Socialist Appeal
The British section of the International Marxist Tendency
The question of instituitionalised racism has shot to the surface in the USA as a result of a series of unprovoked killings of black youth by police officers. Vigilante shootings of police officers have recently been seen in response. John Peterson of Socialist Appeal USA explains the background of polarisation that has led to these horrific exchanges.
A media storm has surrounded this year's Oscars in Hollywood, as a result of the lack of ethnic diversity in the nominations for the acting categories. Similar criticisms have also been levelled at the Brit Awards, the main musical awards in the UK. Owen Walsh explores the question of diversity within the culture industry.
Over five-hundred reports of abuse and harassment were made to the police in Cologne, Germany, on New Year's Eve. What exactly happened remains unclear. What is not uncertain is that the assaults in Cologne have been used by the ruling class and the right-wing media to attack and demonise immigrants, dividing the working class.
Fifty years ago Malcolm X was brutally assassinated and thus one of the loudest voices against injustice was removed. In the last period of his life he was evolving towards a class understanding of society.
The ugly face of Obama's “hope we can believe in” has been starkly revealed. The extrajudicial killings of Michael Brown andEric Garner, unarmed black males killed by white police officers, have set off an emotional firestorm of protests and outrage on a scale not seen in the US in many years. It is the task of the Marxists to help people draw out the revolutionary conclusions implicit within the situation.