No! To Trump and the Society He Represents
Trump has bragged about sexually assaulting women, claiming that he can do anything he wants. Unfortunately the attitudes that guide his self-centered approach to the world are prevalent in this society. We are right to fear that this new administration threatens a massive elimination of the hard fought gains made by women and their allies […]
It’s Time to Fight Their Whole System!
We Should Expect the Worst A Trump Presidency is upon us. And we should expect nothing less than the worst from this administration. Trump ran a campaign of open racism and nationalism and sexism, promising attacks on immigrants, Muslims, women, gays and anyone else who stands up to him. With his cabinet selections we see […]
2017: The world according to Trump?
On January 20th, the racist and misogynist billionaire is sworn in as the head of the world’s first greatest power. After his surprise election, the revolting real estate mogul seems to have gained the respect from other heads of States in the whole world, from finance tycoons, and… from the main presidential candidates in France. […]
May 2017 be a year full of victorious social fights
Happy new year: the world top five billionaires of the year earned €42 billion altogether. A Frenchman was among them, Bernard Arnault. Finally a success for Hollande’s presidency! At the bottom of the ladder, there has been an additional million people living in poverty in France in the last ten years. As for unemployment, even […]
Aleppo, sacrificed on the altar of the powerful
In brutal cold and hunger, over 40,000 trapped civilians in East Aleppo were still waiting to be evacuated last weekend. Evacuation operations had been stopped the day before by Bachar el Assad. Overwhelmed by the firepower of their enemies, broken by five years of continuous war, all of Aleppo’s neighborhoods have fallen, one by one. […]
Pollution hell
Paris, Lyon, Grenoble and most major cities have experienced the largest pollution episode in over 10 years For several days, the concentration of fine particles in the air was over 80 microgram per cube meter in Paris and Lyon. For the people living in these urban areas, this is equivalent to smoking two packs a […]
Oakland Fire – The Killer Greed of Landlords
A warehouse full of people went up in flames on Friday night in Oakland. There are 36 people confirmed dead, but others are still unaccounted for. The final count of victims of this terrible tragedy will surely rise. The worst part of this tragedy was that it was absolutely unnecessary. Due to negligence and greed, […]
Electoral show and class struggle
Satisfactory! That is how Hollande dared qualify his presidency, before renouncing another bid, making way for Valls to run, with Valls replaced as prime minister by Cazeneuve. Hollande, Valls: same track record While Holland renounces, Valls accepts the results of five years of attacks against the working class on behalf of the richest. Extension of […]
We Have Been Asleep For Too Long
Donald Trump is going to the White House and the administration he is forming is horrifying. Trump’s appointments began with Republican senator Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff, and Stephen Bannon, head of Breitbart News, as White House Strategist. Priebus is a far-right Republican who opposes unions, the rights of gay people, and women’s right […]
How to Avoid Being “Trumpled” and Deceived?
Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election provoked emotion and concern among the people who were revolted by his racist, misogynist and reactionary remarks. Here, in France, all the politicians who pull on the same strings as the smooth-talking American billionaire feel encouraged to continue, from Sarkozy to Le Pen. Workers turn away from […]
Their Elections Cannot Determine Our Future
Many people are in shock that a racist, anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-Muslim bigot who thinks global warming is a hoax and that torture is OK, will soon be the President of the U.S. Trump pretended to be an outsider – a man of the people. He is a billionaire tycoon, who tried to block workers at […]
A big electoral show
At the time of this writing, the result of the American presidential election is still unknown. But the winner is already known: the upper crust of the bourgeoisie of the world’s top capitalist power. Two different styles… On one side, the very bland Hillary Clinton, a multimillionaire who has been in power for decades, while […]
Their Elections And The Choices We Face
The nasty, nightmarish, reality show of the presidential elections finally ends on November 8th. This election presented the stark reality of the choices this system has to offer us. Around 60 percent of potential Democratic and Republican voters had unfavorable reactions to both candidates – small wonder! Two years of endless media coverage and billions […]
It is the capitalist jungle that should be broken up…
The government wanted to sell a beautiful story, that of a giant slum of 10,000 people, which it gently evacuated for humanitarian reasons. The government’s PR was almost perfect! But in fact, on October 24, Hollande and Valls launched the destruction of Calais’ slum, as suddenly as they had tracked the migrants and moved them […]
Carol Dansereau: A Socialist Perspective on the Environment
Revolutionary University October 2016 Why are we losing our fight for the Earth? And what will it take to win? To answer these urgent questions, we must understand what’s blocking our way forward: an economic system based on exploitation of the earth and of its people. We must acknowledge that many of the strategies followed […]
Joel Beinin: Workers and the Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt
Revolutionary University October 2016 Joel Beinin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University and author of the recent book “Workers and Thieves” will discuss the struggles of the working classes and unemployed in Egypt and Tunisia and their roles in the 2011 popular uprisings known as the Arab Spring.
What are the police doing?
