Archive | Commentary

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

  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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

  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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

  (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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

  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 […]

  April 29, 2008 — The NYPD arrested and jailed nearly 400,000 people for possessing small amounts of marijuana between 1997 and 2007, a tenfold increase in marijuana arrests over the previous decade and a figure marked by startling racial and gender disparities, according to a report released Tuesday at the New York Civil Liberties […]

That’s what my grandmother told me while we were waiting             at the doctor’s office. The socialist, my great-grandfather, built with his bare hands the house              I have lived in my entire life. I was taken aback was not expecting this kind of history              from my own family. For days I pressed my […]

“What I find a bit reprehensible is the tendency of certain Western voices to . . . raising concerns about China’s attempt to get into the African market because it is a bit hypocritical for Western states to be concerned about how China is approaching Africa when they have had centuries of relations with Africa, […]

“Bolivia is on the verge of exploding,” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on April 21. Speaking on the eve of an extraordinary summit of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA — the alliance made of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Dominica) that was partly called to discuss the situation in Bolivia, Chavez stated the […]