The day after Charlton Heston’s death, I received a barrage of emails from old friends about the demise of my once-sworn enemy. Back in the 1980s, when I was information director of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Heston considered me to be the Red Menace. But when I first came to Hollywood, I could never […]
Archive | Commentary
Monthly Review Magazine
Haiti Debate: Peter Hallward Responds to Michael Deibert’s Review of Damming the Flood
In 2005 the journalist Michael Deibert published a book applauding the overthrow, the previous year, of Haiti’s elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. More recently he wrote a long and critical review of my own book about this 2004 coup, Damming the Flood, and posted it on his blog. Since we have both already written substantial books […]
Recent Developments in Zimbabwe
16 April 2008 The South African Communist Party has been closely following events in Zimbabwe, including the circumstances surrounding the recently held national elections. We wish to join our allies, the ANC and COSATU, in expressing our concern in how these political developments are unfolding. We are extremely worried and strongly condemn the ZEC’s clandestine […]
Notes on the 2008 Labor Notes Conference
The left press is buzzing about the SEIU disruption of the 2008 Labor Notes Conference in Detroit. Perhaps lost, as a result, is the significance of this event. This bi-annual labor activist conference has been taking place for almost 30 years now, and it provides a space for labor activists to meet and discuss all […]
Nepal’s Revolution: Armed Struggle Made Free and Fair Elections Possible
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its April 2008 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. The peaceful mass participation in the elections for a Constituent Assembly (“CA”) in Nepal on April 10, 2008 was not only an historic achievement of the Nepalese people, […]
Dissecting the Politics of Paraguay’s Next President
Fernando Lugo, a bearded, left-leaning bishop, is expected to win Paraguay’s historic presidential election on April 20th, upsetting a 60-year rule by the right-wing Colorado Party. While escaping the heat of the Paraguayan sun by sitting in the shade of an orange tree, farmer union leader Tomas Zayas explains, “If Lugo is elected, it will […]
Open for Your Questions about WorldPublicOpinion.org Iran Poll
Dear MR readers, I noticed that MRZine excerpted our recent report on our poll of Iranians, and this has excited some comment:mrzine.monthlyreview.org/iran120408.html I’m one of those responsible for the study, and thought I should make myself available for whatever questions you would like to throw out. If this is posted where people can find it, […]
The Maoist Electoral Victory in Nepal: Interview with Hisila Yami, Central Committee Member of the CPN(Maoist)
The elections in Nepal on Thursday, April 10th, resulted in a victory for the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), stunning the mainstream international press. Hisila Yami was elected to the forthcoming Constituent Assembly from the constituency Kathmandu 3 — “Asaan,” the crowded ancient center of the city — with 12,276 votes, as against 8,815 for […]
Economic Reforms: Been There, Done That
Markets are key to the current economic meltdown. First, the US real estate market drove up prices and provoked fantasies that unprecedented prices would not collapse. Then markets reversed and plunged us into recession. The misnamed “sub-prime mortgage” crisis began by hobbling mortgage brokers and lenders and big investment banks. Their huge losses were then […]
The Maoist Electoral Victory in Nepal: Interview with Shyam Shrestha, Former Chief Editor of Mulyankan Monthly Magazine
The elections in Nepal on Thursday, April 10th, resulted in a victory for the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), stunning the mainstream international press. Mulyankan monthly magazine is almost 18 years old. It is the largest leftist monthly magazine of Nepal, with a circulation of 30 000 copies per month. Shyam Shrestha has been actively […]
Remembering a May Day March
On May Day 2005, I marched with workers in Caracas. And the slogan workers were chanting at that time was “Without Comanagement, There Is No Revolution.” Indeed, the main slogans for that May Day march, organized by the UNT, were “Comanagement Is Revolution” and “Venezuelan Workers Are Building Bolivarian Socialism.” We don’t hear much of […]
What Do Iranians Think of Their Own Government?
Iranians largely express satisfaction with their government. Two out of three say that Iran is generally going in the right direction, though a plurality is dissatisfied with the Iranian economy. Half say they trust the government to do what is right most of the time, while another quarter say they trust it at least some […]
Historic Elections in Nepal
Surprising even the Nepalis themselves, the Constituent Assembly elections went quite smoothly, considering the great tension in the country. According to The Himalayan, only 33 of the total of 20,889 polling stations had to postpone polling to a later date, due to various forms of irregularities. The turnout was much higher than expected, more than […]
Letter from Nepal, Wednesday, April 9th
Today’s news is dominated by the death of seven Maoists from police fire in Lamahi in Dang, western Nepal. It’s difficult to discern what actually happened through the predominantly anti-Maoist media, but what is certain is that there were no casualties for the police — the result that speaks for itself. The killings came just […]
Time to Question the ICE Raids
According to an article in today’s Los Angeles Times, “L.A. Mayor Chides ICE for Workplace Immigration Raids,” Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa “has asked the federal government to review its immigration enforcement priorities, warning that work-site raids on ‘non-exploitative’ businesses could have ‘severe and lasting effects’ on the local economy.” Villaraigosa “said ICE should spend […]
Against the Term “Moderate Muslims”
Several months ago, an English sociologist told us that she was commissioned by her government to conduct a survey of “moderate Muslims.” The survey was about what a score of Muslim leaders in Great Britain thought about the fight against terrorism, the place of Islam in Europe, religious fundamentalism, etc. According to the sociologist, not […]
Letter from Nepal, Saturday, April 5th
After ten years of civil war and one and a half years of jittery peace, the Nepali people will be electing a constituent assembly for the first time in their history. The motive force behind the people’s war, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) reached a deal with the main parliamentary parties on a nationwide […]
The End of Osheroff’s Dance: Lessons from a Life of Resistance and Love
As Abe Osheroff’s body slowly began to betray him in his 80s and 90s, one of his favorite lines was, “I have one foot in the grave but the other keeps dancing.” That dance ended on Sunday, April 6, when the 92-year-old Osheroff died of a heart attack at his Seattle home. Osheroff is remembered […]
Confronting the Economic Crisis: The New Deal at 75 — Lessons for Today
When I was growing up in the 1950s, a photo of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1932-1945) still hung in the homes of some family members and friends. Our only four-term president was remembered by them as the leader — and even the savior — of the country. Those like my parents, who experienced the Great […]
Pledge of Commitment: People of Faith with Palestine in Struggle
Pledge of Commitment: People of Faith with Palestine in Struggle Our world is in crisis. We face a growing, more aggressive empire with an insatiable appetite for consuming the resources of our world, subverting justice and humanity by its desire to strengthen its global hegemony; destroying the environment; feeding racist ideologies and practices of […]
