Author: Dan Fischer

The Transformations of the Cuban Revolution

From Below or From Above?

Although the Cuban Revolution of 1959 had enormous popular support, especially in its early years, that support did not express itself in any autonomous initiative and control from below.

Creating a Future of Radical Democracy

Interview with Cooperation Tulsa
Screenshot of Cooperation Tulsa's projects from cooperationtulsa.org: Restoration Garden, Flat Rock, Community Center

Since 2020, Cooperation Tulsa has been planting seeds of radical democracy in Oklahoma based on Indigenous values and social ecology. Aside from running a community center and gardening projects, they helped start the Symbiosis federation of horizontally-structured organizations aiming to “confront the present system while creating the future that will replace it.”

Why I am not a socialist

The goal must be a society in which all the world’s people could live well on a very small fraction of the present rich world average per capita resource consumption and ecological impact.

Planning for Prosperity?

A Livable Future in Simulation and Reality

What can we learn from the new digital card game based on Half-Earth Socialism by Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass?

The Political Consensus of Extractivism in Bolivia

Extractivism is the only economic horizon of the Bolivian state, even as narratives shift depending on who is in power.

Harsh Critique of Chomsky on Ukraine

A discussion with Noam Chomsky was called “A Left Response to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine”.  It wouldn’t be far wrong to say Chomsky placed all of the blame for Russia’s attack on the U.S. government. The title of the event should have been “Chomsky Calls for Realpolitik for the 21st century”. 

The Socialism of the Jewish Labor Bund

The Jewish Labor Bund, from its beginning, described itself as a Marxist, revolutionary party, wanting thus to place itself in the camp of those opposed to the reformist tendencies in the world socialist movement.

Reading Tolstoy’s “Sevastopol Sketches” against Russia’s Wars on Syria and Ukraine

In the continuities between the Tolstoyan scenes from the “Sevastopol Sketches” and the destruction of Syrian and Ukrainian cities, we perceive constancy in the fundamentally brutal exercise of State power

The Soul of the Bund: A Review of Yiddish Revolutionaries in Migration

The political legacy of the Jewish Labor Bund.

Russian and Ukrainian Anarchists Speak Out

We will never take the side of this or that state, our flag is black, we are against borders and freeloader presidents. We are against wars and killings of civilians.

Reply to Eric Blanc’s “Can Leninists Explain the Russian Revolution?: A Reply to Sam Farber”

If the main strategic task for the American Left is to change the existing relation of forces in society, Congress cannot be the main arena of struggle.

Can Leninists Explain the Russian Revolution?

A Reply to Sam Farber

Learning the right lessons from the Russian Revolution is one way socialists today can start to more critically, and more effectively, develop strategies and tactics appropriate to the actual contexts in which we find ourselves.

Left Antisemitism and Consistent Democracy

A Reply to Daniel Fischer

Daniel Randall responds to Daniel Fischer’s review of his book Confronting Antisemitism on the Left: Arguments for Socialists.

Overcoming Left Antisemitism

An Anti-Zionist’s Review of Confronting Antisemitism on the Left

Left antisemitism is all too real, has especially strong roots in Stalinism, and functions as a dangerous frame for conspiratorial thinking.

Black Freedom & Land Insecurity in Baltimore

The time is now and never has it been more urgent for Black and Brown communities to own the land, produce their own food, and create wealth that circulates back into their communities.

For a 21st Century Bolshevism: Re-Configuring the Relations between the Cadres and the Subject

A 21st century Bolshevism should be much more open to both popular rebellion and cadre opposition to socialist rule than the original Bolsheviks ever were.

Transitioning Away from Animal Exploitation

An Interview with "Unpopular Scientist" Spencer Roberts

Anti-capitalist ecologist Spencer Roberts advocates a decolonial, just transition away from animal agriculture and wildlife extraction.

“That’s So F**king Imperialistic”: Responding to a Supporter of Cuba’s Government

Whatever a genuinely anti-imperialist approach toward Cuba might look like, it cannot be to rally behind a regime that denies Cubans some of their most basic rights.

An Especially Shameful Episode in Zionist History

We need to know all this history and lots more about Zionist leaders’ dealings with Jew haters so we can immediately confront and neutralize Zionist slander the next time they falsely cry “antisemitism.”

Beyond Tragedy: Postscript on Kronstadt at 100

To avoid repeating the Kronstadt tragedy, and to build toward principled world revolution, we can commit to organizing transnational solidarity and speaking out against all forms of authoritarian repression.

Beyond Kronstadt

One must go beyond Kronstadt to understand Kronstadt. One must grasp, first of all, the struggle for human liberation and the hope of Communism.

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