Achieving Democracy

  By Chris Horner • 3rd May 2017 ,
ferguson- i am

Are we getting there? In the years following the independence of the 13 colonies from Britain, voting rights for  women and native Americans were only extended very gradually (1920 and 1924 respectively).  For African Americans the picture is complicated by the different laws in the states, even after the Emancipation Proclamation. Many non white Americans weren’t actually able to exercise their right to vote in the segregated south well into the middle of the 20th century.  Even today, extensive gerrymandering and selective use of felony disbarments as well as ID voting conditions continue to be used to exclude black citizens from … Continue reading

The Ossuary, St. Leonard’s, in Hythe, Kent, England/A Postcard From The Volcano

  By Chris Horner • 19th April 2017 , ,
Medieval Bones-2064

Medieval bones. A Postcard from the Volcano  Children picking up our bones Will never know that these were once As quick as foxes on the hill; And that in autumn, when the grapes Made sharp air sharper by their smell These had a being, breathing frost; And least will guess that with our bones We left much more, left what still is The look of things, left what we felt At what we saw. The spring clouds blow Above the shuttered mansion-house, Beyond our gate and the windy sky Cries out a literate despair. We knew for long the mansion’s … Continue reading

Umkhonto We Sizwe – How the armed struggle succeeded

  By Ronnie Kasrils • 16th April 2017 ,

The people’s patience is not endless. The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means within our power in defence of our people, our future and our freedom. Thus ran the clarion call of the Manifesto of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) clandestinely posted in public places in South Africa as the first bomb blasts heralding its existence exploded at apartheid offices and installations on December 16, 1961. … Continue reading

Joseph Daher on the Syrian revolution

  By JT White • 13th April 2017

Joseph Daher is a Swiss-Syrian academic and activist. Originally from Aleppo, Daher is a staunch opponent of the Syrian Ba’ath regime. He maintains the website Syria Freedom Forever, which is dedicated to building a secular and socialist Syria. In his latest book Hezbollah: The Political Economy of the Party of God, Daher takes apart the misconceptions around Hezbollah and its role in Lebanese society. In the years since the Arab Spring began the international left has become increasingly divided over Syria, particularly as the revolution turned into a civil war with plenty of interference from outside. As a result, the left has diverged into at … Continue reading

On Folk Politics: Or, Why the Left Can’t Win

  By Matt Thompson • 10th April 2017

“This for the ones who said “Onwards! Comrades! Til’ our deaths!” With ruin on their breath, and the weight of centuries on their tongues. Loading failed manifesto’s in their guns, as if defeat repeated often enough could some day mean that they had won.”  – Pat “The bunny” Schneeweis Where did the future go? At this point it is disturbingly clear which side of the political spectrum has successfully staked its claim in the social imaginary to notions of progress, modernisation and technology. So what is to be done? I’ll begin this as is trendy in the style of a … Continue reading