Strategies Of Containment (tags)
Many of us on the left have been kettled at demonstrations: surrounded by a wall of police, herded into a small area, and prevented from reaching our goal. But we are also kettled by the thought police, and that's even more insidious. This strategy of containment is used politically to confine potentially revolutionary energy into an area where it can't reach its goal. Instead of by cops, we are corralled by institutions that purport to be progressive or even socialist. This pseudo-left diverts our energies away from organizing a militant working class and towards supporting the Democratic Party. Their base is not in the working class but among slightly-left-of-liberal professionals who prefer progressive policies because they will benefit from them. They are well educated and have access to financial and political power. They communicate professionally and persuasively. Like the wall of cops, their message is clear: You must stay here.
Chicago Teachers Union Sellout (tags)
education
May Day Protests for Justice (tags)
May Day
Wisconsin: For a General Strike Now! (tags)
A law challenging the very existence unions of government workers has just been rammed through the legislature in Wisconsin. In addition, wages have been slashed by up to 10 percent to make up for cuts to health insurance and pensions. The labor movement and workers nationwide and internationally are vividly aware of the stakes. There has been a lot of talk in the last three weeks about a general strike. The Wisconsin South Central Labor Federation even voted to authorize one. But now that the moment of truth has arrived, the union bureaucrats have gotten cold feet. They are doing everything to prevent strike action and instead to divert anger at this vicious law into a drive to recall Republican senators, to be replaced by Democrats, whose “alternative” budget bill would also have drastically slashed wages and benefits. There should be no delay: this is the hour for powerful labor action. A general strike is needed to shut down Wisconsin now!
Down with Gaddafi! No to US-NATO intervention! (tags)
"In this time when events seem to be moving so fast, we must maintain focus on the essential meaning and purpose of imperialist efforts. Elites in Washington and other capitals of the west are desperate and working with full dedication to "roll back" the popular advances being made in the Mideast and across North Africa. This article is offered in the effort to support a progressive analysis while the mainstream media works triple time to confuse and obfuscate an understanding of the "full on class war" unfolding before us. No to the budget cuts. No to intervention in Libya. Organize to stand up and fight wall street and the banksters, and ther're "agents" in media and government. Organize in your communities and beyond quickly now. "You have a world to win and only your chains to lose."
Wisconsin Labor Leads 2d American Revolution (tags)
One year ago, on March 4, California students and teachers had a one-day strike for education, but nothing has improved because we did not have a general strike. Today, Wisconsin workers are striking and protesting the planned Democrat-Republican attack on the workingclass so as to maximize the profits of the capitalist class. The whole country should join this 2d American Revolution with all deliberate speed.
Oppose Brown’s cuts in California! Education must be a social right! (tags)
In his latest budget, California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, is proposing drastic cuts that will affect the lives of students and workers throughout the state, including $1.4 billion in cuts to higher education. The net wealth of the 19 richest Californians is more than ten times the entire amount of proposed budget cuts!
Obama's Justice Dept's Forbidden Words & Spying on Skype, Facebook, Blackberry (tags)
The forbidden fruit always tastes the best, and here are Obama's Justice Dept's forbidden words that were the basis for the latest invasion of peace activists' homes and grand jury subpoenas: PALESTINE, SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE, IMPERIALISM, REVOLUTION, MARXISM, TROTSKYISM. Learn those words early and repeat them loudly everywhere.
Not Heard on Grace Aaron/Ian Masters, Free Speech Radio KPFK (tags)
The Ann Arbor Socialist Equality Party Congress Presents: The Breakdown of Capitalism and the fight for Socialism in the United States: Program of the Socialist Equality Party
March 4 Thousands Rally in San Diego Against Education Cuts (tags)
About 1,000 students and faculty gathered at a March 4 rally against education cuts at San Diego State University in California. A similar number of people demonstrated at the University of California, San Diego. A subsequent demonstration in downtown San Diego drew several thousand.
War Criminal Alex Haig Praised by Obama (tags)
People are known by the company they keep and Democrat Obama's praise for the late war criminal Republican General Alexander Haig is the latest sign that we are dealing with yet another fascist president, EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE LAST FASCIST PRESIDENT, GEORGE BUSH. The biography of war criminal Haig (1924-2010) is below.
