Archive | Commentary

Capitalism, like the proverbial horse, kicks even when in decline.  Even as the current crisis hit it, it gave an ideological kick by attributing the crisis to “sub-prime” lending; and so well-directed was its kick that the whole world ended up calling it the “sub-prime crisis”. The idea, bought even in progressive circles, was that […]

(PU) Twelve Arab civilians, dressed in native garb and riddled with bullet wounds, caused a massive power outage in the nation’s capital today when they suddenly appeared on the Ellipse in Washington, DC.  Silent and unmoving, each held a large color photo of Bradley Manning, the Army Specialist charged with sending the whistleblower website WikiLeaks […]

As the driver of the “settlement” bulldozer removes the ground beneath his feet while blowing “two-state solution” soap bubbles, Mahmoud Abbas daydreams about a “sovereign Palestinian state.” Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was published in his blog on 24 June 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  The text above […]

  Christa Salamandra.  A New Old Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria.  Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2004.  x + 199 pp.  $21.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-21722-6; $49.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-253-34467-0. Christa Salamandra’s A New Old Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria is a thought-provoking analysis of one segment of the Syrian elite’s […]

  Van Royko is a photographer and filmmaker from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  See, also, Richard Levins, “How to Visit a Socialist Country” (Monthly Review, April 2010). | Print  

Recent scenes of roadblocks, strikes, and even the dynamiting of a vice-minister’s home in the Bolivian department (administrative district) of Potosi, reminiscent of the days of previous neoliberal governments, have left many asking themselves what is really going on in the “new” Bolivia of indigenous President Evo Morales. Since July 29, the city of Potosi, […]

Uncle Sam: “This one can’t be left without health insurance.” Tomás Rafael Rodríguez Zayas (Tomy) is a Cuban cartoonist.   This cartoon was first published in Granma.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print

Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was published in his blog on 8 August 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  | Print

Like Gerald Caplan’s hostile “review” of our book, The Politics of Genocide, Adam Jones’s aggressive attack on our response to Caplan can be explained in significant part by Jones’s deep commitment to an establishment narrative on the Rwandan genocide that we believe to be false — one that misallocates the main responsibility for that still […]

  Hester Eisenstein.  Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women’s Labor and Ideas to Exploit the World (Paradigm 2009).  xv, 293pp. The 20th century is often called the American century because of the US’s advance during that time to become the single greatest power in the world — economically, industrially and militarily.  The century’s story […]

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.3 percent in July, following three months of deflation.  Over the last two years since the peak in the CPI, prices have fallen 0.7 percent.  The rise in the overall rate of inflation was, in large part, due to a rebound in energy prices, which rose 2.6 percent in July. […]

To President Obama: “Sir, one Lady Justice is here, and she says that you promised her a job when you were a presidential candidate.” Tomás Rafael Rodríguez Zayas (Tomy) is a Cuban cartoonist.   This cartoon was first published in Granma.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print

  In the wake of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the public and the media have turned their attention to some of the subsidies provided through the tax code to BP, the corporation that leased the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling platform.1  The truth is that oil and gas companies have for […]

  Dear Brother, Sister, Friend, As you daily confront the challenges of leading or representing union members or other workers, in whatever capacity, awareness of the current situation of the labor movement is unavoidable: we are in trouble, and we need to audaciously address our weaknesses and limitations if we are to have a chance […]

As we anticipated, Jeffrey Goldberg’s article in The Atlantic, “The Point of No Return,” laying out the neoconservative case for attacking Iran, is attracting a lot of attention and comment.  We are pleased that, as of this afternoon, our response to Goldberg is the top-ranked “Most Commented” piece on the Foreign Policy website and the […]

David Leonhardt tells readers that the Great Recession has had some silver linings for many workers.  High on his list is continued wage growth.  This is misleading.  All the real wage growth in this downturn occurred in the months of November and December of 2008.  This was due to a plunge in the price of […]

  Eyeing the United States Fourth Fleet from Costa Rica: “They say they came here to consume, I mean, combat, drugs.” Pedro Méndez Suárez is a Cuban cartoonist.  This cartoon was published in Rebelión on 12 August 2010.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print  

Studying the American recipes for the war on drugs, Felipe Calderón pours more military police into the cauldron of Ciudad Juárez. Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  The text above is an interpretation of the cartoon by Yoshie Furuhashi.  | Print

No one should be surprised when The Economist or another controlled opinion source misrepresents tensions in the Persian Gulf as religious rivalry while overlooking decades of U.S. and Israeli success in stoking them for imperial gain.  The so-called mainstream press typically repeats unsubstantiated charges to pretend that Arab client states of Washington buy tens of […]

  The best thing is to ignore the parameters of discussion that are being presented to you, and to shift those parameters. . . . That is the heart of the struggle for us in the United States where the story is already framed, and they are just trying to discuss things within the parameters. […]