Dressed in black, with hoods or masks and some of them armed, the demonstrators marched down the Champs Elysees on October 21st without authorization from the Prefecture. They were lucky. Last spring, the riot cops gassed and clubbed others demonstrators with less incentive to do so… After playing auxiliary riot police against protesters hostile to […]
Robin Kelley: Revisiting Black Marxism in the Wake of Black Lives Matter
Revolutionary University October 2016 Robin D. G. Kelley, is Distinguished Professor of History and Black Studies & Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA, and current Chair of the Department of African American Studies and a prolific author and editor My talk reflects on the life and work of Cedric J. Robinson, […]
An Epidemic of Violence Against Women
Over the past weeks, the public has heard audio of Trump saying some of his most disgusting comments about women. He brags about kissing women without permission, and how he likes to walk up to them and “grab them by the p—y”, how he can “do anything” to them because he is famous. In Trump’s […]
Against the puppet show, let’s make our voices heard!
The debate between the seven candidates in the conservative primary has, unsurprisingly, shown that they agree to make us work harder, and to cut taxes for the rich and the corporations. As for Hollande, after ridiculing himself with his book of confidences to reporters, he now dares to go back to Florange and tell new […]
To the Point of Nausea
France, Europe, “welcoming lands”? What a sinister joke! Hollande may cry over the fate of the people of Aleppo, but those fleeing wars from Syria and elsewhere are treated as lepers by the government, while the racist and xenophobic demagogy is becoming commonplace here in France. A criminal policy The countries bordering war zones are […]
Working People Need Our Own Party
With elections one month away, it couldn’t be more obvious that what is being promised has nothing to do with solving any of the real problems working people face today. Donald Trump pretends he is anti-establishment and an outsider to Washington politics. Really? A billionaire businessman who brags about profiting from the crisis of 2008 […]
Solidarity with the refugees: Don’t let them divide us
While visiting Calais, Francois Hollande promised to break up the “jungle”, the camp where refugees wait in the hope to be able to go to the UK. The president’s promises were just what Calais’ conservative mayor had wished for: the same policy as Nicolas Sarkozy had led when he had the Sangatte camp broken up, […]
Layoffs and job cuts at Alstom, SFR, HSBC, Philips…
Bosses are on the offensive The announcement on September 7 by Alstom management of the closure of the Belfort site not only shocked an entire city but also weighs heavily on all workers in the group – they are 31,000 in the world, including 9,000 in France. Order book filled, grants, profits: Alstom has it […]
Standing Rock – Standing For What’s Right
For more than four months, members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota have mobilized to block the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. In the past month members of more than 200 tribes and bands from across North America have joined them. More than 3000 Native Americans and their supporters have joined […]
Primaries on the right and on the left: The masquerade of the demagogues
On the right and on the left, we are treated to a parade of candidates aspiring for a shot at the presidency. Sarkozy and Hollande have disgusted so many people with their anti-working class policies, all their sidekicks think they have a chance. But what they have to offer is not much different: austerity and […]
Stand with the Calais Migrants!
Last Friday, the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, went to Calais to announce the coming dismantling of the “jungle”. And on Monday, a snail operation is organized by shopkeepers and truck drivers to demand a rapid break up of the camp. There are probably close to 10,000 migrants trying to survive in the camp in unhygienic […]
Sitting or Standing for What’s Right
San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, sat during the playing of the “The Star Spangled Banner” before a pre-season game. When asked why he didn’t stand, Kaepernick’s answer was straightforward: He said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of […]
The Elections – The System Exposed
Every four years this system exposes itself through the presidential elections. The two major parties of the rich present their candidates with the expectation that people will fall behind one or the other. After a billion dollars was spent in primary campaigns over the past year and a half, it’s Trump vs. Clinton. Trump is […]
The Future is Socialism
The functioning of capitalism, its ceaseless quest for ever-greater profit, the engine of the entire global economy, is at the center of every major problem human society faces today: from wars and violence and ecological decay to economic crises and poverty and prejudice. To confront these problems, a complete social transformation of society is necessary, […]
Capitalism IS The Problem
We are living in a world that is overwhelmed with crises. We live in a world threatened by mass extinctions brought on by ecological destruction. We live in a world permanently at war, fueled by the need of corporations and banks to amass ever-greater profits. We live in a world where corporations and banks bring […]
The Change We Need Is Not In Their Ballot Box
The Economic and Social Crisis in Front Of Us The 2016 Presidential election is taking place amid widespread economic, political, and social crises. The average income for the bottom 90% is $31,000, and the average income for the top one percent is $27 million. Nearly all of the job growth in the last decade came […]
The government increases in-flight hours in the service of the employers
There was no summer break for government’s attacks against workers. As if forcing through the Labor Law in the Assembly on 21 July wasn’t enough, it struck again on August 8th, authorizing the dismissal of a CGT union delegate from Air France, implicated in the “torn shirt” episode. This was done against the advice of […]
The Olympics: Another Game Run By and For the Rich
