Misrepresenting the Left: We Are Not Liberals

According to John Locke, who is quite possibly the godfather of liberalism, it is the possession of property that gives humans their freedom.

The following article by Ron Jacobs is from Dissident Voice:

Despite the current media-induced confusion, liberals are not leftists. This misconception is not only embarrassing to those of us who are genuinely leftist in our politics, it is also discrediting the Left. From the New York Times to FOX News, the portrayal of the US Democratic party and Barack Obama as leftist is creating a perception in the US populace that leftists are ineffective politicos who have no principles they won’t modify. Of course, the Left has not done that great of a job explaining the situation in any other way, thereby leaving the way open for the misconceptions put forth by the media to appear as truth.

May Day 2010: Time to Build the People’s Fight Back!

Members of Teamsters Local 743 marching for immigration reform in Washington D.C. March 21st 2010.

The following statement is from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization:

May 1 is International Workers Day, a day to celebrate the struggle of the working class and oppressed peoples and nations against exploitation and oppression. All around the world, millions of people will be marching against the capitalists’ policies of austerity and war. In the socialist counties, like Cuba, China and Democratic Korea, the achievements of working people will be celebrated. Here in the United States, May 1 is also a day of struggle for immigrant rights. This May Day, cities across the country will see a renewed spirit of activism as the undocumented and their supporters take to the streets in this fight for justice full equality.

While the bankers’ obscene bonuses are back, unemployment is still in double digits. Across the globe, the big capitalists, the politicians that they own and the corporate media are saying that now is the time for workers to tighten our belts so that the ‘economy’ – that is their profits – can continue to grow. From Greece to Spain and from California to Illinois, governments are slashing spending on social services, raising taxes on working people, cutting government workers pay and cutting schools and college.

China publishes report on U.S. human rights

The U.S. uses torture to "defend human rights" in Iraq and around the world.

The following is from Xinhua. For the full report, go to Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009

 

China Friday retorted U.S. criticism by publishing its own report on the U.S. human rights record.

“As in previous years, the (U.S.) reports are full of accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China, but turn a blind eye to, or dodge and even cover up rampant human rights abuses on its own territory,” said the Information Office of the State Council in its report on the U.S. human rights record.

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009 was in retaliation to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2009 issued by the U.S. Department of State on March 11.

The report is “prepared to help people around the world understand the real situation of human rights in the United States,” said the report.

The report reviewed the human rights record of the United States in 2009 from six perspectives: life, property and personal security; civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; racial discrimination; rights of women and children; and the U.S.’ violation of human rights against other countries.

It criticized the United States for taking human rights as “a political instrument to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, defame other nations’ image and seek its own strategic interests.”

Tuscaloosa Bus Drivers Win!

Students picket with striking Crimson Ride bus drivers at Univ. of Alabama (Fight Back! News/Staff)

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Network to Fight for Economic Justice on the important victory by bus drivers in Alabama.

Alabama Bus Drivers Win Union Contract!

Statement from the Network to Fight for Economic Justice (NFEJ)

 Union bus drivers at the University of Alabama are celebrating today! They voted to accept their first union contract late last night, March 8, 2010. All the members and supporters of the Network to Fight for Economic Justice are rejoicing with them!

Organizing a union and winning a first contract are difficult enough. To organize in the South where racism and intimidation are strong factors, is spectacular! The union workers and leaders of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1208 are to be congratulated for their grit and determination. They stood up and sent a message across the country, “We’re NOT going to take it anymore!”

Freedom Road Celebrates International Women’s Day in Minneapolis

Jess Sundin, of FRSO speaking at International Women's Day event.

The following article is from Fight Back! News, and is being posted to The Marxist-Leninist as part of a series of articles form Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day (March 8th):

International Women’s Day Celebrated in Minneapolis

Minneapolis, MN – 50 people gathered here March 7, to celebrate International Women’s Day. The event, organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), included speeches, a showing of the film The Eyes of the Rainbow – a documentary about Assata Shakur – and brief toasts from trade union, anti-war, student and welfare rights organizers.

Leaders of FRSO and the FMLN Committee of Minnesota spoke at the program.

General Strike in Greece: Plutocracy Must Pay for the Crisis!

