Against the Current No. 236, May/June 2025
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Lessons of Abductions and Terror
— The Editors -
Vets Mobilize vs. DOGE
— Steve Early & Suzanne Gordon -
Upholding Reproductive Rights in Ohio & Beyond
— Marlaina A. Leppert-Miller -
The Humanities After Gaza
— Cynthia G. Franklin -
On Social Movement Media: Learning from Krupskaya & Lenin
— Promise Li -
The Rule, Not the Exception: Sexual Assault on Campus
— M. Colleen McDaniel & Andrew Wright -
Diktats, DOGEs, Dissent & Democrats in Disarray in the Era of Trump
— Kim Moody -
A Setback for Auto Workers' Solidarity
— Dianne Feeley - Columbia Jewish Students for Mahmoud Khalil
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Plague-Pusher Politics
— Sam Friedman - Guatemala Human Rights Update
- A Remembrance
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Fredric Jameson's Innovative Marxism
— Michael Principe - Reviews
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The New Nuke Revival
— Cliff Conner -
Power in the Darkness
— Owólabi Aboyade -
Racial Capitalism Dissected
— James Kilgore -
An Important Critique of Zionism
— Samuel Farber -
What's Possible for the Left?
— Martin Oppenheimer -
Behind the Immigration Crisis
— Folko Mueller
State of the Resistance
— The Editors

A BIG, BEAUTIFUL popular resistance is trickling up to some of the sites of political power, including the federal courts — although not fast or far enough, by a long shot. That’s been the important takeaway from the first 100-plus days of the Trump administration. But we’re barely at the beginning of what will be a long battle with ups and downs.
The June 14 “No Kings” rallies were both cheeky and inspirational....
From ATC authors and friends
Iran’s Regime in a Predicament of Its Own Making
— Gilbert Achcar

ONE OF THE most famous sayings about revolutions is attributed to one of the most prominent leaders of the French Revolution during its most radical phase, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767-1794): “Those who make revolution halfway only dig their own graves.” This saying also applies to armed conflicts, as historical evidence indicates that those who engage in these conflicts and confrontations half-heartedly against people they have declared to be their absolute enemies, thus inducing in these enemies a determination to crush them in return, are doomed to defeat. This is indeed the case with the “Islamic Republic” of Iran. Since its establishment following the overthrow of the Shah, it has declared its absolute hostility to what it calls the “Great Satan,” meaning the United States, and the “Lesser Satan,” meaning the State of Israel.....
Stop Israel Now!
— Fourth International

ISRAEL'S UNPRECEDENTED ATTACk on Iran is a direct result of the impunity it has enjoyed while carrying out a live-streamed genocide in Palestine over the past 20 months. Under the false pretext of "self-defense," Israel has escalated its long-standing policy of Palestinian erasure into full-scale genocide. Now, it extends that aggression by bombing Iran,...
Five Years Since George Floyd’s Murder
— Malik Miah

GEORGE FLOYD WAS murdered on May 25, 2020 when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for 9-1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed, pleading that he couldn’t breathe....
Swedish Dockworkers’ Union Leader Sacked for Gaza Solidarity Action
— Arthur Neslen

Erik Helgeson asks whose “national security” is Swedish law really protecting?
SECURITY IS A funny elixir. The more of it that you have, the less there is for someone else… or that’s the conventional wisdom anyway. Erik Helgeson’s experience, however, proves otherwise.
Erik, 42, is the vice-chair of the Swedish Dockworkers’ Union and he cared deeply for the security of his members — and also for the safety of Gazan civilians, some of whom have been killed by weapons which may have passed through the port of Gothenburg, where he has worked for 20 years.
Erik cared so much in fact that in February of this year, he led a symbolic six-day blockade....
South African Union Responds to White House Debacle

The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA), a leftwing voice in the South African labor movement, posted the statement below following the May 21 White House meeting of Donald Trump and president Cyril Ramaphosa. Trump's sickening racism was on full display as he pressed the mythology of the "white genoicide" of Afrikaner farmers. On this occasion Trump even exceeded his everyday spectacle, presumably prompted by Elon Musk who's seeking to extort favorable concessions....
Teamsters Against Trump, 2024
— Steve Early

