USA/Canada

Neither Washington nor Moscow: those were the days

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Author: 
David Finkel & Marty Oppenheimer

We continue our series of recollections and reflections from activists who were involved with the “third camp” left in the United States — those “unorthodox” Trotskyists who believed that the Soviet Union was not a “workers’ state” (albeit a “degenerated” one), but an exploitative form of class rule to be as opposed as much as capitalism. This week, we publish contributions from people of two generations, David Finkel, who is now an editor of the Against the Current magazine in the US, and Marty Oppenheimer, who has been active in developing radical sociology.

The heart of the “third camp”

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Author: 
Herman Benson & Gabe Gabrielsky

In Solidarity 242, we began publishing a series of recollections and reflections from activists who had been involved with the “third camp” left in the United States — those “unorthodox” Trotskyists who believed that the Soviet Union was not a “workers’ state” (albeit a “degenerated” one), but an exploitative form of class rule to be as opposed as much as capitalism. This week, we publish contributions from Herman Benson, one of the last surviving founder members of the 1939/40 Workers Party and former industrial editor of its paper Labor Action, and Gabe Gabrielsky, who was a member of the Young People’s Socialist League and later the International Socialists.

Demonstration: support the students' movement in Quebec!

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Date: 
16 May, 2012 - 17:30 - 19:00
Location: 

Canada House, 5 Trafalgar Square, City of Westminster, SW1Y 5BJ

Description: 

Sign the online petition against police violence here

The Quebecois students’ movement has been engaged in an all-out student strike for 12 weeks, against a 75% increase in tuition fees.

Demonstrations, occupations, walk-outs and blockades have been taking place across Quebec since February, in protest against the Charest government’s plan to make students pay radically more for their education.

The students, organised in the coalition CLASSE, have made a counter-proposal to the government: cut management pay, and tax the rich and big business to fund free education.

The sustained action of the students has brought the government to the negotiating table – but the movement has also suffered violent police repression.

Police have repeatedly attacked demonstrations, and last week at a protest in Victoriaville, students Maxence Valade, 20 and Alexandre Allade, 20, were seriously wounded by police. Valade lost an eye and both are still in hospital with potentially fatal head injuries.

Join the protest called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts at the Canadian High Commission on Wednesday to show your support for the Quebecois student movement.