“Abolish the slums!” was so clearly and loudly the demand of the Negro Revolt in every single part of the country–North, South, East, West–that even President Johnson couldn’t pretend not to have heard it. In words, the President even claimed that that was part of his “war on poverty.” Hadn’t he asked for rat control, and hadn’t Congress denied him even that piddling sum? … As Commander-in-Chief he need not plead. He orders, and his orders were clear and unequivocal: 1) Shoot first…
repression
Homeless chalkers demand recognition
October 14, 2012Los Angeles—On June 28, 75 people from the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN)—a Skid Row organization that agitates for the homeless—and Occupy LA demonstrated outside the downtown Sheraton Hotel where the Central City Association (CCA) was holding a conference. They chanted: “CCA, you won’t push us away!” and held a banner: “If you’re [=>]
Queer Notes, September-October 2012
October 10, 2012by Suzanne Rose
Yaounde, Cameroon—Human rights leaders from Africa united to denounce “Gay Hate Day,” which took place on Aug. 21 in Cameroon, and the ongoing arrests of people suspected of being Gay. The Archbishop of Yaounde contributed to this homophobic backlash calling homosexuality “shameful” and “an affront to the family, enemy of women and [=>]
Assange: Law, politics and human rights
October 4, 2012London—Protest can be violent. Yet whilst violence towards demonstrators often goes unremarked even in an avowedly democratic nation such as Britain, police violence towards foreign officials, as may have occurred during an attempted storming by British police of the Ecuadorian Embassy, seems a little too much to handle.
Foreign Secretary William Hague has since attempted to [=>]
Shifang protest
September 19, 2012Chinese officials in Sichuan province bowed quickly to mass protests and withdrew plans on July 3 for construction of a $1.6 billion molybdenum copper processing plant in Shifang town. Thousands of demonstrators faced tear gas and police batons beginning on July 1, surrounding government buildings and installations in Shifang to stop the project and the [=>]
South Africa Marikana mine massacre
September 14, 2012Marikana, South Africa–Aug. 18: It’s now two days after the brutal, heartless and merciless cold bloodbath of 45 Marikana mine workers by the South African Police Services. This was a massacre!
Mining has been central to the history of repression in South Africa. Mining made Sandton to be Sandton and the Bantustans of the Eastern Cape [=>]
Free Angye Gaona!
February 12, 2012World in View
by Gerry Emmett
Free Angye Gaona!
I collect the rootlets of thought.
I carry them on my eroded back
next to the wild oblivion falling from me.
—Angye Gaona
The U.S.-allied Colombian government has falsely charged Surrealist poet and activist Angye Gaona with “drug trafficking” and “rebellion.” She is being held under house [=>]
Occupy defies attacks
February 3, 2012Editorial
As 2012 opened, governments from federal to local grabbed more powers of repression, reflecting the failure of their attempts to crush the Occupy Movement with brute force, despite their success in clearing many occupations. The National Defense Authorization Act, signed on New Year’s Eve by President Obama, allows indefinite military detention of citizens and non-citizens [=>]
G-8/NATO vs. Chicago
October 4, 2011Chicago–In a first, both the G-8 and NATO summits will be held in Chicago at the same time, May 15-22, 2012. Chicago’s Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has already threatened to restrict the civil liberties of demonstrators who will converge from around the world to confront the tottering high priests of capitalism and their dogs of war.
This [=>]
Stop FBI Attacks!
August 18, 2011Los Angeles–On June 16, over 100 demonstrators gathered at the Alhambra court building in support of longtime Chicano community activist Carlos Montes. He is charged with six counts, mostly possession of firearms, though his guns are all registered.
After the hearing, he spoke to his supporters outside the court building. He said his arrest is a [=>]
World in View: China clamps down
May 26, 2011State security forces in China have widened their crackdown on public dissent begun Feb. 17 after online calls for a “jasmine revolution” in China on the model of Tunisia and Egypt. Because calls for anti-government demonstrations each Sunday had originated outside China, in the U.S., the authorities used that as a pretext for ferreting out [=>]
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 [=>]
On the significance of Sept. 11, 2001
May 3, 2011This is the statement that News and Letters Committees issued after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks:
A Statement from the National Editorial Board of News and Letters Committees
Against the Double Tragedy:
Say no to terrorism and Bush’s drive to war!
September 16, 2001
A double tragedy descended upon the world with the barbaric, cruel and inhuman terrorist attack [=>]
FBI hounds Memphians
April 14, 2011Memphis, Tenn.–In response to the roundups of Colombia and Palestine solidarity activists across the Midwest by the FBI, members of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center (MSP&JC) and the Socialist Party organized a street demonstration last year in front of the Federal Building condemning the Neo-McCarthyite surveillance of peace activists. We waved at passing cars [=>]
Georgia’s prisoners STRIKE!
February 16, 2011On Dec. 9, prisoners throughout Georgia began the largest prisoner strike in U.S. history. They refused to leave their cells for work or other activities, dubbed their strike a “Lockdown for Liberty,” and released a humanist statement of demands. These included: a living wage for work done; educational opportunities; humane health care; an end to [=>]
Protesting repression
December 1, 2010Protesting repression
Los Angeles–On Sept. 28, over 100 activists from diverse organizations met at the downtown Federal Building to protest the FBI’s Sept. 24 raids on selected activists in Chicago and Minneapolis. The FBI handed out subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury, ransacked homes, and took away boxes of documents, computers and cell phones.
A [=>]
The Gang Lawyer
November 29, 2010New on the Marxists Internet Archive: Dunayevskaya’s analysis of McCarthyist lawyer Roy Cohn (who also featured as a character in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America). He might remind you of some of the totalitarian wannabes on today’s political scene.
The Gang Lawyer
Source: Correspondence, Feb. 20, 1954. This piece appeared as Dunayevskaya’s regular unsigned column, “Two Worlds.” It [=>]
Readers’ Views, Nov.-Dec. 2010
Readers’ Views
FBI RAIDS–AN ATTACK ON ALL OF US
On Sept. 24, teams of FBI agents from the “Joint Terrorism Task Force” served search warrants and grand jury subpoenas on anti-war and solidarity activists in Illinois and Minne-sota. This attack on the First Amend-ment rights of peaceful activists must be opposed and we should stand with them [=>]
Kashmiri youths ‘go for freedom’
November 22, 2010From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:
World in View: Kashmiri youths ‘go for freedom’
by Gerry Emmett
Something new is happening in Kashmir. In August, thousands of Kashmiris took to the streets shouting “Azadi”–freedom! Previously, Pakistan was behind the unrest in this disputed territory between India and Pakistan, but these demonstrations–continuous for three months–are indigenous, [=>]
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 [=>]
A News & Letters subscriber’s statement on the FBI raids
September 29, 2010A National Lawyers’ Guild member who subscribes to News & Letters sent this message:
On the morning of Sept. 24, teams of FBI agents from the “Joint Terrorism Task Force” served search warrants and grand jury subpoenas on anti-war and solidarity activists in Illinois and Minnesota. This attack on the First Amendment rights of peaceful activists [=>]
Stop the FBI raids!
September 28, 2010Here is the statement that News and Letters Committees has issued about the recent raids:
28 September 2010
Stop FBI raids!
The FBI raids on anti-war activists’ homes in Minneapolis, Chicago and North Carolina on September 24 recall some of the most reactionary moments in this country’s political history, from the 1919 Palmer Raids to 1950s McCarthyism to [=>]