carefully stenciled graffiti, one of the last forms of open dissent
Nueva edicion de Praxis en America Latina, 8-9/2014
August 28, 2014Por favor, comparta con sus amigos y redes.
revista Praxis en América Latina – teoría/practica
www.praxisenamericalatina.org
No. 12, agosto-septiembre 2014
Los números anteriores: # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
Desde México
Por un socialismo de autogestión común a todos los anti-capitalistas
Panorama del movimiento estudiantil en Xalapa
“¿Por qué ya no luchamos?, ¿por qué no defendemos”: la lucha del pueblo de San Bartolo Ameyalco por el agua
Prólogo a la [=>]
Israel decimates Gaza as world faces global counter-revolutions
August 27, 2014The loss of lives and vast destruction visited In Israel’s war on Gaza has surpassed the horror of 2008’s “Operation Cast Lead.” Over 2,000 Palestinians have been killed to date, mostly civilians, including hundreds of children…
Stop Israel’s war on Gaza: the need for revolution in life and thought
July 28, 2014The war crimes being committed by the Israeli government in its current assault on Gaza are reminiscent of 2008’s brutal “Operation Cast Lead.” The bombing has not spared hospitals, UN compounds, schools or homes for the disabled. A huge percentage of the dead and injured are children. This is collective punishment on a vast, criminal [=>]
Israel threw me out
April 1, 2014As it becomes more commonplace to openly criticize Israeli apartheid and occupation, peace activists, human rights workers and even people who have publicly criticized the state of Israel are deemed a security risk, deported and banned from entering Israel for 10 years.
Women Worldwide, March-April 2014
March 25, 2014Women worldwide, March-April 2014: Sexism in chemistry profession; Shulamit Aloni; Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot.
Racism in Israel
February 16, 2014Tens of thousands of African asylum seekers demonstrated in Tel Aviv calling for “Freedom!” for the refugees detained in a Negev desert facility under Israel’s new anti-immigrant laws.
Turkey, Syria and Iran at crossroads of world revolt
July 2, 2013The mass protests in Turkey, the presidential election in Iran and, above all, the continuing struggle for the Syrian revolution express the depth of today’s social crisis. These crises are interpenetrated and inseparable. The stakes are high.
Women Worldwide, March-April 2013
April 1, 2013Russian repression of Pussy Riot supporters; Ethiopian Jewish refugee women in Israel given Depo-Provera without their consent; Danica Patrick
Now off the press: The Crossroads of History: Marxist-Humanist Writings on the Middle East by Raya Dunayevskaya
February 5, 2013Now off the press:
Excerpts from the Foreword:
Nobody, least of all Marxists, foresaw the great historic divide which would be opened by the Arab Spring beginning in 2010. When Mohammed Bouazizi and Hussein Nagi Felhi killed themselves to protest the miserable conditions of life for Tunisian youth, they set off a year of revolutionary struggle that [=>]
Uprisings in Egypt and Syria confront counter-revolution
February 3, 2013Lead
by Gerry Emmett
“However partial the industrial revolt may be, it conceals within itself a universal soul: political revolt may be never so universal but it hides a narrow-minded spirit under the most colossal form.”
–Karl Marx, “On the King of Prussia and Social Reform”
The world’s rulers would like to declare an end to the earth-shaking, world-historic events of the Arab Spring, that completely unforeseen social revolt that [=>]
Stop the war on Gaza!
November 27, 2012Editorial
Nov. 14, 2012–Israel’s current onslaught against the Gaza Palestinians, beginning with the assassination of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari, are more than a response to Hamas’ recent round of rocket attacks. Syrian rebels have begun to take over land around the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, bringing revolution to its borders. As with the recent bombing of [=>]
November-December 2012 issue of News & Letters is now available on the web
November 24, 2012Lead
Obama’s re-election doesn’t end clash of two worlds
The two worlds of the rulers and the ruled shone through the suffocating blanket of propaganda surrounding the election in which Barack Obama won a second term. A pronounced gender gap and long lines at the polls in African-American and Latino areas reflected the determination to defeat the [=>]
Syrians against all odds
September 13, 2012Editorial
Daraya, Aug. 25: the Assad regime continues its genocide, with 300-600 estimated killed in this Damascus suburb. The dead are unarmed men, women and children of the working class. This massacre was committed to terrorize the revolutionary people of Syria, and to guarantee the security of the nearby military airfield that Assad will use in [=>]
Syria and the Left
July 21, 2012World in View
by Gerry Emmett
“None of us believe that peace is so sweet or life so dear that we are willing to sell our freedom at the price of chains and slavery.”
