Gay activist Ed Sederbaum died in November at the age of 78. His activism was multi-faceted. Very appropriately, he was known as the “grandfather of the Queens movement.”
New York City
Handicap This!: November 2024
November 4, 2024View of the struggle and rights of people living with disabilities: an art series depicting youth with disabilities in Nigeria, Kenya and Senegal; a seminar for women with disabilities in Tanzania; Disability Pride in the U.S. and Canada; a protest in Brussels against segregation in residential care homes.
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.
Queer Notes
September 30, 2021Queer Notes takes up a Queer rights rally in Madrid, Spain, to call for stronger laws to protect LGBTQ+ people; LGBTQ+ people and their supporters in New York City protested the homophobic assault against Abimbola Adelaja and his friend; and Parents in Tennessee and the Human Rights Campaign are suing the state to overturn its anti-Trans law that allows schools to be sued if they allow a Trans student in a cisgender bathroom.
Why some statues must go
July 13, 2020Italian American Tom Siracuse argues that statues of Christopher Columbus in New York should be torn down and more worthy Italians could be honored.
Youth in action, March-April 2020
March 17, 2020Youth in action column on the Valentine’s Day’s Fridays 4 Future and Climate Strike protests, and the student group Teens Take Charge’s actions against segregation in New York schools.
Women WorldWide, September-October 2018
September 28, 2018Pimps target incarcerated women in the U.S. for prostitution; the death of Maria Isabel Chorobik de Mariani, a founder of Argentina’s Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo; the organization World Without Exploitation; nurses at the University of Vermont Medical Center strike for themselves and their non-union coworkers as well.
Free college tuition?
July 6, 2017New York Governor Cuomo announced earlier this year a program called “Excelsior,” which claimed to provide free tuition for all New York college students. The reality is different.
Youth in Action, March-April 2017
March 17, 2017March-April 2017 Youth in Action column, including reports on youth activities in Minneapolis, New York City, Kerala (India) and Tehran.
Reader’s Views: March-April 2017, Part 1
March 16, 2017Readers’ Views on Trumpism and the many facets of resistance; Fear of immigrants; Specters of internment; War on Queers; Women Fight Back; Women´s Liberation Debates.
Mass rallies denounce Trump and defend immigrants: ‘City of immigrants’
March 15, 2017Immigrants, Muslims and their supporters in New York rally against Trump and his immigrant ban and in support of all immigrants.
Close to 5,000 celebrate International Women’s Day in New York
March 12, 2017On March 8, International Women’s Day, Washington Square Park in New York City was overflowing as close to 5,000 women, many dressed in red, rallied to hear speakers denounce the anti-woman steps taken by the Trump administration and to speak of the need to deepen women’s sense of unity.
Mass rallies denounce Trump and defend immigrants: N.Y. Yemenis strike
Yemeni immigrants walk away from their jobs and rally in support of immigrants and against Trump’s first immigrant ban.
‘City of Immigrants’ rallies against Trump
January 29, 2017Breaking news: participant report of New York protests against Trump’s anti-immigrant actions.
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.
Youth In Action: September-October 2016
September 17, 2016A look at youth activism including factory workers protest the murder of child laborer Sagar Barman; women’s skateboard team Las Brujas finds creative ways to fight male domination in the sport of skateboarding; Helena High School students supporting Kaitlyn Juvik in her right to choose not to wear a bra; and activists who protested two years ago in Hong Kong for freer elections are sentenced and vow to continue the struggle.
Anger & tears in NYC
July 7, 2016In light of the Orlando massacre, LGBTQ people and supporters in New York City spontaneously demonstrate against Queerphobia, on and then one day after the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots which started the modern Queer liberation movement.
Union deal with Uber betrays drivers
July 4, 2016Uber drivers begin to organize against exploitation by their management but are sold out by unions bureaucrats; but some continue fighting for a real union.
Trans Victims Honored
January 25, 2016A report on several Transgender Day of Remembrance events held in New York City in November 2015.
