150 years ago, in 1871, amidst a war between “their” government and that of Germany, working people in the capital city of France, long exploited, impoverished, and degraded, rose up to seize power and established a new form of association among people. This was the Paris Commune, which existed only in that one part of France, and which lasted for only two short months, but which represented, in embryonic form, a communist society in which distinctions of class and oppressive divisions among people would be finally abolished. The Commune was crushed by the weight and force of the old order—with thousands slaughtered in a valiant but ultimately vain attempt to keep the Commune alive. But the first steps had been taken toward a new world, the path had been opened, the way shown, if only fleetingly.
On March 16, Robert Long, a 21-year-old white man, shot and killed six Asian women employed at Atlanta-area massage-parlor spas, along with two other non-Asian customers.
What we know so far of the accused killer’s motivation from credible news reports—that these women supposedly deserved and needed to be slaughtered to prevent him from “falling into sin”—points to the deep, widely spread and Christian-fascist-inspired hatred of women and the oppression and degradation of women that serves “as a social glue” for the entire society. And while there is not yet evidence of an explicit (openly stated) anti-Asian or anti-immigrant element in the accused killer’s motivations, there is the reality that he went out of his way to target these spas staffed by Asian women immigrants in the context of a marked increase of racist attacks against Asian immigrants nationally. Whatever the conscious intent, these sow terror among Asian people within the U.S.
Seventeen well-known international researchers in biology and the environment recently issued an urgent analysis and call to squarely confront the ecological emergency. Their widely commented on paper is titled “Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future.” It brings together evidence from many scientific fields and pointedly observes that “the scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its life forms—including humanity—is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts.”
1. This system of capitalism-imperialism is the source of endless horrors for the majority of people in this country and all around the world, and it is increasingly threatening the very existence of humanity. We are actively working for an actual revolution—to bring down, to overthrow and completely abolish, this whole system as soon as possible and replace it with something radically different and much better, a new society built on an entirely different foundation…Read more »
In Iran, after the people’s uprising in December 2017, and especially after the massive rebellion in November 2019, repression has become more widespread and more severe. Among those targeted by the Islamic regime are women activists, especially those who worked for women’s rights. In large part those are the ones being arrested and are now many of the political prisoners. Based on the names, places and prison sentences of those arrested, it can be seen that this repression covers all areas of political, cultural and intellectual activities and different localities in Iran. It encompasses environmentalists to labor and women’s rights activists, from oppressed nationalities to religious minorities—from the cities and regions of Tehran and Karaj to Kurdistan, Ahvaz and Azerbaijan … and from the Fars to the minority people of the Kurds, the Arabs, to the Baluchis, etc. This is not only the continuation of the permanent repression of the Islamic Republic, but also the beginning of a new round of repression. And in fact, it is a testimony to the battle between the regime and the people. The regime aims to restore its lost stability in their current fragile hold on Iranian society.
