Geography Archives: Americas

  • “They Want to Abort This Revolution, But We Will Win”: Interview with Nawal El Saadawi

      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 […]

  • The grave food crisis

    Just 11 days ago, January 19, under the title “The time has come to do something,” I wrote: “The worst is that, to a large degree, their solutions will depend on the richest and most developed countries, which will reach a situation that they really are not in a position to confront, unless the world […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 Mubarak’s regime. They have raised their hands, stating that they’re peaceful protesters, but have been met by a shower of rubber bullets and tear gas.

  • The State of the Union

    After his January 12 address at the University of Tucson, Arizona, on the massacre that had took place four days earlier, people awaited with interest for the US president’s speech on the same topic. Six people died and fourteen were injured, including young Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was elected to the United States Congress […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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, […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]