Minneapolis, MN – On Tuesday, October 16, a group of students and community members rallied on the steps of Northrop Hall at University of Minnesota. They were there to protest U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett at the annual donor-funded Law School public lecture.

The rally was covered by over a dozen local and national news outlets. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at UMN and the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) jointly organized the rally, where at least 250 people mobilized in support of abortion access, affirmative action, and the rights of marginalized peoples.

Justice Barrett is a key figure in the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority and played an instrumental role in striking down Roe v. Wade (1973) in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022). Roe v. Wade was a longstanding precedent for the Supreme Court which protected the constitutional right to an abortion. Since the Dobbs decision, 13 states have banned abortions, and many others imposed client and/or provider restrictions on abortions, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Abortion rights movements in the Twin Cities, especially MNAAC, are currently in the struggle to expand legitimate abortion clinics and shut down the nearly 90 illegitimate “crisis pregnancy centers” across Minnesota.

Barrett also voted with conservative justices to strike down affirmative action in SFFA v. Harvard (2023) and SFFA v. UNC (2023). Student movements in the 1960s and ‘70s called for affirmative action in efforts to increase Black and brown enrollment in U.S. universities. Though legal decisions have debated what affirmative action can look like, affirmative action remains an important tool to increase diversity in higher education. Alongside attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion in states like Florida, Texas and Louisiana, where SDS chapters are currently engaging in struggles against university administrations, the SFFA decisions are certain to make higher education for Black and brown students even less accessible.

Florida members of SDS, the Tampa 5, were arrested on felony charges and are being put on trial for protesting similar attacks on education by Governor Ron DeSantis.

Rally speaker Maggie Moynihan of MNAAC spoke about the contradictions the UMN presents when they invite a Supreme Court justice with a track record of harming women and students of color. “As a white-majority school, the University of Minnesota has an especially important duty to provide its marginalized students with a diverse and inclusive educational experience,” said Moynihan. “Amy Coney Barrett is a threat to all working-class and marginalized people in the United States and the university administrators have invited this threat to spread her hateful ideology to students on this campus. The message this decision sends is clear. The university does not value the safety of the women, people of color, immigrants, or queer people on this campus.”

Speaker Bryce Riesner of SDS reminded the UMN administration that when they invited Barrett to campus, they had invited “a representative of bigotry.” Speaking against the fallacy of “free speech,’”Riesner pointed out that the university has the power to draw the line at hate and intolerance. “I have so many conservative family and friends who have no hatred in their heart for anyone. [Barrett] does not represent them,” said Riesner. “Her fundamentalist beliefs are not conservative. What she practices in her home is her business, but when she takes a seat as a Supreme Court justice, her beliefs affect all of us!”

During the rally, a handful of experienced UMN SDS members disrupted Barrett’s lecture inside Northrop Hall, where over 1500 attendees sat. Video of the interaction posted to the chapter’s @umnsds Instagram account shows protesters chanting “Not the court! Not the state! The people must decide their fate!” and “When affirmative action is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

In their rally speech, Sasmit Rahman recounted the experience of being removed from the lecture, stating that the removal was a cowardly act by Barrett, who apparently refused to acknowledge the protesters. “You’re so comfortable stripping us of our rights,” Rahman said of Barrett, “but too scared to face the consequences of your bigoted decisions! Shame on you Amy, you fucking coward!”

Over a dozen rally speakers represented progressive grassroots organizations across the Twin Cities. These organizations include the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Young Democratic Socialists of America, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar, Students for Climate Justice, Anti-War Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and local trade unions.

Progressive organizations agree that giving Barrett a platform is a disgrace to the UMN and that we must fight back.

Abortion is a human right!

Defend affirmative action and queer rights!

No to Amy Coney Barrett!

