February 20, 2024
While deploring “shameful” aspects of Stalin’s rule and its “heavy hand” that limited economic experimentation, Grossman finds the Soviet presence to have been crucial in erasing fascism from public life, “breaking the chokehold of cartels, banks, chauvinist press lords and arrogant Junkers.”
February 20, 2024
“When most people think of imperialism, they think of wars, and invasions to secure resources for the Global North, or they think of Lenin’s definition of it as a stage of capitalism. But you argue that imperialism is an essential part of capitalism.” Rania Khalek asks: “What do you mean when you say ‘Imperialism?'” And: “How did the Global North end up dominating the Global South?” These are perhaps the quintessential starting point for the next generation of activists and organizers, just as they had been for those that came before – and perhaps far longer than any of us would like…
February 20, 2024
The book “Extraordinary Threat” will be here any minute! “Although the publication is not entirely a praise of the Bolivarian Revolution—the authors offer detailed critiques where criticism is deserved—overall the book stresses the importance for people of good conscience to defend the example of Venezuela. Through grassroots democracy and popular participation, Venezuela is trying to chart an independent course and overcome centuries of imperialist domination, a heroic resistance against the ‘extraordinary threat’ of the most powerful empire of modern times….”
February 20, 2024
It is with this attentiveness to the historic shortcomings and duplicity of left organizations that Yates rejects so-called democratic socialism, which even in its heyday failed to fundamentally challenge capitalism. Setting our sights on the mere (and, as history shows, inevitably temporary) reform of a fundamentally exploitative system instead reflects a colossal failure of imagination akin to the prisoner who spends all his energy advocating for a larger window in his cell…
February 20, 2024
“….it’s also striking to note that Haiti has all kinds of natural resources, including gold! They’re licking their lips on Wall Street, salivating, contemplating the possibility of descending en masse on Haiti to exploit Haiti’s vast natural resources.”
February 20, 2024
After years of running opinion pieces about “legal” and “illegal” immigrants, media outlets now ignore the irony of government officials illegally blocking Central Americans from legally seeking asylum.
February 20, 2024
A common line of argument from the contemporary American left is that “socialism has never been tried.” It’s understandable that Western socialists would make this argument to members of the US proletariat, who have been deeply affected by years of red scare propaganda. This argument however, ignores the millions who have struggled and died in an effort to move beyond the contradictions of capitalism…
February 20, 2024
Marge Piercy asks: “Can thousands in the street change our long, laudy history, now?”
February 20, 2024
It’s a set of loose propositions that fundamentally come down to this. If you look at the overrepresentation of black Americans in prisons or the overrepresentation in terms of being suspended from schools K through 12, you can come to one or two conclusions. You can come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with black people, or you can come to the conclusion that there’s something wrong with society….
February 20, 2024
“The new conception of nature was complete in its main features; all rigidity was dissolved, all fixity dissipated, all particularity that had been regarded as eternal became transient, the whole of nature shown as moving in eternal flux and cyclical course.” -Engels
