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Liberation Audio

Liberation Audiowww.liberationnews.org
Socialist news and analysis from the front lines of struggle. Project of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
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Episodes

China’s environmental problems: Beyond the propaganda

The corporate-owned media reports frequently about environmental problems in China, from air pollution in Beijing to toxins in the soil and the water. These stories ultimately function as propaganda in order to present China as a unique environmental calamity–part of a multi-pronged effort to demonize the country and especially the Chinese Communist Party (CPC). As socialists, we know that the great environmental perils we face today are generated by the capitalist system. That’s why we organize...

Dec 12, 202015 min

Boston's Harriet Tubman House demolished... for luxury condos

A mound of bricks and twisted steel are all that remains of the Harriet Tubman House. The historic community hub for Black and working-class Bostonians in the South End neighborhood was demolished in November to make way for luxury condos. The Harriet Tubman House was a fixture in Black Boston since 1908 and in its most recent location since 1975. In 1904, six Black women — including one of Tubman’s friends Julia O. Henson — rented the first Harriet Tubman House at 37 Holyoke Street in the South...

Dec 08, 20206 min

Venezuela’s anti-blockade law and the Dec. 6 elections

On Sunday, Dec. 6, the Venezuelan people will vote to elect the new deputies of the National Assembly. This election is enormously important for the Bolivarian Revolution. The progressive forces are mobilizing nationwide to win back the assembly from right-wing politicians who won the majority in December 2015. It is not a contest between one political party and another. It is the struggle for the very survival of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution against a brutal U.S. economic war and coup plot...

Dec 06, 202019 min

Why Venezuela’s Dec. 6 election is legitimate

On December 6, Venezuela will hold parliamentary elections to choose new deputies for the National Assembly, the country’s legislature. With heightened U.S. attacks in Venezuela, including a tightening economic blockade, the elections are of great consequence to the future of the country. In the last legislative election held in 2015, the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) lost a majority of seats in the National Assembly to a coalition of right-wing parties called the Democrat...

Nov 27, 20207 min

Solidarity with the CP of Greece (KKE)

The Party for Socialism and Liberation expresses our deepest solidarity in response to the Greek state’s violent and extreme repression of the peaceful protest organized by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on the 47th anniversary of the historic Athens Polytechnic Student’s Uprising that took place on Nov. 17, 1973, against the military dictatorship established in June of the same year. The uprising began as a strike and protest on Nov. 14, but it soon drew masses of workers and disaffected e...

Nov 27, 20203 min

Lenin, World War I and the social roots of opportunism

Leninism became fully recognized as an extension of Marxism after the success of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Throughout the world, the mass socialist parties and working class anarchist trends went through major political convulsions. New revolutionary parties, seeking to base themselves on the political and organizational lessons learned from the Bolshevik victory, were created in country after country as the left-wing socialists and anarchists split from established socialist parties and o...

Nov 21, 202016 min

Lolita Lebrón and the struggle for Puerto Rican independence

Listen to this PSL forum in which comrade Monica talks about legendary Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebrón as well as the struggles for Puerto Rican independence, movements in the Puerto Rican diaspora, and women's liberation.

Nov 19, 202013 min

A Marxist approach to technology

In the last few decades, technological developments–particularly concerning automation–have transformed the economy in such a profound way that many are comparing this era to the Industrial Revolution. Some capitalist economists downplay the resulting loss of jobs, while others predict that such job loss is only temporary and will work itself out through the marketplace over time, similar to previous technological revolutions. In both cases, they seem to forget the permanent unemployed produced ...

Nov 16, 202019 min

PSL Statement: Trump and Biden — What’s actually happening?

Donald Trump will not be president as of 12:00 p.m. January 20 and he knows it. All the centers of ruling class institutional power know that Trump’s assertions that he still has a path to victory are complete nonsense. The Republican Party establishment also knows this to be the case but none of the leaders of the party want to directly contradict Trump because he is profoundly popular with Republican voters. Trump does not have a strategy or a plan. Each day brings another effort by him to dom...

