Archive | April, 2010

On Tuesday April 27, Fahad Hashmi took a government plea bargain.  He pleaded guilty to 1 count of conspiracy for allowing an acquaintance to store waterproof socks, ponchos, and raincoats in his apartment.  The government dropped the other 3 charges.  Fahad made this decision after having served 3 long years in solitary confinement and one […]

  Solidair/Solidaire, the weekly journal of the Workers Party of Belgium (PVDA-PTB), interviewed John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review, 26 April 2010 Solidair/Solidaire: Many green thinkers reject a Marxist analysis because they think that the Marxist approach to the economy is a very productivist one, focused on growth and seeing nature as “a free […]

  Abstract: This study examines the informal work aspects of global restructuring with a focus on relations of gender, solidarity, and conflict in the workplace.  Rather than trying to conduct a macro level analysis of restructuring process, the study aims to explore how this process is embedded at the local level by focusing on industrial […]

  Social Justice and Neoliberalism: Global Perspectives.  Adrian Smith, Alison Stenning, and Katie Willis, eds.  Macmillan/Zed Books, 2008.  253 pages. Following the tradition of critical geographers, this book explores the expansion of neoliberalism into different spheres and spaces of everyday life.  It consists of a collection of essays by writers from the global South, the […]

I attended the alternative Climate Conference in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba as part of an eight-person Quebec activist delegation.  I came back convinced that we witnessed a turning point in the global Climate Justice movement. Up to now it has been very difficult to link environmental demands to social justice issues.  The mainstream ecological […]

Today, POLITICO published our newest Op-Ed, “Obama’s Slippery Slope to Strikes on Iran” (excerpts below but also worth reading in full on POLITICO.com). Our piece was prompted by the partial leak of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ January 2010 memo on Iran to the New York Times last week and subsequent statements by Gates and […]

Jesse Freeston: Last week, the Bolivian city of Cochabamba and the country’s president Evo Morales played host to the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.  The conference sought to distinguish itself from the United Nations conferences for giving a greater voice to civil society and expanding the conversation beyond […]

A talk delivered to the Fifth Bil’in International Conference for Palestinian Popular Resistance, held in the West Bank village of Bil’in on April 21 Israel’s apologists are very exercised about the idea that Israel has been singled out for special scrutiny and criticism.  I wish to argue, however, that in most discussions of Israel it […]

THERE is no alternative but to call things by their name. Anyone with minimal commonsense can observe without much effort how little realism remains in the current world. When United States President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Michael Moore stated “Now please earn it!” That witty comment pleased a lot of people […]

After the military-backed Abhisit government rejected a peace offering by pro-democracy Red Shirts, this unelected government is preparing for a military crackdown against civilians.  Rather than hold democratic elections, they are prepared to cling to power with violence and blanket censorship of all forms of media. Mobile motorcycle troops carrying lethal weapons are driving around […]

Is there not an eerie resemblance between the current goings-on in West Bengal and the grisly events that took place there exactly four decades ago?  The dramatis personae are the same: the Right, represented by the Congress ruling at the Centre, the Left, euphemism for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the ultra-Left, identified […]

The Washington Post‘s Glenn Kessler had an important story: “Even as Momentum for Iran Sanctions Grows, Containment Seems Only Viable Option.”  Glenn states his thesis up front: After months of first attempting to engage Iran and then wooing Russia and China to support new sanctions against the Islamic Republic, the Obama Administration appears within reach […]

“Put on the headscarf!” “Take off the headscarf!” “I’d rather decide it myself.” Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist.  This cartoon was published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 23 April 2010.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | | Print

  Arizona Governor Jan Brewer just signed a law that will authorize officers to pull over, question, and detain anyone they have a “reasonable suspicion” to believe is in this country without proper documentation.  It’s legalized racial profiling, and it’s an affront on all of our civil rights, especially Latinos.  It’s completely unacceptable. Join us […]

Caught in the intoxicating effects of a violent moment in the history of a nation, one is particularly susceptible to reactionary outbursts.  But it is exactly during such moments that intellectual discourse must prevail over ideological cacophony.  And the cacophony about the causes and consequences of the recent unrests in Iran has been deafening, exactly […]

On April 22, as part of the global Earth Day celebrations, homes, offices, and public buildings in 14 Israeli cities turned out the lights for one hour in an effort to “increase awareness of the vital need to reduce energy consumption.”  The Earth Day celebrations included scenes of green fields, wind generators, and rainbows projected […]

Abhisit’s military-backed government has rejected negotiations with the Red Shirts and the olive branch offered to the government by the Red Shirts yesterday.  After meeting with various foreign ambassadors at the protest site, the Red Shirt leaders offered a compromise demand: dissolve parliament in 1 month and elections 2 months after that.  But Abhisit’s military […]

  Rosiland Jordan: In a Mississippi Delta neighborhood known as Baptist Town, the people have needed a miracle here for a long time now.  Good-paying manufacturing jobs that were once here vanished long before the current economic crisis, and with them so did a lifeline. Sylvester Hoover, Greenwood Merchant and Music Historian: Those people who […]

  Paul Jay: So there’s a lot of talk about the growth and expansion in India and China, and especially India these days.  We’re hearing again about the Indian miracle.  Whose miracle is it, anyway?  And is it such? Jayati Ghosh: No, it’s not actually a miracle.  First of all, let me clarify.  India and […]

  Listen to the Interview: Bernard D’Mello: This insurgency actually goes way back to 1967.  It is in the context of deepening underdevelopment, in particular in parts of India, more specifically parts of central and eastern India.  The Maoist movement has evolved over time, it has learned from its mistakes, and it has regenerated itself […]