Revolution, organization and philosophy

May 10, 2011

From the new issue of NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2011

Parts IV and V of

Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2011-2012
Revolution and counter-revolution take world stage

Contents:

  • I. The Arab Spring
  • II. The wars at home
  • III. Japan: earthquake, tsunami and meltdown
  • IV. Revolution, organization and philosophy
  • V. Marxist-Humanist Tasks

(Parts I, II, and III were posted in the last two days.)

IV. Revolution, organization and [=>]

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The Arab Spring

May 7, 2011

From 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 [=>]

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May-June 2011 issue of News & Letters is available online

May 6, 2011

News & 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 [=>]

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International Women’s Day and Iran

March 21, 2011

From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya

Editor’s note: The first International Women’s Day was observed 100 years ago in March 1911. This year also marks the 32nd anniversary of the historic demonstration in Tehran, Iran, on International Women’s Day, March 8, 1979. On that day, women and supporters braved Islamic Guards and thugs allied with the [=>]

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Revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya shake world order

March 18, 2011

Across the Maghreb and Middle East there have been demonstrations and uprisings, from Bahrain to Algeria to Morocco, Sudan to Yemen to Iran. The revolts have included some of the lowest and deepest layers of the oppressed people and have seen the ruling classes of the world tremble.

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Harriet Tubman and the Civil War

February 18, 2011

Editor’s note: We commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with excerpts from John Alan on Harriet Tubman from the April 2004 News & Letters.

Since the 1960s there has been a growing interest in Harriet Tubman. Catherine Clinton in Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom (Little, Brown, 2004), lets her reader know immediately that the [=>]

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Tunisia: a revolution

February 15, 2011

World in View
by Gerry Emmett

Protests have exploded in Tunisia and Algeria. On Dec. 17, in the city of Sidi Bouzid in central Tunisia, 26-year-old street vendor Mohammad Bouazizi doused himself in gasoline and burned himself to death in a despairing protest at the confiscation of his unlicensed fruit and vegetable cart.

Then on Dec. 22 another [=>]

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Philosophy and Iran’s revolution: Where to now?

February 12, 2011

Essay

by Raha

Recollecting Raya at the end of the Dunayevskaya Centenary is intertwined with the Iranian Revolution at its 1979 high point and as it suffered through three decades of counter-revolution, and now, as it searches for a new beginning.

One year ago, the unprecedented turnout of millions throughout Iran on the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Revolution [=>]

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Marxism and the U.S. Civil War

February 11, 2011

From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya

Editor’s note: 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the U.S. Civil War. The piece excerpted here, originally titled “Marxism and Freedom: From the Industrial Revolution to Automation–An Outline of a Book in Preparation,” shows the profound impact of the war on Marx’s thought. It can be found [=>]

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Back to the nuclear brink

February 10, 2011

From the Jan.-Feb. 2011 issue of News & Letters:

Editorial:

Back to the nuclear brink

The continuing threat of war on the Korean Peninsula, the nature of debate over the just-ratified New START nuclear arms reduction treaty, and the “wisdom” Homeland Security has shared with us on surviving a nuclear attack, all underscore the urgency of the [=>]

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Support the revolutions of Egypt and Tunisia!

February 4, 2011

Feb. 3, 2011

Support the revolutions of Egypt and Tunisia!

When Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak unleashed his plainclothes security agents and hired thugs against the freedom fighters in Tahrir Square Feb. 2, it was not only to support his shaken and discredited 30-year regime. He was serving the interests of all rulers, in the Middle East and [=>]

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World food crisis, still

January 26, 2011

The world food crisis, which was hot in 2008 and then subsided temporarily, is getting worse again. It was one of the factors in Tunisia’s revolution, along with recent revolts in Algeria. The piece below, published in the June-July 2008 issue of News & Letters, is still quite germane.

World food crisis stirs revolt
by Franklin Dmitryev

In [=>]

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Readers’ Views, Nov.-Dec. 2010

November 29, 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 [=>]

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Essay: Dunayevskaya’s place in the history of the Left

November 9, 2010

From 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 [=>]

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Dunayevskaya’s thought alive in Latin America

September 21, 2010

Dunayevskaya’s thought alive in Latin America
Feminist meets Raya

Several months ago I had the good fortune to “meet” Raya Dunayevskaya, read and study her and familiarize myself with her thought, which to me is valid and contemporary. This brought on a self-introspection, as someone coming from the women’s liberation movement. If someone were to say that [=>]

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Recollections of Leon Trotsky on the 70th anniversary of his assassination

August 20, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

Tomorrow will be the 70th anniversary of the assassination of Leon Trotsky, one of the most important leaders of the Russian Revolution, by an agent of Stalin. For this occasion, News & Letters reprinted Raya Dunayevskaya’s “Some Memories of Trotsky,” written in 1965, in the July-August 2010 issue.

The signature from the [=>]

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‘A great gift’: Margaret Randall on the Centenary of Raya Dunayevskaya

August 14, 2010

‘A great gift’

Dear News & Letters:

Revolutionaries and activists for social change at the end of the twentieth century desperately needed a mind that would extend Marx’s concepts, making them more pertinent to the struggles we were waging then. We found such a mind in Raya Dunayevskaya. She combined experience with analysis. Her development of Marxist-Humanism [=>]

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