Geography Archives: Americas

Tuesday, January 12, 2010, at 8:41pm I’m writing from the southern part of Port-au-Prince; I have been in Haiti since last Thursday on a delegation in support of Mouvman Peyizan Papay (MPP), the Papay Peasant Movement. The earthquake hit less than 12 hours ago, and damage here is extensive.  The Olaffson Hotel, where I was […]

  Dear Brother or Sister: We are writing because of our shared interest in the challenge of organizing and representing home-based workers. As labor activists, direct care providers, or academic researchers, we have all been involved in aiding or studying organizing work among publicly-funded personal care attendants and child care providers, plus other types of […]

  So for the last 2 years the Wall Street Journal has been predicting the total fucking COLLAPSE of the Venezuelan economy because they stubbornly refused to devalue their currency.  Well guess what?  Over the weekend Venezuela finally bit the bullet and devalued the bolivar, so today the Wall Street Journal took their predictable victory […]

  Listen to Sheehan’s interview with Golinger: Eva Golinger: Venezuela is a very wealthy country in oil and gas reserves.  It’s actually one of the largest oil producers in the world.  It has over 24% of oil reserves in the entire world.  That’s a lot for a country of 27 million people.  And of course […]

It should be noted that the words of the four trade unionists quoted in the last section of this article — Vilma Vivas, Stalin Pérez Borges, Ismael Hernández, and José Meléndez — are all part of the statement of Marea Socialista (mentioned but once in the article), so they should not be regarded simply as […]

On January 1, five South Florida residents stopped eating in a protest action.  They are demanding that the Obama administration take measures now to put an end to the deportations that are separating families — at least until Congress can provide more permanent relief by fixing our harsh immigration laws. The Fast for Our Families […]

The Venezuelan government’s measures to reduce national electricity consumption amidst nationwide shortages and rolling power outages have provoked varied responses from unionists in the basic industries, especially the steel and aluminum sectors. Venezuela’s electricity consumption has increased by more than 40% over the last ten years, driven largely by five years of consecutive high economic […]

Caracas, 10 January (PL) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez insisted today on putting an end to the oil rentier model in order to ensure that the economic measures taken by the government last Friday will stimulate domestic production. The dual exchange rate with the oil dollar of 4.30 bolivars per dollar and other measures announced […]

In one of our posts surrounding our January 6, 2010 Op Ed in The New York Times, we noted that “analytic views of Iranian politics since the June 12 presidential election have important implications for the debate about U.S. and Western policy toward Tehran.”  In particular, buying into the proposition that the Islamic Republic is […]

  Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich: . . . I think there’s nothing new that the West is painting a distorted image of what’s going on in Iran.  I also want to mention that it’s very normal to have political dissent in any country.  Iran is not unique in that sense.  But what’s happening is by distorting the […]

For at least a month now in Ecuador there has been a battle over regulation of the media.  It has been in the front pages of the newspapers most of the time, and a leading daily, El Comercio, referred to the fight as one for “defense of human rights and the free practice of journalism.” […]

National Front of Popular Resistance Will March Today against Withdrawal of Honduras from ALBA by TeleSur Rafael Alegría, a leader of the Front of Resistance against the Coup d’État, explained that the demonstration called for this Thursday will again demand the restitution of the constitutional president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, to power, as well as […]

More than 50 years now it is.  The propaganda and hypocrisy of the American mainstream media seems endless and unwavering.  They can not accept the fact that Cuban leaders are humane or rational.  Here’s the Washington Post of December 13 writing about an American arrested in Cuba: “The Cuban government has arrested an American citizen […]

  Monday, January 18th, 2010 6 to 7 pm, across from the Metropolitan Correctional Complex (MCC) 150 Park Row and Pearl Street, NYC On January 18th, as our nation commemorates Martin Luther King Day, for the slain civil rights leader who peacefully spoke out against war, racism, and injustice, members of THAW (Theater Artists Against […]

Following months of regular blackouts in some regions of Venezuela, the government has implemented energy-saving measures, requiring companies to submit plans to save 20% of their electricity usage, regulating the usage of lighting for advertising, and creating schedules of electricity usage for shopping centers, casinos, and bingo halls. The Ministry for Electricity‘s measures went into […]

Sadri Khiari, a Tunisian activist exiled in France since early 2003, is one of the founding members of the Movement of the Indigenous of the Republic (MIR) of which he is currently one of its principal leaders.  He has published, among others, Pour une politique de la racaille.  Immigré-e-s, indigènes et jeunes de banlieue (Éditions […]

Lincoln Gordon died a few weeks ago at the age of 96.  He had graduated summa cum laude from Harvard at the age of 19, received a doctorate from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, published his first book at 22, with dozens more to follow on government, economics, and foreign policy in Europe and Latin […]

  Steven Scully: How serious a threat do we face from Iran’s nuclear capabilities? Flynt Leverett: I don’t view it as a serious or imminent threat.  It is a problem that needs to be managed and dealt with, but it is not a threat.  What we know about the Iranian nuclear program is that Iran […]

Unbeknownst to many progressives south of the 49th parallel, an interesting political experiment is unfolding to the north.  Quebec solidaire (QS), a recently formed left-wing party based in the seven-million-strong French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec, is making significant inroads at the electoral level. Following the election of its first and only parliamentarian in December 2008, […]

  In the early morning hours of December 25, 2009, we lost a revolutionary voice.  Bob Kaufman, a life-long fighter for social and economic equality, succumbed after a protracted struggle with health complications stemming from a brutal attack in 2005.  He was 78. Bob’s assailant was a drug-addicted tenant in his West Baltimore home.  After […]