History and Traditions

  • The story of the San Patricios--Irish soldiers who left the U.S. Army to fight for Mexico in the 1846 war--is an important but hidden story of resistance to empire. March 19, 2010

  • The practice of cloaking military invasions in idealistic garb has a long history--to hide the real aims of conquest, colonization and exploitation. February 23, 2010

  • The right wing used Howard Zinn's death as an opportunity to spew vitriol, but some mainstream historians are also dismissing his work. February 11, 2010

  • To know that Howard Zinn was a part of our struggle made people stand a little taller and feel a little more committed and confident about our fight. February 5, 2010

  • The civil rights movement's lunch counter sit-ins--direct action protests against a hated symbol of Jim Crow segregation--began 50 years ago today. February 1, 2010

  • With Howard Zinn's death, we lose a man who did nothing less than rewrite the narrative of the United States. January 29, 2010

  • He taught millions about the hidden history of resistance in America--and he was a fixture of countless struggles for justice and equality. January 28, 2010

  • A rebellion of slaves in the ancient world still thrills us today with its size--and the way it humbled the greatest empire of its day. January 15, 2010

  • One of the key figures of the French student revolt of 1968 and a revolutionary through all the years since has died after 15 years of living with AIDS. January 13, 2010

  • The movement for global justice lost an irreplaceable comrade when the South African poet and activist passed away December 26. January 4, 2010

  • Even in his last days, Dennis Brutus was fully engaged, advocating protest against those responsible for climate change and social injustice. January 4, 2010

  • The 1976 Olympic Games were in jeopardy, and the cause of all the tumult, according to Sports Illustrated, was a diminutive South African poet. January 4, 2010

  • The union organizer and socialist featured in the documentary Union Maids died on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 93. December 9, 2009

  • The myths about the "first Thanksgiving" are meant to sanitize history and turn the conquest of the Americas into a benign national origin story. November 25, 2009

  • The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago was one crest in a wave of revolt that overturned governments across half of Europe at the end of 1989. November 12, 2009

  • Long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there was a history of workers' struggle against the self-described Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. November 6, 2009

  • The regimes of Eastern Europe that collapsed 20 years after a series of mass rebellions were the opposite of what we mean by socialism. November 3, 2009

  • Socialism is a system in which people democratically come together to determine how to structure our society so everyone can reach their real potential. October 28, 2009

  • Non-human animals don't possess the attributes that would allow them to engage in activities we associate with "liberation" and "rights." October 25, 2009

  • When politicians gathered at the Capitol for the unveiling of a statue of Helen Keller, they left out an important fact--Keller was a socialist. October 18, 2009

  • One hundred and fifty years ago today, a band of men led by John Brown launched an armed attack they hoped would spark an uprising against slavery. October 15, 2009

  • The myths taught to America about Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of America are a cover for inconceivable acts of violence. October 14, 2009

  • China recently marked the 60th anniversary of a 1949 "peoples' revolution" that kicked out foreign powers--but workers there have never really held power. October 12, 2009

  • Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, passed away on October 2 at the age of 90. October 11, 2009

  • Capitalism depends for its survival on divisions created in the working class, so the struggle for a new society must challenge those divisions. October 8, 2009