Stop Rikers cruelty
December 15, 2015Prisoner supporters speak out on draconian proposals for Rikers Island jail.
Rally against murders of Trans people of color
December 11, 2015Murdered Trans people of color remembered in Brooklyn, New York.
Stop charter schools!
September 6, 2015The expansion of charter schools comes at the expense of unionized teachers, students and public education. It is a money making venture for the few while destroying public education in the process for the many.
Readers’ Views, July-August 2015
July 4, 2015Black lives as Subject; Russia in crisis; Nothing about us without us; Homelessness in L.A.; Central Canada Alliance; Perspectives and philosophy; Elderly to the streets?; Women and Yemen half-peace; Labor and climate justice; Dialectic and women’s liberation; Voices from behind the bars
Pacific nuclear tests still costing lives
Sixty years, to the day, after the Castle Bravo explosion over the Marshall Islands, Holly Barker, anthropologist at the University of Washington, spoke at the “Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction” conference in New York City on U.S. policy towards the people affected by 67 atmospheric nuclear explosions–the Marshall Islanders.
Black Lives Matter
May 3, 2015The long-simmering outrage of Black masses has broken out into a movement against this racist society, particularly its pattern of racist killings by the police. It has not only reverberated internationally, but also made itself felt in the battle of ideas and the sphere of theory.
News and Letters Committees Call for Plenum 2015
March 3, 2015Official Call for national gathering of News and Letters Committees to work out Marxist-Humanist perspectives for 2015-2016
Readers’ Views, January-February 2015, Part 1
January 30, 2015From Ferguson to Staten Island; Revolutionary Rojava; Youth Protest; Violence Against Women; Detroit Solidarity; Paris March; Recalling Mary Jo
Essay: ‘We all can’t breathe’–Reflections on Marx’s Humanism and Fanon
January 29, 2015As a Black man, I asked myself: Why—through the dialectical crises of the social relations of production and the subsequent implosion of multiple outlived modes of production—has racism persisted? Why, despite the relations of property literally bursting asunder, does racism survive? How and why does racism, sexism, homophobia survive revolution after revolution? Will we again be left behind after the next revolution?
Rage against lawless police murders
January 28, 2015Participant reports from several Black Lives Matter protests in different cities.
Hundreds of thousands throng People’s Climate March
November 24, 2014Central Park in New York City was filled with hundreds of thousands at the People’s Climate March on Sept. 21.
NYC Police murder Eric Garner
August 29, 2014From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters
New York, N.Y.–There are certain facts in the case of the police murder of Eric Garner which are not in question. The use of the chokehold by the NY Police Department (NYPD) has been illegal for over 20 years. Eric Garner was a 43-year-old father [=>]
Thousands in Chicago: From NY to Ferguson, stop killer cops!
Thousands of people packed into Daley Plaza on Aug. 14 for the National Moment of Silence. Observed in 90 cities, it was called to respond to the police killing of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American, in Ferguson, Mo.
Educators rally in New York City
July 8, 2014From the July-August 2014 issue of News & Letters
New York—More than 300 teachers—as well as education personnel, parents, students, and community leaders and supporters—from New York City and other parts of the tri-state area concerned about education inequalities rallied outside New York City’s City Hall.
In a “Take Back Our Schools” rally, we [=>]
Fast food workers betrayed by so-called ‘leaders’
July 7, 2014New York—Last year, when thousands of fast food workers walked off their jobs defying their corporate bosses and marched and rallied for a $15 minimum wage and the right to organize a union, many people who have spent their lives fighting for justice in the workplace were excited.
NYC fighting the test
May 21, 2014Rallies and protests were held at over 30 New York City schools on the first day of state-enforced mandatory standardized English language testing.
UPS drivers risk jobs for solidarity
May 17, 2014When driver Jairo Reyes was fired by UPS at one of its Queens locations, 250 drivers did what any class-conscious union member would do: a protest rally demanding that Reyes be rehired. UPS fired all 250 workers.
