Red Flag Boston

02/02/2023

Justice for Tyre Nichols! Speakout and March

Wednesday February 8, 5 PM
Meet at Alumni Plaza at Salem State University for an open mic to speakout against police violence — for Tyre, for Tortuguita, for Sayed Faisal. We will then march to downtown Salem.

The brutal murder of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police was not an isolated incident resulting from a few bad cops; it was the latest consequence of the racism and wickedness inherent to the American policing system as a whole.

Although Tyre's murderers have been fired and indicted, that's not enough. 2022 was the deadliest year for police killings in the last 10 years. Locally, Cambridge Police recently murdered UMass Boston student Sayed Faisal.

07/26/2022

Massachusetts isn't a "safe" state for abortion rights.

"Your Options" is one of over *30* crisis pregnancy centers in the state. These fake clinics peddle lies and intimidate pregnant people into not aborting their fetuses... and they are part of the national far-right anti-abortion movement.

Join us on Saturday July 30 at 5 PM to protest the Your Options "Clinic" at 103 Broadway in Revere — the start of a campaign to get this center that attacks women and trans folks' healthcare to close.

06/03/2022

Officially over *200* people have registered for tomorrow's conference!! Revolutionary Socialism Conference 2022

Join us to discuss revolutionary socialism and the issues of the day with radicals across the country and around the world!

From building anti-imperialism to defending abortion rights and trans folks... from building an alternative to socialist reformism to fighting the far right... if you're on the left and think we need more than the milquetoast Democratic Party, you owe it to yourself and the movement to attend!

You still have time to register: https://rsop.online

Conference starts at 12:45 Eastern on Saturday!!

06/02/2022

Life as we know seems doomed. Already we've passed threshold after threshold for profound warming of our planet. But that doesn't mean we can't save the planet, or our species. Unfortunately, capitalism is trying convince us that "buying green" and "carbon offsets" are the solution.

Can we stop capitalism's death drive before climate change devastates our lives even further? What kind of world will the revolution have to transform? How can we learn for Indigenous and global movements as part of building a revolutionary approach to climate justice?

Join us at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference (https://rsop.online; June 4-5) to tackle these and other questions. We will be joined by Tina Trutanich (Revolutionary Socialist Organizing Project and Tempest) and Christine Marie (Workers Voice)

We hope you join us for this panel and the whole free 2-day conference!
Learn more and register for free today: http://rsop.online (Spanish translation available)

06/01/2022

We’re in a critical moment in the struggle of bodily autonomy. The unaccountable Supreme Court threatens to completely overturn Roe v. Wade. The right-wing protects the gun rights of mass shooters, while preventing trans kids safe and supportive upbringings. The right wants to arm teachers, but says these same teachers are “grooming” children by “saying gay” in the classroom.

We need a movement, one that inseparably links the struggle for abortion rights with trans liberation. But the NGOs and Democratic Party have already given up the ghost. They’re continuing to use abortion rights and LGBTQ issues as a bludgeon to drum up votes… and continuing to take **zero** action to actually defend and advance these rights. So, how can revolutionaries navigate this terrain? And how does the struggle for abortion and trans liberation connect to the fight for socialism?

Join us at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference 2022 (https://rsop.online; June 4-5) to tackle these questions. We will be joined by Mary Nicole Reeves (Denver Communists, Revolutionary Socialist Organizing Project, Revolutionary Socialist Network), Madeleine Freeman (Left Voice), and Noelle T. (Marx21 US and Portland Democratic Socialists of America).

We hope you join us for this panel and the whole free 2-day conference!

Learn more and register for free today: https://rsop.online (Spanish translation available)

05/27/2022

For four decades, bosses have carried on a one-sided class war against us. Wages have stagnated or shrunk, while bosses have given themselves multi-million-dollar bonuses. Inflation runs rampant while profits (if not profit rates) are up. Now, the stormy clouds of economic crisis are fast approaching from the horizon.

But workers are striking back. Across the country, Starbucks and café workers are winning unions. Amazon workers are fighting and, starting in Staten Island, winning. Striketober and meme-worthy texts to bosses still live in our recent memories… so how can revolutionary socialists intervene in this new environment? How can we build a working-class movement for unions, higher wages, and ultimately socialism?

The Revolutionary Socialism Conference 2022 (https://rsop.online; June 4-5) offers "Capitalism in Crisis, Workers in Resistance" for figuring out these very questions. We will be joined by workers on the frontlines of the class war.

We hope you join us for this panel and the whole free 2-day conference!

