A Revolutionary New Year’s Greeting for 2008 >From the Freedom Socialist Party
Workers of the world, uniting That’s the way to lose your chains. Mighty regiments now are fighting That no tyranny remains! Forward, without forgetting Till the concrete question is hurled When starving or when eating: Whose tomorrow is tomorrow? And whose world is the world? As a new year approaches, Bertolt Brecht’s poem “Solidarity Song,” written in the 1930s, rings true. Just as when Brecht wrote the “Song” in the 1930s, the world today still belongs to the exploiters. And, across the globe, they are running amok, led by the ruling class of the United States ­ with tragic consequences for the poor, the powerless, and the oppressed. >From Latin America to China, corporate globalization is wrecking lives. In Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine, whole populations pay the price of U.S. or U.S.-backed war and occupation. In the U.S. itself, workers’ real wages decline as costs zoom for everything gas and oil to food, education and healthcare. Home foreclosures are the scourge of the day. Low-income public housing is demolished from New Orleans to Seattle. The “poverty draft” means that young people lacking opportunities become the U.S. casualties of the so-called war on terror. Religious fundamentalists vent their wrath against reproductive freedom for women and social equality for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. Retirees and would-be retirees wonder how they are going to survive in the touted “golden years.” But, as we enter the eighth year of the new millennium, opportunities exist to fight back and to make real change! To borrow from the Asian Zodiac, the coming Year of the Rat will be a time of hard work and constant activity. And that’s where we come in ­ working women and men of every race and nationality, the unemployed, immigrants, students and radicals. We can build on our victories in 2007 ­ some of them tangible, some of them gains in consciousness. Facing attack by the profit-chasing system, U.S. immigrants, autoworkers, nurses, janitors, teachers, and writers all shoved back. In September, tens of thousands of people flooded the town of Jena, Louisiana, to fight the racist railroading of African American teenagers and the revival of a familiar symbol of terror, the lynching noose. Immigrants of color and their allies stepped up to fend off ICE raids in the workplace. In Los Angeles, Palestinian immigrants thwarted a 20-year effort to deport them because of their politics. Supporters of jailed revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal fought successfully to be heard on the national television show Today after the program scheduled an interview with the widow of the police officer whom Mumia is falsely convicted of killing. Lt. Ehren Watada is a bright voice among GI resisters and their families who are telling the military that it’s immoral and illegal to fight in Iraq. Attorney and civil liberties hero Lynne Stewart, convicted on terror-related charges for her aggressive defense of a client, won a much reduced sentence against heavy odds and continues her struggle for justice. The Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) has been deeply involved in this campaign, as has our sister organization, Radical Women. Latin American workers and farmers determined to win a decent, secure, and dignified living are fiercely battling a tide of ever-expanding exploitation. The FSP has also played a strong role in supporting the valiant fight of Costa Ricans against CAFTA, a struggle defeated by lies and corruption emanating from the U.S. White House. Working people ourselves must make 2008 a year of turning this tide. We can expect little in the U.S. from the two national labor federations as long as their leaderships remain in cahoots with the Democratic Party ­ the second party of Big Business, including the big business of war. What’s needed to provide a socialist alternative at the ballot box is better and more extensive cooperation among working-class and revolutionary organizations. Outside the electoral arena as well, this collaboration could be key to a stronger, wider, and more effective challenge to the tyranny of profit-mongering that maims and kills in the name of bourgeois “freedom and democracy.” The FSP invites groups and individuals to work with us to make this happen. The kind of world we need is ours to create. That kind of world is socialist. It’s feminist. It’s egalitarian and fully realizable. Let’s do it! ___________________________________________________________ Freedom Socialist Party U.S. Section 4710 University Way NE, #100 Seattle, WA 98105 USA Australian Section PO Box 2066 Brunswick, VIC 3055 Australia ___________________________________________________________ To subscribe to the Freedom Socialist newspaper, or see the booklist at Red Letter Press, or to find out more about the Freedom Socialist Party, go to _www.socialism.com_ (http://www.socialism.com/) , or reply to this message. We would love to hear from you! ___________________________________________________________ To subscribe to this list send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) with Subscribe in the subject box. P.S. 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