History Exposes a Crucial Flaw in RFK Jr.’s Vision for Treating Drug Addiction
Tag: Slavery
The Anti-Racist Struggle
The revolutionary origins of Memorial Day and its political hijacking
TO BE LIKE BONO OR KNEECAP?
He hob knobbed with neoliberals such as Jeffrey Sachs, various presidents of the World Bank, promoted pharmaceutical companies in Africa and of course was on the side of Bush in the Iraq War, at least in practice and helped whitewash the reputations of many of those involved. He hedged his bets a bit on Iraq, not wanting to seem too hawkish, saying the war was justified but the US should get UN backing for it. He then went on to endorse Clinton and Blair time and again. Jim Kerr from the Scottish band Simple Minds put it succinctly at the time.
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RFK Jr. Is Headlining the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit. This Doesn’t Bode Well.
RFK Jr. Is Headlining the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit. This Doesn’t Bode Well.
On April 21, the first day of the 14th annual Rx and Illicit Drug Summit, organizers announced a surprise presenter for the closing plenary on April 24: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., newly minted Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and vocal proponent of building labor camps for people who use drugs.
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[03-08-1987] Thomas Sankara: The revolution cannot triumph without the emancipation of women
The revolution cannot triumph without the emancipation of women
The specific character of women’s oppression
Woman’s fate is bound up with that of the exploited male. This is a fact. However, this solidarity, arising from the exploitation that both men and women suffer and that binds them together historically, must not cause us to lose sight of the specific reality of the woman’s situation. The conditions of her life are determined by more than economic factors, and they show that she is a victim of a specific oppression. The specific character of this oppression cannot be explained away by setting up an equal sign or by falling into easy and childish simplifications.
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Techno Feudalism
A Socialist, Feminist, and Transgender Analysis of “Sex Work” (2020)
The question of women’s liberation is central to any revolutionary project, and thus so is the question of “sex work.” Esperanza Fonseca’s contribution, although coming from a Maoist political orientation with which we often have differences, [1] makes the stakes of this debate crystal clear, as she combines personal experience, public policy research, and historical materialism to argue that Marxists cannot uphold what she calls “sex-trade-expansionary feminism.”
Content Warning: Descriptions of rape.
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The right of the subordinated classes of men to buy access to women’s bodies has been used historically to break class solidarity in order to maintain the dominant social relations of the time. This was true in feudal Europe and remains true today: when proletarian and petit bourgeois men get to buy women too, they develop a false consciousness and build solidarity with bourgeois men of their own gender rather than aligning with women of their own class. And because the overthrow of capitalism is only possible by the overthrowing of the bourgeoisie, prostitution serves two great purposes: (1) allows bourgeois men access to a reserve army of women for their pleasure, and (2) prevent class consciousness and thus helps stop the proletariat from organizing as a class.
A Socialist, Feminist, and Transgender Analysis of “Sex Work” (2020)
Lenin: “The Right to Divorce”
…This question of divorce is a striking illustration of the fact that one cannot be a democrat and a socialist without immediately demanding full freedom of divorce, for the absence of such freedom is an additional burden on the oppressed sex, woman – although it is not at all difficult to understand that the recognition of the right of women to leave their husbands is not an invitation to all wives to do so!…
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The fight continues: U.S. states loosen child labor laws as violations keep soaring
Recent analysis shows that over the past 10 years child labor violations across the U.S. have tripled, reports the Washington Post. Investigators have uncovered an uptick in labor violations in standard work for teens, like fast food-restaurants and other service industries. Multiple instances of minors working in dangerous jobs that federal law prohibits, like meatpacking, manufacturing, and construction, have also been uncovered at increasing rates. Despite that, at least 16 states have one or more bills to weaken their child labor laws. What’s going on?
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While most states have tougher laws than the federal rules, some Republican lawmakers seek to undo those restrictions in their state. These lawmakers are backed in their efforts by restaurant, liquor, and home builders’ associations, who stand to benefit from an expanded low-wage worker pool if the changes pass. Protection stripping legislation for six states was drafted or lobbied for by Florida-based lobbying group, the Foundation for Government Accountability, which fights to promote conservative interests like restricting access to anti-poverty programs. There are some states, like Colorado and Virginia, fighting the trend and enacting legislation to dial up penalties for violations. Rep. Sheila Lieder (D) introduced a bill in Colorado to raise the fines for violators saying that at $20 per offense, the current penalties were not high enough to effectively dissuade employers from violating child labor laws.
The fight continues: U.S. states loosen child labor laws as violations keep soaring
I thought that it was “woke” Democrats trying to destroy the family? /s
Related:
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Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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