Kishore:
Derived from the Sanskrit word kiśora (किशोर), the term carries connotations of freshness, vitality, and early life potential.
He’s been a member of the SEP since 1999. He’s from Detroit, Michigan. Nov. 11, 8 pm, Nov. 12, 3 pm: kyaq (dot) org
Good stuff over at WSWS:
Leon Trotsky, a towering figure of the Russian Revolution, found himself ostracized and hunted after falling out of favor with Joseph Stalin. His exile in Mexico City from 1937 to 1940 was a period of immense personal struggle, marked by intellectual defiance, political isolation, and ultimately, a brutal assassination.
His exile in Mexico City, however, stands as a testament to his unwavering defiance and intellectual commitment. Though ostracized and hunted, Trotsky remained a thorn in Stalin’s side, his voice echoing through his writings and inspiring future generations of revolutionaries. Trotsky’s story is a cautionary tale of the dangers of political idealism and the dark undercurrents of revolution. Yet, it also serves as a reminder of the power of dissent and the importance of fighting for one’s convictions, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) was, alongside Vladimir Lenin, the greatest revolutionary leader of the 20th century.
Trotsky and Lenin led the Bolshevik Party and the Russian working class in the 1917 October Revolution, which established the first workers’ state in human history. In 1923, Trotsky founded the Left Opposition to oppose the growth of a nationalist bureaucracy, headed by Joseph Stalin, as it usurped power in the Soviet Union. In 1933, following the coming to power of the Nazis in Germany, facilitated by the disastrous policies of the Comintern that Trotsky had opposed, Trotsky called for the founding of the Fourth International to carry forward the fight for Marxism against the Stalinist degeneration of the Soviet Union and the Third International.
Two years after the founding of the Fourth International in 1938, Trotsky was assassinated at the hands of a Stalinist agent, Ramón Mercader, in Coyoacán, Mexico. His assassination was the most conscious attempt by Stalinism and world imperialism to decapitate the leadership of the international working class in the midst of the slaughter of World War II.
The Fourth International founded by Trotsky is today led by the International Committee, which publishes the World Socialist Web Site. The International Committee of the Fourth International has defended the program and principles of genuine Trotskyism since 1953.
This is the preface for the upcoming book by David North, Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the Twenty-First Century. North is the chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site and the National Chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US).
The print and epub version can be purchased at Mehring Books.
The fight to defend the artwork at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is of the highest importance to young people and workers in Detroit, across the United States and internationally. In threatening to sell the collection of one of the premier art museums, the ruling elite is demonstrating its antagonism to everything of value in the development of human thought and culture.
These 2013 statements, on the fight to mobilize the working class against the sale of the DIA artworks by Detroit’s unelected emergency manager, examine the historical background of the Detroit bankruptcy, and demonstrate that the defense of art and culture requires a struggle against capitalism, which is run entirely in the interests of a handful of billionaires.
“Art cannot save itself. The nourishment of art and artists must come from the working class, which emerges as the defender of all that is progressive in human history, and the socialist perspective,” writes Joseph Kishore.
David Walsh reviews the history of public museums and their connection to the great democratic movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. The SEP Program on “The right to culture” demands a reversal of the cuts in education, the arts and music, libraries and public institutions, and the expansion of free access to the working class. From an 1883 letter by Vincent Van Gogh:
“The art trade [has become] all too much a sort of bankers’ speculation and it still is …”
The pamphlet has four-color images from the DIA collection, including the Diego Rivera murals, Van Gogh’s “Self Portrait” of 1887, and Claude Monet’s 1876 “Gladioli.”
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Joseph and I talked about:
- DSA
- fake socialism
- Rosa Luxemburg
- genocide
- imperialism
- capitalism
- Israel
- USA as bulldog and master of fascism now
- what a Marxist analysis might bring to the table for youth leaning toward socialism
- the so-called protests in France, Europe
- Trump
- Ukraine and Russia conflict
- and a hero of communism being persecuted in Ukraine
Correspondence with WSWS and six articles published in the on-line magazine by Dogdan.
Re: The conviction of Bogdan Syrotiuk, sentenced on August 10, 2026, to 15 years’ imprisonment on charges of “high treason”
We, the undersigned, petition the courts of Ukraine to overturn the verdict against Bogdan Syrotiuk and to order his immediate release.
Grounds for this petition
- The conviction rests entirely on protected political expression. The sole evidence presented against Bogdan Syrotiuk consisted of six articles published on the World Socialist Web Site and his communications with the editors who published them. No act other than writing and publishing was alleged or proven. To convict a citizen of treason for writing for a socialist publication is to criminalize political speech itself, in violation of Article 34 of the Constitution of Ukraine and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Ukraine is a signatory.
