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Steve Brouwer.  Revolutionary Doctors: How Venezuela and Cuba Are Changing the World’s Conceptualization of Health Care.  New York, Monthly Review Press, 2011.  245 pp.  $18.95. As Venezuela becomes the first country to reproduce the Cuban medical model on a massive scale, it is doing so in ways that are unique in both form and process.  […]

  The business of news is not about selling news to people but about selling people to advertisers. Half Advertising, Half Propaganda “. . . and, after a brief break for sponsored news, we’ll return again to commercials.” Jorge Alaminos Fernández is a graphic artist and designer in Spain.  This cartoon was first published in […]

  I have long been troubled by the anomaly of having officials — selected with absolutely no public scrutiny or confirmation — voting on some of the most important decisions the federal government makes.  Therefore, I introduced H.R. 1512, which eliminates the role of the Federal Reserve’s regional presidents as voting members of the Federal […]

The Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) met today and decided on a modestly expansionary monetary policy.  It decided to unload $400 billion worth of short-term assets over the next 9 months and replace them with longer-term government bonds.  The idea is that this would place some downward pressure on long-term interest rates. The […]

It is obviously silly to push for austerity in the midst of a recession, not just silly but cruel, since it prolongs the pain of unemployment.  The recession is caused by a deficiency of aggregate demand.  To overcome it what is necessary is an increase in demand which requires larger expenditure.  Since private expenditure on […]

Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain.  The cartoons above were first published in his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 25 February 2008, 16 June 2011, and 12 September 2011.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print

  Does the court system employ racists? Then why are so many black boys in cages? Why shouldn’t I be paranoid of hatred? Just look at the curious case of Troy Davis Let’s travel on down to Savannah In the state of Georgia just south of Atlanta Where they wave the rebel flag like a […]

US and European troops participated in the invasion of Tripoli and are still stationed there, according to an intercepted telephone call between officials of Libya’s National Transitional Council, the body purporting to represent NATO-allied rebels in the Libyan civil war. The call also reveals the existence of mass graves in or near Misurata which, one […]

Israel prepares for the Palestinian Authority’s UN bid for a blue chair of its own called “Palestine’s Right” . . . Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites.  Cf. “It is important to stress at the outset that whether the UN grants the Palestinian […]

さようなら原発５万人集会 Meiji Park, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 19 September 2011 Update: “さようなら原発 / Sayonara #Nukes Rally in #Tokyo: 60,000 in Meiji Park alone. Aerial shot: bit.ly/mTbY08 #Nuclear #Japan” — MRZine For more information about the Sayonara Nukes rally, visit <sayonara-nukes.org>.  Cf. 大江健三郎さんら、新政権に脱原発迫る〜19日には５万人集会, <youtube.com/watch?v=HuYEHSl2kzk>.   var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print  

Berlin voted on Sunday.  Mayor Klaus Wowereit, a Social Democrat, retains his office but his government needs reshuffling.  The only real surprise was a hefty 9 percent vote for an unusual new party, the Pirates, whose fifteen delegates in the new city parliament will be their first anywhere in Germany. With Pirates in parliament (though […]

Democracy, democracy.  Don’t we just love it?  Don’t we love it as a pretence for furthering our international ambitions?  Don’t we love it when it means cheaper oil and cosy partnerships? In the case of Libya, the façade of supporting a democratic movement has fallen from even our most blatant sources of propaganda.  To quote […]

“We are very much grateful to NATO for giving us ‘freedom.’” Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print

The Syrian opposition urged protesters Sunday to go on with peaceful demonstrations, noting that continued protests are a “decisive factor” in pushing for reforms in the country. In a statement issued one day after a meeting of some 300 opposition figures, the opposition called on the government to immediately stop its “repression” on protesters and […]

  Over 200 Syrian opposition figures met in Halboun in the outskirts of the capital Damascus in order to coordinate efforts to build a national opposition movement and to address the anti-government protests that have gripped the country for the last six months. The meeting was attended by Michel Kilo, Fayez Sarah, and Mondher Khaddam, […]

WikiLeaks’ release of cables from the United States embassy in La Paz has shed light on its attempts to create divisions in the social and indigenous movements that make up the support base of Bolivia’s first indigenous-led government.  The cables prove the embassy sought to use the US government aid agency, USAID, to promote US […]

International recognition of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people is an important and vital step in the process of internationalization of the Palestinians struggle for independence, freedom and equality.  It may possibly strengthen the Palestinians struggle against the occupation and hand over the responsibility for ending the occupation and eliminating racial discrimination to […]

“Hey!  This is a real general assembly!  Numbers good.  We’re going to be doing breakout groups  lockerz.com/s/139588389” — David Graeber For more information, <occupywallst.org>. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print

We are the children of Martin and Malcolm,          Black, brown, red and white, Our birthright is to be creators of history,Our Right, Our Duty           To shake the world with           A new dream! At this time of mass unemployment and foreclosures, failing banks and failed states, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, and global warming that […]

  Excerpt: For at least 5,000 years, before capitalism even existed, popular movements have tended to center on struggles over debt.  There is a reason for this.  Debt is the most efficient means ever created to make relations fundamentally based on violence and inequality seem morally upright.  When this trick no longer works everything explodes, […]