The events of September 11 laid the basis for the emergence of a vicious form of Islamophobia that facilitated the U.S. goals of empire building in the 21st century. This form of Islamophobia focused on the enemy “out there” against which the U.S. supposedly had to go to war to protect itself, from Afghanistan to […]
Archive | Commentary
Monthly Review Magazine
Can the Obama Administration Take a Deal with Iran on the TRR?
We have argued that the Obama Administration’s approach to Iran sanctions is, truly, a “dead end” policy and that the only way out of this dead end “is to get serious about nuclear diplomacy with Iran — first of all, by reaching agreement on a plan to refuel the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR).” Although the […]
China Will Do Whatever It Wants to Do . . . about Its Currency and Iran
The United States and China seem to have reached an agreement with regard to the exchange rate between their two currencies. The agreement is that the U.S. government will stop yelling about it, and China will do whatever it wants to do, which will probably include some modest rise in the renminbi some time in […]
Haiti: There Is Aid, and Then There Is US Aid
EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI Soldiers Health Professionals Victims Assisted United States 10,000 550 871 Cuba 0 1,504 227,143 Source: Comparative figures of contribution to health in Haiti, as of 23 March 2010, based on Emily J. Kirk and John Kirk, “Cuban Medical Aid to Haiti” (CounterPunch, 1 April 2010) / Emily J. Kirk and John […]
The Politics of the Soundtrack
Was there a golden age of the film soundtrack? One might reach for Ennio Morricone (at least until the late 1980s) or the ’70s and ’80s records Popul Vuh made for Werner Herzog’s most memorable films, Aguirre, Nosferatu and Cobra Verde. Even if much of the concept has gone out of ‘conceptual’ film-making and the […]
Why the Right to Rent Is Superior to HAMP and HAFA
Testimony before the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity Hearing on “Recently Announced Revisions to the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP),” 14 April 2010 Thank you, Chairwoman Waters, for giving me the opportunity to present my views to the subcommittee on the success of the Homeowner Affordability Modification Program (HAMP) and prospects for the recently […]
Iran: Sanctions Will Fail — Then What?
Listen to the Interview: Flynt Leverett: I think that the Nuclear Posture Review that came out earlier this week needs to be seen as a very imperfect and, in some important respects, very badly flawed product of an effort which originally had, I think, a very positive intention, namely, an intention on the part […]
Real Hourly Wage Falls in March
The Consumer Price Index rose 0.1 percent in March. Inflation stands at 0.9 percent annualized since December. With the hourly wage of production workers falling by 0.2 cents over the month, the real wage has fallen at a 2 percent annualized rate, and remained flat over the last three months. Core prices remained unchanged in […]
Honduras: Communiqué No. 54
The National Front of Popular Resistance alerts the Honduran population and the international community to the grave danger that menaces the lives of over 3,000 peasant families of the United Peasant Movement of Aguán (MUCA), against whom a major military and political operation is being executed with the aim of evicting them from the lands […]
China Is Not on Board for Serious Sanctions against Iran
In the midst of its Nuclear Security Summit and in the wake of President Obama’s bilateral meeting with China’s President Hu yesterday, the Obama Administration is vigorously spinning the U.S. and Western media that it has won Chinese support for new sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear activities. To say the least, this […]
The Bank Loan That Could Break South Africa’s Back
Just how dangerous is the World Bank and its neo-conservative president, Robert Zoellick, to South Africa and the global climate? Notwithstanding South Africa’s existing $75 billion foreign debt, last Thursday the bank added a $3.75bn loan to Eskom for the primary purpose of building the world’s fourth-largest coal-fired power plant, at Medupi, which will spew […]
Here Comes the Neighborhood: The Housing Movement Goes Global in East Harlem
Here, amid the glittering ruins of globalized gentrification’s gilded age, a kind of glocal tenants’ movement is taking shape, at once locally rooted and globally connected. On April 6, 2008, a gathering of global dimensions was afoot on the steps of New York’s City Hall. You may have missed it at the time. You may […]
Lula: “We Cannot Allow Some Countries to Be Armed to the Teeth While Others Are Disarmed”
The president of Brazil brings a firm message to the summit on nuclear security. “I’m going to ask President Obama: what is the significance of your recent accord with Medvedev on the deactivation of nuclear warheads [of the United States and Russia]? Deactivation of what? If we are talking about deactivating the warheads that […]
Agriculture and the India-U.S. ‘Strategic Alliance’: The Deadly Danger of Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland and Wal-Mart
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its April 2010 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. There are points when long-term trends emerge openly in the present, and a process normally visible only from a distance becomes an unmistakable part of daily life. The […]
The Islamic Republic and the World: Two Reviews
Maryam Panah. The Islamic Republic and the World: Global Dimensions of the Iranian Revolution. Pluto Press, 2007. 232 pp. ISBN: 978-0-7453-2622-1, ISBN10: 0-7453-2622-6. Review of The Islamic Republic and the World Maryam Panah offers a refreshingly different and powerful account of the causes and consequences of the Iranian Revolution. Drawing on recent developments within […]
Iran Reacts to Becoming a U.S. Nuclear Target
As we noted last week, the Obama Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, issued last Monday, included a provision asserting a U.S. prerogative to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapons states that Washington deems not be in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Following the release of the Nuclear Posture Review last week, both President Obama and […]
Fund Public Education through Corporate Taxation
The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) is facing a $30 million shortfall for the 2010-11 budget. To add to the bad news, an assessment prepared by Durrant Engineering indicates that the district faces approximately $86 million in “pressing maintenance needs.”1 According to the budget summary, Since 1993, the Madison School District has created efficiencies […]
Ethnic Cleansing by Any Other Name
Background The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Israel maintains authoritative jurisdiction over the happenings in the West Bank via its military apparatus. Decisions governing the simplest aspects of Palestinian life, from traveling from one area to another to building a home, ultimately lie under the jurisdiction of the Israeli Military’s High […]
Victims of Empire
Jim Frederick. Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death. New York: Harmony Books, 2010. 439 pages. Cloth. $26.00. Black Hearts is not a story about your father’s army, or your grandfather’s — this is a tragic narrative of soldiers of the American empire running amok. In recounting the rape of […]
A Carnivorous Plant That Is Slowly Devouring All of Us
Address before the crowed of demonstrators protesting against the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, 9 April 2010 We came early, a group of people, and visited one of the homes here in Sheikh Jarrah . . . at 1 P.M. The owner told us about the long history of […]