Learn more and register for free today: https://rsop.online (Spanish translation available)

05/26/2022

We live in a gross and glaring contradiction: radical and revolutionary consciousness is growing en masse (especially among millennials and zoomers), but revolutionary *organization* is far too small. Movements and revolts burst onto the scene… but without a large revolutionary party, these rebellions get channeled back into streams and strategies that are safe for the system. All this while war, climate change, and fascism loom.

To truly be a revolutionary, we need organization. Only then can our ideas have real impact on the world. But what type of organization do we need? How do we keep from repeating the mistakes of the past — the anti-democratic leaderships, the silencing of dissenting and oppressed voices, and the isolationism of countless socialist sects? How do we get from where we are today to a truly mass revolutionary alternative — or at least, how do we get started?

Join us at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference 2022 (https://rsop.online; June 4-5) to tackle the key question facing revolutionaries today. We will be joined by James Radek (Denver Communists, Revolutionary Socialist Organizing Project, Revolutionary Socialist Network), E. Reed (from our own Boston Revolutionary Socialists, RSOP and RSN), and Mick Armstrong (Socialist Alternative - Red Flag, author of "The Fight for Workers’ Power" and "From Little Things Big Things Grow")

We hope you join us for this panel and the whole free 2-day conference!

Learn more and register for free today: https://rsop.online (Spanish translation available)

05/25/2022

As revolutionary socialists, we’re abolitionists. We’re freedom fighters against the structures of oppression and domination — settler-colonialism that steals land and kills people; border regimes that control and repress labor; capitalist police and prisons that divide workers and disrupt Black and Brown communities.

But “abolition” is a word that can mean a lot. When we say “abolish the police,” can we achieve that under capitalism and simply redirect funds to social services — or do we need a revolution? When we say “abolish ICE,” are we just replacing ICE with a more limited INS, as some propose¹ — or can we abolish borders? When we say “land back,” how can we win Indigenous liberation?

Join us at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference 2022 (https://rsop.online; June 4-5) to discuss these very questions! To lead off the discussion we have brian bean (Rampant Magazine and Tempest, author of the “The Socialist Case Against the Police,” co-editor of “Palestine: A Socialist Introduction”), Tristan Taylor (Left Voice and Detroit Will Breathe), and Steve Leigh (Seattle Revolutionary Socialists, Revolutionary Socialist Organizing Project and Revolutionary Socialist Network).

We hope you join us for this panel and the whole free 2-day conference!

Learn more and register for free today: https://rsop.online (Spanish translation available)

[1] AFSC.org, “What you need to know about the call to abolish ICE”

05/24/2022

Many people on the Left celebrated the election of “The Squad”. But a few years in, what do we have to show for it? We’ve seen AOC vote to fund ICE, not abolish it.¹ We’ve seen them back spending bills that give more money for U.S. militarism, and refuse to stand against coup-mongering in Venezuela.² Just recently, AOC, Cori Bush, and others joined the chorus for devastating sanctions against Russia.³

Far from leading a break from the Democratic Party and capitalist liberalism, socialist reformism has helped drive leftists back into the party with the mistaken belief it’s the only option to create real change. But even if we know the problem, how *can* revolutionaries navigate the rise of the new socialist reformism that seems everywhere?

In this panel at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference (https://rsop.online; June 4-5), Doug Enaa Greene (author of “A Failure of Vision: Michael Harrington and the Limits of Democratic Socialism”), Atlee McFellin (puntorojo magazine, Rupture.capital, & CounterPower/ContraPoder) and Coco Smyth (Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists) will make the case for revolution, not reformism.

We hope you join us for this panel and the whole free 2-day conference!

Learn more and register for free today: https://rsop.online (Spanish translation available)

[1] LeftVoice, Jan 2019 “Abolishing Ice by Funding It”
[2] LeftVoice, May 2019 “AOC Lines Up with Pelosi, Bolton and Trump in Support of Coup Attempt in Venezuela”; LeftVoice, July 2019 “AOC Follows Pelosi, Trump’s Lead By Voting Big Bucks For Military”
[3] LeftVoice, Feb 2022 “The Squad Calls for U.S. Intervention in Ukraine”

05/23/2022

Internationalism has been the backbone of revolutionary socialist politics ever since Marx and Engels's call "Workers of the World, unite!" But what type of internationalism should revolutionaries fight for?

In this panel at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference 2022 (https://rsop.online; June 4-5), Blanca Missé from Workers Voice and Bill V. Mullen from Revolutionary Socialist Organizing Project will make the case for an internationalism that:
● Stands against ALL forms of imperialism — neither Washington nor Moscow, neither Beijing nor Brussels.
● Stands for the principled right of oppressed nations to self-determination, from Ukraine to Palestine.

