Archive | Commentary

Caracas, 28 Jun. ABN. — Con la finalidad hacerle seguimiento a las relaciones bilaterales y discutir sobre el tema energético, los presidentes de la República Islámica de Irán, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad y la República de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, se reunirán en Teherán a finales de julio. Haga click en la foto para agrandar. Hugo Chávez […]

“America is addicted to oil.”  Thus spake George W. Bush in his 2006 “State of the Union” speech. At first hearing, this sounds like a remarkable breakthrough in public discourse.  A sitting U.S. President admitting that the nation’s relationship to petroleum is one of addiction?  Sounds like a major advance in honesty, doesn’t it?  And, […]

Click on an image for a larger view. Israel Has the Right to Defend Itself We Didn’t Intend to Kill the Civilians 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 […]

Revela el conteo desplome de Madrazo Da a conocer el IFE archivo de inconsistencias Faltan por computar 2 mil 17 casillas, lo que supone un millón 111 mil 350 sufragios potenciales Al computarse 98.45 por ciento de las casillas de la votación para la Presidencia de la República, el Programa de Resultados Electorales Preliminares (PREP) […]

The AFL-CIO has just formally petitioned the Bush Administration to “take immediate action to stop exploitation by the Chinese government and multinational corporations of workers in China, who are paid as little as 15 cents per hour”  (AFL-CIO, “AFL-CIO Files Workers’ Rights Case Against China ,” Press Release, June 8, 2006).  It appears that the […]

  In one sigh, Death in a third world, A hand lies withered and curled, Peals of death rain down on a child, Artists of life are ruined and defiled, My ovaries sag with hate, I am death to procreate, In one sigh. Ros Csikc-Cyr is an activist.  Her poetry offers a perspective on issues […]

I loved Bob Fitch’s new book, Solidarity for Sale.  For someone like myself, who has been battered around a bit by a few union leaders, it was like a drink of cool water at the end of a long, hot run. I’m troubled by the tone of some critical reviews of Solidarity for Sale I’ve […]

  Editor’s Introduction It’s no secret that there exists (1) a high turnover rate among entry-level organizers, many of whom are (2) young college graduates, rather than people recruited out of the communities that are organizing targets — the interrelated problems that Kevin Funk’s essay below illustrates. Daisy Rooks’ qualitative study (based on interviews with […]

All candidates look the same that is part of their game and what they do to you will always be the same CHORUS: Don’t vote, don’t vote, don’t vote. . . it’s a capitalist hoax. . . Businessmen in suits white shirts and boring ties even the women look like one of the guys The […]

Submissions

  Flying into Hong Kong with my wife, Amy Demarest, early in the morning of June 8, 2006 and jetlagged, I wasn’t sure I’d be up to the next two days of a fully packed conference on the Cultural Revolution.  The conference was sponsored by the China Study Group, Monthly Review, and the Contemporary China […]

Stop the Israeli Attack in Gaza Immediately: A Statement by the Alternative Information Center 29 June 2006 The Alternative Information Center (AIC) strongly condemns the Israeli army’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.  This invasion is a punishment for the results of the democratic Palestinian elections held in January and is irrelevant to the security of […]

In an operation carried out throughout the West Bank and the Jerusalem area early on Thursday, Israeli forces kidnapped some 65 Hamas government ministers, parliament members, and activists in an effort to overthrow the democratically elected Palestinian government.  Palestinians fear that the officials were kidnapped to serve as bargaining chips for negotiating the release of […]

Click on an image for a larger view. Gaza: Free Fire Zone Does the Israeli Army Need Smart Bombs or Smart Soldiers? Accept the Existence of Israel 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 […]

I am so tired of hearing Tel Aviv complain that certain Palestinian factions do not recognize Israel’s right to exist.  Regardless of their opinion of Israel’s right, even Hamas leaders have stated that the fact is that Israel does exist.  Meanwhile, Israel is once again waging a military campaign against the Palestinians that, in essence, […]

El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de la República de Cuba ha conocido con extrema preocupación de la operación militar a gran escala iniciada por Israel, desde horas tempranas de la madrugada del 28 de junio del 2006, en la Franja de Gaza, con la movilización de cerca de cinco mil soldados, cientos de tanques y […]

The depth and breadth of bipartisan commitment to the US empire among America’s political elite is best seen in the House vote on HR 282, the “Iran Freedom Support Act,” essentially a bill to “make U.S. sanctions against Iran under ILSA permanent unless there is a change of government in Iran”1:   YEAS NAYS PRES […]

The 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower’s signing of the Interstate Highway Act on 29 June 1956 is a good time to watch a 1996 PBS documentary Taken for a Ride again. Ten years ago, President Clinton visited my city during the 1996 presidential campaign.  Riding a “Presidential Special” from Columbus to Toledo on tracks that no […]

Here in the purported paragon of electoral democracy, the United States of America,  we have now suffered through presidential elections in 2000 and 2004 that were widely regarded as questionable.  I am referring of course to the fiasco’s of Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. Even before the Supreme Court made Bush President by […]

Last week, in Hudson v. Michigan, the new composition of the Supreme Court revealed its hostility to the century-old exclusionary rule, which prevents illegally-obtained evidence from being introduced against a criminal defendant.  In 1914, in Weeks v. US, the Supreme Court said that, without the sanction of exclusion, the Fourth Amendment “might as well be […]