While voices on the right decried Bush and Obama’s massive bailout of Wall Street as “socialist,” real socialists were actively campaigning against it, explaining that it amounted to a giant handout to those who had created the crisis.

Socialist Alternative representative Ramy Khalil debated Tea Party leader Keli Carender on the radio. Listen to the debate here from Pacifica-affiliated KBCS 91.3 FM Voices of Diversity on July 21, 2010.

Being a supervisor for five years at a Fortune 500 company made me a socialist. When I first entered management I was a Republican and honestly believed that if you worked hard and the company prospered, you would prosper as well.

“Millions of unemployed Americans are suffering economic and personal catastrophes… This is not your ordinary dip in the business cycle. Americans believe that this is the Katrina of recessions. Folks are on their rooftops without a boat. The water is rising, and many see no way out.” -Economist Carl Van Horn

A representative of Socialist Alternative debated a representative of the Tea Party movement at the May 8, 2010 Northwest Socialism Conference in Seattle. Watch the video here!

The Northwest Socialism Conference, held Saturday, May 8 at Seattle University, marked a big step forward for socialists in Washington State. More than a 140 people from all over Western Washington came to discuss socialism and the conference’s theme “Revolutionary Ideas for Changing the World.” The number of participants mushroomed over the course of three sessions throughout the day. An initial crowd of 75 grew to approximately 140 for the last session featuring a debate with a Tea Party member, forcing the conference to move to a larger room.

Arizona Republican leaders have thrown down the gauntlet to immigrants with new racist legislation. Anyone who “reasonably” looks like an “illegal” immigrant must be stopped by the police and forced to cough up documents and identification. When asked what an undocumented worker looks like, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer had no answer. Clearly, the bill will affect anyone with brown skin or an accent.

This year’s May 1st, International Workers’ Day, was marked by hundreds of thousands marching to support immigrant rights. In over 80 cities across the U.S. actions included marches, rallies and student walkouts as well as civil disobedience. Following on the heels of the 200,000 strong March 21st immigrant rights rally in Washington DC, the movement had already been developing momentum due to the built up frustration on lack of action from Congress or the Obama White House. The recent passage of the racist anti-immigrant law SB 1070 in Arizona just added fuel to the fire, all but promising the May 1st demos would be much bigger than previously anticipated.

Yesterday, workers across Greece took part in a huge general strike in angry opposition to a new "austerity cuts package." The strike hit all public and private sectors and closed down airports, docks and stopped all public transport. In Athens over 200,000, possibly 300,000, marched in the biggest ever trade union protest.

It is clear that a wave of arrests and repression against left and social movement activists in Kazakhstan is gathering pace.

All around the country it’s the same story: state and local governments are short on cash and saying they have to cut spending on education, health care, and other social services. Meanwhile, record Wall Street bonuses of over $140 billion were reported for 2009 by the very same banks which received hundreds of billions in taxpayer bailouts. This is a crisis the rich created, but they want ordinary working people to pay for it.

After the immense hopes placed by millions of Americans in Obama, the Democrats have again shown themselves for what they really are: a party beholden to the interest of big business.

On March 21 of this year, the immigrant worker rights movement was reborn with hundreds of thousands protesting in Washington, D.C. An “immigration reform” bill is being discussed in the halls of power, co-sponsored by Democrat Charles Schumer and Republican Lindsey Graham. While many immigrants’ rights activists are excited for the prospect of this bill passing, the legislation would leave many workers as indentured servants under a guest worker program while tax-payer money would be wasted on militarization of the border.

I was raised primarily by my single mother – a brilliant, fierce, progressive liberal. I used to be so shy that when I experienced injustice, my default response was to accept it. My mom always put things in perspective. She said that correcting an injustice, no matter how small, is never just for my benefit. It’s for everyone that comes afterward. A Canadian immigrant and former attorney and activist, my mom raised me on Baez and Lennon, stories of Columbia University in ‘68 and ‘69, and the words, “I don’t care who you love; I only care that you love.”

Featuring leading antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, Green Party leader Matt Gonzalez, and a debate between the Tea Party and Socialists!