History
“What is Left of American Democracy on the Eve of the 2020 Elections?”
David North and Adolph Reed discuss US political crisis at online forum
30 October 2020
North and Reed discussed and debated their views on the unfolding political crisis in the United States and the way forward for the working class, and responded to audience questions at the forum hosted by the San Diego State University.
Introductory remarks to “What is Left of American Democracy on the Eve of the 2020 Election?”
By David North, 30 October 2020
These remarks were delivered October 28 to an online forum sponsored by the San Diego State University Department of Political Science.
The World Socialist Web Site, the fight against imperialism and for socialism in the Middle East
By Ulaş Ateşçi, 29 October 2020
The remarks below were delivered by Ulaş Ateşçi, a leading member of Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu in Turkey.
The World Socialist Web Site and the defense of historical truth
By Joseph Scalice, 29 October 2020
The remarks below were given by historian Joseph Scalice.
Online forum with David North and Professor Adolph Reed
What is Left of American Democracy on the Eve of the 2020 Elections?
28 October 2020
The event, hosted by San Diego State University’s Department of Political Science, is taking place Wednesday, October 28 at 7:00 pm Eastern, 4:00 pm Pacific.
Brazilian Morenoites support pro-military parties in mayoral elections
By Miguel Andrade, 27 October 2020
The approaching mayoral elections are exposing all the political forces that claimed a vote for the Workers Party against Bolsonaro in 2018 would advance an “anti-fascist” struggle
This week in history: October 26-November 1
26 October 2020
25 years ago: US orchestrates carve-up of Bosnia in Dayton talks On October 31, 1995, talks on the future of Bosnia with the Clinton administration and the presidents of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina began at the Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio. The purpose of the negotiations was to assert American imperialist domination in the Balkans at the expense of its European competitors.
The relaunch of the World Socialist Web Site and the future of socialism
By David North, 26 October 2020
The relaunch of the WSWS and the growth of its influence reflect a process of mass political radicalization under conditions of the greatest crisis since the 1930s.
Russian court extends prison sentence for historian of Stalinist terror to 13 years
By Clara Weiss, 24 October 2020
The brutal vendetta against Dmitriev speaks to the enormous fear of the Russian oligarchy about the growing interest in the historical truth about the October revolution and the Stalinist terror in broad sections of the population.
Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7: An important historical episode
By Joanne Laurier and David Walsh, 24 October 2020
The film deals with the court proceedings in 1969–70 in which organizers of protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago faced charges of conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot.
50 years since Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act
By Keith Jones, 23 October 2020
During the October Crisis, the Canadian state, led by Trudeau, exploited two terrorist kidnappings to carry out a coup de force, jailing and intimidating left-wing government opponents amid a growing working class upsurge.
It is all just a metaphor: The New York Times attempts yet another desperate defense of its discredited 1619 Project
By Tom Mackaman and David North, 23 October 2020
In spite of Times editor Jake Silverstein’s deletion of the “true founding” claim and his other word changes, the Times’ essential position remains the same: The American Revolution was a retrograde event in which the defense of slavery was the primary motivation.
Statements from Canada, India and Sri Lanka in support of Dr. Scalice
By our reporters, 22 October 2020
“Dr. Scalice has thoroughly exposed the politically criminal role played by the Stalinist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in paving the way for the anti-working class dictatorial regimes of Marcos and Duterte.”
This week in history: October 19–25
19 October 2020
25 years ago: Mass protest in Okinawa against US military On Oct. 21, 1995, an estimated 85,000 residents of Okinawa demonstrated to demand reduction in the US military presence in Japan. The rally was sparked by outrage over the rape of a 12-year-old school girl by US soldiers, fanned by Japanese nationalist politicians, including the island’s Governor Masahide Ota.
Student council at Leipzig University opposes invitation to German right-wing extremist professor Jörg Baberowski
By Noah Windstein, 17 October 2020
It is particularly cynical for Baberowski to speak on the issue of peace in light of his trivialisation of the Holocaust and the arson attacks by neo-Nazis on refugee centres.
