Americas

A recent survey shows that the United States may be becoming both less religious generally and less Christian specifically.  This may come as a shock to some, as over the past decade, the Religious Right has for many people come to represent the public face of the country.  This has been spurred on and encouraged by the cries coming from many liberals over the past few years of an impending “theocracy.”  However, the facts on the ground are quite different, as the American Religious Identification Survey, performed by Trinity College in Hartford, CT, recently proved.

Today, the corporate media and the creators of public opinion try to present Canada as a peaceful land where class struggle has played no role. The fact is that workers in the past have fought, and even died, to gain their rights and will do so again in the future. The 1919 Winnipeg general strike was one example.

Month after month, we report a seemingly endless stream of dismal economic figures. Behind these numbers are millions of Americans who are beginning to ask themselves a very important question: is the instability of capitalism really the only alternative?

In an uncharacteristic break from the focus on “Obamamania,” the mainstream media recently cast a cautious spotlight on the plight of America's “newly homeless” and a phenomenon that should send a chill through anyone even remotely familiar with the history of the Great Depression: the return of the shanty town.

Marxists in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver were active in intervening at May Day rallies this past weekend. We publish here reports and pictures from the three cities.

The Fightback Editorial Board is presenting this draft document for discussion amongst Canadian workers, youth and revolutionaries. Here they explain how Canada is not immune to the crisis of capitalism. The task of this document is to gauge the impact of the economic crisis on consciousness and politics so that revolutionaries may orientate their forces for maximum effect.

We have received this article from Ron Ridenour, which was originally published in the Havana Times. The article is a report on a series of workshops that have been held in Cuba, such as one held under the title, "The significance and meaning of the revolution in our lives", where different opinions are expressed. We publish it for the interest of our readers.

The economic crisis has now dragged on for months and there is no end in sight for U.S. workers. Worst of all, we workers, our children and grand children, will have to pay all of this debt back – with interest – and will have received nothing of any real substance in return. Enough is enough! We say, make the rich pay for their crisis!

As President Barack Obama visits Europe following the G-20 summit in London,  Obama is no longer addressing auto workers in terms of “Change” but rather with the cold vocabulary of Wall Street: Viability, Profitability and Liability. The administration’s recent restructuring plan is backed up with factory closings, mass layoffs, wage and benefit cuts and possibly the closing of entire companies.

On Tuesday, March 17th, a group of 80 workers in the industrial town of Windsor, Ontario, occupied the Aradco auto parts plant. This occupation marks the re-awakening of the occupied factories movement in Canada and is an important turning point in the ongoing crisis of the North American auto industry.

The incoming Obama administration has begun putting new bailout plans into action for nearly-bankrupt auto companies GM and Chrysler. The most recent “rescue packages” have come with more than a few strings attached. As the economic crisis deepens, the bosses will seek to unload the burden onto workers’ shoulders. This underlines the need for militant, class struggle policies in the unions to place the burden of the crisis where it belongs: with the bosses!

On Friday, February 27th, after a round of congratulations for the imperialist war leaders, Barack Obama explained the course that the Iraq War would take under his administration. Far from an honest depiction of the war, Obama's speech glorified the war, painting it in the language of poetic nationalism and with heroic lingo.

A major clash between the classes has taken place in El Salvador. One of the most reactionary ruling classes in Latin America has been kicked out of office. The masses once again defeated the scandalous electoral fraud that was being prepared by ARENA, the reactionary right wing party founded by anti-communist death squad leader Roberto D'Aubisson. The ruling class, reluctantly, had to concede the victory of the left wing FMLN in order to prevent a revolutionary explosion.