Published bimonthly since 1986, Against the Current is a Solidarity sponsored analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left. The July/ August ATC begins with an editorial on the two Obamas--the one whose approach fills voters with expectations that U.S. policy can be different, and the centrist Democrat that Obama's record suggests he is. Jack Rasmus writes about the new phase of the economic crisis, Nomi Prins comments on the housing mess and Lesley Gill discusses implications on the transfer of the Colombian paramilitaries to U.S. custody. Jeffery Webber's review essay takes up the themes of Socialist Register 2008: empire, religion and liberation, particularly in Latin America and the Middle East.


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International Viewpoint is the monthly English-language magazine of the Fourth International. IV is a window to radical alternatives world-wide, carrying reports, analysis and debates from all corners of the globe. Correspondents in over 50 countries report on popular struggles, and the debates that are shaping the left of tomorrow.

A dictator gone but not his policies: People across Pakistan celebrated the departure of president and dictator Pervez Musharraf on 18 August 2008. As he announced his resignation in an unscheduled nationally televised one-hour speech, private television channels showed instant responses of jubilation in all four provinces.
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Burmese Cyclone: Wave of Burmese solidarity forces regime to retreat on cyclone, by Marc Johnson



"Venezuela: the Referendum and the Revolution" collects four contributions reflect a partial cross-section of the rich and complex discussion taking place in the Venezuelan and international left just before and immediately after the narrow defeat of the Constitutional referendum in December 2007.

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Regroupment & Refoundation of a U.S. Left

As part of the preparation for our 2008 Convention, members of SOLIDARITY have begun a political document describing some perspectives for socialist renewal in the twenty-first century. We welcome responses to this initial draft of the document. Some of the themes here have also been developed in Solidarity's Founding Statement and our 1997 pamphlet, “Socialist Organization Today.”

— Introduction
— Social Movements over the Last Two Decades
— Regroupment, Refounding and the Arc of Resistance
— Refounding a New Left: Next Generations & Their Experiences
— The Tasks and Possibilities of a U.S. Refounded Left
— Refounding the Left: Taking Our Past Into Our Future

New Pamphlet: Hell on Wheels

New from Solidarity! Long time transit worker activist Steve Downs has written a pamphlet charting the twenty year story of New Directions, a rank and file caucus in New York City's transit union that he helped build and develop - including the challenges of keeping the rank and file democracy movement alive after New Directions won control of the local.

Read a review and order your copy today!

In Memoriam: Elissa Jane Karg Chacker

Elissa Karg Chacker, a longtime member of Solidarity and previously the International Socialists (IS) in Detroit, died Sunday, May 11 from injuries suffered in an accident a week earlier. Riding her bicycle home after a Solidarity meeting, she was struck by a car and never regained consciousness.
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From Abortion Rights to Reproductive Justice

New from Solidarity's Feminist Commission, this leaflet responds to the right wing attack on reproductive freedom and argues that the movement must go beyond "pro-choice" to true reproductive justice. This socialist and anti-racist feminist agenda would take up issues such as access to health and child care, forced sterilization, and the division of "productive" and "reproductive" labor.
Download the pamphlet...

BradDuncan's blog

Mp3 Spotlight: The Black Power Era Part One

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Submitted by BradDuncan on July 8, 2008 - 12:15pm.

In the last two installments of Mp3 Spotlight we have looked at the work of individual musicians who have put their creative energies towards building social movements.

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Mp3 Spotlight: Cornelius Cardew

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Submitted by BradDuncan on June 11, 2008 - 8:12pm.

Cornelius Cardew lived a singular life in modern music. He helped give birth to electronic music in the 1950’s, connected the U.S. and European musical avant-gardes, and pushed the limits of improvised music with groups such as AMM. From the mid 1950’s through the early 1970’s Cardew burned like a comet, redefining experimental music and earning legend status. But when his commitment to Marxist politics intensified he left it all behind to create “people’s liberation music”.

Electronic Music and Minimalism

For our purposes here we will look at ‘both sides’ of Cardew’s life and music, although it is unwise to compartmentalize such a complex human being. Cardew followed a boyhood passion for classical music all the way to the Royal Academy of Music. But it was his gig after graduation that put him in a nexus of ground breaking music. At the age of 22 Cardew traveled to Germany to work as the assistant to composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Stockhausen was opening up a new world of music making machinery, electronically generated sounds, and compositions that made full use of these developments. Their close creative relationship lasted for three years.

Mp3 Spotlight: Christy Moore

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Submitted by BradDuncan on May 8, 2008 - 1:26pm.

I want to kick off this ongoing series on the webzine with a look at a seminal political artist. Christy Moore is a powerful vocalist, song interpreter, and a passionately political person and performer. To many he may be simply a folksinger, but Christy Moore is a voice for the voiceless.

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Marxist Blogs, Part One

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Submitted by BradDuncan on April 25, 2008 - 5:34pm.

“Radical Blogging Is The Main Trend In Our World Today”

Let’s focus on two trends in radical blogs, both based on Marxism. One is the emergence of a web of prolific Maoist/Marxist-Leninist blogs in the United States. The other is the world of Marxist blogs emanating from English-speaking western Europe. I will start this entry with a look at the Maoist-inspired blogs.

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Out of the Closets, Into the Streets! The Many Lives of Bob Kohler

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Submitted by BradDuncan on January 2, 2008 - 11:52am.

Liberation movements in the United States lost a brave and vibrant participant in the death of Bob Kohler, a leading figure of the American Gay Liberation Movement.

Bob Kohler, 1926-2007
Bob lived dozens of lives in his 81 years on the planet. Although Bob was best known as an early leader of the Gay Liberation Front he was also a talent representative for mostly Black artists in the early 1960’s, a vintage clothing store owner, World War II veteran, a talented and empathetic listener, bath house proprietor, peoples’ historian, Stonewall uprising participant, and a link between the gay struggle and other liberation struggles.

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