Online Features

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.

Teachers unions and the pandemic: Fighting for life and facing neoliberalism’s new bipartisan push

Biden will endorse the old normal Obama handed to Trump, but he will also push profiteering and control of education through technology, a project supported by both Democrats and the GOP from the start of Trump’s administration.

Workers Will Have to Fight to Make Gains Under Biden Presidency

Historically, workers made gains economically and politically during periods of labor upheaval. When workers used their power to strike, they were able to force employers and governments to make concessions.

As Biden Restores A Malignant “Normalcy,” It’s High Time The Left Declared Its Independence From The Democrats

It is misleading to see the election as a victory of democracy over authoritarianism. Biden’s win is the triumph not of democracy but of an oligarchic status quo, itself an increasingly authoritarian system.

The 2020 Elections in the United States: A Socialist View from Afar

Many of us watching with envy from afar—“envy” because the destruction of democratic institutions has gone much further in our countries—have nothing but admiration for the way in which a would-be dictator has been peacefully overthrown.

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.

Trump Leaves Biden Foreign Policy Problems; How Will the Left React?

Biden is committed to U.S. domination of world affairs and the wars necessary to ensure that. The left will have to rebuild an anti-war movement to resist Biden and to fight against U.S. imperialism, militarism and war when it erupts.

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.

Biden Chooses His Cabinet; the Left Sees its New Adversary

Already it is clear that progressives have had little impact on Biden and the far left will have to organize to confront a government incapable of passing any major reforms.

Movement Alders Flip to Pass Austerity Budget

In the most contentious Chicago budget vote in a generation, four “progressive” alderpeople buckled to Lightfoot’s pressure and allowed an antiworker austerity city budget to pass for 2021.

Left Advances in Brazil Bring Repression and Dirty Tricks

The movement to defeat Brazil’s right-wing authoritarian President Jair Bolsonaro made significant advances in the first round of local elections on Sunday, November 15, 2020.

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.

Thanksgiving Approaches: Trump, the Virus, the Crisis

With the virus rampant, once again schools and businesses are closing, and more workers being laid off. We now have 20 million jobless, with ten million receiving federal unemployment benefits that will end with the New Year, as will protection for 30 million who face eviction. Not a happy Thanksgiving.

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.

Counter-historical Revolutionary: Dan La Botz’s “Trotsky in Tijuana”

Trotsky in Tijuana recognizes the importance of Trotsky’s revolutionary vision and leadership in the years before he was exiled from Russia. And it shows that the force of his commitment to the transformative power of the working class continued into the 1930s.

The Peru Power Grab

In Peru, democracy has been usurped. A political bloc made up of the most conservative and grotesque elements of traditional politics has in a completely capricious manner carried out the impeachment of the person who was only a few days go president of the republic: Martín Vizcarra.

Puerto Rico elections 2020

After 2019 uprising, a new socialist formation and new political party, change the electoral game

Any attempt to address the electoral issue in Puerto Rico from a socialist perspective must begin by pointing out the limits of the electoral process in the island.

School Reopening Fights Reveal Bitter Truths of Economic System

C.R. Mills argues that the current ‘teachers vs. parents’ framing surrounding school reopenings, must be reframed.

Trump Lost the Election, But What is the Future of Trump and Trumpism?

Having lost the election, what is Trump’s future? At the top of his agenda is arranging a pardon for himself, for crimes of which he has not been convicted. He might try to use the presidential pardon to pardon himself, which would almost surely end up in the Supreme Court.

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.”

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