By LAZARO MONTEVERDE Like a chess master who move by move crushes a weaker opponent, the U.S. is again moving against Venezuela. At the urging of Washington., 12 of the 19 nations who are part of the Treaty of Rio, known by its Spanish acronym TIAR [Tratado Internacional de Asistencia Reciproca], voted to invoke the…
By LAZARO MONTEVERDE — VALPARAISO, Chile — It has been the driest winter in the central valley of Chile in 60 years. June, July, and August are winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and also the rainy season in Chile. Water shortages have been declared in 50 communities and agricultural emergencies in an additional 100 communities.…
By DAVID RIEHLE Socialist Action’s campaign for the offices of United States president and vice president commenced on Aug. 18 at Oakland’s Humanist Hall with greetings and endorsements from a broad and impressive cadre of veteran fighters for justice and human rights. Socialist Action has put forward Jeff Mackler from Oakland, Calif., and…
By LAM CHI LEUNG Protests are continuing in Hong Kong, despite the withdrawal of the Extradition Bill by Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Sept. 4. Protesters have raised the slogan, “Five key demands, not one less!” They want direct elections of Hong Kong leaders, an independent investigation into acts of police brutality, unconditional release…
By STEVE XAVIER In August, an announced trip by freshman House members Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) to the occupied West Bank drew the ire of President Trump and other GOP politicians. The Netanyahu government decided to bar entry to the two legislators using the urging of Trump, who tweeted that the pair…
Socialist Action’s Connecticut branch is hosting a three-stop book tour for Sam Stein, whose most recent book, Capital Cities: Gentrification and the Rise of the Real Estate State, rips apart the idea that urban development under capitalism brings benefits to working people. By raising rent and incentivizing speculation, landlords and the capitalist state have come…
By C.J. LAPOINTE Outnumbering the “Straight Pride” parade participants, counter-protesters dominated and framed the discussion on Saturday, Aug. 31, as the fascist/Alt-Right tried to co-opt the LGBTQIA community’s Pride events with the hateful message of “Straight Pride” in Boston. While the left outnumbered the right, it was noticeably smaller than the 30,000-person response to a…
By BOB LYONS This is my best friend, Mitch Podolak. He and I have been comrades in the Trotskyist movement for more than 50 years, in Mitch’s case since 1961. Mitch will be remembered for his enduring contributions to the Canadian folk music scene. He was the founder and artistic director of some of the…
By RUAN MUNASINGHE On Aug. 26, tens of thousands of people bustled around Storrs, Conn., as classes began at University of Connecticut (UConn). This large university, known for its basketball team and parties, may not seem like a key area of the class struggle. However, in weeks and even months before the first day of…
By ERNIE GOTTA Dozens of SEIU members and supporters rallied in support of fast-food workers at a service plaza in Darien, Conn., on Aug. 28. These workers are fighting to reclaim potentially millions of dollars in stolen wages through unpaid benefits or the additional payment required by the Connecticut Standard Wage Law. 32BJ SEIU, the…
By ERNIE GOTTA “Every day, folks now more than ever wake up daily with a new notion of politics that is not bound to a vote every four years but to direct action.” The recent protests in Puerto Rico, taken in the context of uprisings across the globe in Sudan, Hong Kong, and Algeria, paint…
STATEMENT FROM MEXICO “I don’t want flowers at my funeral, because I know they will be taken from the forest.” — Chico Mendes The defense of the Amazon is a fight for the future of the earth. Although the destruction of the Amazon rainforest was already an alarming issue for decades, with the acceleration of…
By MICHAEL ROBERTS Is the world economy soon headed for recession? For information of our readers, we are reprinting this commentary from the blog of Marxist economist Michael Roberts, posted on Aug. 24. See: https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/08/24/its-all-going-pear-shaped/ With perfect timing, just as the summit meeting of the leaders of the top capitalist economies (G7) met in Biarritz,…
By DAVID KIELY The postal workers of SUD-Poste 92, in Haut-de-Seine, in the western suburbs of Paris, have won their 14-month strike, marking an end to one of the longest strikes in French history. During these long months the workers faced intense repression by the police, who worked hand in hand with the managers of…
By GARY PORTER The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) is a heavily funded spy agency. With a $500 million (CDN) annual budget, it operates gunslinger-style, spying on Canadians and others it considers a security risk, gathering information from the dozens of innocent people their suspects contact, such as friends, relatives, neighbours, and co-workers. This…
By ERNIE GOTTA and ERWIN FREED — STAMFORD, Conn. — Like any capitalist enterprise, hotel companies hate losing profit margins to benefit the workers who make them rich. Industry professionals debate about the type of model they need to make the most profit. Currently, hotels in the Stamford area are running on very lean models.…
By BARRY SHEPPARD Three mass shootings in a little over a week have changed the political discussion in the U.S., bringing to the fore white supremacy and the terrorist mass murder it has produced. Many in the media and Democratic presidential candidates have cited Trump’s racist themes and actions as furthering white supremacy and white…
By RUWAN MUNASINGHE Late on Sunday, Aug. 4, with hardly a notice, India moved tens of thousands of troops into what is already the most militarized region on the planet. In Indian-administered Kashmir, politicians, especially opposition leaders (but even some loyal to India), were placed under house arrest. Internet and landline service have been cut. Free…
By MARTY GOODMAN “We are the only ones fighting for the total destruction of capitalism.” — South Africa’s Socialist Revolutionary Worker’s Party spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola The May 8 National and Provincial elections in South Africa revealed deepening—potentially explosive—fault lines of class and race. The once overwhelming choice of South Africa’s working class, the African National…
Following are major excerpts from an interview with Socialist Action’s vice presidential candidate Heather Bradford that appeared on the Third Party Second Bananas website. See: https://thirdpartysecondbananas.blogspot.com/2019/06/heatherbradford-2020-vp-social-action.html Heather Bradford is the running mate with presidential candidate Jeff Mackler on the Socialist Action ticket for 2020. She is the organizer of the Socialist Action branch in Duluth,…
By BRUCE LESNICK On April 11, the Ecuadorian government revoked asylum protection for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Within minutes, British gendarmes entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, arrested Assange, and seized his computers, documents, and other materials. He is now being held in London’s Belmarsh prison for bail violation. That spurious charge stems from a…
By WYATT MUND The island of Puerto Rico has been the site of massive unrest and protest for over the past two weeks. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in the largest demonstrations in the island’s history. After a fierce struggle, the initial call from the streets for the resignation of Ricardo Rossello…
By STEVE XAVIER Beginning in December, demonstrations and strikes paralyzed Sudan for months, leading to the removal of the dictator, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir on April 11. The coup was an attempt by the military to preserve the regime by putting on a new face. Al-Bashir’s military-installed replacement lasted less than 48 hours as the…
By LISA LUINENBURG As the 2020 presidential election draws ever closer, the Trump administration has continued to ramp up its attacks on undocumented immigrants and on refugees seeking asylum in the United States. The president has launched attacks on immigrants across multiple fronts, and when he is blocked by Congress or the courts, he issues…
By JOHN LESLIE As the socialist movement grows, independent socialist candidates for local office will be faced with challenges. How to advocate for the oppressed and exploited effectively without adapting to bourgeois politics? Once elected to local office, a socialist candidate can use the megaphone offered by their office to be what Lenin referred…
By KEITH LESLIE Anti-government protests continue to spread in Hong Kong, despite violent attacks on demonstrators by police and right-wing thugs. A number of protests are planned on the weekend of July 26-28, including at the airport (with the support of some airline unions) and in rural areas. An earlier article follows, which will be…
