Archive | Commentary

To: The Administration of Brown University On April 22, Brown University student Molly Little threw a pie at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in protest of his pro-war, pro-corporate views, and the prominence he receives in promulgating those views while others are suppressed.  Friedman received no injuries from the fluffy pie, and resumed his […]

Attention all unions, workers, and rank and file activists working in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice: You are invited to a three-day conference to help build and share strategies to support the movement for Palestinian rights in our workplaces, our unions and our communities. Friday, May 30 to Sunday, June 1, 2008 in […]

  For the first time in a generation or more, SEIU is facing a substantial movement by internal dissidents seeking to push through democratic reforms.  This push has a two-fold character. One prong is the very public resignation by Sal Roselli, the head of United Healthcare Workers — West (UHW), the third largest local in […]

In 1984, the Margaret Thatcher regime and the British National Coal Board annulled an agreement reached after the 1974 British miners’ strike.  The Board told the British public that they intended to close 20 coal mines and privatize the previously nationalized industry.  At least twenty thousand jobs would be lost, and many communities in the […]

We, South Africans who faced the might of unjust and brutal apartheid machinery in South Africa and fought against it with all our strength, with the objective to live in a just, democratic society, refuse today to celebrate the existence of an Apartheid state in the Middle East.  While Israel and its apologists around the […]

  ONGOING XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS Nehawu joins all progressive minded South Africans and ordinary people in expressing their disgust at the current attacks against African brothers and sisters from the North.  What is happening in Alexandra is completely unjustifiable, immoral and short sighted. POVERTY UNEMPLOYMENT AND SLOW SERVICE DELIVERY More than 40% of South Africans are […]

On May 17, 1987, a double act of Exocet missiles skimmed through the air and slammed into the American Perry-class frigate the USS Stark. The first Exocet antiship missile punched into the warship “at 600 miles per hour and exploded in the forward crew’s quarters.”  The warhead failed to detonate but managed to smash through […]

It has been a week of adulation from world leaders, ostentatious displays of military prowess, and street parties.  Heads of state have rubbed shoulders with celebrities to pay homage to the Jewish state on its 60th birthday, while a million Israelis reportedly headed off to the country’s forests to enjoy the national pastime: a barbecue. […]

  Schauleh Sahba is an Iranian American who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.  This film is the final cut of a public service announcement about Iranian Americans that she made, featuring fifty Iranian Americans speaking up about who they are, what they believe in, and why they are against attacking Iran.  Her goal […]

  Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review.  Its May 2008 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. Today, but few can recall memories of the Bengal famine of 1943 and 1944.  Most disturbingly, after almost two decades of “reform” and a full decade or more […]

Last month, the US House of Representatives amended foreign debt relief legislation to exclude countries with “business interests with Iran.”  The bill, titled the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 2634), is intended to provide low-income countries relief from debts owed to the United States and international financial institutions. The bill […]

“Even after fifty years of living the Palestinian exile I still find myself astonished at the lengths to which official Israel and its supporters will go to suppress the fact that a half century has gone by without Israeli restitution, recognition, or acknowledgment of Palestinian human rights and without, as the facts undoubtedly show, connecting […]

  To contact Make Films Not War, go to <makefilmsnotwar.org/comm/comm.php>. | | Print

Israeli Independence Day 2008, marking the sixtieth anniversary of the rise of the Jewish State on the ruins of Palestinian society, should be cause more for sober reflection and reevaluation than for celebration.  True, Israeli Jews have much to celebrate.  Only a few weeks ago the shekel joined the fifteen strongest currencies in the world, […]

Chicago, IL (14 de mayo, 2008) — La “Marcha por la diversidad sexual” tomara lugar por primera vez en su historia de 12 años en el vecindario de Pilsen, el cual es predominantemente mexicano.  Esta marcha, conocida en ingles como “Dyke* March Chicago” ocurre cada año en el vecindario de Andersonville, al norte de la […]

As a red Toyota pickup made its daily delivery, masses of people gathered outside the brand-new blue and white subsidized bread kiosk near my building.  A rusty and dented Fiat also delivered unsubsidized bread to the small grocery store across the street at the same time.  Last Thursday, Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and […]

  The risks of a militant struggle for an alternative path of development that is radically different from the one followed by India’s ruling classes seem to most dissidents far too dangerous.  Yet there are some who stand firm in their conviction: what should be, can be.  An outline of a few of Mumbai’s rebels […]

  On Sunday, May 4, 2008, I joined two dozen progressive activists marching in a circle in front of the Bolivian embassy.  Thanks to our spirited presence, 150 or so right-wing Bolivians from the province of Santa Cruz were unable to get in front of the embassy to demonstrate in favor of the autonomy referendum […]

  Ehsan Amani was born in 1948.  For many years he worked in advertising and acted in feature films such as Crimson Gold, Abadan, and Kandelus Gardens.  He directs short films and documentaries.  “The Slap” is Amani’s contribution to Pangea Day, a global event bringing the world together through film. | | Print

James A. Tyner.  The Business of War: Workers, Warriors, and Hostages in Occupied Iraq.  Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2006.  viii + 152 pp.  Bibliography, index.  ISBN 978-0-7546-4791-1. In The Business of War, James A. Tyner provides an engaged and readable synthesis of scholarship and informed polemic produced in response to the Anglo-American invasion and occupation […]