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Author Archives: franklindmitryev
Rallies for equal pay
On April 9 rallies were held across the U.S. to mark the day women’s earnings catch up to what men’s were at the end of 2012. Continue reading
Violence ‘normalized’
We are living in contradictory times, especially when it comes to women’s struggle for freedom. On the one hand you have a Women’s Liberation Movement that has never been more radical, unified and global. On the other hand there is more repression, and the violence is more brutal and deadly than ever before. Continue reading
Posted in Marxist-Humanism
Tagged Anene Booysen, Arab spring, Bangladesh, Congo, Doctors Without Borders, Egypt, Facebook, feminism, Great Britain, Hena Akhter, India, Jyoti Singh Pandey, Left, Maldives, normalization of violence against women, patriarchy, Rape, revolution, sexism, sexual assault in the military, Socialist Workers Party, South Africa, SWP, Tunisia, U.S. Air Force, United States, Violence against women, Women in India, women's liberation movement
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Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) and his legacy
Achebe made a great statement of responsibility toward the future. His questions are only more significant because they resonate beyond the Africa of newly-won independence to a world struggling with the meaning of history and revolution. Continue reading
Tunisia and the Left
The Feb. 26 assassination of Tunisian Marxist Chokri Belaid is a tragedy, not least because it denies this serious and courageous activist a chance to help work out the contradictions in his own movement. His funeral—perhaps a million people took to the streets—became a massive demonstration in favor of continuing the Tunisian Revolution. Continue reading
Posted in Marxist-Humanism
Tagged 1844 Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts of Karl Marx, Arab spring, Bashar al-Assad, Chokri Belaid, Ennahda Party, Marx's critique of religion, Middle East, negation of the negation, Palestinians, Popular Front, revolution in permanence, Salafist, shabiha, Syria, Tunisia, Tunisian Revolution, Unified Party of Democratic Patriots, World Social Forum
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Venezuela election
The close Venezuelan elections of recent years have likely represented the tensions inherent in Chavismo itself. While Hugo Chavez did do things to benefit many of the poorest Venezuelans, he also maintained a relationship with the business community. Continue reading
Rape and lies in Syria
It is instructive to compare the 1990s, when pretty much only the women’s movement gave vocal support to Bosnia, with Syria today. Some of the same crimes are happening now. Continue reading
Posted in Marxist-Humanism
Tagged Arab spring, Assad, Bashar al-Assad, Bosnian genocide, Chechnya, Congo, feminism, Free Syrian Army, Hezbollah, International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict, Iran, Jody Williams, Kurds, Lebanon, Middle East revolutions, Palestinian refugees, patriarchy, Patrick Cockburn, Rape, Russia, sexism, Slobodan Milosevic, Syria, Tarsus, Women Under Siege, women's liberation, Women's Media Center, Yarmouk
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Portsmouth, England: unite against austerity
“We are going through the biggest squeeze in living standards since my granddad was born in this city in the 1920s,” said Jones, who cites his grandfather’s conversion to trade unionism precisely through his experience working in Portsmouth. Continue reading
Posted in Marxist-Humanism
Tagged austerity, bedroom tax, Chavs, England, Great Britain, labor, Liane Groves, Owen Jones, Portsmouth, Trade union, UK, Unite, Unite Community Portsmouth, workers
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Boston Marathon bombing
The Boston Marathon bombing follows mass killings in the past year in an Aurora, Colo., theater, at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The body count might have risen sharply if the bombs had been of dynamite like what killed four little girls in 1963 at a Birmingham church, or of the fertilizer type that killed 168 people and destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, instead of relatively low-tech gunpowder bombs made by amateur bombers. Continue reading
Posted in Marxist-Humanism
Tagged 1963 Birmingham Alabama church bombing, 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Aurora Colorado, Boston Marathon bombing, Chechnya, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Eric Rudolph, Michael Chertoff, Murrah Federal Building, Newtown Connecticut, Oklahoma City bombing, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Sikh temple in Wisconsin, Sirhan Sirhan, surveillance state, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Timothy McVeigh, Vladimir Putin
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Detroiters organize in class war
The entire state of Michigan voted against the harsh emergency manager law, Public Act 436, last November only to have the lame-duck state legislature vote it right back in before year’s end. On the day, March 28, that Act 436 took effect, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager fired the interim superintendent of schools. … Meanwhile, neighborhoods languish under mounting piles of trash, abandoned houses, stores, factories and vehicles. City services are reduced by mandatory budget cut “furloughs.” The challenge for Detroit residents is: can we stand up and organize ourselves for quality living and working conditions, some of which includes wresting support and services from our unelected new leaders? Can we articulate and realize a future Detroit developed for human needs? Continue reading
Thatcher is dead, Thatcherism persists
From the new May-June 2013 issue of News & Letters: Thatcher is dead, Thatcherism persists London, England–They gathered openly, in the streets, in the hundreds. They shouted. They cheered. Flags were waved, music was played. Yet this was not just … Continue reading
Posted in Marxist-Humanism
Tagged anti-trade union laws, Augusto Pinochet, Battle of Orgreave, capitalism, Chile, Conservative Party, Ed Miliband, Human rights, Kazakhstan, Labour Party, London, Margaret Thatcher, Miners' strike of 1984-85, National Union of Mineworkers, Nick Cohen, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Rupert Murdoch, Ted Heath, Thatcherism, Tony Blair
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