“Dr. Scalice requires the support of all people who value historical truth”
Statements of support for Dr. Scalice continue to come in from Australia and Sri Lanka
By our reporters, 17 October 2020
“Scalice’s lecture provided a powerful exposure of the catastrophic consequences bequeathed to the international working class by Stalinism and its extension Maoism.”
Stalinist apologetics and intellectual charlatanry: A response to Teo Marasigan
By Joseph Scalice, 16 October 2020
The WSWS is posting Dr. Joseph Scalice’s reply to Teo Marasigan, an apologist for the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines and its founder Jose Maria Sison. Sison has slandered Scalice as a CIA agent in response to his lecture detailing the CPP’s support for the fascistic Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and explaining its roots in the reactionary politics of Stalinism.
Factional warfare erupts in New York Times over the 1619 Project
By Tom Mackaman and David North, 15 October 2020
Following the publication of a highly critical essay by a New York Times columnist, the public statements issued by the publisher and leading editors reflect tensions provoked by the exposure of the 1619 Project’s falsification of history.
Tesla: The cognizable, knowable scientist and visionary
By Joanne Laurier, 15 October 2020
Written and directed by Michael Almereyda, Tesla is a drama about the life of Serbian-American engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), a remarkable figure. Ethan Hawke plays Tesla.
One year after anti-Semitic terrorist attack in Halle
Right-wing extremist networks in German state apparatus continue to grow
By Jan Ritter, 14 October 2020
Recent days have seen several new instances of right-wing extremists within the German state apparatus come to light.
Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at UC Berkeley defends historian Joseph Scalice
14 October 2020
“We write to affirm the intellectual excellence and high character of our former Ph.D. student and Lecturer Joseph Scalice, and to denounce recent baseless accusations against him.”
This week in history: October 12-18
12 October 2020
25 years ago: Million Man March in Washington, DCOn October 16, 1995, hundreds of thousands of people turned out on the National Mall in Washington, DC for the Million Man March, called by Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.
Dr. Joseph Scalice discusses the significance of the fight against Stalinism with the members of Sri Lankan SEP
By Our correspondents, 12 October 2020
Scalice’s guest lecture to members of Sri Lankan SEP is important for their struggle to build the Trotskyist movement in South Asia and fight against Stalinist betrayals.
Thirty years of German unity: Berlin increases military spending, incites nationalism and war
By Johannes Stern, 10 October 2020
The defence minister made no secret of the fact that Germany is arming itself with the deadliest weapons in order to wage war around the world in defence of its economic and geostrategic interest—increasingly against its erstwhile allies.
Stephen F. Cohen, biographer of Nikolai Bukharin, dead at 81
By Clara Weiss, 10 October 2020
Cohen’s academic and political biography was bound up with his 1973 biography of Nikolai Bukharin, the first comprehensive English biography of the leading Bolshevik.
CPP founder Sison recycles anti-Trotskyist lies of Ho Chi Minh
By Peter Symonds, 8 October 2020
Sison is making absolutely clear that the political line and perspective of the Communist Party of the Philippines derives not from Marxism but its falsifiers—Stalin, Mao Zedong and their followers.
An interview from 2016 with Victoria Bynum, historian and author of The Free State of Jones
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 5 October 2020
We are reposting today an interview we conducted with Victoria Bynum in July 2016 at the time of the release of Free State of Jones, which is now available again on Netflix.
This week in history: October 5-11
5 October 2020
On October 10, 1995, workers in France went on a national general strike. The walkout brought nearly all the public sector to a standstill, exacerbating the political crisis of the government of President Jacques Chirac less than six months after taking office.
30 years of German unity
By Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei, 3 October 2020
As German political leaders commemorate the dissolution of East Germany and its incorporation by West Germany 30 years ago, the earlier promises of freedom, democracy, and prosperity are being refuted daily by reality.
