Archive | Commentary

  A historic event worthy of the Guinness Book may have occurred in Washington in the last week of June.  The worst “torture” president that the United States has ever had met the most corrupt and brutal president ever inflicted on the Filipino people.  Grotesque or farcical?  Bush is now credited with the horrendous deaths […]

A cease-fire went into effect in Gaza, offering some respite from the violence that has killed hundreds of Palestinians and five Israelis in recent months.  It will do nothing, however, to address the underlying cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Intermittent spectacular violence may draw the world’s attention to the occupied Palestinian territories, but our obsession […]

On the eve of 1 December 2007, World AIDS Day, singer Joel Guilian, aka Joe, first released a video for the HSH-Cuba (Hombres que Tienen Sexo con Hombres, Men Who Have Sex with Men) Project of the National Center for Prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS and the Ministry of Public Health in Cuba. Joe, “Junto […]

  Shasta Darlington, CNN Maylin Alonso, TeleSur Broadcast on the occasion of International Day against Homophobia (17 May) in 2008. | | Print

  As you know, there’s a talk of developing the Green Zone.  The Marriott Hotel chain is here, and I too am involved in hospitality.  I’m representing interests that are building a hotel. . . .  Five stars, a casino, gambling, and it’s going to be here in the Green Zone. The sponsors are a […]

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict often inspires a sense of powerlessness.  What can average Americans do to bring an end to this decades-old conflict when our leaders have failed so miserably? And what good is speaking out about Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land as the primary obstacle to peace when even former President Jimmy Carter and Nobel […]

In his book entitled Silence of the Poor, French writer Henri Guillemin said that those who were the foundation of the victory of the Revolution of 1789, the urban and rural poor, including women, were excluded from politics by an electoral law giving the right to elect and be elected only to citizens who could […]

  Two members from a rightwing Santa Cruz youth group were arrested outside the Trompillo airport on June 19 with a rifle, telescopic sight, and 300 rounds of ammunition in a purported assassination attempt on President Evo Morales.  In an unprecedented and highly questionable move, the accused were freed the very next day by a […]

Our revolution is in the stage of negotiation and our party sees compromise as another aspect of the class struggle.  The question has not yet been finalised whether the revolution will be accomplished through compromise or it will be pushed towards counter-revolution.  There is an incessant and fierce struggle between two different world outlooks that […]

Narrated by Viggo Mortensen.  Art by Mike Konopacki.  Video editing by Eric Wold.  The video is based on Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, and Paul Buhle, A People’s History of American Empire (Metropolitan Books, 2008). | | Print

Have you been to a University of California campus, hospital or student health center?  If so, a member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3299, helped you.  Some 1,300 service workers and 2,600 patient-care techs labor at Sacramento’s UC Davis Medical Center and the UC campus in Davis.  These university […]

  Click on the image to go to the video. Cf. Nermeen Shaikh, “Photographing Conflict to ‘Give a Voice’: Ron Haviv Discusses Recent Sri Lanka Project,” Asia Society, 12 June 2008. This video was released on the Web site of Asia Society. | | Print

Many capitalist roaders say the Left is out of touch with popular culture.  Well, I say NYET to that!  Here, for instance, is an episode of Sex and the City that I translated for my Marxist-Leninist study group, so that we may better throw off our Tiffany chains. [Scene I: Chic, Upper West Side restaurant] […]

Introduction by Richard Fidler The following article, based on a speech given in December 2007 but only recently transcribed and published, is an important statement by a leading member of Evo Morales’ government on the political situation in Bolivia in the wake of the Constituent Assembly’s vote on a draft Political Constitution.  The draft Constitution […]

Afshin Rattansi, former producer for Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN International, and Bloomberg Television, is currently based in Tehran, working for Press TV. | | Print

Women in poor countries are bearing the brunt of the current food crisis.  Today we highlight some of the dimensions of the crisis as it affects women. The current food crisis is yet another reminder of the feminisation of poverty.  Women produce most of the food in poor countries, yet they have less access to […]

On June 11 the axe of Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) came down on the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS1) and the old historic Conservative Party of Nicaragua (PCN), now a tiny shell of its former self.  The CSE unanimously decided to deregister both parties on the grounds that they had failed to fulfill the requirements […]

The high level summit of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations held in Rome on Food Security ended on June 5th.  The conclusions of the gathering do not indicate a change in the policy trends which have been in force these last years and which have led to the current situation. […]

“After a dozen town hall meetings, nearly 50 public hearings, and countless one-on-one conversations, it is clear to us that Texans want us to use existing roadways to start building the Texas portion of Interstate 69,” said Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton (Texas Department of Transportation News Release, June 11, 2008). This news release reflects […]

  It’s a Slippery Slope to War: Ask Your Representative to Oppose H. Con. Res. 362Over the last three weeks 77 House Democrats and 92 Republicans have agreed to cosponsor a new resolution against Iran that demands that President Bush “initiate an international effort” to impose a land, sea, and air blockade on Iran to […]