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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 4 days 8 hours
The Socialist Party has not folded 4 days 15 hours
The Obama administration and the Poor 1 week 12 min
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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.
02/10/12 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
02/9/12 07:46
Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) is not the typical politician. He says what he thinks and lets the chips fall where they may. He's against the war in Afghanistan and against any U.S. invasion of Iran. He points out that U.S. policy in the Middle East “has only intensified strife and conflict” and “U.S. tax dollars have militarized the entire region.”
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IV445 - February 2012
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USA
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!
ideas and organization
dws says:
"The Left only reproduces the wrong approach when it reads its big fantasies into merely symbolic ripples. There will be more economic crises, more sporadic protests, more symbolic reflections of dissatisfaction with capitalism. But as long as these are just that—symbolic or exceptional—they only signify a potential that we are miserably failing to capitalize upon. As Adolph Reed likes to say, the problem of the Left is not one of ideas, but of organizing."
This seems to me partially right and partially wrong. I think that in times of crisis like this, it is indeed easy to read fantasies into events and this can result in serious misjudgement of the times. I will admit to being somewhat more pessimistic about the current conjuncture than those who feel that a repeat of the 1930s (in terms of left or labor organizing) is afoot though I won't deny that there are some encouraging signs such as this poll, the Visteon struggle, etc.
What I take issue with is your assertion that "the problem of the Left is not one of ideas, but of organizing." Yes there are problems of organization. But there are also problems of ideas. Moreover these are often connected. One of the reasons why the left is in such particularly pathetic shape in the US is that the left and the working class are beholden to the Democratic Party. Why is this the case? There are no simple answers, but it is not simply a failing of organization and any successful attempt to address this will have to go beyond merely organizational solutions. There is a slogan with a long history in this country, "Don't mourn, Organize!" that in a way reflects the longstanding anti-theoretical tendencies of the left in the US, the notion that all that is needed is just a little more organization, a little more activism and we can win. And sometimes we can. Sometimes, however the problems have an objective, systemic and political character that mere organization will not address and when we inevitably fail, we will not understand why or respond appropriately.