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Against the Current

Published bimonthly since 1986, AGAINST THE CURRENT is a Solidarity-sponsored analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left. The Sept./Oct. issue features Malik Miah on How Race Fuels the Rightist Agenda, Kit Adam Wainer on Obama's Race to the Top vs. Teacher Unions and Susan Spronk and Jeffery R. Webber interviewing Venezuelan activists Gonzalo Gómez, Stalin Pérez Borges and Luis Primo on the processes of deepening the revolution. Coverage of The Mexican Revolution at 100 continues, featuring an interview with Adolpho Gilly and articles by Dan La Botz, James D. Cockcroft, Heather Dasner Monk, Fred Rosen and Scott Campbell.

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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!
Campaign website- DanLaBotz.com

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.

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These 2 1/8" buttons read, in Spanish and English: ¡Alto a las deporaciones - Legalización para todos! Stop the deportations - Legalization 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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Barbara Zeluck Presente!

Our comrade Barbara Zeluck died June 5, 2010. She was a lifelong socialist and founding member of Solidarity. Barbara had a long and active life, unwavering in her support for radical social change and movements that she felt were dedicated to mobilizing the working class and raising class consciousness. She always believed that a better world was possible. Read More...

One Year of Obama and the Democrats’ Debacle

Last fall, in the discussion that produced our analysis of “Obama After 200 Days,” we said it would be premature to speak of a “crisis” for the administration. A year after the euphoric 2009 inauguration, it no longer looks premature. People who looked to Obama and the Democrats for leadership are bitterly disappointed, and a very peculiar brand of rightwing politics has seized the initiative.
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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.”

— Introduction
— Social Movements over the Last Two Decades
— Regroupment, Refounding and the Arc of Resistance
— Refounding a New Left: Next Generations & Their Experiences
— The Tasks and Possibilities of a U.S. Refounded Left
— Refounding the Left: Taking Our Past Into Our Future

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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The Immigrant Rights Movement: The Return of May Day

The second annual May Day mobilizations for immigrant rights brought an outpouring of 100,000 people into the streets of Chicago; tens of thousands in Los Angeles, where peaceful marchers with their families, as well as journalists, were met with a police riot at MacArthur Park; five thousand or more in Detroit; and thousands or tens of thousands in many other cities.

While this year’s protests couldn’t match the gigantic turnouts of 2006 – partly because this year there isn’t the “Sensenbrenner Bill” in Congress that enraged immigrant communities, partly because Los Angeles mayor Villaraigosa threatened punishment for student walkouts, and for a variety of specific local reasons – nonetheless these marches have confirmed that May Day is back.

This workers’ holiday began in nineteenth century America as a demand for decent pay and conditions, spearheaded by immigrant workers. Today’s immigrant rights movement has reclaimed it as a day to demand full legal status for all, and end of the brutal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and deportations that are tearing families apart, and a rapid path to U.S. citizenship for those who desire it.

LA immigrant march 220px
Last spring, in response to punitive legislation proposed in Congress and increased repression of immigrant workers, millions of predominantly working-class Latina/o immigrants took to the streets across the United States. Support and organization was broad: the Catholic Church, local hometown associations, unions and worker centers, and local Latina/o media played major roles in mobilizing for the actions. Immigrants from other countries have turned out to march in various cities.

The result: the largest series of demonstrations in U.S. history and, in many areas, what amounted to one-day strikes. In Los Angeles, the garment and port trucking industries were nearly paralyzed. In the Midwest, the meatpacking industry was shut down.
NYC March 200px
In New York, over 10,000 businesses closed (mostly small delis and ethnic businesses). Investment bankers on Wall Street were heard saying “let them [Mexicans] in so that we can get some coffee.” Many employers responded by firing or disciplining workers; others supported workers’ efforts and a new immigration reform policy.

The movement sparked a lively debate in the media about immigration, with politicians scrambling to pass an immigration reform bill. The bi-partisan Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 passed the Senate a short two months after the bill that sparked the wave of street demonstrations - Jim Sensenbrenner's HR 4437 - passed the House. The Senate bill created substantial debate and division in segments of the immigrant rights movement. Many immigrant workers, religious organizations, unions, and politicians supported the bill. The movement's left wing opposed it.

Among its most controversial elements, the Senate bill included a divisive, 3-tier path to legalization (which many undocumented immigrants could not utilize), an expanded guest worker program, instant verification (an extension of the Social Security "No Match" Program), and increased border enforcement (see resources below for a more detailed analysis). Ultimately the Senate bill failed to pass the House and the hope of comprehensive immigration reform was essentially "off the table."

The Border Fence Bill, passed by Congress last year, further militarizes the border and creates an even more repressive and coercive environment for immigrants.

On the ground, last year's immigrant rights demonstrations have provoked unprecedented Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE, the new INS) raids. According to an ICE spokesperson, there have been over 18,000 arrests so far, mostly people in their homes. These raids have targeted workers in the meatpacking industry, construction, cleaning services, and especially those firms where workers are fighting for their rights or organizing unions.

ICE arrests 420px

The left wing of the movement responded to these repressive tactics by holding a strategizing conference in August 2006 in Chicago, and organizing marches for Labor Day of that year. At the August meeting the 10 points of unity were:
  • Immediate unconditional legalization for all undocumented currently in the United States
  • No mass deportations
  • No arbitrary, mass or indefinite detentions
  • No employer sanctions
  • No guest-worker programs
  • Full labor rights, civil rights, and civil liberties
  • No militarization of the border
  • No border wall
  • No criminalization of workers
  • Increase of family reunification visas
These actions and this movement – like the civil rights struggles in the "long decade" of the 1960s – are key to breaking down racial and economic barriers in the U.S. and forging bigger struggles for social justice.

More Immigration Resources