It was comical, how Maury and his friend Red kept meeting each other, like in Idaho for potato or sugarbeet harvest, or Montana to fight forest fire, and then they’d drift off, going their own ways, and somewhere down the line they’d run into each other again. It got to be like a serial on […]
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Monthly Review Magazine
No Cold Kitchen: A Biography of Nadine Gordimer
NO COLD KITCHEN: A Biography of Nadine Gordimer by Ronald S. Roberts BUY THIS BOOK No Cold Kitchen is a biography of Nadine Gordimer by Ronald S. Roberts (published by STE Publishers). As an activist, Gordimer played a vital role in the struggle against the apartheid. In 1985, Gordimer declared: “I am a partisan […]
Dance to the Funky Music! Sly and the Family Stone in 2006
I only saw Sly and the Family Stone once. It wasn’t the best of times for Sly, and my recall is very hazy, thanks to a combination of Henninger Bier and some very good Afghan hash that was making the rounds of the Frankfurt International Rock Festival the summer of 1973. By the time I […]
Las Krudas: Lesbian, Feminist, and Hip-Hop!
LAS KRUDAS Las Krudas <http://www.krudas.org/> is a Cuban hip hop duo, an interracial couple of HOT, HOT, HOT lesbians Odaymara Cuesta and Olivia Prendes. Their feminist lyrics and performance battles machismo and celebrates the power and beauty of women of color. In “Vamo’ a vencer la dificultad,” the track that opens their CD Cubensi, […]
In the Land of Bolivar
Caracas, Venezuela — Under the elevated lines in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union has been waging a battle against poverty that has taken them to center stage of the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. Led by Cheri Honkala, a formerly homeless mother, the KWRU began by building encampments […]
Las Krudas: To Be Lesbian, Feminist, and Hip-Hop in Cuba!
Las Krudas is a Cuban hip hop duo, an interracial couple of HOT, HOT, HOT lesbians Odaymara Cuesta and Olivia Prendes. Their feminist lyrics and performance battle machismo and celebrate the power and beauty of women of color. In “Vamo’ a vencer la dificultad,” the track that opens their CD Cubensi, Las Krudas repeat: Sexo […]
Great Target, Bad Aim: Robert Greenwald’s Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices
Thanks to Michael Moore, the growth of a moderately-aroused left-liberal public since the invasion of Iraq, and the low manufacturing costs of DVDs, the politically-conscious documentary film has reemerged in the United States. A central figure in this movement has been the seasoned producer-director Robert Greenwald. Formerly known for TV epics like Flatbed Annie and […]
Weighty Alternatives for Latin America Discussion with Heinz Dieterich [Ernsthafte Alternative für Lateinamerika Gespräch mit Heinz Dieterich]
The following is a conversation with Heinz Dieterich about his friendship with Hugo Chávez, irregular war, the new Venezuelan military doctrine, and an account of the Bolivarian revolution in Latin America. Heinz Dieterich is a sociologist and economist. He has been a professor at Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City since 1977. Since the 1990s, […]
Visiting Herman
It could be worse, I say to myself, as I buy my Trailways ticket, he could be on death row. He could be dying in a prison infirmary; he could be getting beaten up by racist gangs. Instead, Herman Bell is doing 25 years to life at a prison outside New York City, where we […]
Free Cristina Rosas Illescas and Pánfilo Reséndiz
Last Sunday, my fifteen year old daughter and I went to Querétaro, Mexico. We were trying to visit Cristina Rosas Illescas at the state penitentiary of San José El Alto, five miles northeast of the state capital. At the entrance, my daughter refused the guards’ orders to take her clothes off and let them conduct […]
What Brought Evo Morales to Power? The Role of the International Indigenous Movement and What the Left Is Missing
What has been left out of reports and analysis in both the mainstream press and among anti-imperialists and leftists about the triumph of Evo Morales’ election as President of Bolivia is the role played by the three-decade international indigenous movement that preceded it. Few are even aware of that powerful and remarkable historic movement, which […]
Unionists Closely Watch Morales [Sindicalistas vigilarán de cerca a Morales]
Las organizaciones sociales y populares más combativas y revolucionarias de Bolivia amenazaron con hacer renunciar al nuevo presidente Evo Morales, si éste no cumple con sus promesas de nacionalizar los hidrocarburos, elevar los salarios, dar tierra a los campesinos y erradicar el neoliberalismo. Por separado, una masiva asamblea de dirigentes de la Central Obrera Boliviana […]
A Mother’s Cry in Sacramento:Grassroots Activism to Prevent Youth Homicide Crisis
Click on the image for a larger view. Rhonda Erwin and Her Allies, at the Capitol of Sacramento, Photo by Dale Crandall-Bear Rhonda Erwin is a mother who lives with her family in the city of Sacramento. Some families there are facing an epidemic of youth violence. Politically, the response to this crisis is police […]
NAFTA Corridors: Dividing the Nation to Multiply Profits
Click on the image for a larger view. Photo by Richard D. Vogel The NAFTA corridors system currently under construction will irreversibly divide the U.S. geographically, economically, and socially for the sake of profit. The cumulative consequences of this “biggest engineering and construction project in the history of the U.S.” promise to be more damaging […]
Campus Predator
Doug Minkler is a San Francisco Bay Area artist specializing in fundraising, outreach, and educational posters. Minkler has collaborated with ILWU, Rainforest Action Network, SF Mime Troupe, ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, CISPES, United Auto Workers, Africa Information Network, ADAPT, Cop Watch, Street Sheet, and Veterans for Peace among others. He can be contacted at […]
Pentagon Database Leaves No Child Alone
Click on the image for a larger view. Doug Minkler, “Campus Predator” (3 February 2006) All over the country, organized citizens are fighting to restrict the military’s presence in schools. But having recruiters troll high school cafeterias is just one way the Pentagon inundates our youngsters with messages to “Go Army!” Since 2002, the U.S. […]
What Is behind the Bush “Oil Addiction” Remark in the “State of the Union” Speech?
Much is being made of George W Bush’s road-to-Damascus conversion on the need for alternative energy. “America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world,” Bush said in the annual State of the Union speech given by US Presidents at the beginning of the year. Enthusiasts for renewable energy […]
The State of Bush: A Man Obsessed
The Bush “State of the Union” speech said more about the speaker than the issues. Working people from coast to coast issued a collective groan as the wildly popular American Idol program ended, and the annual State of the Union program began. Millions and millions of viewers found the remote and tuned out, in search […]
Kenneth Timmerman’s Iranian “Democracy” and the “Intelligence” Summit
While George Bush, the man who controls the trigger of the world’s greatest nuclear arsenal, expresses his fear that a “non-transparent” and nuclear Iran might use its non-existent nuclear weapons to blackmail the world, and his Secretary of State tells the media that the time for talking with the regime in Tehran is over, a […]
Brazilian Army Study Details North American Military Presence in South America [Estudo do Exército detalha presença militar norte-americana na América do Sul]
Brasília — Há muito tempo a América do Sul tem sido uma área estratégica para os Estados Unidos, o que levou os norte-americanos a trazerem militares na região. Exemplo maior talvez tenha sido a Doutrina Monroe, aprovada pelo Congresso norte-americano em 1823. Surgida como forma de impedir a recolonização européia da América, com o tempo […]