Washington D.C. proposes to remove the names of Jefferson, Franklin and others from public places
By Dominic Gustavo, 28 September 2020
While the mayor of the US capital prepares to delete the names of revolutionaries and abolitionists, she recently renamed a building after disgraced former mayor Marion Barry.
Seventy-five years since the Stalinist murder of Vietnamese Trotskyist leader Ta Thu Thau
By Patrick Martin, 28 September 2020
The leader of a Trotskyist group in Saigon, which had a sizeable following in the working class, was executed on the orders of the leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party.
Joseph Scalice responds to Stalinist Sison’s lies that he is a “CIA agent”
By Joseph Scalice, 24 September 2020
“Unable to respond to any of the substantive historical points raised in my scholarship, [Sison] has taken to repeatedly slandering me as a ‘CIA agent,’ a claim for which he has not a shred of evidence.”
Forty-eight years since Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines
By John Malvar, 23 September 2020
The Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines played a key role in suppressing opposition to Ferdinand Marcos’ imposition of martial law in 1972, by subordinating the mass movement of workers and youth to rival factions of the bourgeoisie.
The New York Times and Nikole Hannah-Jones abandon key claims of the 1619 Project
By Tom Mackaman and David North, 22 September 2020
The Times has abandoned, without any public announcement or explanation, the central thesis that 1619, not 1776, was the “true founding” of the United States.
This week in history: September 21-27
21 September 2020
25 years ago: Former Italian Prime Minister Andreotti goes on trial On September 26, 1995, seven-time Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti went on trial in Palermo, facing charges of serving as a longtime front man for the Sicilian Mafia. More than 500 witnesses were expected to be called on in the nationally televised trial, the culmination of the series of scandal investigations which destroyed the postwar Italian party system.
Book Review
Wilmington’s Lie: The 1898 white supremacist coup in North Carolina
David Zucchino, Atlantic Monthly Press, 336 pages
By Fred Mazelis, 17 September 2020
The racist massacre in Wilmington was a major turning point in the entrenchment of Jim Crow segregation throughout the South.
Stalinist leader Joma Sison doubles down on Big Lie that the CPP never supported Philippine President Duterte
By Tom Peters, 15 September 2020
Jose Maria Sison has not even attempted to refute the evidence presented by Dr. Joseph Scalice that the Communist Party of the Philippines supported the fascistic president Rodrigo Duterte in 2015-2016.
WSWS publishes Chinese translation of Dr. Joseph Scalice’s lecture exposing the betrayals of the Communist Party of the Philippines
By Tom Peters, 15 September 2020
Dr. Scalice’s exposure of Maoism, from the standpoint of genuine socialism, will help readers understand why so many revolutionary opportunities in Asia throughout the twentieth century resulted in defeats for the working class.
CPP founder Sison regurgitates Stalinist lies about Trotskyism
By Peter Symonds, 12 September 2020
Sison’s second interview, defending his politically bankrupt “semi-colonial, semi-feudal” thesis, is a desperate bid to stem the haemorrhaging of support for the Communist Party of the Philippines, and to suppress any questioning in its ranks.
Trotsky’s Last Year
Part Six
By David North, 8 September 2020
An appraisal, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination, of the work of the great theoretician and strategist of World Socialist Revolution during the final year of his life.
The Silence of Others: The victims of Spanish fascism then and now
By Alejandro Lopez and Kevin Martinez, 7 September 2020
Timely and moving, the Spanish documentary details the efforts of activists and torture survivors to prosecute Francoite officials for crimes against humanity.
The lessons of the 1953 mass uprising (hartal) in Sri Lanka
By Saman Gunadasa, 2 September 2020
The hartal showed that regardless of the intensity of a mass struggle, it will not succeed without a conscious Marxist leadership
Edited transcript of Joseph Scalice’s lecture on CPP
First as Tragedy, Second as Farce: Marcos, Duterte and the Communist Parties of the Philippines
By Joseph Scalice, 1 September 2020
On August 26, Dr. Joseph Scalice delivered this lecture at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore on the support given by the Communist Party of the Philippines, and the various organizations that follow its political line, for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016.
