IMAGINE Autumn 2020

New journal ‘World Socialist’

The World Socialist Party of the United States is excited to announce the first issue of its new quarterly journal, World Socialist. It contains articles on the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests, the US–China confrontation, the presidential election, ‘human nature,’ the Wall Street bombing of 1920, revolution in ancient Anatolia, ‘How I became a […]

After shipwreck

William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies describes how boys marooned on a deserted island descend into ‘savagery.’ But here is a true story of real boys in the same situation who behaved quite differently.

Mind your own business, Mr. Goodman!

Ventilators at a hospital have defective valves. A helpful neighbor replaces the valves and saves at least ten lives. For doing so he is at risk of being sued. Why?

Homelessness in North America

Canada and the United States are supposedly among the world’s wealthiest countries. Yet many people in those countries are homeless, while at the same time many homes are left empty.

River Silence

40,000 indigenous people have been forced off their land along the Xingu River in order to build a dam. Who gives a damn?

War with Iran? Teetering on the brink

Strictly speaking, the United States is already at war with Iran. By the rules of international law, the drone attack that killed General Soleimani and other high-ranking figures was an act of war. Iran will now retaliate against an American asset. How long can this crazy game of tit for tat go on without triggering […]

Fire on 9th Street

A lethal fire at an apartment block in a poor neighborhood of Las Vegas was in the news recently. An accident or a predictable result of the business of letting housing accommodation for profit?

A Comrade Falls

Suhuyini Nbang-Ba, the socialist activist, journalist and teacher died at home in the Gambia on 16th September 2020.  He was nine days short of his sixty-first birthday and is survived by a brother, a sister, three nieces and four nephews. Suhuyini was born in the small town of Ejura, near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region […]

The Only Means Necessary

Many revolutionary groups and tendencies are convinced that any overthrow of capitalism will involve war. This is usually based on the premise that the ruling class will violently oppose any attempts to usurp it and therefore must be defeated militarily. Also personal acts of resistance are advocated, up to and including deadly force. “By any means […]

The WSM and Unions

The following articles are examples of the World Socialist Movement’s longstanding commitment to class struggle politics both in the workplace and on the political field. From the June 1947 issue of the Western Socialist What should be the attitude of socialists toward trade unions? This not a mere academic question. There are well-informed Marxists who […]

Leadership test

From Red Menace, a Toronto-based libertarian socialist magazine published in the 1970s. PART ONE: Would you make a good Leader? 1. When I talk, people(a) listen(b) leave the room(c) inspect their fingernails(d) gaze at the ceiling(e) I never talk(f) I only talk to myself 2. My comrades are always telling me that I(a) am intellectually advanced(b) am ideologically […]

Sam Orner: A Witness At Ludlow

In The Western Socialist, 1965, there appeared an article entitled, The Ludlow Massacre that happened in 1913. The Ludlow article resulted in a response from a member of the then named Workers’ Socialist Party of the United States who had witnessed to some of the events when he was a soap-box orator for the Industrial Workers of the World at the time. The Socialist Party journal shortly after the massacre […]

The ethical work of Karl Marx

Written by Maximilien Rubel in 1982 for the Socialist Party of Great Britain’s journal, Socialist Standard, but not published. [The ethical work of Karl Marx by Maximilien Rubel 1982 (marxists.org)] 1. If ethics is taken to be, on the one hand, the negation of bourgeois ideology and morality and, on the other, as the intellectual and practical anticipation […]

A Slight Christmas Carol

A Short Story from the December 1954 issue of the Socialist Standard Scrooge buttoned his overcoat and picked up his Chronicle, said goodnight to the office and left. This was not the Ebenezer Scrooge who said “ Humbug ” and disliked Christmas but later had a change of heart and died in the workhouse through giving all his money away: […]

Rusia nunca fue Socialista

En este año se cumple el centenario de la Revolución Rusa el  cual se enfocara  en la toma del poder por los Bolcheviques  en  el mes de Noviembre del 1917. La histórica rivalidad entre las potencias Occidentales y el  primer tal  llamado  estado “Comunista” ha sido presentado  como una lucha entre la  ‘Democracia Liberal’ de […]

Inside Canada’s political parties: The Socialist Party of Canada

Some believe that the climate and pandemic crises has drawn many people to look for an alternative: Socialism. The Socialist Party of Canada wants to define what socialism really means. ’At several demonstrations in Toronto, this journalist has come across a lot of members of the Socialist and Communist Parties of Canada. The representatives hand out information […]

Rosa Luxemburgo y la Cuestión Nacional

¿Hay un ” derecho de las naciones a la autodeterminación ” del cuallos Socialistas debieran ser partidarios? Esta fue la cuestióndebatida por los Socialdemócratas antes de la primera guerra mundial,especialmente en Rusia y en Austria, ambos imperios multinacionalespor aquél entonces. Lenin, fiel a su visión oportunista de quecualquier slogan era útil si ayudaba, dijo sí […]