The Olympics opened in Brazil on August 5. The Olympics is portrayed as an opportunity for international cooperation and a chance for the world’s athletes to display their skills and passion. The Olympics are an opportunity for athletes from all over the world to experience competition at the highest level. For many athletes, to compete […]
The Violence of This System Must Be Stopped
This week, two Black men had their lives taken from them. Police murdered Philando Castile and Alton Sterling in cold blood. These two killings are just the latest in an epidemic of police violence that has been sweeping this country. This violence is not new. The only reason these police murders are out in the […]
To Be or Not to Be in the European Union: That is Not the Question
Brexit has prevailed with 51.9% of the votes in the referendum that took place on June 23. For months, a nauseating campaign was dominated by reactionaries, nostalgic of the British Empire, and xenophobes of all kinds wanting to make migrants responsible for all ills. Surfing on these same ideas, Prime Minister David Cameron had made […]
OPD: Exposing a Corrupt Society
The sex scandal involving the Oakland Police Department has exposed the level of corruption throughout all of law enforcement. According to the East Bay Express, at least 28 police officers on multiple occasions had sex with a teenager who was working as a sex worker. The list of officers spans multiple agencies, including at least […]
Why Socialism – by Albert Einstein
An essay written by Albert Einstein in May, 1949
Fracking – Another Sign of an Insane System
download a .pdf of this pamphlet updated Aug. 2018 Hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” is a highly polluting process used to extract oil or natural gas trapped in rock formations deep underground. Fracking has destroyed water supplies, sickened people and animals, and disrupted life in towns across the U.S. and other countries. Yet energy […]
Hollande and Valls Want to Silence the Protests – They Won’t be Able to!
Unable to silence dissent against the Work law, Hollande and Valls threatened to ban demonstrations due to the “violence acts” that happened. As if by chance… Didn’t the Euro football championship lead to much more violent excesses like the clashes in Marseille between Russian and English hooligans? Did Hollande, Valls or Cazeneuve threaten to ban […]
What Now? Don’t Give Up!
The massive success of the June 14 demonstrations is clear. The mobilization against the Work law has continued for more than three months and shows no sign of letting go. Different sectors went on strike: refiners, garbage collectors, railway workers… At the same time, in different regions, work stoppages or strikes have taken place in […]
The Orlando Tragedy – Product of a Violent Society
Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in the Pulse dance club, a club for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered and queer (LGBTQ) people in Orlando, Florida. What do we know about Mateen, the 29-year-old man who carried out the attack? He worked as a security guard and as a guard in […]
All Together, We Will Make Them Back Down!
Gattaz, Valls and Hollande have tried all kinds of disinformation: they said the strikers take the population “hostage”, they used blackmail about “the image of France” with the arrival of the Euro Cup, or they called to end the strikes in solidarity with the victims of the floods… Nothing helped. The majority of the population […]
France: “They Have Billions — We Are Millions”
On June 14, hundreds of thousands of French workers went on strike and held demonstrations. This action followed three and half months of struggles and over a dozen days of strikes and demonstrations, by workers and their student allies against a new law that the French government is trying to impose on them. And this […]
Work Law, Competitiveness Agreements, Reorganizations: Reversing the Balance of Power Between Workers and Employers – Yes We Can!
Since last week, the mobilization against the Work law is not measured just in number of demonstrators but also in the number of sectors and companies on strike. This week, the RATP (Paris public transportation) should join the railway workers, refinery workers and electricians… Despite an intense campaign of disinformation, two-thirds of the population believe […]
Their Elections – No Real Choices For Us
Month after month we have been bombarded with the run-up to the presidential elections. When it all began, it was supposed to be business as usual. It was a done deal, run by Democratic and Republican Party insiders and pre-approved by the 1%. It was supposed to be a Bush vs. a Clinton. But something […]
Mobilization against the Labor law: A New Impulse
For two and a half months, anger has been expressed against this Work law that aims to legalize all kinds of blackmail by employers. Seven days of strikes and inter-branch events have already mobilized many workers and young people. While the media repeated that the mobilization was declining, the events of last Thursday, May 19, […]
After the 49.3, the Future of the Work Law Still Depends On Us!
In the end, Manuel Valls drew the 49.3 to impose his made-for-the-bosses law. During a pitiful parliamentary show, the conservatives were embarrassed to be in agreement with the Socialist Party while pretending to fight a legislation that they actually dreamed of passing. The SP “rebels” were not rebellious for long, as they did not make […]
What Would a Real Education Look Like? Not What Our Kids Are Getting!
Another school year is ending and soon the kids will be coming home from schools. Those schools are overcrowded and underfunded, with teachers under attack, and the poorest students get the worst of it. It’s no wonder that the end of school feels like a jailbreak to these kids. They’re free for a short time, […]
Valls Draws His 49-3…But We Have the Bigger Weapon
Having barely started, the debate on the Work law and its 5,000 amendments was stopped. Just before 4:00 pm today, the Prime Minister announced that he would use the 49-3 article of the constitution, allowing him to enact the law without any debate or vote. Following the announcement, tear gas was used against protesters outside […]