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So now we are back in another phase of sharply rising global food prices, which is wreaking further devastation on populations in developing countries that have already been ravaged for several years of rising prices and falling employment chances.  The food price index of the FAO in December 2010 surpassed its previous peak of June […]

  Listen to the interview with Dyab Abou Jahjah: 4th World War: To what extent do you think this popular revolution can achieve not just democratic rights but also something else: social change? Dyab Abou Jahjah: After the dictator left the country, many people of what was the legalized opposition, the parties that were legal […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Cf. We Are All Khaled Said; “#Jan25 Is Official Menace to the Regime” (Egyptian Chronicles, 23 January 2011). | Print

Predictably, the Istanbul talks have ended without positive results.  And, it seems clear that the discussion came to a dead end over two issues: the Islamic Republic wanted explicit recognition of its right to enrich uranium which the United States (at least) was not prepared to do; and the United States proposed a plan for […]

A Plenary Address at the American Studies Association Presidential Panel, San Antonio, Texas, 18 November 2010 For Ruthie Gilmore. I am an imposter here: not a real American Studies scholar.  I went to graduate school in the late 1980s to study History and Anthropology.  My interest was in the contemporary history of India.  When I […]

Most of the tributes to John Ross have stressed the colorful side of the New York-born journalist, activist, and poet, who died in Michoacán, Mexico, on January 17. “Colorful” is an understatement.  Tall, gaunt, with his black beret and white goatee, a Palestinian keffiyeh around his neck, John was an unmistakable figure at demonstrations.  His […]

  Below is a declaration of support for the Tunisian revolution written by exiled Tunisian activist Sadri Khiari.  The idea is to recollect signatures for this declaration, so if you are interested in signing, please write an EMPTY e-mail to: <solidaritytunisia@gmail.com>.  Please WRITE in the “subject” field your NAME, OCUPATION AND COUNTRY as you wish […]

1. The General Union of Tunisian Workers is a national organization necessarily interested in political affairs, given its history of struggle during the colonial epoch and the period of the construction of the modern state, considering the dialectical links among economy, society, politics, and culture in the process of development, but out task has become more urgent than ever.

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print

On January 15, the New York Times ran an interesting piece on older workers.  According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited in the story, the US workforce is a lot older now than it was at the onset of the Great Recession in December 2007.  Total employment of workers under the age of 55 […]

The labor market recession continued to exact a toll on union membership, which fell sharply in 2010.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unionized share of the U.S. workforce dropped to 11.9 percent last year from 12.3 percent in 2009.  The private sector unionization rate fell to 6.9 percent in 2010, from 7.2 […]

The dictatorship changes masks in Tunisia . . . and the Tunisian people says, “Get lost, RCD!” Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).     | Print

Jean Tulard is a historian, specializing in the French Revolution and revolutions in general.  According to Tulard, the future of the Tunisian uprising will depend on the role played by the army. In a month of uprising, the Tunisian people has successfully toppled the Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali regime.  Is it a revolution? Right now […]

Many of the most interesting — and from a left perspective, most disturbing — developments in U.S. politics today are occurring at the state level.  As the excellent Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has documented, the aftermath of the recession wrought by the financial crisis has plunged virtually every U.S. state into a deep […]

So now we know about the $15 billion plus 2010 pay package for Goldman Sachs partners and employees.  The top rungs will get their many millions each, with lesser and lesser amounts going down the GS hierarchy.  The mass of its over 35,000 employees will, as usual, get much, much less than the top.  In […]

January 20, 2011, New York — Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) issued a written appeal to Fox News president Roger Ailes to help put a stop to the increasing threats against progressive Professor Frances Fox Piven, largely incited by Fox News host Glenn Beck.  In the letter, co-written by Legal Director Bill Quigley […]

  Past US administrations have deported illegal immigrants, but under President Obama the process has accelerated. This video was first released by Al Jazeera on 19 January 2011. | Print  

  We, the Black Comet Defense Committee, appeal to all fighters against discrimination in the world: We would like to let you know what happened on a street near the Shibuya station, Tokyo, on December 4, 2010. Choi Daniel (崔檀悦), also known as Black Comet, a young Zainichi Korean sociologist born in Japan, protested, alone, […]

Haiti’s infamous dictator “Baby Doc” Duvalier returned to his country this week, while the country’s first elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is kept out.  These two facts really say everything about Washington’s policy toward Haiti and our government’s respect for democracy in that country and in the region. Asked about the return of Duvalier, who had […]

The debate over the demographic trends in the United States and other wealthy countries can be described a debate between those who care about our children and those who want more of them.  This is apparent once a little bit of logic is applied to the tales of demographic disaster being hawked by those concerned […]