17 July 2009 The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) today called for all its union members to oppose the coup in Honduras by focusing protests on the Honduran merchant fleet. The global union organisation, which represents 656 unions worldwide with four and a half million members, has made the call as its latest move to […]
Geography Archives: Americas
South America, Central America, United States & Canada
Obama’s New Military Bases in Colombia
July 19, 2009 The talks are finished for now, with no resolution. The coup regime in Honduras, which ousted President Zelaya exactly 3 weeks ago, has rejected the 7-point proposal put forth by designated mediator Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica. Zelaya’s delegation in Costa Rica had earlier stated they had accepted the proposal, but […]
Adam’s Fallacy and the Great Recession
It is now a commonplace that we are experiencing the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The downward trajectory on a global level is similar to the 1930s, though in the United States — the epicenter of the crisis — there are indications that the rate of decline may be slowing.1 […]
On Sexual Politics in Modern Iran
From Nawal el Saadawi to Janet Afary Dear Janet, I am glad to see you’ve been reading my work since you were a graduate student. Did you read my work in English or Persian? (I write in Arabic.) I very much enjoyed your book: Sexual Politics in Modern Iran. Egypt, my country, and Iran […]
U.S. Continues to Train Honduran Soldiers
A controversial facility at Ft. Benning, Ga. — formerly known as the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas — is still training Honduran officers despite claims by the Obama administration that it cut military ties to Honduras after its president was overthrown June 28, NCR has learned. A day after an SOA-trained army general […]
Antisemitism as Metanarrative
Marvin Perry, Frederick M. Schweitzer, eds. Antisemitic Myths: A Historical and Contemporary Anthology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. xxiii + 352 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-253-34984-2; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-21950-3. This collection of ninety-some documents is the third major product of a long-term collaboration between historians Marvin Perry and Frederick Schweitzer. It is intended […]
Not Your Grandfather’s Labor History
Robert Cassanello, Melanie Shell-Weiss, eds. Florida’s Working-Class Past: Current Perspectives on Labor, Race, and Gender from Spanish Florida to the New Immigration. Working in the Americas Series. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008. 320 pp. $69.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8130-3283-2. Once upon a time, but within this reviewer’s scholarly lifetime, the primary focus of labor […]
Honduran Coup — Made in Washington
15 July 2009 The Department of State had prior knowledge of the coup. The Department of State and the US Congress funded and advised the actors and organizations in Honduras that participated in the coup. The Pentagon trained, schooled, commanded, funded, and armed the Honduran armed forces that perpetrated the coup and that continue to […]
The PRI’s Election Victory: A New Political Era in Mexico
Back to the past — and with a landslide. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which for 70 years, from 1928 to 2000, ruled Mexico as a one-party state won a decisive victory in the mid-term elections on July 5. The PRI’s victory represented a defeat both for the conservative economic and social policies of President […]
Honduras: Coup Leaders Hire Top Democrat Lobbyists to Justify Their De Facto Government
July 13, 2009 Things are getting worse each day inside Honduras. Over the weekend, two well-known social leaders were assassinated by the coup forces. Roger Bados leader of the Bloque Popular & the National Resistance Front against the coup d’etat, was killed in the northern city of San Pedro Sula. Approximately at 8pm on Saturday […]
On the Increasingly Complex Relationship between Immigration Policy and (Inter)national Security
Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, Simon Reich, eds. Immigration, Integration, and Security: America and Europe in Comparative Perspective. The Security Continuum: Global Politics in the Modern Age. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. xi + 480 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8229-4344-0; $27.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8229-5984-7. Migration and security have always been linked, but, as Ariane Chebel […]
Interview with Argentine Economist Claudio Katz: “The Solution to the Crisis of Capitalism Has to Be Political”
The exit from the systemic crisis of capitalism needs to be political, and “a socialist project can mature in this turbulence.” So says the Argentine economist, philosopher, and sociologist Claudio Katz, who also warns that the “global economic situation is very serious and is going to have to hit bottom, and now we are […]
Anatomy of the Golpe in Honduras: Interview with Manuel Antonio Villa
On my last day in Tegucigalpa, I conducted an interview with writer/documentarian Manuel Antonio Villa, 37, who for the last seven years has traveled through his country studying the economic circumstances of the peasantry and the workers. For Villa, Honduras has entered a new, revolutionary era, while the golpe against Mel Zelaya has commenced a […]
Crises in versus of Capitalism
Capitalism has generated recurring “crises” everywhere and throughout its history. It alternates bursts of growth and prosperity with crisis periods when many workers lose jobs and homes, bankruptcies close enterprises, production shrinks, and governments reduce public services. Growth periods almost always promote speculation, overproduction, inflation, and excess debts that crises then erase or even reverse. […]
Hondurans Resist Coup, Will Need Help from Other Countries
The military coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras took a new turn when Zelaya attempted to return home on Sunday. The military closed the airport and blocked runways to prevent his plane from landing. They also shot several protesters, killing at least one and injuring others. The violence and the enormous crowd — […]
Literatures of Resistance: An Afternoon in Solidarity with the People of Iran
Saturday, July 11, 2009; 2 to 5 pm Bowery Poetry Club in New York – 308 Bowery (between Houston and Bleecker) F train to 2nd Ave, 6 to Bleecker. Join us as these and other artists of conscience bear witness, in poetry and music, to the struggle for democracy in Iran. Readings and performances […]
Iran Today: Democracy, Dissent, Repression, and Solidarity
Monday, July 13, 2009 7:30 pm The Brecht Forum, 451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune Streets), New York Please join us for a roundtable discussion with three leading Iranian analysts: Ervand Abrahamian, Hamid Dabashi, and Arang Keshavarzian. The discussion will be moderated by Leili Kashani and be opened up to the public. Come […]
“In Honduras, Nothing Is Happening, All Is Calm”
Adagio in My Country In my country, how sad, poverty and animosity. My father says that another time will come from the depth of time, and he tells me that the sun will shine on a people who he dreams will be working their green land. In my country, how sad, poverty and animosity. You […]
An Open Letter to the Anti-War Movement: How Should We React to the Events in Iran?
The “Iranian people” have not spoken. What’s happening in Iran today is a developing conflict between two forces that each represent millions of people. There are good people on both sides and the issues are complicated. So before U.S. progressives decide to weigh in, supporting one side and condemning the other, let’s take a little […]
War, Islamists, and the Left
The US war machine continues to inflict untold miseries on the people of the world and particularly those of the Muslim faith. Barack Obama, the first black president in the history of the United States, has repeatedly promised to repair some of the damage wreaked by his predecessor on the international stage. But the […]