Statements of support from Sri Lanka for Joseph Scalice
By our correspondents, 31 August 2020
We call on our readers to come to the defence of Scalice by sending statements of support to the WSWS opposing the slanderous attack on him by the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Trotsky’s Last Year
Part Four
By David North, 29 August 2020
An appraisal, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination, of the work of the great theoretician and strategist of World Socialist Revolution during the final year of his life.
Significant support for Joseph Scalice’s lecture on the Communist Party of the Philippines
By our correspondent, 29 August 2020
Overwhelmingly the comments and posts on social media have been supportive of the lecture and opposed to the slanderous attacks of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison on Scalice.
100 years since the birth of jazz master Charlie Parker
By John Andrews, 29 August 2020
Today, fans throughout the world are celebrating the centenary of the birth of Charlie Parker, an inventor of bebop and one of the greatest figures in the history of jazz.
Watch: Lecture exposes role of Communist Party of the Philippines in propping up Duterte regime
27 August 2020
The lecture is a devastating exposure of the duplicitous role of the Communist Party of the Philippines, its founder and “theoretician” Jose Maria Sison and of the bankrupt perspective of Stalinism and Maoism on which they are based.
Trotsky’s Last Year
Part Three
By David North, 25 August 2020
An appraisal, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination, of the work of the great theoretician and strategist of World Socialist Revolution during the final year of his life.
Trotsky’s Last Year
Part Two
By David North, 21 August 2020
An appraisal, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination, of the work of the great theoretician and strategist of World Socialist Revolution during the final year of his life.
Trotsky’s Last Year
Part One
By David North, 20 August 2020
An appraisal, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination, of the work of the great theoretician and strategist of World Socialist Revolution during the final year of his life.
The cancellation of professor Adolph Reed, Jr.’s speech and the DSA’s promotion of race politics
By Niles Niemuth, 18 August 2020
The effective ban on criticism of identity politics within the DSA and vicious denunciations of Marxism as “class reductionism” are in line with the Democratic Party’s broader goals of promoting racialist divisions.
Bernard Bailyn, historian of American colonial and revolutionary periods, 1922–2020
By Tom Mackaman, 13 August 2020
Bailyn leaves behind a significant body of work that broadened the understanding of the intellectual conceptions that found expression in the American Revolution.
75 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
By Bill Van Auken, 6 August 2020
The anniversary’s significance has never been greater. Behind the backs of the people of the United States and the world, US imperialism is steadily building up a massive nuclear arsenal and pursuing a doctrine of aggressive nuclear war.
#Anne Frank Parallel Stories: The young victim of the Nazis
By Joanne Laurier, 18 July 2020
#Anne Frank Parallel Stories is a documentary streaming on Netflix that retraces the life of Anne Frank, as well as five living women who survived the Nazi concentration camps in World War II.
“Palace letters” point to the plotting behind the 1975 constitutional coup in Australia
By Mike Head, 17 July 2020
Together with the military coup in Chile in 1973, the Labor government’s dismissal was one of the first acts in what became an international counter-offensive against the working class.
An interview with Ed Achorn, author of Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
By Shannon Jones, 10 July 2020
In a recent conversation with the WSWS, Achorn discussed his book on Lincoln’s Second Inaugural address and weighed in on efforts to slander the president who won the Civil War and destroyed slavery in the United States.
Democrats’ denunciation of America’s revolutionary heritage provides an opening for Trump
By Niles Niemuth, 7 July 2020
The campaign waged by the Democratic Party to discredit Jefferson, Lincoln and other leaders of America’s two revolutions allows Trump to package his extreme right-wing policies as a defense of democratic traditions.
The significance of the July 4 online discussion, “The Place of the Two American Revolutions: Past, Present and Future”
By David Walsh, 6 July 2020
The World Socialist Web Site marked the 244th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by hosting a discussion with five significant historians: Victoria Bynum, Clayborne Carson, Richard Carwardine, James Oakes and Gordon Wood.
