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Against the Current

Published bimonthly since 1986, AGAINST THE CURRENT is a Solidarity-sponsored analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left. The Sept./Oct. issue features Malik Miah on How Race Fuels the Rightist Agenda, Kit Adam Wainer on Obama's Race to the Top vs. Teacher Unions and Susan Spronk and Jeffery R. Webber interviewing Venezuelan activists Gonzalo Gómez, Stalin Pérez Borges and Luis Primo on the processes of deepening the revolution. Coverage of The Mexican Revolution at 100 continues, featuring an interview with Adolpho Gilly and articles by Dan La Botz, James D. Cockcroft, Heather Dasner Monk, Fred Rosen and Scott Campbell.

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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.

Put a Socialist in the Senate!

LaBotz, Buckeye Socialist, Senate 2010

Dan La Botz, a 64-year old Cincinnati school teacher, has filed petitions with the Ohio Secretary of State to become the candidate of the Socialist Party for the U.S. Senate. La Botz, who needed 500 signatures to get on the Socialist Party primary ballot, filed petitions with approximately 1,200 signatures on Thursday, Feb. 18. La Botz, a long time labor and social movement activist, is the candidate of the Socialist Party of Ohio which is the state organization of the Socialist Party USA.

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Keep up with the campaign!
Campaign website- DanLaBotz.com

Order these eye-catching buttons to spread the demand for social and economic justice. If you don't have paypal, email us!


Reads Bail out People, not Wall Street!. Around the edge, these 2 1/8" buttons read "Free Health Care," "Defend Public Services," "Living Wage Jobs," "Free Higher Education," "Troops Home Now," "Rebuild the Gulf Coast," and "Affordable Housing."

Brown and black buttons demand: "Bring all the Troops Home Now!" Wear one everywhere to start a conversation about why US occupation can never be a force for liberation, and people's needs should come before the massive military budget.

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These 2 1/8" buttons read, in Spanish and English: ¡Alto a las deporaciones - Legalización para todos! Stop the deportations - Legalization for all!

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Videos from Solidarity's Educational Conference

November 14-15 in New York City, Solidarity held a successful conference featuring engaging talks on a number of topics. Click here to view these videos from "Their Crisis, Our Movements"

- Crisis of Capitalism, Challenge to the Movements (David McNally, New Socialist Group)
- The New Imperialism and The Global Fightback (Vivek Chibber, Christy Thornton, Jonah McCallister-Erickson)
- The State of Resistance in Communities & the Workplace (Normahiram Perez, Steve Downs, Penelope Duggan)
- Race and National Liberation Under Obama (Glen Ford, Lalit Clarkston)

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Solidarity depends on the generous contributions of its friends and allies to continue its work. Please consider giving!

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Barbara Zeluck Presente!

Our comrade Barbara Zeluck died June 5, 2010. She was a lifelong socialist and founding member of Solidarity. Barbara had a long and active life, unwavering in her support for radical social change and movements that she felt were dedicated to mobilizing the working class and raising class consciousness. She always believed that a better world was possible. Read More...

One Year of Obama and the Democrats’ Debacle

Last fall, in the discussion that produced our analysis of “Obama After 200 Days,” we said it would be premature to speak of a “crisis” for the administration. A year after the euphoric 2009 inauguration, it no longer looks premature. People who looked to Obama and the Democrats for leadership are bitterly disappointed, and a very peculiar brand of rightwing politics has seized the initiative.
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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.”

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 an interview on Zmag.org
Read a review and order your copy today!

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...

Paul's blog

Scott Sisters Update, New Articles: Gray-Haired Witnesses Plan Hunger Strike at DOJ / "No More Banquets!" by Dr. Lenore Daniels

Submitted by Paul on May 15, 2010 - 10:58am

The case of the Mississippi Scott Sisters, Jamie and Gladys who are now in their sixteenth year of an unjust and racist incarceration, is beginning to reach a wider audience and is inspiring bold actions in support of their struggle for freedom and justice, all the more urgent in light of the criminal medical neglect of Jamie Scott's end-stage kidney disease by the Mississippi Department of Corrections and particularly its head, Commissioner Christopher Epps, who is well aware of Jamie's deteriorating health and refuses to authorize her urgently-needed hospitalization.

Below are two articles sent out by the indefatigable Marpess Kupendua. The first deals with a planned hunger strike at the U.S. Department of Justice by a group of women elders--including Marpessa--which will take place on June 21, 2010. The second is another outstanding article written by Dr. Lenore Daniels, regular columnist for The Black Commentator, who wrote an earlier article which was re-published on this webzine almost a year ago.

