Articles by Socialist Worker
We found 121 results.
Prescribing Crisis: Overwhelmed by a Sea of Despair
Nicole Colson | Socialist Worker – Jacobin Magazine,
10 Apr 2017
A profit-hungry pharmaceutical industry and an indifferent political class are fueling the deadly opioid epidemic.
→ read full articleWhy Marxists Oppose Individual Terrorism
Leon Trotsky - Socialist Worker,
31 Aug 2015
The Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky wrote this article as an argument against the anarchist concept of “propaganda of the deed”–that is, the idea that a spectacular and violent act by an individual or small group can “spur the masses to action.” The article was published in Der Kampf in 1911. This text is republished from the Marxists Internet Archive.
→ read full articleNo New Nuclear Threats in India
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Sep 2013
The Indian government is currently planning to develop and install nuclear power plants in several states. In a statement, the International Socialist Organization extends its solidarity to those fighting to stop the new nuclear threats in India.
→ read full articleHow Occupation Was Dressed Up As Peace
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Sep 2013
Twenty years this month after the signing of the Oslo Accords, conditions for Palestinians have worsened, and Israel has tightened its colonial domination.
→ read full articleBDS against Israel: Victory at TIAA-CREF
Jonathan Cunningham – Socialist Worker,
29 Jul 2013
The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that has been protesting the Israeli occupation of Palestine took another step forward this month when the giant retirement fund giant TIAA-CREF announced it was divesting $9 million from SodaStream, an Israeli company that makes its carbonation machines in the occupied West Bank.
→ read full articleRefusing to Accept Sexism
Socialist Worker, editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2013
Several articles at CounterPunch criticized Angelina Jolie for her decision to publicize undergoing a double mastectomy. Here, activists and scholars register their disappointment for sexist language and belittling attitudes. The title of Ruth Fowler’s first article, “Angelia Jolie: On Privilege, Tits, and Being Dumb,” reduces Jolie to a pair of “tits,” what we expect a typical male undergraduate student to say when first introduced to the notion of women’s objectification. CounterPunch also uses titles with ‘dick,’ ‘penis,’ and ‘cock’ in them.”
→ read full articleLynne Stewart Must Be Released Now
Alan Maass – Socialist Worker,
10 Jun 2013
Radical civil liberties lawyer Lynne Stewart, 73 years old, and her supporters are continuing their fight to win her immediate release so she can be treated for stage four cancer at a state-of-the-art medical facility.
→ read full articleCatastrophe for 65 Years
Patrick O. Strickland – Socialist Worker,
20 May 2013
15 May 2013 – Every year, Palestinians in Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora mark the Nakba (which means “catastrophe” in Arabic), referring to the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel that led to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land and homes.
→ read full articleWho’s the Real Aggressor in Korea?
Eric Ruder – Socialist Worker,
22 Apr 2013
U.S. provocations against North Korea are designed to dress up the Pentagon’s “pivot to Asia” as a matter of self-defense.
→ read full articleThe U.S. Chokehold on North Korea
David Whitehouse – Socialist Worker,
15 Apr 2013
North Korea’s escalating threats are a response to new shows of force by the U.S.
→ read full articleTorturing Hunger Strikers at Guantánamo
Nicole Colson - Socialist Worker,
8 Apr 2013
The hunger strike involving dozens of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay is a desperate protest against the atrocious conditions they face. You won’t hear much about it from the mainstream media, but detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Guantánamo Bay have been on hunger strike for weeks–and their U.S. captors, commanded by Barack Obama, have responded with brutal retaliation.
→ read full articleAnger Erupts Again in Kashmir
Fahad Shah – Socialist Worker,
8 Apr 2013
The Kashmiri journalist and editor of the independent online magazine, The Kashmir Walla, explains how India’s occupation is causing a deepening resistance.
→ read full articleThe Remote Control War
Eric Ruder – Socialist Worker,
8 Apr 2013
The facts about the new weapon of choice for the U.S. war machine and the deadly impact of drones in conflicts around the globe. Antiwar activists are planning actions in April [2013] to focus attention on a dark and deadly corner of U.S. military operations: The Pentagon’s and the CIA’s massively scaled-up use of drone aircraft around the world.
→ read full article(Pусский-Russian) Истоки расизма
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Apr 2013
Расизм настолько укоренился в нашем обществе, что многие считают, что он существовал всегда. Однако Юрий Прасад утверждает, что это относительно новый феномен, который развился вместе с капитализмом.