SEP (Australia) July 7 online lecture
A new period of socialist revolution and the tasks of the Fourth International
4 July 2020
The lecture will outline the contemporary significance of the Trotskyist movement’s fight for socialism internationalism, amid a breakdown of capitalism and an upsurge of the class struggle.
Hands off Lincoln and the Emancipation Memorial! Defend the legacy of the Civil War!
By Niles Niemuth, 3 July 2020
The unanimous decision of the Boston Art Commission to remove the statue of Abraham Lincoln and a freed slave which memorializes emancipation is a reactionary assault on the progressive legacy of the Civil War.
SEP (Australia) June 30 online lecture
The 1985–86 split with the WRP and the renaissance of Marxism
27 June 2020
The split ranks among the most crucial strategic experiences of the Trotskyist movement and the international working class.
Hands off the monuments to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Grant!
By Tom Mackaman and Niles Niemuth, 22 June 2020
The justifiable demand for the removal of monuments to defenders of slavery and inequality has been unfairly accompanied by attacks against memorials to the men who led the American Revolution and the Civil War.
Yellow Star, Red Star
Capitalist counterrevolution and the rise of fascism in southeastern Europe since 1989
By Clara Weiss, 20 June 2020
Though fatally flawed by its equation of Stalinism with communism, and the author’s reluctance to discuss the social character of the restoration of capitalism, the book exposes the close relationship between capitalist counterrevolution and the rise of fascist forces.
SEP (Australia) June 23 online lecture
The ICFI and the war against Pabloism
19 June 2020
The lecture will review the international political context of the emergence of Pabloism, a national-opportunist tendency within the Fourth International.
This week in history: June 15-21
15 June 2020
25 years ago: Chechen rebels release hostagesOn June 20, 1995, Chechen rebel gunmen released the last of more than 1,000 people held hostage for five days in the Russian city of Budyonnovsk and returned to Chechnya under an agreement negotiated with Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. At least 120 people died during the government’s siege of the hospital, most of them killed when Russian troops tried to storm the building.
True History of the Kelly Gang: Little resemblance to the real story
By Jason Quill and Richard Phillips, 13 June 2020
Justin Kurzel’s film is the 16th about the late 19th century Australian bushranger and anti-establishment outlaw.
Russian court keeps historian of Stalinist massacres jailed amid COVID-19 outbreak
By Clara Weiss, 12 May 2020
The vendetta against Dmitriev is part of the campaign by Russia’s state and ruling oligarchy to suppress all efforts to uncover the truth about the crimes of Stalinism.
This week in history: May 11-17
11 May 2020
25 years ago: Ebola outbreak deaths rise to 170On May 12, 1995, the Associated Press reported that the death toll from the Ebola virus outbreak in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) increased to 170. The outbreak was centered in the city of Kikwit, capital of Kivu Province, about 500 km east of the capital, Kinshasa.
The Times’ 1619 Project is damned with faint praise
Hannah-Jones receives Pulitzer Prize for personal commentary, not historical writing
By Tom Mackaman and David North, 9 May 2020
The Pulitzer awards took no notice of the New York Times’ pretentious claims that the 1619 Project is an important contribution to the understanding of American history. It granted Hannah-Jones an award for “Commentary.”
Fifty years since the massacre of students at Kent State
By Patrick Martin, 4 May 2020
The killing of four students by National Guard soldiers touched off an unprecedented national wave of antiwar protests involving millions of youth.
Dorothea Lange: Words and Pictures: An exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art
By Clare Hurley, 2 May 2020
Lange’s turn to documentary photography was spurred by the Great Depression as she sought to address economic inequality and social injustice through activism and the lens of her camera.
Resistance and The Resistance Banker: Dramas of the struggle against Nazism
By Joanne Laurier, 1 May 2020
The crimes of the Nazis, the greatest ever committed against humanity, generated some of the noblest and most self-sacrificing actions in the struggle against their barbarism.
