In this issue we are proud to present a previously unpublished lecture by C.L.R. James, the noted Afro-Caribbean Marxist intellectual. His discussion of Oliver Cox’s book Caste, Class, and Race, first published in 1948, brings an historic Black socialist voice to illuminate some of the issues that face our own times and the demand that Black Lives Matter.
In addition to that special feature, we bring you an absorbing issue of New Politics. We begin with a statement from the Campaign for Peace and Democracy, “Washington and Moscow: Halt the Bombing and Stop Supporting Dictators in the Middle East!” This is a region whose conflicts have become a center of international conflict, but also a test of one’s commitment to anti-imperialism and a democratic foreign policy and a challenge to the view that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
We also bring you a section dedicated to the issue of inequality and its manifestations in contemporary life. So many of the ongoing and emerging struggles around the world are at root about inequality. We include an interview with Saskia Sassen and essays by Michael J. Thompson on the “servant society,” Colin Jenkins and Cherise Charleswell on debt, and Sean Posey on housing, as well as several relevant reviews.
Another special section offers three articles on Turkey, Kurdistan, and Rojava. Essays by Daniel Johnson, Alex de Jong, and Petar Stanchev provide a range of views on reaction and revolution in the midst of civil war and military conflict.
The issue also presents two views on Bernie Sanders and the Democrats and other articles that discuss climate change and Africa, the economic crisis of Puerto Rico, and the Podemos organization in Spain. And, of course, we have our usual “Words & Pictures” feature and reviews of important new books.
Note that we now have a five-person team of co-editors, having added Saulo Colón, Nancy Holmstrom, and Jason Schulman who join Dan La Botz and Julia Wrigley, while former editor Steve Shalom takes a well-deserved leave from the crew.
We welcome a number of new authors to our pages in this issue and also new readers who might have been previously unaware of New Politics and our website newpol.org. If you enjoy the articles in this issue please subscribe or contribute online so that we can continue to bring you an independent socialist journal committed to the principle of socialism from below.
Saulo Colón
Nancy Holmstrom
Dan La Botz
Jason Schulman
Julia Wrigley
Great magazine
Wow. Very nice job. I have been isolated with family duties and have been out of touch. What is great way to follow events and movements. I am looking for allies to help defend nursing home residents here in West Virginia. If you or any of your contacts could help it would be greatly appreciated. I have never been a great writer but is seems I am the only one here. A nursing home where I was working flash flooded in Richwood WV. Now the big company that owns the nursing home wants to reopen in the same flood prone spot that has flooded three times. Maybe not world news but a big deal if you are the one carrying old people through flood waters. Can any of your wonderful writers help me tell this story. Perhaps by raising awareness we can save old people from next flood. It would be a great service to people who can not defend themselves. Thank you, Kathleen Hope Curry