On January 30, 2022, car caravans and other actions demanding an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba took place in several cities and towns across the United States, as well as other countries. These are reports from two of these actions in the U.S., written by organizers and participants.
CHICAGO— “I absolutely think we should not stop defending Roe v. Wade. We need to insure that the right to a safe legal abortion is codified in federal law. We need massive legal demonstrations,” said Barbara Roberts at an online panel discussion held January 24. The event posed the need for a national mobilization to help women’s right to choose.
This is the third and final part of a three-part series on what are the issues in a public debate in the United States on critical race theory (CRT). The first part explained how the right-wing campaign against CRT is aimed at preventing the teaching of essential facts of US history. The second article outlined why distortions of history by liberal academics, journalists, or others weaken the effort to place facts and evidence at the center of the study of history as well as the fight against racism. This article takes up other notions that present similar obstacles to such an effective fight, including arguments that “embracing white guilt” or “renouncing white privilege” are necessary to combat racism.
This is the second part of a three-part series on the issues in a public debate in the United States on critical race theory (CRT). The first part focused on the right-wing crusade against CRT aimed at preventing the teaching of essential facts of U.S. history. The second part explains how refuting this right-wing campaign has been weakened by false arguments promoted by a variety of liberals. These academics, journalists, or others make assertions that do not meet the test of evidence. Some go further to offer interpretations of history that do not stand up to careful examination. Other stalwart opponents of racism do not share these views. These arguments include erroneous claims or exaggerations of facts regarding the character of the American Revolution of 1776, and the reasons for the war for independence against the British monarchy, put forward by the New York Times 1619 Project.
Over the past year a sharp debate has broken out over how to teach U.S. history. At its center are virulent attacks on critical race theory (CRT). Critical race theory, which the New York Times describes as “a graduate-level academic framework that encompasses decades of scholarship,” is primarily a course of study at the university level. Its originators are not demanding it replace the curriculum in elementary schools or high schools. Nor is it the only approach on the subject at the graduate level. These facts do not matter to those who attack it. This first part of a three-part series explains how the right-wing “Stop CRT” campaign is aimed at preventing the teaching of essential facts of U.S. history; particularly those related to chattel slavery, the U.S. Civil War, Radical Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, the civil rights movement, and the institutionalized racism prevalent in the U.S. to this day.
Cuba may be responsible for only 0.08 percent of global CO2 emissions, but this Caribbean island is disproportionately hard-hit by the effects of climate change. The frequency and severity of extreme weather events — hurricanes, drought, torrential rain, flooding — is increasing, to the detriment of ecosystems, food production, and public health. Without action to protect the coastline from rising sea levels, up to 10 percent of Cuban territory could be submerged by the end of the century. This risks wiping out coastal towns, polluting water supplies, destroying agricultural lands, ruining tourist beaches, and forcing one million people to relocate — some 9 percent of the population. But unlike many countries, where climate action is always something promised for the future, in Cuba, serious action is being taken now.
SANTA FE SPRINGS, California—Since November 3, nearly 175 workers, primarily Latinas, have been on strike against the Rich Products Corporation, a large transnational frozen foods company. The Jon Donaire Deserts plant here makes ice cream cakes that are widely distributed, including at stores like Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone, Walmart, and Von. In total, the company employs about 11,000 people. The workers are on strike demanding higher wages and improved health care from a company that had $4 billion in revenue in 2021, and whose owner, Bob Rich Jr., is valued at nearly $7.5 billion according to bloomberg.com.
DENVER, CO, January 11, 2022—Working people and all supporters of democratic rights should express solidarity with Rogel Aguilera Mederos and demand he be immediately freed from prison. The truck driver was involved in a tragic 28-vehicle pileup caused by a failure of the brakes in the semi he was driving while descending a mountainous section of the I-70 highway in Lakewood, a suburb of Denver. The April 2019 accident resulted in the death of four people. After a jury found Aguilera guilty last October of four counts of vehicular homicide and 23 other criminal offenses, a judge sentenced him to an incredible 110 years behind bars! The news of such cruel and unusual punishment struck a chord with millions around the world who quickly expressed indignation at the draconian sentence.
