Against the Current

Published bimonthly since 1986, AGAINST THE CURRENT is a Solidarity-sponsored analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left. The March/April issue features the Educational Crisis in California and the Unfolding Fightback with articles by students and workers in the University of California system. For International Women's Day there are reviews on gender, sexuality and liberation by Catherine Sameh, Chloe Tribich and Kate Flynn. Other articles include Malik Miah on Obama Forgets the Black Community, Michael Steven Smith on Lost Liberties in the Age of Obama and Kim Moody on the Crisis and Potential in Labor's Wars and coverage on Honduras and Gaza.
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International Viewpoint is the monthly English-language magazine of the Fourth International. IV is a window to radical alternatives world-wide, carrying reports, analysis and debates from all corners of the globe. Correspondents in over 50 countries report on popular struggles, and the debates that are shaping the left of tomorrow.

Put a Socialist in the Senate!

LaBotz, Buckeye Socialist, Senate 2010

Dan La Botz, a 64-year old Cincinnati school teacher, has filed petitions with the Ohio Secretary of State to become the candidate of the Socialist Party for the U.S. Senate. La Botz, who needed 500 signatures to get on the Socialist Party primary ballot, filed petitions with approximately 1,200 signatures on Thursday, Feb. 18. La Botz, a long time labor and social movement activist, is the candidate of the Socialist Party of Ohio which is the state organization of the Socialist Party USA.

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Keep up with the campaign!"
DanLaBotz.com

Buttons to Build the Movement

Order these eye-catching buttons to spread the demand for social and economic justice. If you don't have paypal, email us!


Reads Bail out People, not Wall Street!. Around the edge, these 2 1/8" buttons read "Free Health Care," "Defend Public Services," "Living Wage Jobs," "Free Higher Education," "Troops Home Now," "Rebuild the Gulf Coast," and "Affordable Housing."

Bright orange 1 1/2" buttons boldly demand: "Bring the Troops Home Now!" Wear one everywhere to start a conversation about why US occupation can never be a force for liberation, and people's needs should come before the massive military budget.

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Produced during the massive immigrant rights demonstrations of 2006, these 2 1/8" buttons read, in Spanish and English: ¡exigimos Paz, Legalización, y Trabajos para Todos! we demand Peace, Legalization, and Jobs for All!

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Videos from Solidarity's Educational Conference

November 14-15 in New York City, Solidarity held a successful conference featuring engaging talks on a number of topics. Click here to view these videos from "Their Crisis, Our Movements"

- Crisis of Capitalism, Challenge to the Movements (David McNally, New Socialist Group)
- The New Imperialism and The Global Fightback (Vivek Chibber, Christy Thornton, Jonah McCallister-Erickson)
- The State of Resistance in Communities & the Workplace (Normahiram Perez, Steve Downs, Penelope Duggan)
- Race and National Liberation Under Obama (Glen Ford, Lalit Clarkston)

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Solidarity depends on the generous contributions of its friends and allies to continue its work. Please consider giving!

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Blocked Reform: Obama After 200 Days

The Obama presidency, contrary to the hopes of many, has not produced a big political space for the left, let alone “a seat at the table.” Most visibly, it has been the right wing that succeeded in seizing the initiative, in some truly grotesque ways that have thrown a real light on the deep paranoia and straight-up white racism that persists in this society, and on the ways it can be opportunistically pandered to and manipulated.
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Regroupment & Refoundation of a U.S. Left

As part of the preparation for our 2008 Convention, members of SOLIDARITY have begun a political document describing some perspectives for socialist renewal in the twenty-first century. We welcome responses to this initial draft of the document. Some of the themes here have also been developed in Solidarity's Founding Statement and our 1997 pamphlet, “Socialist Organization Today.”

New Pamphlet: Hell on Wheels

New from Solidarity! Long time transit worker activist Steve Downs has written a pamphlet charting the twenty year story of New Directions, a rank and file caucus in New York City's transit union that he helped build and develop - including the challenges of keeping the rank and file democracy movement alive after New Directions won control of the local.

Read an interview on Zmag.org
Read a review and order your copy today!

From Abortion Rights to Reproductive Justice

New from Solidarity's Feminist Commission, this leaflet responds to the right wing attack on reproductive freedom and argues that the movement must go beyond "pro-choice" to true reproductive justice. This socialist and anti-racist feminist agenda would take up issues such as access to health and child care, forced sterilization, and the division of "productive" and "reproductive" labor.
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All Pakistan Trade Union Federation Vice-General Secretary Released

Pakistan Update!

The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF) announces that its vice-General Secretary, Farid Awan, was recently freed

Through a phone communiqué with the headquarters of the ILC, the leaders of the Pakistani trade union federation, on the morning of November 26, informed us that Awan had been freed - but that the charges leveled against him in the framework of the state of emergency were not dropped.

Hundreds of trade union activists remain in prison. The APTUF asked the ILC to make known its thanks to all those, throughout the world, who mobilized to demand the liberation of Farid Awan.

In only a few days, hundreds of messages from trade unions and activists from all continents (Afghanistan, Germany, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, Spain, the United States, France, Gabon, Great Britain, Guadeloupe, India, Iraq, Italy, Philippines, Republic of Maurice, Senegal, Switzerland, Sri Lanka) were sent to the Pakistani authorities. Delegations were organized to embassies in Paris and Madrid.

The APTUF also informed us that, in the difficult situation created by the state of emergency and the wave of repression, the workers' movement has not given up.

On November 14, on the initiative of the APTUF, gatherings and meetings took place in the factories or at their entrances and in the industrial centers of the country, "demanding the release of the trade union activists, judges, and lawyers who have been imprisoned; the end to all limits on trade union activity; and the reestablishment of the freedom of expression."

At the same time, the workers' movement looks to unite. In response to a proposal by the APTUF, the Pakistan Workers' Confederation, which regroups in a united front several trade union organizations, met and wrote a common declaration. It states, in part: "The trade unions proclaim together: the workers' movement wants democracy. They launch an independent appeal to defend workers' rights and to defend the country against any foreign intervention. The Pakistani people have the right to determine their own future. The workers should have the right to freely organize into their own organizations."

The APTUF calls on everybody to continue in all countries the campaign for the release of all the imprisoned activists.