Socialism

What’s Left in Nicaragua After Ortega

August 18, 2018 Roger Harris, Popular Resistance Educate! Anti-Imperialism, Nicaragua, Socialism

Nicaragua has been tragically destabilized, threatening to reverse the major social gains achieved by the Ortega government. The North American left should unite around “US out of Nicaragua.” Let the Nicaraguan people choose their own government through elections as they have in 2006, 2011, and 2016 when they returned Ortega to the presidency with ever increasing voting margins. Beyond the US-backed interests and their NGO-activists are undoubtedly genuine social elements in opposition to Ortega. Likewise, any political party, especially one that has been in power as long as the Sandinistas, could benefit from rectification. But these are agenda items to be addressed by the Nicaraguan people without outside interference.

Why The Attempt To Assassinate Maduro?

August 12, 2018 Farooque Chowdhury, MROnline. Educate! Imperialism, Socialism, Venezuela

The attempt to assassinate Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, has failed. This news is days-old but the facts are reiterated here starkly. The event raises serious questions for “progressive” critics now in close collaboration with imperialism. The assassination attempt was made on August 4, 2018, while Maduro was addressing the nation on live TV during a celebration of the 81st-anniversary parade of the National Guard parade in Caracas. The terrorists used drones loaded with explosives in the assassination attempt. However, snipers shot the killer-drones down before they reached Maduro.

Nicaragua: Dynamics of an Interrupted Revolution

August 8, 2018 Jeff Mackler, Popular Resistance Educate! Nicaragua, Socialism, US Regime Change

The unfolding events in Nicaragua over the past three months pose two critical questions for socialists and antiwar activists. Where do we stand on the critical issue of U.S. imperialist intervention and where do we stand with regard to the dynamics of the still-unfolding confrontations? That U.S. imperialism is intervening in Nicaragua today against the capitalist FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) government of Daniel Ortega cannot be denied. President Trump has openly threatened to send U.S. troops. In this anti-imperialist context, however, each component of any successful U.S.-based united front, democratic, mass-action movement must be free to express its own views on the internal dynamics operating in each nation where any form of U.S. intervention is underway. While we considered Daniel Ortega and the FSLN’s central leaders “revolutionists of action,” that is, honest revolutionaries who desired important changes in Nicaraguan society, we recognized that they were fundamentally adverse to breaking with Nicaragua’s capitalist class...

Best Satire Of The Unjust Absurdity Of Wage Slavery?

August 2, 2018 By Harel B., EconomicDemocracy.org Educate! Economic Democracy, Socialism, Wages, Worker Rights and Jobs

One century, one decade, and a year ago — that's going back 111 years, to 1907 — a lovely little gem of a playful yet brilliantly provocative rabble-rousing pamphlet was published about economic exploitation. It focused more specifically on what's come to be called wage slavery, the economic dynamic whereby in order to have a roof over our heads and not to starve, we're compelled to allow certain people and artificial legal creations (employers and corporation) to not so much outright own us (that's illegal) as to "rent" us, so we're essentially temporarily owned via wage slavery.

What Makes Millennial Socialism Different

July 27, 2018 Natasha Hakimi Zapata, Truthdig.com Educate! Class Struggle, Socialism

The Occupy movement, British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders all changed what the millennial generation thinks of as socialism—and made the come-from-behind win of New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez possible. At least, that’s what Ben Judah argues in a recent piece for The American Interest, in which he outlines the many differences between the “old left” and the “new left” in the U.S. and the U.K. One major shift on the left, Judah says, has been the coining of the terms “1 percent” and “99 percent,” which he considers one of the most powerful accomplishments of the Occupy movement, because they allowed a new kind of revolution to seep into the imagination of young Americans.

Socialist International Of 140 Global Political Parties Adopts BDS, Calls For Military Embargo On Israel

July 9, 2018 Staff, Imemc.org Resist! BDS, Israel, Labor Movement, Revisionism, Socialism

The Council of the Socialist International (SI) has called for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) for Palestinian rights at their meeting in the United Nations in Geneva on June 26-27. SI also called for a “total embargo on all forms of military trade and cooperation with Israel.” Socialist International brings together 140 global political parties, including 35 parties in government in South Africa, Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Portugal, Tanzania, Luxemburg, Romania, Iraq and elsewhere. The SI has reaffirmed the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and called on governments and civil organizations to “activate Boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli occupation.” It called for the “total embargo on all forms of military trade and cooperation with Israel as long as it continues its policies of occupation and Apartheid against the people of Palestine.”

The Death Of Neoliberalism Is An Opportunity To Birth A New System

May 13, 2018 Cliff DuRand, Truthout Strategize! Capitalism, Neoliberalism, Socialism

Today in the US, as well as globally, we find ourselves in multiple reinforcing crises. There is a crisis of legitimacy in established institutions ranging from Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court, to the media, the criminal legal system, organized religion, Wall Street banks and corporations. Along with this, there is a loss of belief in social mobility and fairness. The neoliberal ideology that has dominated public discourse for four decades has failed, and we are set adrift with no vision to replace it. We are in a mounting crisis of neoliberal capitalism and a political system unable to steer a way out of it. These intersecting crises place us in a period of extreme indeterminacy. Old norms and expectations no longer hold, leaving us disoriented and having to improvise. One thing that has become clear to us now is that such circumstances offer fertile soil for the rise of a demagogue who can take advantage of popular anxieties. What new order will replace the old one.

