17 July 2009 The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) today called for all its union members to oppose the coup in Honduras by focusing protests on the Honduran merchant fleet. The global union organisation, which represents 656 unions worldwide with four and a half million members, has made the call as its latest move to […]
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Obama’s New Military Bases in Colombia
July 19, 2009 The talks are finished for now, with no resolution. The coup regime in Honduras, which ousted President Zelaya exactly 3 weeks ago, has rejected the 7-point proposal put forth by designated mediator Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica. Zelaya’s delegation in Costa Rica had earlier stated they had accepted the proposal, but […]
Adam’s Fallacy and the Great Recession
It is now a commonplace that we are experiencing the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The downward trajectory on a global level is similar to the 1930s, though in the United States — the epicenter of the crisis — there are indications that the rate of decline may be slowing.1 […]
Obama and the New Gay Civility
Recently gay rights groups became seriously miffed when our new President’s own Justice Department released a legal brief upholding the Defense of Marriage Act by likening same-sex marriage to pedophilia and incest. “What about our civil rights?” we huffed. This is a President, after all, whose life was profoundly shaped and guided by the civil […]
Why Unions Matter
Play now: “I wanted to write a book that would be not just extolling the virtues of the unions but also would point out some of their difficulties and problems to give a kind of balanced view of them, I mean, not a negative view like a right-winger would give, but from a critical perspective. […]
On Sexual Politics in Modern Iran
From Nawal el Saadawi to Janet Afary Dear Janet, I am glad to see you’ve been reading my work since you were a graduate student. Did you read my work in English or Persian? (I write in Arabic.) I very much enjoyed your book: Sexual Politics in Modern Iran. Egypt, my country, and Iran […]
U.S. Continues to Train Honduran Soldiers
A controversial facility at Ft. Benning, Ga. — formerly known as the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas — is still training Honduran officers despite claims by the Obama administration that it cut military ties to Honduras after its president was overthrown June 28, NCR has learned. A day after an SOA-trained army general […]
Goodwin or Kalecki in Demand? Functional Income Distribution and Aggregate Demand in the Short Run
Abstract In a seminal paper on Marxian business cycle theory Goodwin (1967) presented a model, which assumed that a higher wage share leads to lower investment and thus a general economic slowdown. In contrast Kalecki (1971) was arguing that a higher wage share would have an expansionary effect because the consumption propensity out of […]
Feeling the Hate in Tel Aviv
“What do you have to say to the Iranian people?” “The Iranians are fucking assholes. I hate them all. They can go fuck themselves.” “What do you have to say to the Iranian people?” “I hate them. I don’t like them.” “What do you think about Obama?” “Obama is a cooshi.” “What?” “He’s a […]
Not Your Grandfather’s Labor History
Robert Cassanello, Melanie Shell-Weiss, eds. Florida’s Working-Class Past: Current Perspectives on Labor, Race, and Gender from Spanish Florida to the New Immigration. Working in the Americas Series. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008. 320 pp. $69.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8130-3283-2. Once upon a time, but within this reviewer’s scholarly lifetime, the primary focus of labor […]
Iran’s Green Protesters: “Death to China! Death to Russia!”
Mousavi, Rafsanjani, and their supporters get an F in foreign policy: “‘Death to China!’ and ‘Death to Russia!’ chanted supporters of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi during a sermon by influential former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, according to news reports” (Kristen Chick, Christian Science Monitor, 17 July 2009). “Death to China! Death to Russia!” […]
Rafsanjani Makes His Move
Looking for Leverage By calling for the release of imprisoned protesters, Rafsanjani is hoping that the demonstrators will see him as their backer, and therefore, that they should continue demonstrating. This is the most critical part of his strategy, to align himself with the people on the streets and to bring out as many people […]
A Perspective on the Growth Process in India and China
I It is possible to argue that the growth rate figures for both India and China are exaggerated. But, we shall proceed by accepting them as correct. The inequalities in both economies however have increased dramatically during this very phase of extraordinarily high growth, to a point where substantial segments of the population, particularly, but […]
Antisemitism as Metanarrative
Marvin Perry, Frederick M. Schweitzer, eds. Antisemitic Myths: A Historical and Contemporary Anthology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. xxiii + 352 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-253-34984-2; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-21950-3. This collection of ninety-some documents is the third major product of a long-term collaboration between historians Marvin Perry and Frederick Schweitzer. It is intended […]
June Price Data Sends Mixed Signals on Inflation
The jump in prices, combined with flat nominal wages, means real wages are falling. The overall CPI rose by 0.7 percent in June, driven by a 7.4 percent jump in energy prices. It has now risen at a 3.3 percent annual rate over the last quarter, compared with a decline of 1.4 percent over the […]
Honduran Coup — Made in Washington
15 July 2009 The Department of State had prior knowledge of the coup. The Department of State and the US Congress funded and advised the actors and organizations in Honduras that participated in the coup. The Pentagon trained, schooled, commanded, funded, and armed the Honduran armed forces that perpetrated the coup and that continue to […]
Homeownership: The Fast Path to Poverty
Price declines have been sharpest at the bottom end of the market. The collapse of the housing bubble has put downward pressure on house prices in all segments of the housing market, but the more moderate end has been by far the hardest hit. In former bubble markets, houses in the bottom third of the […]
The PRI’s Election Victory: A New Political Era in Mexico
Back to the past — and with a landslide. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which for 70 years, from 1928 to 2000, ruled Mexico as a one-party state won a decisive victory in the mid-term elections on July 5. The PRI’s victory represented a defeat both for the conservative economic and social policies of President […]
Pro-War Left in Germany?
Klaus Lederer, leader of the Left Party in Germany, at an 11 January 2009 pro-Israel demonstration titled “Solidarity with Israel — Against the Terrorism of Hamas” On this coming Thursday (16 July 2009), the leader of the left-wing party in Berlin, Klaus Lederer, will speak at the offices of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in […]
Who Needs an Islamic State?
Abdelwahab El-Affendi is a well-known Islamic scholar and political philosopher from Sudan, presently based in London. Author of numerous works, his latest book, provocatively titled Who Needs an Islamic State? discusses what he regards as the serious lacunae in contemporary Islamist political thought, which, in his view, have caused Islamist movements to reach a virtual […]
