The “Socialism 2023” conference was dominated by the self-absorption and reactionary politics of the upper middle class milieu populating the DSA, the fraudulent “reformists” of the trade union bureaucracy and pro-imperialist state operatives.
“Children who work in the mines are often drugged, in order to suppress hunger.” It sounds like Victorian-era Britain, but the scene is a cobalt mining operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, reported in the New Yorker two years ago. This is a violent reminder that, despite decades of political independence, Africa once again finds itself the target of a big-power scramble for its wealth.
On Sunday, representatives of a variety of pro-imperialist pseudo-left tendencies held an online event to support the US/NATO war drive in Ukraine. The event ended in a political debacle for the organizers, who expelled David North for raising criticisms of the meeting in the event’s public chat.