See, also, Dave Regan, “Why We Demonstrated in Dearborn,” MRZine, 2 May 2008; and Stephanie Luce, “Rebuilding Labor’s Power: There Are No Shortcuts,” MRZine, 2 May 2008. I had a fantastic time at the Labor Notes conference last weekend, and am eager to build on the new connections I made and campaigns I learned about. […]
Geography Archives: Americas
South America, Central America, United States & Canada
Climate Crisis — Urgent Action Needed Now!
The following statement was started by the participants in the Climate Change|Social Change conference. Anyone who agrees with it is welcome to add their signature, and an updated list of signatories will be issued on a regular basis (contact: <climateconf@greenleft.org.au>.). It is being distributed to environmental, trade union, Indigenous, migrant, religious and community organisations […]
The Third Side Also Exists: Regarding the Likely American Attack on Iran
In the current conflict over Iran, the most important question is what America’s real goal in Iran and the Middle East is. Why? Because, as long as we don’t have a certain and reliable answer to this question, as long as we don’t know what the opponent’s hidden real purpose in this crisis is, […]
France Back in NATO? Is This for Real?
Nicolas Sarkozy has gone out of his way to sound pro-American. He made a special visit in 2007 to Kennebunkport to have a cozy meeting with George W. Bush. Since neither spoke the other’s language, they must have had translators. So perhaps I might be allowed to try to translate what has been going on. […]
Radical Chavismo Bares Its Teeth
23 de Enero, Caracas. On Thursday, April 3rd, a group of approximately 500 armed combatants representing the most vociferously revolutionary sectors of the Venezuelan Revolution engaged in a display of force in the historically-revolutionary parroquia of 23 de Enero (January 23rd) in western Caracas, making painfully evident the deep and volatile divisions that threaten the […]
Haiti Debate: Peter Hallward Responds to Michael Deibert’s Review of Damming the Flood
In 2005 the journalist Michael Deibert published a book applauding the overthrow, the previous year, of Haiti’s elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. More recently he wrote a long and critical review of my own book about this 2004 coup, Damming the Flood, and posted it on his blog. Since we have both already written substantial books […]
My Run-in with Moses
The day after Charlton Heston’s death, I received a barrage of emails from old friends about the demise of my once-sworn enemy. Back in the 1980s, when I was information director of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Heston considered me to be the Red Menace. But when I first came to Hollywood, I could never […]
Notes on the 2008 Labor Notes Conference
The left press is buzzing about the SEIU disruption of the 2008 Labor Notes Conference in Detroit. Perhaps lost, as a result, is the significance of this event. This bi-annual labor activist conference has been taking place for almost 30 years now, and it provides a space for labor activists to meet and discuss all […]
Nepal’s Revolution: Armed Struggle Made Free and Fair Elections Possible
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its April 2008 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. The peaceful mass participation in the elections for a Constituent Assembly (“CA”) in Nepal on April 10, 2008 was not only an historic achievement of the Nepalese people, […]
Dissecting the Politics of Paraguay’s Next President
Fernando Lugo, a bearded, left-leaning bishop, is expected to win Paraguay’s historic presidential election on April 20th, upsetting a 60-year rule by the right-wing Colorado Party. While escaping the heat of the Paraguayan sun by sitting in the shade of an orange tree, farmer union leader Tomas Zayas explains, “If Lugo is elected, it will […]
The Maoist Electoral Victory in Nepal: Interview with Shyam Shrestha, Former Chief Editor of Mulyankan Monthly Magazine
The elections in Nepal on Thursday, April 10th, resulted in a victory for the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), stunning the mainstream international press. Mulyankan monthly magazine is almost 18 years old. It is the largest leftist monthly magazine of Nepal, with a circulation of 30 000 copies per month. Shyam Shrestha has been actively […]
Remembering a May Day March
On May Day 2005, I marched with workers in Caracas. And the slogan workers were chanting at that time was “Without Comanagement, There Is No Revolution.” Indeed, the main slogans for that May Day march, organized by the UNT, were “Comanagement Is Revolution” and “Venezuelan Workers Are Building Bolivarian Socialism.” We don’t hear much of […]
Historic Elections in Nepal
Surprising even the Nepalis themselves, the Constituent Assembly elections went quite smoothly, considering the great tension in the country. According to The Himalayan, only 33 of the total of 20,889 polling stations had to postpone polling to a later date, due to various forms of irregularities. The turnout was much higher than expected, more than […]
Against the Term “Moderate Muslims”
Several months ago, an English sociologist told us that she was commissioned by her government to conduct a survey of “moderate Muslims.” The survey was about what a score of Muslim leaders in Great Britain thought about the fight against terrorism, the place of Islam in Europe, religious fundamentalism, etc. According to the sociologist, not […]
The End of Osheroff’s Dance: Lessons from a Life of Resistance and Love
As Abe Osheroff’s body slowly began to betray him in his 80s and 90s, one of his favorite lines was, “I have one foot in the grave but the other keeps dancing.” That dance ended on Sunday, April 6, when the 92-year-old Osheroff died of a heart attack at his Seattle home. Osheroff is remembered […]
Letter from Nepal, Saturday, April 5th
After ten years of civil war and one and a half years of jittery peace, the Nepali people will be electing a constituent assembly for the first time in their history. The motive force behind the people’s war, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) reached a deal with the main parliamentary parties on a nationwide […]
Pledge of Commitment: People of Faith with Palestine in Struggle
Pledge of Commitment: People of Faith with Palestine in Struggle Our world is in crisis. We face a growing, more aggressive empire with an insatiable appetite for consuming the resources of our world, subverting justice and humanity by its desire to strengthen its global hegemony; destroying the environment; feeding racist ideologies and practices of […]
Confronting the Economic Crisis: The New Deal at 75 — Lessons for Today
When I was growing up in the 1950s, a photo of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1932-1945) still hung in the homes of some family members and friends. Our only four-term president was remembered by them as the leader — and even the savior — of the country. Those like my parents, who experienced the Great […]
The Sadrist Revolt
The Student Muqtada al-Sadr has decided to take time out of his rebellion for studies. The increasingly popular Iraqi nationalist and Shi’i religious leader, it was reported late last year, is seeking the title of Ayatollah (“Sign of God”). Muqtada’s Iraqi supporters presently confer on him the title of Hujjat al-Islam (“Proof of Islam”), although […]
People’s History of American Empire
Labor and political cartoonist Mike Konopacki — close friend and collaborator of UE’s cartoonist Gary Huck — has produced a brilliant book-length graphic adaptation of a major portion of Howard Zinn’s classic A People’s History of the United States. Created in collaboration with Zinn and historian Paul Buhle, Konopacki’s A People’s History of American Empire […]
