The Red Review | Issue #21 (June 2025)
The Trade War, at Its Root, is a Class War
by Gary Porter
Tariffs, sanctions and military brinkmanship have become the preferred strategy of the US hegemon especially since the 2008 financial collapse, the long recession and the renewed decline in profitability. These elements constitute a sharp move away from neo-liberalism toward protectionism and hyper-nationalism. The US has consistently moved in this direction under Trump, then Biden, and now Trump for a second time.
To this we must add the remarkable rise of China to a peer competitor position economically, diplomatically and militarily – evoking the fear and loathing of the American ruling class. Further, there is the narcissistic swagger of Donald Trump, a man of little knowledge and even less intellectual subtlety. His wild swings in trade policy, tariffs and sanctions leave chaos in their wake.
Whither the NDP? Bold Re-boot or Insider-Run Leadership Race
by Tom Baker
In the aftermath of a crushing electoral defeat, the federal New Democratic Party again finds itself facing an existentialist crisis. Over the past four decades, provincial and federal wings of the party have adopted policies that have replaced most seemingly progressive aspects of social democracy with rampant third-wave neo-liberalism. This political degeneration comes to a head at this extraordinary historical moment.
The electoral decimation of its caucus of MPs, and the loss of official party status, objectively disenfranchises the working class and increasingly marginalized sectors of the population. The risk to working people is particularly acute in the context of Carney’s social spending cuts to fund “investment” in the private sector, tax reductions for the wealthy, military expansion and fossil fuel growth.
Exterminating Gaza was Always Israel’s Plan, but Now It’s Official
by Qassam Muaddi
It has been a year since Israel first invaded Rafah and crossed Biden’s illusory “red line.” The Israeli army destroyed the Rafah crossing, isolating Gaza from Egypt and completely cutting it off from the outside world. Israel was free to conduct the mass displacement of Palestinians away from the Egyptian border, but it never admitted to that goal.
But now, Rafah is no more, and Israel’s recently approved plan to reoccupy Gaza indefinitely has made explicit what many have already expected for months: that the ulterior motive of creating permanent military installations and buffer zones in Gaza is to facilitate the mass expulsion of Palestinians.
For God’s Sake Don’t Save the Pope
by Corey David
Similar to King Charles’ lavish coronation, the new Pope and the Roman Catholic Church enjoyed endless mass media coverage and fanfare during the Vatican’s recent succession exercise. World leaders’ fawning congratulations attempted to reinvigorate this thoroughly disgraced and increasingly irrelevant institution. Branded as anti-Trump, but also as “America’s guy”, Pope Leo presents the mirage of a political balancing act. He started his reign by denouncing the atrocities inflicted by the Zionist state in Gaza, while offering no meaningful material support to its victims, totally in line with his western counterparts.
Unfortunately, continuing attacks on public services and a world pushed deeper into crisis are creating an opportunity for the Church. The evidence of the under funding of public schools is the deteriorating conditions in classrooms. A failing economic system and unaddressed societal challenges condemn more people to live in poverty. War and raw resource exploitation generate refugees and humanitarian crisis. At a time of growing unrest and profound uncertainty, the Church is ready, once more, to mystify the nature of power and obscure the truth for the benefit of the ruling rich.
Historical OPSEU/SEFPO Organizing Victory
by OPSEU (Ontario Public Service Employees Union)
Toronto, ON – College faculty union leaders had much to celebrate around the historic table at the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) today. After a long day sorting through thousands of ballots, with 88% of ballot-casters voting in favour the union won the vote count: part-time and sessional faculty at all 24 of Ontario’s public colleges will join OPSEU/SEFPO.
Alongside the union’s part-time college support drive in 2018, this marks one of the largest union organizing drives in Canadian history.
“This is historic – after today, Ontario’s college system becomes wall-to-wall union,” said JP Hornick, President of OPSEU/SEFPO. “We’ve fought tooth and nail to get here. There was a time when part-time college workers were one the very few classifications legally excluded from unionizing in Canada.”