- The central allegation is a fabrication. When Bogdan Syrotiuk was arrested by the SBU on April 25, 2024, the state claimed he was an agent of the Russian government. In more than two years of detention and proceedings, no evidence of any kind was produced to support that allegation.
- The evidence cited in the verdict contradicts the charge. The articles on which the conviction rests make explicit Bogdan Syrotiuk’s opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to the Putin regime.
- The court failed to answer the expert evidence before it. A 65-page report by Yuri Irkhin, one of Ukraine’s leading criminologists, examined Bogdan Syrotiuk’s writings and found in them no statements, phrases, sentences, or word combinations supporting any actions of the Russian military. The court did not refute, and did not even address, this report. A verdict that ignores exculpatory expert findings cannot stand.
- The ancillary orders confirm the political character of the prosecution. In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered the confiscation of Bogdan Syrotiuk’s property and the destruction of the program, brochures and leaflets of his organization, the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists. The ordered destruction of political literature is the act of a state punishing ideas, not prosecuting crimes.
- The conviction was handed down under conditions incompatible with a fair trial. It was issued under martial law, in a country in which elections have been suspended, and every left-wing party has been banned. The European Court of Human Rights accepted Bogdan Syrotiuk’s case in the spring of 2025. The proceedings against him constitute political persecution, in violation of Articles 6, 7, and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
- The sentence places Bogdan Syrotiuk’s life in immediate danger. His health was poor at the time of his arrest. He was denied urgently needed medical treatment for more than two years. In a penitentiary system whose overcrowding, denial of medical care, and rising deaths in custody have been documented by the United Nations and the Council of Europe, a 15-year sentence is the equivalent of a death sentence.
We therefore demand
- That the verdict of the Pervomaisk City District Court of August 10, 2026, against Bogdan Syrotiuk be overturned in its entirety;
- That Bogdan Syrotiuk be released immediately;
- That the orders for the confiscation of his property and the destruction of the literature of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists be rescinded;
- That he be guaranteed full and immediate access to the medical care his condition requires.
Bogdan Syrotiuk committed no crime. His conviction is a judgment against the right of every citizen of Ukraine to hold and express political convictions. We call on the Mykolaiv Court of Appeal to reverse it.
Orwellian: Jon Leibowitz, man: Defense Department-sponsored “Warrior Games” featured liberal comedian Jon Stewart awarding a member of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion at Disney World. The Pentagon refused to say whether US taxpayers funded the foreign competitors’ travel.
“The organizational team of the Warrior Games in Ukraine includes the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, the Center for Strategic Communications ‘StratCom Ukraine,’ the NGO ‘Invictus Ukraine Games,’ the Strongman Federation of Ukraine, the ‘Come Back Alive,’” the Ministry of Veterans Affairs website states. StratCom Ukraine, like the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, is a governmental body, while the others appear to be Ukrainian NGOs.
As the Grayzone reported, the head of Ukraine’s veterans affairs agency attended a 2019 neo-Nazi black metal concert featuring several antisemitic metal bands, and promoted the event on Facebook.
According to a deleted article from 2017 on an Azov Battalion website, at least three members of the notorious ultranationalist fighting force have participated in the Invictus Games. Because Azov identified the competitors by their call signs, and therefore did not disclose their real names, it is not possible to determine whether they also competed in the 2022 Warrior Games.
The Associated Press downplayed her links to the Azov Battalion, writing “Russia has portrayed Taira as working for the nationalist Azov Battalion… But the AP found no such evidence, and friends and colleagues said she had no links to Azov.”
However, Palevska was a member of another neo-Nazi formation similarly incorporated into the Ukrainian military – a fact not mentioned by mainstream media outlets that vaulted her to war hero status this March.
A 2019 Bloomberg Businessweek report identified Palevska as “a former member of Right Sector,.” (“There’s no such thing as ex-Right Sector,” she claimed). After leaving the group “amid infighting,” she organized a team of combat medics named after her World of Warcraft character, “Taira’s Angels.”
Bloomberg’s correspondent met with Palevska in Mariupol, which was then controlled by the Azov Battalion. Palevska’s medic group “runs through about $20,000, half of it from abroad, in cash, fuel, and medical supplies every month,” he reported.
Photo of Palevska posted by the Warrior Games: Team Ukraine Facebook page
“Everyone I talk to describes [Palevska], dappled with Buddhist tattoos and sporting dyed blue hair, as motivated purely by patriotism,” he added.
In a photo posted by the official Facebook page for the Ukrainian Warrior Games team, Palevska’s tattoo of the ultranationalist slogan “Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the Heroes” is clearly visible.
Another member of Palevska’s media group was “wearing a T-shirt from the neo-Nazi apparel company Sva Stone and an Iron Cross ring,” according to Bloomberg.
His speeches and writings
The protests:
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