Readers’ Views, Jan.-Feb. 2014, Part 1
March 8, 2014THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION AS TEST OF WORLD POLITICS
I have been active in a number of student groups around labor and women’s issues. We always talk about “intersectionality” and recognizing different struggles. Somehow that didn’t seem to apply, though, when it came to the Syrian Revolution. Suddenly people didn’t want to talk about it. I [=>]
Readers’ Views, September-October 2013, Part I
October 11, 2013Readers’ Views, September-October 2013, Part I
Word Up re-opens
October 6, 2013Over 100 enthusiastic community members in the predominantly Latino/a Washington Heights neighborhood celebrated the opening of the Word Up Community Bookstore after nearly a year of enforced exile.
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.
Detroit defends homes
September 11, 2013Detroit Eviction Defense came out of the Direct Action Workgroup of Occupy Detroit about two years ago. We work with people who want to save their homes. We have saved about 60 so far.
Car wash wage win
April 7, 2013Another car wash in the Bronx unionized after a protracted struggle with the management of the company. Sunny Day Car Wash initially fired twelve workers for trying to organize a union. The workers, Mexicans and Ecuadorians, fought back and protested their dismissal for two months.
Meatcutters stand up
April 5, 2013Trade Fair, a supermarket in Astoria, Queens, with a unionized meat department, is engaged in a scurrilous effort to break the union. But the union members at Trade Fair supermarket are standing firm.
ATU orders bus drivers back to work
April 4, 2013ATU orders bus drivers back to work: The strikers kept up the picket lines through a cold New York winter, defying rain, snow, and Bloomberg. The decision to order the drivers and matrons back to work in February came without any input from the strikers.
Readers’ Views, September-October 2012, Part 1
October 15, 2012CAPITALIST CRISIS AND REVOLT
I appreciated Franklin Dmitryev’s Lead article in the July-August N&L, on “Spain, Greece, Europe: Capitalist crisis and revolt,” for showing how the so-called “radical Left” is not really so radical. They think they can solve things through managing the economy and redistributing wealth, and channel energy into politics.
The boldfaced paragraph in the [=>]
Con Ed lockout ends
October 1, 2012New York—On July 24 at historic Union Square, 8,500 workers with Local 1-2 Utility Workers Union of America, UWUA, who had been locked out by Consolidated Edison, were surrounded by 5,000-10,000 supporters, similar to the numbers from the big unions who had marched a week earlier.
They told News & Letters: “It’s about the pension. We’ve [=>]
Jazz for justice
September 30, 2012New York—It’s in the air, an edgy current that awakens the spirit. When did it start? Was it the Arab Spring? The Occupy Movement? What? Where?
May Day 2012 was a day of expectation. New York musicians marched, played music, fed the soul with protest and pride, marched on the jazz clubs. What do the musicians [=>]
Readers’ Views, July-August 2012, Part 2
August 15, 2012RICH AND DUNAYEVSKAYA: A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
Thanks for your In Memoriam to Adrienne Rich. It revealed a dimension that many who were appreciative of her poetry and feminism may not have known—Rich’s exploration of Marx’s ideas through her reading of Raya Dunayevskaya. One piece Rich wrote was titled “Dunayevskaya’s Marx.” It was crucial how you [=>]
Readers’ Views, July-August 2012, Part 1
August 14, 2012REVOLUTION, COUNTER-REVOLUTION AND NEED FOR PHILOSOPHY
In the Draft of Marxist-Humanist Perspectives for 2012-2013, published in the last issue, while the global analysis is good, it is partial and emphasizes mass uprisings that may be a part of history tomorrow, i.e., Syria, while ignoring the long-term struggles that have a potential for raising a clear [=>]
NYC May Day march
July 27, 2012New York—There was a large May Day rally and march in New York City—but you would not have known it from reading The New York Times. The march of around 10,000 was a convergence of individuals, organizations, and participants in actions earlier in the day, primarily targeting sites of labor disputes and financial headquarters.
Although the [=>]