The state and counterrevolution: Democracy in the era of Trump

by JOE SIMS

People’s World | July 06, 2017

Storm clouds gather over the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. | Office of the Architect of the Capitol

Our country is in the midst of a profound governmental crisis. This crisis is revealing itself deep within the bourgeois state, that hallowed body of legislators, lawyers, and corporate lobbyists vaunted by some as the apogee of modern civilization. There are overlapping crises in the White House, in the executive as a whole, and between the presidency and the federal judiciary. Fault lines also lie in the relationship between the presidency and Congress with regard to traditional checks and balances and consent for judicial nominees. Congress itself is not immune, as witnessed by the subversion of the traditional filibuster rule. Here, GOP partisanship is pursued to the exclusion of all else. In the period before the election, the vacillation and caving of neoliberal Democrats was also to blame.

The gender wage gap isn’t going away, millennials will have to continue the fight for equality

by CHAUNCEY K. ROBINSON

Alessandra Mondolfi, left, clenches her fist during a march in observance of a nationwide general strike for A Day Without a Woman, Wednesday, March 8, 2017, in Miami. | Lynne Sladky / AP

Despite research that can be interpreted that Millennial women, (those currently between the ages of 18-35), are closing the wage gap for a variety of reasons, (millennial men are earning less, some millennial women are earning more), the fight for pay equality is still as important as ever. With data as current as 2016, research has shown that women earn between an average of 72 to 80 cents for every dollar their male counterparts make. A 20-22 cent difference may not appear to be much, but according to a recent study by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) this gap can have a woman looking at losing nearly $10,500 of yearly earnings that she could have made if she were a man. This gap widens even further when factors such as race are taken into consideration, with Black women earning 63 cents for every dollar their white male counterpart makes, and Hispanic women earning 54 cents in comparison.

Fidel Castro: A lesson for African leaders

by Akyaaba Addai-Sebo

Pambazuka News | July 06, 2017

Getty

Namibia is the only African country that conferred upon Castro its highest national honour. This is a big shame for Africa. Castro personally and the people of Cuba made great sacrifices for African liberation. The African Union should honour Castro and deliberately seek to deepen ties with the Cuban people.

 

It is not too late for African leaders to show resolve by collectively giving a deserving monumental honour to Commandant Fidel Castro and the people of Cuba at the headquarters of the African Union (AU). This posthumous honour should trigger the respective member countries of the AU touched by the solidarity and humanitarianism of the Cuban people, under the leadership of Castro, to also give due honour in their own expressive ways.

Trump’s Sayings In Warsaw And People’s Protests In Hamburg

 by Farooque Chowdhury

Countercurrents.org | July 07, 2017

There’s warning and concern, there’s assurance and optimism, and, there’s accusation and threat. All these were delivered and expressed by Mr. Donald Trump, the US president.

The US president was in Warsaw, a historic city, and was delivering a speech in front of people gathered at Krasinski Square, and was speaking at a news conference. All these happened on July 6, 2017, a Thursday, near-end of a week, and on the eve of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, also a historic city, now being secured by mobilizing at least 20,000 police in the face of forceful protests by thousands of people denouncing capitalism and inequality, and expressing concern over climate crisis.

Naxalbari: Achievements and Challenges

by P Varalakshmi

Frontier | Vol 49, No.52, Jul 2-8, 2017

This is the 50th anniversary of the spring thunder over India. ‘Naxalbari’ carved the path of Indian revolution by restoring the essence of Marxism on this soil and it was the great turning point in Indian political scenario. The spark has spread to various regions throughout the country withstanding ruthless violence and repression unleashed by the state. The movement rose suffered again in some areas where it suffered setback. Even though it was suppressed badly in some places it could constantly spread to new regions and could also develop as the alternate political force of the masses.

Fifty years is not a big period in the larger history of human society but it is indeed a considerable journey. In India the period has witnessed considerable developments in socio-economic and political aspects. Due to the complexity and heterogeneity of Indian society, one can say every region is a society of its own variety. The systemic changes in these years have been making it even more complex and diverse. At the same time India continues to remain in the clutches of feudalism and imperialism.

‘Comrades and Companions’

by Ramchandra Guha

Frontier | Vol. 49, No.52, Jul 2 – 8, 2017

Identification with the Naxalites led me to my third field site in Calcutta, the circle around the radical weekly, Frontier. The journal was run from one long room in the heart of the city, some six miles north of Jadunath Bhawan. The first time I visited the Frontier office, I was irresistibly reminded of a description in Leon Trotsky’s autobiography of the journal Iskra, run in exile by a handful of Russian revolutionaries. Frontier was housed in the back of a building set apart from a small lane, itself hidden by a huge cinema house from the bustling main street. I felt palpably a part of an underground operation. This feeling was made more intense when, on entering the office, I was introduced to a lean, intense man with sunken eyes and a goatee. He could very well have been the young Lenin in Zurich.

The man in the goatee now runs Frontier with a devotion and meagre financial reward almost unequalled in the world of Indian journalism. At that time, however, he was assistant to the editor, Samar Sen, one of the more remarkable figures in the history of Bengal Marxism.