Internationaal links nieuws

[roger verhiest]

Op deze draad zet ik enkele interessante zaken van het internet geplukt
(dus in de originele taal)

Socialist Education Feature

Resistance! has a new section! Starting this week, I'll post a link to an historic Marxist article or reading that has practical application today, in the hope of helping expand comrades' familiarity with the writings of theorists that form the foundation of our politics. Most or all will come from the Marxist Internet Archive, www.marxists.org.

Before we let the elections go in lieu of more pressing issues, I thought it would be interesting to put Socialist Action's participation in and perspective on the election campaign into some historical context provided by Vladimir Lenin, who masterfully directed the Russian Social Democratic Party campaign for the Fourth Duma election in 1912. The Sixth All-Russia Conference of the RSDLP statement Elections to the Fourth Duma contains the Party's election platform and strategy. I also strongly recommend reading the 1970 pamphlet by Doug Jenness, Lenin as Election Campaign Manager, published by Pathfinder Press and available to buy through their website.
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News & Analysis

Continuing final analysis of the election outcome and its fallout...

Obama's Victory: A Socialist Perspective editorial from SA
Obama's victory was at least in part a product of what might be called a perfect political storm – the simultaneous combination of massive attacks on working people as whole and Blacks in particular, a capitalist economy in the early stages of a meltdown not seen since the Great Depression of 1929, a war in Iraq and threats of war elsewhere pursued with murderous vigor in the face of the majority opposition, a looming environmental catastrophe and a Republican Administration that appeared helpless in the face of all of it. Never in memory has the contradiction been greater between the illusions of the masses that change was possible with an Obama victory and the reality of capitalist politics and prospects today.

Barack Obama Versus Black America by Joe Auciello, from SA
What will his victory signify for Black America? In the dynamics of race, what is likely to change for the better? How might the nation be transformed by the election of its first Black president?

Hail to the Chief of Staff by Alexander Cockburn, from Counterpunch
If you missed reading this important article to date, it's worth a gander. Obama's first appointment as President-elect, ardent Zionist Rahm Emmanuel, serves as a bellweather for the way the new Obama Administration will function. The article also includes an interview with Ralph Nader, who drew SA's response in the above editorial.

Gay Marriage Rallies Across America from Box Turtle Bulletin
On November 15, well over 100,000 people took to the streets across the country in hastily-organized protests against the passage of California's Proposition 8 and other anti-Gay legislation elsewhere. The near-spontaneous outpouring of rage and resistance against attacks on the civil rights of GLBT people has debuted a new call for more militant organizing to overturn barriers to legal equality, encapsulated in a particular sign that appeared at many of the protests -- "No More Mr. Nice Gay." This blog site is a round-up of newsmedia from all of the 300+ rallies. An article in SA should (I'm assuming) be forthcoming next issue.

The Occupiers' Faltering Status in Iraq by Patrick Cockburn, from Socialist Worker (ISO)
In late October, the U.S. threatened to cut off essential services to Iraq on January 1 if Iraq's government refused to sign a "status of forces agreement" (SOFA) that would sanction the presence of American soldiers after the current United Nations (UN) mandate expires on December 31. Last week, Nouri Al-Malaki's cabinet ratified the agreement; it is now before Parliament. Over the last 8 months, a nationalist reaction to the original agreement forced the U.S. to include a hard timetable for withdrawal--though not until late 2011, and even then Iraq will hardly have complete sovereignty.

Just remember, The Vote Changes Nothing...


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