#MinneapolisMN #Minneapolis #AmyConeyBarrett #SDS #MNAAC #UMN #ReproductiveJustice #Abortion #SupremeCourt #AffirmativeAction #RoevWade

The University of Minnesota is lying to the public about the cancellation of a speaking event featuring Nkosi Mandela – anti-apartheid activist, member of the South African National Assembly, tribal chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council, and grandson of Nelson Mandela. Chief Zwelivelile Mandela had been scheduled to speak at the Cowles Auditorium in the Humphrey School for Public Affairs on the UMN campus on May 16. Several grassroots activist organizations in the Twin Cities, including the Center for American-Islamic Relations, the Anti-War Committee, and the Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice for Jamar, had helped organize this event. This event was a part of a larger nationwide speaking tour – sponsored by the US Palestinian Community Network and NAARPR – on the occupation of Palestine and the oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government.

The day before the event, University administration informed the organizers that it was canceled due to a violent threat from a white supremacist. Admin demanded that the organizers provide their own security for the event if they still wanted to host it at the Humphrey School, despite the immense security resources at the University’s disposal. The organizers, with little time to prepare, moved the event and Chief Mandela’s speech to a different venue, where the event occurred as planned. The University outright lied in a statement to the Star Tribune, placing the blame for the event’s cancellation at the feet of the organizers, claiming that they were the ones who canceled the event at the U. This is unequivocally false and a complete lie; the University abruptly canceled the event and made ridiculous demands of the organizers.

It is incredibly shameful that the University of Minnesota has lied to the press, the public, and the UMN community about this issue and attempted to shift the blame to grassroots Twin Cities organizations that form a valuable part of the city community and carry out important activist work. SDS demands that admin acknowledge and unequivocally apologize for lying about the event’s cancellation.

Free, Free, Palestine!

End Israeli Apartheid!

Solidarity Forever!

#MinneapolisMN #Minneapolis #Palestine #Apartheid #SouthAfrica

In our last article we looked at some of the core concepts of dialectical materialism. We broke down the meaning of contradiction, and we looked at how contradictions develop unevenly in complex processes, into principal and secondary contradictions. We also looked at how any given contradiction has its own principal and secondary aspects, with the principal aspect playing the dominant role. Now let's look more closely at identity in contradiction and the role of antagonism in resolving contradictions of different types.

In “On Contradiction” Mao Zedong writes, “In speaking of the identity of opposites in given conditions, what we are referring to is real and concrete opposites and the real and concrete transformations of opposites into one another.”

In one sense, identity means that the two aspects of a given contradiction are also conditions for each other's existence. The bourgeoisie cannot exist without the proletariat, and vice versa. The class of exploiters depends entirely on the existence of a class of exploited from whom they draw their wealth and over whom they wield their power. Without the class of exploiters, the exploited too would not exist as a class. In this contradiction, the capitalist class plays the dominant role. They control the means of production along with the superstructure of the state and its repressive and ideological apparatuses.

However, the two aspects of this contradiction can exchange places. As Mao puts it, “by means of revolution the proletariat, at one time the ruled, is transformed into the ruler, while the bourgeoisie, the erstwhile ruler, is transformed into the ruled and changes its position to that originally occupied by its opposite.” From this qualitatively new position, the proletariat can wield state power in the socialist transition to eliminate exploitation, thereby eliminating the conditions for the existence of both itself and the bourgeoisie as classes.

One way to think about this is to say that identity is what holds things together. In other words, identity represents the real, concrete relationships that bind these opposing forces to each other. In the case of the working class and capitalists, these are the real, concrete relations of production. The capitalists own the means of production, and workers have to sell their labor to the capitalists to survive. Nevertheless, Lenin makes an important point here. “The unity (coincidence, identity, equal action) of opposites is conditional, temporary, transitory, relative. The struggle of mutually exclusive opposites is absolute, just as development and motion are absolute.” This is crucial for revolutionaries to grasp. Struggle and change are both constant and necessary.

So, to sum up, identity is the concrete relationship between contradictory aspects. On the one hand, it means that the two aspects of a contradiction are interdependent. On the other hand, it means that they can exchange places between which aspect is principal and which is secondary.

