Unite Left!

Press Release

2012-02-22T21:02:00.001-05:00

The following is our news release on the petition demanding ballot access for Stephen Durham and Peta Lindsay. This is targeted to newspapers in the Pougheepsie-Kingston region of upstate New York.

NEWS ADVISORY

For Immediate Release

433 Concerned Citizens Sign "Bowen: List All Candidates for Peace and Freedom Primary" petition

On February 8th, Kenny Brofman of Hopewell and Schuyler Kempton of Poughkeepsie began a petition aimed at Debra Bowen, the California Secretary of State. The petition, demanding that Bowen list all candidates on the Peace and Freedom Party presidential primary was inspired by the exclusion of NYC-based Stephen Durham from that primary. Durham is the NYC director of the Freedom Socialist Party and will be in Poughkeepsie to give a talk and attend a film screening hosted by Brofman and Kempton's organization Unite Left! on March 9th.

The petition, now up to 433 signatures, was dropped off on one occasion by members of Durham's Freedom Socialist Party at the Secretary of State's office. Once the petition reaches 1,000 signatures, activists hope to hold a meeting with Debra Bowen to present the petition and discuss the issue. Notable signatories include philosopher Noam Chomsky and former Salt Lake City mayor and PFP presidential candidate "Rocky" Anderson. Anderson announced in the comments section of the petition that if the other four candidates were not placed on the ballot, he would remove himself from it.

The Peace and Freedom Party was formed in 1968, and its candidates have never been removed from their primary ballot. Although one of the removed candidates for office, Peta Lindsay, is under 35 years of age (and thus ineligible to serve as president), a previous court case won by Bowen (Keyes v. Bowen) determined that it was the right of the parties to determine who to have on their primary ballot. The Peace and Freedom Party has, in the past, nominated candidates under 35 years of age. Lindsay is qualified to appear on the ballot in all other respects, and Stephen Durham is qualified in all respects, including eligibility to serve as president (he is over 35 and was born in the United States).

The petition was created on the website SignOn.org and states, "List all declared candidates for the Peace and Freedom Party presidential nomination--Stephen Durham, Stewart Alexander, Peta Lindsay, and Rocky Anderson--on their primary ballot."

The petition description is as follows:

36 years, the California Secretary of State has listed the majority of candidates on the ballots for minor party primaries. However, in this presidential election, Debra Bowen, California Secretary of State, has excluded two of the candidates.

We call on Debra Bowen to list all four of the declared presidential candidates--Stephen Durham, Stewart Alexander, Peta Lindsay, and Rocky Anderson--on the primary ballot.

To read the petition go to: http://signon.org/sign/bowen-list-all-candidates

Momentum

2012-02-19T11:49:00.001-05:00

We are up to 400 signatures. However, we are still 600 signatures short of tour goal for the end of the month, 1,000 signatures. Today is the February 19th. That means that we have 10 days to complete that goal. That adds up to over 50 signatures a day, which is significant. However, we haven't given up. We only need momentum. One breakthrough, one story in the media, one more high-profile signatory, one successful e-mail chain all have the potential to put us over the edge. Within the next several days, we will be sending out letters to the editor of various California newspapers in an effort to put the pressure on Debra Bowen, California Secy. of State, to list all Peace and Freedom Presidential candidates on their primary ballot. We will include the URL of the Peace and Freedom Party and this blog, both of which feature links to the petition. If anyone reading this has any contacts to media outlets, please contact them with a tip to this story. You can also write your own letter to the editor. This is a story about California politics that has national implications. It is about ballot access for minor parties and about the legitimacy of socialist candidates for office. I am proud to say that "Rocky" Anderson, former mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah (and one of the candidates who has managed to get on the Peace and Freedom Party ballot) has signed our petition saying that if all candidates are not placed on the ballot, he will remove himself from it. This is a powerful, brave move by Anderson and one which may have serious results.

-See the sidebar to the left of this screen for other ways to contact Bowen directly.
-If you haven't signed this petition already, sign here
-If you haven't sent this petition on to friends, please do.

Signature #353: Noam Chomsky Signs On

2012-02-16T11:43:00.004-05:00

Noam Chomsky became the 353rd signature on our petition for ballot accessibility after we e-mailed him explaining the situation. Chomsky is perhaps the foremost critic of U.S. foreign policy and among the most notable intellectuals of the modern era to abandon the ivory tower and fight for the rights of workers through rallies, civil disobedience, and yes, petitions. We appreciate the support and ask for others to please sign on to our petition if you have not already. Thank you.

350! Petition for Ballot Access Ends First Week

2012-02-15T21:06:00.001-05:00

As we had urged, our goal of 300 signatures was indeed reached by the end of yesterday, Valentine's Day, in our petition protesting ballot exclusion reached 300 signatures. Now, as we have entered he second week of the petition, we have gathered 352 signatures. Our goal is to gather 1,000 signatures by the end of February. Only you can make it happen. Sign here

300 Signatures by Valentine's Day?

2012-02-13T12:30:00.003-05:00

There is a point in time when the increase in petition signatures crawls to a snail's pace, and an extra organizing push is needed to reach whatever goal is set. I think it is fair to say that we've reached that point in our petition demanding ballot access for all declared PFP presidential candidates on their presidential primary ballot. After a solid first 48 hours, we have slowed down as we are closing down the petition's first week. Right now we have 260 signatures, by any measure a great achievement. However, we are aiming for at least 1,000 petitions before our friends in California present the signatures to Debra Bowen, the California Secretary of State. We are only 1/4th of the way there. So, our next goal is to get 300 signatures by the end of tomorrow the 14th of February, Valentine's Day. Sign now.

200! Petition for Ballot Access Reaches 3rd Goal

2012-02-11T10:17:00.002-05:00

So here we are, in the petition's fourth calendar day, at 206 signatures. Those who have signed are:
-Stewart Alexander: Socialist Party USA presidential candidate, among the two presidential hopefuls still on the Peace and Freedom Party ballot
-Richard Winger: Editor of Ballot Access News, which has reported on this story on two occasions.
-David McReynolds: 2-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party USA (1980, 2000) and former co-chair of War Resisters International. McReynolds was the first openly gay man to run for U.S. President.
-C.T. Weber: State chair of the Peace and Freedom Party
-Casey Peters: Former National Secretary of the Peoples Party, current interim secretary of the Peace and Freedom Alliance
-Kevin Akin: Interim chair of the Peace and Freedom Alliance
-Doug Barnes, Chair of the Freedom Socialist Party
-199 other people committed to electoral fairness
Add your voice today

We have a goal of reaching at least 1,000 signatures before presenting them to Debra Bowen, the California Secretary of State. It's going to be a long slog toward that goal, but we are prepared to put in the work to get there. However, Unite Left! is run only by two individuals. The wonderful thing about petitions is that those who scream and yell and write pages upon pages get to list their name once: just like everyone else. That's why it is impossible for us to do this on our own. We need your support

Gaining Ground

2012-02-10T09:24:00.002-05:00

My friends, we are gaining ground. Our petition has nearly a hundred fifty signatures, and that number is rising. People from across the country are signing on. We were mentioned in an article in the Sacramento Bee. Unite Left! wasn't mentioned by name, but the campaign was. We have about two paragraphs at the very bottom of this article. A second article has been written on ballot-access.org. With our petition gaining signatures as I type this, I can tell that we will be noticed. Stephen Durham sent us an email saying that he heard the LA Times might write an article on the petition and the campaign.

If you have not yet signed the petition, please, sign on to our campaign for freedom and democracy. One person is one person. Two people make a meeting. Three make a committee. Four make an organization. Ten can make a stand. Twenty can join them. Fifty people is a movement. One hundred fifty people is a springboard for the hundreds that will join them in signing a petition to send to the California Secretary of State to tell her that she needs to include all valid candidates on the ballot for the President of the United States!

100! Petition for Ballot Accessibility Reaches 2nd Goal

2012-02-09T19:09:00.004-05:00

Sign Here Thanks in large part to the work being done by the Peace and Freedom Party and the Freedom Socialist Party, our petition demanding that all four declared Peace and Freedom Party candidates be placed on their presidential primary ballot has reached 100 signatures, reaching our 2nd goal. Our next goal is 200 signatures, and we need your help to make this happen: Sign here

Petition for Ballot Accessibility Reaches 1st Goal

2012-02-09T14:12:00.002-05:00

Sign here
The petition written by Unite Left! in support of getting the Durham/Lopez and Lindsay/Osorio campaigns on the PFP Presidential primary ballot in California has reached its first goal of 50 signatures within the first 24 hours of its launch. The latest post on the Peace and Freedom Party website copies the text of this petition and the PFP has spearheaded the campaign demanding that all four candidates be placed on their presidential primary ballot. The current goal for signatures is 100, and we need your support to make this goal a reality. Sign here

This is Ridiculous!!!

2012-02-08T13:43:00.002-05:00

I received a troubling email just now from Kevin Akin of the Peace and Freedom Party. Rather than try and paraphrase it, I feel that the only way to convey the gravity of it's contents is to post the text here.

PEACE AND FREEDOM PARTY CALIFORNIA STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

MEDIA RELEASE February 8, 2012

SECRETARY OF STATE LIST OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES CALLED "UNLAWFUL"

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has given no explanation to the party's state chair for omitting two of the four presidential candidates in the Peace and Freedom Party from the primary ballot. Peace and Freedom Party State Chair C.T. Weber of Sacramento calls the omission "unlawful," and the omitted candidates are protesting the decision.

In a statement issued today, party chair Weber cites Elections Code sections that specify how presidential primary candidates are supposed to be selected by the Secretary of State, and suggests that code sections covering other parties may have improperly been applied to the Peace and Freedom Party candidates. He also cites a failure by the Secretary of State to consult party county chairs, as specifically required in the Elections Code, and accuses Bowen of failing to consider as required by law the letter submitted to her by C.T. Weber on behalf of the Peace and Freedom Party State Executive Committee that listed all four candidates for inclusion. "No Secretary of State has ever overruled our party's report listing our primary candidates," says Weber, "until this mistaken decision by Secretary Bowen."

In the list announced Monday night, Bowen included Stewart Alexander and Rocky Anderson on the ballot, but omitted Peta Lindsay and Stephen Durham. Weber was unable to get an explanation when he went to the Secretary of State's Sacramento office the next morning, and reports that officials in the office refused to divulge what criteria Bowen used to make her choices, who was present at the meeting where the criteria were developed, and whether Bowen herself was present at the meeting.

Richard Becker of San Francisco, a spokesman for the Peta Lindsay campaign, calls the omission of her name "absolutely unjustifiable under the law." Candidate Stephen Durham of New York City says "I strongly object to the attempt by the California Secretary of State to steal away the rights of those who want to vote for a bona fide socialist feminist candidate for president."

The Secretary of State may add to her list after its announcement, and Weber urges her to do so. "Our voters are seriously considering four candidates, and they deserve to have the Secretary of State follow the law and list all four on the primary ballot," he says.

For further information: C.T. Weber (916) 320-9186 (cell); (916) 422-5395 (home)

STATEMENT OF C.T. WEBER, PEACE AND FREEDOM PARTY CALIFORNIA STATE CHAIR

February 8, 2012

Late on February 6th Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office released her list of candidates for President of the United States who would appear on the primary election ballots of the various parties in the presidential preference section. Breaking the precedent of the previous 36 years, this list for the first time omits many or most of the candidates reported to her by the state chairs of some of the political parties, including two of the four candidates that I reported to her were found by our State Executive Committee to be serious seekers of the Peace and Freedom Party nomination. (While Stewart Alexander and Rocky Anderson were listed, Stephan Durham and Peta Lindsay were omitted.)

Visiting her office yesterday, I found that her staff was determined to keep secret the criteria used by the Secretary of State in selecting her choices for the ballot, refused to tell me who attended the meeting at which the criteria were determined, refused to tell me whether Bowen was present at that meeting, and refused to justify in any way her omission of candidates who are clearly serious about obtaining the Peace and Freedom Party nomination, and generally considered serious candidates by party activists (and by their opponents). I was told, to my astonishment, that Bowen could list any names she pleased without any logical criteria at all. This is not what it says in the elections code.

In fact, the Elections Code (section 6720) states that the Secretary of State shall include the names of candidates recognized throughout California as active candidates for the Peace and Freedom Party nomination for President. All four of the names submitted are in fact those of candidates who are recognized, and have some support, from all areas of California, as well as various other parts of the country. This may not be apparent from reports in the commercial media, but Peace and Freedom Party activists have never depended on the commercial media for their information about presidential candidacies, as the commercial media rarely mention our candidates at all. The publications of various groups on the left, the blogs and websites and e-mail lists used by those on the left to communicate with each other, and communication at meetings and rallies through word-of-mouth and leaflets, are the "media" used by Peace and Freedom members to learn about the various candidates who seek our presidential nomination.

It appears possible that the Secretary of State may have unlawfully developed a list of criteria for selecting recognized candidates that is the same for candidates in all parties. In fact, the criteria in the election code differ for each party. For example, coverage in the news media is a legal criterion in the American Independent Party (EC section 6520), but is purposely omitted in the Peace and Freedom Party section of the code. Qualifying for funding under the Federal Elections Campaign Act is included in the criteria for the Democratic Party (EC section 6041), but is purposely omitted in the Peace and Freedom Party section of the code. The unjustifiable secrecy being maintained around the Secretary of State's list of criteria may conceal the mistaken and unlawful development of a common list of criteria for all parties, and if this is the case, the Secretary of State should come clean, and admit the mistake, while adding the improperly omitted candidates to the list for the ballot.

The Elections Code (section 6721) provides that the Secretary of State shall ask the State Chair and the County Chairs of the Peace and Freedom Party for information regarding presidential candidates, and states that any information they wish to submit "will be considered by the Secretary of State." In fact, in 2012, the Secretary of State failed to make this request of the various County Chairs, although their names and contact information are available to her, and obviously failed to consider the information submitted by the State Chair on behalf of the State Executive Committee of the party. This is not a choice available to the Secretary of State under the law, but is a lapse and a failure to follow the law.

While those omitted may circulate petitions among Peace and Freedom Party voters to have their names added, this is a serious burden that is not supposed to be imposed on generally recognized candidates. It is highly unfair to list two of the recognized candidates, but force the other two of them to put in substantial work and money to obtain the primary ballot access the first two have without this work and expenditure.

The Elections Code (section 6722) states that the Secretary of State may add to her announced selections after the announcement is made. I strongly urge Secretary of State Bowen to consider the information now being submitted to her office to demonstrate that all four of the candidates reported to her by our party as serious candidates are indeed serious candidates, and announce at the earliest possible date the addition of the two omitted candidates to the list of those who will appear on the ballot.

I further urge Secretary of State Bowen, who was elected and re-elected as the candidate who would make the functioning of her office more transparent, to release her criteria for selecting candidates for the presidential preference primary, the names of those present when those criteria were developed, and how those criteria were used to select two but omit two others on the list submitted by the Peace and Freedom Party's elected leadership. -C.T. Weber, California State Chair, Peace and Freedom Party

Sign our petition demanding that all declared candidates be put on the PFP presidential primary ballot

Thirteen Hundred Dollars

2012-02-07T14:45:00.001-05:00

A few months ago, I went to the emergency room. Don’t worry, I’m fine, I just got something in my eye. All better now. Anyway, just the other day I found the emergency room bill on the kitchen table. Before insurance, the bill was just over thirteen hundred dollars. That’s ridiculous. Many of the people in this country don’t actually have health insurance. So how, in the name of God, are they supposed to pay for emergency room visits? Do people just not go to the emergency room for fear they can’t afford it?

I told you the bill before insurance—but even after insurance the bill was still almost one thousand dollars. This is ridiculous. Even if you have insurance, you still need to be relatively wealthy to be able to afford an emergency room visit. This is a world where medicine can do miracles. Is it fair to deny people those miracles because of monetary constraints?

We need to change the system dramatically. America has the best doctors in the world—but it is only available to a select few. We can treat almost any disease, nowadays, but only if you have the money to afford it. Our society, whether knowingly or otherwise, values the life of a rich person more than it does a poor person. I have no doubt that most of us are oblivious to this fact, for I have no doubt that if people realized this, they would do something.

The income disparity in this country extends to all areas of life—disparities in the standard of living, representation in government, and, now, ability to afford medicinal care that can sometimes be much needed. How, I ask you, how can we claim to be the most advanced, the best, one of the most civilized countries in the world when so sickeningly many of our citizens cannot afford to go to the emergency room when they’re hurt?

What we need in this country is not a private system, run by corporations and extremely wealthy individuals, but a public system, a sort of Medicare-for-all. I don’t just mean giving the poor people government-sponsored healthcare, I mean giving everyone, both the rich and the poor, free, government-provided health insurance.

Republicans in Congress will tell you that Obamacare will ruin America. They are lying. Obamacare is helping, but it is not helping enough. We can do so much more, if we would just let the government pay for healthcare. There is one simple reason why a government can provide a better healthcare system than a company—a company’s job is to take care of its profits, while a government’s job is to take care of its people.

Thirteen hundred dollars for a few hours in the ER and a bottle of eye-drops—a little much, don’t you think? Certainly too much for many people to pay. So why can’t we make it free?

Massacre: Syria Blasts Homs with Heavy Artillery

2012-02-06T20:05:00.001-05:00

In what the BBC is calling "the fiercest attack yet," the Syrian government continues to pound the restive city of Homs. International organizations like the United Nations were build to prevent these crimes against humanity from occurring. However, the United Nations is essentially powerless as a veto condemning the Syrian regime was rendered useless thanks to a double-veto on the part of Russia and China. Human rights organizations estimate the death toll in Syria to have broken the 7,000 mark. The U.N. stopped taking track at 5,400 deaths due to the difficulties in getting an accurate number. Despite these despicable abuses, Syria is not a primary issue for Western nations, not being oil rich in the manner that Libya is. However, China and Russia are blatantly content with the Assad regime, and will refuse to let the international community "interfere" with the bloody civil war that is breaking out. However, blood spilled in a civil war is usually one-sided, and the side that escapes with the least bloodshed is usually those in power at the beginning of the conflict. In plain English, the Syrian rebels are being crushed. The death toll could reach 10,000 in a matter of days. Assuming that Russia or China do not experience a change of heart, that number could reach 100,000 before the international community moves a finger. We must state this clearly and boldly: China and Russia are responsible for 7,000 deaths and could be responsible for a multiple of this number within weeks if they do not act NOW.

