by CHRIS HEDGES Alice Walker was disinvited to the Bay Area Book Festival after Zionist groups threatened to carry out protests. The public and presenters are complicit in her blacklisting if they attend.
Alice Walker and the Price of Conscience
Category: Books
Telling Tales of Death: Review of recently published books by Mumia Abu-Jamal and Richard Wright
By BRONSON TWEETY The story of Richard Wright’s 1944 character could well be incorporated in Mumia Abu-Jamal’s collection of short narratives Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? an exposé of America’s continuing legacy of murderous brutality towards Black people.
My Friend Michael Ratner
[The following is the July 27, 2021 presentation by Michael Steven Smith at a book party in New York City’s Lower East Side sponsored by the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild to celebrate the publication of Michael Ratner‘s memoir, “Moving the Bar: My Life as a Radical Lawyer. Smith is a lifelong socialist … Continue reading My Friend Michael Ratner
How Revolutionaries Use Elections
By LAZARO MONTEVERDE Calls by social democrats to elect "progressive" Democrats exemplify what Engels called "parliamentary cretinism." Marx, Engels and Lenin devised a different tactic for revolutionaries.
Dreams Deferred: Book Review of “Red International and Black Caribbean”
By MARTY GOODMAN A review of "Red International and Black Caribbean: Communists in New York City, Mexico and the West Indies, 1919-1939," by Margaret Stevens
Assange: Empire of Surveillance and Imperialism
By KATU ARKONADA The trial against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a perfect metaphor for how United States imperialism operates in the world today. The Armed Forces, the Department of State, and the CIA caused thousands of deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya or Syria, but it’s the person who showed to the world those crimes who … Continue reading Assange: Empire of Surveillance and Imperialism
Book Review: The Trials of Julian Assange
By MICHAEL STEVEN SMITH Book Review: In Defense of Julian AssangeEdited by Tariq Ali and Margaret KuntslerPaperback, First Edition, 320 pagesPublished 2019 by OR Books Whistle-blowing, truth-telling journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange now sits in solitary confinement in London‘s infamous Belmarsh prison. The Trump administration has asked that he be extradited to Virginia for trial as … Continue reading Book Review: The Trials of Julian Assange
The SS Winnipeg, Pablo Neruda, and A Long Petal of the Sea
By LAZARO MONTEVERDE VARPARAISO, Chile — Not many radicals from the U.S. know of the Winnipeg and the great poet Pablo Neruda’s role in the event, which is a shame. It is one of many instances of heroism and direct action on the part of the left before and during World War II. Pablo Neruda … Continue reading The SS Winnipeg, Pablo Neruda, and A Long Petal of the Sea
America’s Forever War
By LAZARO MONTEVERDE “America’s War for the Greater Middle East,” by Andrew J. Bacevich. (New York: Random House) 2016. In Joe Haldeman’s award-winning 1974 science fiction novel “The Forever War,” elite United Nations troops fight an alien enemy that they don’t understand for reasons that are obscure. Haldeman based the novel on his own experience … Continue reading America’s Forever War
A manifesto of the new global feminism
By CHRISTINE MARIE Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser, “Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto” (London and New York: Verso, 2019), 85 pp. Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser have a mission. They are collaborating to bring the lessons of a new global feminist uprising to the United States. Their latest effort is … Continue reading A manifesto of the new global feminism
Cuba-Canada relations: Diplomacy from below
By BARRY WEISLEDER “Other Diplomacies, Other Ties: Cuba and Canada in the Shadow of the U.S.,” Luis Rene Fernandez Tabio, Cynthia Wright, and Lana Wylie, ed., 363 pages, University of Toronto Press, 2018. In the wake of Ottawa’s vocal support for the latest U.S.-backed attempt at a coup d’etat in Venezuela, studies on foreign relations … Continue reading Cuba-Canada relations: Diplomacy from below
Tensions rise as migrant caravans arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border
By LISA LUINENBURG As numbers of Central American migrants began to arrive at the U.S. border, support efforts were taking place in cities across the United States. In Minneapolis, hundreds of people demonstrated in frigid weather on Nov. 30 to express solidarity with the caravans. Other groups are working on sending supplies. Three semi trucks … Continue reading Tensions rise as migrant caravans arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border
Books: Where science and socialism intersect
By BARRY WEISLEDER I strongly recommend the latest book by Ian Angus, “A Redder Shade of Green.” This anthology, published by Monthly Review Press (New York, 2017, 198 pages), contains well-written articles, very accessible to non-experts, that first appeared between 2009 and 2017. They summarize the latest scientific findings on the state of the environment and provide … Continue reading Books: Where science and socialism intersect
