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Published bimonthly since 1986, AGAINST THE CURRENT is a Solidarity-sponsored analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left. The January/February 2012 issue features fourteen articles on the Occupy movement, its strategies, and actions in a number of U.S. cities. ATC’s Black History feature: Paul Ortiz on C.L.R. James’ Visionary Legacy and Derrick Morrison reviews a study of the least-known slave uprising. Hisham H. Ahmed writes about the Arab Spring, the West and Political Islam and ATC interviews Atef Said on Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution. Additional reviews by Bruce Levine, Kathlene McDonald, Susan Dirr and Tessa Echeverria and Michael Löwy. Subscribe today!
I'd be interested in seeing a 5 days 13 hours
The Socialist Party has not folded 5 days 19 hours
The Obama administration and the Poor 1 week 1 day
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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.
02/12/12 01:51
Since the beginning of the Greek public debt crisis three different demands have been put forward by the left and the workers' movement: either to restructure (and so reduce), to audit or to cancel the debt. This is not just a matter of slogans, but it also implies different political strategies. OKDE-Spartakos, as well as ANTARSYA, despite its contradictions, have opted for the third choice.
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IV445 - February 2012
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Greece,
Debt
02/10/12 02:15
On February 1, 2012, Robert Fisk ended his article in the British daily newspaper “The Independent” as follows: “But there is one unasked question. Just suppose the regime [of Bashar al-Assad] did survive. Over what kind of Syria would it rule?” In other words, the revolt has reached a point of no return.
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IV445 - February 2012
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Syria,
Arab Revolutions
02/9/12 10:04
"Prosecute the Cabal!" With millions of on strike and crowds singing Solidarity Forever, Occupy Nigeria has shut down the most populous country in Africa. Here in New York, the diaspora is rallying in support as well, and on Saturday, Jan. 14, I went to the second rally at the Nigerian Embassy and the UN this week. Though big labor actions might be more common in Nigerian than in the US, folks are saying this one feels different. Maybe it's the wave of protest against neoliberalism around the world in 2011, maybe it's the corruption—facilitated by neoliberal deregulation — or maybe it's the high unemployment rates (over 40% among young workers), maybe it's that oil is so central to the economy; or maybe it's all of this together.
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IV445 - February 2012
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Nigeria,
Trade unions,
Global Justice
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."
Brown and black buttons demand: "Bring all 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.
These 2 1/8" buttons read, in Spanish and English: ¡Alto a las deporaciones - Legalización para todos! Stop the deportations - Legalization for all!
being in power during a time of retreat
I have talked with socialists who, after being activists in the rank and file membership of their union (usually organizing "reform caucuses") for many years, ran an slate to challenge the entrenched leadership and then and won office. Often, two things happen: first, the rank and file caucus, missing its key leaders, evaporates; second, the former "opposition" is now in the position of having to administer power during a time of retreat and incredible pressure to become reformist (and lacking a militant base to push things forward from below.) One question is, "is it ever too early to take power?"
When you scale this experience up, it is the heart of one of the big questions that has always vexed revolutionaries. Even on a global level, countries where the working class has a revolution in the absence of further revolutions find themselves isolated, the leadership becomes bureaucratized...
Second point I wanted to make (and I don't think you were arguing this - but it reminded me of a peeve of mine) is that "operating naturally in the normal world" means a hell of a lot of different things within the working class. A lot of folks I've met think this means some strict adherence to "working class values." To me that that seems like a big misunderstanding of the attempts by ex-student radicals to fuse with working class life in the 1970s. Sometimes socialists get to thinking of them/ourselves as total aliens, and it becomes a self-fulfilling isolation. An important insight of the feminist and queer movements has been the incredible diversity of experiences and identities that are out there. At my last job, my coworkers were into, and often participated in groups around: building grandfather clocks, watching history documentaries, doing recreational mathematics, seeing live music and playing guitar, computer programming, playing on an international soccer team, reading about psychology, and on and on.