But what role does antagonism play in the identity and struggle of opposites? Mao says that “antagonism is one form, but not the only form, of the struggle of opposites.” In his essay “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People,” Mao divides contradictions into two categories: those between the masses of the people and the enemy, and those among the people themselves. Contradictions between the people and the enemy are antagonistic. Contradictions among the people are non-antagonistic. For example, under capitalist society, the contradiction between the capitalists and the working class is an antagonistic contradiction. The capitalists derive their wealth through the exploitation of the workers. They get rich from the surplus value produced by workers, that is, the difference between the value added by living labor and the amount the capitalists pay the workers for that labor power. Over the long run, the more wealth the capitalists accumulate, the less the workers are able to take home in pay, and vice versa. This means the material interests of these two classes are directly and irreconcilably opposed to one another. One benefits only at the expense of the other.

But there also exist contradictions among the masses of the people themselves. These contradictions are not antagonistic, not irreconcilably opposed to one another. Non-antagonistic contradictions are resolved through a process of unity-criticism-unity. This is a peaceful and democratic method of resolving non-antagonistic contradictions that means “starting from the desire for unity, resolving contradictions through criticism or struggle, and arriving at a new unity on a new basis.” This is the way communists should seek to resolve contradictions among themselves and among the broad masses of the people.

This brings to a close our preliminary discussion of the primary law of dialectics, the law of contradiction, which Engels called the law of the interpenetration of opposites. It is one of our most powerful and important theoretical tools and deserves serious and ongoing study, well beyond the limitations of these short articles. From here we understand how contradiction operates well enough to proceed, and so in our next article we will look more closely at how contradiction operates in the transformation of quantity into quality.

See our full series of articles on Marxist-Leninist theory here.

#Minneapolis #MaoZedong #Marxism #Theory #MLTheory

Immediately after the vote count was finalized, Minneapolis Teachers Federation Presidents Greta Callahan and Shaun Laden spoke in front of a large banner covered with thousands of pictures of MFT members, held by an enthusiastic crowd of educators. They announced that over 96% of their total membership had voted in the strike vote, and that over 97% of those votes were to strike. After the announcement the crowd bust into chanting “The time is now!”

Around the same time, the Saint Paul Federation of Educators released a statement that their members had also authorized a strike by over 78% of ballots cast.

In recent days both unions have posted countless pictures from schools of the educators at those schools holding signs and wearing their red for SPFE and blue for MFT. Those pictures are only one of the many ways they have been clearly demonstrating that this strike prep is being widely participated in by the members and that they are organizing on the ground.

Both Minneapolis and Saint Paul educators are fighting for caps on class size, mental health supports for students, equity and racial justice in hiring and retention of staff as well as ways for oppressed nationality educators to move up within the system, and for wage increases.

No strike date has yet been announced but it is expected the strikes would occur simultaneously near the beginning of March.

#Minneapolis #strike #Strikes #TeachersUnions #MinneapolisTeachersFederationMFT #SaintPaulFederationOfEducatorsSPFE

Across the world, March 8th honors the contributions of women to the people’s struggle. This year,Freedom Road Socialist Organization will hold events to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD).

IWD was founded to honor the sacrifices of heroes named and unnamed. Some capitalists have triedto sanitize and co-opt International Women’s Day. The origins of this day are clearly anti-capitalist.Our celebrations will carry forward that spirit.

Long History, Global Reach

International Women’s Day originates in the struggle of working women in New York City. In 1908there was a determined battle by garment workers to improve their lot. There was also an intenseagitation for the right to vote. Inspired by this, the outstanding German revolutionary Clara Zetkinproposed to the socialist movement a worldwide celebration of International Women’s Day.

Women’s Rights are Bound to Reproductive Freedom for All

The main reason to celebrate International Women’s Day is not because it is 114 years. The mainreason to celebrate IWD is to build resistance against gender-based oppression. Sexual violence andintimate partner abuse continue to be tolerated and taken lightly by the U.S. legal system. It’s noaccident that the weight of these crimes falls most heavily on women, both cis and trans and alsonon-binary folks.

