history
Washington and the Cuban Revolution: Ballad of a never-ending policy – the myth of the ‘Miami Lobby’
Passengers prepare to board a flight to Cuba from Fort Lauderdale."Ever-growing numbers, at
William Dudley (Big Bill) Haywood, US labour movement leader, marching with strikers in Lowell, Massachusetts, circa 19
United States: The Fourth of July -- theirs and ours
By Dimitris Fasfalis
John Riddell: Lars Lih and Ben Lewis reveal Zinoviev at his best
Zinoviev and Martov: Head to Head in Halle
Edited by Ben Lewis and Lars T. Lih,
Review: Invaluable history, important lessons from Barry Sheppard
The Party, The Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988, Volume I: The Sixties, a Political Memoir by Barry Sheppard, Resistance Books (Sydney), 2005, 354 pages.
The Party, The Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988, Volume II: Interregnum, Decline and Collapse, 1973-1988, a Political Memoir by Barry Sheppard, Resistance Books (London), 2012, 345 pages.
[For more discussion of the US SWP, click HERE.]
By Malik Miah
William D. Haywood—Soldier to the Last, by James P. Cannon (1928)
“William D. Haywood—Soldier to the Last” by James P. Cannon (Daily Worker, May 22, 1928) is a heartfelt obituary of the IWW leader William “Big Bill” Haywood by a friend and comrade, James P.
Lars Lih: Bolshevism and revolutionary social democracy
Lenin.
By Lars Lih
Tariq Ali: The rotten heart of Europe (video)
May 15, 2012 – Tariq Ali's keynote lecture on the state of Europe presented at the annual
'Outline for Work in Municipal Councils' (194?) -- Communist Party of Australia
Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal – A document on socialists standing in municipal council elections, produced by the Communist Party of Australia in the 1940s.
United States: Minnesota’s communist mayor
By Pamela A. Brunfelt
New voices and new views on revolutionary history
By John Riddell
May 28, 2012 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/johnriddell.wordpress.com -- Some familiar issues were addressed with originality and new vigour at the Historical Materialism conference in Toronto on May 11–13. Attendance at the three sessions on revolutionary history, organised by Abigail Bakan (Queen’s University), ranged between 30 and 75 of the 400 conference participants.
Given that eight of 11 presentations had a European focus, the discussions were opened fittingly by Montreal scholar Daria Dyakonova with a paper on a little-studied aspect of revolutionary history here in Canada: the birth of communism in Quebec.
The pioneers of this movement faced objective obstacles, including severe repression and formidable opposition by the Catholic Church. In addition, Dyakonova explained, “after Lenin and especially after 1929”, the Canadian Communist Party’s “policies were determined from Moscow”. The line dictated by the leadership of the Communist International (Comintern) was “often at odds with national or local needs”.
United States: Far right and Republicans attempt roll back of constitutional equal rights
Former enslaved African Americans vote in New Orleans, 1867, during the "Radical Reconstruction" period.
By Malik Miah
May 25, 2012 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The “Reconstruction amendments” — the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the United States constitution — are being targeted in many of the far-right “Tea Party” and Republican campaigns against the rights of immigrants and women, marriage equality and gay rights, and voting rights for African Americans and other minority ethnic groups.
The racist tinge of many of these attacks, whether openly stated or implied, is obvious – but this does not mean that racism is more prevalent now than in the past. Rather, the smear campaign against President Barack Obama’s mixed background and dark skin is calculated to appeal to the most extreme backward elements of the Republican Party.