Category: Marxist Politics and Philosophy

Call for solidarity: FBI raids African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement

By JEFF MACKLER The specter of a Biden administration-authorized Department of Justice (DOJ) initiated McCarthy-era witch hunt was posed in bold relief last week as FBI agents took aim at a Black liberation organization that has been a sharp critic of the U.S./NATO-backed war in Ukraine and a defender of poor nations threatened with U.S. sanctions, coups, embargoes and blockades. These include Cuba, Syria, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Iran.

Debate in the Fourth International Part III: Capitalism’s World Economic, Political and Social Crises and the Coming Fightback

By JEFF MACKLER, for Socialist Action/USA This is the third and final text presented by Socialist Action as a minority viewpoint to the February 19-23, 2022 meeting of the Fourth International (FI), an international socialist current of some 56 parties across the globe. Some 150 representatives of these parties gathered this year via Zoom due to the COVID 19 crisis to discuss and debate the Fourth International’s politics and program. The politics in the report below were adopted by the National Committee of Socialist Action/USA, a fraternal party of the FI barred by reactionary U.S. legislation from being a formal member of any international socialist organization. The text below was rejected by the February FI meeting by the vast majority of delegates. The central thesis of the majority text asserts that the building of revolutionary socialist parties on the Leninist model anywhere in the world today is not on the agenda. The text below, slighted updated to cover developments since the February FI meeting, challenges this view in all its fundamentals.

Debate in the Fourth International Part II: There Is No Equal Sign Between U.S. Imperialism and Chinese and Russian Imperialism: An Alternative to the FI majority text entitled “The World Geostrategic Situation”  

By JEFF MACKLER, National Committee/Socialist Action USA This text was adopted by Socialist Action’s National Committee for presentation to the annual February 2022 meeting of the delegates to the Fourth International’s elected international leadership. Representatives of some 56 parties across the globe were present at this five-day zoom gathering. Socialist Action participates only in a fraternal capacity due to reactionary U.S. legislation that bars membership in international socialist organizations.

Debate in the Fourth International: The Leninist Strategy of Party Building and the Impending Ecological Catastrophe

Our historic conception of the Transitional Program and its underlying method is aimed at the construction of a deeply rooted, mass revolutionary socialist working class party with the central objective of leading the proletarian struggle for state power and the construction of a socialist society. The Bureau text is silent on this fundamental question.

Marxism versus Anarchism

Robbie Mahood [Presented as on line educational sponsored by Ligue pour l’action socialiste (LAS)/Socialist Action/Canada. Montréal, April 23, 2021. SA/LAS is Socialist Action/USA sister party in the Canadian state] The last few decades have seen a resurgence in anarchist thought and modes of organizing inspired by anarchism.  Decisions by consensus, diversity of tactics, affinity groups, … Continue reading Marxism versus Anarchism →

Grace Carlson: Unsung Hero of the Early Trotskyist Movement

By Ann Montague  Grace Carlson was the only female member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) (predecessor organization of Socialist Action) to be convicted and sentenced under the notorious anti-communist Smith Act of 1940. She was sentenced to sixteen months in the Federal Correctional Facility For Women in Alderson, West Virginia. The trial and convictions … Continue reading Grace Carlson: Unsung Hero of the Early Trotskyist Movement →

Anatomy of Bernie Sanders’ socialism

By NICK BAKER A 2019 Pew Research Center poll of Americans’ political views found that 42 percent support socialism, up from 31 percent found by Pew in 2010. Fully half of youth under 30 indicated their “positive or very positive impression” of socialism. The biggest change that the new poll registered was among those 30–49 … Continue reading Anatomy of Bernie Sanders’ socialism →

Democrats and Republicans Converge on Trade, War and Israel

By JEFF MACKLER Democrats’ sound and fury in denouncing President Trump’s unilateral imposition of tariffs on Chinese imports has given way to general agreement, if not bi-partisan praise, for Trump’s pending tariff deals with China. The same with Trump’s essential denunciation of the WTO, the hitherto world institution aimed at the increasingly impossible objective of … Continue reading Democrats and Republicans Converge on Trade, War and Israel →

IMPEACH THE SYSTEM!