Systematic attacks on reproductive freedom being carried out in Texas and Mississippi are attacks onbodily autonomy. They are also an attack on democratic rights more broadly. The attempt to subjectthe people’s bodies to the control of a state, guided by a religious worldview, is not just oppressive topeople who bear children. The legal foundation of modern LGBTQ rights in the U.S. is the right toprivacy of the Fourth Amendment. The reversal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, which seemslikely, threatens four decades of progress for women, non-binary folks as well as LGBTQ people, nomatter our gender.

Oppressed nationality folks will be most impacted by abortion restrictions. In Mississippi, AfricanAmericans make up 80% of people having abortions but 44% of the population. The abortion rate isclosely linked to Mississippi’s level of poverty and access to health care. Mississippi has an infantmortality rate that is twice as high for Black infants. There are currently no proposals in theirlegislature to cut infant mortality, only to control people’s bodies.

Women Hold Up Half the Sky

On March 8, 2022, join Freedom Road comrades to celebrate, commemorate and continue to pullstruggles forward in celebration of International Women’s Day. Check social media pages for detailson local events. Get involved and join us.

#Minneapolis #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganizationFRSO #reproductiveFreedom #InternationalWomensDayIWD

Minneapolis, MN – On February 5, 100 protesters gathered at Mayday plaza on the West Bank in Minneapolis to oppose U.S. war with Russia and further intervention in the Ukraine. Protesters held signs that read “No war with Russia,” “Fight COVID not Russia” and “Money for housing, not for war.”

The protest’s program began with a speech from Susan Banaszewski, a member of the MN Anti-War Committee, who focused on the role of U.S. intervention and the role of the media in beating the drums for war, “So U.S. meddling has made everyday life worse for Ukrainians by making sure they have less money in their pockets and fewer social supports, armed the fascist elements in their country, created panic and destabilized the economy with this warmongering. The U.S. has escalated conflict with their neighbors and essentially caused a civil war, in which arms from the U.S. are used against fellow Ukrainians. All this fuels our war machine profits. and the U.S. wants the world's thanks for making the world safer?”

Sarah Martin, a longtime member of Women Against Military Madness, spoke and compared the situation to previous actions of U.S. intervention, “We have been down this all too familiar road of build up as the administration and compliant corporate media beat the drums of war with all the lies, demonization of the leader of the country in the crosshairs and false justifications like ‘honoring treaty obligations, our national interest, and security, human rights, women’s rights,’ and of course ‘democracy’. A prototype for these U.S. wars of the last 30 years is the U.S./NATO war on Yugoslavia which broke up that country. It also began the Western move of the U.S. and NATO toward Russia, and manufactured NATO’s continued existence.”

Martin, like Banaszewski, argued this conflict is being manufactured by the U.S., “But despite the incessant and relentless propaganda of the state and mainstream media, fewer than one in eight U.S. citizens want this war or want the U.S. anywhere near the Ukraine. People are war weary and life is hard for most especially in this time of COVID. People are struggling and need help.”

Other anti-war speakers included Dave Logsdon from Veterans for Peace and Mike Madden from the newly founded Twin Cities Julian Assange Defense Committee. Closing out the speakers was Tracy Molm, a founder of the Climate Justice Committee, who connected U.S. imperialism to the struggle against Line 3 in Minnesota, “As we stand here to oppose the current saber rattling around Russia – and China – all of this assumed need for military might obscures that the U.S. military is the number one institutional polluter in the world. The U.S. military has consistently been left out of pollution goals put into climate agreements. Real and lasting fixes to climate change need to start with ending U.S. military aggression and posturing – but also end fossil fuel infrastructure that helps enable and continue U.S. military endeavors. The Climate Justice Committee is focused on fighting Line 3 oil pipeline and will continue to stand with our friend in the anti-war movement making connections between the constant drumbeat of wars abroad that necessitate fossil fuel infrastructure.”

A repeated theme of the protest was to denounce in chants and speeches both U.S. intervention in Ukraine and the recent murder of Amir Locke by Minneapolis police. Originally the protest was scheduled to march to U.S. Senator Klobuchar’s office but after over an hour of protesting participants were encouraged to warm up and go to the Hennepin County Government Center to protest Amir Locke’s execution by police, and to demand the resignations of both Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and the interim police chief.