On December 23, a jury in Minneapolis convicted Kimberly Potter, the cop who killed Daunte Wright last spring, on first- and second-degree manslaughter. Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence and other opponents of cop brutality in Minnesota welcomed the verdict—a still too rare glimpse of justice. We join Wright’s family and supporters in celebrating the verdict that delivered some accountability. As Katie Bryant, Daunte’s mother, told supporters outside the courtroom, cops are now more likely to think twice before pulling their gun instead of their taser. “And we made this happen, you made this happen, Daunte Wright made this happen.”
Candlelight vigils and other actions in solidarity with Cuba took place in about half a dozen U.S. cities, as well as other countries, on December 23. This compilation includes reports from three of these actions – in Miami, New York City, and Los Angeles – written by participants. Demands included ending the U.S. blockade of Cuba, restoring family remittances, beginning again the family reunification program, opening consular services in Havana, re-starting flights to all of Cuba’s major cities, establishing scientific and medical collaboration with Cuba against Covid-19, and allowing U.S. citizens to travel to the island freely.
World-Outlook is taking a two-week break between December 7 and December 20, 2021. You will not see new posts during this period. We will return before the year-end holidays. Thank you for your understanding.
CHICAGO, December 5, 2021—Hundreds of people protested in Washington, D.C.; Jackson, Mississippi; and here in Chicago on December 1 to defend a woman’s right to choose abortion. The actions, modest in size, took place as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This case involves a 2018 Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In addition to upholding the ban, the state of Mississippi has asked the court to use the case to overturn Roe v. Wade, the historic 1973 Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion. The content and tenor of the questions and arguments by most of the justices during the December 1 hearing indicated the Supreme Court will likely uphold the Mississippi ban when it announces its decision, which is expected in the first half of next year. As most of the media has reported, the question is how far the court’s conservative majority will go into restricting a woman’s right to choose—up to overturning Roe and allowing states to issue their own restrictions or ban abortion entirely. An earlier indication of what is to come was the court’s September 1 refusal to block an even more draconian law, which bans abortions in Texas at six weeks of pregnancy, while legal challenges against it unfold.
In a November 17, 2021, vote, United Auto Workers (UAW) members at the major agricultural implements company John Deere approved a new contract and ended their month-long strike. The agreement, which covers some 10,000 workers in the U.S., was approved by a vote of 61% to 39%. The union ranks had rejected two previous contract offers.
On November 24, a jury in Brunswick Georgia rendered a degree of justice in the brutal murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man. The three defendants, Gregory McMichael, 65; his son Travis McMichael, 35; and their neighbor William Bryan, 52 were found guilty of murder and other charges. All now face the prospect of life in prison. Future vigilantes may think twice before attempting such a lynching again. The outcome of this case is one more step forward in the long battle for genuine equality for African Americans and for the extension of democratic rights to all.
Supporters of a woman’s right to choose abortion are mobilizing on December 1, 2021, in Washington, D.C., Jackson, Mississippi, and Chicago. That day the U..S. Supreme Court is scheduled to begin oral arguments on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case challenging a 2018 Mississippi statute banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Proponents of the law have asked the Supreme Court to use the case not only to uphold the Mississippi ban but to directly overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. This article provides information about the December 1 actions. It also encourages everyone to spread the word and join one of these protests.
The November 19, 2021, acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse by a Wisconsin jury on all charges, including first-degree reckless and intentional homicide, is a travesty of justice. It sends a message to other rightists that vigilantism is acceptable so long as it is clothed in claims of “self-defense.” It echoes the verdict in the 2012 trial of George Zimmerman who was exonerated for his murder of Trayvon Martin that same year.
November 15, 2021—The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) withdrew its request for a union representation election at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouses on November 12. The ALU had filed its petition for a union vote with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on October 25. The NLRB has approved the withdrawal request.
November 14, 2021—Readers who look at World-Outlook’s Home Page today will notice a change in the banner graphic display. Rather than one featured image there are now four. The original illustration that has appeared since the launching of the website—a Diego Rivera mural titled “Mexico Today and Tomorrow,” featuring Karl Marx, the founder of scientific socialism—is still there. We have added three new images that depict important struggles in the United States today. These are photos from the fight against police brutality and racism, for women’s right to choose abortion, and of striking workers at the Kellogg company.
