The sort of anti-authoritarian politics that mainstream liberals embrace is long on bellicosity and short on policies or activism to address the erosion of working-class living standards and democratic rights.
United States
Revisiting US war crimes III: Systematic torture as policy
Revelations of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay persisted as the US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan continued, while the U.S. sent “suspects” to secret prisons in foreign countries to be tortured, a procedure it sanitized with the label “rendition”.
“When he was up there, we was signing people up”
The expectation of a strike wave in October, dubbed “Striketober”, was greatly exaggerated by both the mainstream and left press. Amazon, however, is the real thing. The sheer numbers involved show this is a real victory.
Revisiting US war crimes II: NATO’s 1999 bombing of the former Yugoslavia
Here, we reprint an editorial from the International Socialist Review examining NATO’s sustained bombing of the former Yugoslavia for more than two months in 1999, when civilians again paid the price.
Revisiting US war crimes: The 1991 Gulf War
The ISP reprints this article with the reminder of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King who, in 1967, called the U.S. government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”
Russian imperialism under Putin
Imperialist countries invade weaker nations and try to impose their rule over them. Once the world is divided up by the great powers, one imperialist’s gain can come only at the expense of another. That is the nub of the matter today.
‘Worse than Texas’: Extreme anti-choice bills advance in multiple states
As anti-choice policymakers across the country seek to severely restrict reproductive freedom, Republican lawmakers in at least four states this week advanced bills banning or limiting abortion access.
Proviso students walk out to support teachers’ union
If the board decides to continue on a confrontational course, the Chicago labor movement will have to come to the aid of our brothers and sisters at Proviso.
GOP “Trumpism” will persist with or without Trump
Even if the U.S.’s main conservative party manages to distance itself from the chaos and corruption that Trump exudes, its Trumpiness will persist. That’s because it exists in an era of economic instability and political polarization that pushes it to make ever-more extreme positions a “new normal” in U.S. politics.
The strategic impasse of the Left inside the DSA
The real “strategic impasse” is that of those socialists who, finding themselves adrift and without serious organization, joined DSA in a vain hope that it could be influenced to become something it was never been set up to be.
One year after: Joe Biden, president of the United States
Some commentators thought that Joe Biden as president would mean a Keynesian turn in the US. The same hopes and illusions had developed in the early days of Barack Obama’s presidency in 2009.
From October to December: A union update
A recent article on this site analyzed the recent period in the US that many were calling Striketober. The purpose of today’s piece is to look at developments since then.
Assange facing extradition to US: Where is the outrage?
Earlier this year an investigative report from Yahoo! News revealed that leading figures in the US government had discussed the possibility of kidnapping or assassinating Assange during the seven years he was taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Beyond Striketober: The class struggle today
The purpose of this presentation is to examine Striketober, the series of strikes that received a great deal of media attention this Fall.
Failing to learn the lessons of Vietnam, again
Successive US presidents vowed to learn from the Vietnam war, relying on technology, ‘smart’ weapons and local proxies instead of US troops on the ground. Yet still they embark on unwinnable conflicts.
