Americas

Bourgeois Democracy in Canada is facing a crisis of confidence. The fall of the minority Liberal government presents Socialists with a choice. Do we sit out the coming federal election or do we actively participate in the debate? What strategies are necessary for increasing support for socialist ideas? And finally, what position should we take towards the federal New Democratic Party? We are producing here the text of a leaflet, Join the NDP - Fight for socialism, that tries to answer these questions.

Hurricane Katrina highlighted the extreme class contradictions that exist within US society. In this interview John Peterson, Editor of the US Socialist Appeal, outlines how attitudes are changing and how awareness of the real situation is sinking into the consciousness of millions of Americans. (This text is also available in the original Dutch version at: http://www.vonk.org/CallReadOnly.asp?artikelID=1658&status=1)

There are many bourgeois historians who believe that history is made by “Great Men and Women”, kings and queens, statesmen and politicians. It is this unscientific approach that Marxism is opposed to. However, Marxists do not deny the role of individuals in history. History is made by people. But we need to uncover the dialectical relationship between the individual (the subjective) and the great forces (objective) that govern the movement of society and see this role in its historical context.

Twenty-five years ago today John Lennon was killed in New York. There was a mass outpouring of grief all over the world. This was because he symbolised something different from the mainstream music industry. He gave expression in the words of some of his songs the genuine feeling of disgust of many workers and youth at what capitalist society stands for.

Increasingly, Canadian workers are learning about the importance of the Venezuelan Revolution. The Ontario Federation of Labour, which represents over 700,000 workers, unanimously passed a resolution in support of Venezuela at its November 21st – 25th convention. This success is the culmination of several months of organizing activity by Hands Off Venezuela activists in Canada and is an important step forward for the Venezuela solidarity movement.

Living standards for the US working class have been falling for some time. Inside the richest country in the world we have “third-world” type conditions for a layer of the population.

While poverty levels grow and living standards fall, the American bosses keep up the pressure to drive down real wages even further. The latest example is what is happening at Delphi (that supplies parts to GM) where the bosses asked workers to take a 63% pay cut. In December the UAW votes on what response to give and GM are bracing themselves for possible strike action.

We are happy to announce the setting up of the website of the Peruvian El Militante (http://peru.elmilitante.org ), the journal of the Marxists of the Fuerza de Izquierda Socialista. The site has been running for some time and is now fully functional. We believe it will play an important role in bring the genuine ideas of Marxism to the workers and youth of Peru.

With the situation in Iraq deteriorating, his approval ratings steadily dropping, the aftermath of Katrina still haunting the nation, divisions in his own party, and the DeLay case causing a widespread erosion of faith in the government, Bush may well be threatened with impeachment. But even if the reactionary Bush Administration goes the way of Richard Nixon, where does that leave the working class in the United States?

The events of the past year have awakened millions of Americans to the bitter reality of life under capitalism. To many, the entire planet appears to have gone insane. The world has been shaken from top to bottom by natural disasters, wars, famines, political crises, riots, and revolutionary uprisings. This is a graphic reflection of the impasse of capitalism in the epoch of its decay and decline: an era of wars, revolutions, and counter-revolutions. Editorial statement of the US Socialist Appeal.

The recent blackout on the US East coast highlights the inability of the capitalist class to provide even the most basic services in the heart of imperialism. The ability of capitalism to keep even something as important as its global headquarters, New York,  has been undermined by the blind mechanics of the profit-drive, the central component of capitalism itself. By Kurt Penca. Originally published on the new issue of the American Socialist Appeal.

In a first in US Labor history, nearly 100,000 grocery workers are on strike or locked out in California, St. Louis, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, demanding a halt to the ever-increasing bosses' assault on one of the working class' most essential needs: health care. Under the heavy skies of recession, these multi-billion dollar companies want to make the workers pay the full bill for the economic downturn. In order to maintain their huge profits, the capitalists are more than willing to put the physical health of the working class to the ax. This is a threat that the Labor Movement cannot tolerate, despite the braking action of their own leadership...

As the dust settles around the British Columbia teachers' strike there is an uneasy calm hanging over the province. Two facts are immediately apparent - first, neither the government nor the labour movement were decisively defeated; and second, this was only a dress rehearsal for the bigger battle to come in the spring.

“This is an historical gathering. For the first time workers from occupied factories from across the continent are meeting together” (Serge Goulart, United Workers’ Council of Brazilian group of occupied factories)

“We have shown how the workers can run the companies, and this means we can run society as well” (Ricardo Moreira, PIT-CNT, Uruguay)