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Socialist Action is a nation-wide group of revolutionary
socialists. We fight for a society
organized to satisfy human needs, rather than corporate greed. We seek to
revitalize the anti-war, labor, student and other social movements, and to
bring activists together from different backgrounds into a revolutionary
party that can successfully challenge the wealthy elite. As socialists we
seek to understand the theory of Marxism, but as an activist group, we also
seek to put those ideas into practice.
Join us in the struggle to make a better world!
LINK: Click here to check out Socialist
Action’s News Blog!
 800 Attend Antiwar Conf. in Albany: The July
23-25 national antiwar conference in Albany, N.Y., was an extraordinary advance
in the fight against imperialist war and for social justice. To an extent
greater than in any other decision-making conference of recent decades,
this was a broad, determined, and united political mobilization against all
of the ongoing and threatened U.S. wars, interventions, and
occupations. And by the same measure, the conference was the most thorough
repudiation of the government’s “bail out the banks” antisocial agenda at
home. continued
On to April 9: The war in
Afghanistan is already the longest war in U.S. history. In Iraq the pain and suffering just
goes on and on and on. Equally morally repugnant is the vicious propaganda campaign
and illegal blockade against Iran. The U.S. flaunts all world opinion and
continues to support the brutal Israeli regime: its apartheid walls, dark
prisons, criminal blockades, and its nuclear arsenal bristling with weapons
aimed at the other nations of the Middle East and South Asia. From Korea to Costa Rica, the U.S. military machine is in deadly
motio. continued
Lynne Stewart Facing 30-Year Sentence:
The full force of the U.S. criminal
“justice” system is today aimed at an innocent political prisoner, 30-year
humanrights attorney and radical political activist Lynne Stewart. continued
FI Debates Party Building Strategy:
More than 200 delegates, observers, and invited guests from some 45
countries attended the 16th World Congress of the Fourth
International (FI), Feb. 23-28 in Belgium.
The FI is the world socialist organization founded in 1938 by Leon Trotsky
with the help of co-thinkers worldwide, including James P. Cannon, the
pioneer of American Trotskyism. continued
SA Candidate Needs Your Help: Complaints
regarding the politics of the Socialist Action campaign to elect Chris
Hutchinson to U.S. Congress have led administrators at Manchester Community College to require campaign volunteers
on the MCC campus to sit behind a table while collecting signatures to put
their candidate on the November ballot. Volunteers – including an MCC
student – have been told that if they approach a person on campus to ask
for a signature they will face arrest, making signature collection next to
impossible. We believe this
represents a threat to free speech on all Connecticut campuses and to the ability of
third party candidates to obtain ballot status. We strongly urge supporters of free speech to
contact the campus administrators below to express support for these rights
on MCC’s campus. continued
World Blasts Israel for Murder of Gaza Aid Workers:
In the pre-dawn hours of May 31, Israeli commandos deliberately
murdered at least 16 and perhaps as many as 29 members of the Free Gaza
Flotilla who were bringing aid to the besieged people of Gaza.
The bulk of the deaths and injuries occurred on the largest ship, the
Turkish-registered Mavi Marmara. Firing (with bullets paid for by U.S.
