Against the Current

Published bimonthly since 1986, AGAINST THE CURRENT is a Solidarity-sponsored analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left. The March/April issue features the Educational Crisis in California and the Unfolding Fightback with articles by students and workers in the University of California system. For International Women's Day there are reviews on gender, sexuality and liberation by Catherine Sameh, Chloe Tribich and Kate Flynn. Other articles include Malik Miah on Obama Forgets the Black Community, Michael Steven Smith on Lost Liberties in the Age of Obama and Kim Moody on the Crisis and Potential in Labor's Wars and coverage on Honduras and Gaza.
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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!"
DanLaBotz.com

Buttons to Build the Movement

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."

Bright orange 1 1/2" buttons boldly demand: "Bring 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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Produced during the massive immigrant rights demonstrations of 2006, these 2 1/8" buttons read, in Spanish and English: ¡exigimos Paz, Legalización, y Trabajos para Todos! we demand Peace, Legalization, and Jobs 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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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
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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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End U.S. Aid to Pakistan Military Dictatorship - Musharraf Must Go! Bring U.S. Troops Home Now!

This statement is issued by Solidarity, a socialist, feminist and anti-imperialist organization.
Pervez Musharraf’s military “state of emergency” is a brutal assault on democratic rights in Pakistan. Hundreds if not thousands of lawyers, human rights activists and political oppositionists are in detention. Independent broadcasts are shut down. The Supreme Court judges who refused to serve as Musharraf’s stooges have been purged and the Chief Justice placed under house arrest.

To give the “emergency” a fig leaf, Musharraf says that parliamentary elections will occur in January, or maybe February, or whenever he thinks is the right time. That’s a cover story so he can continue getting U.S. aid. What kind of “election” can happen with political activists in jail or hiding, rallies and mass meetings banned and the military in control of television?

People in Pakistan are defending democracy: Lawyers, the Human Rights Commission, and political forces such as the Labor Party Pakistan are waging a heroic resistance against the crackdown. Their courage is an inspiration for all of us.

But so what? Does all this mean anything for people in the United States and especially for the antiwar movement? We say, absolutely YES.

The destruction of democracy in Pakistan is the direct result of George W. Bush’s “war on terror.” Since General Musharraf took power in a 1998 coup, the United States has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to his military regime. We’re told that Musharraf is “our frontline ally against terrorism,” especially against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier region.

The truth is that Musharraf cannot survive without the support of Pakistani intelligence and military factions that notoriously support – and helped create – the Taliban. U.S. aid to the Pakistani military and Musharraf essentially means fighting both FOR and AGAINST the Taliban at the same time. It’s a formula for the war in Afghanistan to continue forever.

Today, while Pakistan’s armed forces are smashing the faces of people who are defending democracy in their country, forces of religious fanaticism are actually gaining ground. Democratic forces in Pakistan are under attack from both the government and from terrorism; they have broadly called for Musharraf’s resignation and an end to the state of emergency. To support their struggle, we need to help them get the “state of emergency” and Musharraf off their backs. That means ending U.S. aid to the Musharraf regime and the Pakistani military.

It also means recognizing how the “war on terror” pretext is destroying democracy everywhere in the Middle East in the name of “spreading” it – and wiping out civil liberties and democratic rights in the United States too. The U.S. occupation of Iraq has practically destroyed that country in the name of “liberating” it. We want U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan now.

Farooq Tarik, the secretary of the Labor Party Pakistan, is helping to organize the democratic resistance while hiding from the police. He has appealed for international solidarity in the form of protests at Pakistani embassies and consulates against the state of emergency and the Musharraf regime. Now is a moment to deepen and broaden our ties to the real forces of democracy—grass-roots movements representing working and oppressed people—who together are the only power that can stop the imperialist war machine and put an end to dictatorships across the globe. We urge all to join in acts of international solidarity with the democratic resistance in Pakistan.
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