Liberation Audio

Mayor London Breed and the city of San Francisco have sued the San Francisco Unified School District on the basis of lacking a "concrete" plan for returning to in-person learning, claiming negligence of students' education. In fact, it is the city that hasn’t provided the necessary resources for a safe school reopening. More outrageously, the city has failed to protect our most impacted students and families, many of them Black and Latino. It's clear the blame is not on teachers, unions, students, or families -- the blame is on the government and capitalist system that cannot guarantee schools meeting the needs of working class families. Join a panel of Bay Area educators to hear about the struggle to make our schools and communities truly safe during this pandemic.

This is an excerpt from Gloria La Riva's discussion of her recent experiences being caught in the winter storms that have been devastating much of Texas, leaving many without shelter, water or electricity. She has started a GoFundMe to raise money to help some of the people she met while in a temporary shelter get back on their feet. Please read and give if you can: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-my-texas-shelter-friends-rebuild-their-lives?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

This week, Mississippi is experiencing unprecedented freezing conditions resulting from ice storms that blasted through the U.S. South. In addition to being unaccustomed to the freezing rain, ice, and snow, thousands of Mississippians suffering rolling blackouts and power outages, unheated homes and water shutoffs, have been left to fend for themselves. Starting Feb 15, at least 250,000 Mississippians have lost power at some point during the week; counties in the southwest to east central Mississippi are primarily impacted. About 110,000 people were still without power on Feb. 19 in the morning. Almost all of the residents of the state’s capital city, Jackson, are without water. City officials have reported lacking the necessary chemicals to treat the water, and that the distribution system is overwhelmed. Many of those impacted are trapped in their homes, unable to travel to replenish supplies, as most Mississippians do not have experience driving on ice-covered roads. As in other impacted states, in Mississippi too there are reports of buildings flooding from frozen water pipes bursting. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/snowstorm-capitalism-disaster-for-more-than-100k-in-mississippi/

Exploring the civil rights and black power movements in the 1950s, the podcast discusses key events, leaders like Malcolm X, and the influence of socialist ideas on black militants. It also examines the contributions of R.A.M. and SNCC, the role of women in the movements, and the rise of the Black Panther Party and their legacy.

Explore the impact and relevance of the Communist Manifesto in today's society, its origins and participation in uprisings. Learn about the historic significance of the Manifesto as a revolutionary program and its ongoing inspiration for revolutionaries fighting against capitalism.

The closing days of January shook Wall Street with a struggle between powerful stock market players and amateur investors that left investment firms reeling with billions in losses. On one side were hedge funds that had bet big on stock prices dropping for the video game store chain GameStop and other companies. On the other, a large number of small investors coordinating on online platforms such as Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum to buy shares and encouraging others to do the same. These hedge funds were blindsided as prices quickly shot up in a matter of days fueled by amateur investors flooding the market with small purchases of GameStop shares. As of Jan. 29, investors who had bet against GameStop had racked up $19 billion in losses with the company’s stock price up some 1,800 percent since the beginning of the year. What happened, and what can working-class people learn from it? Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/what-does-the-gamestop-stock-frenzy-tell-us-about-capitalism/

A winter storm of historic proportions is causing critical infrastructure failures across the state of Texas, with another winter storm approaching tonight. The full weight of the devastation isn’t yet known, but initial reports from across the state are showing disturbing patterns. Four million or more Texans are without power. Outages that were initially called “rolling outages” are now lasting several days. The private non-profit corporation that oversees the electric grid is now admitting that they are “unable to predict” when conditions will stabilize. Millions of people are stranded in unheated homes, with no power and no way to move safely to shelter, in temperatures that are currently colder than parts of Alaska and Siberia. City, state, and private entities alike are deflecting blame, claiming that there was nothing they could have done. “You can’t predict the weather” and “We all need to conserve energy” are common refrains. But the weather was absolutely predictable, and experts and activists alike have been warning that Texas is in danger of exactly this kind of complete infrastructure collapse. However, major cities such as Austin, Houston, and Dallas have all found ways to keep empty office buildings and corporate HQs in their gentrified downtown areas lit. This week, Texans are facing a man-made, capitalism-crafted catastrophe that has left the whole state feeling quite literally powerless. Liberation News gathered reporting and analysis of this crisis from writers from across the state. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/texas-infrastructure-nears-complete-collapse-as-capitalist-neglect-meets-climate-change-driven-winter-storms/

President Biden signed a package of 17 executive orders immediately following his inauguration on Wednesday. The orders are a mixed bag — some have very little substance and are primarily symbolic, but others deal with measures that have significant effects on people’s lives. As socialists and other fighters for the working class develop our assessment of the new administration as it takes shape, it is important to understand why Biden made this his first major political act after assuming office. Is this a sign that the Biden administration will aggressively pursue progressive policies? Many of the orders deal with the Coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic fallout. They suggest for the first time that there will be a coherent, federally-directed strategy to tackle the virus. Whether or not this strategy is an effective one that takes into consideration the needs of poor and working people is still an open question. The federal eviction moratorium is now extended through the end of March. The pause on student loan payments has been extended through September, although this falls short of the demand for Biden to use his executive authority to cancel student debt.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation joins with progressive organizations and media around the world in demanding that the Indian government cease its repression of leading media outlet Newsclick. Newsclick is read and watched by millions every day and is facing persecution for the key role it plays providing independent coverage of people’s movements, especially the massive farmers’ struggle that poses an existential threat to the far right government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Police raided Newsclick’s headquarters in New Delhi yesterday, and also targeted the personal homes of their staff. The obvious intent of the government was for the raids to have a chilling effect not only on Newsclick but on all independent media organizations that dare to tell the truth about the struggle of poor and working people.

Thirty years ago, the socialist government of Romania was overthrown in a military coup d’etat. Industrialization had transformed the lives of millions of Romanians during the country’s socialist period. But the later years were marked by strict rationing and frequent shortages as the government sought to pay off its foreign debt. Romanian people hoped that their lives would improve after 1989. But life today is much worse than even the most economically-deprived times of the 1980s. A 2010 poll revealed that 63 percent of Romanians say that life was better under socialism. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/romania-30-years/