Popular momentum is building to ensure that any settlement coming out of upcoming Colombian government peace negotiations with insurgents promotes social justice. New prisoner resistance and recent documentation of abuses in Colombian prisons serve as reminders that, ideally, a peaceful and just Colombian society should promote prisoner rights. Indeed, “Our people and a bit of […]
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Monthly Review Magazine
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Egypt’s march towards the future its millions demanded did not end with Mubarak leaving power — it only began. Mosireen, which is a play on the Arabic words for “Egypt” and “determined,” was founded in the wake of Mubarak’s fall by a group of film makers and activists who got together to create a collective […]
The Story of a Ring
A small but moving episode marked the regular annual meeting of the German organization Fighters and Friends of the Spanish Republic 1936-1939 (Kämpfer und Freunde der Spanischen Republik 1936-1939). It was the first such meeting without a single veteran; the last volunteer in Germany, Fritz Teppich, died last winter, and none of the tiny, decreasing […]
CTU Strike 2012
The first week of the historic September 2012 Chicago teachers strike. . . . Produced by Labor Beat (mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org, 312-226-3330). Click here to make a donation to Labor Beat (Committee for Labor Access) and help rank-and-file TV. | Print
Chicago Teacher
Fronted by MC Rodstarz and MC/Producer G1, and backed by Producer/DJ Illanoiz, Rebel Diaz creates Hip Hop 4 the People. | Print
Todd Akin Inspires Perp Power Movement
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — By now it is well know that Missouri Representative Todd Akin explained his opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape, by saying that women who experience “a legitimate rape” can avoid pregnancy by telling their bodies to “shut that whole thing down.” It is also well known that a firestorm […]
What Part of FREE SPEECH Does Whole Foods Not Understand?
On Saturday, August 18, several cars and a pickup truck with signs on top, in the windows or on bumpers, drove into the Whole Foods Market (WFM) parking lot in Brentwood, which borders St. Louis, Missouri. Police approached as soon as they arrived. “Yes, officer, we will take the signs off of the cars if […]
Putting Out The Fire? Iraqi Labor Unions Throttled, During and After Occupation
In the wake of last year’s long overdue U.S. troop withdrawal, mainstream media coverage of Iraq has dwindled to near zero — except when there’s another suicide bombing (which usually merits just a paragraph or two in world news round-ups). The fate of costly U.S.-funded projects and institutions is little known or largely forgotten, $800 […]
All Sorts of Roguery? The ‘Financial Aristocracy’ and Government à Bon Marché in India
My voice is a crime, My thoughts anarchy, Because I do not sing to their tunes, I do not carry them on my shoulders. — Cherabandaraju, who was the lead accused in a “conspiracy case” involving poets and their poetry. It’s been two decades and a year since India’s elite embraced neo-liberalism. Money — the […]
A Little-Known Film Master, Kurt Maetzig
An extraordinary mensch, an extraordinary filmmaker who made extraordinary films and lived to the extraordinary age of 101, Kurt Maetzig, who died last week, was virtually unknown in the United States, indeed, in the western world generally. The reason: he lived and worked in East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, whose films — many mediocre […]
Howard Zinn’s Zen Politics
Howard Zinn. The Historic Unfulfilled Promise. Foreword by Matthew Rothschild. San Francisco: City Lights, 2012. 256 pages. Howard Zinn was called a lot of different names: anarchist, socialist, and communist. He called himself a lot of different names, too: anarchist, socialist, and communist. No one ever seems to have called him Zen, but maybe it’s […]
Witness Venezuela’s Elections This October!
Travel to Venezuela for the Elections! October 1-9, 2012 This October, witness one of the most important elections in the history of Venezuela — and of the hemisphere. On October 7, the people of Venezuela will exercise their right to vote and decide whether to carry forward the Bolivarian Revolution through the reelection of President […]
Tito’s Class-Conscious Classifieds
In a recent PBS interview with Bill Moyers, journalist Chris Hedges discussed protest for social change. “Revolt,” he said, apropos of salvaging a collapsing world, “is all we have. It is our only hope.” I agree. So would my friend Tito Gerassi, who believed all his life in revolution. And, since rising unemployment is part […]
Choosing Ryan, Embracing Austerity
Whatever electoral calculations drove Mitt Romney to choose Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate, the choice also has a deeper meaning. Ryan’s arrival at the top of the Republican Party represents the rise of the most vocal and visible proponent of austerity in US politics today. Ryan represents the US parallel to the regimes […]
This Is What a Crisis Looks Like
A jackpot for the capitalist class at the EU casino. . . . Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print
Violating the Privacy and Dignity of “Suspected” Gay Men in Lebanon
I would like to start off by saying that I am not a journalist. However, I do know that there are some common practices in journalism involving privacy. Some investigative journalists use hidden camera footage to raise awareness of issues of vital public interest when there is no other means of obtaining information about them. […]
Low-Wage Workers March in New York — Will It Make a Difference?
Several thousand union and non-union workers came together in Manhattan the afternoon of July 24 for an unusual display of solidarity between people who until the 2008 economic crisis had often seemed to belong to completely different social classes. The event, the “New York Workers Rising Day of Action,” brought out a mix of low-wage […]
The Prisoners of Democracy AKP Style in Turkey
“The remains of the human beings, each weighing 70, 80, 90 kg when alive, fit into just five 20-kg plastic bags. I mean, even their bones had burned down. I am a lawyer and I have seen many autopsies after murders and accidents, but I have never seen anything like this. Even their teeth […]
Tadeusz Kowalik, 1926-2012
Professor Tadeusz Kowalik (1926-2012) was a noted Polish economist who played a major role in Polish economic debates for more than a half century. A graduate of the University of Warsaw, Kowalik was a student of the distinguished Polish Marxist economist Oskar Lange and like his teacher, was a prominent advocate of market socialism […]
“Hepimiz Aleviyiz, We Are All Alevi”: Kurds, Syria, and Turkey
See, also, “Rojava Revolts: The Politics of Kurds in Syria” (MRZine, 24 July 2012). | Print
