History and Traditions

U.S. politicians and employers have always used anti-immigrant laws not so much to prevent the entry of all immigrant labor, as to control it. June 25, 2008

Rosa Luxemburg's book, written after the 1905 revolution in Russia, shows how "economic" issues can be the catalyst for "political" demands. June 13, 2008

The modern Marxist theory of the state owes its existence to the 1871 struggle of the Paris Communards, who taught people that workers can run society. June 9, 2008

Robert F. Kennedy is remembered as someone who represented hope and idealism, but the real history of the 1950s and '60s tells a different story. June 6, 2008

Since capitalism is an international system, the working-class struggle to overcome capitalism must also be international. May 28, 2008

A performance of Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's Voices of a People's History was dedicated to the memory of Roslyn Zinn, who died last week. May 21, 2008

The struggles of May 1968 in France 40 years ago produced an enormous shift to the left around the world and revived hopes in revolutionary change. May 15, 2008

Frederick Engels provides a materialist analysis of the rise of class society and, with it, the roots of women's oppression. May 12, 2008

Without its own political party, leaders and political representatives, the working class will remain subordinated to the Republicans and Democrats. May 9, 2008

The U.S. political system creates an institutional arrangement whereby only two parties are presented as legitimate options. April 25, 2008

Frederick Engels' pamphlet provided a popular account of the origin of socialist ideas and the Marxist view of history. April 11, 2008

Martin Luther King was assassinated in the midst of a struggle that he saw as part of the next stage for the civil rights movement. April 4, 2008

The way films like 10,000 B.C. depict early societies sheds a lot of light on how human history is mangled. March 28, 2008

The working class needs its own, democratic state--a state that works itself out of a job. March 21, 2008

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels provided an overall theory to help explain history, how to fight for justice today and the possibility of a better future. March 21, 2008

The modern state is the state of the dominant class, and its main purpose is to secure the rule of that class. March 7, 2008

The standard history of the civil rights movement given by the media obscures the radical sources of the struggle against racism. February 22, 2008

Abolishing the crime of slavery took an immense Civil War and a postwar period of Reconstruction that involved dramatic political struggles. February 15, 2008

In the collective fight for reforms, ordinary people are radicalized and gain a sense of their own power. February 15, 2008

Forty years ago, a nationwide offensive by the fighters of the liberation struggle in Vietnam exposed the lie that the U.S. was winning the war. February 1, 2008

Rank-and-file organization is needed in unions to overcome the limits of the union leadership. January 25, 2008

Socialists support trade unions because they are the most elementary form of organization of the working class. January 11, 2008