→ read full articlePraxis Makes Perfect
Todd Chretien – Socialist Worker,
1 Apr 2013
“Philosophers have merely interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” This famous quote comes from a three-page outline Karl Marx wrote for himself in 1845 called Theses on Feuerbach pointing out the importance of theory and action, and how they are intertwined in the process of struggle.
→ read full articleWhat France Wants in Mali
Roger Annis – Socialist Worker,
4 Mar 2013
Canadian writer and antiwar activist Roger Annis untangles the web of lies and deceptions that obscure the French and U.S. strategy for Mali. France perpetrated two large deceptions in conducting its military intervention into Mali six weeks ago. These have been universally accepted in mainstream media reporting.
→ read full articleThe Making of the Mystique
Elizabeth Schulte – Socialist Worker,
4 Mar 2013
The Impact of Betty Friedan’s Famous Book – Fifty years after its publication, The Feminine Mystique has been credited with everything from single-handedly sparking the women’s movement to perpetuating an outdated and long-gone stereotype of the American family.
→ read full articleExecution by Drone
Eric Ruder – Socialist Worker,
25 Feb 2013
Despite signs of public discontent about the use of drones, the Obama administration is employing them more frequently–and more aggressively. We need real debate, not infomercials, about it–and why we need to challenge the Obama administration’s aggressive assertion of practically unlimited executive powers to assassinate anyone, anywhere in the world.
→ read full articleTel Aviv Is Today’s Sun City
Omar Barghouti – Socialist Worker,
18 Feb 2013
Palestinian author and activist Omar Barghouti spoke at a forum at Brooklyn College February 7, 2013 as planned despite an enormous campaign against the event by pro-Israel advocacy groups. In fact, as an article in Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper noted dejectedly, the “heavy-handed campaign” against the meeting elevated the gathering into an event that grabbed headlines. “The result of all of this surfeit and excess was a clear-cut, perhaps unprecedented PR coup for BDS and a humiliating defeat for Israel’s interests,” wrote Chemi Shalev.
→ read full articleWho Are the Tuareg?
Sarah Knopp – Socialist Worker,
18 Feb 2013
Background to the forces involved in the conflict in Mali. The Tuareg people in Northern Mali are attacked as Islamic jihadists–while their grievances against the state are ignored.
→ read full articleWe Won’t Be Silenced About Israel’s Crimes
Omar Barghouti – Socialist Worker,
11 Feb 2013
Controversy continues to swirl around a planned forum scheduled to take place on Thursday, February 7 [2013], at Brooklyn College to discuss the growing global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
→ read full articleObama’s Drone Wars
Eric Ruder – Socialist Worker,
21 Jan 2013
A New Weapon of Choice in U.S. Wars around the Globe – The U.S. government can use lethal force half a world away by means that would look familiar to any teenage gamer: the joystick and the video screen.
→ read full articleThe Politics of Malcolm X
Lee Sustar – Socialist Worker,
21 Jan 2013
Malcolm X gave a voice to the rage of millions of Black workers at a time when they had no means of political expression.
→ read full articleHaiti’s Buried Cry for Help
Jesse Hagopian – Socialist Worker,
14 Jan 2013
Three years ago, on January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, causing death and destruction on a terrible scale. Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian was there. Now, on the anniversary of the disaster, he looks at how the people of Haiti have been betrayed and victimized again by the most powerful government in the world.
→ read full articleThe Empire’s New Clothes
Socialist Worker, editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jan 2013
Obama’s nominees to run the Pentagon and CIA underline how a Democratic president, once seen as antiwar, has rebranded U.S. imperialism.
→ read full articleA Slap On The Wrist for the Banksters
Elizabeth Schulte – Socialist Worker,
14 Jan 2013
It’s not exactly asking the fox to watch the henhouse. More like asking the fox to assign his favorite consultant to study how many chickens he killed. Ten banks will pay $8.5 billion to settle a federal review of their predatory lending practices–offering little to their victims.
→ read full articleA Revolution in Song
Stanley Heller – Socialist Worker,
7 Jan 2013
Review of the new film version of Victor Hugo’s classic Les Misérables directed by Tom Hooper, starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway.
→ read full articleWhat Will UN Recognition Mean for Palestine?
Socialist Worker, editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2012
The upheavals across the Middle East have helped the cause of Palestinian liberation. The potential for Palestinians to achieve much more than “nonmember observer status” at the UN is much clearer today–and should inspire all our struggles for justice and freedom, in the Middle East and around the world.
