A Texas State University history professor was doxxed by a fascist streamer and fired for his speech at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference, organized by Firebrand, the International Socialist League, and Socialist Horizon, of which Alter is a member. The university fired him for “inciting violence” via a perfectly legal speech advocating for revolution. We call on the broad left to mobilize in support of his reinstatement.
Nonprofit organizations are not only limited vehicles for social change, they are in fact obstacles to workers’ power. Nonprofits have always been intended to subdue radicalism and enable the dismantling of the welfare state. Control by wealthy donors and complicity in soft imperialism help ensure that nonprofits are not tools in the struggle against capitalism, but instead help manage it.
The upstart American Communist Party is communist in name only. Its leaders praise Trump, support union-busting, oppose the fight against oppression, and consider MAGA a proletarian movement. The ACP represents a cesspool of confused and reactionary if not openly fascist politics, and should be considered the enemies of workers, the oppressed, and the left.
In a few short weeks, Donald Trump’s second presidential administration has quickly established new lows in reactionary cruelty and chaos compared to his first. With an entrenched far-right nationalist movement behind him in his MAGA minions, and more support from key...
Tackling a topic as big as the current state of the economy is not easy. One could write volumes about it and still only scratch the surface, and indeed many have done just that. In order to avoid trying to boil the ocean, we will instead focus on a few specific...
In the very early morning hours of New Year’s Day, a rented Ford pickup truck driven by a United States military veteran barreled down a crowded Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing fourteen revelers and injuring another thirty-five. After the truck disabled itself...
Earlier this week, Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, died at the advanced age of 100. The outpouring of tributes to Carter as news of his death broke reflected his great popularity. Though he was despised by the right-wing during his presidency,...
In the early hours of December 4, Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed by a lone gunman on his way to an investor meeting in Midtown Manhattan. UHC is the largest health insurer in the United States, covering over 50 million people — more...
In the 1930s, the Soviet Union was wracked by intense violence known as the Great Terror or the Great Purge. During this time, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin initiated a series of public show trials to eliminate his political competition within the Communist Party. ...
It is often the case that newly radicalizing Marxists end up confused about our relationship to Maoism. Is it just “Marxism in China” or “socialism with Chinese characteristics”? Is it a newer form of Marxism which we can learn from and engage with? What Maoist ideas,...
What does the election say about current consciousness? Are a majority of Americans now MAGA racists? People approach elections pragmatically. The majority decides how to vote on the basis of lesser-evilism. They estimate which candidate will be better for themselves...
This article is a partisan intervention. Being a communist means taking sides, specifically the side of the international working class and all oppressed peoples. As Marx and Engels wrote, communists “have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat...
Read part one here: Why Socialists Don’t Vote for Our Enemies Won’t it be easier to organize under a Democrat? All else being equal, probably not. The variables at work in determining the prospects for working-class organization go beyond which party is in the White...
As imperialism keeps intensifying through new and expanding military operations around the world in the drive to access new markets for the capitalist class, communists must understand why we should view soldiers as workers. We also need to consider how to persuade...
Is fascism an immediate threat in the US, or anywhere else? A lot of people with different kinds of politics seem to think so. As someone who looks at the leftist corners of the internet quite a bit, I can safely say I see the word “fascism” used to describe things...
Read Samidoun’s statement: We keep resisting: US and Canada sanction Samidoun. “The first casualty of war is truth.”—Aeschylus On October 15, the US government sanctioned the Palestinian prisoner support network, Samidoun, and declared it a “sham charity” that...
Sir,We congratulate the American people upon your re-election by a large majority.If resistance to the slave power was the reserved watchword of your first election, the triumphant warcry of your re-election is, Death to Slavery.— Karl Marx to Abraham Lincoln,...
Firebrand attended the annual Socialism Conference in Chicago over Labor Day weekend. The four-day event gathered socialists and other radicals from all over the United States, and featured dozens of panels and discussions on many subjects relevant to the broad left. ...
In his 1997 text “The Metaphysics of National Bolshevism,” the Russian fascist philosopher Aleksandr Dugin said the coming together of the political left and right under the banner of national Bolshevism represented the future: The rule of National Bolshevism, its...
Read part two here: Marxists and Elections: FAQs Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race and the candidacy of Kamala Harris has changed the character of the coming election. Instead of just another in the endless, monotonous slog of election cycles, with the...
The outbreak of civil war in Sudan in April 2023 plunged the country into one of the world’s most devastating humanitarian crises. The current war, pitting against each other two reactionary forces — the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) —...
What will it take to liberate Palestine? It starts, of course, with the heroism and sumud (steadfastness) of Palestinians we’ve witnessed over the past 75 years. That’s why Firebrand supports Palestinian resistance in all its forms. But international action is also...
The Black Antifascist Tradition, by Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill Mullen, is an extensive overview of the politics of anti-racist struggles by Black people in the United States. Published earlier this year by Haymarket Books, it is, first of all, a very interesting and...
The religious right-wing, made up largely of white evangelicals, holds a great deal of political power in the United States. They form a formidable voting bloc, with presidential candidates seeking and depending on their endorsement. As a dominant force among...