Unite Left! Formally Affiliates with the Peace and Freedom Alliance

2012-02-05T16:43:00.000-05:00

On Friday, we submitted our request to be the sixth affiliate of the new Peace and Freedom Alliance, a socialist coalition working towards a united leftist electoral action. The representatives of the other five affiliates (the Freedom Socialist Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Peace and Freedom Party of California, Socialist Alternative, and Socialist Organizer) unanimously accepted us this morning. We want to show our gratitude to the Alliance and its members for accepting us and want to assure our readers that we will bring a strong socialist voice to the Alliance, representing the ideologies of democratic socialism, Trotskyism, humanism, and socialist feminism. The time for a divided, sectarian left is over. The time for left unity is here.
Peace and Freedom Alliance Website

Hell on Earth: Assad's Massacre in Homs

2012-02-04T12:06:00.001-05:00

On February 2nd, 1982, the Syrian army crushed a rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood with a brutal massacre, said to be the worst in Syria's modern history. Nearly 30 years to the day, on February 3rd, 2012, Bashar al-Assad "murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens," according to the U.S. president Barack Obama. This is the worst assault on the Syrian people since the uprisings began in early 2011. However, the allegation by the Syrian opposition of this massacre is being flatly denied by the Syrian government in spite of nearly indisputable evidence. Although the U.N. Security Council meets to day to discuss the situation in Syria, Russia, one of five permanent members of the council, continues to refuse demanding a regime change in Syria. In this respect, Russia stands along side states like Iran that have refused demanding change in Syria. Both states are under fire from an opposition movement that, unless radical reform occurs, will undoubtedly cause a regime change soon. Thousands of Russians marched in Moscow yesterday against the regime. However, the regime is still currently in place, and the international community must continue to push Russia towards reversing their position on Syria. China, another authoritarian country, is also reluctant to support change in Syria, and we must push their government as well.
More coverage:
Live Blog (Al Jazeera): http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/Syria
New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/world/middleeast/syria-homs-death-toll-said-to-rise.html?_r=1&hp
BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16883911

Unite Left! Endorses Marsha Feinland for Senate

2012-02-03T19:53:00.003-05:00

Today we'd like to announce our endorsement for a candidate for Marsha Feinland, a candidate for Senator in California endorsed by the Peace and Freedom Party. Feinland is a strong socialist who has experience in electoral politics from her 2008 senatorial run and 1996 presidential run. She has served on the rent stabilization board in Berkley, California and has appeared on Opposition Radio (which ran as the internet radio voice of Unite Left! over the summer/fall of 2011) on two occasions. California has what is referred to as a blanket primary, which means that all parties primary together. Only the top two candidates are on the ballot for the general election. This means that Marsha Feinland has, to put it lightly, an uphill battle to even appear on the general election ballot. However, change comes at unusual times, and the past year has been a highly unusual and inspiring year. Let's take this revolutionary spirit to the ballot box and organize for the Feinland campaign.
Get Involved: E-mail the Feinland campaign at feinlandforsenate@gmail.com
Website: http://feinlandforsenate.org

The Oakland Issue

2012-02-01T20:17:00.000-05:00

An article on the Alternet website today stated that for #OWS to maintain its legitimacy, it must disavow the "violent tactics on display at Occupy Oakland." This article refers to the bad scene this weekend when, as I understand it, occupiers responded to the police bombardment of their ad-hoc commune by marching around, some attempting to occupy a YMCA and some busting glass and damaging property at the Oakland City Hall. Unite Left! has a few scattered thoughts:
1. Property damage is inexcusable as is violence in any form. The violence that was on display cannot be considered self-defense. This certainly must be condemned.
2. Occupy Oakland has not explicitly endorsed property damage and violence as an acceptable tactic in the "diversity of tactics" model adopted by the occupiers. This is their statement:

"when confronted by police, some people may want to attempt to have calm conversations with them, urging them to be non-violent some people may want to sit down in front of lines of police, some people may want to express their anger by yelling at the police, some people may want to attempt to remove police barriers some people may want to disrupt traffic or banks, some people may prefer to remain on the sidewalk"

While yelling at the police is sure to accomplish absolutely nothing, all other methods discussed here are within the boundaries of traditional civil disobedience. Because of this, it is difficult to condemn Occupy Oakland as a group
3. A further reason why it is difficult to condemn Occupy Oakland as a group is because it has become one of the most powerful and active #OWS hotspots around the country.However, it is clear that it is now, in large part, controlled by those who lack a clear vision of how to go about revolutionary change. Our message to them is that a revolution does not come about by breaking windows.

Anarchism: A Philosophy Without an Endgame Breeds Violence
The people who have gone around breaking windows and engaging in violence are being grouped together as anarchists. It is unclear whether or not this is actually true, but there are historical precedents of anarchists engaging in these tactics (referred to as Black Bloc tactics in the Alternet piece), such as at the 1999 WTO protests. Violence should not be considered synonymous with anarchism, and anarchists should not be slandered because of it. I have, at various times, self-identified as an anarchist of some variety. However, it was during one of these anarchist periods that I spray painted the circled A that is the symbol of anarchism on my school's wall. In the end, one of the school's low-waged faculty members was obliged to play custodian and wipe it off the wall for no extra pay. The message of anarchism became a joke and I actually did harm to working people. Violence and destruction are expressions of anger when anger is not expressed through the constructive means of organizing: organizing through building a Party, organizing through meeting with people, organizing through peacefully protesting, perhaps even organizing through writing a blog. Anarchism doesn't believe that politics can accomplish anything, anarchists take the position that building a revolutionary party is wrong. But how can it be? What can be wrong about a close-knit group of activists organizing events and outreach, composing theory, and running candidates for office? Furthermore, what does the loose, leaderless, demand-less, consensus model have that is better? I respect anarchist theoreticians such as Noam Chomsky and, to use an earlier example, Rudolph Rocker. They have worked within organizations and have used revolutionary labor unions as a substitute for the revolutionary party. This substitute has proved historically effective (think I.W.W.) However, the structureless, consensus model that promotes the "tyranny of the minority" is no substitute and neither is violence.

An Open Letter to Putin's Russia On Syria and Democracy at Home

2012-02-01T11:40:00.003-05:00

The Russian pseudo-democratic regime headed by the United Russia party faced unprecedented opposition from demonstrators in the waning days of 2011. Now, while Vladimir Putin attempts to retake the presidency and legitimize himself as the leader of a democratic nation. However, any pretense of credibility has been smashed by Russia's continuing support of the murderous Assad dictatorship. We call on the representatives of Russia at the United Nations to support a resolution proposed by Morocco for the U.N. Security Council demanding that Assad step down from power. If Russia, under the control of the United Russia party, can renounce Assad perhaps they will understand that true workers democracy is essential at home. The time of the Stalinist authoritarianism is over, as is the time of neo-liberal policies which have been pushed since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Stop the Deportation of Yanelli Hernandez

2012-01-30T22:31:00.002-05:00

http://action.dreamactivist.org/yanelli/
Yanelli Hernandez came to the United States when she was 13 years old. Now, despite attempting to commit suicide twice while detained. Ms. Hernandez was a working woman before being detained, working in an aircraft assembling plant. She had dreams to become a veterinarian or work with children in social services. However, she is now scheduled to be deported to Mexico tomorrow. Her dreams would be crushed. Please sign this petition call ICE demanding that she stays in the United States. It's now or never.

http://action.dreamactivist.org/yanelli/

2000 Views!

2012-01-30T11:56:00.001-05:00

Recently, we hit 2000 views on Unite Left! We’ve been running for around nine months now. Obviously we’d love to have gotten more views in that time, but 2000 is, honestly, more than I’d hoped for when we started out. When I last checked, we were at 2051. We (Schuyler and I) started as what I figured to be two teenagers with a shared dream, a rather common idealism, and a rather uncommon stubbornness. We both knew that we wouldn’t give this thing up, and we haven’t. We’ve come far since then. We’ve sat down with a man who’s now running for President. We’ve reached 2051 people (probably the same people more than once, but still). We’re realizing that we might actually have some sort of influence now. There have been times when it seemed useless. There were days when we only got one view. There were days when we got none at all. But there were days when we got thirty views. Or forty. Or fifty. There were even some days when we got sixty or seventy views. We both lost hope at some point. At times, that dream that we shared almost faded.

But thanks to you—our viewers—we’ve managed to hang on to it. Seeing our numbers of views rise. This month—January—is a record for the number of views. 391 people looked at our blog this month. People from across the globe read our words—from America, from Israel, from France, from Russia, from Nicaragua, from China, from Taiwan, from Germany, from the United Kingdom, from Ukraine, from Italy, from Turks and Caicos, and from many more places that don’t show up on our stats page. And that’s just this month. Over the last nine months, even more people from even more places read when Schuyler and I have written and posted on the web.

Now, we’ve come far on our own. But we can’t go much farther without help. Please, become a contributor. Write one article, or write one a week, it doesn’t matter. Or tell your friends. Tell everyone you know about us. Email people links to our articles. If you live near Poughkeepsie, come to our events. We’re showing a movie on March 9^th, at Poughkeepsie Day School. We’ll keep writing, we’ll keep updating the blog. But it takes you—the viewers—to actually make it worth anything.

400 Arrested as Oakland Occupiers 'Move In'

2012-01-29T17:19:00.002-05:00

When occupiers moved into a vacant lot in Oakland last night, they were met with vicious police backlash. The occupiers then broke into City Hall and tried to occupy a YMCA. The current estimated arrest count is 400. Actions in solidarity with Occupy Oakland will take place tonight nationwide. This struggle marks the return to prominence of the #OWS demonstrations after al lull around the holiday season. Unite Left! stands in solidarity with the occupiers and with the 99%.

From the Archives: Raya Dunayevskaya, "The Roots of anti-Semitism"

2012-01-28T18:54:00.000-05:00

Source: Marxists Internet Archive

Raya Dunayevskaya. 1960

The roots of anti-Semitism

Source: The Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Marxist-Humanist Archives October 1999;

Proofed: and corrected by Chris Clayton 2006;

Editor’s note: The recent shooting spree against Jews, Blacks and Asians in Illinois by neo-Nazi activist Benjamin Smith, the burning of two synagogues in northern California by individuals who had passed out flyers supporting Serbia's war against Kosova, and the attack on a Jewish community center in Los Angeles by another neo-Nazi this summer all testify to a terrifying growth of racism and anti-Semitism in U.S. society. As part of our response to this development, we here publish a 1960 article by Raya Dunayevskaya which was written shortly after an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in Germany and the U.S. It originally appeared in NEWS & LETTERS, February 1960.

The most fantastic of all the current anti-Semitic acts occurred not in Cologne, Germany, but in Detroit, USA. The self-styled teenage "fuehrer" of the group that smeared swastikas on synagogues is the son of a teacher at the University of Detroit.

This instructor in the ways of democracy had the gall to say that he "didn't know" that playing with Nazi uniforms and insignia would have any worse effect on his son than playing at being cowboy, especially since he had told him that "the enemy now was the hammer and sickle."

The so-called "minister of war" in that American Nazi group is the son of a policeman.

This group of juvenile delinquents – who were not sent to a house of correction, but given back to the custody of their parents – was organized fully four years ago by the older brother of the "fuehrer," who has since become a guardian of democracy where he is stationed – in Germany.

The Army issued a statement that it would "immediately" investigate whether the soldier had any connection with the Cologne outrage. At the same time the press displayed such tender feelings in the whole matter that not only were the names of the teenagers not revealed, but neither were those of the parents or the soldier.

That this contrasts sharply with the practice followed when a Negro moves into a white neighborhood is made the more blatant by the fact that all this has occurred in a neighborhood adjoining the one that two years ago saw adult hooligan attacks on Mrs. Watkins' home. Behind every so-called juvenile delinquent stands a respectable adult with all the prejudices of decadent capitalist society.

On both Sides of the Iron Curtain

Lest we forget that the Allies no sooner won the war than they began to staff their administrations with former Nazis, let me say that the Army would do better than investigate that single Detroit soldier if it looked at its own top brass.

I refer not only to the American Army, but to the four occupying powers, including Russia.

Where, a decade after the Allied victory, "the loser" Nazi General, Spiedel, can become the head of NATO, on the other side of the Iron Curtain the Jews have gone through everything from the purges of Stalin's era to the era of Khrushchev which permits publications that rival the forged "Protocols of Zion."

(See articles entitled "Behind the Screen of Zionism" in SOVREMENNYI VOSTOK, Nov. and Dec. 1957, and "The Priests of the God Jehovah" in PRIKARPATSKA PRAVDA, Sept. 24, 1958. These are translated, and others of like nature summarized, in the Sept. 14, 1959 issue of THE NEW LEADER.)

The fact that Khrushchev took quick advantage of the present reappearance of anti-Semitism in Adenauer Germany to point to a recurrence of Nazism and ask for "no confidence" in West Germany is pure and cheap politics. Not that Adenauer can be absolved of responsibility, but he is not alone. All the occupying powers in Germany, including Russia, are responsible for the re-establishment of the Krupp empire which nourished and sustained Nazism. And it is now doing its own type of flirtation with Russian orders for "peaceful" goods.

Class and Race

It matters not which of the capitalist powers won, and which lost, the minority problem remains the open sore. This is due not only to the fact that the ruling class needs a "scapegoat" for their crime of never being able to solve a single fundamental problem in war or in peace. Nor is it due only to the fact that the perpetuation of exploitation follows the old maxim of divide and rule. Basic as these two factors are, they are not the whole truth.

UNDER THE OPEN SORE OF THE PERSECUTION OF A MINORITY IS HIDDEN THE GREATER TRUTH OF EXPLOITATION – THAT THE EXPLOITERS, NOT THE EXPLOITED ARE THE MINORITY. WITHIN THIS GREATER TRUTH WILL BE FOUND THE ANSWER AS TO WHY A SPECIFIC SCAPEGOAT IS CHOSEN AT A PARTICULAR TIME AT EACH SEPARATE STAGE OF CAPITALISM'S DEVELOPMENT.

THERE ARE REASONS why the discrimination against a certain race suddenly bursts forth into the lynching of an individual Negro. There are reasons why discrimination against another race takes the form, in late 19th century France, of a single wronged individual as happened in the military conspiracy against Dreyfus, whereas in another country, like Tsarist Russia, it took the form of anti-Jewish pogroms. Whatever the match that started the conflagration, it seemed never to have reached the fantastic proportions of the extermination of a whole race. Yet the barbarous insanity of our times – the extermination of six million Jews in Nazi Germany-provoked no such unanimous outcry of horror as the single Dreyfus case. Why?

The Depression, which sounded the collapse of the economic system of capitalism, brought to the fore the flowering of the new element that came to life when the imperialist tentacles of monopoly capitalism reached for the spoliation of a whole continent with its belief in the "Superior Race."

Those who wish to forget that at the root of present-day apartheid South Africa was the "civilizing mission" of the white race – which meant, in fact, such horrors as the extermination of the Hottentot tribes by the Boers, of Leopold II's reduction of 20 to 40 million peaceful Congolese to eight million – are the ones who took the extermination of the Jews in Germany "in stride" – until the Nazi search for "lebensraum" meant a challenge to their own area of exploitation

At the Root: Capitalism

What the recent anti-Semitic outbreaks show is that it is impossible to destroy Nazism, the most bestial expression of capitalism, where its root, capitalism itself, flourishes. When imperialism first revealed the truth of exploitation – that it is the majority, not the "minority," that is persecuted; when it further took on the additive of color, the "white man's burden" still seemed to be outside of the "civilized, advanced country." But by the time monopoly capitalism was transformed into the totalitarian state form in Germany, it was clear enough that it meant enslavement at home. Simultaneously with the destruction of the Jews went the destruction of the labor movement, reaching its climax in the Nazi concentration camps with their crematoriums.

Lest an Adenauer be permitted to forget his silence at the extermination of a race AT THE TIME IT HAPPENED; lest an Eisenhower forget his impunity which put Nazi officers at head of a rearmed Germany; lest a Khrushchev be permitted to parade as a staunch lover of freedom and peace and protector of Jews, ^[1] let the historic record show:

(1) THAT ALL OF THEM AND THEIR ILK HELPED NAZISM, AND IN FACT THE NAZI-SOVIET PACT [OF 1939] GAVE THE GREEN LIGHT TO THE UNLEASHING OF WORLD WAR II; (2) ALL OF THEM AND THEIR ILK HELPED CAPITALISM REESTABLISH ITSELF WHEN GERMANY LOST; AND (3) PRESENTLY ALL OF THEM MARCH, THOUGH NOT IN UNISON, BUT RATHER AT OPPOSITE POLES, TOWARD THE SAME GOAL-PREPARATIONS FOR A NUCLEAR WORLD WAR III WHICH MIGHT SPELL THE END OF CIVILIZATION.

What is the Answer?

Long before the maturing of the state capitalist world in which we now live, Lenin watched the appearance of bureaucracy in the workers' state and warned of "returning backwards to capitalism." His warning – unless production and the state were run by the population "to a man," state capitalism would overtake Russia – fell on as deaf ears as his last fight against Stalin's rudeness toward minority groups.

He wrote prophetically: "Scratch some Bolsheviks and you will find Great Russian chauvinists ... I am declaring war on Great Russian chauvinism ... the same Russian apparatus, which was borrowed from Tsarism and only barely anointed with the Soviet chrism."

It remains the most telling commentary not only of present day Russia but of the whole state capitalist world in which we now live.