→ read full articlePalestine and the Intifada
Anthony Arnove – Socialist Worker,
10 Dec 2012
The author of “Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal” tells the story of the Palestinian uprising that shook Middle East politics starting 25 years ago this month. The first Intifada remains an inspiring example of people standing up against their oppressors, despite all the odds against them. But it also serves as a cautionary tale of how those aspirations can be betrayed, something that must be guarded against.
→ read full articleBombing Gaza “Back to the Middle Ages”
Nicole Colson – Socialist Worker,
26 Nov 2012
Israel’s Slaughter in Gaza–And the Lies Used to Justify It – Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai proudly proclaimed, “We must blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages, destroying all the infrastructure, including roads and water.” Israel is raining death and destruction from the skies on the people of Gaza.
→ read full articleThe Drug War Profiteers
Helen Redmond – Socialist Worker,
26 Nov 2012
A new documentary that exposes the racism and greed of the war on drugs–and the politicians and corporations who profit from it. The House I Live In should cause fresh outrage at the 40-year-long war on drugs in the U.S.. Eugene Jarecki, the award-winning director of Why We Fight, has made a gut-punch of a documentary that humanizes the victims of the drug war.
→ read full articleHaiti’s Misery before Sandy
Ashley Smith – Socialist Worker,
12 Nov 2012
How decades of neoliberalism and imperialist intervention set the stage for a new level of devastation after Hurricane Sandy.
→ read full articleObama’s War in Africa
Lee Wengraf – Socialist Worker,
12 Nov 2012
The Escalation of American Military Intervention in Africa – Antiwar activists and progressives have rightly criticized Barack Obama’s record of warfare across Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. But the Obama administration has also been waging a secret and brutal war in Africa, a continent already devastated by a long string of Western-fueled civil wars.
→ read full articlePeace Utopias
Rosa Luxemburg – Socialist Worker,
22 Oct 2012
Polish socialist Rosa Luxemburg explained the impossibility of achieving peace under the system of capitalism… “How is it possible to speak of tendencies toward peace in bourgeois development that are supposed to neutralize and overcome its tendencies toward war? Wherein are they expressed?”
→ read full articleA Wave of Anti-U.S. Protests In Okinawa
Khury Petersen-Smith – Socialist Worker,
22 Oct 2012
Unrest in Japan as the U.S. military escalates its weaponry and troop presence in a region vulnerable to war and violence. The decision by the U.S. and Japanese governments to deploy the Osprey MV-22 military warplane to Okinawa has sparked a wave of mass protest.
→ read full articleTestifying against Israel’s Apartheid
Gary Lapon and Daphna Their – Socialist Worker,
15 Oct 2012
Nearly 1,000 people gathered in the Great Hall at Cooper Union in lower Manhattan on October 6 and 7 to hear two days of testimony on the complicity of the U.S. government and the United Nations in Israel’s past and present crimes against the Palestinian people. The jury for the New York session included activists, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, legal professionals and scholars, and prominent intellectuals, ranging from Native Americans to African Americans born in the Jim Crow South, to people from South Africa and Northern Ireland.
→ read full articleBringing History to Life: Eric Hobsbawm
Paul Heideman – Socialist Worker,
15 Oct 2012
A Tribute to a Leading Figure in 20th Century Marxism – The international left lost one of its most distinguished intellectual lights when Eric Hobsbawm died on October 1 [2012].
→ read full articleThe Real Battle Is Against U.S. Imperialism
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
U.S. embassies and military bases in majority Muslim countries around the Middle East and North Africa have been the site of violent protests over a racist film, produced in the U.S. and distributed in various forms on the Internet, which slanders Islam.
→ read full articleOur Alternative to the Madness of the Market
Eric Ruder – Socialist Worker,
3 Sep 2012
The Socialist Vision of a Planned Economy
→ read full articleNew Cruelty for Marian Price
Sandy Boyer - Socialist Worker,
27 Aug 2012
Irish political prisoner Marian Price is facing a severe health crisis. Suffering from pneumonia and other critical medical conditions, she remains a prisoner, even in the hospital. Price received a full royal pardon for her convictions in bombings and was freed in 1980 because she appeared to be on the brink of death from severe anorexia nervosa–the result of being force-fed more than 300 times when she was on hunger strike in a British prison.
→ read full articleBig Day for the Environment
Clinton McBride – Socialist Worker,
13 Aug 2012
Five different dramatic and inspiring actions for environmental justice took place across the U.S. on July 28, 2012.