150 Years since the Critique of the Gotha Programme
by Michael Roberts
The Critique was a document based on a letter by Marx written in early May 1875 to the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Germany (SDAP), with whom Marx and Friedrich Engels were in close association. The letter is named after the Gotha Programme, a proposed manifesto for a forthcoming party congress that was to take place in the town of Gotha. At that congress, the SDAP planned to merge with the General German Workers’ Association (ADAV), who were followers of Ferdinand Lassalle, to form a unified party.
Karl Marx’s ‘Critique of the Gotha Programme’ was written 150 years ago this week. It provides us with Marx’s most detailed pronouncements on revolutionary strategy, the meaning of the term ‘the dictatorship of the proletariat’, the nature of the period of transition from capitalism to communism, and the importance of internationalism.
Vietnam Celebrates 50 Years of the End of Its Colonial Period
by Vijay Prashad
Fifty years ago, on April 30, 1975, the revolutionary forces of the People’s Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front entered Saigon, then the capital of South Vietnam. Two days earlier, in a desperate attempt to avert further war, the US brought in a “peace candidate” – former General Duong Văn Minh – to be the president. It was “Big Minh”, as he was known, who ordered his forces to surrender to the Communist troops, which then meant the withdrawal of the US forces on that day.
Eventually, on July 2, 1976, North and South Vietnam were formally reunified under the presidency of Tôn Duc Thắng, a long-time communist leader, who had taken over as the President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (the north) after the death of Ho Chi Minh in 1969. Uncle Tôn, as he was known, worked closely with General Le Duan to unify the country, and to build an economy out of the devastation left after sixty-seven years of French colonialism (from 1887 to 1954) and then twenty-one years of brutal war (1954 to 1975).
Colonialism, Capitalism, and Canada, 1500-2025: How the Past is Before Us
by Canadian Dimension
If 1885 and its war of resistance constituted colonialism’s crisis, 1886 witnessed capitalism’s most significant class challenge. The “Great Upheaval” culminated in a rash of mass strikes and local trade union conflicts, Knights of Labor and union label campaigns, and Provincial Workmen’s Association and nascent independent labour party forays into political activism. The people stood poised against monopolistic power and political rings; and “union” seemed the rallying cry of the hour, not only in Toronto but in Prince Albert. It was enough to cause colonizers and capitalists, powerbrokers and patricians, and Canada Firsters and Fathers of Confederation to shudder. Macdonald was right to worry. Steering the ship of state so that it could navigate in the interests of Confederation’s commitment to colonialism and capitalism was proving anything but easy.
Logic and Reasoning in the Time of War
by M.K. Bhadrakumar
One of the saddest things about India’s lurch toward transforming as a national security state through the past decade since our late “peacenik prime minister” Manmohan Singh handed over power has been the gradual atrophying and the virtual eclipse today of the peace movement in our country.
The death of the peace movement marks a colossal failure of the left parties in India who have always been at its barricades but have gone into hibernation, and are in a state of torpor. This can be largely ascribed to their defeatist mindset in the recent years and a lacklustre leadership.
In reality, they have chosen to go under. The communist parties have never been a large political constituency in India but through ups and down, they still had a larger-than-life image and influence and their voice commanded respect.
Bubble Zone by-laws are Hazardous to Freedom
by Beau Duquesnay
The controversial and oppressive By-law CC30.5 was adopted by Toronto’s City Council in a vote of 16-9. City councilors seemed oblivious to the fact that a majority of public opinion is opposed to the measure, according to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Shamefully, the 'progressive' mayor, Olivia Chow, went along with the bubble proponents. The new By-law will go into effect on July 2, 2025 despite its unpopularity.
The by-law will affect each and every individual and organization’s rights to protest and to exercise freedom of speech. The By-law would allow police to fine individuals up to $5,000 for protesting within 50 meters of the dozens of designated ‘Bubble Zones’. There are already by-laws in place that prevent people from wearing a mask at a rally or march, and laws exist to bar anti-Semitic actions. The no-go zones for protests include schools, daycare centers, churches, libraries and hospitals, if the managers of such institutions so desire.