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Socialism

Which Way Out Of Neoliberalism: Fascism Or Socialism?

September 14, 2019 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
The conditions of decline which characterize the neoliberal stage of capitalist production worldwide have no doubt led to a growth in the scope and influence of fascism in the Western world. In the U.S., fascism manifests as a bipartisan consensus on war and austerity, as well as the rise of politically rightwing tendencies aligned with the head butcher of racist red meat, Donald Trump. The collapse in the legitimacy of the European Union has provided a political vacuum for corporate-friendly fascists to gain power in several European states with the help of U.S. imperialism; Ukraine being the starkest example. Even Bernie Sanders has acknowledged the link between neoliberal decay and the ascendance of fascism. The question, does neoliberalism necessarily lead to fascism or can socialism arise out of the widespread misery of capitalism’s late stages?

‘Socialism’ Made America Great

September 13, 2019 By Tim Butterworth, Otherwords.org ,
The GOP hopes the S-word will scare you, but great public works projects transformed this country for the better. From single-payer health care to climate change, the 2020 Democrats have ambitious plans. But these new, grand, and green deals aren’t as radical as some make them sound. In fact, big public projects are what made America great. When President Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower took office in 1953, America had been buffeted by the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II in the 1940s. The Cold War put us in competition with Soviet “5-Year Plans” and Chinese “Great Leaps Forward.”

Capitalism, Socialism, And Existential Despair

August 31, 2019 Chris Wright, Ahtribune.com ,
Decades ago, Edward Said remarked that contemporary life is characterized by a “generalized condition of homelessness.” Decades earlier, Heidegger had written that “Homelessness is coming to be the destiny of the world.” Around the same time, fascists were invoking the themes of blood and soil, nation, race, community, as intoxicating antidotes to the mass anonymity and depersonalization of modern life. Twenty or thirty years later, the New Left, in its Port Huron Statement, lamented the corruption and degradation of such values as love, freedom, creativity...

Socialists Of Color To The Front

August 11, 2019 Eli Day, In These Times. , ,
One evening in late May, upward of 50 grassroots organizers from different groups around the country gathered at a union hall in Dorchester, Mass. They were grappling with some of the Left’s age-old questions: In a future where the Left wins political power, what would we like to see happen? And more pragmatically: What would it take to get there? A local community organizer sets the scene: “It’s 2019. Burning issues are facing our communities.” She lists off galloping inequality, a trigger-happy white nationalist movement, looming environmental disaster. It’s urgent, she says, to do “more cross-fertilization work” to harness progressive forces (like the striking teachers around the country) to build solidarity across issues. This discussion of base-building to include more different types of people is typical of many Left gatherings.

100 Years Ago, Farmers And Socialists Established The Country’s First Modern Public Bank

August 3, 2019 By Thomas M. Hanna and Adam Simpson, Inthesetimes.com , , ,
One hundred years ago July 28, a bank in Bismarck, N.D., opened its doors for the very first time. This would have been an unremarkable event, likely lost to history, except for the fact that it was a public bank, owned by all the residents of the state. A century on, the Bank of North Dakota (BND) is still the only publicly owned bank in the continental United States (a second public bank was recently established in American Samoa)—though potentially not for long. The BND is enjoying renewed time in the limelight as activists look to the institution as an example of how to regain democratic control over finance...

Oklahoma’s Working Class WoodyFest2019: Second Wave Of The Sixties

August 2, 2019 Mark Maxey, AmericanHighways.org. , , ,
(Okemah, Okla.) The hot humid days of July annually in Okemah rallies around their hometown socialist, Woody Guthrie. Okemah, a rural town of about 3000 citizens in northeastern Oklahoma.  July 10-14, 2019 the 22nd Woody Fest[1]celebrated, remembered, cried, and rallied behind the songs of the working class. Songs were written over 80 years ago of the working class, unions, and immigration is just as relevant today as it was then. Woodrow Wilson (Woody) Guthrie[2]was born to Charley and Nora Belle Guthrie in Okemah, Oklahoma on July 14, 1912. Woody’s parents, who were staunch Democrats, named their son after the man who had been elected President that year. In the 1930s, Woody joined thousands of others who migrated to California during the Dust Bowl Era, becoming known as the Dust Bowl Troubadour.

Economic Update: Socialism And Worker Co-ops

July 23, 2019 Richard Wolff, Democracy at Work , ,
20th century socialism is now behind us. Socialists continued to evaluate both its achievements and failures via extensive self-criticism. A changed socialism has emerged, focused on a transition of workplaces from top-down hierarchical capitalist structures into democratic worker cooperatives. The powerful appeal of worker co-ops as grounding a new 21st century socialism is presented by Professor Wolff in this latest episode of Economic Update.

Electoral Road To Socialism?

