Archive | Commentary

On the night of May 20, 2010, as the governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuño held a political fundraiser in one of the salons of the Hotel Sheraton in San Juan, the capital city, students and supporters clashed with special police forces who arrived to quash the demonstration in the hotel’s lobby.  Members of the […]

Unemployed computer engineer Morad Lashin would like to work in Israel’s Electricity Company, a large state utility, but admits his chances of being recruited are slim. The reasons were set out in graphic form this month when a parliamentary committee revealed that only 1.3 per cent of the company’s 12,000 workers are Arab, despite the […]

Earlier this month, as the US loudly complained about Venezuela’s decision to purchase arms from Russia, South America’s ministers of defense came together in Guayaquil, Ecuador and put the finishing touches on an agreement to develop common mechanisms of transparency in defense policy and spending.  The agreement, which also calls for the creation of a […]

The New York Times ran a story on May 4 that advanced a rather unusual argument: BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill was probably bad, but not that bad.  Helping the paper flesh out that line was a group called the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, which the Times dubbed “a conservation group in Corpus Christi, […]

The agreement between Iran, Turkey and Brazil for a swap deal on the stockpile of Tehran’s nuclear fuel sets the stage for a diplomatic pirouette of high significance for regional security.  The paradigm shift affects Indian interests. The Barack Obama administration has hastily debunked the Iran-Turkey-Brazil deal, which was announced in Tehran on Monday, and […]

  It is after considerable contemplation that I have lately arrived at the decision that I must withdraw from the two performances scheduled in Israel on the 30th of June and the 1st of July. One lives in hope that music is more than mere noise, filling up idle time, whether intending to elate or […]

  This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the UAW in May 1935.  In December 1936, UAW members seized GM’s Flint plants in a sit-down strike and held on for 44 days to force GM to recognize their union.  The victory set off a wave of organizing across the Midwest.  For decades […]

The unfolding drama of the Brazil-Turkey nuclear deal and the Obama Administration’s reactive push to move a draft sanctions resolution in the United Nations Security Council will have profound effects on the character of international relations for years to come.  At least two such effects warrant particular attention. First, for those in official Washington or […]

For a long time, I’ve been critical of the left-wing penchant for economic crisis.  Many radicals have fantasized that a serious recession — or depression — would lead to mass radicalization, as scales simultaneously fell from millions of pairs of eyes and the imperative of transcending capitalism became self-evidently obvious.  I’ve long thought that was […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  | Print

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  In an age where only 7.2 percent of private-sector workers in the United States belong to unions, it may come as a surprise that 37.4 percent of all public-sector (i.e. government) workers are unionized.  Put another way, there are more public-sector workers in unions (7.9 million) than in the private-sector (7.4 million), despite the […]

There’s a funny if intimidating gun-nut bumper sticker you may have seen on the road: “gun control means using both hands.”  It’s clever, invoking and mocking gun control at the same time. This last week the United States government, by its actions, formally adopted this bumper sticker as its de-facto nuclear weapons and arms control […]

I often get asked about what people can do outside Thailand to help in the struggle for democracy and social justice.  After the appalling events of the past few days we can all help in the campaign against the Abhisit Government’s misinformation in our local media.  We can also help support any campaign to bring […]

  A week ago eurocrats launched their campaign of overwhelming force designed to shock and awe the ”wolf pack” of professional speculators and institutional investors (hedge funds and pension fund managers) into a more docile, subservient position.  In the currency market, the shock and awe wore off after the first 48 hours, while, by the […]

Two documents are driving the Iran-related news these days: the agreement announced Monday on refueling the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) brokered by Brazil and Turkey and the draft “Elements” of a potential new Iran sanctions resolution agreed by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and circulated on Tuesday to the Council’s […]

The Nazis in 1941, the EU and the IMF in 2010 Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  This cartoon was originally produced for Dromos. | Print

Falling energy prices pushed down the consumer price index 0.1 percent in the month of April.  After rising 2.7 percent from January of 2009 to January of 2010, consumer prices were unchanged over the first three months of this year.  Core prices were unchanged in April.  Inflation in the core index has risen at a […]

May 19, 2010, TUCSON — Indigenous and American Indian studies scholars are condemning Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and related legislation. “Clearly, and bluntly, the state law is racist and discriminatory against so-called ‘illegal immigrants’ crossing the borders from the South, namely from Mexico,” said Simon Ortiz, a Native American studies professor at Arizona State University, […]

A deal between Iran, Brazil and Turkey to ship some of Iran’s uranium out of the country to be enriched in Turkey and returned for use in an Iranian medical reactor has elicited some elite media panic.  An early New York Times Web headline read, “Iran Offers to Ship Uranium, Complicating Sanctions Talks.”  The Wall […]