"Much of what had once made Venezuela an attractive model was deeply contradictory. The Venezuelan process combined diverse forms of popular empowerment with ultra-charismatic leadership; redistribution of oil wealth that involved bureaucratic-military cliques sacking the resources of the state; communal democracy from below with authoritarian forms from above; a discourse of socialist planning with very limited capacity for public management"
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/implosion-bolivarian-revolution
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/implosion-bolivarian-revolution
Dissent Magazine
The Implosion of the Bolivarian Revolution | Dissent Magazine
Because anti-imperialist discourse in Latin America serves short-term political purposes, the latter-day defenders of Chavismo have little interest in studying the political dynamics and concrete geostrategic interests behind really existing empire.
"Okay, just so things are clear: a more egalitarian taxation system in Ireland is Trumpism, mildly criticizing political opponents is an electoral tactic pioneered by Trump, and the mild-mannered leader of a leftwing nationalist party promising affordable homes, tax reforms, and reunification is a Trump emulator. Right, got it. Makes total sense."
https://theoutline.com/post/8662/sinn-fein-trumpian-irish-election?zd=1&zi=a4yj7d2b
https://theoutline.com/post/8662/sinn-fein-trumpian-irish-election?zd=1&zi=a4yj7d2b
The Outline
If you can’t beat them, call them Trumpian
Ireland’s ascendent Sinn Féin party is nothing like Trump, but that hasn’t stopped critics from levying an increasingly banal attack.
"In our present moment, the rallying cry of “Elect progressive Democrats” rings woefully insufficient. We require a concerted and well-organized movement capable of overcoming the machinations of the establishment center—one that sustains the landscape-shifting power of Sanders’s public willingness to self-identify as a socialist."
https://dsa-lsc.org/2017/09/30/how-to-have-a-party/
https://dsa-lsc.org/2017/09/30/how-to-have-a-party/
DSA Libertarian Socialist Caucus
How to Have a Party
How do we overcome the Democrats? Elaborating on the inside-outside strategy the author proposes the creation of a socialist “dual party” which coordinates campaigns and eventually politicians both within and outside the Democratic Party ballot line so they…
"It does not take a barricade-building socialist to recognize that our daily lives are not imbued with democratic notions and activities. We all know at the end of the day that our workplaces are dictatorships where a certain person, or group of persons, usually disconnected from the actual operation of the enterprise, run them with iron fists. If you step out of line, your punishment is the loss of your job, which pays the wage that provides for the means to live. There is a democracy deficit at work, and that deficit spreads to legislatures locally, nationally, and even internationally."
roarmag.org/essays/richard-wolff-understanding-socialism-review/
roarmag.org/essays/richard-wolff-understanding-socialism-review/
ROAR Magazine
Worker self-directed enterprises: the cure for capitalism
In his new book “Understanding Socialism,” Richard Wolff paves the way for a 21st century socialism that starts with democratizing the workplace.
"It is, by and large, a mirror of attempts by right-wing groups to limit access to abortion and gut access to reproductive health care under the guise of “patient safety” and religious freedom. It’s the same basic playbook, a culture war narrative paired with a try-anything-once legislative approach that, if and when it works, will have devastating consequences for all Americans’ basic rights."
https://newrepublic.com/article/156539/new-anti-trans-culture-war-hiding-plain-sight
https://newrepublic.com/article/156539/new-anti-trans-culture-war-hiding-plain-sight
The New Republic
The New Anti-Trans Culture War Hiding in Plain Sight
The right's fixation on trans youth has found its new target: criminalizing doctors who provide puberty blockers and hormones.
"We face a rabid, cornered beast with the devil's strength, but no matter how it snarls or how wide its arc of bloody destruction, it can't live forever - because it's already dying."
https://dsa-lsc.org/2019/07/07/dual-power-is-not-passive/
https://dsa-lsc.org/2019/07/07/dual-power-is-not-passive/
DSA Libertarian Socialist Caucus
Dual Power Is Not Passive
We face a rabid, cornered beast with the devil's strength, but no matter how it snarls or how wide its arc of bloody destruction, it can't live forever - because it's already dying. We need to be building now because the current system will be falling soon.