/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

UAW Faction Seeks to Oust President Fain in Sign of Union Unrest
Workers at a Stellantis NV truck factory in suburban Detroit and an engine plant in southeast Michigan voted over the weekend to start the union’s process to remove its leader, said two UAW members involved with the effort. The votes join earlier ones by four other local UAW chapters, reaching the threshold needed for Fain’s opponents to bring allegations of financial mismanagement, workplace retaliation and other issues against him to the federal monitor overseeing the union for potential discipline.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-05/uaw-faction-seeks-to-oust-president-fain-in-sign-of-union-unrest
https://archive.ph/p3OBw

Portland, Oregon, to pay $3.75M to estate of unarmed man fatally shot by police
The city settled with Immanueal Clark’s estate, which had filed a wrongful-death lawsuit last year, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. An officer mistook the 30-year-old as someone involved in an armed robbery earlier in the evening and shot him in the back as he fled from a police stop in November 2022.
https://apnews.com/article/portland-oregon-police-shooting-settlement-immanueal-clark-eb8726fd3ba948469b704e123476a4a6

Georgia: suspected gunman and police officer dead after shooting near CDC and Emory University
A suspected gunman and a police officer are dead after law enforcement responded to reports of an active shooter near the adjoining campuses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday, authorities said.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/08/atlanta-police-emory-university-georgia

NYPD head count doesn't correlate to crime rates, data suggests, despite candidate rhetoric
More than 3,800 officers left the force in 2002 alone, the same year there were 154,809 felony crimes reported, NYPD data shows. The numbers dropped consistently every year until 2011, when the number of police officers hovered around 34,000.
https://gothamist.com/news/nypd-headcount-doesnt-correlate-to-crime-rates-data-suggests-despite-candidate-rhetoric

Episode 480: GI Go Home (TrueAnon)
We’re joined by Jake Romm of the Hind Rajab Foundation to discuss taking legal action against IDF soldiers, compiling war crimes reports from atrocity TikToks filmed by the soldiers themselves, and Israeli war criminals fleeing to Argentina.
https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/episode-480-gi-go-home

Towards 2026: The Fight for Recognition
Both parties fear the DSA. The Republican Party screams of the specter of Democratic Socialism in all corners of their rival party, the Democratic Party. Republican pundits in Fox News write articles endlessly fretting about DSA, pairing us with communism, Beijing, seizing the means of production, and, when our pro-Palestine work is mentioned, even Islamism. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party wishes us dead. This is because, as KIND snacks founder Daniel Lubetzky vocalizes in his whinging op-ed, we are their Project 2025, an existential threat to their existence. We are stoking the fears of the capitalist class in concrete ways that the country has not seen in decades. Yet, we cast a shadow that is larger than our physical presence. Our organization is below 100,000 members. We have elected officials sporadically spread across the nation. We have made inroads in the labor movement, but have yet to reestablish fighting unions. We have won ballot initiatives and other popular vote struggles, but all of these have not been threaded together. We are a specter haunting the pundit class, but we go largely unnoticed among the checked-out masses. We should be proud of our success! We should be proud that the $2.2 billion CEO of a $5 billion company states that “the once marginal group [DSA] has become the most prominent ‘socialist’ organization in American politics.” We should be proud that we strike fear in the hearts of capitalists and their political class. But the fear and concerns of individuals among their class does not destroy the inequalities present in our society, much less move them to dismantle our undemocratic government structure. If the DSA wishes to realize the vision for democratic socialism outlined in the political program, we need more than fear to reach our base, who are either coerced to vote for one of two parties who do not have their interests at heart, or who do not vote because they are keenly aware that politics has nothing to do with them. The past few years have been an exercise in developing our reputation as the head of the nascent socialist movement. We have shown the pundit class that we are not a group that can be ‘bought out’ and turned into one of their many non-profit organizations. We are not Democrats. We are Socialists.
https://cosmonautmag.com/2025/08/towards-2026-the-fight-for-recognition/

Gaza Exposes the Bankruptcy of Western Liberalism An interview with Gilbert Achcar
In his book Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective, Gilbert Achcar analyzes the background, dynamics, and global consequences of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. In this interview with Jacobin, Achcar discusses the political radicalization of Israeli society, the strategic miscalculations of Hamas, and the open complicity of Western governments in the genocide unfolding in Gaza. He argues that the war has unmasked the so-called liberal international order — and further accelerated the global rise of neofascist forces.
https://jacobin.com/2025/08/gaza-western-liberalism-genocide-israel

