Archive | Commentary

Less than 100 miles from Guantanamo, 200 delegates from 54 nations and all seven continents converged in Holguín, Cuba between November 19-23rd.  The occasion was the Fifth International Colloquium dedicated to five Cuban political prisoners who have been held for eleven years in prisons across the United States.  I was one of the U.S. participants […]

  The elections held in Honduras on November 29 were inherently flawed.  Tens of thousands of troops and police officers manned polling stations and even distributed electoral literature.  These forces have been responsible for killings, rapes, beatings, and detentions of people opposed to the coup.  Media reports cited many people who said they did not […]

By giving Israel veto rights and threatening more sanctions, the U.S. is squandering the best chance we have for a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. Ordinarily, it would have been easy to dismiss the latest resolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency censuring Iran as a text, drafted by idiots, full of sound […]

The new self-titled humanist president has been a key supporter of the regime through five months of massive human rights violations. “They’ve imposed a coup regime on us.  They’ve assassinated at least 34 of our companions since the coup that removed the legitimate president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya Rosales.  Nationwide, they’ve detained more than 5,000 […]

  Jean Paul Sartre in the fifties made the somber remark that things were so bad at the Sorbonne in the 1920s that the University did not even have a Chair in Marxism.  In asserting the fact at that time, he was of course assuming that things at mid-century had changed dramatically and that Marxism […]

(For MAAS BOB, father of the Trade Union.  And for Sam White who singlehandedly impregnated half of the women of Montserrat and so made beautiful cousins for me.  Bless you and may you find peace.) My time is sunrise, dawns and mornings clean before the wickedness comes in.  When I see the Montserrat sunrise I […]

December 3, 2009 To Whom It May Concern: A modest set of financial transaction taxes could raise a substantial amount of needed revenue while having little impact on trades that have a positive economic impact. The cost of trading financial assets has plummeted over the last three decades as a result of computerization.  This has […]

The Swiss, known for cheese, Alps, watches, chocolate, and secret bank accounts, at least two of which are full of holes, have now added a sixth important product: intolerance.  57.5 percent of its 8 million population, or of those who went to the polls, voted to forbid minarets next to Muslim mosques. As nearly everyone […]

November 29th Dear President Obama, Today is a blurry day for those of us with eyes on Central America, mister president.  It’s blurry because we’ve watched herman@s suffering day and night over the last four months in that small country in the waist of America, Honduras, and now, after all the blood and toil, you […]

Military Families Speak Out, an organization of over 4,000 military families opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, issued the following statement in response to last night’s speech by President Obama regarding Afghanistan. President Obama’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by deploying another 30,000 troops has sent the message to military families […]

“The more a ruling class is able to assimilate the foremost minds of the ruled class, the more stable and dangerous becomes its rule.” — Karl Marx A few days back, I received a ‘Dear friends’ email from Mr. Najam Sethi, ex editor-in-chief of Daily Times, Pakistan, announcing that he, together with several of his […]

Over 300 antiwar protesters took part in a demonstration at the gates to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point Dec. 1 as President Barack Obama sought to justify his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Facing police and soldiers at the Highland Falls gate to the Academy, demonstrators repeatedly chanted, “30,000 more! […]

  John Bellamy Foster is the editor of the socialist magazine Monthly Review and teaches sociology at the University of Oregon.  He has written on numerous subjects, from political economy to Marxist theory.  This year Foster published The Ecological Revolution: Making Peace With the Planet. Max van Lingen is a student of political philosophy and […]

The global crisis has undermined the neo-liberalist phase of capitalism that dominated the last 30 years of the world economy.  It has likewise challenged the hegemony of neo-classical economics as the theoretical rationale of neo-liberalism’s celebration of private enterprise and markets.  The form this challenge takes is a revival of Keynesian economics.  As the crisis […]

  Daljit Dhaliwal: What do you make of Iran’s announcement to build ten new nuclear enrichment facilities? Ervand Abrahamian: It sounds impressive, but it should be taken as grandstanding for internal public opinion.  Iran is trying to look tough: it’s going to stand up tall against the United States.  The question is what Iran actually […]

Only a few weeks after US-Iran diplomacy began in earnest, it seems to be heading towards a premature ending.  Rather than tensions reduction, the world has witnessed the opposite.  Iran is refusing to accept a fuel swap deal brokered by the IAEA, the IAEA has passed a resolution rebuking Iran, and Tehran has responded by […]

Truman Nelson.  The Old Man: John Brown at Harper’s Ferry.  Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2009. One hundred and fifty years ago, the state of Virginia executed John Brown for treason, murder in the first degree, and conspiracy to incite a slave rebellion.  The execution did not proceed quickly: for nearly ten minutes federal troops paraded and […]

Elections Won’t Resolve Political Crisis; Democracy Must Be Restored Before Free Elections Can Be Held. Elections conducted in a climate of fear, human rights violations, and international non-recognition won’t resolve the political crisis in Honduras, said Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “Only a few governments that the U.S. State […]

Jeanne Theoharis is the author of an April 2009 article in The Nation, entitled “Guantanamo at Home,” which focuses on the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of US citizen Syed Hashmi in a New York City prison with Guantanamo-like conditions.  Theoharis holds the endowed chair in women’s studies and is an associate professor of political science […]

President Barack Obama The White House Washington, D.C. November 30, 2009 Dear President Obama, With millions of U.S. people feeling the fear and desperation of no longer having a home; with millions feeling the terror and loss of dignity that comes with unemployment; with millions of our children slipping further into poverty and hunger, your […]