By MARTY GOODMAN As the twin parties of the corporate elite battle it out on whether Trump’s phone call to the Ukrainian president constituted an impeachable  “high crime or misdemeanors,” the real crimes, committed daily against the people and nations of the world and inherent in the capitalist system, are nowhere to be seen. Millions … Continue reading IMPEACH THE SYSTEM! →

Anatomy of a Split in Socialist Action

It is indeed quite unusual when a political party, such as ours, widely distributes a report that describes a political split from its ranks. How the U.S. antiwar movement should respond to the U.S. government’s ongoing deadly wars of intervention across the globe – from Syria to Iran, Venezuela and Nicaragua – was central to … Continue reading Anatomy of a Split in Socialist Action →

Philosopher Antonio Gramsci: How revolutionary?

By MARTY GOODMAN “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.”  “I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.” “To tell the truth is revolutionary.” — Antonio Gramsci, Italian communist leader and philosopher (1891-1937). “We must stop this brain working for 20 … Continue reading Philosopher Antonio Gramsci: How revolutionary? →

An independent socialist runs for city council in Athens, Ohio

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 to … Continue reading An independent socialist runs for city council in Athens, Ohio →

The worldwide crisis of capitalism and the relevance of socialism

By JEFF MACKLER We reprint here the introduction to Socialist Action’s new pamphlet entitled, “The Worldwide Crisis of Capitalism and the Relevance of Socialism.” Authored by Socialist Action’s 2020 candidate for the U.S. presidency, Jeff Mackler, the article reviews the central ideas adopted by Socialist Action at its October 2018 Eighteenth National Convention in Minneapolis. … Continue reading The worldwide crisis of capitalism and the relevance of socialism →

Books: A round-table discussion on socialist electoral strategy

By ERWIN FREED The Haymarket/Jacobin/Verso jointly edited collection of articles titled “Socialist Strategy and Electoral Politics: A Report” is timely and interesting but ultimately does not put forward what its title promises. Almost the entire history of the electoral practices of independent socialists, the working class, and oppressed nationalities in the United States is missing … Continue reading Books: A round-table discussion on socialist electoral strategy →

Socialist Action National Convention registers gains

By THE EDITORS Following a three-month pre-convention discussion period that saw members submitting some 70 written contributions, Socialist Action’s elected delegates, along with members, supporters, and international guests, assembled in Minneapolis, Oct. 12-14, for the party’s 18th national convention. The convention opened with a critical evaluation of the Fourth International (FI), in which Socialist Action … Continue reading Socialist Action National Convention registers gains →

Essays on feminism and Marxist theory

By CHRISTINE MARIE “Social Reproduction Theory:  Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression.” Edited by Tithi Bhattacharya; forward by Lise Vogel (London: Pluto Press 2017). Social reproduction feminism is not new. Marxist thinkers began to focus in earnest on the relationship between production and social reproduction in capitalist society nearly 40 years ago, in the context of what … Continue reading Essays on feminism and Marxist theory →

Iraq veteran runs for U.S. Senate: Vote Socialist Action!

By DANIEL ADAM Ten years after the crash of 2008, a refreshing growth in unionization and militant strikes shows promise of developing into a new wave of working-class action. This follows years of struggle against police murder and a wave of protest that began with 4 million marching for women’s rights. Tens of thousands flooded … Continue reading Iraq veteran runs for U.S. Senate: Vote Socialist Action! →

Our feminism must be anti-capitalist

By CELESTE MURILLO and ANDREA D’ATRI The authors are members of Pan y Rosas (Bread and Roses), a feminist organization in Argentina. This article was written in 2017 and first appeared in Left Voice. We are re-printing it on March 8, 2018, as a contribution to the discussion on the goals and strategy of the … Continue reading Our feminism must be anti-capitalist →

Educational conferences reflect growing interest in socialist ideas

Connecticut: ‘Solution is Socialism’ By KEITH LESLIE — NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — On Nov. 4, Socialist Action Connecticut and the Central Connecticut State University Youth for Socialist Action held their second annual conference, entitled “The Solution is Socialism.” More than 100 workers, students, and activists from as far away as Alabama turned out for a … Continue reading Educational conferences reflect growing interest in socialist ideas →