Socialist Equality Party Announces Southern California Meeting (tags)
Socialist Equality Party Vice Presidential Candidate Bill Van Auken Will Speak in Santa Monica on Saturday, October 25, 2008. The Socialist Equality Party is the party of the World Socialist Web Site, www.wsws.org
Pacifica Los Angeles KPFK Listeners Ask:Will Censorship of Socialist Perspectives Continue (tags)
With candidates of socialist perspective taking the lead on issues in the 2008 election, listeners of self-proclaimed Pacifica "Revolutionary Radio" KPFK wonder if the station will continue to censor their candidates and positions and ignore their core point that, as a matter of empirical fact, liberal reform has failed and shows no prospect for success with an Obama election.
The Case for Socialized Medicine in the United States, and the Struggle to Achieve It (tags)
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee blasted insurance giant CIGNA for failing to approve a liver transplant one week earlier for 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, who tragically died just hours after CIGNA relented and agreed to the procedure following a massive national outcry. “CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro called the final outcome ‘a horrific tragedy that demonstrates what is so fundamentally wrong with our health care system today. Insurance companies have a stranglehold on our health. Their first priority is to make profits for their shareholders – and the way they do that is by denying care." "It is simply not possible to organize major protests every time a multi-billion corporation like CIGNA denies care that has been recommended by a physician," DeMoro said. “Having insurance is not the same as receiving needed care. We need a fundamental change in our healthcare system that takes control away from the insurance giants and places it where it belongs – in the hands of the medical professionals, the patients, and their families."
Why Hillary Clinton voted for the anti-immigrant wall (tags)
Last May, in the wake of mass demonstrations that brought millions of immigrants to the streets in cities throughout the United States, New York’s Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton spoke with disdain for the Republican right’s proposals mandating a crackdown on foreign-born workers.
US Senate votes 100-0 for $70 billion more in war spending (tags)
The unanimous vote by the US Senate on Friday to approve the Bush administration’s request for an additional $70 billion to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrates a basic truth of American politics: the Democratic Party, no less than the Republicans, is a party of imperialist militarism and war.
SEP California campaign: Elections board declares nearly one half of signatures invalid (tags)
The Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office announced on August 8 its determination that of the nearly 7,600 signatures collected by the Socialist Equality Party through July 25 to place John Burton on the ballot for US Congress from California’s 29th Congressional District, only 4,000 are valid. This ruling is flagrantly antidemocratic, because it involves the rejection of hundreds of signatures of legally registered voters in the district. If it stands, it will make much more difficult the effort to collect by the August 11 deadline the 8,442 signatures of registered voters required to place Burton on the ballot.
Uniting the Liberals, Lefties, and Progressives (tags)
Ever since the classic revolutions that begun the current epoch of ‘democracy’, and more importantly capitalism, there have remained an inherent disunity among those loosely defined as progressives. Why this lack of unity exists, and why our political opponents do not seem to suffer from the same ailment is something worth examining.
SEP candidate to participate in Spanish-language radio program (tags)
John Burton, the Socialist Equality Party candidate for US Congress in California’s 29th Congressional District, will be participating in a program on the Spanish-language station KTNQ, AM 1020, on Saturday night, August 5. The broadcast, which begins at 9:30 p.m. Pacific Time, is hosted by Alan Diamante, a prominent immigration and civil rights attorney in Los Angeles.
What way forward in the struggle against war? (tags)
As the brutal US-Israeli war against the Lebanese people enters its fourth week, there is no sign that the massacre of innocent civilians is about to end. On the contrary, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), backed by air strikes and artillery fire, are pressing deeper into Lebanon, with the apparent aim of advancing 18 miles to the Litani River, either killing or driving out the entire population between it and the Israeli border.
Hillary Clinton celebrates Israeli war crimes (tags)
The speech given by New York’s Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton to a rally staged by Zionist organizations Monday across from the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan amounted to a celebration of massacres and war crimes. Her remarks left no doubt that a vote for Clinton in November is a vote not only to continue the US war in Iraq, but to expand and intensify the slaughter throughout the region.
