Socialism

The Biden Climate Plan, Part One: A Drop In The Ocean

January 28, 2021 Jonathan Burleigh, WSWS. Educate! climate crisis, Democratic Party, Joe Biden, Socialism

After years of record-breaking heat waves, extreme weather, rapidly melting ice caps and other stark illustrations of intensifying climate change, the Biden administration is presenting itself as a force for climate stabilization. But the policy proposals of the Biden administration, in the face of global temperatures already increased by more than a degree Celsius, illustrate that the Democratic Party is incapable of even proposing measures that could achieve a stated goal of net zero emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases by 2050. Failure dooms humanity to a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius or more, a level beyond which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns of major, irreversible impacts on the world’s weather patterns and ecosystems.

Home Rule For London

January 24, 2021 Owen Hatherly, Tribune Magazine. Strategize! Governance, Labour Party, London, Socialism

The Labour Party became the largest political force in inner London—the area then covered by the London County Council (LCC)—in 1919, and it has remained so for a century, a ‘heartland’ at least as crucial as the North East or South Wales. Labour’s first twenty years as the major party of the capital saw a pitched battle between its left and centre, which the centre eventually won. But that battle was along lines that are deeply unfamiliar today, with the ‘centre’ standing firmly for nationalisation, council housing, and pacifism. Given that inner London has been Labour’s most enduring success, we would do well to understand how that red base was first built. After the removal of the property franchise on voting, Labour won control of most of the poorer boroughs in London in the 1919 general election.

Biden Stimulus Bill: What Will It Take To Really ‘Rescue America?’

January 23, 2021 Jordan Woll, Liberation News. Educate! Economic Stimulus, Joe Biden, Recession, Socialism

Joe Biden’s recently-announced pandemic relief package, the so-called American Rescue Plan, is the new administration’s top legislative priority. With the bar set tragically low by the Trump government, any action at all by the Biden administration may feel like a welcome improvement. But the severity of the pandemic in the country and the threat of emerging, highly-transmissible new strains of the virus requires radical solutions to address the urgent daily needs of working and poor people. The Democrats control both houses of Congress and the executive branch. The filibuster that requires 60 Senators to vote in favor of closing debate on a measure is not a law, but an internal Senate rule that the Democratic majority can simply decide to do away with.

Ecuador’s Election Promises Advance For Socialism In Latin America

January 16, 2021 Steve Lalla, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Ecuador, Elections, Lenin Moreno, Socialism

Four years after turncoat Lenin Moreno claimed the presidency and turned the country inside out, Ecuador will elect a new president on February 7, 2021. Moreno betrayed the citizen’s revolution he had promised to continue, and with his approval rating somewhere between 7 percent (CEDATOS, September 2020) and 16 percent (Atlas Intel, December 2020), Moreno will not be seeking re-election. After winning the presidency in 2017, Moreno turned his back on his predecessor and nominator Rafael Correa and double-crossed the PAIS Alliance party they both belonged to. Moreno is widely despised as a result, and the PAIS Alliance has been virtually wiped off the map, as correísta (pro-Correa) members moved over to the newly formed coalition...

A New Book Analyzes The Impact Of COVID-19 On The US And China

January 7, 2021 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Capitalism, China, COVID-19, Socialism

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed China and the United States on the opposite ends of human progress. In the U.S., massive casualties of the pandemic have been coupled with the worst capitalist crash since the Great Depression. The story is much different in China. China began re-opening its economy as early as April of 2020. Deaths due to COVID-19 are virtually non-existent, and economists now predict that China’s economy will surpass the U.S. economy in GDP terms two years ahead of schedule. Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in China and the U.S. is an anthology comprised of more than fifty contributions from authors, activists, and journalists seeking to break through the lies...

A Critique Of The Rank-And-File Strategy

January 5, 2021 Jason Koslowski, Left Voice. Strategize! Electoral Politics, Labor Unions, Socialism, Working Class

Kim Moody first gave a systematic statement of the “rank-file strategy” in a working paper for the socialist organization Solidarity in 2000. Since then he has kept on refining it, such as in 2017’s On New Terrain and in more recent essays. The DSA adopted a version of it as its official position on labor organizing, and Jacobin constantly discusses it. Labor Notes, influential among union militants, is built around some of its basic ideas. And it has been a regular point of debate for leftists. Most recently, Kate Doyle Griffiths wrote an important set of articles in Spectre about its strengths and limitations. Moody formulated the strategy during a time of defeat and decline for the struggles of the working class and the oppressed.

The Political Lessons Of The Pandemic

January 4, 2021 Joseph Kishore and David North, WSWS. Strategize! Left Politics, Pandemic, Recession, Socialism

1. As the New Year begins, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep across the globe. This is a world crisis of vast historical significance. The pandemic is a “trigger event” that manifests in a highly concentrated form the contradictions of the world capitalist system and is unleashing long-suppressed forces of social transformation. 2. The pandemic cannot be described as merely a medical crisis. In the course of the past year, the thoroughly reactionary character of world capitalism has been exposed. The interaction of the drive for profit regardless of social cost, the lust of the oligarchs for obscene levels of personal wealth, and their inhuman indifference to the lives and welfare of the world’s population has created a global social catastrophe.

