Author: Dan La Botz

DAN LA BOTZ is a Brooklyn-based teacher, writer and activist. He is a co-editor of New Politics.

The 2022 Midterms

We Are Not Back to Normal, We Are Facing Normalization

Dan La Botz analyzes the 2022 US Midterm elections and challenges facing the left.

Staughton Lynd and the Labor Movement

Introduction by Dan La Botz

Staughton Lynd looks at Stan Weir’s strategy for labor and Dan La Botz looks at Lynd.

DSA and Russia’s War on Ukraine: Toward a Mass Movement of Solidarity with Ukraine

A critique of the DSA International Committee’s stance on Ukraine

Letter from an American to Russian Soldiers as Christmas Approaches

Putin could end this war today if he wanted. So could you and your comrades in arms if you refuse to fight or simply begin to go home.

Czech Grandmothers with Ukraine

A Conversation with Czech Activist Anna Ŝabatová

A sketch of a long-time human rights activist

Mike Davis (1946-2022): Miscellaneous Encounters with “A Real Marxist”

Mike Davis, the revolutionary socialist social and culture critic, has died. 

Bartolomé de Las Casas: Defender of the Indians—and, By the Way, of Ukraine

Over 400 years ago, long before Woodrow Wilson or Vladimir Lenin, Bartolomé de Las Casas developed a theory of the right of nations to self-determination that can be applied to many other countries today, including Ukraine.

The United States and China in Latin America: Rival Imperialisms

The United States has long dominated Latin America, but today—in fact for the last twenty years—it is being challenged by China, which has invested billions and established political and some military relationships with many governments in the region.

Putin’s Annexation of More Ukrainian Territory is Part of Pattern of Ethnocide and Genocide. Stand with Ukraine.

Russian soldiers had committed war crimes, including many cases of torture, executions, rape (including of children), bombing of civilian areas sometimes leading to separation of families from their children.

Ukraine: Between Hope and Fear

While I share the apprehensions of many, those of us on the international socialist left also have hopes that war in Ukraine can lead to making the world a better and safer place.

Laurent Schwartz: The Vicissitudes of an Internationalist

The first of an occasional series of articles on the lives of figures of the French left.
For more than a decade, from 1936 to 1947, Laurent Schwartz (1915-2002), the famous mathematician, was a Trotskyist in France, though that was only one . . .

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Book Review: Two Failures of Vision

Doug Greene, A Failure of Vision: Michael Harrington and the Limits of Democratic Socialism. Washington: 2021. 260 pages. Notes. Bibliography. No index.
Doug Greene has written his critical political biography of Michael Harrington, in large part it seems because he wants . . .

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UKRAINE AND THE PEACE MOVEMENT

It is urgent to end the war in Ukraine. But to achieve this goal,

Why the peace movement should support Ukraine

Their Values and Ours: The Debate over Western Values and the Values of the Socialist Left

Where does the Left stand and where should it stand on this question of “Western values”?

DSA and the Russian War on Ukraine: Political Paralysis

Why is DSA in this anomalous position: A political organization with no useful position on the central foreign policy question of the day?

Rosario Ibarra: Mexican Socialist Feminist, 1927-2022. Presente!

Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, one of the most important figures of the Mexican left, died on April 16, 2022 at her home in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon at the age of 95.

Alain Krivine: French Revolutionary Socialist – 1941-2022

Alain Krivine, a French revolutionary socialist, died today March 12 at the age of eighty.

Russian War on Ukraine Churns American Politics

The Russian war on Ukraine has completely roiled American politics.

Canadian Truckers Protests Show Strength of Trumpism North of Border

The convoy represents a significant movement by the country’ growing far right, one that parallels and is influenced by right-wingers South of their border led by Donald Trump.

What the DSA International Committee’s Ukraine Statement Gets Wrong

The DSA International Committee statement on Ukraine rightly criticizes NATO but is silent on Russia’s role in the current crisis

Biden Sends Troops to Eastern Europe – Step Towards War?

U.S. President Joseph Biden has begun to send small numbers of U.S. troops to Eastern European nations—some 8,500 altogether have been put on high alert—though none will go to Ukraine, which is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Is this a first step toward war?

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