News & Letters Podcast

This piece takes up the youth Palestine solidarity movement, the global threat of Trump 2.0, Russia's war on Ukraine, and the worldwide drive toward fascism resulting from a crisis in thought. A look at how an earlier crisis drove Lenin to re-examine Marx and Hegel. What does that tell us about the tasks we have before us today?

Liberation Station, a Black-owned children’s bookstore in Raleigh, N.C., is closing less than a year after it opened on Juneteenth 2023, due to a series of threats.

Takes up: The World Health Organization (WHO) report, ‘Measuring Violence Against Women With Disability’; World Bipolar Day; the “We Are Here” rally in Missouri calling for higher pay for care assistants; and three organizations in Asia sponsoring the UN’s 2024 Project Zero Conference for inclusive education and employment for those with disabilities.

Takes up: The shutting down of Great Britain’s Rainbow Badge Scheme, designed to reduce barriers Queer people face in healthcare; the beating and sexual assault of a Gay man and Lesbian by Serbian police; and the imprisonment of British-Mexican Gay man Manuel Guerrero Avina in Qatar.

The solidarity of revolutionaries with Ukraine, from vigils to material support, helps the defense against Russia’s invasion continue. Oppose the Putin/Trump/Republican blocking of aid! With international support, including enough weapons, Ukrainians may be spared the need to fight alone.

Femicide—the murder of a woman because she is a woman—is on the rise across the world, as are demonstrations against it. In this struggle can be seen some of the vision of the future implicit in this movement: a society in which women are comprehended as free human beings. Key is “the totality and depth of the necessary uprooting.”

Israel’s war against the masses in Gaza has reached genocidal proportions. When will Palestinians be able to return to the places where they lived, and will they be able to rebuild? Self-determination must begin with their ideas and aspirations. 

The Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel set off a new round of war. Israel is threatening genocide with U.S. support. Israel’s occupation in no way justifies Leftists celebrating the murderous attacks by Hamas, which undermine social liberation movements and stoke reaction. Raising the banner of liberation is critical as we engage in solidarity with Palestinians and oppose Israel’s genocidal war and Hamas’s terrorist actions.