History and Traditions

  • From the belly of the beast

    With The Condition of the English Working Class, Frederick Engels developed the Marxist understanding of the class that could transform society.

  • Uprising of the Black autoworkers

    The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement was the most significant formation of Black workers to organize in the workplace.

  • For a workers' united front against fascism

    Trotsky analyzed the rise of fascism in Germany and made the case for confronting it with the tactic of the "united front."

  • The making of the Mystique

    Published in 1963, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was one of the first popular expressions of a growing rejection of women's second-class status.

  • Remembering the Wounded Knee occupation

    One of the most important examples of Native Americans' determination to resist oppression began 40 years ago.

  • Black Power in the workplace

    In the late 1960s, radicals took Black Power into the heart of American industry, triggering a national strike wave.

  • Soviet power and the status of women

    Bourgeois democracy promises liberty, but no bourgeois republic gave women the equality that Russia's revolutionary government did.

  • On the stage of history

    C.L.R. James wrote a play about the leader of the Haitian revolution before penning his magnificent The Black Jacobins.

  • A mighty voice for freedom

    Schools and streets may carry the name of Frederick Douglass, yet the real story of his life and the struggles he helped lead remain little known.

  • Towards a revolutionary socialist party

    An organized layer of workers with a shared consciousness of the necessity for socialism and how to achieve it has to be created.

  • The Black Panthers

    No revolutionary organization of the 1960s and '70s era frightened the ruling class as much as the Black Panther Party.

  • The Black Power era

    The Black Power movement was a magnificent high point of African American resistance--one that inspired and shaped radicals for years to come.

  • The women's question

    In 1909, Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai outlined the material basis for women's oppression, and how the working class can win liberation.

  • Turning Black Power into Black capitalism

    In contrast to groups like the Black Panthers, one wing of Black nationalism defined "Black Power" in explicitly capitalist terms.

  • Marxism, feminism and women's liberation

    Marxists must not minimize the degree of oppression faced by women inside the working class, but rather make a serious effort on every front to combat it.

  • Urban rebellions and social change

    Far from being "pointless violence" the Black urban rebellions of the 1960s changed the direction of U.S. politics.

  • The struggle that won legal abortion

    On the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, it's worth reflecting on how this landmark decision was won--and the lessons for today's battles.

  • The part of the dream they forget

    Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered for his "I Have a Dream" speech--but there's more to the story than usually gets told.

  • The politics of Malcolm X

    Malcolm X gave a voice to the rage of millions of Black workers at a time when they had no means of political expression.

  • The right to self-determination

    In 1916, the leader of the Bolsheviks discussed the approach socialists should take to imperialism and national oppression.

  • The case for socialist organization

    The question of how revolutionary socialists organize--and what strategies, tactics and ideas they represent--is vitally important.

  • Lessons of the Paris Commune

    Twenty years after the first brief experience of workers' power in 1871, Frederick Engels wrote about its legacy.

  • The rise of the Black Muslims

    The ideas of the Nation of Islam, including Black self-defense, appealed to Northern Blacks in an era of growing discontent.

  • The return of class struggle unionism

    When we talk about rebuilding the labor movement today, we aren't limited to talking about what's wrong, but also what's right.

  • Socialists and religion

    The roots of religion lie in the conditions workers endure--and their sense of apparent helplessness in the face of capitalism.