I embrace you with all my revolutionary fervor: Letters 1947-1967 by Ernesto Che Guevara with a foreword by Aleida Guevara. Published on November 10, 2021, by Seven Stories Press, New York, NY. Che Guevara[1] is one of the most recognized and inspiring revolutionary figures of the 20th century. He is also one of its outstanding Marxists. The publication of this new collection of letters is, therefore, a welcome event. As the introduction explains, “A few of the letters are well known, but most have only now been released from Che Guevara’s personal archive held at the Che Guevara Studies Center in Havana, directed by his widow Aleida March, and are published in English for the first time.”
This is a Reporter’s Notebook based on a November 3, 2021, visit by World-Outlook editor Argiris Malapanis to the Amazon Labor Union organizing tent in front of the JFK8 Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island, New York. It is a supplement to the news article “NY Amazon Workers File for Union Recognition,” published on World-Outlook November 4, 2021. It paints a more detailed picture of how rank-and-file workers lead this impressive unionization effort.
NEW YORK CITY, November 3, 2021—Amazon warehouse workers in New York took a big step toward unionization on October 25, when they filed more than 2,000 signatures with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking a union representation election. World-Outlook visited the union organizing center and spoke with Chris Smalls and other workers.
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU), a grassroots group organized by warehouse workers, is leading the organizing drive. With no affiliation to any of the established national trade unions, the ALU is trying to unionize the approximately 7,000 workers employed in four warehouses—the JFK8 on Staten Island and surrounding facilities dubbed LDJ5, DYY6 and DYX2. Amazon uses these warehouses to fulfill orders in the huge New York market.
If successful, the outcome will reverberate through the working class and labor movement in the United States. These workers know they are challenging a powerful enemy.
On October 30-31, 2021, car caravans and other actions demanding an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba took place in cities and towns across the United States, as well as other countries. This is a compilation of reports from five of these actions in the U.S.
September 11 marked the 48th anniversary of the 1973 bloody military coup, backed by Washington, which overthrew the elected Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) government led by Salvador Allende in Chile. On September 12, Jacobin, a magazine that describes itself as “a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture,” published an interview by Mia Dragnic with Tomás Moulian titled, “Salvador Allende Was Overthrown Because His Government Showed Chile Could Be Transformed.” Eric Blanc’s article, “Socialists Should Take the Right Lessons from the Russian Revolution,” also originally appeared in Jacobin in July.
At first glance, these two articles may seem unrelated. Blanc does not discuss the defeat in Chile and Moulian’s interview does not refer to Blanc’s article. However, both pose the same issues: How can a fight be led to end the evils of capitalism and transform society to open the road to socialism? Is a genuine revolution led by the working class necessary to achieve this?
The last installment of the three-part series, “Reform or Revolution?”, this third part focuses on the lessons of the Chilean experience in the 1970s.
The end of the 20-year-long U.S. war in Afghanistan in August, and the takeover of the country by the Taliban, highlighted once again the worldwide political significance of the countries of the Islamic East. Are peoples in these countries condemned to permanent backwardness, as many believe, weighed down by reactionary religious ideology? Or can they be a revolutionary force in the fight to liberate humanity? What will it take to cement an alliance between working people of East and West? An article by John Riddell, with an introductory note by Mike Taber, take up these questions.
On October 11, 2021, a trial opened in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, of 14 men accused of plotting the murder of Thomas Sankara 34 years ago. Sankara, 37-years-old at the time, was president of Burkina Faso and leader of its popular revolutionary government from 1983 to 1987. This is the second of two parts of a speech Sankara gave at the UN in 1984. Under Sankara’s leadership, the revolutionary government of Burkina Faso in West Africa mobilized peasants, workers, craftsmen, women and youth to carry out literacy and immunization drives; to sink wells, plant trees, build dams, erect housing; to combat the oppression of women and transform exploitative relations on the land; to free themselves from the imperialist yoke and solidarize with others engaged in that fight internationally.
On October 11, 2021, a trial opened in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, of 14 men accused of plotting the murder of Thomas Sankara 34 years ago. Sankara, 37-years-old at the time, was president of Burkina Faso and leader of its popular revolutionary government from 1983 to 1987. This is the first part of a speech Sankara gave at the UN in 1984. Under Sankara’s leadership, the revolutionary government of Burkina Faso in West Africa mobilized peasants, workers, craftsmen, women and youth to carry out literacy and immunization drives; to sink wells, plant trees, build dams, erect housing; to combat the oppression of women and transform exploitative relations on the land; to free themselves from the imperialist yoke and solidarize with others engaged in that fight internationally.