→ read full articleCaught Rigging the Game
Petrino DiLeo – Socialist Worker,
6 Aug 2012
A scandal over Barclays’ manipulation of Libor–that’s short for the London Interbank Exchange Rate–has shed light on the bald-faced lies and self-dealing ways of the world’s biggest banks. The uproar is about Barclays’ manipulation of benchmark interest rates at which banks lend money to each other. All told, Libor affects $800 trillion worth of financial contracts of various kinds, according to the Wall Street Journal–more than 10 times the annual economic output of the entire planet.
→ read full articleThe Creeping Conquest of Palestine
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2012
Israel’s illegal settlements in occupied territory–and the U.S. government’s tolerance for them–are shining examples of the might-makes-right principle of colonialism. Israel’s project of colonial expansion has been thrust back onto the international stage by a report from a committee headed by a former Israeli Supreme Court justice recommending the legalization of Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank.
→ read full articleA Tale of Two Conferences
Chris Williams – Socialist Worker,
2 Jul 2012
The Rio+20 environmental summit–and why it failed by design. The true priorities of the global elite are on display with the relative importance they assigned to the G20 and Rio+20 summits.
→ read full articleWhen the State Seizes Industry
Jason Farbman – Socialist Worker,
28 May 2012
The dynamics that produced a wave of nationalizations in Argentina and Bolivia–and how the process is playing out differently in each country.
→ read full articleMarching For a World without War and Poverty
Nicole Colson – Socialist Worker,
28 May 2012
NATO Chicago summit: the mobilization from around the country to send a message of resistance against the world leaders responsible for war and austerity. Some 15,000 protesters took to the Chicago streets on a sweltering Sunday [20 May 2012] in the culmination of a week of protests against the summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
→ read full articleA Political Blow to Austerity in Europe
Socialist Worker, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2012
Europe’s political situation has become more volatile as the economy deteriorates. The rejection of austerity by voters in Greece and France and the deepening turmoil of Spain’s unraveling banks are two faces of Europe’s political and economic crises–and they point to new potential for resistance.
→ read full article(Castellano) Planeando Dominación Mundial
Socialist Worker, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
Aquellos manifestándose contra la cumbre de la OTAN presentarán una visión diferente para nuestra sociedad. En las calles de Chicago este fin de semana [20-21 mayo 2012], activistas anti-bélicos, el movimiento Ocupa, sindicatos y grupos comunitarios tendrán la oportunidad de exigir otras prioridades, en lugar del gasto militar y la rebaja de los niveles de vida.
→ read full articleThe Meaning of Burma’s Elections
Giles Ji Ungpakorn – Socialist Worker,
16 Apr 2012
A critical assessment of the Burmese military’s attempt to use the veneer of democracy to establish legitimacy for its continued rule.
→ read full articleThe Unraveling Occupation
Nicole Colson – Socialist Worker,
16 Apr 2012
After 10 years, it’s long past time for ordinary Afghans to be able to decide their own fate–without the interference of the U.S. and NATO. As long as the U.S. military remains, Afghanistan cannot be free.
→ read full articlePedagogy and Revolution
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
In the name of “solving” the crisis in education, the so-called school “reformers” are pushing solutions that scapegoat teachers and vilify their unions. In a chapter on “Pedagogy and Revolution: Reading Freire in Context,” Adrienne Johnstone and Elizabeth Terzakis examine the legacy of the Brazilian educator and theorist Paulo Freire, and what it contributes to our struggles today.
→ read full articleMarx against the State
Lee Sustar – Socialist Worker,
26 Mar 2012
Throughout his life, Karl Marx argued that for socialism to be realized, the state would have to be done away with. But since his death, many so-called socialists championed building up the state. Lee Sustar shows that this is opposite to Marx’s views–and to any notion of socialism.
→ read full articleA New Kind of Anti-Capitalism?
Shaun Harkin – Socialist Worker,
26 Mar 2012
First published in Argentina, Anti-Capitalism: The New Generation of Emancipatory Movements aims to be an accessible guide to understanding what capitalism is, why the “traditional left” failed, and the content, strategies and goals of the new “anti-capitalist” movement. This book aims to be an introduction to ideas that can be termed broadly as “horizontalism.”
→ read full articleThe Triumphs of Karl and Jenny Marx
Paul LeBlanc – Socialist Worker,
19 Mar 2012
This book delivers much more than it promises. Richly researched, at times reading like a good “page-turner” novel, it provides a wealth of little-known information, not only about Karl and Jenny Marx, but also about their children (including those who died in early childhood), their parents and siblings and best friends, their comrades and the left-wing political activities in which they were involved, and the history of the times in which they lived.
