US Imperialism

March 3, 2023

Crisis in Peru: a Marxist analysis

On December 7th, Peru’s embattled head of state, the left-populist Pedro Castillo, declared a state of emergency and called for Congress to be dissolved and replaced with a newly elected constituent assembly, which would draft a new constitution. The same day, the Peruvian Congress voted to impeach Castillo. After the impeachment, Castillo was arrested on charges of sedition and treason and his vice president, Dina Boluarte, assumed office. The vast majority of Peruvians oppose the impeachment and arrest of Castillo and hundreds of thousands have gone on strike, protested, and set up blockades to resist the power grab of the Congress and Boluarte.

To date, the police and military have murdered at least 47 demonstrators. Boluarte and her new right wing allies want to hold new elections in the midst of rampant political repression under the guise of “restoring democracy”, but the protesters are demanding a new constitution will transform the state itself and deliver real democracy to Peru.

October 1, 2022

by Anahita Tehrani

Uprising in Iran and International Solidarity

More than 76 people have died and hundreds have been arrested during two weeks of protests in Iran. Protests broke out on September 17, the day the funeral was held for Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman killed while in the custody of the morality police (the baseeji). She was arrested on September 13 for not properly covering her hair as mandated by Iranian law.

Protests have spread to over 80 cities in Iran and across all 31 provinces, with students striking to join the protests and oil workers threatening to strike if the government doesn’t end its repression of the protests.

July 19, 2022

by Justin Akers Chacón

The Making of a System in Crisis: the ungovernability of 21st century capitalism

As Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels explained in their foundational exposition of historical materialism and the dialectics of social transformation, a mode of production in crisis does not collapse under the weight of its own malfunction; it has to dismantled and replaced through the self-conscious action of a rising revolutionary class.
The multiplying crises of capitalism have led to internal dysfunction and debilitations that render its operations increasingly out of sync with the needs and basic sustenance of the vast majority of humanity and the rest of the natural world. It is rapidly reaching the limits of its own capacity for self-reproduction, and cannot seem to persist without inducing even greater calamity and instability. As the capitalist system trudges on in this linear trajectory, a cumulative transformation is well underway: where more will have to be sacrificed so that capitalism may live on.

June 30, 2022

by Zack Frailey Escobar

Victory for Colombia’s Left, but the Fight is Just Beginning

In a historic outcome, Gustavo Petro, a self-declared socialist and former guerrilla, has been elected president of Colombia. After decades of bloody repression against the left, Petro is considered to be Colombia’s “first leftist president.” While the mainstream press is rushing to stoke fears of Petro as a threat to democracy in Colombia, some on the Left are eager to hail the victory as a model for an electoral path to power for “left populism” and a vindication of the politics of “pink tide” social democracy.

March 15, 2022

by Justin Akers Chacón

Empire at Ground Zero in Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the quickening of a regionwide war assemblage presents itself in classical Euro-Atlantic form as the dress rehearsal for the next world war. The incessant building up of the stage and setting that counters the rival imperial houses, the alignment or realignments of supporting actors and bit players, and the clichéd tonalities of righteousness and evil; all giving way to the thunderous violence of death and destruction in an enlarging war theater.

February 12, 2022

by Atlee McFellin

Moving Beyond Settler Colonialism to Oppose Resurgent Fascism in Ameri(kkk)a

Over a year has passed since the January 6th insurrection in DC and, sadly, it’s unclear what we’ve learned. Shortly after that multifaceted coup attempt, sociologist Waldon Bello warned us as to what was coming. Reflecting on his own experiences of US-backed fascism in Chile and the Philippines, he pointed to their source. “America Has Entered the Weimar Era,” he said, that the insurrection “underlies the face of crises to come.”

Fast forward to today; Newsweek warns of the potential for a violent coup come 2024. Generals in the military warn of their own internal civil war, so their ability to “Choose Democracy,” like many hoped in the case that Trump refused to leave, is now off the table. Despite the chorus of warnings, our supposed left leadership chooses to put their heads in the sand. Instead, we must place revolution back on the table, one at the intersection of Clara Zetkin and Ella Baker.

December 27, 2021

by Susanna de Guio y Gianpaolo Contestabile

La lucha de Berta Cáceres sigue

El pasado 15 de noviembre la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) emitió una nueva resolución para renovar las medidas cautelares en favor de la familia de Berta Cáceres por la situación de urgencia de riesgo de daño a sus derechos. La resolución llega pocos meses después de la condena de Roberto David Castillo Mejía, quién ha sido identificado como uno de los autores intelectuales del asesinato de Berta Cáceres: así se estableció durante la audiencia del pasado 3 de agosto en la que se aplazó la definición de la pena que oscila entre los 20 y los 25 años.

December 12, 2021

by Bill V. Mullen

Under Siege: why socialists must fight for Palestine and BDS

The struggle for Palestinian liberation from Israel’s U.S.-backed settler-colonial regime has become a cornerstone of most radical and progressive political platforms. Especially since Palestinian Civil Society launched the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign (BDS) in 2004, modeled closely on the South African campaign to end Apartheid; the broad U.S. and global Left have made the struggle to end Israel’s occupation part of a wider critique of U.S. imperialism.

Yet recent events have challenged the unity and momentum of both the struggle for Palestinian liberation on the Left, and its primary global weapon, the BDS campaign. One of those challenges has come from the reformist wing of the Left, the Democratic Socialists of America. Another, even more potentially threatening to Palestinian liberation unity, has come from within the ranks of the U.S. Arab political class and its institutions.

August 17, 2021

by Rubén Jaramillo

Consultas Populares en México: lo que dicen sobre el gobierno de AMLO

En las notas que escribió Marx que después se convirtieron en el Volumen III de El Capital, hay una frase que dice que “toda ciencia sería superflua si la forma de manifestación y la esencia de las cosas coincidieran directamente”. Parte de los grandes méritos que ha tenido el gobierno de López Obrador en México ha sido gracias a que su esencia se mantiene muchas veces oculta, ya que ha empleado métodos sumamente novedosos para disfrazar políticas pro-empresariales y pro-imperialistas y hacerlas pasar por políticas populares, así como de ceder diversas concesiones a las clases explotadas, al mismo tiempo que divide y debilita a sus organizaciones. Uno de estos métodos han sido las famosas “consultas populares”.

July 6, 2021

by Héctor Rivera

The Path to Socialism Requires Border Abolition

Although the Biden administration has attempted to differentiate its immigration policies from those of Donald Trump, the end result has been the same: deportations, abuse and negligence of children jailed in detention centers and refugees turned away at the border. What’s more, Biden’s refusal to allow in the refugees at the border has contributed to horrific human rights abuses. As Reuters reported, nearly 3,300 migrants stranded in Mexico have been kidnapped, raped, trafficked or assaulted since Joe Biden took office on January 20.