Top Menu

Archive | Commentary

Monthly Review Magazine

The Mumbai Attacks

The scale of the attacks is incredible: the Taj, the Oberoi Trident, a major train station (CST), a major hospital (Cama), a cafe that’s favored by tourists (Cafe Leopold), the Jewish center, all in different parts of the city.  Some attackers came by sea, others set off bombs, others just entered buildings or public areas […]

Continue Reading

Civil Society against Democracy?

  Amaney A. Jamal.   Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.  216 pp.  $37.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-12727-9. Amaney Jamal’s central insight in this carefully researched book may seem obvious once it is stated.  Her “overall hypothesis” is simply that “linkages to […]

Continue Reading

Calderon’s Nightmare — Renegotiating NAFTA

Open class struggle is every capitalist ruler’s nightmare.  As long as poor working people suffer in silence, business can continue as usual.  Heads of state can go on pushing the buttons and pulling the levers of power according to plan with little interference from below. There is a point in time, however, when the legions […]

Continue Reading

Socialism’s New American Opportunity

The US left today confronts a remarkable opportunity.  George Bush and Sarah Palin effectively reopened the explicit debate over capitalism versus socialism.  More than that, their interventions, combined with the current crisis of capitalism, disrupt the conventional, classic definitions of both isms.  Thus, the debate over them is now transformed in advantageous ways for the […]

Continue Reading

Send Your Message to Israel: Let the Shministim Go!

I’ve been thinking a lot about courage. Right now, while I’m snug and fed this Thanksgiving holiday in the comfort of my home, halfway around the world a group of teenagers is sitting in a jail cell today, demonstrating the very definition of courage and sacrifice.  It’s frustrating.  Humbling.  And I’m damn glad to have […]

Continue Reading

The Achilles’ Heel of the Bolivarian Revolution

The media were predicting a disaster for Venezuela’s Chavistas.  Desperate for news that was fit to print, the opposition-controlled Venezuelan press and its foreign counterparts convinced many that the time had come for Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian Revolution, after stumbling in a slim referendum defeat last year, to finally come crashing down under its […]

Continue Reading

Colombia in Economic Crisis: Interview with Forrest Hylton

Zaa Nkweta: With Colombia in the midst of economic crisis, highlighted by the fall of several pyramid schemes, Colombia President Álvaro Uribe has vowed to stamp out corruption, arresting 52 employees and declaring the state of emergency.  I spoke to Forrest Hylton about the actions that the Colombian government has undertaken. Forrest Hylton: Uribe is […]

Continue Reading

US Citizen Diplomats Arrive in Iran, Invited by Ahmadinejad

  In an effort to establish peaceful diplomacy with the government and people of Iran, and to model for the new Obama administration the power of cooperative good will, three highly regarded American peace makers have ventured to Iran.  CodePink cofounders, Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin, along with former Army Colonel and decorated Foreign Service […]

Continue Reading

Guantánamo Justice after Seven Years

  Since the Bush administration began transporting men and boys to Guantánamo Bay in January 2002, it has tried to prevent them from presenting their cases before a neutral federal judge.  Indeed, the naval base was turned into a prison camp precisely to keep the detainees away from impartial courts.  The government argued that federal […]

Continue Reading

Icelanders Protest, Clash with Police

Thousands of Icelanders protested in Reykjavik on Saturday, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and Central Bank Governor David Oddsson, for bankrupting their country.  A group of protesters also stormed the city’s central police station to release one of the protesters arrested the day before. ITN News, 23 November 2008

Continue Reading

Day without a Gay

The worldwide media attention surrounding our massive grassweb efforts for gay rights has been tremendous.  Join the Impact was a HUGE success and will continue to thrive because of our efforts. We’ve reacted to anti-gay ballot initiatives in California, Arizona, Florida, and Arkansas with anger, with resolve, and with courage.  NOW, it’s time to show […]

Continue Reading

The End of the UAW?Interview with Dan La Botz

Play now: Doug Henwood: What’s the likelihood that GM, Ford, Chrysler — all running low on cash, they’re talking about having only a couple of months of money left to keep going — they could enter bankruptcy, wipe out a bunch of their debts, and break those contracts?  It could be the effective end of […]

Continue Reading