Published bimonthly since 1986, AGAINST THE CURRENT is a Solidarity-sponsored analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left. The March/April issue features the Educational Crisis in California and the Unfolding Fightback with articles by students and workers in the University of California system. For International Women's Day there are reviews on gender, sexuality and liberation by Catherine Sameh, Chloe Tribich and Kate Flynn. Other articles include Malik Miah on Obama Forgets the Black Community, Michael Steven Smith on Lost Liberties in the Age of Obama and Kim Moody on the Crisis and Potential in Labor's Wars and coverage on Honduras and Gaza.
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Against the Current
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!
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.
Read more...Keep up with the campaign!"
DanLaBotz.com
Buttons to Build the Movement
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."
Bright orange 1 1/2" buttons boldly demand: "Bring 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.
Produced during the massive immigrant rights demonstrations of 2006, these 2 1/8" buttons read, in Spanish and English: ¡exigimos Paz, Legalización, y Trabajos para Todos! we demand Peace, Legalization, and Jobs for All!
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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- Second Annual Convention of Labor Campaign for Single Payer, March 5-7, 2010
by Milton posted on 03/13/10
- Trail of Dreams, bound for DC, passes through Georgia
by Tim S posted on 03/12/10
- Chicago immigrant youth are Undocumented and Unafraid
by Isaac posted on 03/11/10
- Women's Day March in San Antonio Says “Ya Basta” to Abusive Treatment of Workers
by Chris posted on 03/10/10
- Tres resolutivos del Congreso Mundial de la IV internacional sobre México
by International Viewpoint posted on 03/9/10
- Disability and socialism
by Chloe posted on 03/9/10
- Pakistan: Women workers march in Lahore to observe International Women Day
by International Viewpoint posted on 03/8/10
- Salt of the Earth, Classic of Feminist Cinema [Full Video]
by Isaac posted on 03/8/10
- Solidarity with Haiti!
by International Viewpoint posted on 03/7/10
- How many gender problems can you count?
by Chloe posted on 03/7/10
from the Webzine
- This is Only the Beginning
5 days 4 hours ago - Building North-South Solidarity
5 days 5 hours ago - Final Resolution, in English
5 days 17 hours ago - Response to Erik and Chloe on disability
5 days 18 hours ago - Solidarity's take on the Fifth International
5 days 19 hours ago - Socialists/Disability
6 days 4 hours ago - The FSLN and Solidarity
6 days 5 hours ago - Not facetiously or
1 week 2 hours ago - Please download and submit a single-signer petition for the CDA
1 week 11 hours ago - Crimson Ride Drivers--Update
1 week 1 day ago
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.
Read more...
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.orgRead 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...
Rev. Pinkney Barred from His Appeal Hearing
On June 8, Reverend Edward Pinkney’s case was brought before the Third District Court of Appeals in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tim Holloway, who has represented Rev. Pinkney since 2006, was joined by several attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, among them Michigan ACLU Legal Director Michael Steinberg. Nearly 50 of Pinkney’s supporters filled the courtroom to capacity while dozens more, including this reporter, waited outside.
Reverend Edward Pinkney and his wife, Dorothy Pinkney
Meanwhile, Reverend Pinkney himself was barred from attending the appeal hearing. Although the Michigan Supreme Court had granted him bond pending appeal, it was left to Berrien County Circuit Court Judge Dennis Wiley to set the bond amount. Until Rev. Pinkney could produce $10,000 in cash, Wiley ruled that he be electronically tethered and kept on 24/7 lockdown in his home.
When Steinberg on behalf of the ACLU protested Wiley’s harsh ruling and insisted that the defendant had a right to attend his own appeal hearing, the Berrien County judge stonewalled. According to Steinberg, among the reasons Wiley gave for refusing to let Rev. Pinkney appear at the appeal hearing in Grand Rapids was that “he has a criminal record.” It should be noted that criminal records are quite common among people appealing felony convictions.
