Against the Current

The resistance rising! Photo: Dan La Botz

THE ABDUCTION OF Mahmoud Khalil — the Palestinian graduate student and green card holder seized March 8 at his Columbia University residence — is now multiplied by other high-profile detentions and deportation threats, and dozens or even hundreds of unpublicized cases. Secretary of State Marco Rubio openly boasts as much.

These arrests and disappearances highlight a reign of terror confronting student visa and even green card holders. They pull together multiple interwoven aspects of the five-alarm civil and human rights emergency in the United States and the global U.S. empire:...

Canadian retirees meet with UNIFOR president before their last contract negotiations, raising the demand for increased pensions. Why not develop solidarity across borders?

THE UAW STATEMENT “In a Victory for Autoworkers, Auto Tariffs Mark the Beginning of the End of NAFTA and the ‘Free Trade’ Disaster” posted on the UAW website, presents a faulty understanding of the impact NAFTA had on the restructuring of the auto industry. It then outlines a disastrous strategy for auto workers, similar to a previous UAW administration’s call on members to save their jobs by voting for two-tier contracts.

In the 1990s corporate restructuring meant automation, selling off....

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....

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....

What are the longer-term implications of the attacks on vaccines? CC-BY-SA-4.0

AS SHOULD BE evident by now, the Trump administration has begun a full-scale attack on much of public health in the United States and globally.

Some of this is ideological — for example, when Kennedy, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, attacks vaccines....

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...

International Women's Day demonstration against sexual violence on March 8, 2025 in Lviv, Ukraine.

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....

CONSTRUCTION CREWS SWOOPED in and began destroying Black Lives Matter Plaza Street mural in Washington, D.C. on March 10. The target, near the White House, was more than a powerful symbol and its wide support by the African American community....

Protest against Russian invasion of Ukraine on the date of first anniversary. Belgrade, City Center, February 24, 2023.

ON THE THIRD anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States under the Trump administration is now pushing negotiations for a “peace” settlement. The Ukraine Solidarity Network-U.S. (USN) opposes any attempt to impose a settlement that is not acceptable to the Ukrainian people.

Anyone with an ounce of compassion wants this war to end as soon as possible, but it is morally....

Ohio Education Association, opposing the state bill to abolish DEI and restrict collective bargaining rights in higher education.

The multi-front war on university students, faculty and academic programs is spearheaded by the notorious attack on pro-Palestinian activism, in the guise of “combating campus antisemitism." But this is just an opening wedge: everything from liberal arts and academic freedom to, of course, the horrors of “diversity” programs are in the crosshairs of the right wing.

The following article by Ohio State University professor emeritus Harvey J. Graff puts the current crisis into some historical perspective....

Boris Kagarlitsky is serving a five-year prison term in Russia.

THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) WAS PRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED AND (OR) SENT BY FOREIGN AGENT BORIS YULIEVICH KAGARLITSKY, OR CONCERNING THE ACTIVITIES OF FOREIGN AGENT BORIS YULIEVICH KAGARLITSKY.*

A NEW U.S. Administration is always a global-level event. The world anticipated George W. Bush’s arrival at the White House with fears that came to be confirmed, while Barack Obama’s election brought hopes that didn’t pay off. But this is for the first time ever that the new boss of the Oval office is seen with such perplexity and confusion. No one quite knows what to expect of Trump’s presidency. But that’s rather natural, because he doesn’t know it himself.

A NEW U.S. Administration is always a global-level event....

Donald Trump caricature by Donkey Hotey CC-BY-2.0

DONALD TRUMP’S SECOND victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential elections, with more social and legislative power and experience than his first presidency from 2017 to 2021, is a political milestone that has shaken the world because of what the arrival of such a reactionary, toxic and malignant character to the White House in Washington represents for the world -- and specifically....

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
written & directed by Jane Schoenbrun
produced and distributed by A24

"THE OLD WORLD is dying and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters," observed Antonio Gramsci (according to a 2010 translation by Slavoj Zizek).

Monster movies -- or more broadly, horror films -- are having a moment, and writer-director Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow is a horror film about, among other things, the meanings of horror media. It riffs on 1990s genre TV and the value of fan communities, nostalgia and changes in entertainment media, the perils of entertainment as escape, and the pain and promise of times of transition....

WOMEN START QUEUEING at 6AM at the courthouse in Mazan, France so they can support Gisèle Pelicot at the open trial she requested. This rape case has caught international attention because it so perfectly illustrates how many men feel they are entitled to women’s bodies. This continuous outpouring of support demonstrates the determination of women to publicize and end the dehumanization women face the world over.--The Editors....