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Socialism

Trump Declares Global War On Socialism

US President Donald Trump unleashed a global tirade against socialism at a Florida university Monday, in which he targeted Venezuela as the front line in this fascistic crusade. Delivered to a hand-picked audience of Republican operatives and right-wing Venezuelan and Cuban exiles chanting “USA, USA, USA” and “Trump, Trump, Trump,” both the speech—and the response to it—had a fascistic character. It resurrected the language not only of McCarthyism and the John Birch Society in the United States of the 1950s, but that of Mussolini and Hitler in the Europe of the 1930s.

The Movement And The 2020 Elections

The political system in the United States is a plutocracy, one that works for the benefit of the wealthy, not the people. Although we face growing crises on multiple fronts - economic insecurity, a violent and racist state, environmental devastation, never-ending wars and more - neither of the Wall Street-funded political parties are taking action to provide relief. Instead, they are helping the rich to get richer. The wealth divide has gotten so severe that three people have more wealth than the bottom 50% of people in the country. Without the support of the rich, it is nearly impossible to compete in elections.

Socialism And Exploitation

Or maybe not—since just last year the Council of Economic Advisers apparently found it necessary to issue a report, on the cusp of the midterm elections, to push back against the fact that “socialism is making a comeback in American political discourse.” And Fox News is engaged in its own campaign against socialism, since “support for Karl Marx’s collectivist ideas is steadily increasing.” The irony, of course, is that Trump and his principal media outlet are in part responsible for the growth of support for socialism and for policies that are often associated with socialism (such as raising taxes on the income and wealth of the rich).

Norway Is Far More Socialist Than Venezuela

As the United States begins its effort to depose Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro, the discourse is plagued by the perennial question: what is socialism? Venezuela helps illuminate this question because many pundits commit to the claim that Venezuela is socialist before committing to a specific definition of socialism. This unfortunate order of events then requires them to retroactively identify specific things that they say make Venezuela socialist, but then those things exist in other countries that they refuse to call socialist.

How Ending Austerity Built Economic Growth In Portugal

Since Britain voted to leave the E.U. in 2016, the country has witnessed an alarming spike in rightwing hate crime. Many are now warning that the “febrile” atmosphere escalating around Brexit as leaders struggle to come to an agreement could be further exploited by far-right extremists. Though it’s not just Britain that is seeing a surge in far-right populism. Rightwing protests fueled by anti-immigrant sentiment are hounding Germany’s streets. Sweden’s once fringe far-right party, the Sweden Democrats, are rising in popularity threatening to stop asylum seekers coming into the country. Hungary, Poland, Austria and Finland are all experiencing a reactionary surge.

In Honor of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht (1871 – 1919)

Nearly one hundred years ago, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht (both born in 1871, the year of the Paris Commune) were arrested and executed by ultranationalist members of the Freikorps during the early morning hours of January 15, 1919. The poem below was written by the German poet Ferdinand Freiligrath (1810 – 1876) in 1851. Freiligrath was a close friend of Karl Marx. Rosa Luxemburg ended her last known written article ‘Order Reigns in Berlin’, published in The Red Flag on the same day, with the words“Ich war, Ich bin, Ich werde sein” (“I was, I am, I shall be”) taken from this poem.

The Influence Of Gandhian Socialism On Du Bois And King

Mohandas K. Gandhi began agitating for the independence of the Indian people from colonial rule in the early twentieth century. In 1921, he took leadership of the Indian National Congress, leading nationwide campaigns devoted to achievement of swaraj or home rule. In 1930, he opposed the tax imposed on salt by imperial Britain, leading the Dandi Satyagraha or Salt March, an act of civil disobedience aimed at overturning the colonialist economic monopoly over salt, which was a vital resource for the Indian people. In 1942, he impressed upon the British to quit India, an appeal which led to India’s liberation from colonial rule in 1947.

