If you live in Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky, you’ve certainly heard of—and likely been impacted by—the damage to the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge (also known as the “Big Mac Bridge”) caused by a fire that occurred in the early morning hours on November 1st. It is very telling that the knee-jerk reaction from local government agencies, without any specific evidence supporting their claim, was to imply that unhoused people—who are just looking for a place to sleep that is even slightly out of the elements—were responsible for the damage to the Big Mac Bridge.

Socialism is an economic system where the working class controls the means of production and democratically decides how resources are distributed. What makes socialism better than capitalism? Socialism is focused on uplifting and liberating people of all backgrounds who are forced to live under an abusive system prioritizing the wealthy few. It challenges the myth of workers needing to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” by emphasizing communal wellbeing as the key to prosperity.

As Cincinnati’s housing crisis intensifies and landlords rake in cash, more and more people are being thrown into the streets. As real estate prices continue to rise and housing ownership is further concentrated into the hands of corporate real estate developers, working class people’s only options are to rent or find themselves unhoused. To combat this, we, as renters and working class people, need to build powerful organizations of our own to combat the power that landlords hold over us.

The dynamics in west Asia have shifted very quickly. The ceasefire in Lebanon seemed to be evidence of Israel reaching its boiling point both externally and internally, but with the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, those resisting western imperialism must reevaluate how they move forward and what awaits the region. Jubilance for the fall of a dictator rightfully meets hesitation over what the future holds. While Assad was an undeniable evil for the region’s peoples, we must keep a critical lens when inspecting the new regime, their ideology, and agenda.

Many people, especially liberals, are having trouble wrapping their heads around why Trump won the election. Many argue that Trump’s racism and queerphobia have resonated with uneducated white people, getting him the votes he needed to win. While it's true that racists and bigots love Trump, this doesn't account for most of the 77 million votes he received.

As we approach the end of what is on track to be the hottest year ever recorded (a record that, without fail, continues to be broken with each successive year), this question seems to have crossed most peoples’ minds at some point or another over the last few months. For the last several years now, one could replace ‘November’ in that question with any month and be correct that it was the hottest one in memory.

Despite right-wing theories depicting universities as threats to [capitalist] society, academia serves as the primary institution in the reproduction of bourgeois ways of thinking. Universities—many of which would consider themselves progressive—present themselves as schools of thought with no outside influence, biases, or ulterior motives. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Ohio Republican Party has recently pushed through a new bill which Governor Mike DeWine signed into law on Nov. 27, two days before Native American Heritage Day. House Bill 183, also known as the “Protect All Students Act,” denies LGBTQIA+ students of all ages the ability to use the restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, and shower rooms of the gender they identify with.

While we must safeguard against abusers of the party, organization, and member’s trust, it is paramount that we maintain both our social character towards justice as well as consideration for the material realities of these abuses and the ability of an organization to take on the rehabilitation of the offender. This will affect comrades differently and will most certainly be unfair to either one party or another, or both. The priority here lies not in individual justice, but rather collective justice for the organization as a whole.

Ohio sends more taxpayer dollars to Israel’s military than almost any other state in the US. Every year, Ohio politicians send $108,326,244 in taxpayer money to fund Israel’s military occupation of Palestine. Over $5 million dollars annually comes from Cincinnati alone. Ohio is also one of the largest government holders of Israel bonds in the United States with a total of $262.5 million dollars owed by Israel to the state of Ohio.  

The 2024 US presidential election highlights the limits of electoral politics under capitalism. The working class must look beyond the ballot box and instead focus on building its own power to dismantle capitalism and fight for a socialist future. The only path to true liberation is through revolution, not reform.

Voting alone won’t save us; the fight against authoritarianism and exploitation doesn’t stop if we beat Trump in November. We can’t rely solely on electoral politics every 2-4 years to bring about the change we need. Change comes through mass action, political education, and general organization. In order to know what your community needs, you have to go out and be part of your community.