Nov 14, 20207 min

Deep-sea mining threatens ocean, global climate

This article was originally published on Liberation News in Oct 2019. There is a new race for resources: the ocean floor. Seabed exploration, a precursor to mining, is underway in remote parts of the Pacific Ocean as corporations and nation-states attempt to catalog the underwater resources. Highly sought-after metals such as cobalt and nickel are used to manufacture electric cars, drones, and other electronics. As land-based supplies dwindle, corporations fervently seek ways to exploit the vast...

Nov 12, 20207 min

PSL statement: The defeat of Donald Trump

More than 70 million people voted to oust Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election. This was not a vote for Joe Biden, a truly uninspiring candidate who only became the nominee when the Democratic Party ruling class establishment united to stop Bernie Sanders from getting the nomination in early March. Nor did the historic voter turnout for Biden signify support for his pro-Wall Street, pro-war positions and his role as an architect of the current system of policing and mass incarceration. In the las...

Nov 08, 20206 min

Trump goes all-in on racist voter disenfranchisement after indecisive election night

After last night’s indecisive result, a massive effort is underway by the Trump campaign and Republican Party apparatus to prevent hundreds of thousands if not millions of votes from being counted. This effort has a clear racist character — hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots concentrated in cities with majority or near-majority Black populations have yet to be tabulated, and the final outcome of the election hangs in the balance. The struggle for the right to vote has historically been a c...

Nov 05, 20207 min

Nazis dealt major blow in Greece

Concluding a five year-long trial, a Greek court ruled today that the fascist outfit Golden Dawn was operating as a criminal organization and its leaders were therefore guilty of functioning as organized crime bosses. This could be a fatal blow to what was until recently perhaps the most institutionally powerful openly Nazi organization in the world. Until last year they had 18 members in the Greek parliament, and at their height opinion polls showed that one-in-ten Greeks intended to vote for G...

Oct 30, 20206 min

“We’ve recovered our democracy”: Bolivian coup regime humiliated, socialist wins landslide election

After multiple delays in presidential elections, Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) presidential candidate and ex-Minister of Economy Luis Arce Catacora was elected by over 52 percent of the popular vote according to preliminary estimates. The crushing victory for MAS deepened as the party won a majority of seats in both chambers of the legislature. MAS is the party of Evo Morales, the democratically-elected president who was overthrown in a U.S.-backed police and military coup last year. Morales,...

Oct 29, 20207 min

Why are Azerbaijan and Armenia on the brink of war?

Intense fighting that broke out on Sunday between Armenia and Azerbaijan has left scores dead and hundreds wounded as the two neighboring states teeter on the brink of all-out war. At issue is the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave surrounded and claimed by Azerbaijan but de-facto controlled by forces representing the region’s Armenian majority. Armed clashes were registered on the morning of September 27. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan blame the other side for initiating hostilitie...

Oct 28, 20206 min

Gloria La Riva at the Third 2020 Open Presidential Debate

These are excerpts from Gloria La Riva's answers at the Third 2020 Open Presidential Debate. Listen to Gloria elucidate the PSL's socialist platform in comparison with other third parties. Topics include abolishing the supreme court and anti-democratic electoral systems, the limits of reforms like UBI and breaking up big companies like Facebook, and most of all, the necessity for a new system that replaces the fundamentally and undeniably broken system of capitalism. For more information visit: ...

Oct 27, 202025 min

PSL on the Presidential Debates

Listen to analyses by the Party for Socialism and Liberation on the 2020 presidential debates! You can read the articles here. https://www.liberationnews.org/trump-and-biden-agree-u-s-empire-should-reign-supreme/ https://www.liberationnews.org/two-mockeries-of-democracy-instead-of-one-biden-and-trump-town-halls-replace-debate/ https://www.liberationnews.org/harris-vs-pence-debate-no-real-choice-under-capitalist-democracy/ Find out more about the La Riva 2020 Presidential campaign: https://www.la...

Oct 25, 202017 min

Music, not muddle: Re-examining Soviet sounds and the socialist project

A vivid, flourishing, and diverse musical life developed in the Soviet Union. This vibrant culture was built by professional and amateur artists from among and across its many different nationalities, and spanned styles and genres from classical forms like ballets and orchestras to popular forms like rock and jazz music. Amateur workplace ensembles were promoted to engage workers actively in performances as members of bands, orchestras, and choirs. Debates raged about the path Soviet music shoul...

Oct 18, 202022 min

What's behind the crisis in Belarus?