The protest was initiated by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and endorsed by the Anti-War Committee, Veterans for Peace, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and others.

The protest was organized as a part of the United National Antiwar Coalition’s national day of action. Protests took place across the country including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Portland OR, Asheville NC, New Orleans, and many more cities.

#Minneapolis #AntiwarMovement #NATO #Ukraine #MNAntiWarCommittee #FightCOVIDNotRussia

Minneapolis, MN – On February 5, 100 protesters gathered at Mayday plaza on the West Bank in Minneapolis to oppose U.S. war with Russia and further intervention in the Ukraine. Protesters held signs that read “No war with Russia,” “Fight COVID not Russia” and “Money for housing, not for war.”

The protest’s program began with a speech from Susan Banaszewski, a member of the MN Anti-War Committee, who focused on the role of U.S. intervention and the role of the media in beating the drums for war, “So U.S. meddling has made everyday life worse for Ukrainians by making sure they have less money in their pockets and fewer social supports, armed the fascist elements in their country, created panic and destabilized the economy with this warmongering. The U.S. has escalated conflict with their neighbors and essentially caused a civil war, in which arms from the U.S. are used against fellow Ukrainians. All this fuels our war machine profits. and the U.S. wants the world's thanks for making the world safer?”

Sarah Martin, a longtime member of Women Against Military Madness, spoke and compared the situation to previous actions of U.S. intervention, “We have been down this all too familiar road of build up as the administration and compliant corporate media beat the drums of war with all the lies, demonization of the leader of the country in the crosshairs and false justifications like ‘honoring treaty obligations, our national interest, and security, human rights, women’s rights,’ and of course ‘democracy’. A prototype for these U.S. wars of the last 30 years is the U.S./NATO war on Yugoslavia which broke up that country. It also began the Western move of the U.S. and NATO toward Russia, and manufactured NATO’s continued existence.”

Martin, like Banaszewski, argued this conflict is being manufactured by the U.S., “But despite the incessant and relentless propaganda of the state and mainstream media, fewer than one in eight U.S. citizens want this war or want the U.S. anywhere near the Ukraine. People are war weary and life is hard for most especially in this time of COVID. People are struggling and need help.”

Other anti-war speakers included Dave Logsdon from Veterans for Peace and Mike Madden from the newly founded Twin Cities Julian Assange Defense Committee. Closing out the speakers was Tracy Molm, a founder of the Climate Justice Committee, who connected U.S. imperialism to the struggle against Line 3 in Minnesota, “As we stand here to oppose the current saber rattling around Russia – and China – all of this assumed need for military might obscures that the U.S. military is the number one institutional polluter in the world. The U.S. military has consistently been left out of pollution goals put into climate agreements. Real and lasting fixes to climate change need to start with ending U.S. military aggression and posturing – but also end fossil fuel infrastructure that helps enable and continue U.S. military endeavors. The Climate Justice Committee is focused on fighting Line 3 oil pipeline and will continue to stand with our friend in the anti-war movement making connections between the constant drumbeat of wars abroad that necessitate fossil fuel infrastructure.”

A repeated theme of the protest was to denounce in chants and speeches both U.S. intervention in Ukraine and the recent murder of Amir Locke by Minneapolis police. Originally the protest was scheduled to march to U.S. Senator Klobuchar’s office but after over an hour of protesting participants were encouraged to warm up and go to the Hennepin County Government Center to protest Amir Locke’s execution by police, and to demand the resignations of both Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and the interim police chief.

The protest was initiated by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and endorsed by the Anti-War Committee, Veterans for Peace, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and others.

The protest was organized as a part of the United National Antiwar Coalition’s national day of action. Protests took place across the country including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Portland OR, Asheville NC, New Orleans, and many more cities.

#Minneapolis #AntiwarMovement #NATO #Ukraine #MNAntiWarCommittee #FightCOVIDNotRussia

A statement issued by organizers says in part, “Following the Biden administration’s announcement that 3000 U.S. troops are being moved to Eastern Europe, people will be taking to the streets in the U.S. and around the world to raise the alarm about the dangers of a U.S.-Russia war.”