→ read full articleBahrain and the Arab Spring
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2012
The small island nation of Bahrain sits in the Persian Gulf, between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. When the Tunisian and Egyptian uprising toppled U.S.-backed dictators last year, all of the region’s dictatorships trembled, including Bahrain. The winds of change inspired Bahrain’s downtrodden, and the country’s monarchy barely managed to maintain its grip on power.
→ read full articleOne Million Dead
Danny Lucia – Socialist Worker,
31 Jan 2012
The deaths caused by the U.S. in Iraq are “untold” by the media. OVER A million Iraqis are dead from America’s war. That sentence is a cognitive litmus test. Some people’s immediate reaction is, “That can’t be right,” because the United States couldn’t do that. Or because crimes on that scale don’t still happen. Or because they do happen, but only in horrible places that the United States hasn’t rescued.
→ read full articleDid the U.S. Leave Behind a Civil War in Iraq?
Ashley Smith – Socialist Worker,
23 Jan 2012
“Everything that the American troops have done in Iraq–all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering–all of it has led to this moment of success,” Obama said. “[W]e’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people.” Such claims are a lie. Obama’s claims about America’s “extraordinary achievement” in Iraq are Orwellian. In reality, the U.S. war and occupation further wrecked an already devastated country, left it in a shambles rather than rebuild it and stoked sectarianism between Iraq’s three main groups–Kurds, Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims.
→ read full articleBradley Manning – The Undisputed Person of the Year
Eamonn McCann – Socialist Worker,
16 Jan 2012
If Bradley Manning had committed war crimes rather than exposing them, he wouldn’t be in so much trouble. As a beacon of moral light in the darkness which has deepened since the election of Obama, he is, indisputably and by some distance, the American Man of the Year.
→ read full articleWhat Solidarity Meant To Marx
Aaron Petkov - Socialist Worker,
16 Jan 2012
Karl Marx is often accused by those on both the right and the left of “ignoring” forms of oppression that exist outside of economic relations, such as racism, sexism or homophobia, or relegating those struggles as “secondary” to the class struggle. However, I think this is an inaccurate representation of Marx’s own politics.
→ read full articleWho Produces the Wealth in Society?
Duncan Hallas – Socialist Worker,
9 Jan 2012
Marx’s purpose in analyzing capitalism was, first, to show how working people were exploited, and second, to uncover what he called the “economic law of motion” of the system. The first point becomes clear when you consider other system of exploitation that existed in the past.
→ read full articlePersecuted By the National Security State
Nicole Colson – Socialist Worker,
19 Dec 2011
AFTER MORE than a year and a half behind bars, Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old U.S. soldier accused of leaking classified information to the muckraking website WikiLeaks, will face a court date on December 16 in Fort Meade, Md. Manning supporters point out that if he released documents that exposed the real aims and actions of the U.S. war machine he should be seen as a hero–not a criminal. As Daniel Ellsberg, the former Pentagon analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War said, the young soldier is “unreservedly a hero…I think Bradley Manning, if he is found to have been the source of this, will deserve our thanks and certainly has my admiration.
→ read full articleUnequal under the Law
Eric Ruder interviews Ilan Pappé – Socialist Worker,
5 Dec 2011
The growing global criticism of Israel’s apartheid system provides a ray of hope for Palestinians inside Israel, in the Occupied Territories and beyond.
→ read full articleGreece’s Loan-Shark Government
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Nov 2011
The handover of governmental power to former European Central Bank official Lucas Papadimos is a stark symbol of who really holds power, how decision-making has been delivered directly to the bankers–to the local and international loan sharks.
→ read full articleWhy Was Marx a Materialist?
Paul D’Amato – Socialist Worker,
31 Oct 2011
For Marx, materialism was about acknowledging the way the real world impacts on people’s lives, and acknowledging their ability to come together to change society. In the history of the philosophy, idealism and materialism have very different meanings than their popular usage. They represent the two main divergent ways of looking at the world we live in.
→ read full articleHow the 1 Percent Rules
Lance Selfa – Socialist Worker,
31 Oct 2011
The author of The Democrats: A Critical History explains how the 1 percent has rigged the supposedly democratic political system so they’re always the winners.
→ read full article(Castellano) La Promesa de Ocupa
Socialist Worker, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
Un movimiento comenzado por algunos cientos en Nueva York está transformando el debate político en todo el mundo–y sentando las bases de las luchas por venir. OCUPA ES el movimiento de una nueva generación–pero también es la voz del pueblo obrero, de todas las edades, harto del incesante descenso de su calidad de vida y del aumento de la desigualdad económica.
