Editor's note: A Spanish translation of this article is available here. Introduction Our understanding of the state lies at the heart of our struggle to create a new society and fundamentally eliminate the oppression, exploitation, war, and environmental destruction...
Corporate personhood, monopoly capital, and the precedent that wasn’t: The 1886 “Santa Clara” case
Editor’s note: Beginning with overturning Roe v. Wade, the ultra right-wing Supreme Court continues to attack hard-won and elementary democratic rights in the United States, from affirmative action to the Indian Child Welfare Act. The following article is the third in...
Haunted by the ghost of “Marbury v. Madison:” Judicial review and abolishing the Supreme Court
Editor’s note: Beginning with overturning Roe v. Wade, the ultra right-wing Supreme Court continues to attack hard-won and elementary democratic rights in the United States, from affirmative action to the Indian Child Welfare Act. The following article is the first in...
Of, by, and for the elite: The class character of the U.S. Constitution
Contrary to the mythology we learn in school, the founding fathers feared and hated the concept of democracy—which they derisively referred to as "tyranny of the majority." The constitution that they wrote reflects this, and seeks to restrict and prohibit involvement...
The U.S. state and the U.S. revolution
It is no exaggeration to say that the principal disputes between activists, organizations and political trends in U.S. social movements have hinged on different understandings of, and attitudes toward, the state. What distinguishes a revolutionary communist...
Clarifying and inspiring revolution for 130 years: Marx’s “Critique of the Gotha Programme”
Karl Marx never intended to spell out what the communist future would look like or how we would get there. His writing that comes closest to doing this is a short letter he wrote in 1875, given the title Critique of the Gotha Programme. Published 130 years ago—in...
PSL Course: A Marxist perspective on prison abolition
Marxists fight for the overthrow, dismantling, and complete replacement of the core institutions of the capitalist state, including namely the police, prisons, military, and courts. These elements of the state must be abolished through revolution. Yet can we abolish...
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Militant journalism from behind enemy lines
This article accompanies Liberation School's new study guide for Mumia Abu-Jamal's book, Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? Mumia Abu-Jamal has spent nearly 40 years unjustly imprisoned after he was framed and convicted of killing a white police officer in Philadelphia....
Marx’s “Capital:” Class 5 (The working day and relative surplus-value)
Class description: In this class we continue our investigation into exploitation (i.e., the production of surplus-value), beginning with the struggle over the commodity of labor-power and the contradiction between its...