NPA Unit Successfully Fights Off Attack By AFP Troopers In Capiz Province
The New People’s Army (NPA)-Central Panay (Jose Percival Estocada Jr Command) repelled the 12th IB’s attack on one of its units at the boundary of Barangay Artuz and Barangay Apero in the town of Tapaz, Capiz Province, on July 19. The NPA actively defended against the military troops by swiftly preparing and launching a counterattack. “Taken by surprise, the military reacted like rabid dogs by indiscriminately firing shots,” the NPA-Central Panay said. To conceal their defeat, the 12th IB supported by the 3rd ID, fabricated myths of their so-called victory against the NPA.
https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/20778/

India pauses plans to buy US arms after Trump's tariffs
New Delhi has put on hold its plans to procure new U.S. weapons and aircraft, according to three Indian officials familiar with the matter, in India's first concrete sign of discontent after tariffs imposed on its exports by President Donald Trump dragged ties to their lowest level in decades. India had been planning to send Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to Washington in the coming weeks for an announcement on some of the purchases, but that trip has been cancelled, two of the people said.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/india-pauses-plans-buy-us-arms-after-trumps-tariffs-2025-08-08/

Thai soldiers injured by landmine near Cambodia amid fragile truce
Thailand said the incident took place within its territory in an area recently cleared of landmines. It would lodge a complaint against Cambodia for violating a treaty that bans the use of landmines and for infringing Thai sovereignty, the Thai foreign ministry said in a statement. Both Thailand and Cambodia are signatories to the Ottawa Convention against landmines. It is the third incident in a few weeks in which Thai soldiers have been injured by mines while patrolling along the border.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/9/thai-soldiers-injured-by-landmine-near-cambodia-amid-fragile-truce
https://archive.ph/nCwJw

Azerbaijan and Armenia sign peace deal at White House that creates a ‘Trump Route’ in region
The two countries in the South Caucasus signed agreements with each other, as well as the US, that will reopen key transportation routes while allowing the US to seize on Russia’s declining influence in the region. The deal includes an agreement that will create a major transit corridor linking Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, with the United States owning development rights to the corridor. It was to be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the White House said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/09/azerbaijan-and-armenia-sign-peace-deal-at-white-house-that-creates-a-trump-route-in-region

Thousands protest in Tel Aviv against Israeli govt move to expand Gaza war
AFP journalists at the rally estimated the number of attendees to be in the tens of thousands, while a group representing the families of hostages said as many as 100,000 people participated. … "We will end with a direct message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: if you invade parts of Gaza and the hostages are murdered, we will pursue you in the town squares, in election campaigns and at every time and place," Shahar Mor Zahiro, the relative of a slain hostage, told AFP.
https://www.newarab.com/news/thousands-protest-israel-against-plan-expand-gaza-war

‘We Will Not Leave Gaza City’: Palestinians Vow to Resist
Hamas focused on Gaza City. They called the plans to occupy it and evacuate 1 million residents a war crime. They highlighted the linguistic gymnastics between “control” vs. “occupation” as a tacit admission of Geneva convention violations. Hamas stated that this move sacrifices the enemy’s captives and explains the occupation’s sudden walkout from near-final talks. Hamas showed real flexibility, even openness to a comprehensive all-for-all exchange that ends the war and lifts the siege. They blamed the U.S. for cover and arms and urged UN/ICJ/ICC to act. They warned any further invasion would be met with resistance.
https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/20802/

Teachers in north Aleppo countryside express rejection of education directorate measures and protestors calls for rehabilitating schools in Hama
The protestors expressed their rejections of the interviews which the education directorate in Aleppo had announced, seeing that such measures underestimate teachers who proceeded with their duty under harsh conditions without guarantees for permanent employment or sufficient salaries.
https://www.syriahr.com/en/367491/

UK police arrest at least 466 people at Palestine Action protest in London
Videos shared on social media showed police removing protesters who had been seated across the square, holding signs reading, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” “The people are collectively opposing the genocide in Gaza and the Palestine Action ban,” Defend Our Juries, an advocacy group that organised the protest, wrote on X.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/9/uk-police-arrest-at-least-200-in-palestine-action-protest-in-london
https://archive.ph/Lw8FT

