Archive | Commentary

THE UNIVERSITY IN CHAINS by Henry A. GirouxBUY THIS BOOK Henry Giroux’s The University in Chains is a crisp, powerful book about the crisis in American higher education.  Basically, the university has been buffeted by the three forces that have defined the US under the Bush administration (and, for that matter, for some time before): […]

  Andre Gorz, philosopher of freedom, sociologist of work, ecologist and democratic socialist, trade union adviser, journalist and for a time editor of Nouvelle Observateur and Les Tempes Modernes, took his life at 84 on the 24th of September together with his wife Dorine, 83, who was suffering from a degenerative disease.  On the 25th […]

On August 12, one of Haiti’s best-known and respected advocates of human and social rights, Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, disappeared.  The Haitian National Police later confirmed that he was kidnapped. There has been no communication with alleged kidnappers since the early days of his disappearance.  As the silence continues, it seems increasingly evident that his disappearance […]

IDEAS FOR ACTION by Cynthia KaufmanBUY THIS BOOK After considering the long train of outrages committed by the current regime — an administration so callous, so degraded, that some European commentators have taken to calling George W. Bush a “gangsta bitch” (Dick Cheney is, of course, Bush’s “Original Gangsta”) — it’s nice to know that […]

The ultracons have it all wrong and the neocons are glad that they do. The straw dog that the ultracons are beating to death in print and on the Internet is the chimerical North American Union, purported to be a supranational state that intends to override the sovereignty of the United States and subject all […]

Today’s two most conspicuous global flashpoints — the Middle East and Latin America — have widely exposed the fact of US imperialism and highlighted some of its limitations.  Adding the apparent cracks in US economic hegemony seems to indicate an empire in decline.  Yet a more cautious assessment would recall that the earlier defeat in […]

  As Columbia only very recently announced, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be speaking in Roone Arledge auditorium this Monday.  A number of students and student organizations have already announced plans for a protest rally the same day.  We are not among them.  We do not endorse Ahmadinejad or his views, many of which are […]

Congratulations, peace-lover!  You have just purchased your first three-inch-high Top U.S. Military Commander! These little Commanders make delightful pets — provided they are no more than three inches tall.  Otherwise, these unruly pests can attack sovereign countries, overrun entire populations, and get hold of fissionable material, possibly blowing up the world. We don’t think it’s […]

12th September 2007 CALL FOR SOLIDARITY Dear sisters, You may have heard about the strike in Novamed in Turkey/Antalya.  Novamed is one of the factories of Fresenius Medical Care located in Germany.  All the workers who have gone on strike are female workers.  Their working conditions are very bad and male-dominated (patriarchal).  For example: female […]

Watch the welcoming of Joma Sison by his friends and colleagues after his release from detention. The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) is an anti-imperialist and democratic formation.  The video was made available at YouTube by beweging. | | Print

  Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review.  Its September 2007 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. No truths are more vigorously avoided, disguised and denied in our media than the disastrous and devastating results for the majority of the post-1991 economic “reforms” and the […]

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) deplores the unanimous decision by the Israeli cabinet to impose sanctions on supplies of electricity, fuel, and other basic goods and services to the civilian population of Gaza and calls upon the international community to prevent this crime against humanity from being carried out.  Indeed, the very legal […]

The Federal Reserve is led by an inveterate “free market solves all economic problems best” kind of guy.  Mr. Bernanke loves Milton Friedman passionately and says so.  This is what big business wants to hear when it is making lots of money, when it wants tax reductions to boost profits, and when it wants government […]

Legitimacy is a central yet understudied concept in world politics.  Let me give you an example of how it works in our everyday lives.  If I were to wield a stick menacingly and run around the SOAS campus in London proclaiming that I am an academic, very few people would be persuaded.  What I need […]

September 14, 2007 — The release of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair Jose Ma. Sison from detention in the Netherlands is “a victory for the Filipino people and their revolutionary forces, a big slap in the face of the US-Arroyo regime and a stinging blow against the fascist machinations of its National […]

  “The unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well, unworthy of a mature democracy. . . .  Politics, the politics of a democracy which entails disagreement, which promotes candor — has been replaced by psychotherapy. . . .” — Susan Sontag, 9/24/01 Another anniversary […]

September 15, 2007 Dear friends, I have now been back in New York for two weeks, immersed in teaching at Columbia University and reunited with the women and families at the Bronx birthing center, as well as my own family.  I have had time to reflect on my work and need to share with you […]

JENNIFER DOHRN, CNM, is Director of Midwifery Services at the Childbearing Center of Morris Heights, the Bronx, New York, the first birthing center in the United States to serve inner-city women of diverse backgrounds.  Jennifer also directs the midwifery education program at Columbia University School of Nursing.  She has been working in South Africa to […]

In recent days, the US public has been satiated with a variety of press reports about numerous “new” plans aimed at addressing the US occupation and war in Iraq.  Some of these plans are rumored to include recommendations for an eventual withdrawal of all US forces from that country while some urge the Pentagon and […]

Michael D. Yates will read from Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: An Economist’s Travelogue at the Brecht Forum! When: 5 October 2007, 7:30 PM Location: Brecht Forum, 451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune Streets, New York) Directions: Contact: (212) 242-4201; or . BTW, check out Mike’s blog at ! | | Print