In the early 1950s, the then united Communist Party had led a famous struggle against the increase in tram fares in Calcutta by one paisa, and had succeeded in rescinding the increase. In the sixties, leaders like Ahilya Rangnekar and Mrinal Gore had led a remarkable struggle against price rise in Bombay when housewives came […]
Archive | Commentary
Monthly Review Magazine
Freedom Dance: A Party and Benefit for the Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign
Dialogue
— You must respect the rules of the game. — Then, tell me what the rules are. — There is only one rule. — Namely. . . — “You are not authorized to play.” “I’m in favor of dialogue!” “Shut up when the rest of us are speaking.” Juan Kalvellido, born in Cádiz, Andalucía, Spain […]
Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story Will Find a Ready Audience
When I first met Michael Moore more than 20 years ago he was showing a half-finished documentary to a few dozen people in a classroom in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was funny and poignant and had a powerful message. He had taken a second mortgage on his house — equipment for filmmaking was a lot […]
Right
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything we say or do can and will be used against you. . . .” Juan Kalvellido, born in Cádiz, Andalucía, Spain in 1968, is a working-class cartoonist who has never stopped believing in revolution. He currently lives in Fuengirola, Málaga, Spain. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | […]
‘Encounters Are Murders’
Inquiries by magistrates into “police encounter” killings in India have mostly corroborated the police version of the situation and reality leading to the deaths. But the Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate S P Tamang’s investigation of the facts and circumstances leading to the deaths of 19-year olds Ishrat Jahan and Javed Sheikh and two others (25-year […]
US Plans for New Bases in Colombia
It was a winter day in the Argentine city of Bariloche when 12 South American presidents gathered there on August 28. It was so cold that Hugo Chavez wore a red scarf and Evo Morales put on a sweater. The presidents arrived at the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) meeting to discuss a US […]
Go East, Young Woman: The Khetagurovite Campaign in the Soviet Borderlands
Elena Shulman. Stalinism on the Frontier of Empire: Women and State Formation in the Soviet Far East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. xiv + 260 pp. $99.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-521-89667-2. The frontier as a theme in the development of Russian history has proven a useful means of analyzing the expansion of the state. […]
Honduras
Gervasio Umpiérrez is a cartoonist based in Montevideo, Uruguay.
South of the Border
President Hugo Chavez at the Venice Film Festival Chávez asiste a la proyección del documental Al Sur de la Frontera en Venecia Chávez: Sólo la unión nos hará libres y humanos, verdaderamente humanos Trailer of South of the Border (Directed by Oliver Stone)
Food Supply in India: A Grim Outlook
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its September 2009 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. We now face the immediate need of a qualitative change in our most fundamental economic relationship — delivery of food supply. The problem is not the variability of […]
Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore Presents Capitalism: A Love Story at the 66th Venice Film Festival Michael Moore: “It’s Not Possible to Believe in Capitalism and Democracy at the Same Time” Trailer For more information about Michael Moore’s new film, go to <www.michaelmoore.com> and <www.capitalismalovestory.com>.
Open Letter: We Condemn International Oil Companies in Bangladesh and State Violence against Bangladeshi Activists
On September 2, 2009, the members of a nationwide alliance in Bangladesh — the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports — were brutalized by the state police in Dhaka, Bangladesh. More than fifty members were injured. The national committee was conducting a peaceful demonstration and march as part of an […]
A Letter to The Economist
25 August 2009 To the Editor The Economist Dear Sir, This is with regard to the review of my book Listening to Grasshoppers that appeared in The Economist. If this letter is long, ironically it is because the factual errors in the review are so many. In an attempt to highlight my “flawed reporting and […]
SFSU Students and Faculty Protest Budget Cuts
On 1 September 2009, dozens for students, faculty, and staff from San Francisco State joined together to protest draconian budget cuts that are threatening their right to an education. Produced by the Labor Video Project (P.O. Box 720027, San Francisco 94172; 415-282-1908; ; ).
Unemployment Jumps to 9.7 Percent, as Economy Loses Another 216,000 Jobs
The unemployment rate hit 9.7 percent in August, up from 9.4 percent in July. According to the establishment survey, the economy shed 216,000 jobs in August. In addition, the job loss numbers for June and July were revised up by 49,000. This puts the average rate of job loss over the last three months at […]
IMF Gives $164 Million to Coup Government in Honduras, Following Familiar Pattern
The IMF is undergoing an unprecedented expansion of its access to resources, possibly reaching a trillion dollars. This week the European Union committed $175 billion, $67 billion more than even the $108 billion that Washington agreed to fork over after a tense standoff between the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration earlier this summer. The […]
Private Health Care Lobby Dictates Terms in Health Care Reform
The frequently imbibing comedian W. C. Fields once proudly declared: “Everything I do is either illegal, immoral, or fattening.” The adjectives used by Fields perfectly characterize the role of the private health insurance industry in the debate about health care reform. As the debate intensifies more and more private health care profits are being recycled […]
Back to the Future: The Arab Nationalist Tradition and the Political Imagination of Today
The Arab and Muslim world is indeed in crisis. This crisis, however, may give us a new opportunity to reclaim our fate from foreign powers, local autocrats, and religious fanatics. To do so, we can benefit from recuperating the best elements from our great tradition of Arab nationalism. Under the banner of “Arab nationalism,” […]
Notes on the Status of Health Reform
The election of Obama raised expectations for sweeping health reform sky high. But in spite of several self-imposed deadlines, Senate and House health reform bills were not ready by the time of the August Congressional recess, when passionate local debate erupted at Congressional home district town hall meetings. The Onion pierced the din with truth: […]
