The ongoing financial and economic crisis has had at least one significant impact on the world of ideas: it has brought back to the forefront the recognition of the crucial role of government expenditure in stabilising economies and averting or mitigating recessions. It is true that the continued opposition of some leaders, such as Angela […]
Archive | Commentary
Monthly Review Magazine
Protests Mark the Sixth Anniversary of the Iraq War
From the Bush Wars (more Iraq than Afghanistan) to the Obama Wars (more Afghanistan and Pakistan than Iraq). . . . Scenes from the “March on the Pentagon” RallyVideo by William Hughes Hollywood San Francisco Atlanta St. Paul, Minnesota Madison Tacoma
Egypt: Waves of Workers’ Strikes
Like 2008, this year is witnessing waves of strikes and demonstrations by Egyptian workers in various sectors and organizations. Students, pharmacists, lawyers, railway drivers, media people, and even microbus drivers and street cleaners are all demanding more just rights, protesting against their decreasing incentives or trying to rebel against their poor economic status. And as […]
Catalonia: Thousands of Citizens Demonstrate against Government’s Education Policies
On Thursday, the 19th of March, about 30,000 teachers and students took to the streets of Barcelona to march against the education policies of the Government of Catalonia. The unions charged that the New Law of Education, like the Bologna Plan, aims to open the door to the privatization of education. The demonstrators demanded […]
Bring In the Dead: Martyr Burials and Election Politics in Iran
اعتراض دانشجویان پلیتکنیک به پروژه دفن شهید Beating their chests and wearing black, a procession of young men and women filed toward the gates of Tehran’s Amir Kabir Polytechnic University on February 23. The mourners — drawn primarily from the ranks of the Basij militia and unaffiliated hardline Islamist vigilantes — were carrying the […]
Mobilizations, Victories in Overseas Colonies Set Example for French Workers
Martinique General Strike Ends in Victory A 38-day general strike in the Caribbean colony of Martinique ended March 14 with the signing of a protocol between the government and the February 5 Collective, a coalition of unions and other social movements named after the day the strike began. The agreement grants the coalition’s key demands. […]
Marxism and the Crisis of Capitalism
Capitalism is going through its greatest crisis since the 1930s or before. The banking system has been saved from meltdown (at least for the time being) only by extensive government intervention in the USA, Britain, and a number of other countries. Stock markets all over the world have plummeted. A long and deep recession […]
There Is No Zombie Free Lunch
It is a story that could make The Return of the Living Dead 6. A group of good people huddle on a roof, with a limited supply of raw meat. A crowd of zombies surrounds the house: hungry, mad, aggressive. Fear spreads and bodies collapse; the odour is terrible. The zombies smell blood and […]
A One-Day Strike Is Not Enough
The general strike on Thursday, 19 March was an even more significant success than that of 29 January. That very evening, François Fillon gave the finger to 3 million demonstrators, by staying the course on the policy of finding tens of billions only for those responsible for the crisis while telling the strikers and protesters […]
France: Impressive Strikes and Demonstrations on 19 March 2009
Thursday, 19 March 2009 The new day of united action is incontestably a great success. On the 19th of March, there were more strikes, more demonstrations, and many more demonstrators than there were on the 29th of January, which was an exceptional mobilization itself. 3 Million Demonstrators at 219 Demos1 For employment, purchasing power, and […]
Gender in Venezuela: Interviews with Jenny Marl Torres and Yoari Garbrido
The Merideño Institute for Women and the Family is part of a national network of such institutions called into being by the 1998 law on violence against women and the family. They are tasked with helping protect women and children from abuse, challenging sexist gender stereotypes, and, in effect breaking the “Machista” elements of […]
El Salvador: Voting in Rebel Territory
Heading out from San Salvador to Chalatenango, the roads are covered with political propaganda from the ruling right-wing ARENA party. In the lead up to the March 15 presidential elections in this small Central American country, all of the utility posts have been painted in the party’s colors of red, white, and blue. Presidential […]
Hidden Wounds of Occupation
The Roman historian Tacitus denounced Roman imperialism for its plunder and destruction of its colonies, declaring, “They make a desert and call it peace.” No phrase is more apt in describing what the U.S. has done in Iraq. Two new studies released by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Oxfam reveal the devastating toll on […]
Keynes, Capitalism, and the Crisis
The essence of Keynes’s contribution was the demolition of Say’s law of markets. Say’s Law argued that supply created its own demand, so that there could never be an actual glut of production. Marx had rejected Say’s Law from the beginning, calling it “the childish babbling of a Say, but unworthy of Ricardo.” But neoclassical […]
What Difference Does Inequality Make?
Although many people believe inequality is socially divisive and adds to the problems associated with relative deprivation, what inequality does or does not do to us has remained largely a matter of personal opinion. But now that we have comparable measures of the scale of income inequality in different societies we can actually see […]
Anti-communism with a Liberal Face
Murali Balaji, The Professor and the Pupil: The Politics and Friendship of W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson, New York: Nation Books, 2007. W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson have been poorly served by their biographers. David Levering Lewis and Martin Duberman found these two US communist revolutionaries about as congenial […]
Why the Islamic Republic Has Survived
Obituaries for the Islamic Republic of Iran appeared even before it was born. In the hectic months of 1979 — before the Islamic Republic had been officially declared — many Iranians as well as foreigners, academics as well as journalists, participants as well as observers, conservatives as well as revolutionaries, confidently predicted its imminent demise. […]
Decolonization’s Rocky Road: Corruption, Expropriation, and Justice in Bolivia
Over 3,000 Bolivian and Peruvian indigenous activists recently marched in El Alto in commemoration of the March 13th, 1781 siege of La Paz, Bolivia launched from El Alto by indigenous rebels Tupac Katari and Bartolina Sisa. The siege was against Spanish rule and for indigenous liberation in the Andes. At a gathering the night before […]
Mauricio Funes: “We Have Signed a New Accord on Peace and Reconciliation”
The president-elect of El Salvador Mauricio Funes, together with his supporters, celebrated the victory in the elections held this Sunday in this Central American country, giving a speech in which he said that with their vote the people had signed “a new accord on peace and reconciliation.” Shortly after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) issued […]
Japan: Labor Think Tank Says Shorter Work Hours Can Create 4.53 Million Jobs
The Labor Movement Research Institute (Rodo Soken) of Japan says that the strict application of labor laws and regulations and the shortening of work hours would create 4.53 million jobs. Rodo Soken, which has close working relations with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), earlier estimated that 2.7 million jobs would be created by […]