2020 Latin America And The Caribbean In Review: The Pink Tide May Rise Again

December 25, 2020 Roger Harris, Popular Resistance. Educate! Imperialism, Latin America, Socialism

The balance between the US drive to dominate Latin America and the Caribbean and its counterpart, the Bolivarian cause of regional independence and integration, tipped portside by year end 2020 with major popular victories, including reversal of the coup in Bolivia and the constitutional referendum in Chile. Central has been the persistence of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution against the asphyxiating US blockade, along with the defiance by Cuba and Nicaragua of US regime-change measures. The grand struggle played out against the backdrop of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, impacting countries differently depending on their political economies.

The (In)Visible Hand, Scarcity, Venezuela, And The PlayStation 5

December 21, 2020 Dakotah Lilly, Popular Resistance. Educate! Christmas, Market Economy, Socialism, Venezuela

As Christmas approaches around the world, lines get longer, prices fluctuate, and everyone wants to get their hands on the seasons hottest gift or toy for their loved ones. This holiday seasons most sought after gift appears to be either a Sony PlayStation 5 or a Microsoft Xbox Series S/X, with price ranges from $299-$499 depending on the model. However, as of this writing in December 2020, it is almost impossible to acquire any of the models for anything less than several hundred more than the suggested retail price, with some scalpers and speculators selling them for thousands of dollars on online marketplaces. It is estimated by some that these speculators have made almost 30 million dollars on a reported 60,000 resold consoles.

Marx Didn’t Invent Socialism, Nor Did He Discover It

December 16, 2020 Steve Lalla, MR Online. Educate! Governance, Indigenous culture, Karl Marx, Socialism

There’s no debate that Marx didn’t invent socialism. As co-editor of a French-German radical newspaper by 1843, a young Marx would have read the term “socialism” used by French author Pierre Leroux (1797–1871)–generally credited with coining the term–or the German Lorenz von Stein (1815–1890). England’s Robert Owen (1771–1858) had bandied the word about as early as 1835. French philosopher Victor d’Hupay (1746–1818) called himself a communist author around 1785, thirty-three years before Marx’s birth, and his colleague Nicolas-Edme Rétif (1734–1806) even used the term to describe a form of government.

Elections And The Path To Socialism In Venezuela

December 9, 2020 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast 2020 Election, Imperialism, Socialism, Venezuela

On December 6, Venezuelans elected a new National Assembly with a left political majority. This election, which was well-run and legitimate despite what the imperialist media and countries say, reconstitutes the Venezuelan parliamentary body with participation from both the ruling and opposition parties. It marks the end of an era during which the National Assembly was a tool of the right wing agenda and US regime change efforts. To facilitate understanding of the current election and political climate in Venezuela, Vijay Prashad of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and Paul Dobson of Venezulanalysis provide their insight and analysis.

US Media, Politicians Rage After Venezuela Defies US Empire

December 9, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! Elections, Socialism, US Regime Change, Venezuela

President Nicolas Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are celebrating today, after a clear victory in yesterday’s National Assembly elections. The elections, boycotted by many major right-wing opposition groups, but still participated in by over 100 political parties, ended with the PSUV and its allies receiving an estimated 67.6% of the votes cast, meaning they will control a two-thirds supermajority of the 277-seat National Assembly, the only major body that was controlled by anti-government forces.

Socialist Alliance Victory In Venezuela’s National Assembly Is A Failure Of US Regime Change Policy

December 9, 2020 Dan Kovalik, RT. Educate! Elections, Socialism, US Regime Change, Venezuela

The victory of Maduro’s political alliance in Sunday’s parliamentary election means that despite the Covid pandemic, economic hardships and sanctions by the US, Venezuelans voted for the continuation of the Chavista Revolution. A little over a year ago, we were told by the US government and the always-compliant OAS (Organization of American States) that Evo Morales’ re-election in Bolivia was the product of election fraud. No proof was ever given, and eventually, even the New York Times, which had initially been happy to spread the fraud claims, was forced to admit that there appeared to be no evidence that the election was somehow improper.

US Congress And Corporate Media Claim Venezuela’s Government Threatened To Starve Non-Voters

December 7, 2020 Max Blumenthal and Anya Parampil, The Grayzone. Educate! 2020 Election, Propaganda, Socialism, Venezuela

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US corporate media declared Venezuela’s legislative elections a “sham” before results were even announced, opening a new front in the propaganda war on the besieged country and its leftist government. Among the most blatant distortions deployed against President Nicolas Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) was a claim first advanced by Leopoldo López, the far-right, US-backed opposition leader who recently fled to Spain. On Twitter, López tweeted a deceptively edited clip of Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello addressing an election rally, and accused Cabello of “blackmailing the hungry people with food to force them” to vote for his governing party.

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