The capitalist class and its well-paid intellectuals and pundits continue to argue that the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 means that socialism and communism are impossible. A stereotyped and negative image of the Soviet Union and socialism has been relentlessly fed to the people of the United States ever since the Russian Revolution, which took place in 1917. It is extremely rare for the establishment to mention any of the truly remarkable achievements of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republi...
Nov 17, 2021•8 min
In the suffering of the Global South, the brutality of capitalism lies bare. In a footnote toward the end of Capital, Marx wrote that the colonized subject reveals “what the bourgeois makes of itself and of the labourer, wherever it can, without restraint, model the world after its own image”. The forms of primary accumulation he articulates there were in their most naked form in the colonies. Contrary to liberal and academic misreadings, Marx paid great attention to the relationship between col...
Nov 11, 2021•16 min
The Bolsheviks were relatively weak in the countryside among the peasantry. They had always been in the cities; they spent most of their existence underground and going out into the country had been hard for them. They were mainly a workers’ party, but the peasants made up a huge majority of the population. The SRs (Socialist Revolutionaries) were the main party in the countryside. The relationship between the peasants (farmers and agricultural workers) to the workers in the cities was a key iss...
Nov 07, 2021•22 min
On April 3, 1917, Lenin, Zinoviev and other leaders arrived in a sealed car on a train. The German government allowed them to return to Russia across Germany and through German-held territory because it hoped that they would take Russia out of the war and relieve the pressure on Germany – that was explicitly the German government’s reason. E. H. Carr, an English historian wrote a tremendous 14-volume history of the Bolshevik Revolution. Here is how Carr describes the scene of Lenin’s return: Ale...
Nov 06, 2021•17 min
The Russian Revolution is a vast subject. An exhaustive analysis of it is beyond the scope of this writing. But below, some of the key points will be highlighted. The Russian Revolution took place in the background of World War I, a war between imperialist powers over control of territories and colonies. The war caused a split in the international socialist movement. Right up to the outbreak of the war, the parties of the Second International had vowed to fight against the war once it started. S...
Nov 05, 2021•20 min
As the Party for Socialism and Liberation, we condemn in the harshest terms the brutal military coup that took place on October 25 in Sudan and the subsequent repression and arrests by the Sudanese military forces. We stand in full solidarity with the people of Sudan and the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) in their resistance against the coup. We fully support the call by the SCP and the Sudanese Professional Association for a political strike and for the people to take to the streets in civil di...
Oct 28, 2021•5 min
Three years before the 1969 Stonewall Uprising that galvanized a generation of LGBTQ activists, and more than a decade before Harvey Milk led the fight against the Briggs Initiative as San Francisco’s first gay city supervisor, a group of trans women and drag queens revolted against bigoted police violence in San Francisco’s heavily oppressed Tenderloin district. These courageous fighters turned the tables on their oppressors and ushered in a new wave of class-conscious organizing by queer youth...
Oct 11, 2021•16 min
Toward the end of our earlier introduction to surplus value, the heart and motor of the class struggle, we wrote that: “The rate of surplus value for the capitalist is the rate of exploitation for the worker. By merely prolonging the working day, the capitalist accrues more (absolute) surplus value. Increasing the working day from eight to 10 hours results in two more hours of surplus value for the capitalist and of exploitation for the worker”. For any working period—whether it be a day, an hou...
Oct 10, 2021•21 min
As this statement was being prepared, a Texas state judge issued a stay temporarily blocking an anti-abortion group from enforcing SB 8 against Planned Parenthood, giving some relief to health care providers and abortion rights advocates. The Supreme Court put its stamp of approval on the Texas Senate Bill 8 and demonstrated its unwillingness to protect the rights of women late Wednesday evening when they voted 5 to 4 allowing the Texas “heartbeat bill” to go into effect. Purposefully written wi...
Sep 27, 2021•6 min
In the battle against COVID-19, Cuba has been a country of firsts. It is the only country in all Latin America to produce its own vaccines. Cuba has sent more than 5,000 doctors to help treat COVID patients in 57 brigades to 40 countries around the world since the pandemic began. No other country has come close. Now, in a major new development, babies and children two years old and up will be massively vaccinated starting in 10 days. Cuba is the first country in the world to vaccinate babies and...
