This is the Call issued for a Convention of News and Letters Committees at a moment when the rulers are inflaming one crisis after another more recklessly and thoroughly than they have done since World War II.
Israel
‘Greater Israel’ fanaticism devastates Palestine, Lebanon, Iran
April 9, 2026The ambition for an ethnonationalist “Greater Israel” is being put into practice with devastating consequences. Events in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, within Israel itself and in the U.S. reveal where the world is heading if we don’t stop the wars and retrogression.
World in View: War, mass murder, genocide and capitalism’s culpability
November 3, 2025The horrendous realities in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Congo, Rio de Janeiro and Venezuela are connected. Several of the world’s powers are implicated. The global capitalist system allows mass murder, rape and genocide to become “normalized.”
Lead article: Climate justice demands solidarity with Gaza
October 20, 2025Tracing the development of the climate movement—from its focus on environmental issues to divisions over opposing genocide in Gaza—Franklin Dmitryev argues that the climate justice movement inherently reaches for a broader understanding of the roots of the climate crisis and the need for a deep social transformation.
Editorial: Make Americans ignorant? Not in our name!
October 6, 2025From food safety to public health, from immigration to Black history to Israel’s war on Palestinians, the Trump administration is stripping access to important information. But every strategy to attack information and thought has generated new resistance.
In-person report: The People’s Conference for Palestine
September 28, 2025The second annual People’s Conference for Palestine brought 4,500 Palestinian and U.S. student-activists and their allies together in Detroit, focused on the urgent need to stop Israel’s genocide in Palestine and to end the suffering in Gaza and the West Bank.
Young Voices from the Second People’s Conference for Palestine
A collection of participants’ voices in the the second annual People’s Conference for Palestine, which took place in Detroit August 29-31.
Israeli masses demand end to war
August 22, 2025On Aug. 17, Israelis throughout the country demanded a ceasefire, a deal to free the hostages, the provision of food and aid into Gaza, and not to further invade and occupy Gaza. Throughout the day there was civil disobedience.
Hope for Gaza
August 18, 2025Small signs of defiance: Israel’s military Chief of Staff refused to authorize an expanded assault on Gaza. Israel’s Attorney General defied Netanyahu’s anti-democratic orders. 74% of Israelis support an agreement with Hamas that would release all the hostages in exchange for an end to the Gaza war.
Syrian revolution roaring back
December 13, 2024The Syrian revolution rose again, ousting Bashar al-Assad. While the HTS played a key role, so did the people rising up. What is urgent now is solidarity with these revolutionary masses, making a category of them, helping them be heard, and opposing all efforts to subordinate them.
From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Lebanon: The Test Not Only of the PLO but the Whole Left
November 23, 2024It is crucial both to oppose Israel’s attacks on the Lebanese people and to confront the state of the resistance and its contradictions. To grapple with how the 1970s failed Lebanese revolution set the stage for today, we present this 1976 piece by Raya Dunayevskaya on the dialectic of developments, from regional rulers’ maneuvers, to the ambivalence of the Left, to the masses in motion.
Editorial: Who can stop Israel’s war crimes?
November 22, 2024Who can stop Israel’s genocide against Palestinians? Israel’s citizens need to confront their own rulers for this cycle of madness to end. Those in the U.S. also bear a heavy responsibility, and must pressure the government to stop arming Israel’s genocide.
The importance of Palestinian history
November 15, 2024Dr. Alice Rothchild, feminist obstetrician-gynecologist, received the National Arab-American Museum annual book award for ‘Old Enough to Know’, in which recent immigrant Palestinian children who have been bullied in school, learn the history of Palestine through their grandmother’s stories.
Israeli soccer fans out of control
November 10, 2024On Nov. 7, Israeli soccer fans were attacked in the streets of Amsterdam, bringing harsh memories to the Jewish community. However, news coverage barely touched on the Israelis’ provocations that led up to the attacks.
Lead article: A new generation of radicals against genocide
July 22, 2024Students have poured into protests and encampments because they see a genocide taking place in Palestine. They have shown how intimately their universities are embedded in the military-industrial complex that is arming Israel’s genocidal attack. This movement must be defended, supported and encouraged to develop.
Review: Gaza Writes Back
July 19, 2024Review of “Gaza Writes Back,” a collection of short stories, the majority written by Palestinian women, in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, perpetrated by the Israel Defense Forces 2008, through 2009.
An Open Letter to Members of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization
July 6, 2024Focus on the real differences in ideas, in News and Letters Committees’ response to the IMHO statement “Our Differences with Other Marxist-Humanists in Light of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.”
WSU students against genocide
May 31, 2024In-person report of a visit on May 28 to the Wayne State University students’ encampment in Detroit against Israel’s genocide in Gaza
¡Fin a la guerra de Israel contra la población palestina!
May 19, 2024La guerra de Israel contra las masas en Gaza alcanzó proporciones genocidas. ¿Cuándo podrán los palestinos regresar a los lugares donde vivieron y podrán reconstruir? Su autodeterminación debe comenzar con sus ideas y aspiraciones.
