Archive | Commentary

Q1: Why are nearly all of your material possessions (clothes, kitchen appliances, computers, sneakers, electronics, etc.) made in developing countries?  Obviously, it’s cheaper.  And for many commodities, China is cheapest.  But is 57 cents an hour a decent wage in China? No, according to Judith Banister (November, 2005) at the U.S. Department of Labor, on the […]

From the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice.  Many of you know about this courageous group of workers, who have won incredible victories already for guestworkers and gained the support of labor, immigrant rights, and civil rights communities as well of a number of elected officials.  Your contribution would go a long way in […]

I’ve come to the startling realization that few people outside of Detroit and Canada know or care about hockey.2 So I would understand if you didn’t know about Detroit’s recent return to glory as the National Hockey League champion.  So let me fill you in for a moment on what it was like after we won. […]

In March 2008, the President of the African National Congress of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, led a high-level delegation of South African parliamentarians to the site of the victory of the forces of liberation at Cuito Cuanavale in Angola.  This visit was linked to the numerous ceremonies in Angola to commemorate the victory of Angola, […]

Monthly Review received the news of the death of Harriet McBryde Johnson from the National Lawyers Guild: The National Lawyers Guild sadly announces the loss of the co-founder and Treasurer of the Disability Rights Committee of the NLG, a leader of the Disability Liberation Movement, and so much more, our own Harriet McBryde Johnson.  She […]

Introduction In August and September of 1974, people across the length and breadth of South Africa celebrated the coming independence of Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique.  People like Mamphela Rampele led massive rallies honoring the success of the liberation movements in these countries.  There was even spontaneous dancing in the streets, and the air was filled […]

The Murphy Institute, The Brooklyn College Graduate Center for Worker Education, and the Metro NY Labor Communications Council invite you to a Labor Breakfast Forum Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and A New Path toward Social Justice Featuring authorBill Fletcher, Jr. co-founder of the Center for Labor Renewal past President of TransAfrica Forum […]

In Martin Scorsese’s now classic film Goodfellas, there is a scene where wiseguys Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Peschi) burn down the Bamboo Lounge, a nightclub the gangsters had been using as a way station to house cases of liquor, food, and expensive clothes that they then “flipped” (to turn a huge […]

  The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is currently holding an emergency summit in Rome that will be focusing on the ongoing global food crisis, but rejuvenating and protecting agriculturalists does not seem to be on the agenda. In the past couple of months, the attention of the world has been directed at the issue […]

Dear Friends, Please see this photo.  Virginia Commonwealth University has taken possession of the downtown parking lot under which lies the more than 200-year old “Burial Ground for Negroes.”  Before 1807, this was the only municipal cemetery in Richmond that accepted Black people, enslaved or free.  This is where the remains of hundreds, perhaps thousands, […]

Doug Minkler is a San Francisco Bay Area artist specializing in fundraising, outreach, and educational posters. Minkler has collaborated with ILWU, Rainforest Action Network, SF Mime Troupe, ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, CISPES, United Auto Workers, Africa Information Network, ADAPT, Cop Watch, Street Sheet, and Veterans for Peace among others. He can be contacted at […]

  We, the undersigned, call for the immediate resignation of Antioch University Chancellor Toni Murdock and Board of Trustees Chair Art Zucker. For the past year, we have watched the negotiations between Antioch University and alumni groups who are dedicated to the future of Antioch College.  It is now apparent that Antioch University never had […]

Across the Middle East, the Bush-Neocon post-9/11 project faces failure. In the last month alone, Washington has had to endure one humiliation after another: In Lebanon, the pro-U.S. government (prodded by Israel and/or Washington) announced a set of steps aimed at Hezbollah.  Hezbollah and the broader Lebanese opposition movement — which together represent the majority […]

Every May 21st President George W. Bush declares a day of “solidarity” with Cuba and repeats the lies of nearly half a century trying to de-legitimize Latin America’s most successful social revolution in history.  This year, the leading US presidential candidates chimed in, but a potentially explosive scandal involving an axis of US-based terrorist groups, […]

  Bolivia today lives under the most cruel and appalling xenophobic dictatorship of masters whose demented pride has been wounded. If you haven’t already seen it, watch this video. It happened on the 24th of May, in Sucre, the capital of Bolivia and crucible of the failed attempt at Bolivian mestizaje. Those who believed that […]

  Join us for a discussion of race, class, and the new economy with E. Paul Durrenberger, coauthor with Suzan Erem of On the Global Waterfront: The Fight to Free the Charleston 5. On the Global Waterfront, new from Monthly Review Press, tells the present-day story of longshoremen in Charleston, South Carolina, who successfully confronted […]

The dusty calles (streets) and campos (fields) in Immokalee, Florida are abuzz with the news of a fresh victory over a fast food giant: Miami-headquartered Burger King.  Those farmworkers/campesinos who remain in Immokalee — the tomato season there ended in April — will probably get their news through the low-powered radio station, Radio Conciencia, a […]

Solidarity Divided A Conversation and Book Signing with Bill Fletcher, Jr. Co-author of Solidarity Divided, University of California Press Date: Wed, June 18 Time: 6pm – 8pm Place: Busboys and Poetswww.busboysandpoets.com 2021 14th St NW Washington, DC 20009 Provoked by the continuing crisis of organized labor after the departure of the Change to Win coalition […]

The rhetoric about a “clash of civilizations” and a “war on Islam” has found its way easily into Arab intellectual discourse, where it has taken solid root, along with other similar “concepts” (or what I’d rather call “non-concepts” — like the term “terrorism” — since they are extremely vague and yet ideologically loaded) that were […]

Three all-German congresses were held this past weekend, all important but very different. The bad news first: The beautiful old city of Bamberg hosted the national congress of the National Party (NPD) — the main neo-Nazi party.  All attempts to bar it from the city’s Congress Hall foundered on a Bavarian court decision, since the […]