Marxism and Literature, Or Bread and Roses
By JOE AUCIELLO “You can become a Communist only when you enrich your mind with a knowledge of all the treasures created by mankind” (V.I. Lenin, “The Tasks Of The Youth Leagues,” Selected Works, Vol. 3, p. 413). “… we can still learn from Balzac and Tolstoy, but should we really be urging comrades to … Continue reading Marxism and Literature, Or Bread and Roses
Books: Remembering James Connolly
By BARRY WEISLEDER “James Connolly and the Reconquest of Ireland,” by Priscilla Metscher. (Minneapolis: MEP Publications, 2002), 243 pages. The aftermath of the 101st anniversary of the Easter Rising is a good time to become (re)acquainted with the views of the great Irish republican socialist, James Connolly. Though many of today’s Irish nationalists and “socialists” pay homage … Continue reading Books: Remembering James Connolly
Books: Leon Trotsky’s 1917 stay in New York City
By DAVID JONES “Trotsky in New York 1917, A Radical on the Eve of Revolution,” by Kenneth D. Ackerman. (Berkeley, Calif., Counterpoint 2016), $30. One hundred years ago, on Jan. 13, 1917, the small Spanish passenger vessel SS (or Vapor Correo) Montserrat (Vapor is Spanish for steamship, Correo for mail) arrived in the harbor of … Continue reading Books: Leon Trotsky’s 1917 stay in New York City
Books: ‘The Man Who Loved Dogs’
By LAZARO MONTEVERDE “The Man Who Loved Dogs,” by Leonardo Padura. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux), 2014. Originally published in Spanish in 2009 as “El hombre que amaba a los perros.” Available in hardcover and paperback in both languages. With the publication of “The Man Who Loved Dogs,” Cuban writer Leonardo Padura joins the … Continue reading Books: ‘The Man Who Loved Dogs’
Chronicle of an ‘ordinary’ man in revolutionary times
By CLIFFORD D. CONNER “Unsinkable Patriot: The Life and Times of Thomas Cave in Revolutionary America,” by Michael Schreiber, 2016. Available from Amazon, 737 pages, $25.95. Thomas who? If Thomas Cave’s name does not ring any bells, it does not indicate a deficit in your education. He was not an outstanding historical figure in any … Continue reading Chronicle of an ‘ordinary’ man in revolutionary times
To the Masses!
By MARK UGOLINI John Riddell and Mike Taber, “To the Masses” (Haymarket Books 2016), 1299 pp., $55 Thanks to John Riddell and Mike Taber for the huge effort over many years that has brought us “To the Masses” and the other wonderful books that make up their series on the Communist International in Lenin’s time. … Continue reading To the Masses!
200 years ago: Journeymen shoemakers strike in Philadelphia
By MICHAEL SCHREIBER The autumn of 1805 was unusually mild. Farmers were able to plough their land almost until Christmas. And in Philadelphia, the balmy temperatures might have “gone to the head” of a group of journeymen cordwainers [shoemakers], who had the temerity on Nov. 1, 1805, to undertake what was one of the earliest … Continue reading 200 years ago: Journeymen shoemakers strike in Philadelphia
Party time? A review of two classics
By BARRY WEISLEDER Is it time to build an international revolutionary workers' party? James P. Cannon consistently said yes. Isaac Deutscher, for most of his adult life, said no. Both were highly esteemed Marxists, selflessly dedicated to workers' self-emancipation. But their difference on this crucial point amplified important political divergences. Some 45 years after their … Continue reading Party time? A review of two classics
Dreamers of the world, unite!
By MARK T. HARRIS Book review: “Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA,” by Frances Golden, Debby Smith, Michael Smith. (HarperCollins, 2014.) To imagine a socialist United States is what many people might consider a utopian vision. In that particularly pragmatic strain of American thought, utopian has an almost pejorative association to it, too. As in, … Continue reading Dreamers of the world, unite!
Autonomism: The revolution devalued
By ANDREW POLLACK — Part II: A critique of Marina Sitrin’s “Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism and Autonomy in Argentina” (Zed Books, 2012). We printed the first installment of this article on May 16. One advantage of the horizontalist view is that one can gaze lovingly across fields of newly sprouted self-managed workplaces, admiring how they’ve spread … Continue reading Autonomism: The revolution devalued
Revolution? No thanks, we’re autonomists!
By ANDREW POLLACK This is the first in a series of critical notes on Marina Sitrin’s “Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism and Autonomy in Argentina” (Zed Books, 2012). Marina Sitrin is one of the most prolific, visible, and eloquent theorists of “horizontalism” and “autonomy” (hereafter referred to jointly as horizontalist autonomy). Thanks to her years of activism … Continue reading Revolution? No thanks, we’re autonomists!
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