Sep 24, 2021•7 min
How the U.S. destroyed Afghanistan Past and present U.S. officials are blaming each other for their defeat in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the corporate media are portraying the brutal 20-year occupation as a humanitarian mission, an attempt to modernize the country. Learn why the Taliban are themselves the direct result of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan and why this is a failed imperialist project. Why we need a revolutionary party In the U.S., we live in a system based on oppression and exploitat...
Sep 19, 2021•1 hr 26 min
All revolutionary processes are educational. From organizing meetings and study groups to writing protest speeches and propaganda before the revolutionary moment to creating new revolutionary educational and cultural institutions and training teachers and specialists after the seizure of power, revolution is educational through and through. Yet exactly what kind of educational operations does revolution entail, and how can we understand and practice them? It is precisely these questions that Pau...
Sep 18, 2021•17 min
The planet is experiencing multiple environmental crises: biodiversity loss, deforestation, increased rates of pandemics, chemical pollution, soil depletion, water contamination and shortages, runaway non-renewable energy consumption, and climate change. “Degrowth” is an environmental ideology that arose as a political response to these compounding crises. Degrowth was originally termed by André Gorz in 1972. Gorz argued that global environmental balance, which is predicated upon non-growth (or ...
Sep 14, 2021•22 min
The U.S. war in Afghanistan began not 20, but more than 40 years ago. Except for the towering arrogance of the leaders in Washington, it could have ended in November 2001 when the Taliban offered to surrender. The earlier phase, which lasted from 1979 to 1989, is excluded from nearly any mention by the mainstream capitalist media today. But without understanding what happened back then, it is impossible to comprehend the current catastrophic situation for the people of that country. Read the ful...
Sep 12, 2021•10 min
Originally posted on RedsInEd.org At the instigation of deep-pocketed conservatives, nine states have adopted bans on Critical Race Theory education, and similar bills are being considered in 26 others. While the language in these bills is often vague, the intent is clear: to silence a truthful presentation of the role of racism in U.S. history and institutions. But teachers are fighting back through their unions. What is Critical Race Theory? Critical Race Theory is a practice of asking questio...
Sep 09, 2021•10 min
Marxist ideology is one of the most potent weapons the working and oppressed classes have, a weapon that our class can and has used to not only win reforms but to build revolutionary societies where the people, and not profits, are in control. As the PSL identified at our 3rd Party Congress in 2016, one of our primary tasks is to mend the “break in ideological continuity” that emerged after the overthrow of the Soviet Union by reestablishing “the theory of revolutionary Marxism and the entire vi...
Sep 07, 2021•31 min
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 in North America, fought slavery at every turn, rebelling, escaping, fighting for the right to fight. Some 180,000 enlisted in the Union army and suffered among the highest casualties in a war where high casualty rates were considered proof of bravery. The role of white working-class people in the struggle ...
Aug 31, 2021•18 min
July 26 marked the 68th anniversary of the dawn raid on the Moncada Barracks led by Fidel Castro that sparked the revolutionary movement that would triumph six years later in 1959. Due to COVID-19, mass demonstrations were canceled but the celebrations of the National Day of Rebellion continued nonetheless. Cuban leaders and youth performed voluntary work in the countryside, as a part of a tradition that stretches back to the early days of the revolution. Voluntary work is part of a collective e...
Aug 31, 2021•8 min
“In contradistinction to German fascism, which acts under anti-constitutional slogans, American fascism tries to portray itself as the custodian of the constitution and ‘American democracy.’” – Georgi Dimitrov Six months ago, on January 6, 2021, a racist mob, incited by outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump, stormed the U.S. Capitol in a chaotic attempt to prevent the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results, a necessary step before the inauguration of Joe Biden. The ...
Aug 28, 2021•38 min
“Hammer and Hoe,” a 1990 book written by historian Robin D.G. Kelley, chronicles the development of a communist movement in Alabama during the Great Depression. It highlights the struggles communists faced in organizing a sharecroppers’ union and building mass campaigns to free people accused of crimes in political frame-ups like the Scottsboro Boys. Kelley emphasizes how communism was able to synthesize with Southern Black culture. He sheds light on the unique homegrown resistance that granted ...