tax dollars) began even before the commandos boarded the ships, and
continued once these new pirates of the Mediterranean
rappelled down from helicopters. continued
Greek Workers Pay for Europe's Capitalist Bailout:
Workers in Greece
have launched repeated general strikes against the attempt by Europe’s
rulers to make them pay the price of the country’s economic crisis, and
have inspired workers throughout the continent—indeed, the world—facing
similar attacks. continued
Rand Paul & the Tea Party: On
March 19, libertarian and first-time candidate Rand Paul defeated the GOP
establishment-backed Senate candidate, Trey Grayson, in the Kentucky
primaries. Paul used his victory as a platform to deliver a message from
the Tea Party, which fueled his campaign: “We have come to take our
government back." continued
Action Proposal for United Antiwar Conference:
The prerequisites for ending the U.S. wars
and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and re-orienting the nation’s
priorities from empire building to solving the pressing needs at home are
unity in action, massive mobilizations, inclusion of the broadest popular
sectors of society, democratic functioning, and the construction of a mass
social movement that operates independently of all political parties while
seeking to influence their rank and file. continued
Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law Spurs Protests:
A huge wave of protest has risen up against Arizona’s new
anti-immigrant law, SB (Senate Bill) 1070, which in effect legalizes racial
profiling. A number of cities, among them San Francisco and Los Angeles, are considering calls for
boycotting Arizona. In Chicago, immigrant-rights groups
picketed a major baseball park, Wrigley Field, where the Arizona
Diamondbacks ball team was playing. Reports are coming in of students and
researchers withdrawing from the University of Arizona. continued
Environmental Disaster in the Gulf: The seas are the key to life on this
planet. Many in the environmental movement have come to recognize that
capitalism is killing the planet, but the killing just turned from slow
strangulation to a gunshot continued
Horizon Darkens for U.S. in Afghanistan: The political justifications for the
U.S.-led occupation of Afghanistan
are unraveling rapidly. And its prospects are fading apace. The most
eloquent demonstration of the bankruptcy of the occupation was the attack
on a NATO convoy by an angry crowd reported in the April 26 issue of The
New York Times. This was not an operation by the Taliban but an
outburst of rage against the occupiers by local people. continued
A 'Left-Right'
Antiwar Coalition? In April, two well-known
progressive figures, Code Pink leader Medea Benjamin and scholar of
working-class cultural history Paul Buhle, went to press to champion a new
“Left-Right Alliance Against War.” Such an alliance was the topic of a Feb.
20 conference held, according to Buhle, “auspiciously, the day after the
Conservative Political Action Conference, at which Representative Ron Paul
stole the show with denunciations of war.”. continued
America's Iraq - Chaos & Atrocities: Iraq’s
disputed and inconclusive election continues to draw commentary in the U.S.
press that the country’s political crisis could “delay the withdrawal of
American troops.” But the journalists who make this ominous observation
never ask what American troops are doing there, and why it should be their
obligation to solve the country’s political problems? continued
Debt Crisis in Greece: In recent weeks, the main flashpoint of the global economic
downturn has been Greece, where strikes and demonstrations continue to challenge
attempts by the continent’s ruling classes to force workers to bear the
burden of the country’s deepening debt crisis. But in the U.S. all eyes were on charges filed by the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) against Goldman Sachs. continued
Kirghiz Revolt Signals Instability in Ex-USSR: The
April 7 uprising in Kirghizia (sometimes called Kyrgyzstan), the mass
uprising that overthrew the corrupt tyrant Kurambek Bakiyev, himself the
beneficiary of a mass uprising five years ago that overthrew his predecessor,
Askar Akaev, was a new sign not just of continuing political ferment in
that country but of growing instability in the former Soviet Central Asian
republics. In the Russian-language Neweurasia.net of April 23, an article
written under the pseudonym of Alpharabius compared the Kirghiz
event with the Tadzhik civil war, which started in 1992 and lasted for four
years. continued
200,000 Flood D.C. for Immigrant Rights: On
March 21, some 200,000 people, overwhelmingly Latino immigrants, gathered
on the National Mall in Washington,
D.C.,
to demand immigration reform. Thousands of people rode in on buses,
traveling across the country so they could participate in the march in the
nation’s capital, making it the largest demonstration to have taken place
since Obama became president. They came with their friends, their families,
their unions, their churches, and their local community groups, holding
colorful banners, chanting, and demanding an alternative to the
increasingly harsh climate that many immigrants face in the U.S.
today. continued
Forward to the
National Antiwar Conference: Five
thousand antiwar protesters in Washington,
D.C.,
and 3000 in both San Francisco
and Los Angeles,
mobilized on March 20, the 7th anniversary of the murderous U.S.
war against the Iraqi people, to demand the immediate and unconditional
withdrawal of all U.S.