Anti-government protests in Belarus continue in the wake of the Aug 9 presidential election. Economic decline, coronavirus mismanagement and the government’s response to the protests have driven many Belarusians into the streets, including youth and industrial workers. Although the protests’ stated target is Lukashenko, the real political aims of the leadership of the opposition is to bring Belarus into the U.S. and European Union sphere of influence. The opposition’s self-appointed leaders open...

Oct 16, 202016 min

U.S. justice system — sanctuaries of sexual abuse

Lillian House, one of the Denver anti-racist activists recently arrested, and, after a mass struggle, released on bail, writes about how and why sexual abuse runs rampant in the U.S. "justice" system. Read the full article, originally published in Breaking the Chains: https://liberationschool.org/sanctuaries-of-sexual-abuse/

Oct 10, 202011 min

Wildfires on the West Coast + Preface to Climate Solutions Beyond Capitalism

Author and climate researcher Tina Landis speaks on the recent wildfires that have continually burned through the West Coast and why efforts by a capitalist government fall short of what is needed to fight the causes and effects of climate change and catastrophe. Also, Tina narrates the preface from her new book, "Climate Solutions Beyond Capitalism" Purchase "Climate Solutions Beyond Capitalism" here: http://store.pslweb.org/Climate-Solutions-Beyond-Capitalism_p_69.html

Oct 01, 202015 min

The Socialist Response to the 2020 Presidential Debate

Tonight’s debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was testament to how little choice voters truly have in this so-called democracy. Gloria La Riva and Sunil Freeman are running in the presidential election to give voters a real alternative -- one that stands for the rights of the working class and in opposition to war, racism and the destruction of the environment. On these existential issues of our time and so many others, Trump and Biden have more in common than they pretend. Neither have a ...

Oct 01, 20204 min

Denver anti-racist organizers released from jail! Drop the charges now!

Eliza Lucero, Joel Northam and Lillian House have been released from jail after having been incarcerated for a full week in hazardous and degrading conditions. This is a major victory for the nationwide movement that has developed to fight back against the frame-up on serious felony charges of Denver-area organizers leading the fight against racist police brutality. Over the past seven days, thousands of people have signed the petition, participated in solidarity rallies across the country, adde...

Sep 25, 20203 min

Senate Democrats want $350 billion to prepare for war with China

Democrats in the Senate announced September 17 a massive spending bill aimed at stepping up U.S. hostility towards China to the tune of $350 billion. Introduced by leading imperialist war hawks Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez, the legislation is intended to shore up U.S. dominance in strategic sectors of the world economy through huge government subsidies, as well as bolstering ongoing efforts to politically destabilize China. The centerpiece of the Democrats’ proposal is a $300 billion fund to s...

Sep 25, 20205 min

Jailed Denver anti-racist leaders subjected to dangerous and degrading conditions in custody

Donate to the organizers’ legal and political defense fund: https://www.pslweb.org/donate4denver Sign the petition demanding that all charges be dropped against the organizers: https://www.pslweb.org/dropthecharges The following is a report from Ryan Hamby, a Party for Socialism and Liberation member and the long-time partner of Lillian House, one of the four PSL organizers who were rounded up and thrown in jail with multiple bogus felony charges. They were targeted for their leadership in the a...

Sep 25, 20207 min

Movements in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe: Free the Denver anti-racist organizers!

We are deeply appreciative of the many solidarity statements we have received from around the country and the world. The statement below comes from movements and member organizations of the International Peoples’ Assembly, which is active across Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. If your organization would like to offer a statement, please send it to info@pslweb.org. We will be collecting and posting more statements soon. Individuals can also sign the petition demanding freedom for the arre...

Sep 19, 20206 min

PSL Statement: Police Operation Arrests Anti-Racist Organizers in Denver – Area Drop the charges!

Today, on September 17th, in Denver, Colorado, law enforcement units arrested several lead organizers of the mass anti-racist protest movement that has been on the streets demanding justice for Elijah McClain and other victims of police brutality. This morning, Russell Ruch was arrested while in a parking lot at a Home Depot. An hour later, five police cars surrounded and arrested Lillian House while she was driving. This afternoon, S.W.A.T. teams arrived at Joel Northam’s home and arrested him....

Sep 18, 20205 min
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