Michael Moore‘s latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, is so far ahead of the historical/political curve that even people who consider themselves progressives will have to run at full speed to keep up with this renegade filmmaker. Moore has always been ahead of the curve. Twenty years ago with Roger & Me he demonstrated a […]
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Monthly Review Magazine
This Is Asia
“This is really a simple picture, and yet it explains so much of what Asia is today. It looks at developing Asia as a whole region, from China and India to places in-between, and breaks the overall GDP down into two main shares: the black line is the export share and the red line […]
Defenders of “True American Values”: The Communist Party in North Carolina
Gregory S. Taylor. The History of the North Carolina Communist Party. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2009. 258 pp. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-57003-802-0. The History of the North Carolina Party by Gregory S. Taylor offers a window into the efforts of the North Carolina Communist Party (NCCP) and further dispels stereotypes that early […]
Obama Spurns Real Health Reformers . . . Again
In a brash move, the White House is again demonstrating the exclusion of those who advocate for real health reform. At the end of August, in response to the heated Town Halls and the opposition to health reform, Physicians for a National Health Program and the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care sent letters […]
Adiós Mercedes Sosa, the Voice of the Voiceless under Dictatorship
Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa, one of the most celebrated voices of Latin America, died on Sunday, 4 October 2009, at the age of 74 after a long illness, according to the announcement by the hospital where she had been under intensive care since 18 September 2009. Nicknamed “La Negra,” she won the hearts and minds […]
Why We Need to Reshape Economic Development
It does not really need a crisis to show us that our current development strategy is flawed. Even during the previous boom, the pattern of growth in developing Asia had too many limitations, paradoxes and inherent fragilities. Much was wrong with the global economic boom that preceded the crisis. Everyone now knows that it was […]
Iran under Western Eyes
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.
Unstable Equilibrium
I don’t want to serve. . . . I think that in fighting in the cinema, through our movies, for a freer, more authentic expression, with weapons that can include joie de vivre and comedy, we are waging the same war as those who fight on the barricades. — Dušan Makavejev (1971) Infamous Yugoslavian […]
Beyond Sun and Dung
Rajendra Pachauri heads TERI, The Energy and Resources Institute, based in New Delhi. An engineer of the railways in his early career, Pachauri went to the United States to earn a PhD in industrial engineering and another in economics, after which he returned to India in 1981 to work with TERI. In 1995, he joined […]
Speech Delivered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, H.E. Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla
I wish to congratulate you on your election and reiterate to you our confidence on your capacity to unerringly conduct our works and deliberations. Likewise I would like to recognize the excellent work developed by Father Miguel D’Escoto, President of the recently concluded session. The ethical dimension and the political scope of his presidency, […]
A Message on Hezbollah and Homosexuality
In its last Tuesday issue [22 September 2009], Al-Akhbar carried a short news story about “Helem,” an organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of homosexuals in Lebanon, which soon became an organization to combat all forms of discrimination. The news story covered Helem’s protest against the “International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association” conference […]
Geneva: Victory for Everyone?
The Geneva meeting — despite the furious anti-Iranian spin by the Western media and the House vote for gasoline sanctions against Iran right before the talk — turned out to be, for once, a happy surprise: it resulted in an agreement that all sides can hail as a victory for them. Iran claims that it […]
Has President Obama Heard about Mohammad Othman?
I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked whether there is an Arab counterpart to Jewish Voice for Peace. The implicit false assumptions behind the question are clear: Palestinians are violent; Jews seek peace but there is no one peaceful on the other side of the equation. Tell President Obama: Keep Your […]
Job Loss Accelerates, Driven by Local and State Public-Sector Cutbacks
The loss of 263,000 payroll jobs, coupled with a 0.1 hour decline in the average workweek, pushed the index of aggregate hours to 98.5, slightly below the 98.6 level in December of 1998. Hours worked have now declined by 8.6 percent from the pre-recession peak. In the 1981-82 recession the decline from peak to trough […]
October 24 Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education
We have the power to stop the catastrophic budget cuts, fee hikes, and layoffs — but to save public education in California requires coordinating our actions on a statewide level. We invite all UC, CSU, CC, and K-12 students, workers, teachers, and their organizations across the state to participate in and collectively build the […]
Iran, Israel, and the Muzzled U.S. Press
“Iran must comply with United Nations resolutions,” declared President Obama. Iran is “as defiant as ever” say a chorus of corporate employees otherwise known as mainstream journalists. Really! Is Iran defiant for testing missiles for its military? What military in the world fails to test missiles? Is Iran defiant for reporting the construction of a […]
Occupational Ghettos: The Worldwide Segregation of Women and Men
Maria Charles and David B. Grusky. Occupational Ghettos: The Worldwide Segregation of Women and Men. Stanford University Press, 2004, 400 pp. $US 55.00 hardcover (0-8047-3634-0). There is a substantial body of literature showing that, across time periods and nations, men and women have tended to do different types of work. While many studies suggest that […]
Palestinian Citizens of Israel Hold General Strike
Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel today held a one-day general strike to mark the ninth anniversary of the Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Day of 2000, when the Israeli police killed 13 Palestinian Arab protesters. Tens of Thousands Commemorate the Martyrs in Araba Tamra on the Morning of the General Strike Haifa on the Eve of […]
Statement of Solidarity with the Palestinian General Strike
In the long tradition of Jewish working class involvement in and support for liberation struggles, IJAN-Labor stands in solidarity with the High Follow-up Committee for the Arab Citizens of Israel, the National Committee of Local Authorities, and all parties, movements and institutions of Palestinian civil society in Israel, who have called a general strike for […]
India’s Battle against Its Maoists
Nick Clark: India says it’s adamant to finish off what it calls “leftist extremism” as its army prepares for an all-out assault on Maoist rebels. . . . The conflict between the two sides has been going on for more than four decades, and now the government hopes an all-out assault would end […]