In contrast to genuine Marxists, liberals have never been able to face the fact of the CLASS NATURE of oppression of minorities, whether that took the individual form of the Dreyfus affair or the outright fascism of our day. When fascism first came to Italy in the 1920s, they said it could never happen in an "advanced" country; the backwardness of Italy was supposed to have produced fascism. When it came to the most technologically advanced European land – Germany – it became a question of "Prussian militarism." When the "non-military" countries by force of arms destroyed Nazi Germany, and neo-Nazism now reappears not only under "democratic" tutelage there, but is spreading to other countries, including America, then we are supposed to blame "juvenile delinquents."

THE TRUTH IS, HOWEVER, THAT THE ONE FEATURE THAT IS TRULY NEW IS THE MASS YOUTH DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST FASCISM, ESPECIALLY IN WEST GERMANY. THE PREPONDERANCE OF YOUTH IN THESE DEMONSTRATIONS SHOWS HOW DEEPLY-ROOTED IS ANTI-FASCISM AMONG THE YOUTH, ALTHOUGH THEY HAD NOT SUFFERED THE PHYSICAL TORTURES AND CRIMES AND BARBARISM OF THE NAZIS. IT IS THE PRESENT CAPITALIST WORLD WHICH IS CONSTANTLY RE-CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR FASCISM THAT THEY ARE REBELLING AGAINST.

Far from being rebels without a cause, the youth of today are rejecting this world they never made and searching for new beginnings of a truly human world.

Notes

1. The Russian Communist bureaucracy is so unbiased a "protector" of Jews that the GREAT RUSSIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA fails to note the Jewish origin of Karl Marx. At the same time THE HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION, which replaces Stalin's Short Course on the same subject in present teachings, shows more liberties with the truth on Jewish Marxists than even Stalin did. For example, it fails to include the Jewish Bund as an organization that prepared the first Congress [of Russian Marxists]. Perhaps Khrushchev considers all this "subtle." It certainly isn't the only untruth, or even a large one, compared to the fact that History has been rewritten.

A Critique of Capitalism

2012-01-28T17:05:00.002-05:00

Pure Theory

Humans do two main things in their lives:

Survive
Think

Survival in modern society refers to the individual servingsociety by working. This individual contributes to the survival of others andothers contribute to the survival of the individual. Thinking refers toanything that enters the realm of philosophy. In writing this post, I amthinking. Practicing religion is not necessarily thinking per se, but should beput into this category. In capitalist society, we are generally able tosurvive. However, survival is maximized to include fast cars and mansions forsome, and minimized to consist of ghettos and drugs for others. Ultimately,survival means work for others and consumption for ourselves. However, in thiscapitalist society, thought is also largely reduced to consumption. We consumeentertainment for entertainment’s sake, not as a means for us to think. Evencomedy is philosophy on a certain level, but it is not thought of as such. Thesubstitute for the quest of spiritual enlightenment is submission to a distantGod. Meditation, therefore, becomes prayer. Humans go through three majorphases of life in our society:

Childhood and education
Participation in workforce
Retirement

Hypothetically, our years in education and retirement couldbe used for the maximization of our philosophical and intellectual pursuits,even in our current capitalist society. However, this is rarely the case, andthe Establishment does not protest. We are taught that the essence of ourexistence is work, whereas in reality that which distinguishes humanity is ourability not only to think but to grasp truth. Meditation and the experience ofinner peace is in many respects the essence of human existence. Therefore, thetwo phases in which one does not work are undervalued. Education is thrown bythe wayside and seniors are neglected. When work is democratized, it will beseen as a necessity that we must participate in, not the essence of ourexistence. Work will be the act of lending a hand to the rest of humanity. Ifhumans do not care for each other, it is impossible to pursue thought and thequest for truth and enlightenment.

This is a crash course in pure theory, but pure theory isworthless unless it is paired with a program for action. This program is whatwe ultimately hope to develop, though hopefully this provides a coherentphilosophical framework for a new critique of capitalism very much in thetradition of the old.

Thisdoes not necessarily represent the views of Unite Left! as a whole

Why Ethnic Studies Programs Are Crucial

2012-01-27T18:31:00.001-05:00

The Tuscon, Arizona Central School District has ended its Mexican-American studies program. The school district was given an ultimatum from the state school superintendent to either close the program or face $15 million in fines. Why? The superintendent maintains that Arizona public schools cannot run programs that "promote the overthrow of the United States government," "promote resentment toward a race or class of people" or "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." Apparently educating people about the history of Mexican-Americans violates one or several of these mandates in the eyes of the superintendent. However, we must look behind the thin curtain and realize that the true rationale for this ban on ethnic studies is racially and politically motivated. History classes focus overwhelmingly on the history of the white man. Should it not be for these Mexican-American studies programs, Hispanics in Arizona schools will be faced with a program of all-white history. This ban on ethnic studies is clearly an attempt to alienate Mexican-Americans already prone to discrimination and alienation through Arizona's system of racial profiling in an attempt to deport undocumented immigrants. The end of this Mexican-American studies program is a defeat for ethnic studies and the promotion of the people's history. It delegitimizes the history of Mexican-Americans and hyper-focuses on the history of white Americans. For all these reasons, it must be opposed for those struggling for equality, justice, and truth.

Deportation: An Assault on Humanity

2012-01-26T22:59:00.001-05:00

The U.S. immigration system has historically been among the most draconian institutions of the United States. From the days when immigrants newly arrived at Ellis Island were forced to take IQ tests to see if they were fit to enter America to today, when a Mexican immigrant bound for deportation is driven to attempt suicide--twice. Yanelli Hernandez Serrano needs treatment in the United States for depression, not deportation to Mexico. When racist deportation, as opposed to amnesty, of undocumented immigrants threatens lives, when suicidal people are denied treatment while kept in detention, when sick people are neglected, when Hispanics are demonized as being lazy illegals, the immigration system in the United States becomes an assault on humanity. This is an issue of humanism, an issue of human compassion. If humanity has any of our good nature left inside us, it must revolt at this gross injustice. Sign this petition demanding that Yanelli Hernandez Serrano get treatment in the United States and stand with the community of activists demanding amnesty and humanity in our immigration system.

Leftist Politics: The Art of the Write-in Campaign

2012-01-26T18:41:00.000-05:00

Stephen Durham and Christina Lopez are running on the ticket of the Freedom Socialist Party for president and vice-president of the United Stats. However, due to the extreme difficulty of gaining ballot access, the FSP is organizing a write-in effort. Write-in campaigns are not doomed for failure; the current governor of Alaska was a successful write-in campaign after she lost the Republican nomination. However, these campaigns are undeniably difficult and the chances of success are slim. However, at this point in time, socialist presidential elections are not about winning, they are about spreading the message of socialism. Durham and Lopez will travel the nation, discussing the socialist program and socialist solutions to the problems of capitalism. The FSP will have their best opportunity to garner a significant percentage of the vote in California where the Durham/Lopez ticket is competing in the Peace and Freedom Party primary. Should they win, they will be on the ballot for a voter to check off. However, for voters in the 49 other states, for the first time ever they will have the opportunity to cast a vote for a socialist feminism by writing in Stephen Durham for President and Christina Lopez for Vice-President in 2012.

Durham/Lopez Campaign Press Release (Source: www.socialism.com):

January 26, 2012

Freedom Socialist Party launches presidential write-in campaign centered on bold working-class solutions

Presidential candidiate Stephen Durham and
running-mate Christina Lopez join UNITE HERE
Local 8's picket outside of the Hilton on Jan. 16, 2012.

This election year, the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) is running New Yorker Stephen Durham for U.S. president and Seattleite Christina López for vice president in an energetic national write-in campaign.

Says Durham, 64, "The FSP ticket is a chance for people to vote not only against something, but for something. The campaign is thrilled to be giving people a way to send a strong protest message, find new kindred souls, and strengthen our organizing together for the future we want."

Over the past three years, charges Durham, "The Democratic and Republican parties have done nothing but cooperate in forcing workers and the poor to pay the costs of the Great Recession caused by the banks and Wall Street. President Obama may play to the crowd by criticizing the 'bad apple' corporations, as he did in his State of the Union address. But the facts show that the program of corporate coddling, which creates austerity for the masses, is completely bipartisan."

Vice presidential candidate López, 43, explains the campaign's goals: "We are encouraging people to register a protest against both the unjust economic system and the rigged electoral process that keeps it in place. And we want to generate discussion and action around solutions for people's immediate survival and for changing the system for good. We know it can be done! But it means creating a grass-roots, multiracial move- ment - one that prioritizes the issues of people who are hurting most, for example immigrants, single mothers and their children, and Black teens trying to enter a dismal job market. We have great momentum from last year's spirit of rebellion to build on."

The FSP campaign platform calls for taxing corporate wealth, ending all U.S. military involvement abroad, and creating full employment through a massive public jobs program and reducing the standard workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay. The campaign also stands for bringing back and expanding social services, restoring civil liberties, and a host of other measures designed to eliminate poverty and discrimination and raise workers' standard of living.

Durham and López are respected activists with a wealth of experience gained fighting for reforms like these while popularizing socialist ideas and the need for radical change. Durham, organizer of FSP's New York City branch based in Harlem, is a gay rights pioneer with a strong union back- ground. A student and analyst of international affairs, he has traveled extensively in Latin America. López is an immigrant rights champion and the organizer for Seattle Radical Women. As organizer, she has helped lead a feminist campaign of women and men against budget cuts in Washington state for the last three years.

According to campaign manager Doug Barnes, the socialist feminist FSP is taking the unconventional route of a write-in campaign because corporate funding of the two major parties and restrictive ballot access laws stack the deck against minor parties so severely. These hurdles, he notes, are compounded by mainstream media dismissal of alternative candidates, resulting in presidential debates that almost entirely avoid topics like the social costs of war or increasing repression against political dissenters.

In one state, California, where the Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) electoral alliance already has ballot status, Durham will compete to be PFP's presidential candidate.

The Durham/López campaign launches this week with a candidate Web video, position statements, Facebook atwww.facebook.com/VoteSocialism2012, Twitter @VoteSocialism, and featured articles in the Freedom Socialistnewspaper. With the help of volunteers, the FSP will be spreading the news and ideas of the campaign widely. The Freedom Socialist 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee is planning for college and other speaking engagements, Skype presentations, fundraisers, and more activities around the country.

Freedom Socialist 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee
4710 University Way NE, Ste. 100
Seattle, WA 98105
206-985-4621
VoteSocialism@gmail.com

Notes on Today's Labor Movement

2012-01-24T18:30:00.001-05:00

The labor movement in America has been among the most inspiring movements in American history and indeed in the history of international worker's struggle. However, the labor movement has stagnated. The AFL-CIO has a near monopoly on union affiliation (the only major umbrella union is the Change to Win Federation), and nearly all active unions are engaged only in getting Democrats elected and pushing reforms urged by the Democrats. However, this is not what made unions great. Around the turn of the century, it was militant unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World union that pushed revolutionary action. Although the revolution itself was not realized, the Establishment panicked and instituted reforms such as an end to child labor, the beginning of minimum wage, etc. The age of sweatshops in America is over. However, the rights of American workers have not been more under threat than they are now for years. The Democrats will not save us. Unions need to once again be the spark that propels the workers forward. In the age of sweatshops, there were no major parties or politicians pushing reforms, the IWW had to organize for concessions to be made. However, the ultimate goal of socialists is not concessions or reforms, but workers control. One might suggest that considering that the revolution is far off, socialists should compromise and push for reforms suggested by the Democratic Party. However, serious reforms only come when unions engage in massive direct action. One surefire way to win reforms is to create a mass revolutionary movement. If the mainstream unions will not do this, radical unions such as the much smaller but still existent IWW must be supported and sustained by socialists so that they get the job done. One of the tactics favored by socialist theoreticians such as Leon Trotsky is the creation of a labor party comprising both progressives and revolutionary socialists. This is a tactic that should be supported today and will, if supported by major labor unions, ensure that the labor movement no longer relies upon the Democratic Party

A Call to Action

2012-01-23T10:38:00.000-05:00

The other day, my father received a letter from the American Heritage Foundation (for those of you who don’t know, the Foundation is a conservative think tank). This letter was ten pages long, and entirely dedicated to telling us all how awful ObamaCare is. This letter was surprisingly well written, with lines that read something like, “ObamaCare is a darkness that is slowly creeping into every crevice of our lives.”

Anyway, after reading this letter, I felt that I should post a response—a rebuttal, if you will—on the blog. The letter stated that the vast majority of Americans oppose the so-called “ObamaCare” because it is too liberal and it is an “assault on the values all Americans hold dear. This poll (CNN/ORC Poll Nov. 18-20, 2011 N=1,019 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3) states the opposite: Favor—38%, Oppose (too liberal)—37%, Oppose (not liberal enough)—14%[1]. This poll not only shows that the plurality of Americans favor the bill, but that there are many Americans that oppose the bill, not because it goes too far, but because it doesn’t go far enough. Another poll (Gallup Poll Nov 3-6, 2011 N=1,012 adults nationwide Margin of error ± 4) shows that 50% of Americans think that it is the responsibility of the government to provide healthcare for everybody, whereas 46% think that it is not, and 4% are unsure.

There are some polls that show that the plurality opposes the bill (NBC/Wall Street Journal, Pew, CBS News/New York Times), but all of these statistics are still within the margin of error—a statistical tie. Another CNN poll asked respondents, “Who do you trust more to handle major changes in the country's health care system - Barack Obama or the Republicans in Congress?” The answer—Obama 51%, Republicans 39%[2].

Public opinion (not by that much, though) favors the bill. While these statistics do not represent a landslide victory for the left, they certainly refute the statement that the “vast majority” of Americans oppose the healthcare law.

In many countries, state-run healthcare is very successful. Take Cuba, for example. Their medical system is run entirely by the government, yet the coverage is still very good. Most people have clinics in their home towns, and there are over 20 medical schools spread across the island. The life expectancy of Cuba is entirely equal to the life expectancy of the United States of America, and greater than many developed countries (S. Korea, Portugal, United Arab Emirates)[3]. The only difference is that Cubans do not have to pay for their healthcare, whereas most Americans do[4].

Many Americans are dissatisfied with the cost of healthcare. The way to solve this is not keeping the system private, but instituting a good, free, socialized healthcare system like that of Cuba, Canada, or most of Europe. I think we should live in a country where even the poorest person can afford to get sick without having to worry about how to put food on the table or pay the bills that month. Many people do not go to the doctor, even when they are hurt, because they’re afraid that they won’t be able to afford it. This system is encouraged and kept alive by both the insurance companies and Congressional Republicans, who would rather have their pockets lined by insurance companies than care for their constituents.

At Unite Left!, it is our belief that no one should live in poverty and destitution, and one of the first steps that can be taken to fix this growing problem is socializing the medical system. One might ask, how are we to pay for this? Return income tax to the Eisenhower levels. Eisenhower was a Republican, yet it was under his administration that income taxes were at their highest levels in history.

Now, with a Republican presidential field more conservative than Barry Goldwater, and more than worthy of re-airing LBJ’s “Daisy” ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63h_v6uf0Ao), it is more important than ever to construct lasting reforms before it is too late for us all. This is not just an article, not just a response to a letter sent by a conservative think tank, it is a call to action. Call your senators, call your representatives, tell them that reform is needed and that it is needed now—before a lack of healthcare claims even more lives.

[1] http://www.pollingreport.com/health.htm

[2] http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/poll-americas-opinion-of-health-care-reform-is.php

[3] http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa042000b.htm

[4] http://www.medicc.org/ns/index.php?s=11&p=0

Distrust in Gov't, CEO's, At Record Lows Worldwide

2012-01-23T10:24:00.001-05:00

It is no secret that working people around the globe are distrustful of their political and business leaders. It is also no surprise that leaders in the spheres of politics and business should simultaneously decline. After all, political leaders are inextricably tied to business leaders. This year these world leaders saw record lows according to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer. In a survey of people in 18 developed countries, the majority (47%) distrust business, while even fewer (38%) trust government. Edelman, a muse of the Establishment, is worried. They emphasize that business leaders need to re-frame business in the public eye as a force for growth and job creation. However, considering that only a minority of citizens trust business, workers are finally realizing that business leaders are only out for their own interests, not the interests of their workers. Hopefully socialists can successfully argue the point that much of the public dissatisfaction with government stems from its connection with big money. However, we must offer an alternative. If the public is distrustful of government and business, we must point out that the alternative is workers control, empowering ourselves rather than idly placing our trust in saviors, whether those saviors portray themselves to be capitalist or socialist.

Unite Left! Endorses Stephen Durham for Peace and Freedom Party Nomination

2012-01-22T18:52:00.001-05:00

On the second to last day of 2011, Unite Left! co-founders Ken Brofman and Schuyler Kempton had the pleasure of sitting down for a meeting with Stephen Durham, the New York City director of the Freedom Socialist Party. The Party had a Harlem storefront office, a real presence in the community around us. He welcomed us by offering us tea or coffee, and we proceeded to have a long discussion on the state of Leftist organization, including in the electoral arena. He told us by chance that the party was to be fielding a presidential ticket for the first time in its history, since its break-off in the 1960's from the Socialist Workers Party. The FSP is unique in its socialist feminist program and its place as a legitimate democratic vanguard party for all workers. Stephen Durham impressed us with his willingness to speak with us, and his encouragement of this site. It is our pleasure to know that he is running for president of the United States, and our pleasure to endorse him for the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party's presidential ticket in California. Durham's candidacy will be significantly boosted by occupying the PFP's ticket which won thousands of votes for its former candidate, Ralph Nader.

