Published bimonthly since 1986, Against the Current is a Solidarity sponsored analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left. The September/October ATC continues its coverage of '68 with articles by Gerd-Rainer Horn and Michael Lowy plus an interview with Dr. Gwen Patton, who joined SNCC while at Tuskegee University in the early '60s. The issue also features Peter Rachleff on the Postville ICE raids, Terry Eagleton on "The God Question," and Au Loong Yu on "The New Chinese Nationalism." Dorothy Pinkney tells the story of her husband's imprisonment for quoting Deuteronomy 28:15.
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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.
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- Update on Troy Davis and a letter from Troy
by Isaac posted on 09/30/08
- Some Talking Points on the Financial Crisis
by Kate G posted on 09/30/08
- Labor Goes to Wall Street
by subcomandante micah posted on 09/30/08
- Capitalist Absurdity of the Week #2 - Well, of course, the meltdown, "regulation" etc.
by JohnM posted on 09/29/08
- Thinking about the antiwar movement
by Dianne posted on 09/25/08
- Troy Davis: "I'll be 40 my next birthday"
by Isaac posted on 09/23/08
- Troy Davis is innocent.
by Isaac posted on 09/23/08
- Party Like Its 1929: Understanding the Crisis on Wall Street
by Kate G posted on 09/21/08
from the Webzine
A Brief To-Do List for the Next President's First Day...
New from Solidarity! This brief, four-page leaflet asks what a true progressive agenda for the next president might look like. Inside, a brief overview of this historic election cycle, and our endorsement of Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente's campaign with the Green Party.
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 a review and order your copy today!Bill Banta 1941-2008
Bill Banta, a member of the Chicago branch and founding member of Solidarity, died of pancreatic cancer in a Chicago hospice on August 20th. He was 67. Bill was a revolutionary socialist his entire adult life.
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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Remembering MLK : "I Wouldn't Stop There"
Submitted by Kate G on January 24, 2008 - 2:15am.
Monday evening I called to chat with my friend, "Alice", who works at a university hospital, and asked how she celebrated the holiday:
Alice: "uh, by working."
Kate G: "Working? Seriously? They don't give you the day off?"
Alice: "Well, yeah. I could have taken it off, but it would just come out of my 'paid time off'. I only get twelve days, and I'm pretty much out. I thought about calling in sick, but that would have just been PTO, too. But I did think about calling in. Does that count?"
I don't think Alice is the only one. I went out to a club Sunday night, expecting a "second Saturday" full of dancing, flirting, drinking and fun on the part of folks happy to have an extra day to devote to the business of being human. Instead, I found an empty dance floor and a playlist that sounded just as tired-out as all the people who stayed away in deference to their work schedules.
Its a shame. The fight to get MLK day as a national holiday, led by labor unions, was a long one, only fully realized in all 50 states in 2000. Since then, my anecdotal evidence suggests that bosses have been increasingly free to decide that it isn't so important after all. To me, its the opposite of what MLK's legacy is all about. I, for one, was hoping for a different kind of rememberance.
Maybe it's because we're so worn down by working that MLK day reflections this year weren't all they could have been. Maybe that explains how our politicians and can get away with "honoring" Dr. King by deemphasizing his legacy and importance of the freedom struggle in the the south.
Maybe its why liberals and conservatives, newspapers, schools and churches are free to remember King as an advocate for a "color-blindness" divorced from the realities of racism, oppression and murderous U.S. foreign policy that continue to plague us.
Whatever the reason, it really is a shame. King died standing up for Black workers' (and all workers') rights to dignity and respect-- for the basic human right not to be worked literally to death.
MLK died wanting to be remembered as a fighter for racial justice, for our rights to have our basic needs for food, housing and shelter met, for the right to access to our own humanity, and as an opponent of senseless death and destruction on a global scale.
Dr. King put it this way:
Alice: "uh, by working."
Kate G: "Working? Seriously? They don't give you the day off?"