→ read full articleOccupy Comes To Your Town
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Occupy Sacramento released their own statement about the meaning of the movement: We are preparing to change the world. We are becoming another head on the beast of change. We will stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in over 200 cities around the world…This is global revolution. Civil rights, human rights, freedom, dreams, have all been trampled by those with the money and the power. We demand change. We demand equality! The time has come for us to govern ourselves! We are the 99 percent!”
→ read full article(Castellano) Todos contra Wall Street
Socialist Worker, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Los sindicatos están entrando en el lado de las protestas en Ocupa Wall Street–una creciente alianza entre la izquierda y el movimiento laboral que puede llevar la lucha a una nueva etapa.
→ read full articleWhat Do We Mean By Exploitation?
Gary Lapon – Socialist Worker,
3 Oct 2011
The distinction between “labor-power” and “labor” is the key to understanding exploitation under capitalism. When a capitalist pays a worker a wage, they are not paying for the value of a certain amount of completed labor, but for labor-power. The soaring inequality in contemporary society illustrates this–over the past three decades of neoliberalism, the wealth that workers create has increased, but this has not been reflected in wages, which remain stagnant. Instead, an increasing proportion of the wealth produced by workers swelled the pockets of billionaires, who did not compensate the workers for their increased production on the job.
→ read full articleWhy Karl Marx was Right
Lee Sustar – Socialist Worker,
19 Sep 2011
Karl Marx had it right. At some point, capitalism can destroy itself. You cannot keep on shifting income from labor to capital without having an excess capacity and a lack of aggregate demand. That’s what has happened. We thought that markets worked. They’re not working. The individual can be rational. The firm, to survive and thrive, can push labor costs more and more down, but labor costs are someone else’s income and consumption. That’s why it’s a self-destructive process.
→ read full articleShock-Doctrine Schooling in Haiti
Jesse Hagopian – Socialist Worker,
12 Sep 2011
Jesse Hagopian is a high school teacher in the Seattle Public Schools and a founding member Social Equality Educators (SEE). In January 2010, he was in Haiti with his wife and one-year-old son when the earthquake hit. Here, he looks at the plans that school privatization enthusiasts in the U.S. have for Haiti’s devastated school system.
→ read full articleTwo Weeks to Stop the Murder of Troy Davis
Nicole Colson – Socialist Worker,
12 Sep 2011
The state of Georgia is attempting to execute an innocent man–again. He was convicted largely based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, but seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Troy at his original trial have since recanted, with several saying they were coerced by police into falsely identifying Troy as the man who shot MacPhail.
→ read full articleThe Breakup of Belgium?
Jason Netek – Socialist Worker,
15 Aug 2011
The unfolding political crisis in Belgium. After 414 days without a formal government, the northern European nation of Belgium is showing the world just how easily the capitalist system can function without the consent of the governed. The current political crisis is but the latest act in a four-year-long political drama that has seen the country’s very existence as a single entity come under threat.
→ read full articleA Rebellion against Racism and Poverty
James Illingworth – Socialist Worker,
15 Aug 2011
Symbolically, the riots in London broke out as world financial markets were in turmoil over concerns that the American economy is going back into recession and the European debt crisis is spreading to Italy and Spain. The crisis-ridden capitalist system has nothing to offer young people, and it was only a matter of time before their anger exploded into action. These aren’t the first riots of the crisis, and they won’t be the last.
→ read full articleNorway and the War on Terror
Elizabeth Schulte – Socialist Worker,
8 Aug 2011
IN THE aftermath of the right-wing terrorist attack in Norway last month, it became clearer that ever–the U.S.-led “war on terror” has nothing to do with making the world a safer and freer place. In fact, it has only made it more dangerous and less democratic. It’s U.S. empire–pursuing to control the globe and squeeze profits from every corner–that is to blame for the violence and terror. It’s in all our interest to oppose it, and the racism that props it up.
→ read full articleJustice and the Struggle for Palestine
Socialist Worker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2011
Journalist Ali Abunimah is one of the most important sources of information and analysis of the Israeli war on Palestine and the ongoing struggle for justice. He is cofounder of the invaluable Electronic Intifada website and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. He talked to Eric Ruder about the latest developments in the region–and what lies ahead for Palestinians.
