Atilio Borón, a prestigious leftist intellectual who until recently headed the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), wrote an article for the 6th Hemispheric Meeting of Struggle against the FTAs and for the Integration of Peoples which just wrapped up in Havana; he was kind enough to send it to me along with a […]
Archive | Commentary
Monthly Review Magazine
Red Earth, Black Earth
BLACK EARTH: A Journey through Russia after the Fall by Andrew MeierBUY THIS BOOK Andrew Meier’s Black Earth is a travelogue of epic proportions. In its finely written pages Meier, Moscow correspondent for Time from 1996 to 2001, recounts a reportorial odyssey that took him to every point of Russia’s compass, even to Chechnya and […]
Center for Labor Renewal Statement on Worker Migration
The Center for Labor Renewal was conceived in 2005 when the national U.S. labor union leadership was engaging in a ‘debate’ which largely ignored the fundamental crisis of our nation’s working class. It was launched in the Spring of 2006 following a meeting of activists from unions, worker centers, educators, and working class organizations […]
The Tragedy Threatening Our Species
I cannot speak as an economist or a scientist. I simply speak as a politician who wishes to unravel the economists’ and scientists’ arguments one way or another. I also try to sense the motivations of each one of those who make statements on these matters. Just twenty-two years ago, here in Havana, we had […]
On Biofuels and an Energy Revolution
I hold nothing against Brazil, even though to more than a few Brazilians continuously bombarded with the most diverse arguments, which can be confusing even for people who have traditionally been friendly to Cuba, we might sound callous and careless about hurting that country’s net income of hard currency. However, for me to keep silent […]
On the Jewish Presence in Iranian History
When the chairman of Iran’s Jewish Council, Haroun Yashayaei, criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a letter condemning his remarks on the Holocaust, he was supported by a range of Iranian intellectuals, artists, poets, and others both within the country and without. For those amongst us with some understanding about the Jewish presence in Iranian history, […]
The Music of Industrial Relations and the Reality of the Australian Labor Party
Rick Kuhn and Tom Bramble
Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd and his deputy Julia Gillard are performing three different and sometimes discordant tunes as they ride high in the polls and promote their industrial relations policy. This is not just a matter of vote maximising; it tells us a lot about the nature and transformation of the Australian Labor […]
Maquilapolis: City of Factories
American capitalism has been addicted to cheap Mexican labor since the U.S. conquest of Mexico in the nineteenth century. The Border Industrialization Program, the bi-lateral treaty that granted U.S. industries almost unlimited access to Mexican labor along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 1960s, fed the addiction. Following on the heels of the runaway shop movement […]
Jesus Christ Weds Pat Robertson
(PU) In a quiet ceremony attended by a few close friends and family members, nationally known televangelist Pat Robertson of the 700 Club was married today to world-renowned avatar and reputed Prince of Peace, Jesus of Nazareth. The wedding took place in Stowe, a picturesque Vermont town, and was catered by the Von Trapp family […]
Cairo Conference Calls for World Resistance against Imperialism
(Because most conference participants face repressive conditions in their homelands, individual’s names are omitted from this report. — JR) Part OneA New Pole of Anti-Imperialist Leadership CAIRO, EGYPT — More than 1,500 activists from the Middle East and around the world met in Cairo, March 29-April 1, under the banner “Towards an International Alliance against […]
Another “Reform” Fraud from Chidambaram
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its April 2007 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. The “reform” offensive that started in 1991 as New Economic Policy has continued 15 years with different cover stories — as “recovery from BOP crisis” or “shining India” […]
Capital and Nature: An Interview with Paul Burkett
1. The year 2007 marks the 140th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Marx’s Capital. In your perspective, what is the main contribution of that major work to the understanding of contemporary capitalism? Marx’s Capital establishes three essential contradictions of capitalism which grow in intensity as the system develops historically. These contradictions […]
Olivier Besancenot Speaks [Déclaration d’Olivier Besancenot]
Près d’1,5 million d’électeurs et d’électrices se sont rassemblés autour de ma candidature. C’est 280 000 de plus par rapport à 2002. Malgré la pression du « vote utile » qui dans les dernières semaines a servi de seul programme à la campagne de Ségolène Royal, plus de 4,1% d’électeurs ont porté leurs suffrages sur […]
Inequality among “Consumers”
Contrary to both mainstream dogma and received cultural-leftist/neo-Marcusian canon, access to commodities has never been anything like equal in the United States. In fact, in this epoch of escalating income and wealth polarity, the newest statistics show that inequality among U.S. “consumers” is now at an all-time high. Bradley Johnson of Advertising Age magazine’s “American […]
Trade Unions Respond to U.S. Attack on Japanese Workers
As productive industry in the United States is systematically dismantled and sent to low-wage production zones all over the world, the number of products and services actually exported by our country continues to dwindle. Our mind-boggling and staggering trade deficit for 2006 was $763 billion dollars, the fifth consecutive year of record-breaking deficits. Be clear […]
Labour for Palestine: Can We Build the BDS Campaign?
Just less than a year ago in May 2006, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario unanimously passed in convention its path-breaking Resolution 50 in support for the global campaign against Israeli apartheid. The resolution called on the union to educate its members on the apartheid nature of the Israeli state. It also mandated […]
Timor Poll Won’t End the Crisis
The first round of East Timor’s presidential election, held on 9 April 2007, was inconclusive, yet it brought some issues into sharp focus. Voters punished the ruling party Fretilin for presiding over a collapse in social order; but they showed little enthusiasm for the free-market polices of rival candidate Jose Ramos Horta. A sizeable […]
The Price of Fire
THE PRICE OF FIRE: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia by Benjamin DanglBUY THIS BOOK For Bolivia’s indigenous majority, the year 1781 is engrained in popular memory as one of open rebellion against Spanish colonialism. Led by Tupak Katari, the indigenous Aymaras of the highlands lay siege to the city of La Paz for […]
Four Virginia Techs Every Day
The reign of the automobile in the United States is imperiling the entire planet. Meanwhile, in 2005, a wholly typical year, automotive collisions took the lives of 43,443 residents of the United States. That is 119 people killed per day, almost four times the 32 people murdered this Monday at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State […]
Stop Postal Rate Hikes
Dear friend, relative, or acquaintance of Bob McChesney, The news media are covering the tragic murders in Virginia this morning, and as they do an extraordinarily significant story is slipping through the cracks. On very rare occasions, I send a message to everyone in my email address book on an issue that I find of […]
