The Left, Labor and Occupy (tags)
Barely half a year after it burst on the scene, the Occupy Wall Street movement is splintering left and right. This was inevitable in a movement that was united only in what it opposed and could never put forward a positive program, whether of reformist "demands" on the capitalist state or of revolutionary action against it. Liberals, who latched onto Occupy hoping it could pressure the Democratic Party in a more populist direction, want to expel "black bloc" anarchists. Reformist social democrats rail against "ultraleftists" in Occupy and cozy up to the labor tops. On the other side, many (but not all) anarchists oppose unions. Some are simply arrogant petty-bourgeois labor haters. Others are grappling with real problems, but with skewed analysis and dead wrong conclusions. Discussion of recent workers' struggles, from Wisconsin to West Coast longshore, underlines that the key question is leadership, but not just replacing one set of bureaucrats with another. Unions have always faced vicious anti-labor laws, but we have the power to defeat them. It is necessary to drive out the pro-capitalist bureaucracy, the labor lieutenants of capital, in order to turn the unions into instruments of revolutionary class struggle.
Francis Boyle's "Palestine Palestinians and International Law" (tags)
Boyle's powerful case for Palestinian self-determination.
FILIPINA SENATOR ATTACKS ARROYO STATE TERRORISM IN THE PHILIPPINES (tags)
Of distinguished progressive lineage, Senator Jamby Madrigal of the Philippines takes a principle stand critical of the Arroyo regime's bloody and brutal repression of Filipinos backed by the Bush neocons. This article provides a context for the Philippine crisis and Senator Madrigal's views on U.S. imperialism in the neocolony and its complicity with State-terrorist repression.
RCP interviews SpongeBob SquarePants (tags)
SpongeBob SquarePants is known all over the world. He has his own cartoon show on Nickelodeon and people of all ages seem to have at least one toy or product with his image on it. Having just been on the big screen, he had the spotlight on him long before James Dobson and his group, Focus on the Family, launched their attack on him accusing the sponge of being "pro-homosexual" and tolerant of people of different sexual orientations.
SpongeBob recently agreed to meet with the RW at his home—a pineapple under the sea—to talk about all the controversy surrounding him and what is at the heart of it. What follows is an unedited transcript of our conversation.