Two briefs were filed at the June 8 hearing. The first, presented by Tim Holloway, called for Rev. Pinkney’s 2007 conviction by an all white jury to be overturned.
After a mistrial in 2006 on trumped-up charges of electoral fraud, Rev. Pinkney was convicted in March 2007 for the crime of delivering to a polling place an absentee ballot that did not belong to him. Under Michigan law, touching another person’s absentee ballot is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. (For more information on Rev. Pinkney’s trial, see “Framing Rev. Pinkney,” ATC 128, May-June 2007)
The second brief, presented by ACLU attorney Jim Walsh, related to an additional sentence imposed upon Rev. Pinkney for an article published in the November/December 2007 issue of the People’s Tribune newspaper. In the article, Rev. Pinkney paraphrases the Book of Deuteronomy:
Interpreting this Biblical prophecy as a direct threat to his fellow judge’s personal safety, Judge Wiley sentenced Rev. Pinkney to an additional three to ten years in prison for his article.
Addressing Rev. Pinkney’s supporters after the hearing, Steinberg summarized the ACLU team’s arguments on behalf of Rev. Pinkney – that, under the constitution, “a person can’t be thrown in prison for expressing his religious beliefs and for criticizing a judge.” He went on to call it a “tremendous miscarriage of justice” that Rev. Pinkney was not allowed to be present at his own hearing.
A written decision on both motions is pending.
Rev. Edward Pinkney, “Corrupt judge denies new jury trial in Pinkney case.”
Rev. Pinkney Wins One
The Michigan Appeals Court handed down its decision the week of July 13. According to a statement issued by BANCO (see below) Rev. Pinkney, who was even unable to attend a hearing on his own appeal, won his appeal on parole violation:
Rev. Pinkney won the Probation Violation -- Free Speech -- issue (violating his probation by writing an article). He spent over a year in 8 Michigan prisons because the powers in Berrien County wanted to remove him, albiet illegally.
All of Berrien County Judge Dennis Wiley's decisions are rescinded by the Appeals Court. This includes the decision to imprison Pinkney.
As for the voter charges, the Appeals court denied Pinkney a new trial. The decision states that Berrien County committed 13 errors which were "harmless." Rev. Pinkney says that all of the errors were, in fact, harmful.
Pinkney feels good about the decision, which will allow him to continue the battle with the Berrien County Courthouse.
The decision states, in part:
Judge Butzbaugh agrees that the paraphase of Deuteronomy 28 is not defensible as anything other than hyperbole and that the paraphase could not serve as a lawful basis for revoking defendant probation.
[Yet Wiley sent Pinkney to prison for a threat, and revoked his probation.]
To the extent the prohibition of defamatory and demeaning behavior impinges on defendant's First Amendment rights, the prohibition was not proper as it was not directly related to defendant's rehabilitation nor to the protection of the public.
Because the prohibition was not proper, the trial court abused its discretion in revoking defendant probation, the order revoking defendant probation is reversed.
Rev. Pinkney available by phone and email: 269-925-0001, banco9342@sbcglobal.net
bhbanco.org (please sign petition)
Follow up on Rev. Pinkney case
Just an update on Rev. Pinkney, who won a reversal of imprisonment for a supposed parole violation the middle of July. Yet here it is almost a month later and he is still under house arrest and paying $105. per week for the electronic tether he must wear!
Get him off the stand
Pinkney I commend you for standing up to Judge Wiley! You are one of the only people I know with the courage to stand up for what is right. Have you heard the news that Wiley himself has broken the law. Not just then but now, currently. I judge that is sworn in to uphold the law was found guilty of his own convictions. I am not sure of the actual events that occured but He was to be placed on teather and suppoasidly couldn't drive. There are several rumores going around. I am not one to gossip, My point being is when is enough enough and how do we go about have him taken off the stand??? He is no longer upholding the law himself how can he judge anyone else if he can't abide by the same laws as he expects us to abide by.
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