Leftist Politics

2012-01-22T11:48:00.001-05:00

As Republicans vote on who to elect as their presidential nominee, we saw a stark contrast between how the four competing candidates defined conservatism. Mitt Romney practically bragged about his wealth, stating that his chief opponent, Newt Gingrich, was attacking capitalism by attacking Romney's success and record of laying of workers. Of course, Gingrich was not attacking capitalism, though we will: Romney's record is a classic example of how, when companies such as Romney's Bain Capitol succeed, they will lay off workers, the opposite of what would happen in a compassionate, non-capitalist society.
The second speech of the night was by Rick Santorum, now in the bottom tier of the remaining four candidates with a third place finish last night. Santorum's speech was an appeal to the working class, highlighting what we would consider to be the false conservative argument that only through capitalism do working people have the oppurtunity to truly succeed and rise. Santorum's speech was eloquent, and he seems to be successful in appealing to white, conservative, working class people. However, the appeal ends there. Santorum shows no signs of appeal to black workers ("I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money"*) or practically any other segment of the population. He was booed in New Hampshire for comparing gay marriage to polygamy (more truthful would be the assertion that Newt Gingrich's marriage is comparable to polygamy) and will get little sympathy from unmarried mothers (Santorum's third key to staying out of poverty, as outlined in last night's speech, was marrying before having children. Apparently, should this happen in Santorum's capitalist society, the mother is left to suffer). So there you have it, even the candidate with the most working class appeal only truly speaks to Christian whites, and relies on the same capitalist opportunity rhetoric which is, for nearly all intents and purposes, inaccurate. However, it is fascinating to note that even within conservative, capitalist politics, class is very much a factor. The role of Leftists, those truly working to give workers the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is to build our case that we are the only ones who go beyond rhetoric and truly look to work for workers if put in elected office. Against us are the politics of the moment and America's two-party system. On our side is history, the fact that socialists have historically been accurate and have worked for changes long before they became mainstream. Think of Black, LGBTQ, Chicano/a, and Women's liberation. Think of minimum wage laws, ending child labor, ensuring safety at the workplace. We have had a bright past and will have a bright future. To Tomorrow.
*Rick Santorum insists he didn't actually say black people, though that seems rather dubious.
More on this story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSomc3Tptu8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzokLOUmB1c&feature=related

Working Toward a Leftist Alternative:
http://www.socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/1782

A Hopeful Perspective

2012-01-20T13:18:00.000-05:00

What a world we live in, don’t you think? Iran threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz, Gingrich says he’ll follow Andrew Jackson’s policy of killing all of America’s enemies, and it seems as if we could be plunged into the Third World War any moment. The way I see things now, when the pessimist says, “The world is a terrible place. It’s never been this bad before,” the optimist doesn’t say, “Maybe, but things will get better.” Now, the optimist says, “Are you kidding? Just be glad—this could all be so much worse.”

Well, I’m an optimist, so I fear I might depress you all by elaborating on just how lucky we are. I read in article today in the New York Times—Israel has no plans to attack Iran. Well that’s good. The worst case scenario would be Israel declaring war, America being tied by treaty and political obligation to back them up, and us getting involved in a land war in the Middle East. Another worst case scenario: There’s a coup in Pakistan. Radicals take over. They nuke India. India nukes them. We declare war. Iran attacks Israel. We attack Iran. North Korea attacks the South and Japan. China jumps in. Of course, we defend our allies in the region—namely S. Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. We’re at war with China. China and N. Korea ally with Pakistan and Iran. NATO declares war on China. Russia’s the wild card, much like Italy in World War One. After a couple of months, if MAD theory hasn’t taken effect, it’ll join the winning team. Then MAD theory will become a fact, and humankind will be obliterated. Those that survive the flames of the nuclear apocalypse will die of cold, radiation poisoning, or starvation in the following years of Nuclear Winter. The end.

In other words—some of the worst case scenarios are damn near unsurvivable. The best case scenarios are much better—World War Three will come, over water or oil or both, but not until after a successful nuclear disarmament. Humanity survives, and realizes that we need to get over our differences, fix climate change, and work together in solidarity towards a brighter future.

That’s a grim introduction, I know. But not all hope is lost, as the best case scenario is the one in which humanity survives. I’m not the type to say that the best case would be total human extinction. The best case scenario is total extinction of the ignorance and hate that corrupt even the best of us. It is important that we know that hate builds walls instead of bridges. Literal walls, as well as figurative. In Berlin, in China. People want to build a wall along the Mexican-American border. Fear, too, is the culprit. It drives us to hate. In the words of Yoda, “Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Suffering leads to the Dark Side.”

It is a vicious cycle. First, people are afraid. Then, because they fear, they hate. Because they hate someone, that someone hates and fears them in return. Then they hate and fear even more, and it goes in that cycle, until the hate and fear reach the critical level at which violence erupts. When this happens, the fear and the hate skyrocket. Violence is paid back with violence. Darkness will overcome the world, and all light and hope are infected and killed by the virus that is hate.

The hate spreads like a contagion. It infects one person, and that one person infects those around them, they infect more people, and the sickness spreads in a dark web across the world. There is nowhere that is immune. The brave and the wise try and fight it off, but they can only do so much when there are so many down with the sickness. It’s like the plague. It’s a living organism, it grows and it evolves. It clouds the vision and the mind.

I hope you know I do not mean to cast you into despair. There is hope. There is an antibiotic to cure the disease of hate. Love and forgiveness can combat hate, bravery and courage can combat fear. And if the force of that love and that bravery is strong enough, it can overcome the darkness. Maybe, by now, the sunlight is lost, but surely humankind has the skill, strength, and ingenuity to craft a flashlight? Yes, I think so. Despite the best efforts of those who would try and keep the darkness alive, stronger is the force of will of those motivated not by love of themselves, but by their passionate empathy for the whole of humanity.

No matter how dark it is, there is light. No matter how hopeless the situation seems, there is hope. No matter how insurmountable the obstacle is, there is a way around it. No matter how tall the wall, there is a ladder. No matter how wide the chasm, there is a bridge. No matter how unstoppable the force, there is an immovable object. No matter how doomed we are…humanity finds a way. Light finds a way, hope finds a way.

Perhaps some think humanity is foolish for holding on to hope when so much has tried to rip it away. I don’t think so. I think humanity needs to hold on to hope. And I don’t think humanity can possibly let go of hope, because I think hope is so deeply ingrained in the souls of humans that all the evil in the world would break upon the hope of just one person like water on rock. I think that even when the water carves a canyon out of the rock, the rock remains, marred but still there.

Humanity may be flawed, but it certainly has that going for it. And hope such as that of a hopeful person is the strongest thing in the world. The mountains will crumble, the seas will roar. Empires will rise and fall and crumble into legend. The worm will look upon the great cities and the great men and say, as he did in Lord Dunsany’s tale, “Behold, my food.” And rather than looking upon the sea, the angel will look at the soul of even the most insignificant person in the world and ask of the worm, “And can you destroy that too?”

Humanity is not a corruption, it is not a disease. Humanity is by far the most imperfectly perfect things in the world. It is perfect because it is imperfect. It can be praised because it is flawed. A perfect humanity is the worst dream of the great altruists, because then they could not work to improve humanity. It is true that humanity must be improved, but it is so flawed that it can never be perfected. All things are flawed, but some flaws can be beautiful. Many gems are as beautiful as they are because of imperfections in the crystal.

Do not despair for the imperfection of humanity. Do not despair for the darkness in the world. Rather, you should admire the way that humanity is perfect. Marvel at the light, and fight to keep it. Despairing does nothing. If you truly must fixate on the darkness, do more than mope around and contemplate on misery all day long. Do something! Get up and help the world, if you think the world is terrible. Do I think the world is a terrible place? No, I don’t. And by God, I do not intend to let it become so on my watch. You shouldn’t either.

Statement on the French Presidential Election

2012-01-19T20:32:00.001-05:00

Unite Left! supports the Left Front's Jean-Luc Melenchon for president of France. We feel that Mr. Melenchon and the Left Front poses the best leftist challenge to the social democratic Socialist Party. Furthermore, a solid performance will strengthen the Front's prospects for seats in the European Parliament as part of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left.

Stand Against Censorship

2012-01-17T22:30:00.001-05:00

Unite Left! has joined in Wednesday, January 18th historic internet blackout to protest internet censorship. Stand against SOPA and PIPA and demand the freedom of the internet in the United States and around the world.

The Socialism of the Environment

2012-01-17T09:16:00.002-05:00

Hey all. It’s been a while since I’ve posted, I know. My personal life has just been a bit messy recently. I’m back together now, so I’ll start posting once or twice a week. Anyway, I’ll shut up now. Here’s the article:

Sunday night, I went to a lecture on climate change by the Climate Reality Project. It mentioned how millions of people are being displaced by harsh weather caused by the change in climate—and how most of those are already the worst-off in society. Earthquakes in Haiti, floods in Pakistan, drought in China. In each of those cases, the ones hurt the most are often the ones who can afford to be hurt the least.

Climate change is a socialist issue. It is because you have the mega-millionaire executives of big oil companies screwing over the lower classes. In less than a hundred years, there won’t be a single country that’s not affected by a world-wide drought. And guess who’s going to be the one who, if everything stays on the track it’s on, has the all the world’s remaining water supplies? I think we all know the answer to that one.

When we do something to fix climate change, to save the world, we’re helping everyone. And what benefits everyone benefits anyone. There is no one who will not, in the long run, benefit from ending global warming. No one. Trust me, when everyone has to ration their water or risk dying of thirst, they will not be happy.

There are certainly some environmental issues that are not related to the quality of life of the people. The extinction of some ten thousand year old gecko (I mean no disrespect to antediluvian geckos, it’s just a useful example) does not concern those who mind only the life of human beings, but the earth being devoid of water most certainly does.

Now, I know this is a short article, but I didn’t have much time to write it. There will probably a longer one in a few days.

On MLK Day, the Choice is Ours

2012-01-16T13:47:00.000-05:00

The MLK Day Reader (a sample of leftist articles on the legacy of Dr. King)
http://www.care2.com/causes/cornel-west-on-mlk-jr-catastrophe-and-revolution.html?page=1
http://socialistwebzine.blogspot.com/2012/01/mlk-day-gulf-between-promise-and.html
http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/19/the-king-they-wont-celebrate

Lip Service
Once again, on Martin Luther King Jr.'s national holiday, America has a choice. Our president, expectedly, is playing lip service to King and performing community service (perhaps the day that an American president works like most Americans). However, for a man that used to quote King while in college, the policies and politics of Barack Obama have let the King's legacy down. Indeed, King's message seems as cold in the hands of Obama as it is in his stone monument on Washington's mall. However, as Howard Zinn remarked, the question is not who is in the White House, even if it is a black man who supposedly identifies himself with Mr. King, but instead who is sitting in, then in the segregated lunch counters, buses, or department stores, now in the public parks, occupying.

King and Malcolm X
In the 1960's, the greatest ideological rift in the struggle for black liberation was the issue of integration vs. separation. Even the question of non-violence vs. violence was in some ways a question of tactics, this was a basic question of theory. The seperationists, at least in the early '60's, was led by Malcolm X, the charismatic organizer for the Nation of Islam. X would later fall somewhat into the realm of the American mainstream, though he remained a figure too-hot-to-touch by the Establishment during his brief life. Martin Luther King, Jr., the figure who we celebrate today, was more moderate, a strong integrationist who largely represented Southern blacks and was himself something of a member of the Black elite. King, however, was more of a radical than he has been glossed over as, expressing a commitment to democratic socialism to those closest to him, and setting the foundations of Black Christian Leftism. His powerful acts of civil disobedience and humanistic philosophy of equality, in terms of race, sex, and wealth make him a figure of radical democracy in the tradition that would later be adhered to by black radicals such as Cornell West. However, King always believed strongly in the power of the Establishment to change itself. King was no revolutionary, and he found it impossible to reconcile Marx, whom he read as a student in college, with his strong Christian faith. Malcolm X, however, was very much a revolutionary. Above all, he was committed to the liberation of Black people, and following his break with the Nation of Islam, would employ the strategies of Third World Liberation and global Black unity to their utmost power. Malcolm, like King, was a deeply religious man, and his Muslim faith would be the guiding force in his political endeavors. The Malcolm X was never explicitly a socialist, his Organization for Afro-American Unity serves as something of a model for what the black wing of a revolutionary party might look like. In the end, should Malcolm X (assassinated in 1964) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (assassinated in 1968) have lived longer, they may have been able to work together and work towards radical democracy together.

Leftist Politics Weekly

2012-01-15T19:08:00.002-05:00

This post was originally scheduled for Tuesday the 10th of January, 2012
As Mitt Romney looks strong in the GOP presidential nomination contest and Barack Obama goes unchallenged for the nomination of the Democratic Party, several third party campaigns are heating up to provide voters an alternative to the parties and politics of capitalism espoused by the dominant two parties. This week, the new Peace and Freedom Alliance will be highlighted as an alternative to capitalist politics

Peace and Freedom Alliance
From a founding conference on the 10th and 11th of December, 2011 came an alliance of three active socialist parties and two socialist organizations to work towards to formation of a "Left presence for the 2012 election and beyond." Originally the National Organizing Committee, the brainchild of the alliance was Peace and Freedom Party of California State Central Committee. The ultimate goal of the alliance is to form a united left ballot in elections. It is unclear whether such a ballot will materialize in time for the 2012 decision. The proposed 2012 congressional campaign platform is as follows:

2012 Election Platform for US Senate and House of Representatives

*Bail out working people, not rich banks and corporations. Stop all foreclosures, evictions, repossessions and plant closings. End the privatization of public services and property. Expand public works projects to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. House the homeless. Feed the hungry. Cure and care for the ill – free heath care is a basic human right. Eliminate poverty through job guarantees, doubling the minimum wage and increasing social safety nets. Guarantee a livable income for the elderly and those unable to work. Union organizing is a right – support card check union elections. Tax the rich and their corporations to balance the budget.*

*Free public education from preschool through university, including vocational schools and retraining programs.*

*Save our planet, make the polluters pay. Soften our dependence on dirty energy (oil, coal) by converting to alternate energies like solar. Bring to an end all use of nuclear power, that cannot be made sufficiently secure and safe. Put all energy industries under public ownership. Construct a viable national public transportation system. Hold corporations responsible for disposal of toxic products and implement a hefty environmental tax on polluting corporations.*

*Equal Rights and justice for all. Immigrant workers should be guaranteed full rights, regardless of documentation. Equal pay for work of equal value. Equal marriage rights for all.
Support affirmative action. End police brutality and tear down the prison-industrial complex. Free all political prisoners. Protect women’s rights to abortion and other reproductive services.*

*Immediately end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Close all foreign bases and bring our troops home.. Promote a world free of nuclear weapons. Prosecute war criminals. Renegotiate trade agreements to protect workers and the environment in each country. Base foreign policy on equality, friendship and solidarity among all peoples.

Extra: There's No Reason for Leftists to Support Ron Paul- Socialist Worker

Conflict with Iran?

2012-01-09T11:23:00.001-05:00

The Socialist Worker's Alan Maass published a very useful article today on the news-site about the U.S. and Europe's increasingly confrontational approach with Iran. Maass makes the important point that sanctions against Iran and international pressure on the nation will work into the hands of the nation's hardline conservative leadership and against Iran's working people and its freedom movement. Unite Left! stands in opposition to sanctions and conflict Iran and supports peaceful diplomacy in keeping Iran unarmed while simultaneously drawing down nukes in the United States and its satellites such as Israel. We support the Iranian freedom movement and understand that sanctions will do nothing more than hurt the Iranian people, not weaken the regime.

Obama's Military

2012-01-05T14:56:00.003-05:00

Barack Obama has been praised by some for presenting a strategy for a smaller military budget. While it is commendable that are military will no longer be able to engage in two interminable ground wars like Afghanistan and Pakistan, the United States will remain a large presence in the Middle East where these previous two wars were fought. More disturbing still is Obama's insistence that we focus our military efforts on the Asia-Pacific region. The provocation of China is something which is sure to have negative long-term consequences. The United States should be focused on fighting off the prospects of a second Cold War, and the Obama administration is, instead, pushing the world in the direction of conflict. Barack Obama has not seriously changed U.S. capitalist policy and he has not seriously changed the U.S.'s policy of imperialism either. The priority for the United States and the global community in regard to China should be encouraging human and workers rights in the nation. increasing troop levels in Australia will not do this.Furthermore, the conflict between North and South Korea will not be helped by increasing U.S. presence in Asia, and one very practical way to keep peace between the two global superpowers (the U.S. and China) is for the two nations to approach the Korea situation with caution and prudence rather than blind support. As our wars in the Middle East winds down, Barack Obama has an unprecedented opportunity to make peace in the world rather than stir up conflict. However, his decisions have, once again, maintained the status quo of imperialism and conflict.

Unite Left! Endorses Appeal to Defend Egyptian Revolution

2012-01-04T12:33:00.001-05:00

Urgent Appeal to Occupy and All Social Justice Movements: Mobilize to Defend the Egyptian Revolution

Posted on December 19, 2011

Urgent Appeal to Occupy and All Social Justice Movements:
Mobilize to Defend the Egyptian Revolution
December 19, 2011

Endorse the statement here.

In recent days, protesters demanding civilian rule in Egypt have again been murdered, maimed and tortured by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Interior Security Forces (ISF).

The conspiracy, being brutally implemented in Egypt, is part of a global conspiracy to suffocate mass movements for socio-economic justice and is being done with direct assistance of the American government and the private interests which direct that government. We have word from friends in Egypt that SCAF, ISF and their hired thugs — armed by ongoing shipments of $1.3 billion in weapons from the U.S. government — plan to execute one by one all the leaders of the revolution, and as many activists as they can.

Accordingly, we need to ensure that people and organizers in the US and internationally are involved in closely monitoring the events unraveling in Egypt. By keeping track of the atrocities committed by SCAF and ISF, keeping track of those detained, tortured or targeted, and continuously contacting officials in Egypt and the US to demand accountability, cessation of the atrocities and justice, we can add pressure on SCAF, ISF and the forces they represent. In this way we may be able to play a role in helping save the lives of our Egyptian brothers and sisters.

Evidence of the conspiracy to execute the leaders and participants of Egyptian freedom movement, includes in very small part the following:

Sheikh Emad of Al Azhar was killed by a bullet entering his right side from short range. This was seen at first hand by witnesses known to members of our coalition. Sheikh Emad was one of a small number of Azhar Imams issuing decrees in support of the revolution. His murder was no accident.
Sally Tooma, Mona Seif, Ahdaf Soueif, and Sanaa Seif, all female friends and relatives of imprisoned blogger and activist Alaa abd El Fattah, and all known internationally for their political and/or literary work, were detained, and beaten in the Cabinet building.
A woman protesting against General Tantawi, head of SCAF, was detained and then tortured by having the letter “T” in English carved into her scalp with knives.
Detainees are being tortured while in courtroom holding pens. Two men (Mohammad Muhiy Hussein is one of them) were killed in those pens.These are only a small number of the horror stories we are hearing. And we continue to receive reports from Cairo about a massive army presence in Tahrir Square and the constant sound of gunshots.These are only a small number of the horror stories we are hearing. And we continue to receive reports from Cairo about a massive army presence in Tahrir Square and the constant sound of gunshots.

