This open letter was published on 9 October 2009, before the University of California Regents voted to approve a 32% tuition hike on 19 November 2009. — Ed. As students, you pay tuition in order to get an education at UC, and you know that the Regents plan to raise your tuition even higher. […]
Archive | Commentary
Monthly Review Magazine
The Invention of the Jewish People
Introduction to Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People by Bertell Ollman The Invention of the Jewish People is divided into two parts. The first is a long section on the theory of nationalism, whose main characteristic, according to Sand, is the tendency to invent a past that suits the current needs and […]
Socialists, the Environment and Ecosocialism
Paper presented at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation conference “The Global Crisis and Africa: Struggles for Alternatives,” Randburg, 19 November 2009 There is an ecological crisis in the world and this crisis can be traced to capitalism. There is deforestation due to the trade in timber. There is climate change due to unsafe production methods. […]
Interview with Michael D. Yates: The ABCs of the Economic Crisis
Allen Ruff: What do working people need to know about this current economic crisis? Michael D. Yates: The first thing you need to know is that these kinds of crisis are built into the economic system. There’s really I don’t think any way to avoid them. Now, they’re gonna vary in terms of the degrees […]
Morbid Symptoms: Current Healthcare Struggles
Greg Albo and Colin Leys
Leo Panitch and Colin Leys have just brought out the 2010 annual volume of the Socialist Register, Morbid Symptoms: Health under Capitalism, published by Merlin Press in London, Monthly Review Press in the US, and Fernwood Books in Canada. The book provides a path-breaking assessment of health under capitalism, providing a systematic account of […]
Afghan Women Say No More Troops
“I’m a representative of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), which was established in 1977 as a women’s organization struggling for women’s rights. But, after the former Soviet Union’s invasion, RAWA got involved in resistance against the Soviets and the puppet regime of theirs. After 1992, RAWA started to focus on anti-fundamentalist […]
Breaking the Vessels
OK, so the Palestinian Authority will not unilaterally declare an independent Palestinian state. In fact, the whole issue seems a misunderstanding. Concerned that the US has backtracked on a two state solution based on the 1967 borders and that Israel was getting the world used to the “fact” that the settlements and the Wall, rather […]
Lynne Stewart in Jail!
Lynne Stewart in Jail! Protest Lynne Stewart’s incarceration! San Francisco Federal Courthouse, 7th and Mission, SF Monday, November 23, 5:00 pm Dear Friends of Lynne Stewart, I just got off the phone with Lynne Stewart a few minutes ago, that is, late Wednesday (early Thursday, November 19, New York time). She bravely told me that […]
Michael Moore Blasts House Health Care Bill
“The health insurance companies are going to make an extra 70 billion dollars as a result of Americans being forced to buy their health insurance. What company wouldn’t love this bill?” — Michael Moore, Toronto, 17 November 2009 Video via MichaelMoore.com. | | Print
No Business as Usual: UC Strike
For more information, go to ; ; and . See, also, “Why Are We Destroying Public Education? University of California Students and Staff Prepare for System-Wide Strike to Protest Cuts” (DemocracyNow! 17 November 2009). | | Print
Negotiating in a Difficult Economic Environment
“[I]t may be surprising to learn that faculty salaries are not a major component of the total costs at most universities. For instance, at my institution, Eastern Michigan University, faculty salaries make up only 24 percent of total expenses. So where is the money going?” — Howard Bunsis Conclusion: Yes, these are bad economic […]
Honduras: The Constituent Assembly Is the Solution
One side is the barely veiled alliance between Washington and Micheletti. The other side consists of the Constitutional Zelaya Government, the National Front against the Coup d’Etat and the principal former presidential candidate linked to the latter who has decided to boycott the November 29 elections. The candidate had formally taken his final position […]
Housing Market Trails Off with Expiration of First Homebuyer Tax Credit
The 60-day delinquency rate in the 3rd quarter was 58 percent above the year-ago level. There appeared to be a sharp falloff in the housing market in October, as the November 30th expiration date for the first-time homebuyers tax credit approached. As expected, this credit pulled home purchases forward, leading to a substantial increase in […]
GEO Strike: Activist Union Defends Education from Corporate University
This morning at 7:45 I was on the University of Illinois campus for a graduate student employee rally. After a bargaining update, we moved in groups to begin picketing key campus buildings. The Graduate Employees Organization (GEO), an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), was going on strike after contract negotiations with the […]
Report on the Revolutionary Struggle for Civilian Supremacy, Democracy and Peace in Nepal
What started as a focus on protests against military supremacy has silently led to a focus on support for civilian supremacy. The retirement of Rookmangud Katawal, the ex-military chief and the main person who triggered the present crisis, has de facto diverted the attention of the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to support civil […]
On Being Sent Down from Yale
Edgar White was born in Montserrat West Indies. He has lived in the United States and England. His plays have been successfully presented in New York, London, and Africa. In the following autobiographical extract, he describes how his radical activities in the seventies led him to being sent down from Yale. for Cornel West It […]
United States Propaganda in Iran: 1951-1953
Abstract: Using Jowett and O’Donnell’s system of propaganda analysis, the present case study concentrates on America’s dominant propaganda messages, techniques, and media channels used in Iran during the time period between 1951 and 1953. The chosen period is of historical significance since it entails the Iranian nationalization of oil crisis and the 1953 coup […]
Defamation
Director’s Statement I first had the idea to make a film about anti-Semitism when my earlier work Checkpoint was released. In one of that film’s many reviews, I was called “the Israeli Mel Gibson,” not because of my good looks, but because the views I had expressed, critical of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, […]
Illinois Grad Employees Strike for Education Security
While former Illinois Senator Barack Obama mulls flushing another $40 billion a year in our tax dollars down the toilet in Afghanistan — that’s the estimated annual cost of sending 40,000 more troops for the next several years — graduate employees at the University of Illinois, a “land grant” public institution, are going on strike […]
Public Sector Workers: The Recession’s Next Victims?
I fear that Tom Walkom of the Toronto Star is bang on when he argues that the next victims of the recession will be public sector workers. As he writes: The federal government has already signalled plans to get tough with its workers. In Ontario, Premier Dalton McGuinty gave notice this week that the […]
