Is art a vague, individualistic pursuit of human creativity, divorced from any other reality or social accountability? Can we act as artists and ignore others being starved, beaten and imprisoned around us? These are questions central to the culture boycott on Israel, in solidarity with Palestinians. Most prominent artists keep their distance from politics and… Read more »
culture & reviews
“This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible”
Revisiting Bernadette Logue’s 2014 book review.
Freedom Socialist Letters to the Editor
UNITED FRONT Needed today The political resolution of the FSP [“A world to win, a planet to save,” Vol. 35, No. 5] references the need for “united front” action, as well it should. No one socialist party in this nation today can hope to take on and defeat the capitalist ruling elite on any national… Read more »
Noam Chomsky: the Left’s Debbie Downer?
Like so many people appalled by the cruelty of capitalism, I have sought some measure of explanation from the voluminous writings of Noam Chomsky. But despite a gripping anti-authoritarian message, and mountains of facts, Chomsky’s fundamental vision is gloomy, pessimistic — and dangerous. A recent essay reveals this in no uncertain terms. In “Owl of… Read more »
Freedom Socialist book reviews: A fascinating range of titles from our contributors
Most Freedom Socialist writers are volunteers whose “day jobs” range from lawyer to social worker and restaurant server. Many are published authors of poetry, novels, professional literature, or political works — a sampling is reviewed below. • • • Lila, the Revolutionary, by William T. Hathaway. Nascent Books, 2014. Reviewed by Andrea Bauer Can one… Read more »
From the archives of the Freedom Socialist — The incendiary legacy of Malcolm X: revolutionary internationalism
This article was written soon after Spike Lee’s 1992 movie Malcolm X inspired renewed interest in him. But this piece could have been written yesterday, as African Americans and their supporters protest the wanton murder of Black and other youth of color by cops around the country, along with persistent legal and economic injustice. As… Read more »
Freedom socialist book review — historical novel: of slavery and sisterhood before the Civil War
Who doesn’t love the story of a rebel? The tale of the Grimké sisters is just that. Two daughters of a plantation-owning, slave-holding family, they defied their roots and society to become outspoken abolitionists and champions of women’s rights. When I realized that The Invention of Wings by my latest and favorite novelist, Sue Monk… Read more »
Freedom Socialist book review — Afghan girls pose as boys to escape crushing oppression
Today, in 2015, Afghan mothers who produce only daughters are still routinely abused by their families and shunned by their communities. They are almost universally barred from employment outside the home, and a daughter can be sold into marital slavery for a one-time lump sum. Their only asset is “the ability to one day give… Read more »
Black radical leadership in Depression-era Alabama
In the 25th anniversary reissue of his book Hammer and Hoe, Robin D.G. Kelley tells the absorbing story of the courage and perseverance of Black communists working underground in the dangerous Depression-era South. Kelley, an esteemed Black author and educator, thoroughly documents the role of the Alabama Communist Party (CP) in this period. By far,… Read more »
Freedom Socialist book review — Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature — Discovering Karl Marx, the essential ecologist
Many environmentalists disdain the ideas of Karl Marx. Some tout the spiritual virtues of environmental “ideals.” Some argue for individual solutions like recycling, reduced consumption and “going back to the land.” Anti-communists claim that the ecological crimes of the Stalinist-era USSR flowed from Marxism itself. John Bellamy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature counters all… Read more »