Greek pro-Palestine activists plan nationwide 'Day of Rage' for Gaza
Activists are calling on supporters to transform "beaches, alleys and mountaintops" into sites of protest, not leisure, during the peak of tourist season. One planned demonstration on Zakynthos accuses Israeli investors of purchasing property "with wealth stained with the blood of Palestinians". Greek police have called for increased security around tourism infrastructure, vowing that any violence during the demonstrations will be met with a "firm response".
https://www.newarab.com/news/greek-pro-palestine-activists-plan-day-rage-gaza

Thousands march against plan to build massive bridge linking Sicily to Italy’s mainland
Protesters staunchly oppose the Strait of Messina Bridge project over its scale, earthquake threats, environmental impact and the specter of mafia interference. The idea to build a bridge to connect Sicily to the rest of Italy has been debated off and on for decades but always delayed due to these concerns. The project, however, took a major step forward when a government committee overseeing strategic public investments approved the plan this week.
https://apnews.com/article/italy-sicily-bridge-infrastructure-project-environment-mafia-e04b812da96909a43b8e5aabd8f98ab6

South Africa’s ANC government arrests 1,000 miners
The operation is an extension of the ANC’s violent Operation Vala Umgodi (Plug the Hole) that began with the Stilfontein massacre in January, where 90 miners, mostly undocumented migrants, died after police surrounded an abandoned mine, cutting off food supplies and forcing them to the surface. The horrific crime highlighted the ANC government’s brutal response to the explosive social conditions developing in South Africa.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/08/08/qvwa-a08.html

Bolivia prepares for presidential elections with a fragmented left and an optimistic right
Several polls give the lead to Samuel Doria, a businessman and former minister in Jaime Paz Zamora’s government in the early 1990s. Doria, a right-wing millionaire who has tried three times to win the presidency, is polling at 21.5%. “On August 17, we will not only change the president, but there will also be a change of cycle in Bolivia,” said the magnate, who has shown clear sympathy for Donald Trump. Behind the cement businessman is former right-wing president Jorge Quiroga, with 19.6% of the vote. Quiroga, who is an industrial engineer, was in office for just one year, between 2001 and 2002, following the departure of former president Hugo Banzer. Quiroga has proposed a neoliberal economic plan, in which he proposes the liberalization of hydrocarbons, mining, agriculture, lithium, etc., to overcome the economic crisis.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/08/08/bolivia-prepares-for-presidential-elections-with-a-fragmented-left-and-an-optimistic-right/

Milei vows ban on funding public spending with monetary issuance
Milei, 54, delivered a cadena nacional nationwide broadcast late Friday, just days after vetoing a rise in retirement and disability pensions approved by Congress. The measures, he said, aim to “fortify the zero deficit target and the government’s monetary policy”. The President also vowed to send a bill to Congress to punish those who approve budgets that imply debt.
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/milei-vows-ban-on-funding-public-spending-with-monetary-issuance.phtml
https://archive.ph/CxVSP

Mexico rules out Trump's reported military plan against drug cartels
Speaking to reporters, Sheinbaum said the Mexican government was informed that an order on the cartels was coming, and "that it had nothing to do with the participation of any military personnel". "It is not part of any agreement, far from it. When it has been brought up, we have always said 'No'," she said. Earlier this year, Sheinbaum told reporters that Trump's decision to designate cartels as terrorists "cannot be an opportunity for the US to invade our sovereignty".
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07pdel9vyjo

EPA axes contracts with unions
Bob Coomber, EPA’s senior labor adviser, said the reason for terminating the contracts was “to prevent irreparable harm to national security.” He referred not only to the contract with AFGE, but also to ones with the National Association of Government Employees, Engineers and Scientists of California, and the National Association of Independent Labor.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/08/epa-axes-contracts-with-unions-00501208
https://archive.ph/r741e

Unionized Berkeley REI workers get pay raises after Labor Board claimed they were shut out
The payout comes months after investigators from the National Labor Relations Board issued complaints that the Washington-based outdoor equipment retailer illegally excluded unionized workers at stores like the one in Berkeley from wage increases and other bonuses that were otherwise given to non-unionized employees. After NLRB issued its complaint in March, Berkeley workers said they felt REI’s alleged actions were “punishment” for unionizing. The complaint was at least one of four the Board had issued against the company at the time. And dozens of claims, alleging violations of labor laws like illegally terminating and intimidating workers, were under investigation at the time by the NLRB.
https://www.berkeleyside.org/2025/08/08/unionized-berkeley-rei-workers-get-pay-raises-after-labor-board-claimed-they-were-shut-out
https://archive.ph/tP2eS