July 11, 2019 Tom Wetzel, Ideasandaction.info ,
Could a shift from capitalism to socialism be brought about through electoral politics? Ever since the origins of the modern socialist left in the late 1800s, many socialists have viewed the politics of parties and elections as a way they can insert themselves into history — forming a core component of their strategy. In the World War I era the American Socialist Party (SPA) had gained a hundred thousand members and elected more than a thousand government officials — mayors, members of city councils and state legislators.

‘Socialism” Conference Features US Gov-funded Regime Change Activists

July 7, 2019 Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone Project. , , ,
Socialism is now apparently brought to you by the US State Department. From July 4 to 7, thousands of left-wing activists from across the United States are gathering in Chicago for the 2019 Socialism Conference. At this event, some of the most powerful institutions on the American socialist — but avowedly anti-communist — left have brought together a motley crew of regime-change activists to demonize Official Enemies of Washington. One anti-China panel at the conference features speakers from two different organizations that are both bankrolled by the US government’s soft-power arm the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a group founded out of Ronald Reagan’s CIA in the 1980s to grease the wheels of right-wing regime-change efforts and promote “free markets” across the planet.

The Meltdown Of International Socialist Organization: How Anti-Feminism, Racism And Bureaucracy Led To Its Demise

April 25, 2019 Radical Women, Mailchi.mp ,
On April 2, 2019, the International Socialist Organization (ISO) publicly announced that members had voted to disband because of their failure of confidence in an organization to which many had devoted decades. The problems centered on sexual abuse, racism, and lack of democracy. ISO’s dissolution is proof of the necessity for socialist feminist practice on the Left. The tragedy is that ISO is not the only group on the international Left that has been torn apart over sexual abuse in the last ten years. These failures discredit the entire movement and drive women out of radical politics.

SEP (Australia) To Hold Election Rally And Meetings In Defence Of Assange

April 23, 2019 Staff, Wsws.org , , , , , ,
As part of its campaign in the federal election, the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) is holding a rally and meetings demanding freedom for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and for Chelsea Manning, the courageous whistleblower who has been detained by the Trump administration for more than five weeks. The illegal arrest of Assange, by British police in London’s Ecuador embassy on April 11, is a major attack on the democratic rights of the working class. It is aimed at facilitating Assange’s extradition to the US, where he will face concocted charges over WikiLeaks exposures of US war crimes, mass surveillance operations and diplomatic intrigues.

Bring Back Eisenhower Socialism

March 21, 2019 By Chuck Collins, Inequality.org , ,
Anytime a politician proposes a wildly popular idea that helps ordinary people, a few grumpy conservatives will call them “socialists.” Propose to reduce college debt, help sick families, or ensure the super-rich pay their fair share of taxes — suddenly you’re a walking red nightmare. Utah Republican Rep. Chris Stewart is so alarmed he’s convened an “Anti-Socialism Caucus” to ward off “the primitive appeal of socialism” that will “infect our institutions.”

Maduro Meets U.S. Anti-War Delegation, Says, ‘Humanity’s Battle Is Between Socialism And Capitalism’

March 20, 2019 Staff, Workers.org , , ,
The U.S. Peace Council delegates, Comité de Solidaridad Internacional Venezuela (COSI) and President Maduro met to discuss strengthening cooperation and communication. Suggestions were for sending more delegations to Venezuela and more social media exchanges. When Maduro heard from Sarah Martin that there was a demonstration for Venezuela in Minneapolis happening that day, he immediately sent a twitter message to them. The Venezuelans are very supportive of the upcoming action on March 30 in support of the Bolivarian Revolution in Washington, D.C.

The End Of The American Republic

February 24, 2019 Jacob Bacharach, Truthdig. , ,
Last week, after much back-and-forth about a second government shutdown, America’s mostly useless Congress managed to pass a funding bill, which the president reluctantly signed. Still at issue was the question of funds for his long-promised (and largely imaginary) wall along the Mexican border. The bill included some face-saving funds for border barriers, and you can easily intuit congressional negotiators’ futile hope: Democrats could go home and claim the money would buy nothing more than a bit of insubstantial fencing, and Republicans could claim the president got what he wanted.

“It’s Eco-Socialism Or Death”

February 22, 2019 Kali Akuno, Blackagendareport.com   , ,
The Green New Deal (GND) is now part of the national conversation. But for decades, social movements have been doing the on-the-ground work to resist fossil capitalism and envision a different future. Such grassroots social mobilization — but at a massive scale — is vital to ensuring the GND catalyzes transformative social change. Cooperation Jackson is at the forefront of eco-socialist organizing to create a new society and economy from the bottom up. Cooperation Jackson encompasses a network of worker cooperatives and supporting institutions fighting to build a solidarity economy in Mississippi and beyond.
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