United Auto Workers (UAW) members at John Deere, one of the giants of the agricultural machinery industry worldwide, struck the company on Thursday, October 14, for the first time in more than three decades. Over 10,000 workers are on strike at plants in Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas. The Waterloo Courier reported the mood on the picket lines at entrances to the Deere plants there was “downright jovial.”
October 7, 2021—“Bans Off Our Bodies,” and “Our Bodies, Our Lives,” echoed through the streets of the United States on October 2 as thousands upon thousands rallied and marched in defense of a woman’s right to choose abortion and against all restrictions on this right. From large cities to small towns, from east to west, north to south, more than 100,000 demonstrators in 650 different places joined in. This surpasses the number of cities where people marched in August 1970 in the Women’s Strike for Equality. On that day, 50,000 marched in New York City along with 90 other actions. In 1992, more than half a million demonstrated in Washington, D.C., in the March for Women’s Lives, and nearly one million turned out at the nation’s capital for a similar march in 2004. October 2, 2021, was the largest single outpouring nationwide for a woman’s right to choose since 2004.
We are pleased to announce that World-Outlook is now bilingual! Thanks to the invaluable assistance of volunteers who have joined our team, Panorama-Mundial now exists as the Spanish-language version of the web site. Since we published our first article in Spanish on July 1—”Cuba sets example in confronting the pandemic” —we have made a concerted effort to translate each new article into Spanish. With the launch of Panorama-Mundial, we will step up these efforts, while also beginning to translate previous articles that have so far appeared only in English. This is the most significant of several steps we have taken in the past few months. Many involve new expenses. Today we are appealing to our readers to help us pay for these improvements to the site.
October 3, 2021—Tens of thousands turned out on October 2 in more than 600 cities and towns across the United States to defend a woman’s right to choose abortion. Protesters were in their large majority women. Many students and other youth, as well as people of all generations, participated in the actions. The protests were a good start in what is expected to be a long fight to defend women’s reproductive rights. This is an initial photo gallery of a number of these actions.
NORTH MIAMI, Florida, September 29, 2021—About fifty people gathered today outside City Hall here to protest the outrageous mistreatment of Haitians by the U.S. government at the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border. Protesters demanded equal treatment for Haitian asylum seekers, and the immediate disclosure of the whereabouts of the nearly 15,000 refugees who were removed from the border by federal authorities and many of them deported.
On September 26, 2021, car caravans and other actions demanding an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba took place in more than a dozen cities across the United States, as well as Canada, the Caribbean, United Kingdom and other countries in Europe, South Africa and elsewhere in the world. This round-up includes reports and photos from five of these actions in the U.S.
World-Outlook needs your help to report on the October 2 demonstrations scheduled for this Saturday to defend women’s right to choose abortion. We know many of our readers plan to join these actions. We welcome both photos and brief reports on the protests you attend.
Washington’s callous disregard for the lives of thousands of Haitian refugees—whom it is forcibly repatriating into a country torn by daily violence and ravaged by hunger and poverty exacerbated by recent flash floods and earthquakes—calls for worldwide outcry.
September 26, 2021— “Let them in! Let them in!” chanted protesters in Miami, demanding asylum for Haitian refugees, nearly 30,000 of whom recently flocked to the United States by crossing the Rio Grande and seeking shelter under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas.
CHICAGO, September 25, 2021—At an unprecedented and critical juncture in the fight for women’s right to choose safe, legal abortion, Women’s March has called for rallies in every state on October 2. This call for coordinated national demonstrations should be championed by every defender of women’s rights.
What lessons can we draw for today from the Russian Revolution of 1917—the first socialist revolution and one of the most important events in modern human history? The Bolshevik Party, which led that revolution, viewed it as the beginning of the worldwide struggle to overturn capitalism and open the door to the socialist transformation of society by working people. This is the topic of a recent debate between Eric Blanc, a socialist historian and activist, and Mike Taber, editor of a number of books related to the history of revolutionary and working-class movements. This second part of the debate includes the article by Mike Taber.