Those who are interested in building support for the Hunger Strike and organizing further actions in support of justice for the Scott Sisters can contact folks involved in this struggle at the email addresses and/or phone numbers provided below, or myself (Paul) at lefrak@gmail.com.

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Sent by Marpessa Kupendua:


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Reflecting on the Kent State Massacre Forty Years Later

Submitted by Paul on May 4, 2010 - 5:43pm

I was prompted to reflect back forty years ago today on the anniversary of the Kent State Massacre of May 4, 1970.


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The Plantation called Haiti: US/Euro pillage masking as humanitarian aid by Ezili Dantò

Submitted by Paul on April 6, 2010 - 9:48pm

The following was received in an email from Ezili Dantò (Marguerite Laurent), the text of which can be found on her blog.

US/Euro pillage masking as humanitarian aid by Ezili Dantò

Here is an good example of what real helps looks like (Statement of Cuban Foreign Minister at UN Donors Meeting on Haiti
http://bit.ly/b3ZHJa.

Below we post the Haiti-Cuba proposal for building health care in Haiti that considers the needs of the poorest of the poor in Haiti and is without the unseemly large budget of the cork-popping champaign fanfare of the UN/Papa-Mama Clinton March 31st media show and pledging session that just took place. It is worthy of all our support. If only this Haiti-Cuba health care proposal could be brought into application without the US/Euro policymakers' interference and use of their egotistical NGOs and mercenary military contractors to block it. If only their inhumanity and vulgarity could be held in abeyance while heart sore human beings, living under water-logged tents, old cardboard and wet sheets, people with damaged and inflamed limbs, some also tear-gassed by the UN for protesting their conditions; if only their inhumanity and vulgarity could be held in abeyance as Haiti tried to recover from the ravages of the US/Euro neoliberalism and despotism that exacerbated a 7.0 earthquake so that it took the lives of over 300,000...

Justice for the Scott Sisters: An Update

Submitted by Paul on March 25, 2010 - 2:18pm

Scott SistersToday, March 25th, is a "day of blogging" to support justice for the Jamie and Gladys Scott, two wrongfully imprisoned sisters in the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. There are two central issues at stake with this important case.

Most immediately, the life of Jamie Scott is being endangered due to the prison's ongoing and cruel medical negligence. She is being denied the urgent medical care she needs for both malfunctioning kidneys and she has an infection that has spread throughout her body. Jamie is in constant severe pain and is very weak. In addition, her mother, Mrs. Evelyn Rasco, and their family including their children, have been denied visitation at times.

Then there is the case itself. Here's what the flyer used to mobilize support has to say:

MISSISSIPPI JUSTICE: DOUBLE-LIFE EACH FOR $11.00!

On 12/24/93, the Scott County Sheriff’s Department arrested Jamie and Gladys Scott for armed robbery even though three young males, ranging from ages 14 to 18, confessed to committing the crime and the women have unwaveringly maintained their complete innocence. Despite this, the corrupt Mississippi sheriff used coercion, threats, and harassment to compel them to turn state’s evidence against the Scott sisters due to a long-standing vendetta against a family member.

URGENT! Support Haitian Earthquake Relief Coordinated by Solidarity Organizations

Submitted by Paul on January 14, 2010 - 11:02am

The January 12th 7.0 earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti is a disaster of unimaginable proportions that has likely left tens of thousands dead and many more without adequate medical care,


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Support the Viva Palestina USA Convoy to Gaza!

Submitted by Paul on May 28, 2009 - 12:00pm

On the heels of the recent success of the Viva Palestina: Lifeline from Britain to Gaza medical aid convoy of over 100 vehicles headed by British Minister of


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Observations on a Venezuelan Workplace Struggle

Submitted by Paul on May 21, 2009 - 2:44pm

This past April, I had the privilege to participate in a brief campaign to defend workplace rights here in the Andean city of Mérida, Venezuela where I currently live.


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A cover for preserving racism: The "U.S.-Brazil Joint Action Plan To Eliminate Racial Discrimination"

Submitted by Paul on April 29, 2009 - 2:22pm

I think it's noteworthy that once again Brazil's Lula government is running interference for U.S.


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Mumia, Miami, May 1st

Submitted by Paul on April 23, 2009 - 12:18am

Thinking forward to an auspicious May 1st this year.


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