Liberation Audio

Class 3 of a 3-part series. There are times when solidarity appears more important than ever. When things are tough, we need comrades who will have our backs. This three-part course examines political solidarity by focusing on comradeship as the relation between those on the same side of a political struggle. Taught by political theorist and organizer Jodi Dean, this course draws on ideas developed in her recent book, Comrade: An essay on political belonging, and discusses what it means to be a comrade, the difference between comrades and allies, the importance of comrades for political struggle, and how to maintain comradeship. This third class discusses what happens when comradeship ends. What happens when people are no longer comrades? The reading for the class can be found here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/11/comrades-political-organizing-discipline-jodi-dean

Trump declared last night from the White House that he would “end the riots” with a national military mobilization to “dominate the streets” and that “if a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary,” he would “deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.” Trump has declared war on this new people’s movement. It is couched in the language of stopping “far-left extremists” and “rioters” — who Attorney General Barr promises will be charged as “domestic terrorists.” But this is classic scapegoating; in fact, it is a declaration of war meant to suppress and quell the whole movement. Read more: https://www.liberationnews.org/rebellion-and-repression-capitalisms-long-hot-summer-begins/

The enhanced U.S. military presence in Caribbean waters did not deter Iran as the “Fortune,” the first of its five giant tankers full of gasoline and refinery supplies reached Venezuela’s waters late Saturday, May 23. The ships’ arrival is a major victory for both Iran and Venezuela. Iran’s generous act of solidarity extends a vital lifeline to the Bolivarian Revolution even as the Trump administration is stepping up its regime change campaign. Read the full article here: https://www.liberationnews.org/defying-u-s-sanctions-first-iranian-tanker-reaches-venezuela/

Hear from PSL leaders and organizers in a recent livestream event on the cancel the rents campaign. Learn more: canceltherents.org

Hear from PSL leaders and organizers in a recent livestream.

Liberation News is republishing the following article originally posted in 2014 to answer the lies spread by the U.S. government and its loyal corporate media outlets about China on the anniversary of the 1989 events in Tiananmen Square. -- Twenty-five years ago today, every U.S. media outlet, along with then President Bush and the U.S. Congress were whipping up a full scale frenzied hysteria and attack against the Chinese government for what was described as the cold-blooded massacre of many thousands of non-violent “pro-democracy” students who had occupied Tiananmen Square for seven weeks. The hysteria generated about the Tiananmen Square “massacre” was based on a fictitious narrative about what actually happened when the Chinese government finally cleared the square of protestors on June 4, 1989. The demonization of China was highly effective. Nearly all sectors of U.S. society, including most of the “left,” accepted the imperialist presentation of what happened. At the time the Chinese government’s official account of the events was immediately dismissed out of hand as false propaganda. China reported that about 300 people had died in clashes on June 4 and that many of the dead were soldiers of the Peoples Liberation Army. China insisted that there was no massacre of students in Tiananmen Square and in fact the soldiers cleared Tiananmen Square of demonstrators without any shooting.i Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/tiananmen-the-massacre-that-wasnt/

The Party for Socialism and Liberation believes it is not just a few bad cops, it is the capitalist system itself and its apparatus of repression. The police, courts, prisons and the laws that value private property over lives. We are a militant organization in more than 90 cities, organizing to fight for a new system: Socialism, where the capitalist repressive state is overturned and a new, anti-racist state replaces it to truly serve the people. Socialism means a job, free healthcare and education, a home for all are guaranteed constitutional rights, instead of commodities out of reach for tens of millions, homelessness and landlordism, racism and police brutality, war and oppression, poverty and hopelessness. We invite you to join us to fight for socialism. Contact us today! Read the full article here: https://www.liberationnews.org/racism-police-repression-are-the-symptoms-capitalism-is-the-disease-socialism-is-the-cure/

Hear from PSL leaders and organizers in a recent livestream.

Police rushed into Breonna Taylor's home and murdered her on March 13th, acting just like their slave patrol predecessors. Their callous disregard for Black lives ended in Taylor's murder. Racist mobs are not a thing of the past. They are still alive and well. Hear PSL organizers speak on coronavirus and the epidemic of racism in capitalist America.

Waffle House, like many struggling industries across the country, has chosen to place the burden of its lost profits on the shoulders of those who keep it running every day of the year. COVID-19 has brought opportunity again and again for corporate entities and long-standing business empires to ravage the pockets of their workers, those whose labor has lined corporate pockets for generations. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/waffle-house-puts-profits-over-people-in-the-covid-era/ The capitalist class has, not unexpectedly, proven itself unwilling to place human lives over profit-hoarding and welfare for the rich. The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s own Jason Carroll reports directly from the front lines of this struggle, bringing to light the unconscionable disregard Waffle House has shown for its workers in this crisis, and long before. “Waffle House, instead of shutting down, because they’re losing millions in profit, decided to cut the pay of their managers and cooks while they are on the front lines of the pandemic, risking their lives and the lives of their families,” says Carroll of the WH response to COVID-19. In addition to wide-scale layoffs, what few hours are available are being diverted to management, leaving just scraps of a schedule for other workers to fight over. Of the diminished availability of hours Carroll said, “The fight for hours was already a struggle before these trying times. A coworker recalls working 17 hour days between three different stores just to get the hours he needed. When he refused to go to the other stores in the district, they cut his hours.”