Archive | Commentary

It is surely no surprise to readers of MRZine that, in a presidential election race in which an African-American man is not just the front-runner for the Democratic Party nomination, but has a strong chance of winning the White House in November, racism has been front and center.  Four years ago, in his keynote speech […]

See, also, Dave Regan, “Why We Demonstrated in Dearborn,” MRZine, 2 May 2008; and Stephanie Luce, “Rebuilding Labor’s Power: There Are No Shortcuts,” MRZine, 2 May 2008. I had a fantastic time at the Labor Notes conference last weekend, and am eager to build on the new connections I made and campaigns I learned about. […]

  In the current conflict over Iran, the most important question is what America’s real goal in Iran and the Middle East is.  Why?  Because, as long as we don’t have a certain and reliable answer to this question, as long as we don’t know what the opponent’s hidden real purpose in this crisis is, […]

John Bellamy Foster, Marxist ecologist and editor of Monthly Review, addressed the Climate Change I Social Change Conference on “Capitalism and Climate Change,” Sydney, April 11, 2008.  Foster’s talk was part of a panel discussing “Climate Change and Its Social Roots.”  The conference was organized by Green Left Weekly.  Below is Foster’s talk in five […]

Nicolas Sarkozy has gone out of his way to sound pro-American.  He made a special visit in 2007 to Kennebunkport to have a cozy meeting with George W. Bush.  Since neither spoke the other’s language, they must have had translators.  So perhaps I might be allowed to try to translate what has been going on. […]

23 de Enero, Caracas. On Thursday, April 3rd, a group of approximately 500 armed combatants representing the most vociferously revolutionary sectors of the Venezuelan Revolution engaged in a display of force in the historically-revolutionary parroquia of 23 de Enero (January 23rd) in western Caracas, making painfully evident the deep and volatile divisions that threaten the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

  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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]