Archive | Commentary

Barely three months have passed since the controversial bill that authorizes the government to target its massive subsidy program became law, and it is already stalling.  The government has asked the parliament to lift the $20 billion ceiling on spending from the revenues that it hopes to raise from selling energy at higher prices and […]

Testimony of Dean Baker before the Congressional Black Caucus at the hearing entitled “Out of Work But Not Out of Hope: Addressing the Crisis of the Chronically Unemployed,” 17 March 2010 As is typically the case in economic downturns, the most economically vulnerable experience the greatest pain.  The overall unemployment rate has risen from 4.5 […]

Boston University is planning a “celebration” of Howard Zinn on March 27th. I dare think that this is a proper moment for the university to address the need to reverse the grievous discrimination against Zinn, who taught political science at BU for over two decades and yet retired with a paltry junior faculty salary. John Silber, BU’s president at the time of Zinn’s tenure, repeatedly denied any salary increase for him, voted on unanimously by the faculty committees at BU. In one instance, Silber wrote an opinion letter justifying his unilateral decision against pay increase for Zinn by labeling Zinn’s books as “nonsense” and bereft of scholarly value.

  Athens, Greece, 11.03.10. — Tens of thousands of trade unionists and anti-capitalists demonstrated during a nationwide strike against the cash-strapped government’s austerity measures.  People explain why the have taken to the streets. “Today’s 24-hour general strike was called by GSEE and ADEDY (private and public sector unions).  They are demanding that working people not […]

Consumer prices were unchanged in February amidst falling prices for energy.  The CPI has now grown at a 1.4 percent annualized rate over the last three months, while the core rose 0.1 percent in the month.  Falling energy prices appeared in all stages of production. Medical care prices rose 0.5 percent again in February, and […]

Analyzing the burgeoning Tea Party movement has become something of an obsession on the left, but unfortunately I think that many of us are misreading the nature of the movement.  At the Young Democratic Socialists conference in New York, numerous speakers made reference to the teabaggers, usually to either denounce them as a nascent fascist […]

To All Academics, Artists and Entertainers: Israel Needs Your ENDORSEMENT! Doug Minkler: “Corporations want artists to glorify their wars, their products & their philosophies.  I make posters for my own preservation, that is, planetary preservation.  My prints are inspired not by rugged individualism, but by the collective humor, defiance, & lust for life exhibited by […]

The situation of violence in Aguán is a result of an unresolved structural problem in Honduras, an expression of the necessity for profound changes in this country so that the majority of its people may enjoy their human rights fully and effectively. Since the politico-economic-military coup d’état perpetrated on 28 June 2009 against the established […]

On Tuesday morning clashes erupted between Palestinian protesters and Israeli military and police forces across the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians hurled stones at police and burned tires and trash bins in several areas of East Jerusalem. Dozens of Palestinians were injured and many were detained.

“A country whose political culture is characterized by paranoia.”  What country would that be?  Israel, which has claimed victim status through seven decades of vicious land grab?  The United States, which has devastated Iraq pretending to look for imaginary weapons of mass destruction? No, argues neoconservative Michael Eisenstadt, staff analyst at the pro-Israel Washington Institute […]

Establishment of the First Popular and Democratic National Constituent Assembly Manifesto Gathered in the city of La Esperanza, under the auspice of the sign of hope, women and men of 17 departments of the country met, coming face to face with Honduras again, to look at each other, debate, and reinforce through dialogue our knowledge, […]

After the new Qatari administration announced that 250 employees in the widely read IslamOnline news website (IOL) would be laid off, hundreds of employees, editors, and journalists started an angry sit-in.  The situation escalated rapidly when the administration threatened to call state security to break the sit-in, but employees confirmed they will continue their open […]

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On March 10, the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere held a hearing to chart the course of their agenda in the Western Hemisphere over the coming year. On March 12-15, the National Popular Resistance Front in Honduras (FNRP) held a national meeting to pave the way for a Honduran Constitutional Convention, even in […]

It is intriguing to see how whoever the United States and Israel find interfering with their imperial or dispossession plans is quickly demonized and becomes a threat and target for that Real-Axis-of-Evil (RAE), and hence their NATO allies and, with less intensity, much of the rest of the “international community” (IC, meaning ruling elites, not […]

Hundreds of thousands of Thai Red Shirt pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets of Bangkok and other cities over the weekend.  This was a show of force to prove the strength of the movement and to dispel any lies by the royalist government and the media that the Red Shirts are not representative of the […]

Sometimes headlines really do convey powerful messages.  That was certainly the case with an AFP story, which appeared late last week under the headline, “Saudis Deny Discussing Pressure on China over Iran with US.”   The story was prompted by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ visits to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates last week. […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | | Print

  “The times we live in reflect that in Latin America and the Caribbean the confrontation between historic forces is getting worse.” — Raul Castro On February 23, 2010, incarcerated Cuban Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after a prolonged hunger strike, despite the efforts of Cuban medical personnel to treat him and prevent the ending of […]

The Nahr al-Bared refugee camp still has not recovered from the devastating war in 2007 during which it was destroyed.  The Lebanese Army has been keeping a tight grip on the camp and the 20,000 displaced Palestinians who have returned so far.  The army’s siege seriously hampers the camp’s economic recovery, as access is restricted and the area has been declared a military zone.  A recent survey found that the army’s presence and measures are considered a difficulty by 98 per cent of Nahr al-Bared’s business owners.  The army meanwhile justifies its presence as necessary for the preservation of the safety of the people.