Get The Internationalist No. 50! (tags)
Special expanded Winter 2017 edition: 80 pages of revolutionary Marxist propaganda. Send US$2 to Mundial Publications, Box 3321 Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008 USA. Subscriptions $10.
Get The Internationalist No. 47! (tags)
Get The Internationalist No. 47! Send US$0.50 to Mundial Publications, Box 3321 Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008 USA. Subscriptions $10.
Back to Trotskyism! Revolutionary regroupment with the League for the Fourth International (tags)
On April 16, the Better-Late-Than-Never (BLTN) Faction of the International Communist League (ICL) put forward its Declaration of Faction calling to “Return to the Road of Genuine Spartacism” and to “Regroup with the IG/LFI on the Basis of Their Revolutionary Continuity!” The very next day they received a response from the Spartacist League’s Los Angeles local, falsely claiming that the declaration was written in collaboration with the IG and cynically saying it considered the declaration a statement of resignation. The BLTN responded that claims they couldn’t have written the document were not only untrue but an insult to the intelligence of the ICL membership. The Faction notably exposed how the party that had uniquely waged a principled struggle to defend the DDR (East Germany) and USSR responded to defeat by dumping Trotsky’s analysis of the dual nature of the Stalinist bureaucracy and whitewashing the role of the bourgeoisie and its social-democratic agents in the capitalist counterrevolution. It also independently investigated key political differences between the ICL and the LFI on Brazil and Mexico, as well as challenging the SL on key issues concerning the class line and black oppression in the U.S. The Better-Late-Than-Never Faction Declaration is a challenge to those in the SL/ICL who truly want to make a revolution. The report on the latest conference of the Spartacist League/U.S. makes clear, the SL is a dying party. It is crucial to understand that the decline of the SL/ICL is a direct result of its political/programmatic degeneration. An agreement between the BLTN and the IG/LFI calls for carrying out common work aiming at an early fusion.
The Left, Labor and Occupy (tags)
Barely half a year after it burst on the scene, the Occupy Wall Street movement is splintering left and right. This was inevitable in a movement that was united only in what it opposed and could never put forward a positive program, whether of reformist "demands" on the capitalist state or of revolutionary action against it. Liberals, who latched onto Occupy hoping it could pressure the Democratic Party in a more populist direction, want to expel "black bloc" anarchists. Reformist social democrats rail against "ultraleftists" in Occupy and cozy up to the labor tops. On the other side, many (but not all) anarchists oppose unions. Some are simply arrogant petty-bourgeois labor haters. Others are grappling with real problems, but with skewed analysis and dead wrong conclusions. Discussion of recent workers' struggles, from Wisconsin to West Coast longshore, underlines that the key question is leadership, but not just replacing one set of bureaucrats with another. Unions have always faced vicious anti-labor laws, but we have the power to defeat them. It is necessary to drive out the pro-capitalist bureaucracy, the labor lieutenants of capital, in order to turn the unions into instruments of revolutionary class struggle.
Haiti Earthquake: Capitalism, Occupation and Revolution (tags)
The earthquake that wrecked the capital of Haiti and surrounding areas on January 12 produced human tragedy of almost unfathomable proportions. It has been termed “the most destructive natural disaster in modern times.” Five months later, Haiti is no longer in the headlines or on the nightly TV news, but for the hard-hit Haitian population the scene has hardly changed. Now a new disaster is in the making as the hurricane season begins. This was a calamity made by capitalism: the earthquake was predictable and was predicted; the inferior construction methods are the result of Haiti’s poverty, and the swollen slums were the result of U.S. policies that have destroyed Haitian agriculture, forcing peasants off the land. On top of everything, Haiti is under imperialist occupation: Washington makes sure it has ultimate control of the strategically placed island, as it has throughout the Cold War and since. Haiti's devastation is not the result of “natural” causes or even “neo-liberal” policies – it is the product of the oppression of this semi-colonial country by the imperial masters ever since black slaves rose up to abolish slavery and throw out the colonialists two centuries ago. No new “economic model” can resolve this: what’s required is a new Haitian Revolution, a workers revolution overthrowing capitalism throughout the Caribbean and extending into the heart of imperialism.
