The US Blockade and its Effects on Cuban Medicine

Carlos L. Garrido Rural health care in Cuba (Photo by Carol Foil, 2009). The Cuban socialist healthcare system is internationally recognized as one of the best in the world.1 It is innovative, preventative, people-oriented, comprehensive, community-centered, internationalist, and, of course, de-commodified—treating healthcare as a human right, not a profitable commodity. However, in spite of its extraordinary successes,…

An Army of Women is Building Venezuela’s Housing Revolution

Andreína Chávez Alava The women from Caracas’ Antímano Parish have trained themselves to build homes for their families as part of Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission, created by Hugo Chávez in 2011. (Andreína Chávez Alava / Venezuelanalysis) In Caracas, an army of self-trained women are working to build their own homes while they transform the reality around them….

The Sky is Torn Down: How the “Liberation” of the Soviet Union Ended the Liberation of Soviet Women

Evan Reif Night Witches:The female pilots who struck fear into Nazi troops Not long ago, the women of Eastern Europe were free to live their lives to their full potential. They broke boundaries in science, started new trends in art, and even explored the stars as cosmonauts. In the so-called repressive dictatorship of the USSR,…

Politics of the Commons: Finding the Way Out of the Labyrinth

Reinaldo Iturriza LópezIt is possible that Chávez invented 21st century democracy, to draw a phrase from William Ospina (1). If that statement seems incorrect in these times, that is because, once again, the right path to tread is the one that goes against the current. Forged in the fight against military dictatorships, the democratic political…

Lidia Patty Mullisaca: Taking Down a Fascist

Cindy Forster Over two years ago, Lidia Patty Mullisaca of the indigenous Kallawaya nation, in rural La Paz, formally accused the leaders of Bolivia’s 2019 coup for terrorism. This lawsuit led to the recent arrest of far-right leader Fernando Camacho. No one coached her. Her decisions hold a mirror to the thinking of Bolivia’s masses….

Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Fight of the Organized Poor Against a Hostile Justice System

Tanupriya Singh Abahlali baseMjondolo leaders Maphiwe Gasela, Siniko Miya and Landu Tshazi, welcomed by the movement after being released on bail. (Photo: Abahlali baseMjondolo) Months after being imprisoned on a murder charge, three leaders of the eKhenana Commune of Abahlali baseMjondolo have been finally granted bail. Their arrests are part of a lengthy history of…

Nicaraguan Ambassador: Only Socialist and Revolutionary Countries are Putting People Over Profit

Below we are pleased to publish the text of the powerful speech given by Guisell Morales Echaverry, Ambassador of the Republic of Nicaragua to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Iceland, to the event we recently co-organised at the Marx Memorial Library in London, Socialist solutions to the climate crisis. Guisell notes it’s the socialist and progressive…

‘Resistance is Continual in Nicaragua’

Roger McKenzie and Dan Kovalik A mural commemorating the third anniversary of the Nicaraguan revolution Photo: Susan Ruggles Roger McKenzie talks to US writer Dan Kovalik about why the people of Nicaragua need our support in their battle to determine their own future Dan Kovalik first became aware of a place called Nicaragua in the…

Women in Nicaragua: Power and Protagonism

Erica Caines “Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires: All my life I’ve been studying revolution. I’ve Been looking for it, pushing at the possibilities and waiting for that moment when there’s no more room for rhetoric, for research or for reason: when there’s only…

The Existence of the Poor Must Be a Fight Against Social Injustice and Political Oppression

Robert Lodimus The world proletariat suffers from the injustice of the oligarchic clans that have been robbing the banks of common wealth for thousands of years ©Benjamin Petit/AFD “If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” – Desmond Tutu Writing has become for us this restless…

Building Communal Life in Venezuela

Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina look at the Venezuelan communes as a key force in an extended process of national liberation and social emancipation. Don’t you know They’re talking about a revolution? It sounds like a whisper. –Tracy Chapman In the world at large, the fact that a…

Decolonization is a Material Struggle

Alieu Bah Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children. . .” —Amilcar Cabral Decolonisation is not a theoretically…

What is Socialist Revolution?

Nino Brown Thomas Sankara meets with Fidel Castro in the early 1980s Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the U.S. and other imperialist countries have repeatedly declared that history is over, meaning that humanity cannot transcend the capitalist system, which is elevated as the pinnacle of human development. As Margaret Thatcher claimed “there is…

Steps to a Socialist Pan-African Movement

Nicholas Mwangi A recently published book by Vita books publishers Essays on Pan-Africanismedited by Shiraz Durrani & Noosim Naimasiah contains essays on Pan-Africanism written by Pan-Africanist intellectuals at various times. In its preface, Prof. Issa Shivji says writings on Pan-Africanism never become dated for the desire of Africans globally for freedom continues burning, sometimes dimming into…

The Coming Wave of Revolutions Have No Place for America’s Imperialism-Compatible Left

Rainer Shea There’s an incurable detachment between the reality of the global class struggle, and the illusory view of the world that America’s “left” is always going to cling to. Therefore for revolution to come to the imperial center, the class struggle here will need to be guided by something other than its current default…

China is Not an Enemy of Africa

(Playlist of the complete interview) If the West really thinks China helping Africa to gain influence is a bad thing, the best thing it can do is help Africa even more. President of the Socialist Party of Zambia, Fred M’membe, and the convener of the Socialist Movement of Ghana, Kyeretwie Opoku share with us an…

The Geopolitics of Famine

Scott Ritter Most geopolitical analysts can agree that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has detrimentally impacted the global economy. This is especially true when it comes to food security, with supplies disrupted, prices skyrocketing, and shortages created that run the risk of causing famine. The US and European Union have accused Russia of “weaponizing food”…

Revolution is the Heart of Socialism

Sarah Garnham The history of class societies is awash with revolutionary uprisings, but no class system has seen more revolutionary ferment than capitalism. Throughout its 250-year history, not a decade has gone by without revolutionary struggle breaking out somewhere, and periodically there are waves of revolution that sweep across several countries. The most recent was…