“With this year’s worldwide renewal of the Black Lives Matter protests, readers could hardly ask for a better time to revisit the Haitian Revolution.” Review of Sudhir Hazareesingh, Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture.
Author: Phil Gasper
The Pull of Communist Culture
Martin Comack reviews, The Pull of Politics: Steinbeck, Wright, Hemingway, and the Left in the Late 1930s—Milton Cohen’s account of how the CPUSA attempted to establish relationships with three major American writers.
Hong Kong’s Fight for Democracy
Anyone interested in getting a deeper understanding of how the 2019 Hong Kong rebellion fits into the bigger China picture and what might be coming around the corner, will do themselves a favor by reading Au Loong-Yu’s important new book.
Is socialism winning?
Though Trump lost the election, his base has been strengthened over the course of it. To say now that the Left is winning downplays—perhaps unintentionally—the growing relevance and threat of the Right.
Racism and Capitalism
Because capitalism and racism are intertwined, and because of the role that racism plays in dividing the working class, if we want to fight against capitalism and class inequality, anti-racism has to be at the center of our activity.
A Year of Revolt
Last year a wave of militant protests spread across North Africa and West Asia, in a sustained, historic series of popular struggles. Emma Wilde Botta reviews “A Region in Revolt: Mapping the Recent Uprisings in North Africa and West Asia” edited by Jade Saab.
Being Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels, born 200 years ago on November 28, 1820, has been termed the ‘first Marxist’ in some commentaries and histories from the nineteenth century on, and with good reason.
The radical right after Trump
An atomized, racially fragmented, demoralized working class will always be prone to Trumpism. If Biden and the Democrats stick to the policies they have implemented and backed ever since the late 1970s, disorganized workers will either further shift to Trumpism or (as is more likely with Blacks) simply abstain.
Assessing the 2020 election: Where do we go from here?
A satirical headline from the day the presidential election was called, captures the feeling of much of the Left: “Jubilant Reaction to Trump’s Defeat Quickly Soured by News of Biden Win.”
#EndSARS in Nigeria
A movement against police brutality has swept across Nigeria. Mass protests have brought out tens of thousands of people in cities across the country. At the center of the fury is SARS, a notoriously brutal special unit of the police. Emma Wilde Botta speaks with Lagos-based Kasope Aleshinloye.
Modest Proposals for a New Left
The Left mantra that ‘no one is going to save us but ourselves’ has been painfully understood by hundreds of thousands who have used direct action, creative resistance, self-organizing and fearless militancy—from the Occupy movement to Black Lives Matter to the Women’s March to fighting fascism in the streets.
Why Isn’t Sexual Violence Being Talked About in This Election?
For every 1,000 sexual assaults on women, 995 of those predators will walk free. So, why is it that this topic has been completely avoided during the election? Why is it that, in the year 2020, women still do not feel safe in the United States?
Backing Biden Will Not Stop Trumpism
Continuing the debate on the left and the election, Charlie Post and Ashley Smith respond to Stephen R. Shalom’s criticisms of their article, “The lesser evil trap.”
Indonesia: Mass Strikes Show Intersection of Class, Gender, and Ecology
Over a million people have taken to the streets in Indonesia to protest a neoliberal law that would roll back labor protections, especially for working women, while also opening the road toward greater environmental destruction.
After the tragedy of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine: anger, solidarity, and rejecting Islamophobia in France
In the wake of the horrific murder of a French high school teacher, President Emmanuel Macron is playing the Islamophobia card in hopes of distracting the country from his catastrophic failure to stem the tide of newly resurgent Covid-19.
Capitalism Made Women of Color More Vulnerable to the COVID Recession
From the start of the pandemic, job losses for women have been so much greater than for men that some feminist policy makers have called this a “shecession,” in contrast with 2008. And “she” is most certainly a woman of color.
Don’t Support Biden, Even Against Trump
We have come to this miserable state of affairs in large part because the left has failed to create an alternative to “lesser evils” who, along with the greater evils, have devastated lives and imperiled the planet.
Voter Suppression, Democratic Party Style
“By kicking Howie and Angela off the ballot in Wisconsin and then publicly celebrating this naked act of self-serving disenfranchisement, the Democrats have made plain their intention to ‘save democracy from Trump’ by killing it themselves first and then dancing on the grave.”
Don’t Hope for a Biden Pick, Dream of Abolishing the Supreme Court
Yes, we must abolish the Supreme Court because it is the antithesis of democratic decision-making. AND, right now, we need to organize to stop Trump’s nomination of a super-villain for a lifetime appointment on the highest judicial body.
Bolivia: Amid new crisis, coup government seeks to divide spoils, impunity
Just weeks out from the October 18 elections, Bolivia’s coup government is again in crisis following the departure of three key ministers over an unconstitutional attempt to privatise an electricity company.
Economics for the People
“A People’s Guide to Capitalism is a tremendous contribution to the understanding of economics today, and more importantly how we can get rid of capitalism.” Steve Leigh reviews a new book by Hadas Thier.
Top
Please Donate or Subscribe to New Politics!
