Rainer Shea Among those who discuss the prospects of overthrowing the United States government, there’s a common belief that it would be impossible for domestic rebels to militarily defeat the U.S. armed forces. This inevitably leads to speculations about alternative ways for the rebels to prevail. Maybe we could win most of the U.S. military…
Category: Capitalism
Abolitionist Solidarity — Black and White — in the Struggle Against Slavery
Paul Wilcox The full story of the struggle to end chattel slavery in the U.S. has yet to be fully told. History books have always minimized the struggle of enslaved people, who from the beginning in 1619 fought slavery at every turn, rebelling, escaping, fighting for the right to fight. Some 180,000 enlisted in the…
Settler-Colonialism, Nationalism, and Patriarchy
Onyesonwu Chatoyer Settler-Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism It is impossible to understand capitalism without first understanding settler-colonialism and neo-colonialism – the dominant forms of colonialism still remaining in the world today. The earth’s most dangerous imperialist power – the United States of America – is itself a former British (but also in some regions such as the…
Capitalism and the Housing Question: Wishful Thinking vs. Real Solutions
Derek Ford and Curry MalottPhoto: “Foreclosure,” Taber Andrew Bain. Creative Commons. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewbain Frederick Engels is best known for his theoretical and political work he undertook alongside his lifelong comrade, Karl Marx. Yet Engels made other important contributions to the workers’ movement of his time and ever since. During a moment in which millions of…
The Compensation is Freedom
Njera Keith Image of the Igbo Landing of 1803 Capitalism preys on revolutionary strategy. It eats Black culture for breakfast. It siphons organic energy from the impetus of movement workers. In the 21st century, the Non-Profit Industrial Complex is its primary agent in this pursuit. That the NPIC monopolizes movement resources is accepted quite unanimously…
Know Your Enemy: What is Imperialism?
Greg Butterfield The word “imperialism” is used a lot by people in the progressive and revolutionary movement. What does it mean? Some people think imperialism is just a cuss word that radicals use to put down rotten government policies. But it’s more than that. Imperialism is rooted in a particular economic system, capitalism, and benefits…
Thomas Sankara: Imperialism is the Arsonist of Our Forests and Savannas
This speech was first given at the first International Silva Conference for the Protection of the Trees and Forests in Paris. It has been since been disseminated by revolutionaries through many means as a way to underscore the necessity of social revolution and an environmental focus. Now more than ever this speech is necessary to…
Prisoner Prophet: Revisiting George Jackson’s Analysis of Systemic Fascism
Colin Jenkins, The Hampton Institute The rise of Donald Trump has brought talk of fascism to the forefront. While comparing U.S. Presidents to Hitler is certainly nothing new–both Obama and W. Bush were regularly characterized as such by their haters–Trump’s emergence on the national political scene comes at a very peculiar moment in U.S. history….
The US State and the US Revolution
Eugene Puryear It is no exaggeration to say that the principal disputes between activists, organizations and political trends in U.S. social movements have hinged on different understandings of, and attitudes toward, the state. What distinguishes a revolutionary communist perspective from a reformist perspective is not one of momentary tactics, which may range from the most…
Socialism in Africa or One Unified Socialist Africa: The 2-Line Struggle of the African Left
Sobukwe Shukura, A-APRP Central Committee Political Critique of the recently concluded PAT conference in Winneba, Ghana The Pan-Africanism Today (PAT) conference distinguished itself from the right opportunism of 7th PAC (hosted by the neo-colonialist forces in Uganda) and 8th PAC that made no ideological commitment to socialism or mass organizations like workers, women or youth….
Amílcar Cabral: “Nazis are the most tragic expression of imperialism and its thirst for domination”
Amilcar L. Cabral: National Liberation and Culture – PDF This text was originally delivered on February 20, 1970; as part of the Eduardo Mondlane (1) Memorial Lecture Series at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, under the auspices of The Program of Eastern African Studies. It was translated from the French by Maureen Webster. When Goebbels,…
Capitalism, Marxism, and the Black Radical Tradition: An Interview with Cedric Robinson
Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric J. Robinson It is the task of the radical critic to illuminate what is repressed and excluded by the basic mechanisms of a given social order. It is the task of the politically engaged radical critic to side with the excluded and repressed: to…
