By MIKE ALEWITZ Following are major excerpts from a Facebook post by activist and political muralist Mike Alewitz. They are reprinted with permission from the author. When I first read Malcolm X, and then heard a recording of him speaking, it was electrifying. Malcolm X confronted the racist ideology of the U.S. ruling class. He…
By STEVE XAVIER ¡Heather Heyer, presente! Socialist Action condemns the murder of Heather Heyer, age 32, by an ultra-right terrorist, who plowed a car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters during the Aug. 12 counter-mobilization against the so-called “Unite the Right” rally. More than 30 anti-racist protesters sustained injuries during the course of the day.…
By WAYNE DELUCA Only days after threatening “fire and fury” against North Korea, President Donald Trump said, “We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary.” Trump was improvising, with no back-up from the Pentagon, and seems to be inventing his militaristic bombast as he goes. But we cannot dismiss the…
By BILL ONASCH The United Auto Workers’ organizing drive at the giant Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., once showed promise of becoming the biggest union victory in the Deep South since the United Food & Commercial Workers won bargaining rights—and a contract—at Smithfield’s huge hog plant in Tar Heel, N.C., in 2008. A win at…
By ANN MONTAGUE On June 20, 691 PepsiCo workers in Buenos Aires arrived at work to see a piece of paper on the door notifying them that the plant was being relocated and they were all out of a job. In Argentina it is illegal to just close a factory and lay off workers. Companies have…
By JEFF MACKLER “Trump Ends Covert Aid to Syrian Rebels Trying to Topple Assad,” read a July 19 New York Times headline. Citing The Washington Post as its source, the article noted that the official termination of the “secret” U.S. program “was never publicly announced, just as the beginnings of the program four years ago…
By JUAN CRUZ FERRE This article is reprinted from leftvoice.org. — AUG. 5 — The National Convention of the Democratic Socialists of America is currently under way. An estimated 700 to 800 delegates representing 25,000 members nationwide are participating in the four-day event at the University of Illinois in Chicago. In the weeks preceding the…
By BARRY WEISLEDER Omar Khadr, the Canadian who was captured in the frenzy of a firefight in Afghanistan, and who was tortured in Guantanamo, remains a lightning rod for controversy. At the same time, his case reveals much about the character of the political parties that inhabit Parliament. The $10.5 million settlement and apology by the…
By JOHN LESLIE I read with great interest Dustin Guastella’s article in Jacobin, We Need a Medicare for All March on Washington (MoW). I agree with Dustin, a member of Democratic Socialists of America, on the main points. Building a national mass mobilization would afford the left and broader social sectors an opportunity to turn…
By ERNIE GOTTA — BOSTON — About 1200 nurses at the Tufts Medical Center went on strike in July. Following the strike and a four-day lock-out, they returned to work on July 17 without a new contract in place. The union says it was the largest nursing strike in Massachusetts history. Socialist Action recently interviewed…
By MICHAEL SCHREIBER — UPDATED, Aug. 2 — On July 30, Venezuela elected a new 545-member National Constituent Assembly, which takes on the task of rewriting the country’s 1999 constitution. The country faces a severe economic crisis, made worse by the economic sabotage of pro-capitalist oppositionists. Working-class neighborhoods are plagued by shortages of food, medicine,…
By MARK SILVERMAN Senate Republicans failed in yet another effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” having abandoned efforts to repeal and replace the ACA with a so-called “skinny” repeal-only effort. Despite engaging in the bullying tactics for which he is noted, President Donald J. Trump failed to galvanize Republicans as…
By ANN MONTAGUE This is a pivotal year for the LGBTQ movement and particularly for Pride events around the country. While we have seen some victories, the most important have remained beyond our grasp. We still have no federal nondiscrimination law that bans employment and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Democrats…
By WAYNE DELUCA A recent study by the University of Washington announced that the second phase of Seattle’s increase in the minimum wage, moving from $11 per hour to $13 per hour, had the net effect of lowering the real wages of low-wage workers by around $125 per week. This study was immediately seized upon…
By a WORKING CARPENTER The Philadelphia city council passed a law allowing the city to secure loans for a program to renovate city parks, recreation centers and libraries called Rebuild Philadelphia. Some council members expressed skepticism about the program, asking whether any of the jobs created would go to people living the neighborhoods where the…
By JOHN LESLIE On June 9, 2017, a Philadelphia police officer, Ryan Pownall, shot David Jones multiple times in the back as he ran away. Pownall had stopped to search Jones, who had been riding a dirt bike. While police claim that Jones had a gun, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, he “had already dropped…
By BARRY SHEPPARD In regard to the charges about Trump‘s collusion with Russia to throw the election his way, and Russian meddling in the elections, we can mention that the list of the elections in all the countries Washington meddled in is far too long to for this post. In fact, the U.S. is the…
By BILL ONASCH A Bundle Including DirecTV—After mass informational picketing, the Communications Workers of America won a renewed contract for 17,000 AT&T workers in California and Nevada that includes modest wage and benefit improvements and, for the first time, covers employees of the satellite television competitor with cable the carrier acquired in 2015. Follow the…
By ERNIE GOTTA For two months, 50,000 students on campuses across Puerto Rico participated in a strike against the U.S.-imposed Fiscal Control Board, which was proposing $500 million in cuts. Mikael Rosa, a member of the student movement at the University of Puerto Rico, shares his experiences. Ernie Gotta: What demands pushed students to go…
By MARCO DAVILA Below is the presentation by Marco Dávila to the meeting in defense of public housing, on July 6 in the Glendale neighborhood of South East Minneapolis. For more information about the campaign in the defense of Glendale, visit the webpage: www.defendglendale.weebly.com . I’m just here to say: It feels good to be on…
Por MARCO DAVILA Discurso por Marco Dávila durante el mitin en defensa de la vivienda pública en Minneapolis, realizado el jueves 6 de julio (2017) a las 5:30pm en el vecindario Glendale del sureste de Minneapolis. Para más información sobre la campaña de defensa del vecindario Glendale, visite la página: www.defendglendale.weebly.com . Me encuentro aquí para…
By JEFF MACKLER — RICHMOND, VA. — Three hundred antiwar and social justice activists and leaders from 31 states registered for the 2017 national conference of UNAC (United National Antiwar Coalition). The conference was entitled “Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad: Building a Movement Against War, Injustice and Repression.” The unifying and optimistic conference,…
Comrades of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), We read with great interest and alarm the June 29 article/report in your newspaper, Liberation, entitled, “The reactionary attack against the PSL in Albuquerque” (see below). Know that Socialist Action stands in full solidarity with the PSL in opposition to the physical intimidation, disruption, and threats to “Shut…
By WAYNE DELUCA The special House election in Montana at the end of May saw Republican Greg Gianforte defeat Rob Quist, a Bernie Sanders-endorsed progressive Democrat. This feat was made remarkable by the fact that Gianforte had physically assaulted Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs the day before the election. Exactly how Quist, a folk singer noted…
By JOHN LESLIE As Socialist Action goes to press, the health-care debate in Washington is on hold. The GOP plan, which was hatched in secret in a Senate back room, is wildly unpopular. Yet the Republicans seem intent on passing something that will give the appearance that Trump kept his campaign promise to “repeal and…
By JEFF MACKLER The lie that the U.S. is fighting Islamic State (ISIS) terrorism in Syria was publicly exploded on June 18 when a U.S. F/A-18 “Super Hornet” fighter jet launched from the George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier shot down a Syrian government aircraft. Syria said its plane had carried out a mission against ISIS…
