The following account of the Detroit uprising of 1967 is occasioned by the 50th anniversary of the events. It describes the suppression of the revolt as being symptomatic of a broader counterinsurgency against radical social movements in the United States. In turn, it considers how the repression accelerated punitive and authoritarian carceral policies. Through an examination of the cultural products of these social movements, it also suggests that alternative outcomes have been and continue to be possible. This account is excerpted from Incarcerating the Crisis.
After the referendum of 1 October
4 October 2017, by1. The referendum held on 1 October in Catalonia puts on the agenda a series of fundamental questions. The savage repression from the People’s Party (PP) government and the state apparatus is the demonstration of an authoritarian project incapable of responding in a civilized way to the democratic demands of the people. Its image, broadcast by the Rajoy government, taken up by the media of the whole world, sends us back us to the dark times of late Francoism. Any real democrat will feel shame and opposition to the pistures of the police beating up people who sought to exercise their right to vote or requisitioning ballot boxes. We condemn the actions of the government and the state apparatus and we convey our sympathy to the hundreds of wounded, among them militants of Anticapitalistas.
After the German election
4 October 2017, byThe federal election of 2017 marks a break in the political history of the Federal Republic of Germany. It means the end of the relatively stable political conditions in the dominant and economically strongest country of the European Union.
How the earthquakes shook Mexican politics
3 October 2017, byRepercussions from September’s earthquakes—which left almost 300 dead, thousands injured and hundreds of thousands homeless—are deepening an already advanced social and political crisis in Mexico. Coming on the 32nd anniversary of a 1985 earthquake that helped splinter Mexico’s long-ruling one-party state, the disasters of the last month have helped push President Enrique Peña Nieto’s popularity ratings to near historic lows, while relief and reconstruction efforts have brought widespread governmental corruption to the surface.
Edgard Sánchez RamÃrez, a leading member of the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT), assesses the damage caused by the earthquakes and the potential for a social and political challenge to arise from the massive efforts of ordinary people to rescue their neighbors, provide relief for survivors, and stand up against the despised regime, in an article first published at the PRT website and translated by Todd Chretien for socialistworker.org.
Catalonia’s Decision
2 October 2017, byHow the 1 October Catalan independence vote came about — and why it should have the Left’s support