“The people’ democratic struggle and the struggle for the environment should be intimately tied together.” — Fred Magdoff Fred Magdoff is professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and adjunct professor of crop and soil science at Cornell University. He is a co-author of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know […]
Geography Archives: Americas
South America, Central America, United States & Canada
We Are the 1%: Occupy Iran, Occupy Venezuela!
Jorge Alaminos Fernández is a graphic artist and designer in Spain. | Print
The General Strike
General strikes were common in Europe and in the U.S. towards the end of the nineteenth century and in the first decades of the twentieth century. They provoked great debates within the labor movement and within the revolutionary parties and movements (anarchist, communist, socialist). Much discussed were the importance of the general strike in […]
Support Today’s Freedom Riders by Ending U.S. Support for Israeli Apartheid
Fifty years ago, Freedom Riders braved beatings and arson by supremacists intent on maintaining apartheid in the Jim Crow South. By challenging segregated transportation through nonviolent action, these African American and white activists set in motion a process that ultimately dismantled segregation. While the struggle for racial justice continues, at least this shameful chapter of […]
#OWS and the Young Trade Unionists
Cory McCray, Founder of the Young Trade Unionists, and George Hendricks, Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU) Rep and Vice President of the Young Trade Unionists (YTU) If you head down to the IBEW Local 24 Union Hall Auditorium on W. Patapsco Avenue in Baltimore on the first Tuesday of any month, you’ll encounter a meeting of […]
The Scream
Rajoy Won Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela. Cf. “Polls say that seven out of ten voters for the victorious People’s Party do not have much confidence in . . . PP” (Ancelmo Gois, “Direita, volver,” 21 November 2011); “Right away, the risk premium of the Spanish debt rises and the stock market tumbles, […]
Picturing the Arab League
Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela. Cf. “Given the impossibility of obtaining UN approval for an attack on Syria or Iran, it’s clear as the Qatar sky what’s going on. Arm and finance a group of revolutionaries and get them to start an uprising. When the state cracks down, get the opposition to call […]
Debunking the Greek (and European) Crisis Narrative
In a recent debate the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination treated cutting the deficit as the panacea that would address the European crisis and prevent the United States from having a similar fate. This diagnosis is wrong but it is unfortunately not unique to the Republicans in this country. In fact, it is this […]
Qatar, Al Jazeera, and the Arab Spring
The leader of al-Nahda movement, Rachid Ghannouchi, made his first visit to a foreign country after the first post-revolution Tunisian elections. His choice was the State of Qatar. Analysts see many messages in this gesture but some Tunisians are troubled by the invitation he had extended to the Emir of Qatar. Although many do not […]
Occupy Your Education: A Note to Students about Changing the World
The current Occupy Movement has captured people’s imagination and refocused the national discussion on issues of economic injustice, social stratification, and corruptions of American democracy. Contrary to what some people might think, the Occupy Movement is not composed solely of “young, idealistic college kids.” People of many different ages, ethnicities, and ideological persuasions are […]
Lessons from a Long History of Dissent: From the Early Twentieth Century to Occupy Wall Street
World Peace Forum Teach-In, Vancouver, Canada, November 12, 2011 (Modified from Notes) We are at what social theorists call a “historic moment,” in which real change suddenly seems possible. It is therefore all the more important to learn from past struggles. One of the first lessens of a long history of dissent from the early […]
The Occupy Wall Street Uprising and the U.S. Labor Movement: An Interview with Steve Early, Jon Flanders, Stephanie Luce, and Jim Straub
The Occupy Wall Street uprising has taken the nation by storm, beginning in the Financial District in Manhattan and then spreading to cities and towns in every part of the country and around the world. The anger over growing inequality and the political power of the rich that has been bubbling under the surface for […]
Ennahdha-Qatar-United States: Dangerous Liaisons
For his first post-election trip, Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Ennahdha party, visited the Emir of Qatar. No surprise — he has to thank his sponsors and reassure them on their investments. This visit is worrisome, since Ennahdha is now the leading political force in Tunisia. It is clear that the party is […]
Occupy Denialism: Toward Ecological and Social Revolution
This is a reconstruction from notes of a keynote address delivered to the Power Shift West Conference, Eugene, Oregon, November 5, 2011. All of us here today, along with countless others around the world, are currently engaged in the collective struggle to save the planet as a place of habitation for humanity and innumerable other […]
Occupy Wall Street: An Opening to Worker-Occupation of Factories and Enterprises in the U.S.
The Social Economy Context The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has clearly expressed the hopes and great potentialities of the working class both in the U.S. and globally. The 99 percent are speaking up and saying that they will no longer do the bidding of the 1 percent. In essence it is the revolt […]
Thousands of Children in the United States Endangered by Deportations
If the United States maintains the current pace of deportations, at least 15,000 children run the risk of becoming separated from their undocumented parents and placed in foster care, noted Prensa Latina. According to a report published by the Applied Research Center (ARC) on the 2nd of November, there are currently over 5,000 minors who […]
Camila Vallejo, Proud of Being Communist
The Chilean student leader doesn’t mince her words. “The ideas of communists today have real significance for they make sense in the context of people’s awakening,” said Camila Vallejo, a militant of the Communist Youths and one of the main leaders of the student movement which has been demanding structural reforms of education for […]
And Papandreou Says He Is a Socialist
Papandreou writes on a blackboard as a punishment meted out by Germany and France: “I must not consult the Greek people I must not consult the Greek people I must not consult the Greek people I must not con. . . .” Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | […]
Indignant, in Revolt, and Mobilizing against a Totally Illegitimate G20
Over 10,000 demonstrators marched on the streets of Nice on the first of November, to denounce the illegitimacy of G20 and the injustice of economic policies that it advocates. Indignant Spaniards and others, Wall Street occupiers, Greek and Senegalese rebels, Tunisian and Egyptian revolutionaries, Latin American, Italian, English, German, and French alterglobalization activists — all […]
An Open Letter to Greg Mankiw
Wednesday November 2, 2011 Dear Professor Mankiw — Today, we are walking out of your class, Economics 10, in order to express our discontent with the bias inherent in this introductory economics course. We are deeply concerned about the way that this bias affects students, the University, and our greater society. As Harvard undergraduates, […]