In every way, Egypt’s fight is our fight. Just like us, Egyptians are the 99%, fighting for social, political and economic justice.

The same 1% that arms the Egyptian dictatorship commits systematic violence in this country against the Occupy movement; antiwar and solidarity activists; and Arabs, Muslims, and other communities of color.

As the US Palestinian Community Network recently observed, “the same US-made tear gas rains down on us in the streets of Oakland, Cairo and Bil`in.”

Because of Egypt’s key strategic location, the fate of its revolution echoes across the world. Its success will bring us all closer to achieving economic and social justice. But its defeat would be a major blow to social justice movements everywhere, including Occupy.

In short, Egypt is key to the continued success of the Arab Revolution, and movements she has inspired.

For all these reasons, we ask Occupy and all U.S. social justice activists to join us in mobilizing to defend our Egyptian brothers and sisters by immediately organizing mass convergences on Egyptian embassies, missions, consulates, and at U.S. government offices, to demand:

Cancel all US aid and shipment of military and police materiel to Egypt!
Stop the murders, tortures and detentions!
Release all detainees and political prisoners!
Immediate end to military rule in Egypt!

Issued by (list in formation) (Individual endorsers below):

Ad Hoc Coalition to Defend the Egyptian Revolution
Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Al-Nakba Awareness Project
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice
Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians
Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Canadian Peace Alliance
Chicago Movement for Palestinian Rights (CMPR)
Circle of the Living Earth – AIWP
Coalition of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, Egypt
CODEPINK
CODEPINK Maine
Community Organizing Center – Columbus, OH
EGALITE
Egyptian Association for Change- NY
Existence is Resistance
Fallout Shelter – Fallon, MO
Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq
Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment-GABRIELA USA
Freedom Road Socialist Organization/OSCL
Green Party – Manhattan Local (NYC)
Green Party of Virginia
Ideograph
Individuals for Justice
International Action Center
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
International League of People’s Struggles LOC
International Socialist Organization
Jan25 Solidarity for Democracy Network
Labor for Palestine
League for the Revolutionary Party
Middle East Crisis Committee
Movement for a Democratic Society
Muslims for Peace, Justice, and Progress
National Lawyers Guild – New York City Chapter
No More Victims
National Lawyers Guild – Muslim Defense Committee – New York
New York City Labor Against the War
News and Letters Committee
Occupy Boston
Occupy Burlington
Occupy Cafe
Occupy Dallas
Occupy Madison
Occupy Mobile, Alabama
Occupy Modesto Jr College
Occupy Oakland Occupy Perth
Occupy Santa Ana
Occupy Schenectady
Occupy Terre Haute Occupy Toronto
Occupy Washington, DC
Occupy Yerevan, Armenia
Organizacion Socialista Internacional – Puerto Rico
Organization for Black StrugglePalestine Solidarity Network – Bay Area
Peregrine Forum
PeterCares House
People’s Video Network
Portland Labor for Peace and Justice
Prison Watch Network International
Progressive Democrats of America, Miami Chapter
Progressive Democrats of America, Ohio Chapter
Radio Free Maine
Raha Iranian Feminist Collective
Roots Report
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
San Jose Peace and Justice Center
Scholars Without Borders
Siegebusters Working Group
6 of April Youth Movement America
Socialist Action
Socialist Worker
Solidarity
Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Chicago
Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights
The T.E.L. That Foundation
United National Antiwar Coalition
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
US Labor Against the War
US Palestinian Community Network
Women Against Killing – Berkeley, CA
Workers World Party

Please endorse and circulate this appeal widely. Please send statements with these demands to the bodies listed below. By endorsing, your organization commits to making these phone calls and following up continuously for the next week.

www.defendegyptianrevolution.org and defendegyptianrevolution@gmail.com

IMMEDIATE ACTIONS:

Call/write-in to Egyptian government.

Ministry of Defense
Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Soliman
Phone: 01120222916227
Fax: +(20) 2 2 5748 822 (+20) 22 291 6227
E-mail: mod@idsc.gov.eg
Website: http://www.mmc.gov.eg

Dr.Kamal El Ganzory, Prime Minister
Phone: +202-2793-5000
Fax: +202-2795-8048
E-mail: pm@cabinet.gov.eg
Website: http://www.cabinet.gov.eg/Cabinet/Prime_Minister.aspx

Leftist Politics Weekly

2012-01-03T12:19:00.004-05:00

A Weekly Challenge to the Parties and Politics of Capitalism
As many have now acknowledged, politics in the United States seems more like a horse race than the act of people determining their futures. From the flashy graphics on the TV stations to the inability of the news media, and the candidates, to cover anything of substance. Guiding visions are replaced by empty rhetoric and attacks on fellow candidates. However, this is the norm in liberal democracies, indeed, this is what the Establishment had created and will do everything in their power to maintain. Today, Republicans in Iowa will go to the polls to choose their nominee for President. Unite Left! sees no reason to dip our feet in the contest, as all of the candidates support the continuation of the capitalist system. The possible exception to the Establishment norm is Ron Paul, a libertarian favorite who looks to drastically reduce the size of government. However, instead of the Establishment's liberal democracy, Paul favors the tyranny of corporations. Paul is a pure capitalist. Despite his pro-liberty rhetoric, capitalism maintains permanent hierarchy, oppressing workers and eliminating workplace democracy. That is not to mention his conspiratorial tendencies and blatantly racist newsletters. Though this is a deviation from the Establishment norm, it is of little concern to many Establishment types, certainly of less concern than if a socialist were to somehow infiltrate the Democratic Party and run as a top prospective nominee. These weekly postings are designed as a series of counterpoints to the endless support of capitalism seen in both the Democrats and Republicans. We will also work to highlight leftist candidates for office. This week, as Republicans vote for their nominee, we will look at the Socialist Party USA's presidential campaign for president

Platform

The Alexander/Mendoza Campaign

stands for:

Genuine democracy for the 99%

Free speech, press, assembly, association

An end to wars and military occupations

Bring the troops and the money home

Initiate global disarmament

Deploy our troops for disaster relief

Create a democratically-controlled national bank

End Bush-Obama tax cuts to the wealthy

Productive jobs and/or a living wage for all

Single payer universal health care

Free dental, mental, optical and long term care

Decent affordable housing for all

Free or inexpensive reliable public transit

Hire more teachers – Reduce classroom size

Free education through college level

Legalize and tax marijuana – End the drug war

Restore our air, water, land – Protect the environment

Rebuild America’s infrastructure

For a more comprehensive platform please go to the

Socialist Party USA

American Public Opinion of 'Capitalism' and 'Socialism'

2012-01-02T12:07:00.001-05:00

A new Pew research poll has been conducted on how the public reacts to 'capitalism' and 'socialism.' Although it is clear that approval of capitalism is still higher than approval of socialism, the difference is not as stark as some in the Establishment will have us believe. For example, only half of the population views 'capitalism' favorably. Moreover, over 50% of some sectors of society view 'socialism' positively: liberal Democrats and Blacks. Over 50% of Hispanics and Blacks view capitalism negatively. Those in the 18-29 age range view 'socialism' slightly more positively than 'capitalism,' with 49% thinking positively of 'socialism' and 43% thinking negatively. By contrast, only 46% of people 18-29 view 'capitalism' positively, while 47% view it negatively. While the difference in opinion is slight, it is clear that the scales have swung ever so slightly to the side of 'socialism' among young people. Among most Blacks, the scale has long since tipped, while Hispanics view both 'capitalism' and 'socialism' negatively, though 'capitalism' more so. Unsurprisingly, the poorer one is, the more likely they are to favor 'socialism.' There are some surprises among those who support Occupy Wall Street, as the majority view 'capitalism' more positively than 'socialism.'

Black Radicalism

2011-12-28T16:41:00.004-05:00

This post is the third entry in a series on American Leftism.
Historically, there has been perhaps no greater struggle for in the United States than the struggle for black liberation. From the abolitionist movement in the 1800's to today's movement against discriminatory voter ID laws, the struggle for the rights of black Americans is deeply rooted in the American activist identity. The connection between black liberation and the overthrow of capitalism is one that deserves attention. Perhaps the first example of the link between black liberation and worker's liberation was the correspondence between Karl Marx (writing on behalf of the International Workingmen's Association) and President Abraham Lincoln of the United States. Marx applauded Lincoln on his emancipation of black slaves (Marx was likely unaware that Lincoln's primary objective, at least going into the Civil War, was not the emancipation of the slaves but instead simply keeping America together), and urged the president to extend the civil war to include the emancipation of the working people from wage slavery. This, obviously, did not occur. However, despite the end of slavery, the continued second-class status of black Americans inspired some to wonder whether blacks could ever truly be free under the capitalist system.
If the legacy of slavery is the root cause of the continued economic and social oppression of black people in the United States, as it surely is, and the system of trade and commerce is the root cause of slavery, as it must be, considering that African slaves were sold to cultivate crops for Europeans to sell, then it is fair to say that commerce and capitalism is the root cause of black oppression. However, in the beginning, both Africans and European slaves (technically indentured servants) were utilized in an efforts to make a few Europeans rich. The enslaved Europeans, however, were all eventually freed, whereas prior to the Civil War, Africans remained enslaved. Why was this? It has been suggested that in the early days of slavery, black and white slaves conspired together to overthrow their owners. The owners then began a game of divide and conquer, pitting white slaves against black slaves in an effort to end the rebellions. This strategy took the form of giving white slaves small monetary incentives which the black slaves were supposedly unworthy of. Thus, white slaves gradually climbed to the very bottom of the class hierarchy, escaping slavery, a state not even reaching the bottom-most levels of the hierarchy. By the time the black slaves were finally freed and reached the bottom of the class hierarchy, many decedents of the white slaves had already become upper-working class to middle class citizens. That the many blacks in America remained at the bottom of the class hierarchy after being freed can be attributed to the sense of superiority felt by whites who had been brainwashed, largely by commercial interests, into regarding blacks as a lesser race. Thus, even when blacks managed to climb up the class hierarchy, the legacy of slavery gave many whites the feeling that they were still inferior. The legacy of slavery also made working class whites reluctant to join forces with working class blacks. Furthermore, working class whites felt economically threatened by working class blacks, a condition similar to the hysteria over Mexican migrant workers taking "American" jobs. This condition exists only under capitalism, further illustrating the difficulty of progress for black Americans under capitalism.
This is not to say that there were no black capitalists. Marcus Garvey, among the leaders of pan-Africanism, was enthusiastically pro-enterprise, advocating black separatism and the establishment of black-run business. Garveyism bolstered black pride, though socialists would make the argument that it was still dis-empowering for the black worker. Among black socialists there was W.E.B. Du Bois, perhaps the most prominent black leader at the time to question whether the liberation of black people could be best achieved under capitalism. Du Bois was deeply committed to the cause of black liberation, and was pragmatic in his approach. Though he never explicitly endorsed socialism, he was favorable towards Marx's interpretation of society. That being said, his statement that "colored labor has no common ground with white labor" can be seen as a repudiation of labor unions which had been exclusionary towards black workers. More explicitly socialist was Hubert Harrison, for a time the leading black organizer for the Socialist Party of America. Harrison, however, came to believe that the racial policies of the Socialist Party were in favor of the white race rather than the working class at large. Considering the party's racist position on Asian immigration, its poor recruitment of blacks, and the segregated southern branches of the party, his point was good. Harrison then left the party and began the New Negro Movement, a social and political movement of black people that was to, despite Garvey's capitalist slant, lay the foundations for his movement. Harrison founded the Liberty League in 1917, a socialist-oriented organization of black people. Though Harrison briefly worked with Garvey, he was dismayed by Garvey's imperialistic notions, and rejected the notion that black Americans should be concerned with going back to Africa. Harrison, however, was a lifelong supporter of race-awareness and dedicated considerable energy to promoting and enriching black culture. Later in his life, with the founding of the International Colored Unity League, he called for an independent black state in America. In contrast with W.E.B. Du Bois, Harrison gave speeches on soapboxes set up on block corners and truly appealed to the black people, whereas Du Bois was interested in creating something of a black vanguard, an educated 1/10th of the population that would lead black people forward. W.E.B. Du Bois, was committed to integration, though at one point he claimed that being seperate but equal was a reasonable goal, whereas Harrison supported a black state. In contrast with Garvey, Harrison was a socialist and wanted a black state in America, not Africa.
Following the abolitionist movement of the 1800s and the pan-Africanist movement of the 1920s and 1930s came the next wave of black struggle in the 1950s and 1960s, led by two charismatic but starkly different individuals: Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Martin Luther King Jr. and the later-life Malcom X differed mostly on the issue of whether violence was acceptable and other issues of tactics. Following Malcom X's renouncement of the Nation of Islam and his adoption of the belief that white Americans could successfully overcome racism following his conversion to Sunni Islam, both individuals actually had relatively similar world views. Malcolm X was a devout Muslim, King a devout Christian, X a pragmatist of the Du Bois mold who saw socialism as quite possibly a better route towards black progress, King was critical of Marxism but urged the U.S. to move in a Democratic Socialist direction. To whatever extent the two individual's ideas merged towards the end of their lives (both were assassinated in the 1960s), they had come from completely different places. Malcolm X, as described in the biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable, was an urban figure, the voice of the poor blacks of the ghetto, whereas King was a rural figure, a middle to upper middle class Establishment black. This is not to undercut King. However, the truth remains that Malcolm X, not King, would have spoken to the majority of blacks based on his personal experience and upbringing. Even if one is a pacifist, King can be faulted for a lack of militancy. Gandhi, for example, did not simply push for legislative progress with the British as King did with the U.S. Congress, Gandhi broke the British Empire without lifting a finger in anger. King was never a revolutionary, pacifist or otherwise. Thus, a distinct ideological difference between the two leaders could perhaps be reformist versus revolutionary. Following the deaths of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., the reformists gathered around figures such as Jesse Jackson whereas the revolutionaries formed a radical new organization, The Black Panther Party.
The Panthers 10 Point Program is essentially a list of socialist demands, with an emphasis on the right of self-determination for black people. Though towards the end of its existence, the party more heavily emphasized its Marxist (specifically Maoist) nature, it began and to an extent always was focused on the liberation of black people. The party followed the advice of Malcolm X that black people should be armed and ready to defend themselves against police brutality, and indeed the party began primarily as an organ of self-defense of black communities. However, the violence degenerated at times into random killings, illustrating, as MLK might say, the evils of violence no matter what the original intention. However, the Panthers were a powerful group that emphasized the necessity of equality for black people (or, should this not occur, self-determination) and the need for an end to capitalism. It is fair to say that should it not have been for the Panthers' Free Breakfast for Children program and other community support services, hundreds of black children would have gone hungry.
From the Black Panthers Party came a slew of major figures in black radicalism. Among these was Angela Davis, an avowed Communist, black liberationist, and feminist. Davis was the vice-presidential nominee of the Communist Party USA in 1980 and 1984, and worked closely with the organization. She was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize for her civil rights worked and attended the World Festival of Youth and Students in East Germany. Her friendly relations with authoritarian Communist nations and heavy involvement in the Stalinist Communist Party USA drew criticism and allegations of hypocrisy, as she simultaneously criticized the U.S. prison system and tolerated the authoritarianism and terror of Communist countries. However, Davis broke with the Communist Party in 1992 to join the more progressive Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, where she currently sits on the Advisory Board. Davis continues to criticize the racist U.S. "Prison Industrial Complex," a term that she coined, and was among the founders of Critical Resistance, a group working to abolish the system.
Born out of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Martin Luther King's organization, was Operation Breadbasket, a project that would fall into the hands of Rev. Jesse Jackson. Jackson morphed the organization into PUSH, or People United to Save (later changed to Serve) Humanity in 1971. In 1984, Jackson ran for president on the Democratic ticket. The progressive effort was defeated, but Jackson formed the Rainbow Coalition the following year, an ambitious progressive effort that attracted the attention and support of many socialists. In 1996, Jackson's two organizations were merged together to create the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Jackson's political activism mirrors that of black leaders within the democratic party such as Shirley Chisholm. Chisholm, along with figures such as John Conyers, formed the Black Caucus in 1976. Members of the Black Caucus are among the only truly progressive members of congress, and have historically best represented working blacks, and indeed working people of all colors.
One of today's major black socialists is Cornel West, a figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. West, like King, does not conform to Marxism primarily because of his religious persuasion. However, West is dedicated to the working class and to the liberation of black people in the United States. Though West is among the most prominent black intellectuals, he uses platforms such as Public Radio International's Smiley/West show to reach a larger audience than simply those in academic circles.
In today's world, when the first black president has largely crumbled to the forces of the Establishment, it is important to reflect on the rich tradition of black radicalism. Today, the Establishment has officially disavowed racism, declaring America "post-racial." However, considering the large economic gap that still exists between blacks and whites, it is impossible to forget about the issue and move on. Today's black radicals continue the tradition passed on from abolitionists to members of the Harlem Renaissance and through the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.

The Unfinished Revolution

2011-12-28T11:38:00.002-05:00

A trio of dictators- Ben Ali, Mubarak, Gaddaffi, have been dethroned this year in the Arab Spring uprisings. However, one stubbornly refuses to leave, maintaing the slaughter of thousands of his own people in effort to hold on to power. Bashar al-Assad, the "President" of Syria, and a member of the Syrian Baathist Party (Sadaam Hussein was of the Baathist Party in his country of Iraq) has been clinging to legitimacy despite his nation having been suspended from the Arab League and multiple nations supporting the Syrian National Council. We call on Pres. al-Assad to step down immediately. The death toll has now reached over 5,000, with 300 children among the dead. How many more people do you want to kill before you inevitably step down?