→ read full articleThe Monster behind a Media Empire
Lance Selfa – Socialist Worker,
25 Jul 2011
WHEN ONE of the most arrogant men in the world is forced to issue a full-page apology in national newspapers, you know that he feels he has little other choice. That must have been the calculation in the inner sanctum of News Corporation when billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch signed off on a full-page ad in several of his (and his competitors’) British newspapers.
→ read full articleWhat Happens If Greece Defaults?
Zach Zill – Socialist Worker,
18 Jul 2011
The consequences of Greece being unable to pay its debts.
→ read full articleWhat’s at Stake in Greece?
Antonis Davanellos – Socialist Worker,
27 Jun 2011
Just this year Greece will pay its lenders in interest alone the equivalent of 30% of all its revenues–or 8 percent of the GDP. By 2015, the equivalent figures will be 39% of government revenues and 10% of GDP. At the same time, Greece’s debt instead of going down will increase. The sacrifices forced on the people were supposed to bring debt down to 350 billion euros by 2015, or 139 percent of annual GDP. Today, the government, EU and IMF all admit that Greece’s debt will exceed 500 billion euros, or almost 200 percent of GDP!
→ read full articleImperial War behind a Humanitarian Charade
Socialist Worker, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2011
The UN-sanctioned intervention, at first supposedly focused on imposing a “no-fly zone,” quickly–and predictably–transformed into what Western leaders now openly say is a war to topple Qaddafi. Rather than a mission that promotes democracy and freedom for the Libyan people, the Western war is about the plan of the U.S. and its allies to put in place a new regime that serves their interests.
→ read full articleForty Years of Drug War Failure
Helen Redmond – Socialist Worker,
13 Jun 2011
THE WAR on drugs in the U.S. turned 40 years old this year, but there’s nothing to celebrate. No victory has been declared, and there is no exit strategy. The U.S. imprisons 2.3 million people, more than any other country in the world. According to the Sentencing Project, in 2008, drug offenders made up more than half of the inmates in federal prisons.
→ read full articleChávez and the Arab Dictators
Lance Selfa – Socialist Worker,
23 May 2011
Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is respected as a left opponent of U.S. imperialism–but he is lending support to Middle East despots who are trying to suppress popular uprisings. When the revolution sweeping the Arab world struck Libya and Syria, the governments there chose to act in the same way that the Bahraini monarchy did against its internal opposition: Open fire on unarmed crowds, arrest large numbers of people and outlaw demonstrations.
→ read full articleThe Brutal Face of Bahrain’s Monarchy
Tithi Bhattacharya and Bill Mullen – Socialist Worker,
16 May 2011
While the West continues the “humanitarian” bombing of Libya, its weaponry is being used on the people of Bahrain against their struggle to oust a monarchy backed by the West. Solidarity activists expose the regime’s barbaric torture of children.
→ read full articleEscalation of a “Humanitarian” War
Nicole Colson & Alan Maass – Socialist Worker,
9 May 2011
THE U.S.-led military operation in Libya has morphed from the initial imposition of a “no-fly zone,” ostensibly to prevent Muammar el-Qaddafi’s regime from carrying out a massacre, into an ongoing bombing campaign with no end in sight–and now there’s increasing talk of the use of ground forces until Qaddafi is overthrown and a new government, no doubt Western-approved, takes his place. This transformation of the aims of the intervention–often called “mission creep”–helps to further expose the deception that “humanitarian” concerns is motivating the U.S. or its European allies.
→ read full articleThe U.S. Is no Friend to Libya’s Uprising
Socialist Worker, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Mar 2011
The U.S. was perfectly happy to do business with Qaddafi, in spite of his regime’s record of violent repression–for the same reason it’s now posing as Qaddafi’s enemy.
→ read full articleTorturing Bradley Manning
Nicole Colson – Socialist Worker,
14 Mar 2011
The humiliations to which accused whistleblower Bradley Manning is being subjected while in military custody–and the new charges he faces.
→ read full articleWhat the Palestine Papers Show
Eric Ruder – Socialist Worker,
14 Feb 2011
Leaders of the Palestinian Authority made one historic concession after another, yet locked the Palestinian people into a more subservient position. A mountain of 1,600 leaked documents chronicling years of scandalous betrayals by the Palestinian Authority offers further proof of a conclusion that requires no further proof–that the 18-year-old “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinians that was supposed to create a “viable Palestinian state” is a dead end.
→ read full articleAfrica’s New Country
David Whitehouse – Socialist Worker,
31 Jan 2011
Background to the recent referendum in South Sudan, where voters overwhelmingly backed secession.
