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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!
 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
Congress Votes
$96 Billion for Obama’s Wars: White House officials put last-minute
thumbscrews on posturing "antiwar" Democrats as Congress voted by
a 368-60 margin to appropriate an additional $96.7 billion for Obama’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The May 15 vote was proof
positive that the Obama administration had no
intention of even paying lip-service to the Status of Forces Agreements
(SOFA) that U.S. combat troops would be removed
from Iraqi cities by June 30. continued
CA Court
Upholds Same-Sex Ban: On May 26, a rally took place on steps of City Hall
protesting the 136-page decision by the California Supreme Court decision
to uphold the Nov. 2008 passage of Proposition 8, amending the state
constitution banning same sex marriage. Over 18,000 same-sex marriages made
prior to the passage of Prop. 8 will stand. The vote was 6-1. continued
Do ‘Buy
American’ Schemes Save U.S. Jobs? Does "Buy American"
mean "Buy Union," as many of the labor tops say? It should be
obvious at the outset that the two slogans are quite contradictory,
particularly in a country where a mere 7 percent of the private sector is
unionized. continued
Obama Favors
Drug & Insurance Companies: May was not a good month for liberals with
illusions in President Barack Obama.
Parallel to a series of statements indicating he would continue his
predecessors’ attacks on civil liberties came a well-orchestrated show in
the White House making clear that Obama’s
health-care "reform" would be done by, for, and with the
profit-makers in the industry. continued
The Mumia Exception: Since his conviction in 1982 for
the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, through his numerous books, essays and
radio commentaries, has become the face of the anti-death-penalty movement
in the United States and an international cause
célèbre. continued
Obama &
Auto Bosses Slam Chrysler, GM Workers: After the White House rejected
a financial rescue plan by General Motors and Chrysler as not drastic
enough, President Barack Obama
put it bluntly to the automakers. To receive an additional $17.4 billion in
federal bailout funds that they requested, Obama
said on March 29, U.S. automakers must become
"much more lean, mean and competitive." That
only meant one thing—break the back of the United Auto Workers
(UAW), one of the most powerful unions in the U.S. labor movement. continued
Is the Economic
Crisis Winding Down? In the first three months of this year
many bourgeois politicians and pundits declared that the corner had been
turned on the economic crisis, basing their claims on a handful of mildly
positive economic indicators. But numerous economists, even mainstream
ones, quickly punctured these illusions.
continued
Taliban Advance
in Pakistan Worries U.S. “The inescapable reality is that another
domino has toppled and the Taliban are a step closer to [Pakistan's capital] Islamabad,“ the Pakistan-based News
International newspaper warned last month after the week-long takeover of
the Buner district, in the country’s northwest,
had begun. The paper compared Pakistan to Vietnam in the 1960s—a weak and corrupt
state being “nibbled away” by determined insurgents: “The Taliban have the
upper hand, and they know it.” continued
YSA Student
Purged From Campus Journal: An important free-speech fight is
gathering strength around the case of Marissa Blaszko,
a member of Youth for Socialist Action. Blaszko
was fired March 10 from her position as opinion editor on the Central Connecticut State University student newspaper, the
Recorder. continued
When is a
Withdrawal Not Really a Withdrawal? The new U.S. administration's promised
withdrawal from Iraq seems to be best described
by the French term, "valse hesitation,"
a dance that involves constantly starting and stopping and never
moving very far. In fact, some aspects of it are not real change at
all but only a rose by another name.
continued
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Mumia’s Appeal: On April 6, the U.S. Supreme Court refused
Mumia Abu-Jamal's appeal (writ of certiorari) for
a new trial based on the racist exclusion of 14 Blacks from the jury panel
in his 1982 frame-up murder trial. The decision left in place Mumia's conviction and turned a blind eye to its own
ruling in the famous Batson v. Kentucky case and related decisions that
nullify murder convictions in which Blacks are systematically excluded from
juries without cause. The court ruled without comment. continued
Thousands
Protest Obama’s Wars: The first Obama-era
nationally-coordinated U.S. antiwar protests saw over 3000
antiwar activists rally in San Francisco's Civic Center on March 21. Associated actions
of about 6000 and 3000 respectively were organized in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. continued
Democrats Play
‘Soft Cop’ on Immigration Reforms: When Homeland Security head Janet
Napolitano recently called off a raid on 100 immigrant workers in a Chicago factory, her move was hailed as
a significant shift away from the anti-immigrant repression of the Bush
years. Less attention, however, was given to her directive that immigration
agents take greater care in selecting the "targets" and the
timing of their raids. 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
Employee Free
Choice Act – Pluses & Pitfalls: The trade-union movement leadership, in
both the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win Federations, has been engaged in one
of the largest lobbying efforts in recent memory aimed at pressuring
Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). EFCA would reform
labor law in order to make it easier for workers to join a union. continued
Bankruptcy of Capitalist
Solutions to Climate Crisis: We live on a planet in peril,
one that is in jeopardy because of capitalist greed. The combustion of
fossils fuels to power commodity production is causing Earth to melt down.
Yet, no measurable progress is being made to cope with the situation since
greenhouse gas emissions continue to spew forth with no end in sight, CO2
concentrations have spiked every year this century and temperatures are
still rising. continued
U.S. Escalates War in Afghanistan & Pakistan: Perhaps the biggest land mine in
the Middle
East
for the immediate future is the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, toward which the new White
House administration has adopted an even more bellicose posture than its
predecessor. continued
Nationalize the
Banks Under Worker’s Control: Simultaneous with the
announcement of his 10-year budget plan, Obama rolled
out new bank bailouts. Obama announced on Feb. 26 that he was considering
giving $750 billion or more to banks.
And he said that $250 billion more would be held in reserve, based
on a conservative estimate of what the government could lose I the course
of spending that $750 billion on assets that might never regain their
value. 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
Socialist
Perspective on Obama’s Victory: Barack Obama, a Black man,
has been elected President of the United
States. Few, if any, thought
his victory was even a remote possibility in
racist America when
capitalism’s two-party multi-billion dollar electoral charade began
twenty-one months ago. 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
labor donated by union labor
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