Katya Hoyer argues for a closer look at the triumphs and travails of everyday life under socialism.
The man who oversaw the peaceful yet tragic end to state socialism in the east, then stayed to fight for the working class in the newly unified Germany, passed away on February 10, aged 95.
"A rich man and a poor man, there they stood,
And judged each other as best they could.
The poor man said, his voice at low pitch,
If I were not poor you’d not be rich." -- Brecht
Reader Comments: Capitol Coup Insurrectionist Removed from Office; What Mar-a-Lago Documents Show; Mikhail Gorbachev; GDR - Victor Grossman responds; Rings of Power; Union Approval highest since 1965; Cartoons; more....
Reader Comments: Student Debt Forgiveness; Jan. 06, Racism and Fascism; New York Primary; Union Wave Hits Chipotle; On the Departed GDR; Chile Votes on Sunday; Cartoons; more....
The German media, always happy about another juicy anniversary, has for days been marking the date, sixty years ago, when the “Berlin Wall” was constructed - August 13 1961 – proof that the ”real-socialist” system in East Germany was a failure.
John le Carré died Saturday at eighty-nine. His novels rejected the glamor and ritz of Cold War–era spy fiction. Instead, he portrayed espionage as a dreary, disturbing machine that ground up innocents for a goal that didn’t justify the human cost.
Reader Comments: Impeachment; AOC, Bernie; Young Voters Choosing Democratic Socialism; Nuclear Weapons; Kurds; Zuckerberg defense; Girls' Soccer Team Penalized; American Lynchings map; Future of Warehouse Jobs; World Social Forum; announcements ...
An extended ode to the revolutionary German playwright-genius Bertolt Brecht, whose exhaustive new collected poems exalt combating injustice while keeping faith in his fidelity to dissent.
Pete Seeger, folk singer and activist for peace, civil rights, labor rights and the environment, left us just two years ago - January 27, 2014. Recently, Seeger's FBI file has been released. Included in the file is Pete's correspondence with Victor Grossman. The Editors of The Volunteer, founded by the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, asked Grossman if he had any recollections of Pete's visit to East Berlin in 1967. Here's his story.
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