Open Letter from the Internationalist Group to the Spartacist League and ICL (tags)
The Spartacist League/U.S. and the International Communist League it leads are in deep political trouble. On April 27, the International Executive Committee of the ICL issued a statement “Repudiating Our Position on Haiti Earthquake,” headlined “A Capitulation to U.S. Imperialism.” After three months of “zealous apologies for the U.S. imperialist military intervention” in the name of humanitarian aid, the ICL suddenly declared that this was a fundamental “betrayal” and the Internationalist Group had been right all along in demanding U.S./U.N. troops out. While agreeing with the IG’s characterization of the ICL’s policy as “social-imperialist”and calling for a “savage indictment” of its own line, the ICL’s explanation for this betrayal – failure to have a formal discussion – doesn’t answer how an entire organization which proclaims itself revolutionary Marxist and Trotskyist could swallow this support for imperialism for months. Its origins can be found in years of capitulation to U.S. imperialism, notably by abandoning the call for its defeat in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The Open Letter by the Internationalist Group urges those in the ICL who do not wish to continue gyrating in centrist confusion to examine the real record of their organization’s adaptations and capitulations to “its own” bourgeoisie over the past years.
Mumia’s Life Is On the Line: Mobilize Labor/Black Power to Free Him Now! (tags)
The threat to Mumia Abu-Jamal's life is increasingly ominous. His lead attorney, Robert Bryan, warns: "There is an escalated effort by the authorities to see him die at the hands of the executioner. This is the most dangerous time for Mumia since his 1981 arrest." The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down Jamal's two appeals. If it were to rule in favor of the prosecution's appeal, this would open the way for Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell to issue a third warrant of execution, which he has vowed to do. Contrary to the misplaced expectations of many, the Obama administration is not about to save Mumia. Around the world, hundreds of thousands have marched for this courageous champion of oppressed. Trade unions representing millions of members have rallied to the defense of Mumia. It is urgent to expand this support into powerful labor/black action, appealing to the integrated union movement to join with the black, Latino and immigrant poor to demand that he be liberated.
Block Report Radio interview with Mumia (tags)
POCC: Block Report Radio interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal aired on KPFA Flashpoints program on 7 April 2008 Transcribed by the Partisan Defense Committee, 15 April 2008. The PDC is a class-struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense organization which champions cases and causes in the interest of the whole of the working people. This purpose is in accordance with the political views of the Spartacist League. Audio Link: http://www.partisandefense.org/media/Mumia-Flashpoints.mp3
Open Letter to Fighters for Mumia’s Freedom (tags)
Open Letter to Fighters for Mumia’s Freedom: For Mass Labor Mobilizations to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! For United-Front Action!
Third Circuit Court Upholds Frame-Up Conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Orders Hearing to Reinstate Death Penalty or Entomb Him for Life ! Free Mumia Now!
Just Out! PDC Fact Sheet Presents Evidence of Mumia's Innocence (tags)
Just Out! PDC Fact Sheet Presents Evidence of Mumia Abu-Jamal's Innocence: A Refutation of "Murdered by Mumia"'s Big Lies in the Service of Legal Lynching.
Court Decision Looms--Mobilize to Free Mumia! (tags)
Partisan Defense Committee P.O. Box 99, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013 email: partisandefense@earthlink.net http://www.partisandefense.org PRESS RELEASE – 4 December 2007 PDC contact: Kevin Gilroy (212) 406-4252 Court Decision Looms—Mobilize to Free Mumia! Media Blitz Targets Mumia Abu-Jamal
Bush's Immigration Trap (tags)
Labor: Organize the Unorganized!
Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants! (tags)
Down With Racist U.S. Imperialism! For Socialist Revolution on Both Sides of the Border!
Spartacist League/PDC Protest Crackdown on IndyMedia (tags)
The Spartacist League, revolutionary Trotskyist party, and its fraternal political prisoner defense organization, the Partisan Defense Committee have protested the assaults on IndyMedia through their newspaper, Workers Vanguard. "...We stand in fullest solidarity with those courageous journalists who struggle to tell the truth against the repression and lies of the American imperialists." Here is the article. ---- Varlet http://www.icl-fi.org/ENGLISH/2004/Indymedia-834.htm
Imperialists Gloat over Capture of Former Henchman Saddam Hussein (tags)
The American imperialist butchers made clear, yet again, the kind of “democracy” they have in mind for Iraq when U.S. troops yesterday fired into a protest in support of Hussein in a town west of Baghdad, killing three people.
Lefty Hooligan Breaks it Down for Activists (tags)
You can't tell the players without a program. Lefty Hooligan, an old timer in the left scene, breaks it all down for you. This article is a few years old, but nothing much has changed, and the various organizations discussed are still around. Cults of personality tend to have long lives. Just look at Lyndon Larouche's longevity.