These words of a young Syrian woman express the passion that animates the Syrian Revolution now facing the most brutal, determined opposition from Assad’s [=>]
Paths of destruction
May 14, 2012From the May-June 2012 issue of News & Letters:
Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2012-2013
III. Paths of destruction
A. From war to war to war
War is one of the rulers’ most potent counter-revolutionary weapons when faced with economic crises and revolt. With a military stretched thin, one eye on China, and the failures of Iraq and [=>]
Syrian revolution fights Assad’s genocide, world powers watch
March 16, 2012Lead
by Gerry Emmett
The unprecedented uprising in Syria has been called the “orphan revolution” because it seems that the Syrian people have stood almost alone in their epic struggle for freedom. The Arab League observers achieved nothing. The UN has been stymied by Russian and Chinese vetoes in the Security Council. Most recently, the meeting in [=>]
Palestinian solidarity
February 28, 2012In Chicago on Dec. 31, well over 100 demonstrators came to show solidarity with Palestinians by releasing 300 black balloons in downtown Grant Park—one balloon for each child killed during Israel’s 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip three years ago.
On the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian people, Nov. 29, we reflected on the [=>]
Readers’ Views, January-February 2012 (part 1)
February 18, 2012Readers’ Views (part 1)
THE STATE OF THE WORLD AS WE BEGIN 2012
I’m deeply enamored of the contents of every issue of N&L. This is because the articulation of the various issues addressing the multitude of socioeconomic crises, brought on by economic contraction affecting capital relations, points to how deep the revolution must go. In [=>]
World in View: Syria and revolution
February 10, 2012World in View
by Gerry Emmett
Nothing has posed the old truth that “the opposite of revolution is war” more starkly than the ongoing struggle for freedom by the people of Syria. In bringing the mass mobilizations that have become known as the Arab Spring, or al-Thawra (the Revolution), up against the imperialist maneuverings of all major state powers, [=>]
Palestinian women discuss statehood
November 29, 2011Palestinian women discuss statehood
Ramallah, Palestine—The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) organized a political discussion on the UN approach to Palestinian statehood. Mrs. Amal Khreishe, the general director, facilitated the meeting, which hosted Mr. Bassan Essalhi, the secretary of the Palestinian Popular Party, and Mr. Hanna Eissa, an expert in international law.
]
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 [=>]
World in View: Israel: ‘Egypt is here’
September 21, 2011by Gerry Emmett
Israel has seen an unprecedented protest movement grow in the wake of the Arab Spring. Around 250,000 people marched through Tel Aviv, Israel, on Aug. 6 in the biggest protest rally the country has ever experienced. Another 50,000 participated in other cities and towns. It is being seen as a direct challenge to [=>]
Revolts shake Libya, Syria
September 16, 2011Editorial
While the world’s attention focused on the long-expected fall of Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi, the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad has conducted a Ramadan massacre that ranks as one of the greatest atrocities of the counter-revolutionary reaction to the Arab Spring. The Syrian masses will certainly take heart at Qaddafi’s defeat, however he might [=>]
For the people of Gaza
August 19, 2011The area of the world where the right to water is perhaps most severely abused is the Gaza Strip. Since 2003, no piped water has existed. Out of Gaza’s 145 wells, only 55 are functional. The World Health Organization reported that 80% of the “drinking” water in Gaza is unsafe for consumption. Since the closure [=>]
Palestinian youth open new front in Arab Spring
July 19, 2011From the new July-August 2011 issue of News & Letters:
Lead
Palestinian youth open new front in Arab Spring
by Gerry Emmett
When thousands of unarmed Palestinians marched upon the Occupied Territories on May 15, they were met by gunfire from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). A dozen were killed and many more wounded. But the Arab [=>]
New July-August 2011 issue of News & Letters is online
July 17, 2011New July-August 2011 issue of News & Letters is online
News & Letters, Vol. 56, No. 4
July-August 2011
You may view this issue of News & Letters in pdf form here
Lead
Palestinian youth open new front in Arab Spring
The Arab Spring’s arrival has marked a new stage in the Palestinian struggle…. The vision of massive, non-violent protests by [=>]
World in View: Counter-revolution targets Palestine
May 25, 2011From the May-June 2011 issue of NEWS & LETTERS:
World in View: Counter-revolution targets Palestine
by Gerry Emmett
Something is becoming more apparent in the Middle East. Whenever counter-revolution raises its head, it begins looking in the direction of Palestine.
The governments of both Jordan and Syria have made efforts to blame the Palestinians for the freedom demonstrations that have [=>]
Hate out of Chicago!
May 20, 2011Chicago–Twice in April, Chicagoans took to the streets to protest the presence of hate and ignorance in the Windy City.
On April 2, the Chicago-based, Catholic anti-choice group, Pro-Life Action League (PLAL), hosted a tribute dinner for Joe Scheidler at the Merchandise Mart Holiday Inn. Scheidler is a well-known bigot who is not just anti-choice, but [=>]
The Arab Spring
May 7, 2011From the new issue of NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2011
Part I of
Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2011-2012
Revolution and counter-revolution take world stage
This special issue carries our Draft Perspectives Thesis, part of our preparation for the national gathering of News and Letters Committees. We publish it because our age is in such total crisis, facing a choice between [=>]
World in View: Neo-fascists in Israel
March 10, 2011by Gerry Emmett
Dutch Rightist Geert Wilders, who has also visited New York to attack the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” visited the West Bank settlements last month to declare that Palestinians should leave, to live in Jordan. “There already is a Palestinian state, and that state is Jordan,” he lied. Wilders, who sometimes tries to present [=>]