Chelsea Manning to be released today

On July 12, 2007, two U.S. attack helicopters fired on idle civilians, on an ambulance picking them up and on some moribund civilians as they slowly dragged on the ground, to finish killing them. None were armed. Up to more than 18 were killed and 2 children were injured. The soldiers were caught on video, …

NSA had partial responsibility for ransomware attack

The National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States capitalist state had partial responsibility for the WannaCrypt ransomware attack this week which infected thousands of computers throughout the world, including the computer network of the NHS healthcare system of the United Kingdom, stole and then made inaccessible most documents and asked for a money payment …

The Sci-Hub Case: The Reality of Science in Capitalism

For a long time, access to the articles and results of scientific research - which are often written in a way that is understandable by non-experts who are reasonably intelligent and have some basic knowledge - wasn't possible for the overwhelming majority of the population. Accessing just one scientific article about a study from an …

The Myth of Trump as an “Anti-Establishment” President

During his campaign, many conservatives in the United States characterized Donald Trump as an "anti-establishment" candidate. Trump flaunted his slogan "drain the swamp," which is meant to mean ridding corruption from the US government. However, this claim has revealed itself to be a sham. A clear example of this is his recent intervention in Syria …

The communist abolition of the family

In The Communist Manifesto (1848), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels noted: Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists. While this infamous communist position is given up or revised by supposedly left parties, the communist transformation of society will involve the abolition of the family and …

The true origins of Marx’s political thinking

In Two Souls of Socialism (1966), Hal Draper remarked that Karl Marx came from a far-left liberal background, focusing on the unconditional freedom of individuals. When he encountered the primitive embryo of socialist and communist ideas, his contribution was to combine democracy and socialism. This was connected with his heavy influence from radical humanist ideas …

libcom.org posts anti-Marxist polemic

Anarchist Web site libcom.org (the name of which is short for "libertarian communism") has posted an article, "Free speech and its limitations in response to dealing with the far right" in a response to an article by one of our writers, "The Question of Freedom of Speech Facing Socialists". While our Web site (as of …

The Question of Freedom of Speech Facing Socialists

While leftists have often been victims of anti-free speech laws in history, exemplified by the Argentinian Dirty War, the Kent State Massacre, the Holocaust, the Spanish White Terror, etc., there is some debate concerning whether freedom of speech should be given to all opinions, such as those of fascists. In this article I will discuss …

Volkswagen Kills 1200

A new peer reviewed article published in the scientific journal Environmental Research Letters found that approximately 1200 people in Europe will die as a result of the corporation producing cars en masse which violate the existing environmental regulation within capitalism: corresponding to 13 000 life-years lost and 1.9 billion EUR in costs associated with life-years lost …