The Right respects legality only when legality favors it. The history of our America has shown that a thousand times. The confrontation that is convulsing Bolivia today is no exception. The Santa Cruz autonomy referendum is just the tip of the iceberg. To limit the debate to a question of legal pettifoggery would be a […]
Geography Archives: Americas
South America, Central America, United States & Canada
Evo: Half of Cruceños Do Not Want Separatists’ Autonomy
This is no autonomist victory nor is it a “democratic fiesta” — it’s a violent, failed opinion poll whose rate of abstention is three times the usual rate, says the President. The illegal and unconstitutional referendum resoundingly failed to adopt the statute of autonomy for Santa Cruz, said President Evo Morales, as the poll showed […]
Liberalizing Food Trade to Death
Introduction People across the world, from Mexico to Mozambique, have once again been taking to the streets in protest. The reason is to demand that their most basic need be met: access to food. With food prices skyrocketing over the last few months, billions of people around the globe have been relentlessly driven towards starvation. […]
Standardizing Learning: Rethinking a Policy of One-Size-Fits-All
Daily in countless classrooms across the U.S., teachers are using standardized curriculum to prepare their students to take and score highly on high-stakes achievement tests. But critics say forcing K-12 schools to follow a single standard of education is no cure-all. In fact, such an approach places students and teachers into a historic trend of […]
Open Letter to Andy Stern about Actions against UHW
Thursday, May 1, 2008 Dear Andy: We are writing to you as journalists, authors, political activists, and educators who are committed to organized labor because of its important role in social justice struggles in the U.S. Some of us have longstanding ties to SEIU and have done research, writing, or labor education work involving its […]
Fueling Food Shortages
Where is Harry Chapin when you need him? The popular folk singer (Cat’s in the Cradle), who lost his life in an auto crash 27 years ago, was an indefatigable force of nature against hunger — in this country and around the world. To hear Harry speak out against the scourge of hunger in a […]
Why We Demonstrated in Dearborn
See, also, Stephanie Luce, “Rebuilding Labor’s Power: There Are No Shortcuts,” MRZine, 2 May 2008. I feel sorry for Stephanie Luce and I don’t even know her. As I read her piece, dated April 22, “The Future of the Labor Movement? Reflections on the Labor Notes Conference,” I was surprised to learn that she […]
Rebuilding Labor’s Power: There Are No Shortcuts
See, also, Stephanie Luce, “The Future of the Labor Movement? Reflections on the Labor Notes Conference,” MRZine, 22 April 2008; and Dave Regan, “Why We Demonstrated in Dearborn,” MRZine, 2 May 2008. I am not surprised Dave Regan doesn’t remember our argument. I am sure he hears my concerns all the time, but the conversation […]
Preparing for War with Iran?
As Israel prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary, the weak and internally divided government of Ehud Olmert persists in pursuing counterproductive policies detached from all regional and global realities except the guaranteed support of the United States. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice soldiers on in her starring role keeping the theatrical performance known as “the […]
NYC Marijuana Possession Arrests Skyrocket, Illustrate NYPD Racial Bias, New Report Shows
April 29, 2008 — The NYPD arrested and jailed nearly 400,000 people for possessing small amounts of marijuana between 1997 and 2007, a tenfold increase in marijuana arrests over the previous decade and a figure marked by startling racial and gender disparities, according to a report released Tuesday at the New York Civil Liberties […]
Right-wing Revolt Threatens Bolivia
“Bolivia is on the verge of exploding,” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on April 21. Speaking on the eve of an extraordinary summit of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA — the alliance made of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Dominica) that was partly called to discuss the situation in Bolivia, Chavez stated the […]
China Still a Small Player in Africa
“What I find a bit reprehensible is the tendency of certain Western voices to . . . raising concerns about China’s attempt to get into the African market because it is a bit hypocritical for Western states to be concerned about how China is approaching Africa when they have had centuries of relations with Africa, […]
Making a Killing from Hunger: We Need to Overturn Food Policy, Now!
For some time now the rising cost of food all over the world has taken households, governments and the media by storm. The price of wheat has gone up by 130% over the last year.1 Rice has doubled in price in Asia in the first three months of 2008 alone,2 and just last week it […]
Oil Windfall Sparks Rights Fight in Iran
From a distance, partisan politics in Iran may appear to turn on international challenges or internal discriminations only. But a third contentious split that reaches the highest levels is about the size of the government financed largely by oil exports. At its core, the dispute over whether public sector payroll, subsidies, and social programs deserve […]
The Capitalist Workday, the Socialist Workday
As May Day approaches, there are four things that are worth remembering: For workers, May Day does not celebrate a state holiday or gifts from the state but commemorates the struggle of workers from below. The initial focus of May Day was a struggle for the shorter workday. The struggle for the shorter workday is […]
Rebuke Clinton for Threatening to “Totally Obliterate” Iran
On Tuesday, the same day as the Pennsylvania primary, Senator Hillary Clinton promised to “totally obliterate” Iran should Tehran develop a nuclear weapon and use it against Israel. Her comments, which were aired on Good Morning America, come at a time of increasing tensions between the US and Iran amidst allegations of Iran’s involvement […]
Embedded with the “Tupamaros”
Parroquía 23 de Enero, Caracas. It is a Friday night in Caracas, Venezuela. We are standing in the back of a pickup truck surrounded by dozens of motorcycles, tearing through the streets of Catia, the massive slum area that makes up nearly half the population of the city. On the motorcycles, revolutionaries young and old, […]
The Conspiracy to Divide Bolivia Must Be Denounced
The process of changes in favor of the Bolivian majority is at risk of being brutally restrained. The rise to power of an Indigenous president with unprecedented support in that country and his programs of popular benefits and recovery of the natural resources have had to face the conspiracies of the oligarchy and United States […]
Bolivia: What Are We Doing in Haiti?
La Paz — In recent days the Haitians have gone into the streets to protest against the brutal increase in the cost of food. The response of the police — with the support of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) — was repression that cost the life of at least five demonstrators and […]
Playing the Race Card in the 2008 Presidential Election
It is surely no surprise to readers of MRZine that, in a presidential election race in which an African-American man is not just the front-runner for the Democratic Party nomination, but has a strong chance of winning the White House in November, racism has been front and center. Four years ago, in his keynote speech […]
