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Jimmy Carter: War Criminal and Founder of Neoliberalism

Jimmy Carter: War Criminal and Founder of Neoliberalism

Recently deceased US president Jimmy Carter has predictably been eulogized across the political spectrum as a statesman and a progressive saint. However, socialists should never mourn presidents, the servants of capital and our class enemies. Instead we should remember Carter for what he was: a Cold Warrior, a war criminal, and one of the key architects of neoliberalism.

Protest Photos: Facing the Unblurred Truth

Protest Photos: Facing the Unblurred Truth

Repression has always been a problem for people seeking social change. From direct physical attacks by police and vigilantes to the firing and evicting of union activists, the ruling class doesn’t make it easy to challenge their power. Contemporary methods of...

Five Things to Remember When Israel “Defends Itself”

Five Things to Remember When Israel “Defends Itself”

Whenever the “international community” starts talking about Israel’s right to self-defense, Palestinian civilians head to the bomb shelters. Or they would, if they had any — the Israeli government prevents the Gaza Strip from importing the necessary construction...

The Spectre of Spontaneism

The Spectre of Spontaneism

“We don’t have a mass revolutionary party. If we did, I would join. Once upon a time, a revolutionary vanguard existed. After the defeat of the New Left, the vanguard has to be rebuilt. We need to knit together activists. Without soviets there would have been no...

On the Crisis In Niger

On the Crisis In Niger

The starting point for developing a revolutionary Marxist approach to the Niger crisis begins with the recognition that the right to determine who governs Niger and how it is governed belongs to Nigeriens and them alone.  This is an especially important lesson of the...

Firebrand at the 2023 Socialism Conference

Firebrand at the 2023 Socialism Conference

Forging closer ties and meeting new comrades  In our first appearance as Firebrand, we brought a contingent of ten, five Denver Communists, two Seattle Revolutionary Socialists, one Greensboro Revolutionary Socialist, and two contacts to the 2023 Socialism Conference....

How to Understand and Defeat Fascism

How to Understand and Defeat Fascism

In Indianapolis on Labor Day last September, a group of about thirty neo-Nazis from an organization called Patriot Front marched downtown. Cosplaying in their faux military garb and carrying shields and colonial-themed US flags, this crew of sad grotesques was easily...

Andor and the Politics of Revolution

Andor and the Politics of Revolution

Andor is a breath of fresh air for the Star Wars franchise, and for television in general. A prequel to 2016’s Rogue One, the Disney+ series is unexpectedly one of the most compelling and gripping in memory. Its combination of dark, dystopian mood, wrenching suspense,...

Report Back from the Socialism Conference in Sydney

Report Back from the Socialism Conference in Sydney

Earlier this month, I attended Socialist Alternative’s Socialism conference in Sydney. For readers outside Australia, I’m referring to the Australian Trotskyist organization (which was a cousin of sorts to the ISO in the US before the latter disbanded), and not the...

A Neurodivergent Case for Abolitionism

A Neurodivergent Case for Abolitionism

In the eyes of the capitalist ruling class, workers are deprived of their humanity and are reduced to profit-producing machines. Our basic human needs are locked behind a paywall, leaving us the choices of starving to death or purchasing our right to survive another...

Is the US Still a Settler Colony?

Is the US Still a Settler Colony?

Too often morality is the only guide to politics on the left. Oppression and exploitation are obviously disgusting — however, overcoming them takes analysis and strategy, not just outrage. One example of this is the widespread dismissal of workers in the United States...

Years for the Locust? Part Two: Leninism Deformed

Years for the Locust? Part Two: Leninism Deformed

Continued from Part One After my first experiences with the International Socialist Organization (ISO), what convinced me to join was the sincere belief that my views and actions mattered. After meeting up with some comrades from the organization in early 2011, we...

Years for the Locust? Part One: The Myth of the Microsect

Years for the Locust? Part One: The Myth of the Microsect

Introduction “Trotsky considers the opportunist current and its leaders somewhat as victims of circumstances… There is no doubt that opportunism, like all else in the world has its objective causes in external conditions. But in politics more than anywhere else, to...

In Defense of Revolutionary Organization

In Defense of Revolutionary Organization

What kind of party do we need? Or what kind of party should revolutionary socialists be focused on building? I want to propose some answers to the organizational questions we’re facing. But more than that, I want to invite those who are asking the same questions to...

On Mutual Aid: Limitations, Opportunities, Strategies

On Mutual Aid: Limitations, Opportunities, Strategies

In recent years, mutual aid has overtaken protest as a dominant form of Left political action. When the US government failed to address anything more than the barest of needs during the pandemic, communities organized themselves. After this same government repressed...