For several centuries — between the 15th and the early 19th centuries — mercantilist theories dominated the attitude to trade in Europe. This was the belief that an economy that had positive net exports (through exports being greater than imports) would be wealthier because it would lead to an inflow of bullion, or assets, and […]
Archive | Commentary
Monthly Review Magazine
Abbas’s Negotiations
As Mahmoud Abbas chases after money, the Palestinian cause veers off course. Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon was published in his blog on 10 September 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. The text above is an interpretation of the cartoon by Yoshie Furuhashi. | Print
The Scandal That Wasn’t or How Not to Reform the Prison System in Illinois
As if Illinois didn’t have enough real scandals, the state’s political and journalist classes — Democratic and Republican — created another one out of whole cloth, and it’s a whopper. It has led to the firing of a respected chair of the Prisoner Review Board, the forced resignation of a newly appointed and progressive director […]
Germany: The Shadows of the Recovery
We are being told that Germany is successfully recovering from the crisis. However, despite the recovery, the German economy is below most other countries’ in relation to the pre-crisis levels of output. When the crisis began the German economy’s dependence on exports caused a sharp fall in industrial production. The initial liquidation and the subsequent […]
Venezuela Assembly Elections Too Close to Call
Paul Jay: So there’s elections coming up in Venezuela, September 26, for the National Assembly. Tell us who controls the National Assembly now in Venezuela and what’s at stake in these elections. Gregory Wilpert: Well, right now the National Assembly is entirely controlled by Chávez supporters. That’s because the last elections, 2005, the opposition […]
The Flag, Captured
Arnaldo Testi. Capture the Flag: The Stars and Stripes in American History. Translated by Noor Giovanni Mazhar. New York and London: New York University Press, 2010. 165 pages, $22.95, cloth. There’s no shortage of iconic images featuring the United States flag — Washington Crossing the Delaware, The Spirit of ’76, Iwo Jima, and the moon […]
Brazil: José Serra on the “Tucanic”
José Serra on the sinking ship of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, whose mascot is a blue and yellow tucano (toucan). . . . Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print
Pharmaceutical Industry-Funded Study Shows That Unauthorized Drug Copies Save Tens of Millions
This is the clear implication of a new industry funded study, even if USA Today essentially ran an ad for the pharmaceutical industry by headlining its piece: “growing problem of fake drugs endangers consumers’ health.” The article highlighted the fact that unauthorized copies of drugs sometimes do not meet the same standards as the official […]
Glenn Beck Wrecks Second Coming, Offs Jesus
(PU) After two thousand years of looking forward to the return of Jesus Christ, Christians were extremely disappointed today to learn that their born-again Lord and Savior had died again, this time at the hands of author, talk-show host, and entrepreneur Glenn Beck. News of the “Messiah-cide” leaked out this morning when Mr. Beck was […]
Labor Reform in Spain
Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. This cartoon was first published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 10 September 2010. | Print
How Does the World Bank Function?
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) was established at Bretton Woods in July 1944, at the initiative of forty-five countries that had come together for the first monetary and financial conference of the United Nations. In 2010, it had 186 member countries, with Kosovo its latest addition (it joined in June 2009). The […]
Turkey: Constitutional Amendments
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) clips the wings of the military by constitutional amendments. Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon was published in his blog on 11 May 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. The text above is an interpretation of the cartoon by Yoshie Furuhashi. Turkish voters approved […]
Against the Stream: Interview with Gideon Levy
For decades Gideon Levy has used the platform provided by the liberal Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz to shine a light on the brutal realities of Israel’s occupation. His journalism, along with that of his colleague Amira Hass, has been an invaluable resource not only for Israeli readers but, through the Ha’aretz website, for international audiences seeking […]
The Rwandan Patriotic Front’s Bloody Record and the History of UN Cover-Ups
On August 26, the French newspaper Le Monde revealed the existence of a draft UN report on the most serious violations of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo over an eleven-year period (1993-2003).1 The massive draft report states that after the Rwandan Patriotic Front’s takeover of Rwanda in 1994, it proceeded to […]
Tony Blair, Europe, and the Prospect of a U.S. Attack on Iran
In connection with the release of his memoirs, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has given a number of interviews this week in which he endorses the first-use of military force to stop Iran’s nuclear development. Blair’s statements on the matter prompted us to reflect on where European policies toward the Islamic Republic are really […]
What Chris Marker Did for The Battle of Chile
Patricio Guzmán is a Chilean filmmaker. The above is a clip from Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary (Dir. Pepita Ferrari, 2009). The Battle of Chile is available from Icarus Films: <icarusfilms.com/new98/boc.html>. For more information about Chris Marker, visit <www.chrismarker.org>. | Print
Imagen Anónima / Anonymous Image
Rodrigo Llano is a Chilean artist and filmmaker. The video above is a trailer for his film Imagen Anónima/Anonymous Image. For more information about this film, visit <imagenanonima.cl>. | Print
Pete Seeger Remembers Victor Jara
John Summa and John Travers, filmmakers, are currently working on The Power of Their Song: The Untold Story of Latin America’s New Song Movement. | Print
Class Struggle against Car Domination
A new political party, which won office in Montréal’s Plateau Mont-Royal borough last November, has begun to widen sidewalks, add bike paths and close some streets to traffic. Critics have accused them of engaging in class warfare. In a much discussed La Presse opinion piece, Luc Chartrand denigrated the “supposedly enlightened urban planning” measures […]
September 11
Uncle Sam reminds the world of the victims of September 11 while making war on Iraq and Afghanistan. Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon was published in his blog on 2 September 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. The text above is an interpretation of the cartoon by Yoshie Furuhashi. […]
