By GARY BILLS We are republishing an article that appeared in the print edition of Socialist Action newspaper in May 2007. The article is pertinent to the widespread discussion on gun control today, when some are calling for repeal of the Second Amendment. After a horrific gun crime like the one at Virginia Tech [32…
By BRUCE LESNICK With 346 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2017 and 34 in the first two months of 2018—including the Parkland, Fla., tragedy that cost the lives of 17 high school students and injured 15 others—many are justifiably angry and frustrated. Mainstream politicians dither, debating how best to treat the symptoms of the…
By STEVE XAVIER The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is attempting to ban the Workers World (WW) newspaper for its coverage of the Florida prison strike. According to WW, “The immediate reason given in the DOC’s Jan. 29 letter is that ‘information contained on pages 1 and 6 calls for action that may advocate criminal activity…
By WAYNE DELUCA — PHILADELPHIA — George Ciccariello-Maher, a controversial left-wing professor at Drexel University in this city, was placed on administrative leave in October after a string of death threats from far-right internet trolls. All of his classes were cancelled for the quarter without a replacement. The university has stated that this is a…
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 KAREN SCHRAUFNAGEL On Saturday, June 10, the Islamophobic group ACT (American Congress for Truth) for America held “Marches Against Sharia” in over two dozen cities across the United States. Emboldened by President Donald Trump and his strong anti-Muslim rhetoric, the group that the Southern Poverty Law Center considers one of the top hate groups…
By JOHN LESLIE Since the presidential inauguration, far-right forces have been mobilizing under the slogan of free speech. Right-wing demonstrations began in February with a clash between rightists and anti-fascist activists who were intent on stopping a speech by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos. This confrontation gave the so-called alt-right the opportunity to play the victim…
By JEFF MACKLER Memorial meetings for Lynne Stewart took place in New York City on April 22, and in the San Francisco Bay Area on May 5-6. Peoples’ attorney Lynne Stewart died on March 12. Two incidents serve to highlight her extraordinary life in the service of humanity. Charged with “conspiracy to aid and abet…
By BRUCE LESNICK As the effects of the Great Recession linger, the ruling rich are making every effort to ensure that the working class bears the brunt of the economic crunch. In this atmosphere, elements of the extreme right feel emboldened to promote their reactionary wares. From the increasing visibility of right-wing websites like breitbart.com,…
By CRISTOBAL CAVAZOS DuPage Immigrant Solidarity Coalition Although, ironically, immigrant detentions are slightly down as the Great Deporter in Chief Barack Obama leaves office, Donald Trump’s new immigration guidelines seek to go well beyond Obama’s, with the possibility of deportations of millions of documented workers. Immigration agents and police officials, who in their majority supported…
By JEFF MACKLER “The evidence is in,” say gleeful Democratic Party cheerleaders. Donald Trump was elected president because his Russian spy collaborators stole 20,000 secret e-mails from Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer servers, including e-mails from Hillary Clinton’s national campaign chair, John Podesta. The stolen e-mails demonstrated proof positive that the Democratic Party, violating its…
By CHRIS HUTCHINSON The police shooting of 18-year-old Ra’Shamel Rogers on March 9 in Waterbury, Conn., has mobilized community members in support of his family to demand answers and a transparent investigation. Ra’Shamel was unarmed and shot three times, twice in the abdomen and once in the lungs. Police are trying to justify the shooting…
BY JEFF MACKLER — UPDATED March 7 — A few minutes ago my dear friend and comrade Ralph Poynter called to say that his lifelong companion, Lynne Stewart, passed away. She was 77, of Irish origin, and a born fighter who unswervingly devoted herself to humanity’s cause. Just a few weeks earlier Lynne pledged to meet me in NY…
By KAREN SCHRAUFNAGEL Protests erupted throughout the United States and the world following President Trump’s stunning order that suspended entry into the U.S. by refugees and other travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and Africa. Thousands demonstrated at airports and federal courthouses. Chants included: “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here!”…
By MARK UGOLINI Donald Trump, a pompous real-estate mogul and multi-billionaire, has taken the White House while surrounded by billionaire cabinet appointees who have a combined net worth greater than one-third of the United States. An Ivy-League-educated bigot, who from childhood has become accustomed to an opulent lifestyle, including a Manhattan “grand penthouse mansion” with…
By KAREN SCHRAUFNAGEL To respond to the incoming Trump administration—overflowing with Islamophobes—will require a strategy for challenging Islamophobia on several levels. The first thing to note, however, is that Islamophobia, defined as the irrational fear and hatred of Muslims, is not technically the correct term for the oppression that Muslims are increasingly confronting. It is…
By KAREN SCHRAUFNAGEL MINNEAPOLIS—The show trial dubbed by our local capitalist media, “Minnesota’s Terror Trial,” ended in November with the sentencing of the nine young men (eight Somali and one Oromo) who pled to or were convicted of charges relating to alleged attempts to join the “designated foreign terrorist organization” ISIS (the Islamic State). The…
By GRACE MONTESI On June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court tied 4-4 regarding an immigration action taken by President Obama in 2014. The decision left in place a lower court’s ruling that had blocked implementation of the program. Officials in our so-called democratic system have once again disregarded the immigrant rights movement and let down…
By MARK UGOLINI As part of a major multi-country assault designed to outlaw advocacy of boycotts of Israel, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on June 5 signed “Executive Order No. 157,” instructing state agencies to divest from companies and institutions that participate in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In the tradition of McCarthyism, the…
By ROBBIE MAHOOD On Oct. 30, 2015, revelations of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) spying on my father, Ed Mahood, almost 60 years ago, recently came to light courtesy of a phone call from an Ottawa journalist to my sister. A small group of journalists in Ottawa are reviewing the heavily edited RCMP intelligence reports from that era…
By KAREN SCHRAUFNAGEL Beginning in early January, Socialist Action joined with many other organizations for a series of conference calls on the need for united action to more effectively combat the rising tide of Islamophobia and anti-immigrant and anti-refugee hatred in this country. The ad-hoc coalition that was formed took the name Stand Together Against…
BY JEFF MACKLER Under capitalist law what was legal yesterday, indeed for the past 40 years, can become instantly illegal today. Such will likely be the outcome with regard to the lawsuit that guts public-employee union rights, which was filed by Los Angeles school teacher Rebecca Friedrichs and nine other California teachers. Friedrichs v. California…
By JOE AUCIELLO Harper Lee, “Go Set A Watchman,” (New York: HarperCollins, 2015), 288 pp., $27.99. Why throw away the Christmas turkey after it’s been eaten? It can still be used. Take the carcass, simmer with water, and the bones make a good stock for soup. Take the carcass of a popular novel—its discarded rough…
By RACHEL WOLKENSTEIN Below are excerpts from a report by attorney Rachel Wolkenstein on the fight of Mumia Abu-Jamal to obtain necessary medical treatment. Mumia, a noted political commentator and innocent political prisoner, was convicted in 1982 of killing a Philadelphia police officer. He received the death penalty, a sentence that was later reduced to…
By GAETANA CALDWELL-SMITH TRUMBO, written by John McNamara, from the book by Bruce Cook. Directed by Jay Roach. With Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren, and Diane Lane. Hopefully, word of mouth will encourage the general public to see this engaging film, in part because of the contemporary relevance of its focus on the consequences of not…
