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Analysis Politics United States

Whatever happened to political independence?

Every four years, you can count on a group of prominent left-of-center figures to issue a statement aimed at the broad left urging a vote for the Democratic Party presidential candidate. Whether it’s the positive case of “Progressives for Obama” or the fear-induced call to support the “lying neoliberal warmonger,” […]

Marxist Education

Marxists and Elections

Paul D’Amato, former managing editor of the International Socialist Review and author of Meaning of Marxism surveys how Marxists have approached elections in this article originally published in the ISR in 2000. The article is especially relevant in the current period as many on the US left, including former leading […]

History

Chile 1973: The State and Revolution

Here we republish an article the late Tom Lewis wrote for the International Socialist Review (issue 6, Winter 1999), a publication for which he wrote frequently. Though written more than 20 years ago, the topic is so relevant for today, when so many socialists hold illusions in an electoral or […]

Debates

Is it time to launch a new socialist party?

The following document appeared in ISO preconvention bulletin #13, January 2019 in response to a proposal by Todd Chretien that the ISO initiate a process of launching a “new socialist party.” In it, I argued that though there were plenty of opportunities for collaboration and joint work on the Left, […]

Marxist Education

The return of Karl Kautsky?

This article is based on a presentation to the International Socialist Project in December, 2019. For those on the revolutionary left, Karl Kautsky seemed like little more than an historical figure. Someone whom your Marxist education would expose you to, but someone you’d never think would become a reference point […]

Analysis North America World

México: Year I of the “Fourth Transformation”

This is an editorial marking the first year in office of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador [AMLO] published in Unidad Socialista, the publication of the Liga de Unidad Socialista, a socialist organization in México. The editorial refers to the “Fourth Transformation,” AMLO’s name for his program that seeks to […]

Marxist Education

Plekhanov: an alternative assessment

Reading the literature of not only academic Marxism, but also of the Marxist tradition overall, it would be easy to conclude that Plekhanov, the founder of the Russian Marxist movement, had very little, if anything, to contribute to Marxism. Indeed, if his name is mentioned at all, it is to […]

Analysis Latin America World

Colombia’s unprecedented social explosion: a balance sheet and the movement’s challenges

Daniel Libreros Caicedo, a lecturer at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and member of the steering committee of the Movimiento Ecosocialista (Ecosocialist Movement) analyzes the ongoing mass mobilization in Colombia. On November 21 (21N), millions participated in the country’s largest strike and mass demonstrations ever. This article appeared first in […]

Analysis Latin America World

Chile: The Street Hasn’t Signed Any Agreement

INTRODUCTION What began in October as a student protest over an increase in subway fares turned into a Chile-wide revolt of millions. On October 25, 1.5 million—in a country of 18 million—filled the main boulevards of Santiago, the capital, to demand a change in the political and social system inherited […]