The International Socialist Organization and the 2006 election (tags)
The International Socialist Organization is holding a conference this weekend in New York City under the slogan “Socialism 2006—Build the Left, Fight the Right.” An examination of the perspective upon which this gathering has been organized, however, makes clear that it is aimed at promoting a “left” variety of bourgeois politics, in the form of the Green Party, which can serve only to divert a mass movement that arises against the right-wing policies of the two major parties and lead it into a political dead end.
US Senate declares English the “national language”: a boost to chauvinism and racism (tags)
The Socialist Equality Party unequivocally condemns the vote by the Senate on Thursday to make English the “national language” of the United States. The measure, added to the Senate immigration “reform” bill, is the but latest in a series of reactionary, ignorant and short-sighted moves aimed at shoring up the right-wing base of the Bush administration and the Republican Party, with the most far-reaching and anti-democratic implications. The proposal is a sop to right-wing and fascistic elements who are working to whip up intolerance and hatred against immigrants in general, and Hispanic Americans in particular. It underscores the deeply undemocratic and unconstitutional essence of all of the measures being enacted in the name of “securing the border.”
Se puede? Not by protest alone (tags)
It only took a day for the effect of the immigration protests to be known. On May 2nd politicians from both parties gave a wealth of interviews and speeches that clarified their positions: nothing had changed. In fact, many had remarked that the protest had a ‘backlash effect’, hardening and inflaming the already conservative opinions of Republicans, while dulling the already flimsy stance of Democrats. Trent Lott, in speaking for many on the right, implied that a massive deportation sweep during the protests would have been appropriate, given that “we had ‘em all in a bunch”. On the other side of the isle, Diane Feinstein gave a more passive response to the protests, representing the unaffected character of most Democrats to the millions who appeared in the streets; the passionate outcry from the masses was referred to as ‘counterproductive’, since protesting does not “changes votes on the floor of the senate”— the latter point is certainly true, becoming more obvious as pro-immigration and anti-war protests continue to draw millions, but fall onto deaf ears in Congress. Demonstrations, boycotts, protests, or any other indication of public opinion has proven unable to sway the actions of either party. The façade of the two-party system is unveiling itself with impressive speed as social tensions near the boiling point.
As support for Bush plummets, no alternative from Democrats (tags)
A series of opinion polls released in recent weeks have shown a massive increase in popular opposition to the Bush administration. The US president’s approval rating has dropped to barely one third, on a par with that of Richard Nixon on the eve of his resignation over the Watergate scandal. The latest results published Thursday were from a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, showing only 36 percent of respondents approving of Bush and his policies (compared to 48 percent a year ago). The same poll indicated that 67 percent believe that the US is on “the wrong track.”
Hillary Clinton outlines Democrats’ big business agenda (tags)
New York’s Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton delivered a speech last week to the Economic Club of Chicago that served as an introduction to the right-wing economic platform upon which she and her party intend to run in the 2006 US midterm elections, as well as her own agenda in an expected bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
SEP candidate in California: Extend full rights to all immigrants! (tags)
The following is a statement issue by John Burton, SEP candidate for Congress, 29th District of California During the past week, millions of immigrants, documented and undocumented, have taken to the streets throughout the country to demonstrate their opposition to the punitive and repressive anti-immigrant legislation being debated by the US Congress. Thousands of students, outraged by the injustices being perpetrated against their parents, friends, relatives and neighbors, have walked out of their schools and marched in support of immigrants’ democratic rights. As a socialist candidate for the US House of Representatives, I support the full extension of democratic rights to all immigrants, regardless of how they entered the country.
Democratic Senator Edwards Supports Political Police (tags)
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Senator John Edwards is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee who not only supports the fascist "Patriot" Act and homeland security bill, he also supports a "domestic intelligence organization" or political police.
9/9 California Birthday, 2d Day of Recall (tags)
On this September 9, 2003 as we celebrate California's admission to the Union in 1850 as a free (non-slave) state, we can demand our freedom from the current bankrupt social order with the recall of the worst governor in California history.