Come November, Americans will get to “choose” which unpopular crook and liar will get to rule them on behalf of Wall Street for the next four years.
Editorials
BROWSE ARTICLES BY CATEGORY:
Police Brutality, Racism, and the Politics of Polarization
The grisly images on television and social media are unrelenting: car bombings, nightclub massacres, killer cops, and cop killers. It is what Lenin called capitalist “horror without end”—without end.
The Whole System is Rigged! Build a Mass Socialist Party!
That “the system is rigged” is the sentiment of millions of Americans as we head into the final stretch of the candidate selection process.
USA: Revolution on the Horizon
The US political pendulum, which had swung so far to the right, is beginning to swing dramatically in the opposite direction. Years of crisis and instability have inexorably had an effect on consciousness. Sanders’ insurgent candidacy has put socialism in the headlines in an unprecedented way, reflecting the deep-seated discontent that has been slowly but surely percolating beneath the surface.
Reformism, Revolution, and the Crisis of US Capitalism
Editorial for Socialist Appeal 92 – These days, it would seem that nearly everyone is a socialist of some sort or another. That was certainly not the case back when Socialist Appeal was founded fifteen years ago. To be sure, what most people understand as “socialism” at the moment is far from the fully revolutionary conception defended in the program at the back of our paper. But this marks a dramatic change in consciousness nonetheless.
The Crisis and the Minimum Wage
The “Great Recession” may have technically ended in June 2009, but what really matters are full employment and a steadily increasing quality of life—which capitalism is unable to provide.
American Politics Gets Interesting
Editorial from Socialist Appeal No. 90
After years of monotonous two-party ping-pong, American politics has started to get interesting. Without a mass political party of our own, US workers are forced to abstain, cast a protest vote, or choose between one capitalist party or another. So far, these are still the only options for 2016. But although the current contest is being played out within the narrow constraints of the two-party system, the limits of the current set up are increasingly apparent. Just a few months ago, it was shaping up to be a snoozefest between yet another Bush and another Clinton. However, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump—and above all, the American electorate—had other ideas.
Power Concedes Nothing Without a Struggle
In this epoch of capitalist crisis, it is only a short step from an amorphous striving for basic rights and modest reforms to drawing fully revolutionary conclusions.
Bernie Sanders and the 2016 Presidential Election
Bernie’s decision to run for the Democratic Party’s nomination has shaken up the status quo. To understand what Sanders represents, we must examine his program and strategy.
Baltimore, Bernie Sanders, and the Brewing Revolution
Editorial for Socialist Appeal No. 88
With the heinous murder of Freddie Gray, the #BlackLivesMatter movement came roaring back to life. Tens of thousands of people again flooded streets across the country to protest against racism and police brutality. These once-routine and largely unrecognized murders are now churning up powerful forces long dormant in the womb of society. The movement expresses the deep-seated discontent of several generations of Americans who have been sold out and betrayed by a system they were led to believe should work for everyone, but which in reality only works for a tiny minority. As increasing numbers of Americans draw the conclusion that it’s not just a few rotten apples in this or that police department, but a system diseased and rotten to its core, the tragic death of yet another young black man at the hands of the state was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
How to Fight Austerity and Win
Editorial for Socialist Appeal Number 87
In a world bleak with news of ISIS, Boko Haram, and the never-ending murders of unarmed black men by the police, Europe offers more than a glimmer of excitement and genuine hope. The election of Syriza in Greece has electrified the world. Podemos in Spain is shaking up politics-as-usual in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy. By taking the global struggle against austerity to the next level, Greek and Spanish workers are showing the way forward. However, these political parties didn’t arise in a vacuum. They are the result of a protracted process of crisis and class struggle, of wave after wave of strikes and social movements, the testing of traditional leaders and organizations, of trial and error, small victories and big defeats. In short, they are the result of life experience itself.
The War on Terror and the Terror of War
Editorial for Socialist Appeal 86. Marxists have long explained that imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism are two aspects of the same reactionary phenomenon—the decay and decline of capitalism—which threatens to take the whole of humanity down with it.
The Communist: The Voice of America’s Communist Generation
The Communist is the official newspaper of the party of the Revolutionary Communists of America. It is different from any other publication you’ll find in the US today. Behind this newspaper, there’s a vast network of communist activity from coast to coast. It is a tool for organizing in the streets, at protests and strikes, for building communist cells in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and campuses.
The RCA is on a mission to carry Bolshevism into the political arena of a country that’s ripe for it. Yes, we’re Bolsheviks living in the digital age, and we also use social media and our podcast to spread the communist program. But we’re not the kind of internet leftists who stay inside and “do politics” online. That’s why we need something we can carry with us into the streets and put into people’s hands. The physical paper is an instrument for building a real-life organization—a genuine Communist Party of fighters.