The following discussion is part of a longer analysis published in Social Policy (Spring 2025), “From L4B to TAT. Challenging Union Political Endorsements Takes Rank-&-File Action,” which includes an account of the Labor for Bernie initiatives in the 2016 and 2020 presidential election campaigns. Steve Early worked for nearly 30 years as an International Union representative for the Communication Workers of America and helped co-found....
Statement on "Operation Sindoor"
— Radical Socialist

THE INDIAN ARMED Forces have launched “Operation Sindoor,” which has carried out strikes in as many as nine places spread over three cities in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Punjab province. A counter-strike by Pakistan, also to be condemned, has led to lives lost in Poonch.
All this is an extremely worrisome development, though not entirely....
From the Front Line: A Critical Look at Indo-Pak War 2025
— Farooq Tariq

ON THE MORNING of 7th May, when I answered my doorbell and went outside looking for who rang, my neighbor loudly asked me to turn off all my lights. This command signaled to me that we are living in a moment of war. Living near the Wahgha border, we heard a deafening noise around 8.30 am, followed by a blast. An Indian Harop drone, made by Israel, struck a close by military installation....
The Other Catastrophe: Genocide and Famine in Sudan
— Gilbert Achcar

Two years have passed since the war broke out in Sudan between the two sides of the military regime that the country inherited from the infamous Omar al-Bashir. While the situation in Sudan does not get even a tenth of the global media attention that the ongoing Zionist genocidal war in Gaza receives, the scale of the human catastrophe there is equally horrific. The death toll from the military-on-military war is estimated at more than 150,000, while the number of displaced people stands at approximately 13 million, and the number of those threatened with severe famine reaches 44 million — a record number that makes the war....
Debased Language, Degraded Politics: Searching for Conservatism, Finding It Nowhere
— Harvey J. Graff
“The problem of the 21st century is not only with conservatism. Over recent decades and especially in recent years, there is rampant confusion of all political spheres: left, center and right. But widespread loss of basic conservatism stands out. It underwrites the white-supremacist and Christian nationalist transformation of the Republican party since the 1960s and most actively since the 1980s.”

[In this commentary, historian Harvey J. Graff looks at the loss of meaning of what used to be called “conservatism,” and the real-world consequences. --The Editors]
ON APRIL 9, 2025, my day began with these daily news headlines.
First in the Washington Post: “How conservatives are using Columbia as a ‘test case’ to enforce Trump’s agenda: The Ivy League university so far is the only school to see federal funding canceled, but it is hardly the only target of....
No Hope for Transitional Justice If Sectarianism Is the Doctrine of the New Syrian State
— Joseph Daher

A month after sectarian violence erupted on Syria's coast, the Syrian state has yet to recognise the importance of transitional justice, says Joseph Daher.
The euphoria that followed the fall of Assad’s regime in December 2024 has largely dissipated after the large-scale massacres of Alawite civilians in coastal areas, carried out in early March 2025 by armed forces within the newly formed Syrian army....
Trump’s Trade War and Canadian Workers
— Socialist Project

THIS STATEMENT BY the Socialist Project (Canada) was published before Donald Trump's April 2, 2025 announcement of global tariffs, precipitating a two-day plunge of more than 3500 points on the U.S. Dow-Jones stock market and threatening to trigger a world economic recession, or worse....
UAW Leadership Should Reverse Its Pro-Trump Statement
— Ron Lare & Judy Wraight

WE ARE SPEAKING only for ourselves in this article.
The UAW leadership should reverse its declaration of support for Trump on tariffs and protectionism, and should stand on international labor solidarity in organizing for a labor party and a general strike.
The UAW’s statement on March 4, 2025 on relations with Trump and tariffs should be read in full. It is copied at the end of this article.
The UAW’s statement is right to reject “free trade.” “Free trade” is the...
For Ukraine without Oligarchs and Occupiers!
— Sotsialnyi Rukh

The predatory policies of the newly elected U.S. president make it impossible to establish a lasting peace for Ukrainians. Ukraine’s refusal to sign the mineral extraction agreement, designed to serve the interests of American capital, demonstrates the country’s determination to avoid colonial dependence. This opens the door to exploring a more equitable model of relations between Ukraine and the states of Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world under the banner of resistance to imperialist domination. However, if the current approach persists, Ukraine risks facing an imminent reduction or even a complete halt of military aid from the United States....