Author

Sam Webb

1,755 posts, 2001–2026

I'm a long-time socialist and activist, but new to the blogging world. I hope to bring a different perspective on politics, sports, culture, and Marxism. Besides blogging, I also leave plenty of time for swimming, hiking, ESPN, music, reading, drinking good beer, and, not least, my family and friends. I wish I could play basketball, but my knees ruled out that possibility long ago. While I currently reside in New York, my politically formative years were spent in Portland, Me. and Detroit during the 1970s and 1980s. I graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (where I played basketball) and received a MA in economics from the University of Connecticut. I was the national chairperson of the Communist Party, USA from 2000 until 2014 when I stepped down at the convention. In 2016 I resigned from the Communist Party two years later. We were no longer on the same page.

Dec 12, 2016 1 min read

Patti Smith’s beautiful rendition of Hard Rain’s Going to Fall

I found Patti Smith’s performance of “Hard Rain’s Going to Fall” at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm deeply stunning and moving. Which all goes to prove once again that Dylan is nobody’s fool. He chose well for this event…

Dec 09, 2016 1 min read

They Fear Change

Below is a portion of an article from the Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine). It was written shortly after the elections. I’m posting it because it captures a sentiment that informed more white voters than many want to acknowledge. Gary…

Dec 07, 2016 2 min read

Globalization explains some things, but not everything

In order to avoid unnecessary arguments, I will agree that corporate globalization – and let’s not forget financialization – and the retreat from class by the dominant makers and shakers in the Democratic Party over four decades do figure into…

Dec 05, 2016 2 min read

Lift up class and all will be right in the world … Really?

Globalization and Hillary’s “retreat from class” has become the overarching explanation for Trump’s victory on the part of some left and progressive analysts. In this telling, right wing extremism and its mass constituency – by no means a new phenomenon…

Dec 03, 2016 2 min read

Deal Maker or White Redeemer?

Trump, to me, is more akin to a White Redeemer of yesteryear than a modern day Deal Maker. The Redeemers of the post-Civil War South broke the back of a brief experiment with multi-racial egalitarian democracy in the Civil War’s…