Abolish Wage Slavery: Productivism As An Extractive Industry

The alienation of labor takes many forms, including the outright ownership of slaves. When big mills and factories were introduced under systems of waged labor, elements of judgment and craft were still preserved among workers because otherwise the machinery would not run at all. Streamlining assembly lines became one of the innovations of the Ford factory system, and his best paid workers were able to buy the basic model cars. In this sense, Fordism was already emerging as an industrial model concurrently with the time and motion studies of the Taylor System.

From The Bottom Up: The Case For An Independent Left Party

If the 13.2 million votes received by self-styled “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries accomplished nothing else positive, it put the questions of socialism and independent working-class politics up for public discussion. I have been critical of Sanders’s socialism because his policy platform was New Deal liberalism, not socialism. More importantly, by entering the Democratic Party, Sanders broke with the socialist principle of independent working-class political action.

Ecosocialism Enters The US Political Dialogue

We need to invent a form of socialism that not only can replace the dominant feudal-like corporate structures we detest but just as importantly, be culturally acceptable to the general public. In the USA, of course, this is a challenge, but one we are capable of handling. We need to re-activate the original intent definition of socialism to mean “control by the working class” including those currently not employed—all those who have nothing to sell but their labor.

The Principles Of Socialism

With the emergence on the U.S. political scene of self-proclaimed socialists like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, and with membership in the Democratic Socialists of America skyrocketing, socialism appears to be making a comeback in the United States.  Inasmuch as I was active in the Democratic Socialists of America in the 1980s, and I have lived in Cuba since 2011, I find this to be very good news.  However, I am concerned that the word socialism perhaps is being bantered about without a very thorough understanding of its meaning or its history.

Socialism Beyond Borders

In an age of transnational corporations and global finance-driven speculation, socialist strategy is doomed if it focuses exclusively, or even primarily, on any individual nation state. Yet, at the same time, popular struggles for control over nation states are an essential part of a necessarily international strategy. This is my starting point in responding to Costas Lapavitsas (page 38) and his call for socialism to ‘start at home’. We must learn from the recent successes of cross-border movements and their distinctive capacity to counter the power of the huge corporate lobbies, most recently in the defeat of the TTIP trade deal between the EU and the US.

Socialism Under Attack From Scared White House

The Trump White House did one thing right in its shoddy report: Interest in socialism and Marxism around the world is increasing. Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has been fighting a nonstop battle against enemies both real and imagined—and his latest offensive is a real doozy. “The Opportunity Costs of Socialism,” published on Tuesday by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, attempts to smear socialism—worker ownership of production—as a bankrupt ideology. The 72-page paper uses the 200th anniversary of socialist thinker Karl Marx’s birth as a jumping-off point for condemning everyone who doesn’t pray at the altar of the free market. Not even capitalist social democracies like Norway and Sweden are spared from blistering attacks.

The United States Is More Socialist Than You Know

Compared to other wealthy countries, large sectors of the US economy are more socialized than is realized. From energy to water to transportation, land and more, and from cities and states to the nation, there is public ownership and control. The neo-liberal era of privatization is winding down. This has particularly accelerated following the 2008 financial crash. We speak with Thomas Hanna, author of "Our Common Wealth: The Return of Public Ownership in the United States," about reclaiming public goods and how to prepare for the next financial crash. Plus, we put the current news in the context of the bigger picture.

Brazil: Again The Alternative Is Between “Socialism Or Barbarism”

The most feared, but foreseeable at the same time, has already happened. Jair Bolsonaro almost won the presidency of Brazil in the first round and thanks to the consequent vote of the poor people of the Northeast, he has to go to a second round. I emphasize the word “consequent” since there were an abundance of peripheral neighborhoods in the great cities and towns of different States, that in this so called “democracy”, supported the Latin American Hitler. These neighborhoods not only experience the most stranded and plundered of the people of Brazil but also an ample amount are from afro-descendant sectors.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.