→ read full articleHow Haiti Was Abandoned
Ashley Smith – Socialist Worker,
24 Jan 2011
The broken promises of support for Haiti from the world’s most powerful governments–and the neoliberal agenda they are pursuing instead.
→ read full articlePortugal: The Prospect of a Full Bailout and More Austerity Looms in 2011
Socialist Worker, LeftBanker – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jan 2011
Portugal is the latest European country to face a financial crisis, the likelihood of a bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund–and savage austerity measures that come with the “rescue.” The cutbacks, layoffs and regressive tax increases are being championed by the center-left Socialist Party government, with the support of the country’s main conservative party, the Social Democratic Party.
→ read full articleAdvancing Solidarity with Gaza
Kevin Ovenden – Socialist Worker,
8 Nov 2010
And by the way, there is a false story in the New York Times–predictably, I’m afraid to say–which claims that some or most of the aid went through the Israeli checkpoints. It didn’t. We never have gone through an Israeli checkpoint, and we never will–on principle. All of the people who were permitted into Egypt traveled through the Rafah crossing. For the first time, the convoy was able to arrive in Gaza in daylight, which may sound like a small thing, but it actually makes a huge difference for media coverage and a huge difference for the people of Gaza, who can take a great deal of inspiration from seeing a convoy of people break the siege–from seeing the vehicles and aid arriving to support them. It sends the message that the world has not forgotten you, that there are ongoing efforts to overturn this horrible siege. It really was a huge uplift in morale. The road was lined from the crossing point at Rafah all the way through to Gaza City.
→ read full articleThe War on WikiLeaks
Nicole Colson – Socialist Worker,
8 Nov 2010
The latest secrets revealed by WikiLeaks show the terrible legacy of the U.S. war on Iraq–but U.S. political leaders are trying to shoot the messenger.
→ read full articleIs Boycotting Israel Anti-Semitic?
Sherry Wolf – Socialist Worker,
18 Oct 2010
A member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network responds to claims from supporters of Zionism that criticism of Israel–and in particular, the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against it–is “anti-Semitic.”
→ read full articleA U.S. Activist in Occupied Palestine
Brian Lenzo – Socialist Worker,
11 Oct 2010
Helena is a U.S. activist who traveled to the West Bank and East Jerusalem to participate in solidarity protests and be an international observer in the face of the annexation of Palestinian land by Israeli settlers. Helena is a pseudonym used to protect her from arrest and/or deportation by Israeli authorities. She is currently staying in Ramallah and traveling to East Jerusalem to observe and protest settlement expansion. She spoke with Brian Lenzo about her experiences
→ read full articlePakistan: Whole Towns Have Vanished
Lee Sustar interviewing Bushra Khaliq – Socialist Worker,
13 Sep 2010
The catastrophic floods that tore through parts of Pakistan have left an estimated 20 million people homeless. According to UN officials, the scale of the disaster–in terms of the number of people suffering–than the earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami that hit India and the earthquake that hit Pakistan in 2005 combined. Bushra Khaliq is general secretary of the Women Workers Help Line, based in Lahore, and a leading member of the Labor Party Pakistan (LPP), which is working with other left groups to organize a response to the disaster that provides an alternative to the government’s inaction. She talked to Lee Sustar after returning from a visit to some of the regions hit by the flood.
→ read full articleThe New African Land Grab
Lee Wengraf – Socialist Worker,
13 Sep 2010
Foreign control of African land has a long history, but the current land grab involves transfer of ownership on a vast new scale.
→ read full articleA Divestment Movement for the 21st Century
Sherry Wolf – Socialist Worker,
6 Sep 2010
Why Palestinians need an international campaign of solidarity–modeled on the movement against South African apartheid–in their struggle for justice.
→ read full articleWhen Jews were the Palestinians
Sherry Wolf – Socialist Worker,
30 Aug 2010
Yael Hersonski’s documentary examines a Nazi propaganda film about the Warsaw Ghetto–and a time and place when Jews were the Palestinians of Europe.
→ read full articleThe Communist Manifesto
Todd Chretien – Socialist Worker,
30 Aug 2010
In this first installment in a series on the classics of the socialist tradition, Todd Chretien offers you a bet about the Communist Manifesto you shouldn’t refuse.
→ read full articleBanking on Hunger
Alan Maass – Socialist Worker,
9 Aug 2010
Goldman Sachs and the rest of Wall Street gambled on food. Their bets paid off big time–at the cost of igniting a food crisis that pushed hundreds of millions into the ranks of the hungry.
→ read full article