Archive | Commentary

  Introduction Margaret Randall is a feminist poet, writer, photographer, and social activist.  Born in New York City in 1936 and currently residing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she has also spent a number of years outside the United States.  Randall participated in the 1968 student movement while living in Mexico City, from where she was […]

Upon the release of the Indian edition of Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker’s José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology (Kharagpur: Cornerstone Publications, 2013; originally New York: Monthly Review Press, 2011), Vanden is in India on a lecture tour to spread the word about the ideas of José Carlos Mariátegui.  On this occasion, we are publishing […]

George Zimmerman Proclaimed Honorary White Man SANFORD, FL — The Volunteer Fire Department and the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution have united across class lines to declare George Zimmerman, recently acquitted of murdering African-American youth Trayvon Martin, an “Honorary White Dude.”  Mr. Zimmerman, whose driver’s license lists him as Hispanic, was […]

  CJP: What began as a financial crisis in 2007 has become one of the biggest unemployment crises in the advanced capitalist world.  Could this perhaps mean that the crisis of 2007-08 was not actually caused by finance itself but had its underlying causes in the real economy? JBF: No one doubts that it was […]

Just like the army exploited February 11, 2011, they are trying to exploit July 3, 2013.  They did not back the revolution, either time.  They tried to contain it and control its course. . . .  On June 30, masses of people took to the streets with the notion that my enemy’s enemy is my […]

I know — the title is too long.  If I truly intend to share brief remarks, I’ve already used up my time with the title.  But, I have my reasons. Here we are on July 4th on the historic grounds of the home of abolitionists Stephen and Harriet Myers which regularly housed freedom seekers escaping […]

“Mr. President [Santos]: I would like to have you tell me to my face that I am a guerrilla.  None of us are.  We are workers, peasants who try to live as we can.  It’s not easy to live here.  Our crops produce only losses.  We have to sell very cheap and can’t buy things. […]

  The summer of 2012 brought news of dialogues between the government of Colombia and the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) which would begin in November of the same year.  These new conversations are of great importance for the Colombian people and for the continent as a whole.  What is at stake is nothing […]

One of the most hotly debated aspects of #OccupyGezi has been the nature and degree of Kurdish participation.  Although from the beginning Kurdish activists have participated intensively in most of the #OccupyGezi protests in metropolitan cities in Turkey, and some MPs of the pro-Kurdish BDP have been closely involved in the movement, the participation of […]

To you at whose side we struggle, June 30th will mark a new stage of rebellion for us, building on what started January 25th and 28th, 2011.  This time we rebel against the reign of the Muslim Brotherhood that has brought only more of the same forms of economic exploitation, police violence, torture, and killings. […]

  Turkey has been witnessing one of the most vibrant and creative protests in its history since a group of protestors were subjected to brutal police violence a month ago in Gezi Park, Istanbul.  Primarily started as a reaction against the urban regeneration of Gezi Park, protests then proliferated in other parts of Istanbul and […]

Diyarbakir (Amed) After nearly three decades of war, Turkey’s Kurdistan region, home for an estimated 25 million stateless Kurds, warily awaits a long-lasting peace. For the last 29 years this region has been ravaged by a ferocious conflict between the Turkish army, the NATO’s second largest, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a guerilla movement […]

Dear Peace Blog — Fuck you to hell.  I thought I was giving peace a chance when I spent all those years writing in you.  About the dreams and schemes of a brave little peace activist standing up against state repression!  I wrote with a sense of hope — hope that society was making progress […]

More and more people pouring into the streets: “Free pass!”; “A R$3.20 fare is a robbery!”; “No to 3.20!”

But there is a danger. Don’t fall in love with yourselves. This movement is totally beautiful. But what matters is: What will change when everything gets back to normal?

Capitalism and real democracy never had much to do with one another.  In contrast, formal voting in elections has worked nicely for capitalism.  After all, elections have rarely posed, let alone decided, the question of capitalism: whether voters prefer it or an alternative economic system.  Capitalists have successfully kept elections focused elsewhere, on non-systemic questions […]

Brazilian Youth (Carrying Vinegar) Beginning to Rise Up! “Enough!  Brazil Has Awoken!” Viva Brazilian Democracy! Who Made the Protests Violent?  Answer: Protester Against the Fare Hike Holding a Sign Saying “Nonviolence”; Cop Scratching “Non” and Replacing It by “With” — “With Violence” #NaoEPor20Centavos: It’s Not About the 20-Centavo Hike — “Power to the People!” Rio […]

“I want you to know that once again you have ignited hope in the whole European continent.  What you have done is extremely important because what it demonstrates is that young Turks are just as capable of resisting oppression from authoritarian democratic government as Greeks, as Spaniards, as Portuguese, as Italians, as everyone.  This courage […]

  Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (now aka Recop Tazyik Gazdoğan, a pun on the PM’s name and the Turkish words for “truncheon,” “water cannon,” and “teargas”) issued an ultimatum at a so-called local election kickoff rally in a suburb of Ankara, which everybody knew was an attempt to counteract #OccupyGezi. Only a few hours […]

The Executive Committee of Local 3903 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE 3903) declares ourselves in solidarity with the demonstrators throughout the Republic of Turkey.

The demonstrations which began on May 31, 2013 have been entirely peaceful and speak to the conscience of vast numbers of the population of Turkey.  The Turkish government’s response to the myriad grievances against its policies has been beyond disproportionate, with security forces using armoured personnel carriers to engage in mass-arrests, firing high pressure water cannons filled with pepper-spray, and utilizing tear-gas guns to fire large projectiles.  Thousands of demonstrators have been arrested and injured, some critically.

One of the greatest horrors of the US security and policy establishment is the prospect of terrorists sabotaging critical infrastructure and key resources — the only horror greatest than that is the prospect of turning the infrastructure itself into a weapon of mass destruction.  Imagine a vast network of pipelines and storage units containing highly […]