A Socialist Economy For The 21st Century

April 24, 2018 Richard Rosen, Thenextsystem.org Create! Economics, New Economy, Socialism

In Next System Project Report 3, author and Tellus Institute co-founder Richard A. Rosen explores the changes he deems necessary for a modern definition of “socialism”, and describes key concepts and issues that arise when aiming to restructure the American economy to include social and environmental sustainability in the Twenty-First Century. To elucidate some of these concepts and issues, Rosen analyzes a set of economic sectors that have very different mechanisms and structures for determining prices, and very different environmental impacts, including: chemical manufacturing, small businesses, housing, defense manufacturing, nonprofit sector, agriculture, and finance. Through these seven-industry sector analyses, Rosen offers a number of changes to each– many of which are also applicable to the economy at large.

Vijay Prashad On War And Socialism

April 7, 2018 By Vijay Prashad, thetricontinental.org Educate! History, Socialism, Wars and Militarism

There is a good reason why our Dossier #3 is called A Bloody and Unforgiving War. It is about the conflict in Syria. It could very well be the name of the battering faced by the people of Yemen or even – truly – the ongoing war against the Palestinians. These are conflicts with no easy end and yet with such violent presents. Wars are ghastly. No doubt about that. Those on the Left are easily united regarding the conflicts in Palestine and Yemen – there is clarity here about the genesis of the occupation and war. With Syria, matters are murky. The origins of this conflict are contested as are the very terms used to define this or that aspect of the war. Is it the Syrian government or the Syrian regime, a term used to deny legitimacy to the government? Are they rebels or are they extremists and jihadis? There are no innocent choices here.

Why the Center Left Keeps Losing Elections in Europe

March 25, 2018 By Conn Hallinan, Foreign Policy in Focus Strategize! Capitalism, European Politics, Socialism

More than a quarter of a century ago, much of the European center-left made a course change, edging away from its working class base, accommodating itself to the globalization of capital, and handing over the post-World War II social contract to private industry. Whether it was the “New Labor” of Tony Blair in Britain or Gerhard Schroder’s “Agenda 2010” in Germany, social democracy came to terms with its traditional foe, capitalism. Today, that compact is shattered. The once powerful center-left is a shadow of its former self. If the center-left is to make a comeback, it will have to re-discover its roots and lure voters away from xenophobia and narrow nationalism with a program that improves peoples’ lives and begins the difficult task of facing up to what capitalism has wrought on the planet.

Behind The Explosion In Socialism Among American Teens

February 23, 2018 Rebecca Stoner, Portside.org Organize! Socialism, Youth

TAMPA, FLA.—In a fluorescent lit classroom with handmade posters covering one wall, approximately 15 high school students are chanting the words of black revolutionary Assata Shakur: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and we must support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” With some embarrassed giggling, they recite it once, twice, three times, led by their visiting speaker, Pamela Gomez of the Hillsborough Community Protection Coalition, an alliance of local progressive groups. These students are some of the 40-odd members of the Blake High School chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA). The Tampa high school has 1,697 students, a majority of them black or Latino, and the YDSA chapter reflects that. The chapter also has a high concentration of LGBTQ students, the club’s biggest demographic bloc.

China Seeks To Become A ‘Socialist Country’ By 2050

February 11, 2018 By Jose A. Díaz and Tania Romero, Equal Times Educate! Capitalism, China, New Economy, Socialism

China is reaching a crucial moment in its long development. The world’s most populated country, now the second largest economy on the planet, with an urban population enjoying living standards of the kind never seen by their ancestors, is also burdened with huge social and environmental problems, and inequalities so wide that they could end up undermining the very legitimacy of the CPC, which has been ruling the People’s Republic since 1949 and relies on economic progress to justify remaining in power. Conscious that it needs to tackle these deep-seated problems if it wants the country’s development to be balanced and sustainable, Beijing has set a date, 2050, and has established a work programme to become the "socialist society" that the party promised when it was founded in 1921.

Bicentenary Of Marx’s Birth, Socialism & Resurgence Of International Class Struggle

January 4, 2018 David North, Wsws.org Educate! Class Struggle, Internationalism, Karl Marx, Marxism, Socialism

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, the originator of the materialist conception of history, the author of Das Kapital and, with Friedrich Engels, the founder of the modern revolutionary socialist movement. Born on May 5, 1818 in the Prussian city of Trier, Marx was, to quote Lenin, “the genius who continued and consummated the three main ideological currents of the nineteenth century, as represented by the three most advanced countries of mankind: classical German philosophy, classical English political economy, and French socialism combined with French revolutionary doctrines in general.” [1]

Ex-FARC Members Create Self-Sufficient, Socialist-Modeled Town

December 29, 2017 Staff, Telesurtv.net Create! Colombia, FARC, Socialism

Ximena Narvaez, delegate to the Territorial Council of Reincorporation, explained that the community "works collectively, each person has a role." Colombia's first town of former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels was established between gorges and mountains in the south of the department of Caqueta just two months ago. In La Montanita, now called Hector Ramirez zone in honor of a guerrilla fighter from the FARC's southern bloc where some 200 former fighters have settled and created a socialist village after handing over their weapons as part of the November 2016 peace accord signed between the FARC and the Colombian government. They've built about 60 homes of drywall that are raised on concrete bases, assigned collective work projects, and created an equitable economy where all of the local resources are shared among the community.

The Revolt That Shook The World

October 22, 2017 Pete Dolack, www.indypendent.org Strategize! Democracy, Revolution, Socialism

By Pete Dolack for The Indypendent. History does not travel in a straight line. I won’t argue against that sentence being a cliché. Yet it is still true. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be still debating the meaning of Russia’s 1917 October Revolution on its centenary, and more than a quarter-century after its demise. Neither the Bolsheviks nor any other party played a direct role in the February revolution that toppled Tsar Nicholas II, for the leaders of those organizations were in exile abroad or in Siberia or in jail. Nonetheless, the tireless work of activists laid the groundwork. The Bolsheviks were a minority even among the active workers of Russia’s cities then...

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