Socialist Alternative representative Ramy Khalil debated Tea Party leader Keli Carender on the radio. Listen to the debate here from Pacifica-affiliated KBCS 91.3 FM Voices of Diversity on July 21, 2010.

The Northwest Socialism Conference, held Saturday, May 8 at Seattle University, marked a big step forward for socialists in Washington State. More than a 140 people from all over Western Washington came to discuss socialism and the conference’s theme “Revolutionary Ideas for Changing the World.” The number of participants mushroomed over the course of three sessions throughout the day. An initial crowd of 75 grew to approximately 140 for the last session featuring a debate with a Tea Party member, forcing the conference to move to a larger room.

The majority of union leaders today are completely unprepared to meet the current onslaught on jobs and public services. But that does not mean that the inevitable resistance is destined for defeat. On the 20th anniversary of the introduction of the poll tax to England and Wales, Peter Taaffe looks back on the ‘unofficial’ mass movement which humbled the seemingly invincible Margaret Thatcher.

Howard Zinn, historian, professor and left-wing activist, died on January 27th at the age of 87. Best known for his book “A People’s History of the United States”, Zinn and his many other historical and dramatic writings were gaining in popularity at the time of his death.

A century ago, socialist women established International Women’s Day (IWD) as a way to reach out to working-class women. At the Second International Congress of Socialist Women in 1910, Clara Zetkin, chair and delegate from the German Social Democratic Party, proposed IWD as a day to campaign for economic and political equality for women. The very next year, on March 19, 1911, one million women and men in four European countries took part in the first IWD events organized around the slogan, “The vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle for socialism.”

Following modern history’s only successful slave revolution, the U.S. government refused to recognize Haiti upon its 1804 declaration of independence. This reflects the intense hostility of the U.S. (and the other big powers) to the Haitian Revolution and the mortal fear of its revolt spreading to slaves in the U.S and throughout the Americas. the United States did not recognize Haiti’s independence until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War.

The recent earthquake has hit the poorest metropolitan area in the Americas and brought a new wave of devastation to a country that had already suffered the worst effects of capitalism, poverty and imperial meddling.

The following Committee for a Workers International statement was adopted by the CWI International Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Belgium, December 2-9, 2009. This meeting brought together over 70 representatives from Europe and Russia, Asia, Central Asia, Latin and North America and Africa.

John Lennon had a tendency to be touched by world events, which, combined with his instinctive sympathy for the ‘underdog’, led him towards political questions and saw him, for a period at least, describing himself as a socialist.

After great crimes ‘against humanity’, there is usually some kind of atonement, blame is apportioned, the guilty are charged and sentenced, and the lessons are hopefully learned. But not always. The Turkish genocide against the Armenians has still not received full historical recognition. The crimes of the Nazis against the Jews have been pored over again and again, but not how the Nazis rose to power with the help of the capitalists, both in Germany itself and in Europe, Britain, etc., nor that for Hitler, his main target was the organisations of the working class.

It’s certainly the first time that the first speaker at a meeting in which the CWI participated was a Russian orthodox priest in full robe speaking through video link from St Petersburg. It’s also the first time for eighty years that a leading Trotskyist has spoken on such an important platform in Moscow.

This book is very thick – running to 600 pages – but is very thin when it comes to an honest political examination and analysis of the ideas of Leon Trotsky.

Within the left internationally, the question often arises about the politics and economy of the Nordic states, particularly Sweden, and whether these societies represent a form of "socialism" or an alternative to neo-liberal capitalism. Here a real socialist from Sweden provides his perspective.

Seventy years ago, the major powers plunged humanity into the horror of world war.

During the Great Depression, working people all over the country stood up for their living standards, fighting anti-union employers, the courts, and the police to assert their rights – and they won!