Archive | September, 2012

In 1949, Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman created Monthly Review.  In the same year, Paul Baran and I began to teach in the San Francisco Bay Area: Baran at Stanford, myself at UC Berkeley.  As the years unfolded, we worked together politically in the area with the same social aims and values.  Meanwhile, the two […]

After Judge Katherine Forrest, on Sept 12th, ruled part of the National Defense Authorization Act unconstitutional on its face in the case brought by Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, and Daniel Ellsberg, the Obama Department of Justice sought an end run around the ruling and proceeded directly to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  Although Judge […]

The Occupy movement forced the issue of economic inequality into American political discourse. The most common diagnosis, which comes from mainstream economics, is that inequality has risen over the last 40 years because technical change, notably computers and the Internet, has favored highly-educated workers and left lower-skilled workers behind.  The cure is to increase education […]

As Muslims around the world protest their contemptuous treatment by the West, catalyzed by the provocative, racist American film Innocence of Muslims, the French media added fuel to the fire of by publishing offensive cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.  Left-wing alt-weekly Charlie Hebdo ran cartoons that depicted a naked, turbaned Muhammad in profoundly racist and […]

Popular momentum is building to ensure that any settlement coming out of upcoming Colombian government peace negotiations with insurgents promotes social justice. New prisoner resistance and recent documentation of abuses in Colombian prisons serve as reminders that, ideally, a peaceful and just Colombian society should promote prisoner rights.  Indeed, “Our people and a bit of […]

Introductionby Philip Rizk On September 9th, 2012, thousands of Egyptian teachers from all over the country demonstrated at the Parliament, blocking one of Cairo’s main streets.  “I can’t even feed my kids — how can I teach my students?” one of them yelled into the camera.  “This was not simply a protest for higher wages […]

Egypt’s march towards the future its millions demanded did not end with Mubarak leaving power — it only began. Mosireen, which is a play on the Arabic words for “Egypt” and “determined,” was founded in the wake of Mubarak’s fall by a group of film makers and activists who got together to create a collective […]

A small but moving episode marked the regular annual meeting of the German organization Fighters and Friends of the Spanish Republic 1936-1939 (Kämpfer und Freunde der Spanischen Republik 1936-1939).  It was the first such meeting without a single veteran; the last volunteer in Germany, Fritz Teppich, died last winter, and none of the tiny, decreasing […]

The first week of the historic September 2012 Chicago teachers strike. . . . Produced by Labor Beat (mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org, 312-226-3330).  Click here to make a donation to Labor Beat (Committee for Labor Access) and help rank-and-file TV. | Print

Fronted by MC Rodstarz and MC/Producer G1, and backed by Producer/DJ Illanoiz, Rebel Diaz creates Hip Hop 4 the People. | Print

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — By now it is well know that Missouri Representative Todd Akin explained his opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape, by saying that women who experience “a legitimate rape” can avoid pregnancy by telling their bodies to “shut that whole thing down.”  It is also well known that a firestorm […]