Archive | Commentary

To the Editors: I am writing in response to Michael Barker’s commentary titled “Peace Activists, Criticism, and Nonviolent Imperialism” (MRZine, January, 2008).  I agree with all of his observations and would just like to add a few of my own. I have never heard of the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict, but the name implies […]

Iran’s release of the video taken on the morning of Sunday, January 6th in the Strait of Hormuz, clearly debunks Pentagon’s hype of depicting a routine patrolling operation by the Iranian Navy as an act of unfathomable aggression against the United States. The timing of this so-called “provocation” incident in the Persian Gulf just before […]

Several hundred Hadash (Equality and Peace Front) and Communist Party of Israel activists participated in an anti-Bush demonstration in front of the American Consulate in West Jerusalem.  They reached the site on foot due to the checkpoints and massive streets closures in the city, designed to facilitate the movement of Bush’s convoy.  Hadash Chairman and […]

“If we want to talk of socialism,” says Argenis Loreto, “we must first resolve the people’s most urgent needs: water in their homes, accessible health care, easy access to housing.” In the Venezuelan municipality of Libertador (state of Carabobo), of which Argenis is mayor, “we have 90% poverty.  Ending that is our first task.  I […]

Today, two movements for the promotion of human rights in Sudan and Palestine seek to emulate the successful role played by boycotts, divestment, and sanctions in achieving democracy and equality in South Africa.  The two movements, however, have received radically different receptions on Capitol Hill.  This double standard testifies to official Washington’s selectivity when it […]

All peace activists want peace, but do activists want peace at any cost?  In Aldous Huxley’s classic book, Brave New World, peace came at a high price, but there was ‘peace’ nonetheless.  Arguably, ‘peace’ also exists within most Western citizens’ minds, mainly because their daily lives are neatly partitioned off from the multitude of ultra-violent […]

BIOLOGY UNDER THE INFLUENCE: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture, and Health by Richard Lewontin and Richard LevinsBUY THIS BOOK Biology under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture, and Health by Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins is an exciting book.  The title suggests that biology is hampered by narrow theoretical constructs that block interchange between […]

STRONG IN THE STRUGGLE: My Life as a Black Labor Activist by Lee Brown with Robert L. AllenBUY THIS BOOK Lee Brown’s memoir reads like a prizefighter’s.  And it’s right that it should.  The boxing talent he displayed in his hardscrabble youth served him well as an organizer, union leader and party militant.  Though the […]

Last December, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and other state officials announced that the Indian Point nuclear power plant, 35 miles north of New York City, should be shut down. They almost spoiled your Christmas.  Giant blinking reindeer, strings of electric bulbs, and amplified Brenda Lee recordings could have been ripped from your power grid, […]

Amidst her welcome critique of the biofuel mania, Vandana Shiva‘s ZNet commentary last month (December 13, 2007) also made this point: “The Kyoto Protocol totally avoided the material challenge of stopping activities that lead to higher emissions and the political challenge of regulation of the polluters and making the polluters pay in accordance with principles […]

“From the Ashes of the Old . . . ” The Center for Labor Renewal & the Solidarity Education Center in conjunction with Soldiers of Solidarity, Future of the Union, FactoryRat, Labor Notes, and numerous rank-and-file committees of resistance, . . . will sponsor a one-day meeting for all autoworker activists on the recent concessionary […]

  or what does the Internet have to do with you watching so many damned reruns The Writers Strike: Why We Fight Haskell Wexler Supports WGA UNITED HOLLYWOOD is an unofficial blog started by a group of Writers Guild of America West strike captains.  The contributors are both writers and non-writers.  If you’d like to […]

Many aspects of our “efficient” capitalism combined to produce the credit meltdown that now threatens ever more aspects of the global economy.  One was the private rating companies’ failure to accurately assess and honestly reveal the risks of securities based on a “bundle” of loans (securities that provide their owners with a portion of that […]

Perhaps this was a situation of two people and one coffin again. Pakistan’s current US-backed dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, did not want to share the space with Benazir Bhutto, and so the latter had to go. This was certainly the case in 1977, when Brigadier General Zia ul-Haq seized power and removed Benazir’s father, Prime […]

Despite being the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti lags behind many countries in the Americas in obtaining debt relief through a program run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. A hard-hitting paper published in December by the Washington D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) argues that […]

It apparently never occurred to anyone in our leading human rights organizations or the Western media that the same moral and legal standards ought be applied to the behavior of Israel and Hizbullah during the war on Lebanon 18 months ago.  Belatedly, an important effort has been made to set that right. A new report, […]

THE MAN WHO HATED WORK AND LOVED LABOR by Les LeopoldBUY THIS BOOK I just finished reading Les Leopold’s biography of Tony Mazzocchi, The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor.   I finished it in about a day.  It’s that kind of a read, an old-fashioned page turner for anyone interested in the working class […]

Des Moines — Hours before voting begins in the nation’s first presidential poll, peace activists placed the Iraq war front and center again this afternoon as they occupied the Iowa headquarters of Senator Hillary Clinton for the second time since campaigning began last fall. Three Hillary Clinton campaign staff guard the entrance to her Des […]

Roberto Regalado.  Latin America at the Crossroads.  Translation by Peter Gellert.  Ocean Press (www.oceanbooks.com.au), 2007, US$17.95; América latina entre siglos. Ocean Press, 2007, US$17.95. This compact book by Roberto Regalado, a veteran member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, strongly reaffirms the need for revolution in Latin America and beyond. Regalado, […]

MR readers are invited to a memorial meeting to commemorate the life and work of Victor Rabinowitz, a radical lawyer and longtime friend and associate of Monthly Review and its editors (see “Notes from the Editors,” Monthly Review 59.8, January 2008).  The memorial will be held on Saturday, January 12 at 4 pm at the […]