What lessons can we draw for today from the Russian Revolution of 1917—the first socialist revolution and one of the most important events in modern human history? The Bolshevik Party, which led that revolution, viewed it as the beginning of the worldwide struggle to overturn capitalism and open the door to the socialist transformation of society by working people. This is the topic of a recent debate between Eric Blanc, a socialist historian and activist, and Mike Taber, editor of a number of books related to the history of revolutionary and working-class movements. This first part of the debate includes the article by Eric Blanc.
On August 29, 2021, caravans opposing the U.S. blockade of Cuba took place in more than a dozen cities across the United States, as well as Canada, United Kingdom and other countries in Europe and elsewhere in the world. This is a round-up report, along with photos, from four of these actions in the U.S.
A national campaign of mass action to defend a woman’s right to choose abortion is now necessary. This has been true for some time. But the September 1 U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision that refused to block a Texas law prohibiting abortion after cardiac activity is detected—which can be as early as six weeks after the onset of pregnancy—underlined the urgency of the moment. Many women are not even aware they are pregnant at that time.
Describing it as a blow to women and all abortion rights supporters nationwide, coalition calls for reversal of the Texas Law SB8, and demands “No Abortion Bans Anywhere: Not Now; Not Ever! Defend Roe!”
Several Chicago groups that have recently begun mobilizing to defend abortion rights are outraged by the extreme Texas abortion ban that just went into effect, banning abortions after the 6th week, when most women do not even know they are pregnant. Approximately 85% of abortions performed in Texas take place after 6 weeks.
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 2, 2021—More than 500 relatives of victims slain by the police across the United States, and their supporters, participated in a powerful testimonial rally here on August 28. They demanded that authorities “prosecute police who brutalize and/or kill” and “reopen and re-investigate all cases that allege police violence,” as a press release for the action stated. Members of families impacted by cop violence called for an end to what many described as the “ongoing scourge” of police brutality. The most compelling deterrent to such violence is to prosecute the cops responsible and put them behind bars, they emphasized.
Washington’s setback in Afghanistan is only the latest in a long list of examples pointing to the decline of U.S. imperialism, signaled in 1975 by its defeat in Vietnam.
The chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops from Afghanistan, which has had deadly consequences for many Afghans and some U.S. troops, is another sign of the decline of U.S. imperialism. While Washington remains the number one military power in the world, its domination and influence are diminishing.
WASHINGTON, DC, August 28, 2021—Below is an initial gallery of photos from the magnificent rally and march to the Justice Department today. More than 500 members of families who have lost loved ones to cop violence, arriving from 44 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, took part in the rally at the Washington Monument and subsequent march to the Department of Justice to demand: Reopen All the Cases, where justice has been denied! Prosecute and Jail the Killer Cops!
This article appeared in Cubadebate, a Cuban news agency, on August 10, 2021. World-Outlook is publishing it because it helps counter the misinformation and lies the big-business media have unleashed this summer against the Caribean nation. This campaign of slanders, exaggeration, and manipulation of facts is part of Washington’s 60-year-long economic war against the socialist country and the unceasing efforts by the U.S. government and its imperialist allies to undermine and overthrow the Cuban Revolution. The article also provides invaluable scientific information on how to confront the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is a petition being circulated widely around the world by Cuban scientists as an open letter to U.S. president Joe Biden. World-Outlook encourages readers to join this campaign by sharing the petition with fellow workers, unions, and other organizations, as well as anyone else who may be interested, to maximize the number of signatures we can get to back our Cuban sisters and brothers.
August 4, 2021—The violent protests that erupted in Cuba in early July were the first serious social disturbances since the “Maleconazo” of 1994, 27 years ago. Both these periods were characterised by deep economic crises. I was living in Havana in the mid-90s and witnessed the conditions that triggered the uprising: empty food markets, shops and pharmacy shelves, regular electricity cuts, production and transport ground to a halt. Such were the consequences of the collapse of the socialist bloc, which accounted for about 90% of the island’s trade.
CHICAGO, August 8, 2021—Abortion rights activists here and across the nation are headed to a showdown with anti-abortion forces because of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to hear arguments in the Mississippi case “Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.” On the high court’s docket since May 17, oral arguments could take place as soon as this fall.
SEATTLE, August 6, 2021—An important and in some ways unique demonstration against police violence will take place in Washington DC on August 28, the anniversary of the historic 1963 civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.