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Report Back from Russia and Donetsk – Dan Kovalik – January 8, 2023 10:30 AM Pacific...

Latin America and the Caribbean have taken on a becoming pink complexion, all the more so
with historic left victories this year in Colombia and Brazil. These electoral rejections of the
rightwing followed left victories last year in Peru, Honduras, and Chile. And those, in turn, came
after similar routs in Bolivia in 2020, Argentina in 2019, and Mexico in 2018.
This surging “Pink Tide” protests the neoliberal model imposed by the US and its collaborators.
Neoliberalism has failed to meet the needs of the peoples of the region and is losing its
legitimacy as a prototype for development. However, the countries of the region must of
necessity engage in a world financial order dominated by the US, which circumscribes the
possibilities for developing their economies successfully.
The limitations of the social democratic politics, the emerging role of China in the hemisphere,
and the future of explicitly socialist Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela will be addressed.

Our speaker, Roger Harris, taught political science at a Historically Black College in
Mississippi in the late 1960s and did community organizing in East Harlem. Roger is currently
on the state central committee of the Peace and Freedom Party and on the board of the human
rights organization, Task Force on the Americas. He is on the program committee of the Niebyl-
Proctor Marxist Library and the executive committee of the US Peace Council. He is active in
the #FreeAlexSaab and the SanctionsKill campaigns. His political writings may be found at
Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Mint Press News, Popular Resistance, and the Orinoco Tribune.
For further reading, see: https://popularresistance.org/the-volatility-of-us-hegemony-in-latin-
america-part-iii/.

Our program will address current events in Iran and the international reaction to them. US-led forces are exploiting events in Iran to push for violent regime change. Unilateral and illegal economic sanctions imposed by the US are killing Iranians. These sanctions are responsible for much of the Iranian people’s suffering and anger. They have served as a background for the outburst of different protests and are intentionally aimed at destabilizing the Iranian society through instigating a “velvet revolution.” Iran is targeted by the imperialists because of its key role in an emerging multipolar world through strategic alliances with countries and movements such as Syria, Russia, China, and Venezuela, and Hezbollah.

“Every Liberal is a Socialist. Every Socialist is a Communist. Every Communist is Moscow’s Spy.” So went a poster used in an anti-May Day “Loyalty Day” march in the high cold war period after WWII.

But anti-Communism went far beyond traditional conservative and reactionary groups and became the foundation of a “cold war consensus” for U.S. domestic and foreign policy in the post WWII period. In my presentation I will examine the relationship between color racism as the model for anti-radicalism at home and in U.S. imperialism abroad, and the role of the Communist Party USA in its struggle against both.

Norman Markowitz was born in 1943 and grew up in the South Bronx. He attended the then free tuition City College of New York (1962-1966) and the University of Michigan on a “National Defense Act” Fellowship and received his PhD in 1970. He taught history at Northern Illinois University (1969-1971) and at Rutgers University/New Brunswick (1971-present).
He has written numerous articles for various print and internet publications, scholarly journals, encyclopedia, and Marxist and Communist publications and websites on topics which include the history of the Communist movement in the U.S. and its activists, and the role of anti-Communism in U.S. history.
He served on the editorial board of Political Affairs, the theoretical journal of the CPUSA for many years and is currently a member of the International Department of the CPUSA.

A huge, unprecedented strike of academic workers started on November 14th, hitting all ten University of California campuses like a ton of bricks. The 48,000 striking workers perform the majority of the teaching and research at UC, yet the pay and benefits for these workers, members of the United Auto Workers union, is way too low especially for high-cost-of-living areas like Berkeley, California.

The UC Regents, who run the university and represent the most powerful business interests in the state, have so far refused to bargain over wages.

Come to a special session of Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library to hear the latest about this historic academic workers strike.

Speaker: Dave Welsh is a writer, musician, retired letter carrier, Labor Council delegate, and lifelong fighter for people’s power. Whether it was the civil rights movement in Mississippi, support for the Black Panther Party, solidarity with the grassroots movement in Haiti, or breaking the blockade of Cuba at the border with the Pastors for Peace caravans, or holding down Oscar Grant Plaza with Occupy Oakland or the ongoing fight to jail killer cops – he’s been a part of it.