Columbia meets encampments with force
May 9, 2024A participant in the 1968 antiwar student occupation at Columbia University draws parallels to students there protesting genocide now. In both cases, administrators lacking reasoned arguments ordered police assaults that failed to quiet protests and spurred actions on campuses across the U.S. and internationally.
Students against genocide speak for themselves
Interviews with several students from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., about the protest encampment there against the genocide in Gaza.
Draft Perspectives, 2024-2025: Part One, A new generation of radicals stands against genocide
May 4, 2024Part I of the 2024-2025 Draft Perspectives. Takes up the youth Palestine solidarity movement, as well as the genocide in Gaza, its support from the powers that be and the mass resistance from below.
Draft Perspectives, 2024-2025: Part Three, Russia’s war on Ukraine and the worldwide drive toward fascism
Part III of the 2024-2025 Draft Perspectives. Takes up Putin’s war on Ukraine and its connection with fascism worldwide, especially seen on Israel’s war on Gaza, the ongoing genocide in Sudan and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s religious chauvinism.
Draft Perspectives, 2024-2025: Part Four, The crisis in thought
Part IV of the 2024-2025 Draft Perspectives. Takes on the retrogression in Left thought, especially on the questions of Israel’s war on Gaza and Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Editorial: End Israel’s war against Palestinian masses!
March 11, 2024Israel’s war against the masses in Gaza reached genocidal proportions. When will Palestinians be able to return to the places where they lived, and will they be able to rebuild? Self-determination must begin with their ideas and aspirations.
Call for Convention of News and Letters Committees, 2024
February 25, 2024Call for Convention of News and Letters Committees, 2024
‘Israelism,’ a documentary
February 14, 2024Van Gelder reviews documentary ‘Israelism,’ in which two U.S. Jewish teenagers, filmed over a seven-year period, became disillusioned and then opposed their pro-Israel education. Since Oct. 7, 2023, requests for screenings have risen, despite discrediting, censorship and suppression.
Universities under far-right attack
January 26, 2024The “resignations” of presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard revealed the philosophical failings in academia, which is under attack by the far right for not suppressing criticism of Israel. Why didn’t academia know how to respond to the events in Israel/Palestine?
COP28 climate summit submits to oil capital’s war against movements and science
January 24, 2024Scientists and climate movements highlighted the urgent need to take real climate action. Opposed are fossil fuel industries and their nation-states, who dominated COP28 and guaranteed its emptiness. The path forward can be built on the movements from below, posing liberation from capitalist exploitation and the release of full human development.
Farsi translation of “Israel’s war and Hamas attack stoke retrogression”
December 28, 2023Many thanks to the translator and publisher of the Farsi translation of our “Israel’s war and Hamas attack stoke retrogression”!
جنگ اسراییل و حملهی حماس؛ محرک سیر قهقرایی / فرانکلین دمیتریف / ترجمهی ناصر برین
Discussion article: Netanyahu’s war against Gaza
December 21, 2023Luis M. Saenz writing in ‘Trasversales’ argues this is not a war between Israel and Hamas, but a brutal operation by the Netanyahu government against the population of Gaza. Any vision leaving no Palestinians, or no Israelis, in historical Palestine is reactionary. Solidarity with the Palestinian population—which is not solidarity with Hamas—is a duty.
La guerra de Israel y el ataque de Hamás avivan el retroceso
December 7, 2023La guerra genocida de Israel sobre Gaza, así como los atroces ataques de Hamás que la provocaron, están llevando al mundo en una dirección reaccionaria y exponiendo la inhumanidad de los poderes dominantes, así como el retroceso de buena parte de la izquierda (Traducción al español del artículo “Israel’s war and Hamas attack stoke retrogression”).
Ni la guerra genocida israelí contra los palestinos ni el terrorismo de Hamás: sí a la revolución social
December 5, 2023Los ataques del 7 de octubre por parte de Hamás en Israel desencadenaron una nueva fase de guerra y reacción. Israel amenaza con un genocidio con el apoyo de Estados Unidos. La ocupación israelí no justifica la forma en que partes de la izquierda celebraron los ataques de Hamás, que socavan los movimientos de liberación y avivan la reacción. Levantar la bandera de la liberación no debe posponerse, mientras mantenemos nuestra solidaridad con el pueblo palestino y nos oponemos a la guerra genocida de Israel y a las acciones terroristas inhumanas. (Spanish translation of the article “No to Israeli genocidal war against Palestinians, no to Hamas terrorism, yes to social revolution!”)
From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Need for a Total Uprooting: Down with the Perpetrators of the Palestinian Slaughter
November 29, 2023In light of the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis, we present a piece that takes up the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the connected slaughter of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila in Beirut. This piece goes beyond exposé to explore the treacherous nature of halfway revolutions, which set the stage for counter-revolution. It thus illuminates today’s crisis.
Israel’s war and Hamas attack stoke retrogression
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, and the horrendous Hamas attacks that sparked it, are driving the world in a reactionary direction and exposing the inhumanity of the ruling powers—as well as the retrogression of much of the Left.