As electric bills rise, evidence mounts that data centers share blame. States feel pressure to act
It’s not clear that any state has a solution and the actual effect of data centers on electricity bills is difficult to pin down. Some critics question whether states have the spine to take a hard line against tech behemoths like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta. But more than a dozen states have begun taking steps as data centers drive a rapid build-out of power plants and transmission lines. That has meant pressuring the nation’s biggest power grid operator to clamp down on price increases, studying the effect of data centers on electricity bills or pushing data center owners to pay a larger share of local transmission costs.
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/04/electricity-costs-bills-data-centers-ai

Atlanta CDC gunman believed Covid vaccine made him suicidal, official says
The 30-year-old gunman, identified by the Georgia bureau of investigation as Patrick Joseph White, tried to get into the CDC’s headquarters but was stopped by guards before driving to a CVS across the street and opening fire, the official said. White died during Friday’s violence. The suspect’s father contacted police and said his son was upset about the death of his dog, and had also become fixated on the Covid-19 vaccine, an official said.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/09/police-officer-david-rose-atlanta-cdc-shooting

Whitmer told Trump in private that Michigan auto jobs depend on a tariff change of course
The Democrat came with a slide deck to make her points in a visual presentation. Just getting the meeting Tuesday with the Republican president was an achievement for someone viewed as a contender for her party’s White House nomination in 2028. Whitmer’s strategy for dealing with Trump highlights the conundrum for her and other Democratic leaders as they try to protect the interests of their states while voicing their opposition to his agenda. It’s a dynamic that Whitmer has navigated much differently from many other Democratic governors.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-whitmer-michigan-tariffs-auto-industry-c14e8791aa880643bddcdf9ea5372dca

‘A Nation of Shopkeepers’: The egotism of the petty bourgeoisie
A Nation of Shopkeepers is a 2023 book by (ostensibly) Marxist academic Dan Evans. It is an attempt to develop our understanding of the ‘petty bourgeoisie’ or middle class, which the author perceives as an ignored part of society. Evans argues that the petty bourgeoisie – the intermediate class of small business owners and independent professionals, squeezed between the working class and the big capitalists, – has in fact grown to the point where it constitutes a third of the British population (23 million). This, he argues, nullifies the analysis of Marx and Engels, who wrote in the Communist Manifesto that: “[t]he lower strata of the middle class – the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and peasants – all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which Modern Industry is carried on, and is swamped in the competition with the large capitalists, partly because their specialised skill is rendered worthless by new methods of production. Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the population.” Deindustrialisation, Evans argues, has changed the nature of work, and therefore has undermined the classical Marxist understanding of class. The mentioned claims of a swelling in the ranks of the petty bourgeoisie is explained by the creation of what Evans labels the ‘new petty bourgeoisie’. Within this ‘new petty bourgeois’ class is included “[d]eclassed graduates, call centre workers, teachers and teaching assistants, salesmen, estate agents, nurses, firemen, public sector workers and more”. In terms of their relations to work, this ‘new’ class is identical to the working class, in that they must sell their capacity to work in order to live, and in fact work side by side with workers. What separates the ‘new petty bourgeoisie’ from the working class, Evans tells us, is that they aspire to “social mobility”; they dream of better things for themselves – and so are therefore individualistic – whereas the working class is happy with its lot. By changing the definition of class to a set of cultural values, Evans has managed to perform a magic trick, by pulling a completely new class out of thin air! Rather than seeing things such as classes in their process of historical development, Evans takes them as a finished product, a checklist of characteristics (which can be handily found at the back of the book) for us to foist upon the world.
https://communist.red/a-nation-of-shopkeepers-the-egotism-of-the-petty-bourgeoisie/