The following article is from the website of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE):

The new 24-hour strike held on February 24th against the plans of the social-democrat government of PASOK to place the burdens of the capitalist crisis on the shoulders of the workers was a great success.

Millions of workers resisted to the intimidation by the capital’s parties (the social democrat PASOK, the conservative ND, and the extreme-right, racist LAOS) which argue that workers must submit in order to “rescue the country from bankruptcy”. The “patriotism” of these political forces has only one goal: to maintain and expand the profit making of the capital at the expense of the workers’ gains by means of raising the retirement ages, cutting salaries and pensions, further dismantling of the social-security system, deteriorating the working relations and increasing the anti-people taxes.

Polemic Against the Gang of Four: ‘Grasping Revolution, Promoting Production’

This polemic against the political line and practice of the ‘Gang of Four’ (Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen) during the Cultural Revolution in China is from Class Struggle (Winter, 1976-77, #6), the theoretical journal of the October League / Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist). It represents the line of Hua Guofeng, who followed Mao Zedong as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China. The document isn’t perfect, and is itself somewhat ultra-left, but it is being posted here to help look at some of the political problems of the Cultural Revolution in China:

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‘Grasping Revolution, Promoting Production’
An exposure of the ‘Gang of Four’ and their attempt to restore capitalism in China

 The following article, written by Jen Ping, first appeared in the Nov. 14, 1976 issue of People’s Daily, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Entitled “A Gang of Vermin Noxious to the Country and the People,” it deals with one of the major questions distinguishing Marxism-Leninism from revisionism, the so-called “theory of productive forces.” It exposes how the “gang of four,” the anti-party clique headed by Wang Hung-wen, Chiang Ching, Chang Chun-chiao and Yao Wen-yuan, distorted a correct understanding of this question so as to further their plot to seize power and restore capitalism in China.

Anhauser-Busch InBev workers win

Fight Back New Service is circulating the following statement from the Workers Party of Belgium (WPB) on the dramatic victory won by Belgian workers at Anhauser-Busch InBev, who defeated a restructuring plan that would have resulted in layoffs.

Background – Anhauser-Busch InBev

The Anhauser-Busch InBev multinational (Belgian-Brazilian) is the world’s largest beer brewer. It employs about 120,000 workers in 25 countries with a total sales number of 39 billion US dollars. It is among the top 10 consumer products multinationals. Beginning this year, the company announced that it planned to cut 10% of its 8,000 workforce in Europe. In Belgium, AB InBev announced 300 layoffs at its breweries in Jupille and Leuven.

A First Look at the Job Market in the New Year: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Protesters block road to protest factory closure in Moline, IL. (Fight Back! News/Staff)

The following article, by Masao Suzuki, is from Fight Back! News:

San Bruno, CA – On Feb. 5 the Department of Labor released their report on the January 2010 job market. The good news in the report was that the official unemployment rate fell from 10.0% in December to 9.7% in January. This is the biggest drop in the unemployment rate since the recession began in December 2007.

There was also a fair amount of bad news in the jobs report. Some 20,000 payroll jobs were lost in January, and the job loss in December was revised up to 150,000 jobs. There was an increase of 52,000 temporary jobs in January, which means that 72,000 permanent jobs were lost.

Alabama: Campus Bus Drivers Fight for Living Wage

The following article by Laura Langley is from Fight Back! News:

Tuscaloosa, AL – Bus drivers, with the support of students at the University of Alabama (UA), are organizing a union campaign to win a living wage. The bus drivers shuttle students, football fans and others around the UA campus. Student activists are riding the buses to sign up student supporters for the bus drivers. The 62 Crimson Ride Shuttle Bus drivers work for FirstGroup PLC, a huge British multinational corporation. The union drivers and students are exposing the British company’s big ripoff of Alabama workers and taxpayers.

The bus drivers, most of whom are African American women, make only $9.50 per hour. This salary puts the drivers and their families below the poverty line. In May of 2009, the Crimson Ride Shuttle Bus Drivers at the University of Alabama unanimously voted to join the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1208, but still do not have a contract. Without a contract there are few benefits. The drivers have no job security. There are no guidelines regulating termination. The drivers are paid nothing during university holidays. Many work two jobs to make ends meet.