New Conditions, New Possibilities for the Poor and Dispossessed Working Class
The faster we accept that the world as we know it is ending, the better. The faster we acknowledge that the contradictions of capitalism have led it into a systemic crisis that we can leverage for change, the better for the working class. This issue of the University of the Poor Journal tries to capture the spirit of the perilous dawn of new beginnings. Our slogan is “organization guided by knowledge,” and our aim is to master the knowledge that will support us to consciously embrace and make the most of new possibilities for the working class.
This issue features original artwork by Anita Knisely-Durham.
Lenny Brody
In this article, Brody lays out in clear terms the structural crisis of global capital and the role of the U.S. state, digging into a recent Council on Foreign Relations task force report.
Luis J. Rodriguez and Trini Rodriguez
The authors affirm that Indigenous philosophy, worldviews and ways of organizing society are a deep well of knowledge connected to the history of this continent that we can draw on, as Marx and Engels did.
Carlos Rodriguez
A review of From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago by Jakobi Williams, a critical history of U.S. working class struggle.
Bruce E. Parry
Political Logic, by Wang Huning, a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party, aims to do for Marxist political thought what Capital did for political economy. This review encourages readers to study Wang’s 15 principles of Marxist political thought.
Todd Cherkis
Cherkis presents the first installment of a three-part series tackling the landmark 2024 Supreme Court decision Grants Pass vs. Johnson, which makes it illegal to be unhoused.
Karim Sariahmed and Marc Shi
Unpacking the critical and evolving role of the healthcare sector for global capital, disrupting mainstream discourse of how AI is being applied in the healthcare system.
Editorial Committee, 2026 New York State Poor People’s State of the State Report
AI requires the physical infrastructure of data centers, which are being challenged everywhere they are being proposed because of their massive energy costs, water and air pollution, and little perceivable benefit to local communities. This piece asks revolutionaries to consider the fights to stop data centers as potential sites for politically independent organizing.
Today, the US working class is defending on many fronts against the current offensive of state and policy violence. To coalesce these fronts into one forward-looking struggle against the ruling-class enemy, we need an organization of revolutionary cadre—a “network of leaders in the struggles of the poor and dispossessed everywhere capable of providing strategic political leadership toward fundamental transformation,” in the words of the University of the Poor Program. Read the full Program here.
