posted 05/20/13
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posted 04/29/13
posted 04/29/13
Published bimonthly since 1986, AGAINST THE CURRENT is a Solidarity-sponsored analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left. The May/June 2013 editorial focuses on what is at stake in the decision to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. Malik Miah’s Race and Class column takes up the immigration debate and calls for open borders; Chokwe Lumumba outlines the strategy behind his run for mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. Dan Georgakas paints an overview of the Greek financial crisis and the struggle against their “odious” debt while Maïa Pal recounts the occupation against outsourcing at England’s Sussex University and Jaime Rivera, Secretary of the Sindical de Trabajadores de Sector Electricos in El Salvador explains the latest attempt by Washington and the World Bank to impose another round of privatization. Comics artist Ethan Heitner depicts the great Flint sitdown strike – and more!
answers for my child 29 min 20 sec
Ridiculous Propaganda Article 1 day 10 hours
LaRouche and SDS 2 days 2 hours
Kashmir 1 week 2 hours
pleased to see a statement 1 week 1 day
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Peace and Freedom Alliance
I agree with a lot of Binh's arguments criticizing the left's response to the Occupy movement. There were several socialist groups that were involved from the beginning, but I agree, the response was, on the whole, lukewarm. I think that a discussion should be held on the Black Bloc, as mass working class struggle cannot be replaced by those primed for head-on conflict. That being said, civil disobedience-style direct action should always be supported by socialists.
The last paragraph of this interview stuck out particurally, the call for a united left coalition. In 2010, the Peace and Freedom Party of California did actually form a national electoral coalition featuring, among others, the Freedom Socialist Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the California PFP as voting members and the Justice Party as observers. This is truly a landmark coalition in that it could one day form a national anti-capitalist coalition. This is what prompted me to join the coalition as the representative of Unite Left! (www.uniteleft.com), a Poughkeepsie, NY based socialist organization. However, I disagree with Binh's assertion that socialists have a responsibility to form an alliance with the Greens, the WFP, and the Justice Party. Even as observers, the Justice Party has excercized outsized influence on the Alliance and is actively pushing its reformist, pro-capitalist agenda. They are, effectively, attempting to turn the Peace and Freedom Alliance into a branch of its own organization and the New Progressive Alliance. For supporters of Occupy to back a political party, it must be an party that we can truly say holds the interests of working people over political expediency. If socialists throw together a hap-hazard coalition of reformists, this coalition will ultimatly be no better than the the Democrats and Republicans, the twin parties of capitalism. And this is precisely what may ultimatly lead to the downfall of Syriza in Greece.
I believe it is important for socialists to involve themselves in Occupy to the fullest extent and to work on uniting Occupy activism, labor unionism, and independent, anti-capitalist political action.
Onward!