“The official unemployment hides the number of people who have given up looking for work.  The increase in manufacturing has mostly been a jobless one.” by Billy Wharton from the Socialist Webzine   A recent New York Times article “A Tale of Two Continents: The US Chose a Better Path to Recovery” trumpets the idea that “there can be little doubt that the American government handled the... 

Simultaneously, Socialists can proudly proclaim our support for two ideas that have fueled Occupy – horizontalism and direct action. Democratic socialism is horizontalism.   Statement of the Socialist Party USA National Action Committee   Most years, May Day is an opportunity for socialists to look backward. This year, thanks in large part to the appearance of Occupy Wall Street (OWS),... 

“We don’t always choose when we are arrested, and we don’t always have control over how it is depicted in the press, but we do have some power over what kinds of battles we choose to wage and how we choose to wage them.” by Yotam Marom  from Waging Non violence  “The Tombs” is the less-than-endearing nickname for New York City’s Central Booking, the jail you get sent to if you are... 

May 1, 2012Socialists of America, Unite! on May 1, 2012 Occupy spread like wildfire, setting America ablaze. From large cities like New York City and Los Angeles to small towns like Martinsburg, Virginia and Mobile, Alabama, occupiers are consistently organizing, planning, discussing, and taking direct action for the 99%. Not since the 1960s and 1930s have so many people taken militant action... 

“The result was and remains obvious: the middle of the income distribution – the majority that is not rich and not (or not yet) really poor – had to pick up the burden.”  by Richard Wolff from rdwolff.com Government budget deficits and the national debt are occasions more for demagogues to preach than for serious analysis. The usual suspects, conservatives and liberals, are gearing... 

“Had Trayvon Martin escaped from the violence doled out by an individual racist with a gun, he would still have had to navigate through this racial minefield of 21st century America.” by SPUSA National Action Committee April 4, 2012 from the Socialist Webzine George Zimmerman used a 9 millimeter gun to murder a 17 year old young man named Trayvon Martin. Martin was unarmed, wielding only a bag... 

“We are you asking you to consider the students of Santa Monica College as if they were loved ones. The next time something like this happens, it could be a loved one who is hurt.”   The Socialist Party of California stands in solidarity with the students of Santa Monica College by The Socialist Party of California from The Socialist Webzine The Socialist Party of California strongly condemns... 

April 11, 20125:00 pmto6:00 pm    In the eighth session of our Brooklyn College Socialist Shorts, we will be having a discussion with radical sociologist John Holloway.  Bring a friend, pull up a chair, and join the discussion! Read Holloway’s interview on the Socialist Webzine here. Wednesday, Apr. 11th 2012, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm Starbucks off of Brooklyn College 33 Hillel Pl, Brooklyn,... 

April 4, 20125:00 pmto6:00 pm    In the seventh session of our Brooklyn College Socialist Shorts, we will be having a discussion with the SP-USA chair, Billy Wharton.  Bring a friend, pull up a chair, and join the discussion! Read Billy Wharton’s article on the NYPD shock doctrine here. Wednesday, Apr. 4th 2012, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm Starbucks off of Brooklyn College 33 Hillel Pl, Brooklyn,... 

“Our democratic revolution is built upon the hopes of millions of people to live based on peace, solidarity and freedom.” Statement by the Socialist Party USA, National Action Committee March 13, 2012 from the Socialist Webzine  The bloody US occupation of Afghanistan reached a new low as a 38 year old US Army Staff Sergeant embarked on a killing spree that resulted in 16 civilian deaths. Most... 

“And who is teaching these rogue cops how to bruise and break poets ribs, how to block and arrest journalists in their running shoes, how to pepper spray sitting students,  and how to destroy thousands of books from the Occupy Wall Street free library?” Even a Poet Laureate Doesn’t Deserve to Get Beaten by the Police by Eliot Katz As someone who doesn’t care much about government... 

“It’s official: wealth inequality accelerated over the past quarter century. The American dream was never a more hollow promise.” by Richard Wolff from The Guardian    The just-released Congressional Budget Office report, Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007, supports a basic claim of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement sweeping the country: that... 

from Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist At first blush the collections edited by Paul and Mari Jo Buhle for Verso Press and by Michael Yates for Monthly Review appear to cover the same territory. Now having read both books over the past month or so, I can report that the two have different emphases and should not be seen as competing with each other. Moreover, I strongly recommend that anybody... 

Reposted from Daniel R. Amerman’s blog *Mr. Amerman is not affiliated with the Socialist Party USA and this is an unsponsored repost from his blog* Overview When we look at broad measures of jobs and population, then the beginning of 2012 was one of the worst months in US history, with a total of 2.3 million people losing jobs or leaving the workforce in a single month.  Yet, the official unemployment...