To Our Readers

2011-12-27T14:16:00.001-05:00

2011 has undoubtedly been a landmark year for activists. In 2012, protest must continue on the streets and extend to the ballot box and the meeting halls. Unite Left! will continue publishing online and sending our monthly newsletter (which anyone can subscribe to for free by e-mailing us at leftunited@gmail.com). We hope to continue highlighting Occupy Wall Street and struggles for freedom across the globe. We will also continue reaching out to the leaders of the American socialist movement and hope to reach international leaders as well. We will also try implementing our proposal of monthly General Assemblies outlined in this blog post and work on supporting socialist candidates for office, especially with the Socialist Party USA, the Freedom Socialist Party and the Peace and Freedom Party. We want to take a moment and thank all of you who have read Unite Left! at any time since its founding as United Left in the spring of this year. We began posting in earnest in October, and hopefully we will continue for as long as there is war, capitalism, and hierarchy to fight against.

Happy New Year,
Unite Left!

#OWS Supports Russian Protests

2011-12-26T15:54:00.001-05:00

In a show of solidarity from the American Occupy movement to the Russian movement against fraudulent elections and corruption, the #OWS website posted the following message on their site: http://occupywallst.org/article/we-are-the-146-russians-refuse-to-be-rooked/

The Russian protests are the latest in a series of protest movements from Cairo to New York, adding Moscow to the list of cities in revolt. These protests have defined 2011 and inspired Time magazine to name "The Protestor" as Person of the Year. As we near the new year, this blog hopes to grow and continue supporting those fighting for democracy and freedom.

#OWS Continues: Latest Updates

2011-12-21T11:15:00.003-05:00

-Occupying Homes: Perhaps the brightest part of this next phase of the #Occupy movement is the occupation of foreclosed homes. The symbolism of occupying foreclosed homes and returning them to the people, namely those who are homeless, is powerful. However, if the home occupation movement truly grows wings, it can have real positive effects on the far too many homeless in America. Homeless people have in the past taken refuge in the occupied camps. The demonstrators were not always hospitable, a hypocritical position to take considering the message of the occupations. That being said, on Thanksgiving day, hundreds were fed in Zuccotti Park, a powerful show of solidarity with all who entered the square. With these new occupations, #OWS has an opportunity to truly grow as a movement and find place to occupy, namely bank owned (foreclosed) homes without the prospect of a buyer.
Occupy our Homes Victory in Atlanta

-Mumbia Abu-Jamal Sends a Message of Solidarity:
December 15, 2011
My Friends of OWS,
My message will have to be brief. But let not this brevity take from it, its strength.
You are the central movement of the hour. You're raising questions that are in the hearts of millions. Your motto, "We are the 99%," has been heard, heeded, and responded to by millions. You can be certain that the 1% have heard you clearest of all.
Your work, however, is just beginning. You must deepen, strengthen, and further your work until it truly reaches the 99%, almost all of us: workers, black folk, Latinos and Latinas, LGBTs, immigrants, Asians, artists, all of us, for we are integral parts of the 99%. I salute you and hope fervently that you will grow beyond number.
Though I speak to you today by proxy, I'm confident that you will hear my voice soon.
Love, fun and music,
Mumia Abu-Jamal

-Letter from Council of Elders to Trinity Church

December 16, 2011
Dear Rev. Dr. James Cooper,
We are veterans of the Civil Rights, Women’s, Peace, Environmental, LGBTQ, Immigrant Justice, labor rights and other movements of the last 60 years. Many of us have been or continue to be leaders of religious congregations and organizations, so we are deeply understanding of the need to protect the spaces and buildings that generations of the faithful have transmitted to us.
We are also deeply committed to using the share of God’s abundance that has been entrusted to us for the help and healing of those “least of these” – the poor, the humiliated, the hungry, the homeless, the dis-empowered – whom God has called us to protect.
We have special understandings of both of those commitments because as leaders of the social-change movements of the 20th century we have been called to deploy resources for the sake of racial and social justice and the cause of peace. Today we see the Occupy movement as efforts by a new generation of (mostly young) people to move forward as we did toward fuller justice and democracy for the diverse peoples in our nation.
We are concerned to hear that Occupy Wall Street has asked Trinity Church for use of the Lent-Space on 6th and Canal to gather, and has been refused.
We are especially moved to hear that the Episcopal Cathedral of Boston has invited the Occupy movement there to gather in its space.
We know that some question the need for Occupy to continue to occupy physical space but we have witnessed the impact of communal, inspirational, face-to-face contact in which people can be visible to the world and to one another. We have also been challenged to respond to the question from Occupy, Where can you go if you don’t own something? Does a public even exist if it has no space? And finally, like visionaries before them, many Occupiers have chosen to give up everything to invest in a future that does not exist except in their dreams and visions. In a world where the majority of our nation is oppressed by economic and racial inequality, experiencing isolation and dehumanization at every turn, the Occupy movement in its public presence has provided hope and purpose and a pressing challenge to us all.
We urge you to reexamine the possibilities in the light of the importance of Occupy Wall Street as a spark of God’s “Burning Bush” in this moment of deep social crisis. We urge you to approve the use of this sacred space for a sacred purpose – the pursuit of justice in America.
With blessings,
Organizing Committee
Council of Elders
cc Vestry Members

The Keystone Pipeline and the Sad State of American Politics

2011-12-18T12:16:00.003-05:00

Note: A previous version of this post stated that the American congress passed a short-term extension of a payroll tax cut. In reality, only the senate did so, and the house actually voted against the short-term tax cut extension.

The American senate has passed a bill that will ensure a short-term extension of a payroll tax cut. What that means outside of the legal language used by our lawmakers is that business owners will most likely will be able to pay a little more to their employees this holiday, considering that the taxes put on the employer to pay off the business' workers will be reduced. This is in itself an indication of the sad state of American politics, considering that congress would hardly even consider putting money directly into the pockets of the American working class, let alone providing public-sector jobs for America's workers. However, the absurdity of this bill is further exemplified by an unrelated provision thrown in by congressional Republicans that forces Obama to reach a decision on the Keystone oil pipeline that would provide the United States with Canadian oil. The Republican argument for the pipeline goes something like this (this is a paraphrase of the standard GOP argument and by no means a direct quote): The pipeline will create thousands of American jobs and reduce our reliance on foreign oil. This is a project that is supported by business owners and union organizers alike and should be authorized by the president without delay. All of this may be true, some unions have gotten on board, and this oil does not come with the pitfalls inherent to middle eastern oil. However, the tar sands through which the oil will be extracted is among the most dangerous of fossil fuels. Secondarily, the jobs provided will be temporary, and that we must rely upon the construction of an oil pipeline rather than jobs in the public sector (infrastructure, etc.) is a disgrace to the workers of America. There is also no guarantee that this will result in lessening our presence in the middle east for oil. This will not provide us with all the oil necessary, and the middle east has far more oil than Canada ever will. If we are to leave the middle east for oil, we must not simply go to America and burn through our resources while maintaining continuing to irreparably harm our planet, and in doing so, ourselves. Instead we must develop alternative energy at home and work to introduce alternative energy industries in the middl east, so that the regions so reliant on oil do not fall into serious economic hardship. Our reliance on the Keystone pipeline is a sign that the powers that be in the United States lacks long-term vision and is in need of a radical change in its outlook. We must not look at the interests of big business, but instead at the interests of the American workers and the American people at large. The pipeline does not take these interests into consideration, and the unions supporting it must step back and recommit to pushing for public-sector labor rather than doing the work of the corporations.

Hitch

2011-12-16T18:09:00.003-05:00

Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011
One of the greatest editorialists of modern times passed away on Thursday after losing his battle with esophageal cancer. Hitchens began life as an outspoken socialist (specifically a third camp Trotskyist) and contributor for the British Socialist Workers Party's International Socialist newspaper. Despite disowning socialism in 2000, Hitchens maintained an intellectual relationship with Marxism, claiming that he continued to think in a Marxist fashion. In the end, however, he conceded that Marx failed to recognize the revolutionary nature of capitalism itself. Hitchens began his break with the Left during the Salman Rushdie affair in which Rushdie was accused of blasphemy by some Muslims. Hitchens blamed the Left for not adequately defending Rusdie. Hitchens' anti-Islamic sentiment was intensified in 2001, following the 9/11 attacks. Hitchens definitively broke with the left in his support of the Iraq War, though Hitchens was never truly a conservative as some contested. Hitchens was perhaps at his finest when debating, and I for some time have fantasized debating the Iraq War with Hitchens. One of Hitchens' icons was the author Geroge Orwell (1984, Animal Farm), and I would have loved him to answer why U.S. imperialism in Iraq was not akin to the permanent warfare of Orwell's 1984 dystopia. Surely he would have had a good answer. Unfortunately, I will not now have that opportunity. Obviously, Hitchens is a bitter-sweet character, one who may often seem like a traitor to the left. Indeed, it does seem that he abandoned the interests of the working class in his latter years, preferring the revolutionary nature of capitalism and the hawkish response to "Islamofascism" a dubious term popularized by Hitchens. Though it is important to remember Hitchens' staunch opposition to all organized religion, it is difficult to defend Hitchens from claims that he was bigoted against Islam and Muslims. Even in his later life, however, Hitchens was the only major commentator to write on Leftist issues. In his final article for Vanity Fair, Trial of the Will to be published in the January 2012 edition of the magazine, Karl Marx is mentioned in relation to Sidney Hook, a philosopher who "synthesized" his work with that of John Dewey. In the June 2011 edition of The Atlantic, Hitchens penned a brilliant article on Rosa Luxembourg, Red Rosa, contrasting her with Vladimir Lenin. The single most remarkable attribute about Christopher Hitchens was his perseverance. Hitchens contributed regular articles to Slate and Vanity Fair right up to his death, while he contributed to The Atlantic up to July of this year (his final post was a rebuke of Mahatma Gandhi, characteristic of Hitchens' fearless take-down of those thought to be near-sacred). His latest collection of essays, Arguably, just made the New York Times Book Review's list of the five best non-fiction novels of the year. The night after Hitchens was rushed to the emergency room with what would be known as the first appearance of his cancer, he forced himself to sign books and go on The Daily Show, where he openly mocked the idea of his death. He would write in his brilliant September 2010 Vanity Fair piece, Topic of Cancer:

My very short-lived campaign of denial took this form: I would not cancel these appearances or let down my friends or miss the chance of selling a stack of books. I managed to pull off both gigs without anyone noticing anything amiss, though I did vomit two times, with an extraordinary combination of accuracy, neatness, violence, and profusion, just before each show. This is what citizens of the sick country do while they are still hopelessly clinging to their old domicile.

However, even when Hitchens' "denial" ended, he continued to write, the end result being that his work is yet unfinished, his final Vanity Fair article published online, but not yet printed in the magazine's first issue of the new year. That Hitchens would die on the day that "his war" in Iraq would end is an irony which he might appreciate. That Hitchens would continue on to the very end without submitting to beliefs which he did not believe in was a sign of his strength to the very end. He was a maddening and seemingly contradictory character. Often, he seemed the very embodyment of the stagnant, old, quinessentially aristocratic or intellectual conservativism that he once supposedly fought to defeat. However, he was an eternal supporter of democracy and freedom, however misguided the forms of these beliefs were to take. He was also, without a doubt, among the brightest minds the world has ever seen and will likely see for some time to come.

Defending the Bill of Rights

2011-12-15T12:52:00.000-05:00

220 years ago today the United States Bill of Rights was ratified. Today, as the Bill of Rights has been systematically attacked by interests working to spy on citizens, while a new bill in the House contains language that would hold all citizens to be potential terrorists in the eyes of the U.S. government. Occupy Wall Street has planned a rally to bring the symbolic coffin of the Bill of Rights to the Foley Square Federal Court in NYC. The event is sponsored by various Islamic community groups such as the Islamic Circle of North America. Muslim communities in the United States have been the victims of random spying and violations of the civil liberties ensured in the Bill of Rights.

Oakland Port Shut Down for Second Time

2011-12-13T10:19:00.000-05:00

Occupy Oakland posted today that the blockade of the Oakland port has continued. The blockade began during an event yesterday, "The West Coast Strikes Back." The port was briefly shut down for the first time during the November 2nd General Strike in Oakland.
http://westcoastportshutdown.org/

Climate Change Conference Ends

2011-12-11T18:21:00.001-05:00

The conference on climate change ended in Durban, South Africa today. "More than 190 nations to work toward a future treaty that would require all countries to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming."-NYTimes article on the conference (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/science/earth/countries-at-un-conference-agree-to-draft-new-emissions-treaty.html?_r=1&ref=global-home)
The Kyoto Protocol was continued and a fund was put in place to help island nations. No other concrete actions, however, were adopted

No Time to Wait

2011-12-08T16:17:00.001-05:00

At the global climate conference in Durban, South Africa, the United States is pushing for a delay on action to stop climate change until 2020. This proposal is simply irresponsible, as climate change will reach a point of no return unless action is taken within a very small window of time. 2020 is too late. Please urge the United States to reconsider their position on this issue now

When Occupation is Necessary

2011-12-06T21:52:00.001-05:00

Occupy Wall Street has completed a national day of action against foreclosures. In Brooklyn today, hundreds marched against foreclosures and in a powerful display of solidarity, a foreclosed home has been occupied for a homeless family to live in. Eyewitness News, ABC's local New York broadcast played videos of local residents clapping and supporting the marching occupiers. One woman stated that foreclosure effects not only those forced to move out of their homes, but the whole neighborhood. Long-time local activists were a large part of today's march as groups like New York Communities for Change, Picture the Homeless, and VOCAL-NY participated along side the OWS crowd, according to an article today by Occupywallst.org. While we have been somewhat skeptical of late about the occupation of public space, today will go down as one of OWS's finest moments and proves that sometimes, yes, occupying is necessary. In our capitalist society, we never truly own a home. The banks do, and they can take them away from us whenever we can't stuff the wallets of their top executives. Occupy Wall Street today was able to reclaim a home for the people and send a clear message that we won't let the banks have them without a fight.

American Trotskyism

2011-12-05T20:06:00.001-05:00

This is the second entry in a series of posts on American Leftism
The date is November 12th, 1927. Leon Trotsky has been expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1928, James P. Cannon of the American Workers (Communist) Party read a piece written by Trotsky mistakenly circulated by Stalin's government. He agreed with the points of the article and attempted to form an opposition faction within his party. He was expelled on October 27th, 1928. Cannon and fellow Trotskyists formed the Communist League of America, thus beginning the story of American Trotskyism that continues to this day. Cannon, Max Shachtman, and Martin Abern began the Communist League of America the same year, 1928. The party was the first Trotskyist party in the United States, and served as the U.S. section of Trotsky's International Left Opposition. The party published The Militant, a publication which continues to this day, though has lost much of its Trotskyist character. Following a merger with A.J. Muste's American Workers Party, the party became the Workers Party of the United States, (not to be confused with the Workers (Communist) Party of America). In 1936, the Workers Party entered the Socialist Party of America, the old party of Eugene Debs which was by then led by Norman Thomas. After failing to convert the party to Trotskyism, they left and formed the Socialist Workers Party, the organization which continues to this day but, like its paper, has lost much of its Trotskyist character. At the formation of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the three major founders of the Communist League of America (the first American Trotskyist party) were involved in founding the new party. However, in 1940, factions began to emerge, and the party split. Max Shachtman left the party and formed the Workers Party of the United States, borrowing the name of the second American Trotksyist party. Shachtman was upset over Jim Cannon's support of Trotsky's defense of the Soviet Union should it be attacked by capitalist powers (Shachtman disagreed with the defense of the USSR in its war against Finland). Martin Abern supported Cannon on this matter, but was forced out of the SWP and joined Shachtman's new party. The Workers Party was the first of the so-called Third Camp Trotskyist parties. Another former SWP member, James Burnham, believed that the USSR deserved no defense in any scenario and thus left the SWP which remained loyal to Cannon. This was perhaps the beginning of the end of the SWP, as its mainstream criticized the Soviet Union only up to a certain point. In the end, the Bolshevik spirit won out, and the Soviet vanguard was commended. However, it was out of this Trotskyist movement that was born more far-reaching criticisms of the Soviet Union, such as Raya Dunayevskaya's assertion that the USSR was state-capitalist, not a degenerated workers state. The prominent black Trotskyist C.L.R. James found a home in the Workers Party for a time, as did Dunayevskaya herself. C.L.R. James would eventually denounce the vanguard party altogether, despite considering himself a life-long Leninist. James would also return to the original Hegelian philosophy which Marxist was born out of, a much needed perspective in today's left. Dunayevskaya would later re-enter the Socialist Workers Party, though she then left and formed a group with James and Martin Glaberman. Following this, she formed her own group, News and Letters Committees, which exists to this day and has retained much of its original character. By the 1960's the Socialist Workers Party had stagnated seemingly beyond repair. The Seattle branch of the party then left, forming the Freedom Socialist Party, which is still very much active to this day, and a party which this blog has maintained a partnership with. This new party advocated a special emphasis on those most oppressed under capitalism: women, people of color, gay, lesbian, and transgender people, immigrant laborers. In 1982, Jack Barnes, chairman of the Socialist Workers Party (he still serves in the position), delivered a speech which would mark the party's break from Trotskyism. According to a George Breitman article, "Don't Strangle the Party," an old-time SWP member, Asher Harer, stated that if Jim Cannon were alive during that time, he would not have been able to survive within the party's restrictive atmosphere. It was the party bureaucracy and, ironically, authoritarianism which had driven the soon-to-be Freedom Socialist Party out in the 1960's. By the 1980's, the situation appeared to have deteriorated further. Today, the SWP exists mainly as a Castroist organization, strongly supportive of authoritarian Communist Cuba. The struggle against authoritarianism has gone out of the old Trotskyist movement. However, the new movement, led by those in the spirit of C.L.R. James and the Freedom Socialists is only beginning. Trotskyism was the beginning of Left opposition to authoritarianism. Today, the fight is largely against the authoritarian Leninist vanguard party that Trotsky himself romanticised. However, while today's Trotskyists may still romanticize the pre-Stalin USSR, they also strive for democracy more than any other generation, and the old authoritarian left may finally be marginalized.

