Memo on DSA Electoral Campaigns
Peter Moody, October 29, 2018
DSA member Peter Moody looks over DSA's electoral strategy and its current application, specifically in the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaign, arguing that the task of making candidates accountable to the organization is far from complete. Read Article.
How Empires Die
Rosa Janis, October 26, 2018
Rosa Janis argues for a theory of crisis and social decay that uses elements of Marx's Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall as well as the concept of fragility. Crisis must be understood as something not simply occurring in the economy, but the entire society as a whole. Yet the question remains whether an emancipatory politics can emerge from the stagnation and decay of civilization. Read Article.
Insurrection and Defeat in Bavaria, 1918–19 (Part 2)
Alexander Gallus, October 22, 2018
Alexander Gallus concludes his saga on the Bavarian Soviet Republic and tries to draw political lessons from its failures. Read Article.
From Workers' Party to Workers' Republic
Donald Parkinson, October 17, 2018
Donald Parkinson takes a look at the history of the First, Second and Third Internationals, arguing for an approach to party-building and political strategy that is informed by the positives and negatives of these experiences. Reading: Matthew Strupp. Read Article.
Dispatch on Brazil
Amelia Davenport, October 14, 2018
Amelia Davenport interviews Hugo Souza, a militant in the Brazilian left, on organizing, the right-wing Bolsonaro’s campaign that is taking aim at state power with a reactionary neo-liberal agenda, and advice for leftists in the USA. Read Article.
Missing Victory? Blanqui and the Paris Commune
Doug Enaa Greene, October 13, 2018
Louis August Blanqui was a key revolutionary leader in the French Socialist movement. Yet when the Paris Commune erupted in 1871, Blanqui was in prison, leaving his core of followers without leadership. Failing to defeat inevitable counter-revolution, this experiment in social emancipation was crushed in blood. How would have Blanqui's leadership affected the outcome of the Commune? Doug Enaa Greene, author of 'Communist Insurgent: Blanqui's Politics of Revolution' weighs in. Read Article.
The USSR's Founding Mother
Cliff Connolly, October 8, 2018
M.A. Iasilli on what Bolshevik militant Nadezhda Krupskaya can teach us about education and labor. Reading: Cliff Connolly. Read Article.
How to Play with Fire: Electoral Politics in the Heart of Empire
October 2, 2018
Ira Pollock examines the difficulties of left electoral strategy regarding the question of imperialism and affirms the importance of upholding strong anti-imperialist principles in electoral campaigns. Otherwise, the left itself can become an arm of the imperialist state. Read Article.
Conciliation and Insurrection in Bavaria 1918–19 (Part 1)
Alexander Gallus, September 23, 2018
What political lessons can be learned from the failed Bavarian Soviet Republic? Alexander Gallus takes a deep dive into the history of this famous moment from the German workers' movement and aims to draw contemporary lessons for revolutionary Marxist politics. Read Article.
Historical Narratives of the Red Terror
Donald Parkinson, September 17, 2018
Donald Parkinson dives into the historiography of the Russian Revolution and argues that the Red Terror was not an ideological outgrowth of communist ideals. Rather, the red terror must be understood through a materialist lens that sees its roots in social environment rather than ideology. Read Article.