One Hundred and Fifty Years Since the Birth of Lenin
By David North, 22 April 2020
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov in the Russian city of Simbirsk on April 22, 1870. Known in history under the name of Lenin, he was the founder of the Bolshevik Party, leader of the 1917 October Revolution and, undoubtedly, a towering figure in the political and intellectual history of the twentieth century.
American Historical Review publishes letter on 1619 Project by Tom Mackaman and David North
20 April 2020
The letter was a reply to AHR Editor Alex Lichtenstein, who previously wrote a column defending the 1619 Project.
Brendan McGeever’s Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution: Distorting history in the service of identity politics
Part two
By Clara Weiss, 13 April 2020
This is the second part of a two-part review.
Brendan McGeever’s Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution: Distorting history in the service of identity politics
Part one
By Clara Weiss, 11 April 2020
This is the first part of a two-part review. The second part will be posted on Monday, April 13.
Grand jury records in notorious 1946 US lynching case to remain sealed
By Fred Mazelis, 10 April 2020
The heinous crime near the Moore’s Ford Bridge in Georgia sparked wide outrage which contributed to the emergence of the civil rights movement.
One hundred years since Germany’s Kapp Putsch
How the Social Democratic Party supported the far-right
By Peter Schwarz, 2 April 2020
The Kapp Putsch is of burning contemporary relevance at a time when Germany’s bourgeoisie is once again turning to militarism, a right-wing extremist party is represented in the federal parliament and all state parliaments, and far-right terrorist networks operate unhindered within the state apparatus and the army.
Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue: Documentary about war crimes and historical revisionism in Japan
By Isabel Roy, 20 March 2020
Miki Dezaki interviews revisionists from far-right circles in Japan, politicians and historians who have studied “comfort women,” as well as activists working for the recognition of the victimised women.
Tom Mackaman interviewed on 1619 Project by history podcast
18 February 2020
John Fea interviewed Mackaman on his podcast “The Way of Improvement Leads Home.”
An examination of the anti-immigrant campaign in early 20th century America
The Guarded Gate, by Daniel Okrent (Scribner, 2019)
By Fred Mazelis, 3 February 2020
A century after the imposition of racist immigration quotas in the US, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism are once again on the rise in the US and around the world.
A reply to the American Historical Review’s defense of the 1619 Project
By David North and Tom Mackaman, 31 January 2020
The disrespect expressed by editor Alex Lichtenstein toward leading historians reveals the extent to which racialist mythology, which has provided the “theoretical” foundation of middle-class identity politics, has been accepted, and even embraced, by a substantial section of the academic community as a legitimate basis for the teaching of American history.
My Response to Alex Lichtenstein Regarding the 1619 Project
By Victoria Bynum, 31 January 2020
Bynum, one of the many academics who have raised fundamental criticisms of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, wrote this letter to the editor of the American Historical Review in reply to his defense of the project published online last week.
Seventy-five years since the liberation of Auschwitz
By Christoph Vandreier, 27 January 2020
Auschwitz was at the heart of the machinery of industrialised mass murder that spanned the entire continent. Jews, Sinti, political opponents of the Nazi regime and others were deported to the death camp from every part of occupied Europe.
An interview with Auschwitz survivor Esther Bejarano
the editorial board, 27 January 2020
The 95-year-old Esther Bejarano was among the few who survived the living hell of Auschwitz.
Pence, Netanyahu use Holocaust event in Israel to rail against Iran
By Bill Van Auken, 24 January 2020
The slander of Iranian “anti-Semitism” and unfounded claims that Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons are propaganda to justify a steady buildup toward war.
This week in history: January 20-26
20 January 2020
25 years ago: Nuclear war scare caused by Norwegian rocket On January 25, 1995, the Russian military mistook a Black Brant XII rocket—launched by a team of Norwegian and US scientists to research the northern lights over Svalbard—as an incoming Trident missile launched as a high-altitude nuclear attack by the US Navy. It was the first time a Russian leader used the nuclear briefcase in a real alert.