Questions on OWS's "Horizontal Democracy" (and 1 Idea)

2011-12-04T12:31:00.001-05:00

Occupy Wall Street has embraced what has come to be known as "horizontal democracy," or the belief in a leaderless, stateless society exhibited in the General Assemblies. The General Assemblies have taken place in the occupied parks and have more or less used consensus decision-making. The General Assemblies have, on other words, taken an anarchist position. As Leftists sympathetic to both libertarian and Marxist strands of socialism, Unite Left! has a few questions:
1. A New Paris Commune? From March to May of 1871, Leftists essentially occupied Paris and ran a city-state of sorts based on the anti-hierarchical, horizontal democratic model. This two-month occupation was crushed by Napoleon, but is considered perhaps the only example of a truly socialist, indeed anarchist, society on a fairly large scale. Following the demise of the Commune, the socialist-anarchist split truly came into sharp relief. The communists led by Karl Marx criticized the Commune for not forming a state and defending itself against Napoleon, while the anarchists led by Mikhail Bakunin contended that a state would drastically change the nature of the commune for the worse. In Occupy Wall Street, we see similar issues. Should the General Assemblies and the occupations be run in a leaderless, anarchistic manner? Or should the movement tie itself to revolutionary unions and socialist parties?
2. Why Occupy Now? It is difficult to imagine the General Assemblies themselves overthrowing the existing capitalist governments and establishing itself as the new political system. Why then, are we throwing so much political effort into occupying public space and holding General Assemblies twice a day? Obviously, some in the movement see the existing format of Occupy Wall Street as sparking a serious revolution. Would it be wrong to dismiss that possibility?
3. What About Spinoff Organizations? Occupy Wall Street has been copied and pasted into other cities essentially in the same format. While this is remarkable in itself, why should there not be working groups set up that do not actually occupy public space but instead work in electoral political realms or perhaps within labor unions?

An Idea: While the Occupy Wall Street movement has every right to continue as it is currently formatted, Unite Left! has come to the conclusion that a new organization should be set up that works outside of the occupied squares and parks. Regularly meeting assemblies should tackle a wider range of issues than the day-to-day strategic plans that OWS is forced to address. These assemblies will maintain horizontal democracy in a slightly modified form: they should be chaired by randomly selected member of the assembly. Six caucuses should meet on their own and then propose legislation that could be endorsed or rejected by the assembly. The caucuses should include:
-A women's caucus
-A people of color caucus
-A LGBTQ caucus
-A labor caucus
-An electoral action caucus
Each member of the assembly should be given time to give a brief statement on the legislation proposed by the caucuses, and the assembly should attempt to come to consensus. If this is impossible, a 3/4th majority (or a similar number) would be sufficient in passing a piece of legislation for endorsement by the assembly. If assemblies should form in multiple cities, a randomly selected council (one person from each assembly) should propose major pieces of legislation from each assembly. These pieces of legislation would then be put up for an online vote for each member of every assembly. Thus, each and every individual participating in these assemblies would have equal say in a centralized, horizontal society of the workers and those most oppressed under capitalism. Should the existing state structures fall, the electoral action caucus would be removed.

Fighting Climate Change: Now or Never

2011-11-30T12:20:00.001-05:00

As world leader assemble in Durbin, South Africa today, stakes could hardly be higher. The Kyoto Protocol, the only internationally binding anti-climate change agreement, will end in 2012. At this meeting, environmentalists are urging the reinstatement of this protocol. Though fighting climate change has seemingly been removed from the docket of addressable political issues on the United States, it is necessarily that the international community works to stop climate change. Corporations will not fight climate change on their own, it is simply not profitable to do so. It is necessary for statesmen and women to step in and do something about it. 2011 is set to be a year of record temperatures, and bizarre weather, a hallmark of climate change, is steeply on the rise. The worst irony of climate change is that the nations who have contributed least to the issue will be hit the worst and hit the first. Island nations will face the prospect of sinking underwater within years, while industrial giants like the U.S. and China will only be obviously effected later. However, less obvious effects of pollution are already hitting home: harsh, unseasonable tornadoes and hurricanes have hit the United States hard, while rates of asthma, caused by the same air pollution that causes the greenhouse effect, have gone way up. However, you don't have to believe my vague proclamations, read what the scientific community has to say. It is time for our global leaders in Durbin to take action. It's now or never.

Egypt Votes

2011-11-28T19:37:00.001-05:00

Egyptians voted today in the first elections since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. The elections are the first round of parliamentary elections which will be held, while all elections, including presidential, are now scheduled to be held sometime between now and next July. The military has proven to be a brutish force comparable to the old regime, say demonstrators in Tahrir Square who are boycotting this election. They are not convinced that the military should lead the transition to democracy, and insist on an interim civilian government. As of this posting, however, no incidents of voter intimidation or fraud have been reported. It seems to be clear that at this point that it will be very difficult for a civilian interim government to take power. It seems, in addition, that the military, though still very much a brutish and abusive force in the nation, is willing to take steps to relinquish power within a year or so. However, while these elections show signs of progress, it is not time to stop fighting yet. The pressure needs to continue to be put on the military to prosecute those who have brutalized demonstrators standing up against the Mubarak and the subsequent military regime. In addition to this, labor strikes, which have been a powerful tactic for disillusioned workers in Egypt, must continue and any new government must be made up of representatives of the workers. Collective bargaining must be protected. Finally, we must continue to honor the heroics of the brave men, and especially the brave women, faced with the extra struggle of sexual assault and degradation at the hands of the authorities, who have worked to make Egypt a democracy.

Earl Browder: American Communist of the Second World War

2011-11-27T17:41:00.001-05:00

This is the first entry in what will hopefully be a series of posts on American Leftism
A note: The following is a discussion of Earl Browder and American Communism during the time of World War Two. The term "Communists" here is used to signify the supporters of Stalin's USSR and the ideology supported by the Soviet state at the time. Unite Left! is a blog dedicated to democratic socialism and as such we are opposed to authoritarian Communism. The purpose of this discussion is not solely to promote Browder and Browderism, but to point out that his ideas, especially after leaving the Communist Party, were democratic socialist in nature and thus should be praised. We hope, in this piece, to define Browderism as the achievement of democratic socialism in the United States through peaceful coexistence with the then-existing Soviet Union.

Earl Browder, like all leaders of the Communist Party USA, was a mouthpiece of Stalin. Browder served an 11-year term as General Secretary of the Communist Party, during Communism's best and worst moments in American history. Browder was the head of America's second most powerful socialist party in history (after the Socialist Party of America in the time of Eugene Debs), and was its two time presidential candidate, winning around 80,000 votes in his 1936 bid. The defining event in his tenure was, of course, the Second World War, and it was this event which brought about these highs and lows of American Communism. At the time of Browder's assent to the position of General Secretary, Stalin was pursuing a strategy of cooperation with American ideology in the sense that Pres. Roosevelt and his New Deal were not attacked directly. Browder's mistake came in the oncoming of World War Two. While at first the USSR and the Communist Party in America were among the foremost opponents of fascism, the Stalin-Hitler pact swept it all away. In a moment so vile that it forced the expelled Leon Trotsky in the USSR to finally form a rival international, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin were united. The Communist Party USA was suddenly pro-peace, demonstrating once again that the Communist Party USA was truly in the hands of only one man: Josef Stalin. Browder did nothing to stop this, and the only heroes in American Leftism were the socialists and Trotskyists rivaling the Communists. Both socialists and Trotskyists would continue to play an important and valid role in American Leftism for years to come, though we now turn our attention back to the Communists. Following the dissolution of the Hitler-Stalin pact, the Communist Party USA once again fought against fascism alongside the allies. This brief moment of solidarity between proponents of socialism and capitalism in fighting a common menace, fascism, is one without parallel. The world at the end of World War Two had an unprecedented opportunity to make peace and even to renounce authoritarianism (in the Soviet Union) and work towards true democratic socialism (in both the USSR and the USA). Browder, following the Second World War, maintained a policy of peaceful coexistence between the USA and the USSR. Finally, Browder stood up to Stalin. Stalin then expelled him from the party. Josef Stalin, tainted from the purges and the murder of Trotsky, the Hitler-Stalin pact, and from the authoritarianism and state capitalist nature of his so-called socialist state, would have nothing peaceful coexistence, nothing of democracy. In addition, the American state was eager to one-up the Soviets rather than settle down to peace after the worst war the world had ever seen. Browderism, though essentially a philosophy rooted in one time period, should perhaps be reexamined, if only as a window into what could have been, and why the powers that be declared it unfit to be.

Occupy Yourself- A Thanksgiving Message by Dylan Ratigan

2011-11-24T13:27:00.001-05:00

This Thanksgiving, with national division everywhere, I'm going to be thinking about the bad guys, villains and adversaries, battles and conflict. I'm going to be thinking about my own dark side, and the suffering it can create when unacknowledged and unchecked. This is actually quite in keeping with the original spirit of Thanksgiving, a holiday of unity created in its modern form by Abraham Lincoln at the height of a bitter American Civil War.

Who is the villain of Occupy Wall Street? Some might say Mayor Michael Bloomberg, or Mayor Jean Quan of Oakland, both of whom ordered large paramilitary raids on peaceful protesters. Some might say the police, or the bankers, or those at the Chicago Board of Trade who held up signs saying "1%" and threw McDonald's job applications at the protesters below.

Some might say corporations, or "the system", and yet others would say those who engage in drum circles late at night or do illegal drugs in a public place and endanger others. Some might simply say, the 1% who use much of society's resources for their own purposes.

I would point to the concept of the villain itself as the villain. For a villain, "the other", lets us avoid dealing with the dark part that resides in each of us. Here's my friend Deepak Chopra in his book The Shadow Effect: "The dark side of human nature thrives on war, struggle, and conflict. As soon as you talk about winning, you have lost already."

We all have dark thoughts - individually and as a nation. Fear, lust, anger, jealousy, deceit drive much of our decision-making. Yet, these are parts of ourselves we run away from. As a society, we have crafted a culture and set of institutional arrangements to deny this part of ourselves. This is why it has taken so long to even admit we have a problem of wealth inequality. It's the denial of the dark part of ourselves. But diabolical energy is part of human spirit, because we are dualistic beings. You cannot know honesty without knowing deceit, good cannot exist without evil, and life is not life without death. Our challenge is to reconcile all of these forces as they all exist in each of us. Any institutional arrangement that denies this, that relies on images of perfection bereft of the shadow, will inevitably be dominated by the very forces of that darkness. Namely fear of the shadow, ironically.

This is The Shadow Effect.

We have been conditioned to fear the shadow side of life and the shadow side of ourselves. When we catch ourselves thinking a dark thought or acting out in a behavior that we feel is unacceptable, we run, just like a groundhog, back into our hole and hide, hoping, praying, it will disappear before we venture out again. Why do we do this? Because we are afraid that no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to escape from this part of ourselves. And although ignoring or repressing our dark side is the norm, the sobering truth is that running from the shadow only intensiﬁes its power. Denying it only leads to more pain, suffering, regret, and resignation. the shadow will charge, and instead of us being able to have control over it, the shadow winds up having control over us, triggering the shadow effect.

In other words, if we resolve to Occupy Ourselves - to acknowledge all of ourselves - especially our darkest aspects--only then can we stop the fear that is running ourselves and our society.

Whether we are dealing with Joe Paterno at Penn State or any number of politicians doing the bidding of their donors, that is what we are seeing. In attempting to run away from the shadow, Paterno allowed more harm to come to the program and to the children of his region. The scariness of these issues compels leaders to avoid them or deny they exist altogether. Whether it is Michael Bloomberg and the obvious need to reform a corrupt banking system or Joe Paterno and his compulsion to participate in a mass cover-up rather than confront the terrifying issue of child rape, the things that scare our leaders the most whether it is bank reform or sexual assault are the issues we most need to tackle. And those issues can only be tackled if we acknowledge they exist. It's only by acknowledging our shadow that we can prevent our shadow from running our live. We must occupy ourselves.

Even the 99% versus 1% rhetoric lets the shadow take control. For we cannot pit one faction against another and expect anything but deep bitter divisions. We must end our collective denial, and recognize that wealth inequality is something we all must invest in solving. As a society, it is time to end our collective madness, and recognize our darkness. This does not mean we must admit we are evil people, no, that is not right, but to admit that our lust and darkness is a passionate undercurrent in determining how we behave and who we are.

Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday to do this. It was Abraham Lincoln who during the Civil War proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving. That was a time of deep division, of bitter recriminations, and of villains. And yet, he said what we might adhere to today, in his second inaugural:

We can succeed only by concert. It is not "Can any of us imagine better?" but "Can we all do better?" Object whatsoever is possible, still the question recurs, "Can we do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

This Thanksgiving, I'm going to occupy myself a little more. Perhaps if we all occupy ourselves a little more this Thanksgiving, together we shall save our country.

Taken from www.dylanratigan.com, all credit to the author

Egypt in Revolt: End Military Rule

2011-11-21T19:36:00.001-05:00

Egyptians have taken to Tahrir Square for the second time this year, protesting the military rule that continues to have as stranglehold on the Egyptian people. Despite Hosni Mubarak's step down from power this past February, the Egyptian people have seen only marginal progress, as the nation has failed to shake its over half century of military rule. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for the 28th of this month, though even after this election, the military will continue its role as supervisor. A presidential election will not be held until 2013, putting Egypt into a place of stagnation. Democracy and good economic conditions are sought by the Egyptian people, and it is time that these two goals are realized. The Egyptian workers have organized labor strikes and have rightfully declared their intent to boycott work until the workers are payed fairly. Unite Left! proposes that steps are made to ensure workers rights and put in place workplace democracy. The economic conditions of Egypt do not have to follow the path taken by American and eastern European countries and while full nationalization of industries is probably not desirable, workers have the opportunity in this newly reborn nation to have unprecedented participation in their labor. The participation of labor unions and workers councils should be a prerequisite in the new democratic government which is being demanded by thousands gathered in Tahrir Square at this very moment.

A New Cold War?

2011-11-19T14:13:00.001-05:00

AsPres. Obama heads home today from his nine day trip in the Asia-Pacific region,he leaves a disturbing message of U.S. imperialism and domination that, ifunchecked, could lead us into a second Cold War. The United States has headedthe message that our global dominance is fading, and has made a calculateddecision to aggressively compete with China. he purpose of President Obama'snine day trip in Asia was admittedly to reinstate the position of the UnitedStates as a Pacific power. Just as the United States vied for political in thePacific against Soviet satellites, the United States is vying for economicpower in the Pacific against nations trading primarily with China. While itmust be acknowledged that China has devalued its currency and has largelydisregarded labor standards, these are issues which must be addressed by aninternational body, not unilaterally by the United States. The United Stateshas also made is clear that if economic warfare doesn't work, we've gotmilitary backup. In a deeply troubling show of military might, Pres. Obamaannounced the expansion of U.S. troops in Australia (2,500 soldiers are to beadded to the base). This strategic move is clearly aimed at showing China whothe true global superpower is in the eyes of the U.S. Unite Left! e-mailed renowned critic ofU.S. foreign policy, Noam Chomsky, for comment. He referred to the expansion as

"Oneof several highly provocative actions, ominous in their implications.Another is the construction of a naval base on Jeju Island in South Korea,aimed at China (over the strong objections of the inhabitants). How would theUS react to the Chinese (or Iranians, or anyone) doing the same in theCarribean?"

Chomsky'spoint is solid: China may have made moves to provoke a response by the UnitedStates. However, the nation has not expanded bases in the Carribean, it hasnever militarily provoked the United States in a manner such as we have.Unfortunately, China may be provoked to respond to this military expansion, andthe situation could escalate. Influence on the global stage is not, in manyrespects, gained through military or economic force. The United States shouldabandon imperialistic aims and focus on providing a better life for itscitizens, and working with international organizations such as the U.N. topromote a better life for the citizens of the world.

2 Months In: Shut Down Wall Street, Occupy the Subways, Take the Square!

2011-11-17T16:15:00.001-05:00

A month ago, in marking the one month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, we posed the question: where will we be in November? Well, here we are. Today's National Day of Action is capping an unprecedented flurry of activity in response to Occupy in the last several days. On Tuesday, OWS demonstrators were evicted from Zuccotti Park, the day before Occupy Oakland was sent packing. However, in this movement's counter-response it is clear that if the problems of the 99% are not going away, the 99% themselves will not go away from the streets. Today thousands turned out to protest, and, as this is published, Zuccotti Park is in the hands of the occupants after having been reoccupied this morning, and, despite a fit of police brutality in the afternoon, remains the space of the 99%.

Our Enemies Are in White, Not Blue

2011-11-16T19:14:00.001-05:00

The International Socialist Organization has taken a stand against reason (and mathematics) in declaring the police NOT to be members of the 99%. In reality, all officers on state budgets, mathematically speaking, fit perfectly well into the bottom 99% income bracket. The despicable actions of the NYPD and other police bodies (racial profiling, harassment of female convicts, brutality, etc.) are institutionalized. A few bad eggs in the main force, members of the 99%, that is, simply do not do these acts alone. And the institutionalization of this practice makes those in charge, the elite white-shirt officers making more money than the rest of the force, to blame for these actions. The police are the most obvious example of the middle-class guards of the system. They, just as bank tellers are not to blame for the actions of the big banks and soldiers are not to blame for the actions of the military industrial complex, are not to blame for the major institutional failures of the American police service, and the NYPD in particular. The International Socialist Organization's police-bashing event, 'Our Enemies in Blue' must be reconsidered. The police in blue, in reality, are our brothers and sisters. They are the guards of the system who one day may help to defeat it. We must focus our criticism on the white-shirt officers in charge of putting policy in place. Our enemies, therefore, are really those in white.