troops and mercenaries from Iraq
and Afghanistan. continued
Socialist
Action Candidate for Congress:
Socialist
Action is running Chris Hutchinson for U.S. Congress in Connecticut. Chris is running
for office to encourage working people to begin taking political action in
their own names and to build a massive fight-back against the corporate and
government attacks we are enduring. He pledges to use his campaign to
support demonstrations, strikes, and other mobilizations of working people
in their own interests! continued
Obama Offer No
"Change" for the Economy:
In his State of the Union speech, Jan. 27, President Obama did his
best to repair the tarnished image of his administration and the Democratic
Party. Following last month’s “disaster” in Massachusetts, in which
Democrats lost a key Senate seat to a Republican newcomer, Obama had the
task of recapturing disillusioned voters who a year ago had been enticed by
his campaign promises of “change we can believe in." continued
Turning the
Haitian Crisis Into an Occupation: After a 7.0 earthquake hit
the Haitian capital of Port au Prince on Jan. 12, U.S. President
Barack Obama solemnly told the Haitian people two days later, “In this hour
of need you will not be forsaken.” The quake was a catastrophe that
may rival the deadly tsunami of 2004. At press time, the death toll is
estimated at 200,000, and the number of affected or displaced persons is
perhaps as high as 3 million to 3.5 million out of Haiti’s population of nine million. continued
Supreme Court
Opens Door to Mumia’s Execution: In a dangerous decision
and a break with its own precedent, the U.S. Supreme Court, on Jan. 15,
opened the door wide to Pennsylvania prosecutors’ efforts to execute the
innocent political prisoner, murder frame-up victim, award-winning
journalist, and world-renowned “Voice of the Voiceless,” Mumia
Abu-Jamal. continued
U.S. Brokers Sham Accord at Copenhagen: Given the
greatly lowered expectations thrust upon us by world leaders in advance, it
came as no surprise that the outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference
held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December did not include
mandatory, binding, and enforceable greenhouse gas emission reductions.
Thus, action was delayed once again. continued
The Health
‘Reform’ Bill: On
Nov. 7 the House of Representatives passed a health-care “reform” bill
whose central plank was a massive giveaway to private insurers. It included
a “public option” plan that would compete in an insurance exchange
dominated by the profiteers, and would cover only a fraction of the number
projected in earlier versions of the bill.
continued
Death Squads
Unleashed in Honduras: The human-rights
situation in Honduras is getting progressively worse,
with reports detailing a right-wing offensive that includes not just
harassment but kidnapping, torture, and murder. The international spotlight
that shined on Honduras after the coup against
democratically elected President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya has now disappeared,
and the right wing that has traditionally controlled the country is now
free to pursue leftists and pro-democracy activists without fear of bad
press. continued
Lynne Stewart
Jailed:
The Nov. 16 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, to
reject radical New York attorney Lynne Stewart’s appeal of her 2005
frame-up conviction on five counts of aiding and abetting terrorism is a
legal and political atrocity. The court’s ruling is in line with the 9/11
witch-hunt “anti-terrorism” climate that has been orchestrated to stifle
dissent, justify war and, in Stewart’s words, “chill the defense bar.” In
interviews with the press, Stewart predicted that the ruling would set the
stage for the upcoming U.S. prosecutions of Guantanamo prisoners. continued
Supreme Court
Refuses to Hear Kevin Cooper’s Appeal: On Nov. 30 the U.S. Supreme
Court refused to consider the appeal of innocent San Quentin death-row
inmate Kevin Cooper. The High Court reached its decision to reject Cooper’s
petition despite overwhelming evidence of a massive police frame-up—laid
out in dramatic detail in an unprecedented 103-page dissenting opinion
signed by five judges in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. continued
Report on LGBT
Rights March in DC: On Oct. 11, as
many as 200,000 LGBT activists and straight allies descended on Washington, D.C., for the National Equality
March (NEM), whose single demand on the federal government was “Equal
protection for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people in all matters
governed by civil law in all 50 states! Now!” continued
The Ultra-Right
Pot Boils Over: The appearance of right-wing
mobs at town meetings organized by Democratic Party representatives to
discuss the proposed health-care reform has set off alarm bells, in
particular because of the blind fanaticism of the right-wing
protesters and their threats of violence, including armed violence.
