On January 1, five South Florida residents stopped eating in a protest action. They are demanding that the Obama administration take measures now to put an end to the deportations that are separating families — at least until Congress can provide more permanent relief by fixing our harsh immigration laws. The Fast for Our Families […]
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Monthly Review Magazine
Rosa Luxemburg Weekend in Berlin
It was the Rosa Luxemburg weekend again in Berlin, like every January, this time with an unusual highlight. Despite the transportation delays caused by big snowstorms, two conferences and the traditional memorial march kept leftists from all over Germany and guests from other countries very busy. The emotional peak occurred during the main conference on […]
No Schlock, Sherlock: A Scandal in Tinseltown
What’s that deafening whirling sound? Elementary, my dear reader: it’s author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle spinning in his grave, as his character Sherlock Holmes gets the Hollywood treatment. There’s a crude expression — “No s**t, Sherlock” — but that’s precisely what director Guy Ritchie has wrought, complete with anti-Semitism. Of the 222-ish Holmes productions since […]
Virginia People’s Assembly Challenges State Budget Cuts and Layoffs, Demands “Jobs, Peace, Justice!”
Defying freezing temperatures and bone-chilling winds, more than 100 people rallied Jan. 9 in downtown Richmond, Va., then marched a mile and a half to the State Capitol. Winding their way through the city’s financial district, the protesters — Black, Latino, white, immigrant, and native-born — marched behind a 12-foot multi-colored banner that proclaimed “Jobs! […]
Labor Leaders of Venezuela’s Heavy Industries Respond to Electricity-Saving Measures
The Venezuelan government’s measures to reduce national electricity consumption amidst nationwide shortages and rolling power outages have provoked varied responses from unionists in the basic industries, especially the steel and aluminum sectors. Venezuela’s electricity consumption has increased by more than 40% over the last ten years, driven largely by five years of consecutive high economic […]
Chávez Stresses the Importance of Getting Rid of the Oil Rentier Model in Venezuela
Caracas, 10 January (PL) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez insisted today on putting an end to the oil rentier model in order to ensure that the economic measures taken by the government last Friday will stimulate domestic production. The dual exchange rate with the oil dollar of 4.30 bolivars per dollar and other measures announced […]
The Obama Administration Moves toward Regime Change in Its Iran Policy
In one of our posts surrounding our January 6, 2010 Op Ed in The New York Times, we noted that “analytic views of Iranian politics since the June 12 presidential election have important implications for the debate about U.S. and Western policy toward Tehran.” In particular, buying into the proposition that the Islamic Republic is […]
The Changing Face of Labor, 1983-2008
The kind of left-wing politics that arises when men in the private sector are the majority of organized labor and the kind that may arise when women in the public sector are the majority of it cannot be the same. In the core capitalist countries, it is likely to be a Left which has figured […]
Stop-Loss
Listen to “Stop-Loss” “Army Specialist and Iraq war veteran Marc Hall was incarcerated by the US Army on December 11, 2009, in Liberty County Jail, Georgia, for recording a song [“Stop-Loss”] that expresses his anger over the Army’s stop-loss policy. Stop-loss is a policy that allows the Army to keep soldiers active beyond the […]
Media Battles in Latin America Not about “Free Speech”
For at least a month now in Ecuador there has been a battle over regulation of the media. It has been in the front pages of the newspapers most of the time, and a leading daily, El Comercio, referred to the fight as one for “defense of human rights and the free practice of journalism.” […]
Bend It Like Iran (with Hooman Majd)
“The Iranians have always figured out how to beat the system. . . . Even Iranians who are opposed to this government, even Iranians who are opposed to the Islamic Republic, don’t really wanna return to being a client state of the United States.” — Hooman Majd
Economy Loses 85,000 Jobs in December, Ends Decade with Job Loss
The economy lost another 85,000 jobs in December, driven by continued job losses in construction and manufacturing. While the current data still show a 378,000 job gain for the decade, these numbers will be lowered by approximately 824,000 when the benchmark revision is incorporated into the data with the release of the January employment report. […]
Long Live Palestine
Lowkey (born Kareem Dennis, 23 May 1986) is a British musician, poet, playwright, and political activist of English and Iraqi descent. Check out Lowkey’s MySpace page: . For bookings, email . | | Print
A Year after the Gaza War
Speech at the Protest Rally, Tel Aviv, 2 January 2010 Good evening to all who came to mark the first anniversary of the Gaza carnage, and to protest on the comfortable complacence which inhabitants of this city and this country exhibit in face of the slow annihilation which goes on and on in Gaza […]
Proposed Amnesty Serves to Whitewash Honduran Coup
Vote Expected Next Week to Absolve Honduran Military of Crimes, Even as Murders Continue. The international community should offer no support for planned amnesty for the perpetrators of the Honduran coup, Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said today. Noting that both ousted President Manuel Zelaya and coup leaders previously […]
Venezuela Implements Measures to Curb Commercial Energy Use
Following months of regular blackouts in some regions of Venezuela, the government has implemented energy-saving measures, requiring companies to submit plans to save 20% of their electricity usage, regulating the usage of lighting for advertising, and creating schedules of electricity usage for shopping centers, casinos, and bingo halls. The Ministry for Electricity‘s measures went into […]
No Guantanamos at Home or Abroad
Monday, January 18th, 2010 6 to 7 pm, across from the Metropolitan Correctional Complex (MCC) 150 Park Row and Pearl Street, NYC On January 18th, as our nation commemorates Martin Luther King Day, for the slain civil rights leader who peacefully spoke out against war, racism, and injustice, members of THAW (Theater Artists Against […]
An Answer to Security Problems
It would be so simple to solve the security crisis for travelers to the USA. Why not take a lesson from East Germany where, before the more modest West German vacationers came and objected, beaches along the Baltic and most big lakes were always crowded with nudist bathers and campers? Everybody flying to the USA […]
Cuba. Again. Still. Forever.
More than 50 years now it is. The propaganda and hypocrisy of the American mainstream media seems endless and unwavering. They can not accept the fact that Cuban leaders are humane or rational. Here’s the Washington Post of December 13 writing about an American arrested in Cuba: “The Cuban government has arrested an American citizen […]
Honduras: The First March of the National Front of Popular Resistance in 2010
National Front of Popular Resistance Will March Today against Withdrawal of Honduras from ALBA by TeleSur Rafael Alegría, a leader of the Front of Resistance against the Coup d’État, explained that the demonstration called for this Thursday will again demand the restitution of the constitutional president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, to power, as well as […]
