The current civil war in Sudan, with rival factions backed by foreign imperialist powers, has resulted in a terrible humanitarian crisis. The social and economic causes of the war are storied and complex — but are also the result of Western imperialism and the neoliberal capitalist order leaving an African nation with desperately limited resources, crippling austerity, and ethnic division.
imperialism
Solidarity with Jodi Dean, and with All Victims of McCarthyist Attacks on Intellectual Freedom
This week, Professor Jodi Dean was dismissed from Hobart and William Smith Colleges over her article in support of Palestinian armed resistance. This is just the latest in a series of attacks on student and academic supporters of Palestine in the US as the ruling class defends the genocidal status quo.
A Communist Military Veteran on Aaron Bushnell, Imperialist War, and Resistance
This article is adapted from a speech delivered by a Firebrand member and Iraq War veteran at a vigil for Aaron Bushnell, organized by the Denver Communists. It describes his harrowing experiences in Iraq and how they led to a life of resistance against imperialism and capitalism.
Aaron Bushnell: Martyr for Palestine
Last Sunday, February 25, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active-duty airman in the United States Air Force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC, in what he called “an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian...
What Will It Take to Liberate Palestine?
A free Palestine from the river to the sea is the demand that has been taken up by the unprecedented global protest movement in the wake of Israel’s brutal war and genocide in Gaza. Most sincere supporters of the Palestinian cause can understand why the dismantling of...
Palestine, Revolutionary Morality, and Liberation: A Reply to La Botz and Shalom
The current debate in Tempest between Dan La Botz and Stephen R. Shalom on one side, and Jonah ben Avraham and Sean Larson on the other, is an important one for the left. La Botz and Shalom have claimed ben Avraham and Larson are too soft on October 7. The latter have...
Why We Support Palestinian Armed Resistance
In the wake of the events of October 7 and the genocidal aftermath, there is a growing divide on the left between those who unconditionally support the right of Palestinians to fight back against their oppressors, and their critics. Support on the left for resistance...
Palestine, Prisons, and Settler-Colonial Incarceration
A political prisoner is typically defined as someone imprisoned for their political activity, or who is imprisoned on an official charge that is sometimes unrelated to their actual activity. While the exact meanings of the term are contested, conventionally it refers...
Support Palestinians When They Fight, Not Just When They Die
In October, inmates of the Zionist state’s de facto concentration camp in the Gaza Strip executed a desperate, yet powerfully courageous, escape. The scene shocked the world. Just four years prior, Palestinian protesters had tried week after week for nearly a year to...
Ilan Pappé’s Ten Myths About Israel: A Comprehensive Dismantling of Zionist Ideology
The ongoing genocidal annihilation of Gaza and the racist pogroms in the West Bank, both conducted by the Israeli apartheid state with the full support of its imperial sponsor, the United States, have rightfully provoked the rage of tens of millions across the world....
The War on Palestine: A New Political Conjuncture
Palestinians have been under siege, colonial occupation, expulsion, dispossession, oppression and repression for over 75 years. They have resisted Zionism and imperialism for even longer. Much of this resistance has been nonviolent or at most the hurling of rocks. On...
Palestinian Liberation By Any Means Necessary
Stop the genocide Israel’s settler-colonial project has again shown its true nature. In retaliation for the new military phase of the Palestinian liberation movement that started on October 7th, the Zionist entity is committing open genocide against Gaza. Israeli...
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...
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...
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...
Is there a Labor Aristocracy in the US? A Response to Left Voice
“There really is an upper layer of the working class, supported by a thousand kinds of ‘direct and indirect’ benefits flowing from imperialism. Its starkest expression is a massive labor bureaucracy that’s becoming more integrated into the imperialist capitalist...
Crimes Against Humanity
The U.S. government and most of the press are trying to whip up support for the U.S./NATO intervention in Ukraine. Labeling Putin a war criminal helps that effort. VP Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and President Joe Biden have solemnly pronounced...
No U.S./NATO Arms to Ukraine
Sharp divisions among revolutionary socialists The question of war has always been a key division among socialists. It divides reformist supporters of the capitalist state from revolutionary opponents of the capitalist state. Since the late 1800s, it has divided soft...
TikTok, Surveillance and Imperialism
Many people probably know about the proposed ban on TikTok. Biden, the Democrats, and Republicans are coming together in bipartisan unity to limit free speech. They’re attacking an app that many of us not only use for funny and stupid videos, but also for political...