Published bimonthly since 1986, Against the Current is a Solidarity sponsored analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left. The November/December issue features Jack Rasmus on "The Crisis Beneath the Bailout," Milton Fisk's analysis of the Obama and McCain health care plans, Malik Miah on how the financial crisis effects African Americans and Suzi Weissman's interview with Thomas Frank. International coverage includes Martin Hart-Landsberg on "The Realities of China Today" and Jeffery R. Webber on Bolivia following the August recall referendum as well as articles on France, Mexico and Argentina.
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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.
Bomb kills 60, injures 250 at Islamabad Marriott: Most of the 60 dead and over 250 injured as a result of suicide attack on a five-star Marriott Hotel in Islamabad were security guards and drivers. Read More...
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- March for Equality: Nationwide Protests Against Proposition 8
by jonhseattle posted on 11/13/08
- The War(s) at Home: the Iraq War in movies
by Maeve66 posted on 11/3/08
- Revolutionary Work in Our Times
by Stephanie L posted on 11/3/08
- More on FMPR: Beating the Odds, Independent PR Teachers Union Trounces SEIU in Representation Election
by Micah posted on 11/2/08
- Howie Hawkins Press Release
by dws posted on 10/29/08
- Puerto Rico's Teachers Show the Way; SEIU Learns the Meaning of "No"
by Steve posted on 10/24/08
- Growing movement wins another stay of execution for Troy Davis!
by Isaac posted on 10/24/08
- A Radical Response: Understanding the Crisis and Building a Movement
by Kate G posted on 10/20/08
from the Webzine
Solidarity statements
- Their Crisis, Our Consequences: Is this what 1931 Looks Like?
- Understanding and Responding to the Economic Crisis (pdf)
- The Financial Meltdown and a Socialist Response
From Against the Current:
- Malik Miah: The Financial Calamity, Blacks and Obama
- Jack Rasmus: The Crisis Beneath the Bailout
- Nomi Prins: The Sub-Prime Market Crisis
- Bob Brenner: Devastating Crisis Unfolds
- Jack Rasmus: A New Phase of Economic Crisis
By Dan LaBotz on Monthly Review's MRZine:
- The Economic Crisis, the American Working Class, and the Left: The Situation Today and the Situation in 1930 (March 17, 2008)
- Confronting the Economic Crisis: The New Deal at 75 - Lessons for Today (April 8, 2008)
- The Financial Crisis: A View from the Left (September 24, 2008)
- World's Labor Federations React to Financial Crisis with Proposals from Re-regulation to Socialism (October 24, 2008)
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!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.
Download the pamphlet...
Celebrating Teen Pregnancy?
Submitted by redchuck4 on September 5, 2008 - 7:00am.
For years, I've taught sociology at a community college in New York City. I'm always looking for current examples to illustrate how class, race and gender work in contemporary capitalist socities. Bristol Palin's pregnancy (itself a tribute to the effectiveness of the right's "abstinence education") provides such a good example of the intersection of race, gender and class, I am offering the following extra credit essay question on my final exam:
In a well written, well argued and well reasoned essay-- drawing on sociological concepts and theories we have discussed in class, please answer the following question:
Why is teenage pregnancy and motherhood considered a social pathology when it occurs among poor women and women of color; while it is considered an act of responsibility if you are white and upper middle class and your mother is running for Vice-President of the United States?
All answers must be typewritten, no less than one double-spaced typewritten page, no more than two double-spaced typewritten pages.
Readers of Solidarity's webzine are encouraged to reply with their own thoughts about this paradox!
( categories: )
I think this apparent
I think this apparent paradox makes perfect sense to Palin's base; working class people are having their family units come under increasing ecnomic pressures that pull them apart, bringing the values of the market inside the home.
This can be experienced as the depredations of women in the workforce or gay marriage or divorce or premarital sex/serial monogamy; an ideology that says you can choose not to experience this set of dislocations is attractive. Thus a small, but important group have turned to conservative family values.
I imagine though, that the experience of choosing to avoid the dangers of new social life, siding with cultural and religious fundamentalism, and having it *happen anyway* is pretty common to Palin's conservative base. That Bristol and Sarah can triumph over such a setback seems like an appealing narrative to the group she is meant to most appeal to.
For many conservatives, its everybody else's pregnant teen daughter or abortion or divorce that is the problem; theirs is a simply a necessary evil. That makes it easy to identify with Palin.
Celebrating Teen Pregnancy?
Kate's right on. I heard it spun from a Wasilla, AK friend of Palin's on TV this way - "Well, just because her daughter messed up real bad, doesn't mean Sarah should abandon her." In other words, the situation demonstrates Palin's fortitude, her couragious forgiveness of her daughter and the strength to stand by her. Sins can be pardoned.
"Family values" still triumph. So, you can "mess up" so long as you have been blessed to find yourself in a "proper family" - white, middle-class, guided by 'Christian values' etc. Racist and classist values will always preserve a veneer of "responsibility" and righteousness, finding some rational or other for their justified superiority, condemning "others" for some more grievous offense.
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