Based on unsubstantiated claims that Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is fundraising for Palestinian resistance fighters, the US and Canada have sanctioned the organization. This is an attack on the entire Palestinian liberation movement. While the US government supports the Zionist genocide with billions of dollars in military aid, in defiance of popular opinion, they declare Samidoun’s alleged donations to be “terrorism.”

The US Civil War was a major influence on the development of Marxism. For Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the war against chattel slavery was an important phase in the global struggle against human bondage. Their commentary on the war is compiled in The Civil War in the United States, an essential volume for those seeking a Marxist understanding of the most pivotal conflict in US history, as well as the relationship between oppression and labor.

In Firebrand’s second visit to the Socialism Conference in Chicago, we took part in discussions throughout the weekend, intervening with Marxist perspectives in a “big tent” event now largely defined by reformism. The Gaza genocide rightly dominated discourse. We spoke to affirm the importance of class independence, class analysis, genuine anti-imperialism, and revolutionary organization.