Aug 25, 2021•13 min
Editor’s note: The following article was written by Walter Rodney for a 1971 issue of Maji Maji, the quarterly journal of the youth wing of the Tanganyika African National Union. The speech is held at the Robert W. Woodruff Library in Atlanta, Georgia, under the supervision of the Walter Rodney Foundation. The text here is from History is a Weapon with a few additional copyedits. To most readers in this continent, starved of authentic information by the imperialist news agencies, the name of Geo...
Aug 24, 2021•14 min
Ask any teacher in any setting, and they’ll tell you there’s no “formula” or “recipe” for education. Despite what corporate charter movements assert—like Teach for America’s “I do, you do, we do” rote learning—teaching is always dependent on relationships, trust, respect, and a host of other elements—and all of these can change day to day. Teaching on a Monday after a big fight broke out at a weekend party is different than teaching on a Wednesday when things have settled down a bit. Teaching in...
Aug 23, 2021•34 min
The economic reality of the United States today is one of vast inequality in wealth and living standards. At present, 31.1 million households do not have enough food to eat in an average year. Housing within the means of average Americans is increasingly scarce, forcing people, including families, to live on the streets. Even for those who are insured, medical care involves ever-increasing costs for routine and critical care. This suffering is not evenly distributed among the working class. Almo...
Aug 22, 2021•15 min
To the surprise of many, the Republic of Cuba finished the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games with 15 medals. Their seven gold, three silver and five bronze medals place them 14th in the world. This is remarkable given the impact of the U.S.-imposed blockade and the size of Cuba’s population. Of the countries that won more medals than Cuba, only New Zealand has a smaller population. Cuba ranked second in Latin America behind Brazil, which has a population of 211 million compared to Cuba’s 11.33 million....
Aug 20, 2021•6 min
This article is the third in a series of articles on the situation in Cuba recently written by Manolo De Los Santos and Vijay Prashad. On July 22, US President Joe Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris released a “fact sheet” on US “measures” against Cuba. The release from the White House said that Cuba was a “top priority for the Biden-Harris administration.” On March 9, Biden’s Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “A Cuba policy shift is not currently among President Biden’s top priorities.” O...
Aug 20, 2021•10 min
In this presentation, a PSL member outlines the Party's position on the upcoming Governor recall election in California. We explain why we should vote against this undemocratic right-wing power grab, expound on the reactionary policies of frontrunner Larry Elder, and why voting NO on the recall is better for the working class, even though we do not support Gavin Newsom or his policies. Read a party statement here: https://www.liberationnews.org/psl-statement-on-california-recall-election/
Aug 17, 2021•19 min
The unopposed entrance of Taliban forces into Kabul marks the bitter conclusion of a 20-year year military adventure by U.S. imperialism that senselessly inflicted death and suffering on an enormous scale. The fact that the U.S.-backed Afghan government surrendered without a fight is the clearest indication that it was nothing more than an extension of U.S. imperialist power. The stark reality showed itself: either the U.S. imperialist occupation that began 20 years ago would be sustained litera...
Aug 15, 2021•7 min
Approximately 400 years ago, in August 1619, enslaved Africans touched foot in the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States for the first time. The centuries since have seen the development of a racial system more violent, extractive, and deeply entrenched than any other in human history. Yet where there is oppression, there is also resistance. Since 1619, Black radicals and revolutionaries have taken bold collective action in pursuit of their freedom, threatening the ...
Aug 13, 2021•15 min
Editor's note: Central to our ideology is the idea that in order to understand and prepare for the class struggle in the U.S. we must first take the global situation into account, understanding that the interconnectedness of global and national politics is primary and dialectical, constantly changing and bursting with contradictions. In this document we assert this thesis and undertake an examination of the global class struggle as it has ebbed and flowed from 1945 until the present. We look at ...
Aug 10, 2021•41 min
Our first class starts by examining various definitions of fascism in order to foreground how it has functioned historically as a concept-in-class-struggle, while also emphasizing the importance of a dialectical approach. This will allow us to situate fascism within the deep history of capitalism and its imperialist expansion. We then analyze how the Italian fascists and the Nazis rose to power within the constitutional parameters of bourgeois democracy--by receiving abundant funding from big in...
Jul 29, 2021•1 hr 20 min