From the Archives: Terrorism Is Not Revolution
The way some of the Left glorified the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of mainly civilians by Hamas calls for a deeper examination of the contradictions and retrogression underlying that type of pseudo-revolutionism.
Readers’ Views: November 2023
November 24, 2023Readers’ Views on: Israel/Palestine; Revolt in Iran; in Canada for 2SLGBTQIA+; Trump, Biden too old to run; Racism in Tennessee; Prisoners miss ‘N&L’; Memorial for Paul Geist and Dan Bremer; Texas targets pregnant women & refugees; Ohio targets women and democracy; Revolutionary history; and Raining on those with disabilities.
Palestinians and Jews look for solutions together
November 23, 2023Susan Van Gelder reports on two meetings in Michigan supporting both Jewish and Palestinian people affected by the Israel-Hamas war in the West Bank.
No to Israeli genocidal war against Palestinians, no to Hamas terrorism, yes to social revolution!
October 17, 2023The Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel set off a new round of war. Israel is threatening genocide with U.S. support. Israel’s occupation in no way justifies Leftists celebrating the murderous attacks by Hamas, which undermine social liberation movements and stoke reaction. Raising the banner of liberation is critical as we engage in solidarity with Palestinians and oppose Israel’s genocidal war and Hamas’s terrorist actions.
Featured article: Rulers’ fear of revolution won’t stop Iranian masses
October 3, 2023In the weeks before the anniversary of Jina Mahsa Amini’s murder, the Iranian regime hardened its repression. None fear revolution more than it. But the people of Iran are letting the world know what they are fighting for on “the day after” the revolution. Their demands, if met, would transform Iran into one of the freest, most humane countries in the world.
World in View: Israel’s army terrorizes Palestinians in Jenin
July 10, 2023The Israeli military occupation of Jenin is the latest manifestation of the state terrorism the government is carrying out against the Palestinian population. What is new about this repression? How can continued occupation and neo-fascist tendencies in Israel be overcome?
Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2023-2024: Polycrisis and the need to transform reality. Part V
June 15, 2023Revolt against rulers’ skewed efforts to transform reality is global, opposing both fascism, which markets itself as the alternative to the disintegrating status quo, and the “return to normal” that markets itself as the only alternative to fascism. And each revolt is confronted by serious contradictions.
Palestinians silenced
June 9, 2023Early this spring, Palestinian-American attorney and activist Huwaida Arraf was invited to speak at Bloomfield Hills Senior High School. The debate among Jewish, Arab and Muslim community members over whether her talk was anti-Semitic and anti-Israel continues to intensify.
World in View: Pogrom by Israeli settlers
March 20, 2023Israeli settlers carried out a pogrom against the Palestinian town of Hawara with the complicity of the Israeli military.
World in View: Israeli fanatics threaten Palestine, Israel
January 23, 2023For the sixth time Benjamin Netanyahu has become Prime Minister of Israel. This time he returned to power by bargaining for a government of the most extreme right: an ultranationalist, ultra-Orthodox coalition.
Queer Notes: November-December 2022
November 11, 2022The Ohio LGBTQ+ community protested a meeting of the Ohio State Board of Education delaying a vote on a “don’t say gay” bill; Israeli playwright Yochai Greenfeld’s autobiographical play about conversion therapy opened in Israel; there was a memorial on Chicago’s south side for several LGBTQ+ people killed by a hit-and-run driver; and murdered Palestinian Gay man Ahmad Abu Marhia’s body was found in Hebron in the West Bank, and a suspect has been arrested.
Readers’ Views: January-February 2022, Part One
February 5, 2022Readers’ Views on: Labor: Teachers Face Politician Bosses; Labor: Automation and the New Humanism; Socialism, Statism and Philosophy; Fake ‘Right to Life’; Eviction Tsunami; Agribusiness vs. Planet; Afghanistan Exploited; Taiwan Faces China and U.S.; Desmond Tutu; With the Migrant Caravan; U.S. vs. Palestinians
Readers’ Views: September-October 2021
September 21, 2021Readers’ Views on: Solidarity with Palestinians; Attacks on Democracy; Iranian Revolt; Musicians’ Labor; Damage to Homeless; Covid-19 Killers; Trump and Taliban; Far Right in Portland; Critical Race Theory; Prisoners under Fire; Voices from Behind Bars; Only the Dialectic Can Save Us
From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Need for a Total Uprooting: Down with the Perpetrators of the Palestinian Slaughter
July 1, 2021In light of the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis, we present a piece that takes up the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the connected slaughter of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila in Beirut. This piece goes beyond exposé to explore the treacherous nature of halfway revolutions, which set the stage for counter-revolution. It thus illuminates today’s crisis.
World in View: Iran: assassination, imperialism, ‘conspiracy’
January 30, 2021Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated as his car convoy passed through the town of Absard on Nov. 27. No suspect was apprehended. Speculation fell on Israel, the U.S., and Iranian oppositionists.