American socialist Bill Crane provides a brief history of the Democratic Party from its inception to the present, and asks how revolutionaries might relate to the movement behind presidential nominee Bernie Sanders.
What do Syrian and Lebanese activists think?
12 April 2016, byMiriyam Aouragh introduces interviews with activists Syrian and Lebanese that aim to cut through the confusion that has clouded much of the British left in recent months. The activists’ responses to questions about the nature of Daesh, the role of sectarianism and whether class can still be a source of analysis in the uprising, how we should regard the Kurdish resistance, what differences does receiving weapons or help from western powers make, and what can we do here to support their movements, follow Miriyam’s introduction. [1]
Origins, dynamics and developments of the revolutionary process
1 March 2016, byThis is the English language version of an interview that was done for the Greek publication Ela Liberta.
Erdo?an’s Victory by Violence
8 January 2016, byThe right-wing Justice and Development Party (AKP) is back in power, having easily won a clear majority of members of parliament (MPs) in the Turkish elections. While President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s party did not reach the necessary number of MPs to change the constitution and push through his desired presidential system, the AKP, their talking heads, and their media (just recently expanded through the seizure of more opposition media outlets) will put the issue back on the agenda. Indeed, they have already begun: one of Erdo?an’s senior advisors, Yi?it Bulut, said in his statement celebrating the AKP’s electoral victory, “Welcome, presidential system!”
New capitalist domination and imperialism in Africa
29 October 2015, byThe decolonization that began in the 1940s was essentially a passage towards neocolonialism, a mutation of the former colonies, a reconfiguration of the mechanisms of domination and exploitation by both the former colonial powers and other capitalists of the centre. It was necessary to adapt to the new balance of power on the international stage (the new economic-military hierarchy, the “Cold War”) in both the colonial metropolises and the colonial territories. Three or four decades later, the disappearance of the so-called “communist” camp gave rise to a restructuring of the world order based on the dynamic of the neoliberalisation of capitalism that had been set in motion in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is characterized by a permanent strengthening of the global hold of capital on the world (globalization) and a dynamic of abolition of the “private estate” (concerning the former French colonies), the “backyard” (Latin America for the United States), etc., which were said to limit the free movement of capital, hitherto considered as an intrusion.
The Anti-Abortion Vanguard
27 October 2015, byAbortion opponents are at the forefront of a wider effort to punish poor women and attack social services.
Fifty Years Since Its Founding: ?A History of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR)
5 October 2015, byFifty years ago, the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) was born, a political force that marked the history of the Chilean and Latin American left. Franck Gaudichaud provides a brief introduction to this story – still under construction – and discusses it with University of Santiago (USACH) historian Igor Goicovic Donoso, specialist on the subject of political violence and an ex-militant of the MIR during the 1980s. [2]
A World Without Borders
1 October 2015, byWho now remembers Reem Sahwil? A Palestinian teenager who, in 2011, had arrived in the German coastal city of Rostock from a Lebanese refugee camp, Reem was among a group of school students addressed by Angela Merkel in July this year. She explained to the chancellor that her family was facing deportation.
Leon Trotsky – 75 Years Since His Assassination – The Legacy
31 August 2015, byLeon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary, was murdered seventy-five years ago today—on August 21, 1940—by Ramón Mercader, an agent of Joseph Stalin, Trotsky’s former comrade in the Communist Party and then the ruler of the Soviet Union. Stalin feared that Trotsky might organize a movement to overthrow the new ruling elite in the Soviet Union and that Trotsky’s followers might challenge the leading role of the parties of the Communist International active in working-class movements (...)
The Institute Pantelis Pouliopoulos and the legacy of Greek Trotskyism
28 August 2015On August 6, Left Voice interviewed Kostas Skordoulis and Yanis Felekis, leading members of the group OKDE-Spartakos and founding members of the Institute for Political and Social Research Center Pantelis Pouliopoulos (IPSR Pouliopoulos).
Footnotes
[1] The author would like to thank Ashley Inglis for helping copy-edit the text as well as all the correspondents for taking the time to think about the questions and answer them so insightfully.
[2] A first version of this text was published in French by the magazine ContreTemps. The translation of the introduction to that version was made by Rocio Gajardo Fica.
