Archive | Commentary

“Con este último pago (al Banco Mundial), esa deuda que era en 1998 de casi 3 mil millones de dólares, les puedo decir hoy que no tenemos ni un centavo de deuda ni con el Fondo Monetario Internacional, ni con el Banco Mundial”, exclamó. Declaraciones del Presidente Chávez (MP3 3m) Haga click para escuchar el […]

When I was in high school, I lived on a military base and socialized and worked with GIs opposed to the war in Vietnam.  These guys weren’t very different from me — we liked rock and soul music and we liked to get high — yet most of them had experienced war.  That was something […]

“Out of sight, out of mind” is a basic rule of political propaganda.  If a political event is not reported to the public, the public cannot react to it.  If that same event is misreported, public reaction can be manipulated. U.S. reports on the attempted coup to overthrow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002 were […]

Social critics, from Ida B. Wells to Noam Chomsky, recognize that the elite press can serve as the best tool against the elite.  Today’s business magazines have no problem “naming the system,” and they write with clarity and frankness on the inner workings of capitalism and imperialism.  My good friend and correspondent Skip recently sent […]

It had snowed the night before.  It was a cold spring day, and we were headed up the NY Northway from Troy to Plattsburg for a college interview for my son.  The sun was making fitful attempts to come out from behind the snow clouds. When we passed out of the morning traffic coming down […]

Trade Unions and Social Forums Since 2001, trade unions and other social movements, ranging from environmentalists to women’s organizations, from urban youth movements to indigenous peoples fighting for land rights, have come together at the World Social Forum (WSF) to debate and promote alternatives to the race-to-the-bottom, corporate model of globalization.  While participation from U.S. […]

On 9 April 1948, the Irgun and the Stern Gang, with the approval of the Haganah, attacked Deir Yassin, a village of about 750 Palestinians, located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  Over 100 men, women, and children were massacred, and 53 orphaned children were left along the wall of the Old City.  The Deir Yassin […]

Opening comments at Conference on Participation, Change, and Human Development at the Centro Internacional Miranda in Caracas, Venezuela on 27 March 2007 The Bolivarian Constitution, in my view, is unique in its explicit recognition (in Article 299) that the goal of a human society must be that of “ensuring overall human development.”  From the declaration […]

Soha Béchara, 39 ans, est une figure emblématique de la résistance à l’occupation israélienne dans le Liban sud. Cette ex-militante communiste a été emprisonnée durant dix ans, sans jugement, dans la prison de Khiam, après avoir tenté d’assassiner, en novembre 1988, en pleine guerre, le général Antoine Lahad, chef de l’Armée du Liban sud (ALS), […]

For a discipline explicitly engaged in the study of power, particularly as exercised in liberal democracies, it is striking how little Canadian political science has actually examined the concentration of private economic power, the political organization of the business classes and the extension of that power into the political realm.  Indeed, Canadian political science has […]

I’ve been listening to Wynton Marsalis’ new disc From the Plantation to the Penitentiary a lot.  It’s got the music — a neat jazz combo running through a variety of styles.  It’s just enough bop and bebop so it doesn’t put one to sleep like a Kenny G. solo, but it’s not an avalanche of […]

Una tradición menor del pensamiento conservador es la definición del adversario dialéctico por su falta de moral y por sus deficiencias mentales.  Como esto nunca llega a ser un argumento, se encubre el exabrupto con algún razonamiento fragmentado y repetido, propio del pensamiento posmoderno de la propaganda política.  No es casualidad que en América Latina […]

Havana.  April 4, 2007 The Camp David meeting has just ended.  We all listened with interest to the press conference by the presidents of the United States and Brazil, as well as news about the meeting and opinions stated. Confronted by the demands of his Brazilian visitor regarding import tariffs and subsidies that protect and […]

The following is Bernardine Dohrn’s letter to The Nation regarding Christopher Phelps’ “The New SDS“ published in its 16 April 2007 issue. — Ed. The Nation Chicago Christopher Phelps has written a timely but ultimately disappointing article about the vibrant and growing student movement.  He transforms the tough challenges of movement-building into a set of […]

TODAY’S ANTIWAR DILEMMAS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE In March 1965, before ordering the first deployment of U.S. ground troops to Vietnam (U.S. “advisers” had been there for years) President Lyndon Johnson told Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara: “I don’t think anything is gonna be as bad as losing, and I don’t see any way of winning.” […]

While a conference and giant celebrations in the German capital marked the fiftieth anniversary of the European Union, with heads of state from Poland to Portugal attending, another meeting was being held in the west of Germany, in the Ruhr valley city of Dortmund.  Though almost totally eclipsed by the ballyhoo in Berlin, it will […]

  Ron Jacobs is the author of the first comprehensive history of the Weather Underground: The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground.  His articles, essays and reviews have appeared in CounterPunch, Monthly Review,  MRZine, Alternative Press Review, Jungle World, Works in Progress, State of Nature, and a multitude of other places.  Ron […]

Dear Peter Pace, As a lesbian, I often turn, in my quest for moral guidance, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  You, Peter Pace, being Chairman of the JCS, are to me a virtual guru of ethical enlightenment!  So, naturally, I was struck by your recent Chicago Tribune interview, in which you said, “I believe […]

Good documentary films help us understand the world by allowing us to see things outside of, but relevant to, our immediate experience.  Occasionally, we discover one that expands and alters our worldview. China Blue, a film directed by Micha X. Peled, is one of those rare finds. In this film, the viewer meets the girls […]

  Judging by the intensity of the debate that plagued much of the 2004 presidential election, the divisiveness of the Vietnam war has not been resolved.  If anything it has festered, inflamed by similar concerns and questions regarding the legality, morality, purpose, and necessity of the war in Iraq.  The continued polemic about a war […]