Alice: "Well, yeah. I could have taken it off, but it would just come out of my 'paid time off'. I only get twelve days, and I'm pretty much out. I thought about calling in sick, but that would have just been PTO, too. But I did think about calling in. Does that count?"
Its a shame. The fight to get MLK day as a national holiday, led by labor unions, was a long one, only fully realized in all 50 states in 2000. Since then, my anecdotal evidence suggests that bosses have been increasingly free to decide that it isn't so important after all. To me, its the opposite of what MLK's legacy is all about. I, for one, was hoping for a different kind of rememberance.
Maybe it's because we're so worn down by working that MLK day reflections this year weren't all they could have been. Maybe that explains how our politicians and can get away with "honoring" Dr. King by deemphasizing his legacy and importance of the freedom struggle in the the south.
Maybe its why liberals and conservatives, newspapers, schools and churches are free to remember King as an advocate for a "color-blindness" divorced from the realities of racism, oppression and murderous U.S. foreign policy that continue to plague us.
Whatever the reason, it really is a shame. King died standing up for Black workers' (and all workers') rights to dignity and respect-- for the basic human right not to be worked literally to death.
MLK died wanting to be remembered as a fighter for racial justice, for our rights to have our basic needs for food, housing and shelter met, for the right to access to our own humanity, and as an opponent of senseless death and destruction on a global scale.
Dr. King put it this way:
"If any of you are around when I have to meet my day,” King told the congregation of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church on February 4, 1968, two months before his assassination, “I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize — that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards — that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked.”Thankfully, before I went to sleep, I ran across a few who've managed to honor King the way he would have wanted, and my real purpose here was to share them with you. The quote above was borrowed from Alas a blog.
More thoughts on King's radical legacy:
( categories: )
MLK
Great article! Ever notice how the official MLK day celebrations never mention King's break with the Democrats and Johnson over Vietnam? How the mainstream media biographies always ends in 1963-65 before the break? It is as if the mainstream media assasinated Dr. King three years earlier...
MLK Day: Trash collection in the Crescent City
MLK day 2007 forced me to have similar reflections that have persisted throughout the past year. Well, it was the second MLK day after the storm, and it the second year the city shamefully neglected to hold the traditional march from the still decimated Lower Ninth Ward to City Hall.
But it started bright and early when Walter from ILA Clerks and Checkers called me to clerk a MF'N chicken boat at 5:40 AM. I said "Walter, you know it's Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday... are they paying triple time or somethin?" "Naw," he says...if it was a steel boat or containers, sure, it'd pay double time but you know...it's a ...um...transitional contract." Indignant, I replied "this is MLK Day...The man was shot dead, assassinated for fighting for working people... striking sanitation workers...it's sacred... like Labor Day..." He replied "fine, I understand... It' your right. I'll call you tomorrow."
Then i heard the beeps and groans of a trash truck. I couldn't believe it. Garbage was being picked up on MLK day. By being a casual in Teamsters local 270 I knew the city contracts for garbage was awarded to a non-union company. But surely they would have the King day off?!? The municipal waste contract was high profile, with minority owned companies Richards and Metro and Sidney Torres' SDT getting support from SCLC, who had testified on their behalf! http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/11/civic_rights_leaders_back_tras.html
So, I ran outside half dressed and asked/proclaimed " It's MLK Day, Yall got to work? I hope ya'll'r gettin' double time!" "No" one man replied "we have to work to keep our job." I couldn't believe it. In February 1957 Dr. King was elected first President of SCLC in New Orleans, LA*. Fifty years later, in February 2007, SCLC had defended non-union companies that didn't bother to acknowledge a day in his honor.
Well, at least in New Orleans there is always a "Second Saturday" in advance of the Dr. King Holiday. People partied late into the night, and the aroma of barbque We may be short on bread but the circus is always in town.
______________________________
*Technically, SLC, in advance of the first SCLC convention which was held later that year in Montgomery, AL
Trash collection on MLK day!
Trash collection on MLK day! That really is embarrassing. Next year I will want to organize an party/celebration; BBQ sounds about right.
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