“Saturday, February 5 will be a global day of protest because the only sane course of actions the U.S. can take is a commitment to diplomacy with serious negotiations, not military escalation – which could easily spiral out of control to the point of pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war,” the statement continues.

The statement continues, “The roots of this crisis start with the failure of the U.S. government to live up to its promise made in 1990 by then-Secretary of State James Baker that NATO would expand not ‘one inch to the East.’ Since 1999, NATO has expanded to include numerous countries, including some that border Russia.”

“For the last 20 years the U.S. has been in a series of endless wars, interventions, drone strikes and bombings, the U.S. has occupied or bombed Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. The real threat to peace is the U.S. war machine. The people of the U.S. need an end to the endless war threats, people need housing, COVID relief, a real struggle against inequality and racism, not new wars and war threats,” the statement continues.

The Minneapolis protest was initiated by Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and endorsed by: Anti-War Committee, Veterans for Peace, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and others.

Protests are taking place during this weekend in cities such as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Portland OR, Minneapolis, Asheville NC, New Orleans and many more.

#Minneapolis #AntiwarMovement #NATO #Ukraine #Biden #NoWarWithRussia

A statement issued by organizers says in part, “Following the Biden administration’s announcement that 3000 U.S. troops are being moved to Eastern Europe, people will be taking to the streets in the U.S. and around the world to raise the alarm about the dangers of a U.S.-Russia war.”

“Saturday, February 5 will be a global day of protest because the only sane course of actions the U.S. can take is a commitment to diplomacy with serious negotiations, not military escalation – which could easily spiral out of control to the point of pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war,” the statement continues.

The statement continues, “The roots of this crisis start with the failure of the U.S. government to live up to its promise made in 1990 by then-Secretary of State James Baker that NATO would expand not ‘one inch to the East.’ Since 1999, NATO has expanded to include numerous countries, including some that border Russia.”

“For the last 20 years the U.S. has been in a series of endless wars, interventions, drone strikes and bombings, the U.S. has occupied or bombed Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. The real threat to peace is the U.S. war machine. The people of the U.S. need an end to the endless war threats, people need housing, COVID relief, a real struggle against inequality and racism, not new wars and war threats,” the statement continues.

The Minneapolis protest was initiated by Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and endorsed by: Anti-War Committee, Veterans for Peace, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and others.

Protests are taking place during this weekend in cities such as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Portland OR, Minneapolis, Asheville NC, New Orleans and many more.

#Minneapolis #AntiwarMovement #NATO #Ukraine #Biden #NoWarWithRussia

Feb. 2 marks the 79th anniversary of victory over fascism at Stalingrad

To mark the victory of the Soviet Union at Stalingrad, Fight Back News Service is reprinting the following article by Mao Zedong, that was first published October 12, 1942, in Liberation Daily.

