Archive | September, 2008

  • Third World: Is Another Debt Crisis in the Offing?

    While taking a significant toll on public revenues,1 repayment of the public debt has, since 2004, ceased to be a major concern for most middle-revenue countries and for raw material-exporting countries in general.  In fact the majority of governments of these countries are having no trouble finding loans at historically low interest rates.  However, the […]

  • Laurel, Mississippi

    The graphic above is based on David Bacon, “Workers Overcome Divisions after Mississippi Raid,” TruthOut, 8 September 2008. For information on how to support the workers in Laurel, go to . Andy Pollack blogs at . | | Print

  • The Making of the 2008 Koshi Disaster

      Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review.  Its September 2008 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. We know that the immediate future holds the certainty of severe climate change, and an ever increasing strain on not only the much publicised issue of reserves of […]

  • Before the Gathering Storm

    Patrick Buchanan, Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War, New York, 2008. Patrick Buchanan’s Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War is an uncompromising attack on the US ruling class and its course in the world from 1917 to the present.  He says that US foreign policy today is “headed inexorably for an American Dienbienphu” (p. 423). […]

  • Candlelight Vigil in Tehran on September 21st, International Day of Peace

    The Tehran Peace Museum and the Society for Chemical Weapons Victims Support (SCWVS) are planning a candlelight vigil at 19:00 local time (10:30 EST) on September 21 to commemorate the UN-designated International Day of Peace.  The organized event is a historic first in Iran, where tensions with the United States are causing serious anxiety. On […]

  • The Great Rehearsal

      September 17-25 www.greatrehearsal.org 1968 was a world revolution.  From Mexico City to Tokyo, Paris to Prague, Columbia University to Berkeley, it was a revolutionary event that at once failed and transformed the world. The process it put into place continues today.  1968, the long ’68, altered fundamental balances of power and set the stage […]

  • Dealing with Iran’s Not-So-Irrational Leadership

      Nothing expresses the widening gap between the mind frames of the Iranian ruling elite and their Western counterparts more than the headlines in their respective newspapers.  The American media, above all, have unilaterally resolved the intelligence questions over Iran’s nuclear program.  The New York Times leads the pack with articles and even editorials that […]

  • The Machine Gun and the Meeting Table: Bolivian Crisis in a New South America

    On Monday, September 15, Bolivian President Evo Morales arrived in Santiago, Chile for an emergency meeting of Latin American leaders that convened to seek a resolution to the recent conflict in Bolivia.  Upon his arrival, Morales said, “I have come here to explain to the presidents of South America the civic coup d’etat by Governors […]

  • In Support of Cuba

      Our country is facing a dramatic situation.  We have suffered the wrath of two powerful hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, in just eight days.  These natural disasters have seriously affected food production and essential sectors of the economy throughout the country.  Although very few human lives were lost, a massive amount of houses, schools and […]

  • The good-guy role, at whose expense

    When the U.S. government hypocritically offered $100,000 as aid in the face of the disaster brought about by Hurricane Gustav, subject to an on-site inspection to confirm the damage, the response was that Cuba is unable to accept any donations from the country that is blockading us; that the damage had already been calculated and that what we were calling for was that it not prevent the export of essential materials and credits associated with commercial operations.

  • Bolivia Crisis Worsens as Emergency Summit Is Held

    Forrest Hylton: The US is being shut out as the South American regional body tries to solve crisis on its own. The ongoing conflict in Bolivia saw at least 30 people killed on the weekend, as the opposition clashed with government forces.  The opposition headed by wealthy landowners have vowed to make Bolivia ungovernable.  Martial […]

  • Jaffa’s “Renewal” Aims at Expulsion of Palestinians

    The ground floor of Zaki Khimayl’s home is a cafe where patrons can drink mint tea or fresh juice as they smoke on a water pipe.  Located by Jaffa’s beach, a stone’s throw from Tel Aviv, the business should be thriving. Mr. Khimayl, however, like hundreds of other families in the Arab neighborhoods of Ajami […]

  • Pakistan Invades America — “Without Permission”

    The U.S. State Department lodged a sharp protest over ongoing Pakistani missile strikes and ground raids today, saying the Islamic Republic was violating American sovereignty. “We will try to convince Pakistan . . . to respect [the] sovereignty of the United States — and God willing, we will convince,” State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told […]

  • Pre-Election Attack of the Pro-Life Killer Fetus!

    (PU)  The City of New York, still reeling from falling cranes, broken water mains, and the Republican presidential ticket, was forced to cope with yet another hard-hitting reality last Tuesday, as a giant human fetus of indeterminate sex and race suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began a rampage through midtown Manhattan. Estimated to be […]

  • Revolution!  New Book Charts Roller Coaster Ride of South American Left

    Throughout the past eight years of the Bush administration, North and South America have politically and economically been heading in opposite directions.  While Bush waged wars, curtailed civil liberties, and spread neoliberalism, South Americans stopped corporate looting, ousted corrupt presidents, and developed economies for people instead of profit.  Journalist Nikolas Kozloff’s new book, Revolution! South […]

  • Nominating Palin Makes Sense

    If something is better than nothing, then Palin’s nomination gives Americans just that choice and so another chance for the Republicans. For the last 30 years, Republicans systematically aided capital in keeping real wages flat while raising productivity.  That combination yielded exploding profits and exploding incomes for those who got their hands on those profits.  […]

  • A Guantanomized Age: The Long Interrogation

    Stark images of spectral men — their appearance in bright orange jumpsuits belied by legal invisibility — have been seared into the minds of many Muslims as an index of America’s anger. But, for American Muslims, abuse and disappearance of detainees are not the defining features of the “war on terror.”  Eyed by the national […]

  • The Current Situation of the United States Economy

    A Briefing to the Vietnamese Central Committee Delegation, September 11, 2008 The economic situation of the United States today is widely understood to be the most serious since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and not only for this country.  So far the actions by the government have been inadequate, late, and do not address […]

  • NATO Weapons for Georgia

    According to a report by the Russian newspaper Kommersant on Thursday, a group of NATO experts arrived in Georgia.  The group will estimate the military needs of the country after its attack on South Ossetia and war against Russia.  The activities of this working group will be kept secret.  However, its presence and basic task […]

  • Strategy of Chaos in Bolivia

      On the tenth of September, one day before the 35th anniversary of the death of Chilean President Salvador Allende, Evo Morales, the Bolivian head of state, declared US Ambassador Philip Goldberg “persona non grata.”  This is not a contrived symbolic decision.  It came after the sabotage of a gas pipeline in the Department of […]