Archive | Commentary

What follows is Peter Rachleff’s letter to José Arturo Ibarra, a San Francisco-based Northwest flight attendant who successfully led the fight to reject the contract that demanded “a 30 and 40 percent cut in pay and benefits” and givebacks on everything from health insurance to work rules. — Ed. Dear José: I have been meaning […]

It has often been said that there is “no rest for the wicked.”  In Lebanon, quite simply, there is no rest.  No rest for those who continue to wage this war and no rest for those who were not asked if they wanted to fight. After 72 hours of what has been referred to as […]

  4 August 2006 Last night, whatever hopes anyone had that this war was drawing its last breath and would take minimal — if hopefully no more — victims were brutally shattered like the bridges that crumpled under the latest warplane onslaught. Lebanon awoke today to more destruction and chaos.   To more fears that no […]

Israel’s continuing military offensives in Lebanon and Gaza are producing a  human catastrophe and have immense political consequences. First, the human cost, as of July 30: At least 561 dead in Lebanon, the vast majority civilians — with 60 killed (including 37 children) by Israeli air attacks on the village of Qana.  Over 1,000 wounded […]

Over 2,000 years ago, the town of Qana hosted a man billions believe to be their Savior.  The small town’s ancient stones still depict that man and his followers.  But today it is not the messages of love, forgiveness, and brotherhood that Jesus is said to have delivered in this tiny corner of the Levant […]

A LOVE POEM24 July 2006 Some readers of my open letter to Amos Oz have been posing questions to me regarding how to deal with a group that calls for the destruction of Israel.  They tell me they are sick of Israel being described by the Left as inherently evil. I do not believe there […]

From Israel with Love Carlos Latuff, born in Rio de Janeiro on 30 November 1968, is a political cartoonist.  He is the author of the famous “We Are All Palestinians” series, comparing oppressed peoples at various times and places (Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, Blacks in South Africa, Blacks and American Indians in the United […]

  Ellen Dannin TAKING BACK THE WORKERS’ LAW: How to Fight the Assault on Labor Rights by Ellen Dannin BUY THIS BOOK Ellen Dannin is one of the most eminent labor law scholars in the United States.  A former National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) attorney and currently professor of labor law at the Pennsylvania State […]

“We must reduce to dust the villages of the south [ . . . ]  I don’t understand why there is still electricity there.”1 With these words, Israeli Minister of Justice and former Labor Party leader, Haim Ramon, summarized his suggestions for the continuation of the military offensive in Lebanon, following the failure of the […]

Click on the cartoon for a larger view. Gaza, Beirut, Damascus, Tehran! Carlos Latuff, born in Rio de Janeiro on 30 November 1968, is a political cartoonist.  He is the author of the famous “We Are All Palestinians” series, comparing oppressed peoples at various times and places (Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, Blacks in South […]

One of the neocon myths that has gained currency post-9/11 asserts, referring to opponents of Israel and the United States, that “they are against who we are, not what we do.”  Hence, the argument concludes, there is nothing we can do to diminish their antagonism.  A variant of this fiction is that Iran’s Islamic elite […]

  (for Ash and his birthplace) Within the rubble, Child’s face, doll’s face, unblinking Blushing in red dawn Russell Ragsdale is a chef in Almaty, Kazakhstan.  Visit his blog: Yuckelbel’s Canon.

Like millions of other Italian Americans, I rejoiced in Italy‘s dramatic penalty-kick World Cup victory over France.  For a country that has given us little to cheer about recently, it was a welcome and much-needed celebration, a festival combining benign patriotism, wistful nostalgia, and a release for long-suffering fans. In fact, both the country and […]

200 people protested against the bombing of Lebanon in Tel Aviv just hours after it started on Wednesday, 13 July 2006.  600-800 people protested on Sunday, 17 July 2006, through the streets of Tel Aviv.  The Tel Aviv demonstration against the war grew to 2,500 on Saturday, 22 July 2006, according to Haaretz. “One, two, […]

Welcome to Lebanon Smells So Good Carlos Latuff, born in Rio de Janeiro on 30 November 1968, is a political cartoonist.  He is the author of the famous “We Are All Palestinians” series, comparing oppressed peoples at various times and places (Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, Blacks in South Africa, Blacks and American Indians in […]

Dear President Bush, As an American, I have always taken pride in the words “White House.”  Through decades of political strife, be it hurricanes, bra-burnings, race riots, or terrorist attack, the White House has stood as a beacon of hope, assuring us that somewhere inside is a white President, upholding American values.  Until today, Mr. […]

The legend in my family has it that my Grandpa Kelley was a rank-and-file organizer of some importance during the CIO upsurge of 1936-37, at his General Motors plant in La Grange, Illinois.  He died before I went into the Army in 1969, so I never really got much of a chance to talk to […]

  For five weeks in the late spring of 2006, we toured the eastern half of the United States to promote two books — Letters From Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out (Nation Books, 2005) and Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (AK Press, 2006) — and to get at […]

A sharp reversal is now hitting the US housing market: another of this system’s endemic boom-bust cycles.  As is widely known, over the last decade at least, while the US economy became sharply more unequal (rapidly rising gap between rich and poor), it managed to avoid a severe recession.  Goods and services purchases kept rising […]

Is there any rational human being on the planet who doesn’t perceive Israel’s measures against Lebanon to be an irrational overreaction?  Seriously, if every pair of “kidnapped” soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan warranted the “reaction” being meted out by Israel at this moment, I suspect the United States as a whole would be little more […]