The Turning point in World War 2

The Battle of Stalingrad has been compared by the British and American press to the Battle of Verdun, and the “Red Verdun” is now famous all over the world. This comparison is not altogether appropriate. The Battle of Stalingrad is different in nature from the Battle of Verdun in World War I. But they have this in common— now, as then, many people are misled by the German offensive into thinking that Germany can still win the war. In 1916 the German forces launched several attacks on the French fortress of Verdun, two years before World War I ended in the winter of 1918. The commander-in-chief at Verdun was the German Crown Prince and the forces thrown into the battle were the cream of the German army. The battle was of decisive significance. After the ferocious German assaults failed, the entire German-Austrian-Turkish-Bulgarian bloc had no future, and from then on its difficulties mounted, it was deserted by its followers, it disintegrated, and finally collapsed. But at the time, the Anglo-American-French bloc did not grasp this situation, believing that the German army was still very powerful, and they were unaware of their own approaching victory. Historically, all reactionary forces on the verge of extinction invariably conduct a last desperate struggle against the revolutionary forces, and some revolutionaries are apt to be deluded for a time by this phenomenon of outward strength but inner weakness, failing to grasp the essential fact that the enemy is nearing extinction while they themselves are approaching victory. The rise of the forces of fascism and the war of aggression they have been conducting for some years are precisely the expression of such a last desperate struggle; and in this present war the attack on Stalingrad is the expression of the last desperate struggle of fascism itself. At this turning point in history, too, many people in the world anti-fascist front have been deluded by the ferocious appearance of fascism and have failed to discern its essence. For forty-eight days there raged an unprecedentedly bitter battle, unparalleled in the history of mankind—from August 23, when the entire German force crossed the bend of the River Don and began the all-out attack on Stalingrad, through September 15, when some German units broke into the industrial district in the northwestern section of the city, and right up to October 9, when the Soviet Information Bureau announced that the Red Army had breached the German line of encirclement in that district. Ultimately this battle was won by the Soviet forces. During those forty-eight days, the news of each setback or triumph from that city gripped the hearts of countless millions of people, now bringing them anxiety, now stirring them to elation. This battle is not only the turning point of the Soviet-German war, or even of the present anti-fascist world war, it is the turning point in the history of all mankind. Throughout these forty-eight days, the people of the world watched Stalingrad with even greater concern than they watched Moscow last October.

Until his victory on the western front, Hitler seems to have been cautious. When he attacked Poland, when he attacked Norway, when he attacked Holland, Belgium, and France, and when he attacked the Balkans, he concentrated all his strength on one objective at a time, not daring to disperse his attention. After his victory on the western front, he became dizzy with success and attempted to defeat the Soviet Union in three months. He launched an offensive against this huge and powerful socialist country along the whole front stretching from Murmansk in the north to the Crimea in the south, and in so doing dispersed his forces. The failure of his Moscow campaign last October marked the end of the first stage of the Soviet-German war, and Hitler's first strategic plan failed. The Red Army halted the German offensive last year and launched a counteroffensive on all fronts in the winter, which constituted the second stage of the Soviet-German war, with Hitler turning to retreat and the defensive. In this period, after dismissing Brauchitsch, his commander-in-chief, and taking over the command himself, he decided to abandon the plan for an all-out offensive, combed Europe for all available forces and prepared a final offensive which, though limited to the southern front, would, he imagined, strike at the vitals of the Soviet Union. Because it was in the nature of a final offensive on which the fate of fascism hung, Hitler concentrated the greatest possible forces and even moved in part of his aircraft and tanks from the North African battle front. With the German attack on Kerch and Sevastopol in May this year, the war entered its third stage. Massing an army of over 1,500,000, which was supported by the bulk of his air and tank forces, Hitler launched an offensive of unprecedented fury on Stalingrad and the Caucasus. He endeavoured to capture these two objectives at great speed for the twofold purpose of cutting the Volga and seizing Baku, intending subsequently to drive against Moscow to the north and break through to the Persian Gulf in the south; at the same time he directed the Japanese fascists to mass their troops in Manchuria in preparation for an attack on Siberia after the fall of Stalingrad. Hitler vainly hoped to weaken the Soviet Union to such an extent that he would be able to release the main forces of the German army from the Soviet theatre of war for dealing with an Anglo-American attack on the western front, and for seizing the resources of the Near East and effecting a junction with the Japanese; at the same time this would allow the main forces of the Japanese to be released from the north and, with their rear secure, to move west against China and south against Britain and the United States. That was how Hitler reckoned on winning victory for the fascist camp. But how did things turn out in this stage? Hitler came up against the Soviet tactics which sealed his fate. The Soviet Union adopted the policy of first luring the enemy in deep and then putting up a stubborn resistance. In five months of fighting the German army has failed either to penetrate to the Caucasian oil-fields or to seize Stalingrad, so that Hitler has been forced to halt his troops before high mountains and outside an impregnable city, unable to advance and unable to retreat, suffering immense losses and getting into an impasse. October is already here and winter is approaching; soon the third stage of the war will end and the fourth stage will begin. Not one of Hitler's strategic plans of attack