“The saddest part of this is that the response of the Times is simply to defend their project”
An interview with historian Clayborne Carson on the New York Times’ 1619 Project
By Tom Mackaman, 15 January 2020
Professor Carson is professor of history at Stanford University and director of its Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. He is the author and editor of numerous books on King and the civil rights movement.
This week in history: December 23-29
23 December 2019
25 years ago: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resignsOn December 23, 1994, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned rather than see his government fall to a no-confidence resolution introduced by several opposition parties. Berlusconi’s three-party coalition of his personal political party Forza Italia, the right-wing separatist Northern League, and the neofascist National Alliance, lost its majority in the lower house when Northern League leader Umberto Bossi announced he would introduce his own no-confidence resolution.
Historian Victoria Bynum replies to the New York Times
A historian’s critique of the 1619 Project
By Victoria Bynum, 22 December 2019
Historian Victoria Bynum, author of Free State of Jones and distinguished emerita professor of history at Texas State University, wrote the following reply to the New York Times’ 1619 Project.
Vadim Rogovin’s Bolsheviks against Stalinism 1928–1933: Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition
A magnificent account of Stalin’s opponents in the USSR
By Andrea Peters, 21 December 2019
Stalin’s rise was neither foreordained nor a natural outgrowth of the October Revolution. The Great Russian chauvinist and bureaucrat secured power in ferocious conflict with the proletariat, peasantry and cadre of the revolutionary socialist movement.
“Reinventing the past to suit the purposes of the present”
An interview with political scientist Adolph Reed, Jr. on the New York Times’ 1619 Project
By Tom Mackaman, 20 December 2019
The World Socialist Web Site recently spoke with Professor Reed at his University of Pennsylvania office.
“I don’t believe this stuff about ‘intrinsic differences’ between people”
Workers respond to New York Times’ 1619 Project’s claim of an unbridgeable racial divide in US
By our reporters, 17 December 2019
In contrast to the Times’ dystopian portrayal of American society as riven by different races with unbridgeable differences, workers who spoke to the World Socialist Web Site expressed a broad striving for unity.
This week in history: December 16-22
16 December 2019
On December 20, 1994, the Mexican peso was devalued, sending shock waves throughout the structure of world capitalism. Mexico had been touted for a decade as proof that the profit system was capable of developing the oppressed semi-colonial countries and transforming them into modern industrialized societies. Its collapse led to a generalized loss of confidence in “emerging markets” from Brazil to Poland.
This week in history: December 9-15
9 December 2019
25 years ago: Yeltsin launches First Chechen WarOn December 11, 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered troops into Chechnya, a province in the Caucuses that had been part of the Russian Federation but had declared independence in 1991 amidst the breakup of the Soviet Union. By the end of the evening, Russian forces had advanced against several thousand Chechen defenders to the outskirts of the capital, Grozny, population 400,000. Thousands of civilians were killed in the initial week-long artillery and bombing campaign.
Mehring Books Holiday Sale feature
Bolsheviks Against Stalinism 1928-1933: Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition—Translator’s Foreword
6 December 2019
During its Holiday Sale, Mehring Books is offering this volume at a sharply reduced price of $15 for the black and white version or $20 for the color version.
On the centenary of the composer Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–1996)
By Clara Weiss, 6 December 2019
The music of Polish-Jewish composer Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–1996), who spent much of his life in the Soviet Union, has been recently rediscovered. It counts among the most significant bodies of work produced in the 20th century.
This week in history: December 2-8
2 December 2019
25 years ago: Over 300 killed in fire in ChinaOn December 8, 1994, a fire in a crowded theater in the northwest Chinese oil town of Karamay in Xinjiang province took the lives of 323 school children and their teachers. A further 100 people were injured. The blaze erupted as 800 teachers, children and parents were inside the theater for a celebration of a literacy campaign in the minority Uighur community.
“When the Declaration says that all men are created equal, that is no myth”
An interview with historian Gordon Wood on the New York Times’ 1619 Project
By Tom Mackaman, 28 November 2019
Gordon Wood is professor emeritus at Brown University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, as well as Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815.
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