The Right respects legality only when legality favors it. The history of our America has shown that a thousand times. The confrontation that is convulsing Bolivia today is no exception. The Santa Cruz autonomy referendum is just the tip of the iceberg. To limit the debate to a question of legal pettifoggery would be a […]
Archive | Commentary
Monthly Review Magazine
Testimony of Marjorie Cohn before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
House Judiciary Committee May 6, 2008 2141 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. From the Department of Justice to Guantánamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules Marjorie Cohn, President, National Lawyers Guild Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law What does [the prohibition of] torture have in common with [that of] genocide, slavery, and wars […]
Liberalizing Food Trade to Death
Introduction People across the world, from Mexico to Mozambique, have once again been taking to the streets in protest. The reason is to demand that their most basic need be met: access to food. With food prices skyrocketing over the last few months, billions of people around the globe have been relentlessly driven towards starvation. […]
Evo: Half of Cruceños Do Not Want Separatists’ Autonomy
This is no autonomist victory nor is it a “democratic fiesta” — it’s a violent, failed opinion poll whose rate of abstention is three times the usual rate, says the President. The illegal and unconstitutional referendum resoundingly failed to adopt the statute of autonomy for Santa Cruz, said President Evo Morales, as the poll showed […]
Open Letter to Andy Stern about Actions against UHW
Thursday, May 1, 2008 Dear Andy: We are writing to you as journalists, authors, political activists, and educators who are committed to organized labor because of its important role in social justice struggles in the U.S. Some of us have longstanding ties to SEIU and have done research, writing, or labor education work involving its […]
Standardizing Learning: Rethinking a Policy of One-Size-Fits-All
Daily in countless classrooms across the U.S., teachers are using standardized curriculum to prepare their students to take and score highly on high-stakes achievement tests. But critics say forcing K-12 schools to follow a single standard of education is no cure-all. In fact, such an approach places students and teachers into a historic trend of […]
Global Economic Crisis: Interview with John Bellamy Foster
The current global financial crisis is said to originate with a few dodgy “sub-prime” mortgages made by US banks to poor people. Yes, the financial crisis that began in late 2007 is associated with the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market. But that is just one aspect of a much larger financial crisis and that […]
The Complexities of Zimbabwe
A month after Zimbabwe’s March 29 elections, the winner of the presidential poll remains unknown. The delay adds considerable additional complexity to the many undercurrents of the country’s problems. By virtue of the suspicious, poorly explained delay in announcing who won the presidential poll, the authorities in Harare have ensured that the only outcome […]
Fueling Food Shortages
Where is Harry Chapin when you need him? The popular folk singer (Cat’s in the Cradle), who lost his life in an auto crash 27 years ago, was an indefatigable force of nature against hunger — in this country and around the world. To hear Harry speak out against the scourge of hunger in a […]
Vermont Peace Activists Occupy General Dynamics Weapons Plant
On May 1st, International Workers’ Day, ten peace activists in Burlington, Vermont entered General Dynamics and locked themselves together in the main lobby of the building in protest against the company’s weapons manufacturing and war profiteering. University of Vermont student Benjamin Dube, one of the dozens of other activists present at the event, leaned out […]
Why We Demonstrated in Dearborn
See, also, Stephanie Luce, “Rebuilding Labor’s Power: There Are No Shortcuts,” MRZine, 2 May 2008. I feel sorry for Stephanie Luce and I don’t even know her. As I read her piece, dated April 22, “The Future of the Labor Movement? Reflections on the Labor Notes Conference,” I was surprised to learn that she […]
Rebuilding Labor’s Power: There Are No Shortcuts
See, also, Stephanie Luce, “The Future of the Labor Movement? Reflections on the Labor Notes Conference,” MRZine, 22 April 2008; and Dave Regan, “Why We Demonstrated in Dearborn,” MRZine, 2 May 2008. I am not surprised Dave Regan doesn’t remember our argument. I am sure he hears my concerns all the time, but the conversation […]
May Day in Germany: Rightists, Leftists, Greens, and Neo-Nazis
May Day remains a national holiday in Germany. So does Jesus’s Ascension Day (whose German name, I’m afraid, is Himmelfahrt) and this year, for the first time in many years, both occurred on the same day. Less pious males frequently celebrate the religious holiday with markedly sexist outings of loud tipplers, often on horse-drawn wagons […]
May Day 2008 Statement from the Iraqi Labour Movement to the Workers and All Peace-loving People of the World
April 29th, 2008 On this day of international labour solidarity we call on our fellow trade unionists and all those worldwide who have stood against war and occupation to increase support for our struggle for freedom from occupation — both the military and economic. We call upon the governments, corporations and institutions behind the ongoing […]
Iraq Debacle: Ending It Tied to Engagement with Iran
This time the message was delivered by the Pentagon’s own premier educational institute. The opening line of a report released April 17 by the National Institute for Strategic Studies read: “Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle.” The document goes on […]
Preparing for War with Iran?
As Israel prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary, the weak and internally divided government of Ehud Olmert persists in pursuing counterproductive policies detached from all regional and global realities except the guaranteed support of the United States. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice soldiers on in her starring role keeping the theatrical performance known as “the […]
Longshore Workers Are Standing Down at West Coast Ports:”We’re Standing Up for America, We’re Supporting the Troops, and We’re Telling Politicians That It’s Time to End the Iraq War Now!”
(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) More than 25,000 longshore workers at 29 west coast ports are exercising their First Amendment rights today by taking a day off work and calling for an end to the war in Iraq. “Longshore workers are standing-down on the job and standing up for America,” said ILWU International President Bob McEllrath. “We’re […]
Consumerism: Curses and Causes
US consumerism — citizens driven excessively to buy goods and services and accumulate consumable wealth — is cursed almost everywhere. Many environmentalists blame it for global warming. Critics of the current economic disasters often point to home-buying gluttony as the cause. Many see consumerism behind the borrowing that makes the US the world’s greatest debtor […]
Appeal to Observe One Year Anniversary of Dr. Binayak Sen’s Unjust Detention
On May 13th/14th, 2008, Dr. Binayak Sen, an activist with a lifelong commitment to the issues of community health and human rights, will complete his first year of unjust imprisonment at the Raipur Central jail in Chhattisgarh. Organizations across the globe will be holding events on the evening of May 13th, 2008 to mark the […]
An Aside: Emergency Rooms as Sacred Space
Emergency Rooms are sacred. Every last one of them. They belong to my list of sacred spaces: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Yosemite Valley, Mt. Shasta, Angkor Wat, The Ganges River, Jerusalem, the Vatican, Machu Pichu, the Black Hills, the energy vortexes of Sedona, Stonehenge, those Mounds in Missouri, the Solar Compound, all […]