Zuccoti Park Occupants Evicted, Movement Continues

2011-11-15T14:11:00.001-05:00

At around one in the morning today, Zucotti Park, site of Occupy Wall Street, was raided by the NYPD and all protesters were evicted. Though the occupy movement is still reeling, we are not dead. The book of "Occupy" has still reached only its first chapters. A "9AM Post-Raid Rally and General Assembly" was scheduled for this morning in New York and other sites around the country continue to be successfully occupied. Clearly, today represents a turning point in the Occupy movement. However, forceful eviction will not allow the Establishment to forget about the will of the 99%. As was posted this morning on the Occupy Wall Street website, "This movement can't be contained in one square block in lower Manhattan. It is bigger than that. You can't evict an idea whose time had come."

Revolt of the Guards

2011-11-13T12:32:00.001-05:00

Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States has long been considered the definitive counter-history of the United States. Despite Zinn's death in 2010, his influence remains strong today, evidenced, among other places, in Occupy Wall Street. The following is from chapter 23 of A People's History, "The Coming Revolt of the Guards":

"One percent of the nation owns a third of the wealth. The rest of the wealth is distributed in such a way as to turn those in the 99 percent against one another... I am taking the liberty of uniting those 99 percent as "the people"... the Establishment has been unable to secure itself from revolt. Every time it looked as if it has succeeded, the very people it thought seduced or subdued, stirred and rose... In a highly developed society, the Establishment cannot survive without the obedience and loyalty of millions of people who are given small rewards to keep the system going: the soldiers and police, teachers and ministers, administrators and social workers, technicians and production workers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, transport and communications workers, garbagemen and firemen. These people-the employed, the somewhat privileged-are drawn into alliance with the elite. They become the guards of the system, buffers between the upper and lower classes. If they stop obeying, the system falls. That will happen, I think, only when all of us who are slightly privileged and slightly uneasy begin to see that we are like the guards in the prison uprising at Attica-expendable; that the Establishment, whatever rewards it gives us, will also, if necessary to maintain its control, kill us... The prisoners of the system will continue to rebel, as before, in ways that cannot be foreseen, at times that cannot be predicted. The new fact of our era is the chance that they may be joined by the guards..."

This brilliant analysis of historical events and hope of a future in which the "guards" of the system revolt against the "Establishment" is now reality in the Occupy movement. The success of Occupy is in the slogan, "We are the 99%." That 99% who are enslaved by the 1% includes all of the workers, all of the middle class that has been thrown a bone by the Establishment. The cry is for all people in Middle to join those in the Low on the front-lines of struggle against the Establishment itself. Thus, for among the first times in American history the Middle is fighting not to join the Establishment or the High, but instead to create a very new system. If this continues, and all of the 99% fights along side one another, we could see the beginnings of a truly new chapter in American and world history.

A Veterans Day Statement

2011-11-11T13:16:00.001-05:00

Socialists are not usually the first to acknowledge Veterans Day. However, despite the jingoistic patriotism associated with the holiday, Veterans Day is an important event which we must acknowledge and support as we must support veterans and troops. The actions of the military industrial complex were not orchestrated by those on the front lines of battle, but rather by those in the back rooms of Washington. The servicemen and women in the military are very much members of the 99%. Veterans Day is to honor those who have given up their lives and the futures to serve the United States, whether these veterans fought in a just war or not is effectively irrelevant. Many were drafted, many were compelled to serve out of economic necessity, and many served out of a genuine desire to defend the United States and spread democracy around the world. To blame the actions of the military establishment on the soldier is like blaming the actions of the big banks on the teller. My grandmother was a bank teller, and my grandfather was a soldier. Neither are to be ashamed of. Happy Veterans Day.

Elections '11 Results

2011-11-09T10:42:00.000-05:00

-Mississippi rejected an anti-abortion referendum
-Ohio rejected Issue 2, a major victory for collective bargaining rights
-Socialists lose in two bids, but cobble together 2,750+ votes at latest count
-Kentucky's Dem gov. stays in office, while Mississippi's GOP gov. stays in power as well
-Russell Pearce, Arizona state senator who wrote his state's radical anti-immigration law in a recall election
-Photo ID is now required at the voting booth in Mississippi

Elections in America: Live Blog

2011-11-08T11:58:00.000-05:00

10:15 EST: Signing off for tonight, further coverage tomorrow. Here's how tonight has played out so far:
-Ohio rejected Issue 2, a major victory for collective bargaining rights
-Mississippi looks as if it will reject an initiative banning abortion, good news for abortion rights
-Socialists lose in two bids, but cobble together 2,750+ votes at latest count
-Kentucky's Dem gov. stays in office, while Mississippi's GOP gov. stays in power as well

10:00 EST: Issue 3 in Ohio was approved. It will allow the residents not to buy into insurance from companies as stipulated by the major healthcare bill passed by Obama in 2010

9:45 EST: Washington Post article on the union's victory in Ohio: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/issue-2-falls-ohio-collective-bargaining-law-repealed/2011/11/08/gIQAyZ0U3M_blog.html

9:35 EST: Looks like the anti-abortion initiative in Mississippi will be defeated

9:30 EST: To be clear, United Left previously endorsed YES on Issue 2, mistakenly thinking that YES would mean the repeal of the anti-collective bargaining law. In short, we screwed up. However, the workers have won in Ohio regardless of our mistake

9:25 EST: Issue 2 has been defeated, signaling a major victory for collective bargaining rights in Ohio

9:15 EST: According to Wash Post's The Fix live blog, Dems do well in Kentucky, winning 5 out of 6 state seats

9:00 EST: A combined 2,500 votes for the socialist candidates tonight so far, if anybody cares

8:50 EST: Brandon Collins, the Socialist Party-USA endorsed candidate for Charlottesville City Council has lost his bid, despite an impressive performance

8:40 EST: Looks good for Issue 2, which would repeal Ohio's anti-collective bargaining law
Correction: YES on Issue 2 would be anti-collective bargaining. It looks good for NO on Issue 2

8:30 EST: We'll call it against Socialist candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder Pat Noble at this point. With only a fraction of precincts reporting, Noble has been unable to climb even to single digits. Still, nice to have a Socialist on the ballot garnering even a small percentage of the vote.

8:00 EST: Democratic Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has won his re-election bid

7:00 EST: Very preliminary estimations from Wasington Post's The Fix live blog of the election tonight are that Mississippi will indeed pass the anti-abortion law while Ohio will have their anti-collective bargaining rights bill repealed

Overview
Update: It has come to our attention that a seemingly obscure state senate race carries symbolic considerable symbolic importance. Russell Pearce, a Republican state senator from Arizona who wrote that state's far-right anti-immigration bill in 2010, is facing a recall vote today, the first person in Arizona history to possibly be recalled. United Left endorses Jerry Lewis, his challenger.
Well, here we are again, another year, another election. Today happens to be an 'off-year,' so no big national races to report. However, 2 gubernatorial bids will be decided today, along with a few important ballot referendums. Leading the list is Mississippi's radical anti-abortion bill which would legally define human life to begin at the moment of conception. Thus, if passed, all abortions would essentially be considered murder, while miscarriages would be considered involuntary manslaughter. United Left strongly opposed this initiative. Jumping to Ohio, a major victory for collective bargaining rights could be won tonight, as the conservative administration's anti-union bill could be overturned by referendum. United Left urges people to vote NO on this issue. Also in Ohio is a referendum which would overturn 'ObamaCare' and end people from being forced to buy into private insurance. This comes on the heels of an unrelated verdict by a Washington Circuit Appeals Court that the healthcare law is, in fact, constitutional. United Left has not endorsed any position on this bill (we believe in a single-payer universal healthcare system that bypasses corporations altogether), though we understand that the Obama administration is obviously hoping that his law will not be overturned in the state. Making fewer waves but also critical is a Mississippi referendum which would require photo ID's to vote. This would dis-proportionally effect African-American voters, the young, and the elderly. United Left urges people to vote NO on this issue. As for the Left in these elections, the Socialist Party-USA has two candidates on the ballot across America, Pat Noble for Monmouth County, NJ Freeholder and Brandon Collins for Charlottesville, Virginia City Council. United Left has endorsed both campaigns.

The Bolshevik Revolution: 94 Years On

2011-11-07T19:56:00.000-05:00

Today marks the 94th anniversary of the overthrow of the Tsarist provincial government and the installation of the world's first Communist regime. Vladimir Lenin, who's interpretation of Marxism provided the ideological backbone of the Soviet Union, was installed as the world'd first Communist leader of a nation. The first years were marred by fighting the civil war against the "white Russians," loyalists to the old Tsarist monarchy. Lenin's transition to socialism was stalling, the workers councils implied by the very name of the nation ('Soviet'translates to 'council') were essentially non-existent. The world Communist revolution was not spreading, and the localization of socialism, especially in a previously feudal state which had never seen capitalism, was becoming disastrous. Lenin passed the New Economic Policy, or NEP, in order to implement some elements of capitalism into the economy. As Lenin passed away after a series of strokes in 1924, the future of the Soviet Union was uncertain. Though the civil war would soon be over, there were no clear signs of Communist spreading, and the Soviet state appeared to grow ever more removed from the will of the people. Lenin's heir apparent was his military Commissar, Leon Trotsky. Trotsky shares his birthday with the overthrow of the Tsarist provincial government (he would have been 132 years old today). Trotsky, however, was effectively outmaneuvered by a man previously almost unknown in the ruling Communist Party: Josef Stalin. Stalinism is one of the worst chapters in socialist history, let alone human history as a whole. However, how did a workers revolution go from the deposition of the despicable Tsarist monarchy to the reign of Stalin?
The Vanguard Fallacy
One answer lies in the makeup of Leninist thought. Lenin did not ultimatly have faith in the people to achieve Communism. He famously quipped that, leaving the people to their own devices, it would take 500 years for socialism to come about. Lenin's solution was the creation of a small, elite vanguard party which would lead the revolution and the subsequent government. The workers were not in charge of industry, the Party was, and when the workers are forced to labor in the name of state loyalty, the result is as alienating as the worker forced to labor under the name of their corporation. This is state capitalism, and it existed before Stalin took control of the USSR. Obviously, Russia posed a greater challenge to Communists than Western industrialized nations. The Communists were forced to build industry themselves without any industrial capitalist precedent. However, the authoritarian elitism of Lenin is inexcusable, and set up the failure of the state, an event which finally occurred 78 years later.
The Democratic Alternative
The world's first Communist regime presents modern socialists with an abundance of lessons from the past. Most of all, it tells us that true democracy is the foundation of workers power, and that this can never come about through a vanguard party, or ruling elite. Ken Brofman, a founding member of United Left, puts it aptly when he says, "Lenin took the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' too literally," in other words, socialism, Marx's transition stage from capitalism to 'pure communism' should not be a literal dictatorship. Ironically, it may have been Left opposition to Stalinism which history will consider to be the most notable accomplishment of the Bolshevik Revolution. Though Leon Trotsky was clearly a Leninist, his opposition to Stalinism stands out as one of the most poignant instances of opposition to authoritarianism the world has ever seen. Trotsky and his followers mounted a convincing Leftist movement against Stalinism while maintaining support for a more democratic form of socialism and advocating for permanent revolution rather than Stalin's socialism in one country. To drive the point further, George Orwell, the author of the definitive anti-authoritarian novel, 1984, was an avowed democratic socialist and served in a Trotskyist unit in the Spanish Civil War. While Trotskyism fell short of diagnosing the Soviet Union as having been state capitalist from nearly the very beginning and having never truly been democratic, the Trotskyist argument remains among the most inspiring socialist currents even today, 61 years after Trotsky was murdered by an agent of the KGB working under Stalin's orders.

Occupy the Hood: Why Class and Race are Inseparable

2011-11-06T21:34:00.000-05:00

The defining historical moment when the concept of race was born dates to the days of colonialism in America. Greedy Europeans set on profiting off of the new world set both African "slaves" and European "indentured servants" to work making money for their owners. Unpaid labor is the cruelest of all worker exploitation, and this crime against the working class of both races did not go unchallenged. Black and white unpaid laborers plotted against their masters in conspiracies so frightful to those in power that they sought to create division between the oppressed so that they might fight against each other rather than against those oppressing them. The devise used to divide the laborers was one largely invented specifically for that purpose: race. Soon, white indentured servants were treated marginally better than their black counterparts so that indentured servitude was actually a step higher on the ladder of classes than slavery, the absolute bottom rung which was now reserved for blacks. This manufactured division, along with the age-old concept of fearing what is different from yourself spawned the race problem in America which we have still not escaped from. Though race is not solely a class issue and class not solely a race issue, workers struggle has been hindered by race hatred and the fight against racial discrimination has too often affected only the affluent classes. The racial hatred in America found a new outlet when the surge of immigration from Mexico began. Xenophobia and outright bigotry against Mexican-Americans and other Hispanics today is utterly unacceptable. In addition to this, the aftermath of 9/11 has created a wave of hysterical anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiment encouraged by fear-mongering conservatives. Both of these case studies prove that race and ethnicity still matter in the United States. Despite the declaration that we are now living in a "post-racial" society, even in only talking of economics, the racial division is stark. This is why it is essential to, when fighting economic injustice, have Black and Hispanic activists fighting on the front lines. It is because, while class injustice and superficial prejudices have been a hallmark of human society since the very first civilizations, modern day's most despicable case of both originates in the same place, the slave trade. Why should any fight against economic injustice not prominently feature those most effected by it? It is to the great benefit of the Occupy movement that people of color have not, in fact, been forgotten about. Rallying under the title, 'Occupy the Hood,' Occupations nationwide have taken place in predominantly Black and Hispanic intercity neighborhoods. This must continue for the Occupy movement to retain legitimacy and it must never become a white-only event for it to prove effective. The issue of racial equality must take it's place along side the issue of class, the issue of gender, and the issue of LGBTQ rights.

An excellent talk on "How Race Was Used to Hide Class" from Anarchist Opposition: http://www.youtube.com/user/AnarchistOpposition#p/u/0/e-csRqcfE34

The Basis of Left Anti-Keynsianism

2011-11-05T09:51:00.000-04:00

The economic debate in America and Western Europe still centers around the question of whether or not governments should intervene in capitalism. Within this debate, there is the assumption that capitalism in some form is positive for a state and its people. An idea to the contrary would fly in the face of both arguments. The birth of these arguments goes back to the dispute between free-market economist Freidrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes, on whether economies could reach a point of equilibrium during a slump, and whether it was necessary for government to stimulate the economy. Hayek said no, while Keynes said yes, a radical idea at the time. This once-radical idea, however, provided the intellectual baseline for F.D.R.'s New Deal. While Keynsianism prevailed for a time, economists in the 1970's such as Milton Friedman challenged this assumption and sparked a conservative revival, providing the intellectual baseline for Ronald Reagan's Republican administration and Margaret Thatcher's Conservative administration in the 1980's. While the 20th Century provided Marxist-Leninism with the world's stage in the East (Soviet Union, Maoist China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos...), the West was the stage for capitalism, and specifically the debate between l'aissez-faire and Keynsianism. Though Marxist-Leninism has essentially met it's death going into the 21st Century, the ideological battle between Keynes and Hayek continues. The issue has never been as simple as right vs. left, as the right has in fact taken many of Keynsian ideas (trickle-down economics is a form of conservative Keynsianism, as a form of stimulus is tax reduction), though the basic framework of modern Western economic thought has always been a battle between how and to what extend the government should intervene in an economy. In the years to come, the role of the Left in America and around the world is to shift the debate back to the pre-Lenin antagonism between capitalism, whatever form it comes in, and socialism.
The often noted ultimate goal of Keynes was to save capitalism from itself. This has indeed been successful from the New Deal onward. However, despite the ability of Keynesianism to do this, the economic theory lacks the philosophical backbone of Marxism and socialism, or, for that matter, l'aissez-faire capitalism. People, in their hearts, like radical change. Radical change, getting to the root of a problem, seems genuine to us, rather that the insensitive of reformism. While Keynes proclaimed Marxism to be "complicated hocus-pocus," United Left asserts it to be a complicated economic theory stemming from a relatively simple and sound moral theory. Though it is unnecessary and impossible to fully examine Marxism in the space that this article allows, it's goal, to allow humanity to escape from alienation and realize our full philosophical and spiritual potential has no place in Keynesian thought. All of the basic issues associated with capitalism by Marx are not alleviated by Keynsianism. Instead, they are masked just enough to prevent the masses from revolting against the capitalist order. The inherent senselessness of Keynesianism, however, has been unmasked at various times, usually resulting in a resurgence of l'aissez-faire capitalism. The hostility towards big government is an attack on Keynsian and Social Democratic liberalism. Because of the alienation felt by members of "representative" democracies, we inherently search for alternatives. One alternative is l'aissez-faire. Another is socialism, and the two popular movements representing these alternatives are the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, though the latter is, of course, not explicitly socialist. It has, however, already provided us with two tools of a democratic socialist revival: the practice of direct democracies within a format similar to General Assemblies along with general strikes and similar union activism. The third tool of democratic socialism is party activism and electoral action. That has proven to be the most illusive. However, the fourth is perhaps the most absurd and quite controversial. In order to move the debate from Keynes vs. Hayek to Keynes vs. Marx it is necessary to eliminate widespread support for l'aissez-faire capitalism, and to do this it is necessary to fight for Keynsian policies. Thus, we are indeed all Keynsians now. That is, of course, until a newly rejuvenated Marx is once again a viable player on the global political stage.

Occupy Movement Spreads to India

2011-11-04T18:42:00.000-04:00

Today saw "Occupy Dalal Street," referring to the street on which the Bombay Stock Exchange is located in Mumbai, India. These protests are actually led by bank employees, such as Vishwas Utagi, who is general secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association. He said the following, reports DNA India: "The policy represented by Dalal Street is identical to the policies followed at the Wall Street. We, the bank employees, are continuously waging war against liberalization of Indian economy and the privatization policy of the government of India in the banking sector."

"A Triumph"

2011-11-03T16:51:00.000-04:00

Participants in yesterday's Oakland General Strike remain upbeat about their accomplishments despite negative press. The quote serving as this post's title is from California Courage Campaign director Eddie Kurtz.
News Update: The Oakland Port has now reopened