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The Lost History of East Germany

Samuel Clowes Huneke The Daily Beast
Katya Hoyer argues for a closer look at the triumphs and travails of everyday life under socialism.

Bertolt Brecht (and Me)

Victor Grossman CounterPunch
"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

Sixty Years After The Berlin Wall

Victor Grossman Portside
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.

Tidbits - Oct. 24, 2019 - Reader Comments: Impeachment; AOC, Bernie; Young Voters, Democratic Socialism; Nuclear Weapons; Kurds; Peter Handke; Zuckerberg; Girls' Soccer; Lynchings map; Future of Warehouse Jobs; World Social Forum; more ...

Portside
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 ...

books

Brecht’s Poetry: Angry or Evil?

Michael Wood The London Review of Books
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 in East Berlin, 1967

Victor Grossman The Volunteer (Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives -ALBA)
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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