After a militant one-week struggle, workers at New York City’s Hunts Point market have won a victory that should inspire other essential workers everywhere. Brett Wallace reports from the picket line...
Antonio Gramsci: 130 years since his birth
When we saw Joseph Biden calling for unity at his inauguration, we immediately thought of Gramsci’s line, "The historical unity of the ruling classes is realized in the state." Antonio Gramsci, born 130 years ago, on January 22nd, 1891, lived his life as a revolutionary, from daily agitation in the Turin workers struggles at the end of WWI, through the rise of fascism and his death in Mussolini’s prison. In between, he made fundamental contributions to Marxist theory of strategy and the revolutionary party as elaborated by Karl Marx, Rosa Luxembourg, and V.I. Lenin. In American academia, Gramsci’s important concept of hegemony has often been confusingly used to reject working class activity and concentrate on the articulation of counter hegemony within the domain of culture. Certainly, Gramsci’s intelligent and dialectical cultural writings are useful and enjoyable to read. But, as Leandros Bolaris emphasizes below (translated by Iannis Delatolas), Gramsci’s Marxism was always the "philosophy of action", the theory of the liberation struggle of the working class. When we consider issues like the rise of a new brand of fascism today, the use of social media in spreading false consciousness, or the relation of working class action to the revolutionary party, Gramsci remains a brilliant and useful part of the Marxist tradition.
On the Anniversary of Roe v Wade, Continue the Fight that Won Legal Abortion
We cannot depend on Biden and Congress to defend abortion rights today from an increasingly anti-abortion Supreme Court. Four years ago, a massive Women’s March kicked off opposition to Trump. Those numbers, and a revival of the movements that won abortion rights in the first place, can not only secure those rights, but fight on for much more.
We must stand united against Trump and the insurgent far right
To push back the far right we must strive to unite the millions of people the Bernie Sanders campaigns invigorated, the thousands who have recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America, the estimated 26 million people who took part in the anti-racist rebellion last year, and all people who consider themselves anti-racist and anti-fascist.
Marx21’s picks of Notable Books of 2020
Marx21 has asked around and compiled this year-end list of twenty-five notable books of 2020. Missed one of your favorites? Write in and tell us.
The end of a nightmare: where next after the US elections?
In the latest International Socialism journal, Marx21 members Iannis Delatolas and Clare Lemlich discuss Donald Trump’s electoral defeat and what next for the U.S. left. Click through for a link to the full article.
Fighting after the election
Marie Edwards breaks down the 2020 election results, arguing that although we are elated to see Trump go, the incoming Biden-Harris administration offers no solutions to the multiple crises we face. Instead, Marie writes, the need for a fighting, independent left has never been more urgent.
The state of the climate crisis post-election
Virginia Rodino looks at the destructive environmental legacy Trump leaves behind, arguing that Biden and the Democratic Party’s structural entanglements with the fossil fuel industry means they will not be able to address the climate crisis—unless pushed by the movements from below.
Biden Wins: Where Now for America & the Left?
Paul LeBlanc, August Nimtz, and Virgina Rodino discuss the 2020 US election and prospects for the left after Trump's defeat. SWP TV, November 8th, 2020. https://youtu.be/ytaswr6T3Zc Virginia Rodino is an activist with Marx21 US and vice chair of the Maryland Green Party. August Nimtz is a professor of African American studies at the University of… Continue reading Biden Wins: Where Now for America & the Left?
Covid recession casts 100 million into extreme poverty, while world’s richest gain record trillions
Two mainstream reports issued in October, the USB Billionaire’s Report and the World Bank Poverty Report, together showed that under the Covid-19 pandemic the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer have reached gargantuan levels. Together they are, as Eric Fretz notes here, an unwitting indictment of capitalism.
