Archive | Commentary

Abstract: This paper proposes a new kind of “political arithmetic” as a key element of the foundation for a good society.  Starting from the premise that the labor process in capitalism developed along lines laid down by double-entry bookkeeping, the paper cites the “wondrous errors and confusion” inherent in performing social accounting while retaining the […]

  “And this book is dedicated to you, to young women artists and old women artists, who are aspiring and creating something huge.  Yours is the future I write for.” — Barbara Hammer Barbara Hammer, an acclaimed filmmaker, has made more than eighty films over the past forty years.  For more information about HAMMER!  Making […]

December 3, 2010 Dear President Obama, A week ago, I wrote you on this same subject but since I’ve not yet received a reply either personal or automated, I felt I should try again. As president of Veterans For Peace (VFP), a national organization of military veterans, I want to convey to you our serious […]

Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera: The empire, in the name of diplomacy, is committing third-class espionage — lamentable for a serious country, and lamentable and decadent for an empire.  The reason [for making the WikiLeaks cables available] is to show the public the quality of an empire which — there’s no doubt about it […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  | Print

Abstract: On May 29, 1871, the engineers of Newcastle, England went on strike for a nine-hour day.  “Jobs, Liberty and the Bottom Line” draws on several narratives arising out of the strike and the lives of its participants to frame an investigation of the historical debate over shorter working time and its prime aspiration, disposable […]

After September 11th, 2001, one of the liberal justifications for the military intervention against Afghanistan was the oppression of women, but also of gays, by the Taliban.  People in Europe and the USA received with shock the news that same-sex couples were publicly executed in the Kabul Stadium by bringing down a wall upon them […]

Reformist actions on Student Day in Iran, 7 December 2010 (16 Azar 1389). . . . The 16 Azar assembly of the Islamic Student Association, Tehran University and Tehran University of Medical Sciences Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan Islamic Azad University, Behbahan Amir Kabir University Amir Kabir University […]

“If you’re really worried about the deficits, then you should be really worried about health care costs.” Alan Barber is Domestic Communications Coordinator of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.  Cf. “The cuddly creature on the left sounds a lot like the US media, and the one on the right does a pretty good […]

  US and Canadian UN COP16 observers and climate justice activists will demonstrate against their governments’ position at the climate change conference by joining the Via Campesina and Espacio Mexicano marches and sit-ins throughout Cancun today, then gather at the Cancun Messe this afternoon at 4pm to deliver a specific message to US & Canadian […]

UAW President Bob King and his corporate partners at GM, Ford, and Chrysler-Fiat will blame the competition they’ve rigged on workers and relentlessly degrade them into believing they are worth less and less as profits rise.  That’s not a guess, it’s the drill. History lessons must be revised before the profiteers of war and labor […]

  “We aim to show that religion does not have to be a dividing force between feminists.” A shorter version of the video may be viewed at <vimeo.com/16522936>. | Print  

In the run-up to a new round of nuclear talks between the P5+1 and Iran on Monday, Western commentators are re-hashing old arguments that the Islamic Republic is either too politically divided or too dependent on hostility toward the United States for its legitimacy to be seriously interested in a nuclear deal.  From this perspective, […]

  To His Excellency Mahmoud Abbas President of the Palestinian National Authority Mr. President, I have carefully read the letter of 24 November, by which Your Excellency asks Brazil to recognize the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. As Your Excellency knows, Brazil has historically advocated, particularly under my government, the achievement of the legitimate […]

Executive Summary: We use Bureau of Justice Statistics data to estimate that, in 2008, the United States had between 12 and 14 million ex-offenders of working age.  Because a prison record or felony conviction greatly lowers ex-offenders’ prospects in the labor market, we estimate that this large population lowered the total male employment rate that […]

On December 5th one or two hundred people left a movie theater in Berlin, mostly silent and deeply moved though the film they had seen was first released in 1930.  This American-made epic had lost none of its extremely emotional appeal.  It was All Quiet on the Western Front and the date of its showing […]

Dear Mr. Stewart, Remember your “Rally to Restore Sanity” in DC last October?  I’m sorry, but my sanity remains unrestored.  In fact, I’ve been feeling increasingly deranged.  It’s like I’m speeding down Life’s superhighway at 666 miles per hour, headed for Nut City, where I am due to give my inaugural speech as Mayor. At […]

Participate and Vote . . . . . . if you can break through the Central Security Forces. Doaa Eladl is a cartoonist in Cairo, Egypt.  This cartoon was published by Al-Masry Al-Youm on 27 November 2010 under a Creative Commons license.  Cf. “Opposition Protest Parliamentary Vote Rigging” (Ahram Online, 4 December 2010); “Poca participación […]

Bruce Cumings.  The Korean War: A History.  New York: Modern Library, 2010.  Cloth, $24.00, pp 288. Any time that a book appears by Bruce Cumings, one of our foremost scholars on Korea, it merits attention.  His latest book, The Korean War, is particularly welcome given the recent sharp increase in tensions on the Korean Peninsula. […]

  Michael A. Lebowitz will deliver the Fourth Annual Lecture in Memory of Nicos Poulantzas (“Building Socialism of the 21st Century: The Logic of the State”) on Wednesday, 8 December 2010, 7 PM, at the auditorium of the Goethe Institute (Omirou St. 14-16) in Athens, Greece. Mr. Lebowitz, is Marxism still relevant today?  I ask […]