In light of DSA Palestine Solidarity Working Group and others' struggle to hold DSA and Jamaal Bowman accountable to BDS... in light of the rise of apologism for Russian tanks and US arms among some sections of the Left... we hope you join us for this panel and the whole free 2-day conference!

Learn more and register for free today: https://rsop.online (Spanish translation available)

05/21/2022

Coming up in just 2 weeks! Register at the link below!

https://rsop.online/

05/20/2022

**Coming up in two weeks! More info/register: rsop.online**

Join revolutionary socialists from across the country and around the world to a free conference on rebuilding a revolutionary socialist movement in the United States.

------------------------------
The Revolutionary Socialism Conference 2022 (RSC) is a two-day event of panel presentations and discussions concerning the most critical issues facing revolutionary socialists and the question of organizing the class struggle today. The RSC focuses on the development of revolutionary theory and practice as an urgently needed political focus and orientation that is distinct from socialist reformism that has become the dominant expression on the political left.

The RSC aims to bring together members of existing organizations, collectives, groups, coworkers, individuals, and all who want to engage and exchange with others who align with a revolutionary socialist outlook or are moving in the direction towards revolutionary socialist politics, activism, and organization. Another intention of the conference is to create the groundwork for facilitating communication, coordinating action, and establishing methods of collaboration between groups and individuals across the country and beyond borders.

03/04/2022

Neither Washington nor Moscow!

02/24/2022

One would hope that all the talk of "Russia would never invade" from the campists would make them feel pretty stupid right now. But that may be giving them too much credit for self-awareness and self-reflection.

The only rational and radical position to take has always been "neither Washington nor Moscow [or Beijing or Brussels, etc.], but international socialism"
...............

"Only a bourgeois who believes that a war started by the governments must necessarily end as a war between governments and wants it to end as such, can regard as "ridiculous" and "absurd" the idea that the socialists of ALL the belligerent countries should wish for the defeat of all "their" governments and express this wish. On the contrary, it is precisely a statement of this kind that would conform to the cherished thoughts of every class-conscious worker and would be in line with our activities towards converting the imperialist war into civil war. ...

Socialists must explain to the masses that they have no other road of salvation except the revolutionary overthrow of "their" governments, and that advantage must be taken of these governments’ embarrassments in the present war precisely for this purpose. ...

Whoever wants a lasting and democratic peace must be in favour of civil war against the governments and the bourgeoisie." — Lenin and Zinoviev, 'Socialism and War'

02/24/2022

Russia has no right over Ukraine. Russian troops and paramilitaries out of the Donbas. Withdrawal of Russian troops and military equipment from the eastern border and Belarus. Return of Crimea.
Dissolution of NATO. Withdrawal of American troops and bases from Western European and Eastern European countries.

Dissolution of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) military alliance of the Russian state with the former Soviet republics, used to send troops to crush popular uprisings and prop up submissive oligarchs, as in Kazakhstan.

For a unified Ukraine free from Russian oppression, out of the clutches of the United States, NATO, and the European Union.

Against the oppressive policy of the “Great Russian” nationalism of Stalin and Putin, we vindicate the Leninist policy of the right to national self-determination of the peoples.

Stop militarization and the arms race. Drastic reduction of military budgets. Destruction of nuclear arsenals and weapons of mass destruction

https://lavozlit.com/iwl-fi-statement-putin-usa-nato-and-the-european-union-out-of-ukraine-now/?fbclid=IwAR1z8gWHS4VouaQPOtwlHbHIEYdW6UUCcXv6NavhKKcsSRysEE0V-1ERydQ

For a unified Ukraine free from Russian oppression! Putin has just signed a decree recognizing the "self-styled republics" of Donetsk and Lugansk as indepe

02/24/2022

ALBANY, NY—Staring down the store’s staff as she wracked her brain, local woman Monica Hadwin was reportedly desperately seeking an excuse to assault retail workers Tuesday now that the state’s mask mandate had been lifted. “I walked in without a mask and all I got was a ‘Hi, how are you t...

02/11/2022

“It’s endemic bro trust me”

A cartoon by Peter Kuper.

01/31/2022

Reject campism!

https://sleigh1917.medium.com/rebuilding-an-anti-war-movement-in-the-u-s-1e5307c92491

The main enemy is at home. But the enemy of my enemy is NOT my friend.

01/29/2022

In case you missed it: our public meeting last night on COVID and capitalism!