These outbursts show many features of historic fascist
developments—and on a scale as yet unseen in the United States. continued
Workers Employ
Sit-ins as Job Losses Mount: There was a
period of several months after Hitler invaded Poland of relative inactivity on the
World War II European battlefield. Pundits called this the Phony War or, in
a play on words with the strategy of blitzkrieg, sitzkrieg—a sitting down
war. But there is nothing phony about the growing use of the tactic of
sitzkrieg by workers on four continents. You don’t need lightning mobility
to take control of a plant—just sit down and don’t allow any work to be
done. continued
2009 SA
Political Resolution: The central institutions of world capitalism are being
shaken by a severe worldwide financial meltdown not seen since the Great
Depression of 1929. The massive U.S. banking failures, credit freeze
and ongoing corporate bankruptcies have their parallels in literally every
industrialized and semi-industrialized nation, as do the draconian measures
inflicted on their working classes. The poor nations of the world, already
reduced to grinding poverty and deprivation, suffer even more. Still at the
beginning stages of a now universally expected deep and long recession, if
not depression, its full and devastating impact remains a way off. continued
The Story of North Korea: The capitalist press is full of horror stories
about North Korea of late. Almost every day we are bombarded with
sensational stories about North Korea’s nuclear program, the test
firing of its ballistic missiles and its reclusive leader, Kim
Jong-Il. And hand in glove with
these sensational stories, is a steady drum beat from Washington calling the use of any means
necessary to bring this rogue state to heel. continued
S.A. Statement on Iran: A division in the ruling elite has opened up the
way for an explosion of discontent with the reactionary clerical
capitalist regime in Iran. The massive mobilizations
clearly reflect the deep hatred of the government by the masses in Iran's largest city. The greater Tehran area accounts for about
one-fifth of the total population of the country and is where most of the
industry is based. It is the major working-class center. It was also the
focal point of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed crowned
dictatorship of the shah. continued
Fund Workers’
Needs, Not Banks & Billionaires: As part of his plan announced March 30 to
"save" GM and Chrysler, President Barack Obama demanded that
autoworkers give back even more of the wages and benefits they had won from
the corporations in years past. continued
Zionism – An
Ugly History: The Zionist movement from the
very beginning was aided and funded by capitalists who saw it as a
preferred option to socialism and militant labor struggles, which they
feared. Jews were heavily represented in the labor movement and the
socialist parties of Europe. As an especially oppressed group within the working
class, Jewish workers were more exposed to the brutality of capitalism, and
were more likely to see a solution in socialism.
continued
Troubled History of Afghanistan: The
story of Afghanistan is in
so many ways a tragic one. Afghanistan is one of the most impoverished
nations of the world. It is also one of the most war-torn, most ravaged,
and most beleaguered of nations. It is a nation that has been repeatedly
beset by invasion, external pressure and internal upheaval since before the
time of Alexander the Great. Its people are a people who have endured more
than most of us can ever imagine. In fact, for many Afghans, all that has
changed in the last one thousand years are the weapons which have been used
against so many of them. It is therefore with great sadness and respect
that we tell the story of Afghanistan.
continued
Trotskyism & the Struggle Against
Fascism: Fascism
is a term that is often thrown about rather casually, generally with very
little understanding of its actual meaning.
While many liberals, and even some radicals, tend to use the term as
simply a pejorative against people who are politically to the right of
them, we as Marxists have a much more precise definition, and
understanding, of what fascism truly is.
In our view fascism is a uniquely sinister and violent form of
capitalist rule. It is something
that comes about when the ruling class of a nation is in an extreme crisis,
when it feels that it can no longer afford the luxury of democratic
appearances, when the threat from its own working class is so dire that it
feels it must resort to the most brutal form of government in order to
survive. continued
Workers’ Action
Program to Confront the Crisis: The liberals propose
to tweak the Wall Street Bailout on behalf of the amorphous “taxpayers”
living on a mythical “Main
Street.” Revolutionary socialists,
in contrast, start from the needs of flesh-and-blood workers, and rely on
their class power to challenge ruling class attacks. continued
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