Detroit Mayoral Primary Turnout Shows Mass Disillusionment with Local Government
This year’s mayoral election in Detroit has seen a lot of candidate debates, especially compared to last election cycle, where no public debates were held. Yet the election has failed to garner much enthusiasm from voters. Many are apathetic, find the choices lackluster, and believe that no matter who is in office, things won’t change for the majority Black working class and poor in Detroit. The election stands in stark contrast with New York’s mayoral race, which saw a high participation of young voters. Unlike New York, none of Detroit’s candidates have been speaking to the issues that could mobilize the youth. The mayoral race was a crowded field with many different personalities. The voices that were centered in the debates were Rev Solomon Kinloch, Todd Perkins, Sauntel Jenkins, Mary Sheffield, James Craig, and Fred Durhal III. Mary Sheffield has led the pack from the very beginning, both in polling and in fundraising, so her victory in the primary was a surprise to no one. Solomon Kinloch won second place to face off against Sheffield in November. The spot for second place was largely between Kinloch, Jenkins, and Craig, and to a certain extent Perkins. Kinloch had been second place in the polls for months, but a recent story about an incident of domestic abuse of his ex-wife could have negatively impacted his performance Tuesday night. However, that doesn’t seem to have been the case: Kinlock’s primary results hovered around the same percentage he held in opinion polls. Kinloch had another issue that likely affected his outcome: many of his most ardent supporters live in the suburbs and are ineligible to vote in the election.
https://www.leftvoice.org/detroit-mayoral-primary-turnout-shows-mass-disillusionment-with-local-government/

The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin Chapter 17[END] : Agriculture
Political Economy has often been reproached with drawing all its deductions from the decidedly false principle, that the only incentive capable of forcing a man to augment his power of production is personal interest in its narrowest sense. The reproach is perfectly true; so true that epochs of great industrial discoveries and true progress in industry are precisely those in which the happiness of all was inspiring men, and in which personal enrichment was least thought of. The great investigators in science and the great inventors aimed, above all, at giving greater freedom of mankind. And if Watt, Stephenson, Jacquard, etc., could have only foreseen what a state of misery their sleepless nights would bring to the workers, they certainly would have burned their designs and broken their models. Another principle that pervades Political Economy is just as false. It is the tacit admission, common to all economists, that if there is often over-production in certain branches, a society will nevertheless never have sufficient products to satisfy the wants of all, and that consequently the day will never come when nobody will be forced to sell his labour in exchange for wages. This tacit admission is found at the basis of all theories and all the so-called “laws” taught by economists. And yet it is certain that the day when any civilized association of individuals would ask itself, what are the needs of all, and the means of satisfying them, it would see that, in industry, as in agriculture, it already possesses sufficient to provide abundantly for all needs, on condition that it knows how to apply these means to satisfy real needs. That this is true as regards industry no one can contest. Indeed, it suffices to study the processes already in use to extract coals and ore, to obtain steel and work it, to manufacture on a great scale what is used for clothing, etc., in order to perceive that we could already increase our production fourfold or more, and yet use for that less work than we are using now. We go further. We assert that agriculture is in the same position: those who cultivate the soil, like the manufacturers, already could increase their production, not only fourfold but tenfold, and they can put it into practice as soon as they feel the need of it, – as soon as a socialist organization of work will be established instead of the present capitalistic one. Each time agriculture is spoken of, men imagine a peasant bending over the plough, throwing badly assorted corn haphazard into the ground and waiting anxiously for what the good or bad season will bring forth; they think of a family working from morn to night and reaping as reward a rude bed, dry bread, and coarse beverage. In a word, they picture “the savages” of La Bruyère. And for these men, ground down to such a misery, the utmost relief that society proposes, is to reduce their taxes or their rent. But even most social reformers do not care to imagine a cultivator standing erect, taking leisure, and producing by a few hours’ work per day sufficient food to nourish, not only his own family, but a hundred men more at the least. In their most glowing dreams of the future Socialists do not go beyond American extensive culture, which, after all, is but the infancy of agricultural art. But the thinking agriculturist has broader ideas to-day – his conceptions are on a far grander scale. He only asks for a fraction of an acre in order to produce sufficient vegetables for a family; and to feed twenty-five horned beasts he needs no more space than he formerly required to feed one; his aim is to make his own soil, to defy seasons and climate, to warm both air and earth around the young plant; to produce, in a word, on one acre what he used to gather from fifty acres, and that without any excessive fatigue – by greatly reducing, on the contrary, the total of former labour. He knows that we will be able to feed everybody by giving to the culture of the fields no more time than what each can give with pleasure and joy.
This is the present tendency of agriculture.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/1892/bread.htm#chapter17