Caracas, March 6, 2013 Hugo Chávez, who died yesterday afternoon, was something of an Emersonian hero. “Speak your latent conviction,” said the sage of Concord, “and it shall be the universal sense.” Chávez said things that other people thought, or at least recognized that they thought after he said them. One could say that he […]
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Chávez’s Chief Legacy: Building, with People, an Alternative Society to Capitalism
When Hugo Chávez triumphed in the 1998 presidential elections, the neoliberal capitalist model was already foundering. The choice then was none other than whether to re-establish the neoliberal capitalist model — clearly with some changes including greater concern for social issues, but still motivated by the same logic of profit seeking — or to go […]
The World-Historical Importance of Hugo Chávez
The masses make history, but particular charismatic men and women can play a pivotal role, especially when they believe in the people and mobilize the masses to take action on their own behalf. Hugo Chávez was one of those rare revolutionary leaders. He was especially important for Latin America and the Third World for taking […]
Farewell Comrade Chávez
With the death of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela and the world have lost a leader whose primary concern was to bring a new system into existence — one he referred to as 21st Century Socialism. This meant a lot of things to Chávez, including making sure that all people had access to the necessities of life […]
Portugal: “I Prefer the Horses in My Lasagne to the Donkeys in the Government”
Last Saturday’s “Que Se Lixe a Troika” (Fuck the Troika) demonstrations represent a qualitative as well as quantitative shift for the anti-austerity movement in Portugal. In more than 40 towns and cities across Portugal, 1.5 million people (800,000 in Lisbon) took it to the streets against the government’s slavish submission to the dictates of the […]
The Logic of Legalization
The political calculus behind immigration reform was supposed to have changed after the elections of 2012. The outcome of the elections, along with some basic economics, was supposed to have made the logic of legalization all but inevitable, setting the stage for the passage of comprehensive immigration reform early this year. And yet, we remain […]
The Resistible Rise of a New One-Party System
Conversation in Germany these days, when not about soccer, dealt often with beef which was part horsemeat, high-priced organic “bio” eggs which weren’t all they claimed to be, or, in thrilling, moving detail, the last weeks, days, and hours of the one and only German Pope (since 1058 A.D.). Also under often heated debate was […]
The Uncommon Courage of Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty to 10 charges including possessing and willfully communicating to an unauthorized person — all the main elements of the WikiLeaks disclosure. The charges carry a total of 20 years in prison. For the first time, Bradley spoke publicly about what he did and why. His actions, now confirmed by his […]
Debt Trial of the Century: NML Capital, LTD. v. Republic of Argentina
“The Third World Network and Jubilee are partnering today to stand up against vulture fund activity, stand up for Argentina, in this incredibly important court case that has massive repercussions for all countries around the world to be able to protect themselves from this kind of litigation in the courts by holdout vulture funds. […]
Yoani Sánchez’s World Tour
Freedom of Expression, Made in USA Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Cf. Salim Lamrani, “40 perguntas para Yoani Sánchez em sua turnê mundial” (Opera Mundi, 18 February 2013); Salim Lamrani, “40 questions à poser à Yoani Sánchez lors de sa tournée mondiale” (Opera Mundi, 19 February 2013); Salim Lamrani, “40 preguntas para Yoani Sánchez […]
Where Have All the Muslims Gone? The 2018 Hashmi Award
New York, N.Y., 2018 — Every year about this time, since way back in 2013, the City of New York has bestowed its prestigious Hashmi Award upon a worthy New York resident who lives openly as an observant Muslim. The Hashmi recipient — preferably of Asian, Middle Eastern, or African descent — must have paid […]
Strategizing to Defeat Control Unit Prisons and Solitary Confinement: An Interview with Author/Activist Nancy Kurshan
Author and longtime activist Nancy Kurshan’s new book, entitled Out of Control: A Fifteen Year Battle Against Control Unit Prisons, has just been released by the Freedom Archives. Kurshan’s book documents the work of The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML), which she co-founded in 1985 as a response to the lockdown at the […]
Workers of the World
Labor historians Marcus Rediker and Peter Linebaugh have vividly described how sailors and other maritime workers were in the vanguard of the creation of an international working class. Unlike most people in the early modern period who largely stayed rooted to the soil of their birth or tied closely to their particular artisanal enterprises, Jack […]
Reaping What You Sow: Reflections on the Western Cape Farm Workers’ Strike
The series of strikes and protests that recently took place in and around farms in South Africa’s Western Cape Province was fuelled by the deep-seated anger and frustration that workers feel. On a daily basis, farm workers face not only appalling wages, bad living conditions, and precarious work, but also widespread racism, intimidation, and humiliation. […]
On Terrorist Attack in Damascus on February 21, 2013
A terrorist car bombing in close proximity to the Russian Embassy in Damascus which occurred on February 21, 2013 and was carried out by a suicide terrorist bomber, resulted in numerous victims and wounded among civilians, including students of a secondary school. The chancellery and the housing compound of the Russian Embassy were significantly […]
Capitalism Becomes Questionable
The depth and length of the global crisis are now clear to millions. In the sixth year since it started in late 2007, no end is in sight. Unemployment rates are now less than halfway back from their recession peak to where they were in 2007. Over 20 million are without work, millions more limited […]
The Unusual Uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan, Two Years On
“Under Fire in Iraqi Kurdistan,” Extract from The Fourth Estate in Iraqi Kurdistan, a film by Rozh Ahmad On February 16th, 2011, in solidarity with the mass uprisings sweeping the Middle East, Kurds took to the streets of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan and the following day demanded an end to their one and only official […]
“Whose Streets? Our Streets!”: Reflections on the World’s Largest Demonstration, Ten Years Later
Leo Zeilig and Sarah Grey
February 15, 2003 Sarah, New York: The wind that whips down the avenues is bitterly cold, but that doesn’t stop us from protesting the drive to war in Iraq. People from all over the city and the Northeast — young and old, hardened activists and first-time protestors — have converged on Manhattan, where the […]
‘Toward the United Front’: Translations for the Twenty-first Century
On February 3, 120 socialists took part in a Toronto meeting to celebrate publication of Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922, available in paperback from Haymarket Books. This 1,300-page volume is the seventh book of documents on the world revolutionary movement in Lenin’s time edited by John […]
Greece’s Big Smog: Neoliberal Austerity, Public Health, and the Environment
Neoliberal austerity in crisis-torn Greece has a significant implication for public health and the environment. The disturbing reality is that the unbearable cost of heating oil for a large portion of the country’s population has led to an increased use of solid fuel heating. The smog that has appeared in Athens and other Greek […]
