Amy Goodman: Your feelings today in the midst of this popular rebellion against the Mubarak regime, calling on Mubarak to leave? Do you agree? Nawal El Saadawi: We are in the streets every day, people, children, old people, including myself. I am now 80 years of age, suffering of this regime for half a […]
Geography Archives: Americas
South America, Central America, United States & Canada
What Hillary Rodham Clinton Really Meant to Say on Egypt
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton: We are deeply scared about our empire in the region and slightly embarrassed that we fund the Egyptian security forces to repress their own people, and we call on the 30-year dictatorship in Egypt to do everything in its power to protect our interests. . . . As […]
Public Sector Squeeze
A national campaign is now fully launched to make local public sector employees pick up a major share of the costs of economic crisis. Years of rising spending and falling revenue have carved a path of destruction through federal, state, and local budgets. Deficits and debts have mounted, eroding taxpayer support for government spending […]
Two Scenarios for the People and the Army in Egypt: Interview with Mohammed Ezzeldin
Mohammed Ezzeldin: We have two main scenarios now regarding the relation between the people and the army. We have the Tunisian scenario. There’s a division in the ruling elites, there is division in the regime, so the army will be neutral: the tanks and soldiers and officers in the streets, they are just maintaining the […]
The Shifting Balance of Power in the Middle East: The Cases of Egypt and Lebanon
America’s international standing is under mounting strain on multiple fronts. Nowhere is this more glaring than in the Middle East, where the balance of influence (and hence power) is shifting away from the United States and toward Iran, Turkey, and their allies. This trend may, in fact, accelerate as a consequence of ongoing unrest in […]
People “Want a New Government” in Egypt: Interview with Ahmad Shokr, Editor, Al-Masry Al-Youm
Ahmad Shokr: Well, the scenes right now are quite remarkable. Literally, tens of thousands are taking to the streets amidst a huge security presence. I’m standing in front of a demonstration of at least a few thousand people who have taken over one of the main bridges in Cairo, calling for the ouster of Hosni […]
After “Iran Engagement”: Bipartisan Voices Urge Obama to Embrace MEK
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 […]
Crisis, Chains, Change: The American Exception to Marxism
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 […]
John Ross and Los de Abajo
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 […]
Aristide Should Be Allowed to Return to Haiti
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 […]
Fox News’s Glenn Beck Incites Threats against Professor Frances Fox Piven
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 […]
Solidarity with Choi Daniel, aka Black Comet, a Zainichi Fighter against Racism in Japan
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, […]
The Tidal Wave of Nonsense on Demography
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 […]
Grave Human Rights Violations Continue in Honduras
Tegucigalpa, 19 January 2011 The National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) denounced today that, in Honduras, grave human rights violations persist under the Porfirio Lobo Sosa administration. According to Berta Oliva, Coordinator of the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), her organization documented 1,071 human rights violations in just […]
Washington and Paris Ratchet Up Pressure on Haiti, in Godfather Style
As the infamous dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier returns to Haiti after 25 years in exile in the south of France, the U.S. State Department and the French Foreign Ministry have been ratcheting up the pressure on the impoverished, earthquake-destroyed, and cholera-stricken country of Haiti. The pressure is not to prosecute the dictator for his […]
A Welcome Prison Victory at Youngstown
Three death-sentenced men went on hunger strike in Ohio State Penitentiary on January 3 to win the same rights as others on death row in the state. On Saturday January 15, the twelfth day of their protest, a crowd of supporters gathered in the parking lot by the tiny evangelical church at the entrance […]
The New Luther? Marx and the Reformation as Revolution
Towards the close to what is arguably Karl Marx’s most well-known treatment of religion appears the following sentence: Germany’s revolutionary past is theoretical, it is the Reformation. As the revolution then began in the brain of the monk, so now it begins in the brain of the philosopher . . . But if Protestantism was […]
Analysis of the OAS Mission’s Draft Final Report on Haiti’s Election
A draft copy of the Organization of American States (OAS) Report on Haiti’s election, “Organization of American States Expert Verification Mission, President Election — First Round 2010 — Final Report,”1 was leaked to the press last week, and the Center for Economic and Policy Research posted a copy on its website after receiving it from […]
The Lesson of the Tunisian Revolution
“Saad Hariri went to the United States and had meetings there. Right after that, the Saudis contacted the Syrians to tell them that they could no longer continue this initiative [of Syria and Saudi Arabia to broker a deal between Hezbollah and Hariri on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon]. . . . The Americans and […]
State of the Dream 2011: Austerity for Whom?
The attack on the public sector through pay freezes, furloughs, layoffs, and proposed cuts is also an attack on Black and Latino workers. Cuts to social safety nets hit Blacks and Latinos hardest. Video by United for a Fair Economy. Read United for a Fair Economy, “State of the Dream 2011: Austerity for Whom?,” […]