01/29/2022

01/29/2022

"Over six years, $4.2 billion that could have helped fix those bridges has instead gone to State Police, he said.

The money mostly comes from the commonwealth’s fuel tax; at 57.6 cents, it’s the highest in the nation.

"There’s an inherent deal,” DePasquale said. “You’re going to have this high gas tax, but it’s going to go to fund roads and bridges. And now when they find out it’s not happening, I think that gets people upset.”

https://whyy.org/articles/pa-fuel-tax-meant-for-bridge-repair-went-to-state-police-instead/

01/28/2022

A Public Meeting by the Boston Revolutionary Socialists

Why has capitalism failed to stop COVID? And what's the alternative?

From COVID's origins to the continued surges of new variants, capitalism is at the root of the pandemic crisis. Join socialists at Salem State and off campus to talk about building a socialist movement to defeat COVID, the system that spawned it, and the rich that put us at risk.

More info: redflagboston.com

01/28/2022

"So really these [deaths] are people who were unwell to begin with and yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron."

— Rochelle Walensky, CDC Director, Jan. 7

The CDC celebrates that those with underlying conditions are the ones dying from COVID. But who has "underlying conditions"? People with disabilities. And as the CDC makes clear, capitalism doesn't care if we live or die.

The rich and the Biden administration it employs have pushed to get profits flowing. They've abandoned collective responses to COVID. Instead, they preach individual responsibility. They claim this is a "pandemic of the unvaccinated" (not true) and celebrate that only people with underlying conditions are dying (not only untrue... quite a disgusting sentiment).

Socialists say something different. Every human life, "disabled" or not, is worthy. We won't sacrifice our lives or the lives of fellow workers and oppressed people to make their profits. And we want to build a movement to win a real, human-centered response to COVID and the various crises we face.

Join us today at 5 PM. Registration is required to attend: bit.ly/SSU0128

01/27/2022

December 21: Delta Airlines CEO writes to the CDC, asking to shrink the COVID quarantine time to keep business profits flowing.

December 27: The CDC revises its policies. 5 days after testing positive, it's now "safe" to go back to work or school.

Capitalist profits should not dictate health policy. If you agree, join us Friday at 5 PM: bit.ly/SSU0128

01/27/2022

Since March 2020, US billionaires' wealth has grown by $2.1 trillion. It now sits at $5 trillion spread among 750 people. Meanwhile, 89 million workers in the US are still jobless. Student debt sits at $1.7 trillion.

Are we going to accept this? We say hell no.

From COVID's origins to the continued surges of new variants, capitalism is at the root of the pandemic crisis. Join socialists at Salem State and off campus to talk about building a movement to defeat COVID, the system that spawned it, and the rich that put us at risk.

Register for our meeting Capitalism Causes COVID: We Need an Alternative here: bit.ly/SSU0128

01/25/2022

Two years and 880,000 deaths later... and all we get are *FOUR. EFFING. TESTS?!!* 🤬🙄

In October, Biden received a report from scientists calling on a massive rollout of free at-home COVID testing — 730 million tests a month — in time for the holidays. The administration rejected the plan. Now they want to give us just 4 tests per home to make do with forever.

They act as if "no one could have predicted" the test shortage (a straight up lie). They want to claim they're doing a great job. That's *bu****it.*

We need to fight for something better... a COVID response that isn't driven by profit (for the rich) and forced rationing (for the rest of us). We need socialism.🚩 Capitalism Causes COVID: We Need an Alternative

Join socialists at Salem State and off campus to talk about building a socialist movement to defeat COVID, the system that spawned it, and the rich that put us at risk.

Friday at 5 PM, via Zoom: bit.ly/SSU0128

01/25/2022

Celebrate the anniversary of the Egyptian revolution!!

01/24/2022

COVID is a racial justice issue. Indigenous, Latinx, Black and Pacific Islander people are dying at *double* the rate of all deaths combined. Systemic racism drives people into poverty, into the worst jobs, and into the worst healthcare options.

But we don't have to accept the racist and anti-poor status quo. Let's get organized to fight for liberation, health and socialism: bit.ly/SSU0128

Capitalism Causes COVID: We Need an Alternative

01/24/2022

We need more than just anger. We need organization! That's the only way we can get better conditions on the job, cancel student debt, stop climate change, and defend abortion.

Join us Friday at Capitalism Causes COVID: We Need an Alternative to talk about going beyond anger.

Across the country, people are taking to social media to share their frustration with the Biden government. While this airing of anger is natural, it isn’t enough. We need to organize against the Biden administration.