Last year, I agreed to speak to a Jewish youth group about my organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, and our opposition to Israel’s occupation. My talk was to follow one from a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself “America’s pro-Israel Lobby.” A week before, a shaken program leader said the […]
Geography Archives: Americas
South America, Central America, United States & Canada
Ecuador’s Ongoing Confrontation with the Forces of Neo-Liberalism
On Sunday, the 30th of September, yet another blow was struck against the advocates and beneficiaries of neo-liberalism in Ecuador and Latin America when Rafael Correa‘s coalition won the majority of seats in the Constituent Assembly. With this, Correa and his allies have secured the driving seat in the process of rewriting Ecuador’s constitution, which […]
Hands off Iran: Why Iranian Women Don’t Need Rescuing by the US
The Democrats and Republicans are united in the belief that Iran poses a risk to US interests in the Middle East and must therefore be reined in. Iran is too irrational to be trusted with nuclear weapons, cry the warmongers who only half a century ago dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Iran is […]
Should Al Qaeda Reconstruct the WTC?
In debates about whether or not the United States should withdraw all troops from Iraq, a frequently mentioned factor is the need to prevent civil war and genocide. That denies the realities on the ground: we have already ensured a civil war and committed genocide. The time for “prevention” has passed. But there is another […]
The Future Is Unwritten: Joe Strummer
The Future Is Unwritten A Film directed by Julien Temple, Vertigo Films, in association with Film4, Parallel Films, and Nitrate Films. Cinema Release May 2007, DVD due September 2007. One night a movie saved my life. How? By reminding me of what’s important, by re-kindling the excitement and motivation of a time I thought […]
The University in Chains
THE UNIVERSITY IN CHAINS by Henry A. GirouxBUY THIS BOOK Henry Giroux’s The University in Chains is a crisp, powerful book about the crisis in American higher education. Basically, the university has been buffeted by the three forces that have defined the US under the Bush administration (and, for that matter, for some time before): […]
The Disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre Antoine in Haiti
On August 12, one of Haiti’s best-known and respected advocates of human and social rights, Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, disappeared. The Haitian National Police later confirmed that he was kidnapped. There has been no communication with alleged kidnappers since the early days of his disappearance. As the silence continues, it seems increasingly evident that his disappearance […]
SPP: The Globalization of North America Continues
The ultracons have it all wrong and the neocons are glad that they do. The straw dog that the ultracons are beating to death in print and on the Internet is the chimerical North American Union, purported to be a supranational state that intends to override the sovereignty of the United States and subject all […]
Empire’s Contradictions, Our Weaknesses: The Empire Stumbles On
Today’s two most conspicuous global flashpoints — the Middle East and Latin America — have widely exposed the fact of US imperialism and highlighted some of its limitations. Adding the apparent cracks in US economic hegemony seems to indicate an empire in decline. Yet a more cautious assessment would recall that the earlier defeat in […]
Open Letter to Progressive Opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
As Columbia only very recently announced, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be speaking in Roone Arledge auditorium this Monday. A number of students and student organizations have already announced plans for a protest rally the same day. We are not among them. We do not endorse Ahmadinejad or his views, many of which are […]
Support the Fresenius Workers on Strike in Antalya, Turkey
12th September 2007 CALL FOR SOLIDARITY Dear sisters, You may have heard about the strike in Novamed in Turkey/Antalya. Novamed is one of the factories of Fresenius Medical Care located in Germany. All the workers who have gone on strike are female workers. Their working conditions are very bad and male-dominated (patriarchal). For example: female […]
Virginity Regained: Born Again Innocent
“The unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well, unworthy of a mature democracy. . . . Politics, the politics of a democracy which entails disagreement, which promotes candor — has been replaced by psychotherapy. . . .” — Susan Sontag, 9/24/01 Another anniversary […]
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge and the Future of AIDS Policy in South Africa
September 15, 2007 Dear friends, I have now been back in New York for two weeks, immersed in teaching at Columbia University and reunited with the women and families at the Bronx birthing center, as well as my own family. I have had time to reflect on my work and need to share with you […]
Three Letters from South Africa
JENNIFER DOHRN, CNM, is Director of Midwifery Services at the Childbearing Center of Morris Heights, the Bronx, New York, the first birthing center in the United States to serve inner-city women of diverse backgrounds. Jennifer also directs the midwifery education program at Columbia University School of Nursing. She has been working in South Africa to […]
It Didn’t Start with Iraq: A Review of the Film War Made Easy
When George Bush began trying to justify the occupation of Iraq by invoking the “lessons” of Vietnam, I had the urge to send him a copy of the new documentary War Made Easy featuring Norman Solomon. That’s hardly surprising — no doubt we’ve all had the occasional desire to try to educate our president. Then […]
9-11: The Illusion of a Historic Coup in the Course of Imperialism
The Fairmont Conference In late September 1995, five hundred of the world’s economic and political leaders met in San Francisco’s prestigious Fairmont Hotel upon the invitation of an institution headed by Mikhail Gorbachev. The conference was financed by some American super-rich, possibly in gratitude to Gorbachev’s “services rendered” in the ex-Soviet Union. The task required […]
Who Said Marx Wasn’t Green?
“An ecological approach to the economy is about having enough, not having more.” — John Bellamy Foster “For the first time . . . nature becomes purely an object for humankind, purely a matter of utility; ceases to be recognized as a power for itself; and the theoretical discovery of its autonomous laws appears merely […]
The Rapist Returns: More Lessons from Katrina’s Aftermath
In the big business media’s “two years after Katrina” coverage, there was one glaring omission — the story of the utter bankruptcy of the so-called Black leadership, in particular, the Black Democratic Party establishment. Nothing confirms that story better than the brief appearance in New Orleans on August 29 of President George W. Bush. […]
U.S. Intentions and Options in Iran: A Response to Stephen Zunes
In a recent assessment, Stephen Zunes affirms the misconceptions of a segment of the progressive community about Iran’s internal politics, the range of U.S. options in that country, and the frequency with which Western powers invent and/or corrupt civil society movements. After a review of past American interference, he enumerates and rejects Washington’s hostile choices […]
Finkelstein Reaches Settlement, Larudee Still Needs Our Support
Following a large demonstration in support of academic freedom this morning, Professor Norman G. Finkelstein met with DePaul University officials and reached a settlement in his tenure dispute. Professor Finkelstein agreed to resign, effective immediately. He reminded the assembled supporters that the denial of tenure to Professor Mehrene Larudee remains “an open wound” at DePaul. […]
