Geography Archives: Americas

Last November 15, I referred to a third reflection on the Latin American Summit which, as I then wrote, “I have yet to publish”. It strikes me as timely, however, to do so before the referendum of December 2.

Introduction On the 17th and 18th of November 2007, the finance ministers and reserve bank governors of the G20 countries, along with leading International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank officials, will be gathering in the seaside village of Kleinmond, South Africa.1  During this meeting — which will be hosted by the current Chair of […]

The Los Angeles Times reports that Disneyland is retooling its boats-on-water rides because of the raging obesity epidemic in the United States, “to deal with the delicate problem of bottoming-out boats.” People are simply getting too fat for the existing rides, including the now satirically named “It’s a Small World”: “Forty-one years after the whimsical […]

Upcoming New York Area Events on Immigration with Jane Guskin & David Wilson authors of The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers For information:Website: thepoliticsofimmigration.org/ Blog:thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/ Email: thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com NOVEMBER  2007 Thursday, Nov. 15, between Noon and 1 pm Interview on “Lakou New York,” hosted by Dahoud André and Ernest Banatte (“Mèt Bano”) For listeners in […]

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is on the mark in organizing the growing army of service workers in the US, and is on the move in sharp contrast to the industrial unions that have been stalled and subverted by anti-union legislation and massive offshoring (see “The Fight of Our Lives: The War of Attrition […]

On November 5th, retired general Raúl Baduel shocked many in Venezuela and abroad by delivering a prepared statement condemning the proposed constitutional reform and urging a “NO” vote on December 2nd.  The shock felt by many and the outrage by some is no doubt the result of such a high-level defection: until July, Baduel had […]

Poppin’ Fresh, chubby little standard-bearer for the mass marketing of lip-smacking glutens, interrupted regularly scheduled TV programming today at 8:46 a.m. to announce the imposition of martial law across the continental United States. “Now, don’t you folks go out of your homes, and don’t you try to stop those roundups in the streets — we’ve […]

  Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review.  Its November 2007 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. Now that the global counter-revolutionary assault of the last decades has visibly begun to ebb, the time may be near when an account can be rendered of the […]

Everything Americans do requires transportation because our individualized homes, like our jobs and shopping locations, are all considerable distances from one another except in our largest, densest cities.  The private automobile rules.  Everything we buy in a store got there by truck.  Two-thirds of US oil consumption goes for transportation, most of that for private […]

  Once again the Turkish generals threaten to invade areas in Northern Iraq, or, if you want, Southern Kurdistan. Historically, these areas with their flat fields around the Euphrates and Tigris, surrounded by peaked mountaintops, were home to a multitude of religions and cultures, in the way mountainous areas often are.  But, after decades of […]

A new dimension of immense importance is being added to the contradictions of US policy in Iraq and the Middle East at large.  Turkey, a staunch US ally for over half a century and a NATO member, is threatening to militarily intervene in Northern Iraq, i.e. Iraqi Kurdistan.  A resolution was passed by the Turkish […]

A juzgar por los documentos que nos quedan, Tucídides (460-396 a. C.) fue el primer filósofo de la historia que descubrió el poder como un fenómeno humano y no como una virtud que conferían los cielos o los demonios.  También fue conciente del valor principal del dinero para vencer en cualquier guerra.  Podemos agregar otra: […]

  Cast of Characters Andy: 19, prisoner Shades: 30s, prisoner Place A dormitory in Rikers Island Correctional Facility, New York City Time An evening, early 1960s SETTING:  A bed stretches right from SC.  Other beds are dimly seen behind it.  The right wall has barred windows.  At the head of the bed, SR, is a […]

On October 9, the Oregon AFL-CIO passed a resolution opposing the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement and three other pending trade deals with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea.  A state federation condemning a free trade deal would normally be an unremarkable event, except for the remarkable absence in the Peru case of a typically heavy-weight free […]

Author’s Note:  The appearance of General Petraeus’s Counterinsurgency Field Manual, published recently for the US book trade by the University of Chicago Press, has created a stir because of charges of pilfered scholarship, damage to the reputation of UC, and the role of anthropologist Montgomery McFate in writing the book.  The mission of social science […]

  Have you heard an anti-immigrant argument that you feel is wrong,  but need the facts to contest?  (For example: “Immigrants are a drain on social services.”)  Do you have your own fear or concern about the issue?  (For example: “Are the lowest-paid US-born workers really hurt by immigration?”) Bring your concerns to one of […]

Over the weekend of October 27-28th, 2007, 54 delegates from Palestinian community organizations across Canada participated in a two-day convention in Hamilton, entitled the Palestine National Voice Preparatory Conference.  The convention was the third in a series of preparatory meetings toward the founding of a national organization representing the Palestinian community in Canada.  Previous meetings […]

  It is no surprise that the imminent ninetieth anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia has become the object of widespread attention.  The events of October 1917 were, indeed, an earthquake that shook the world, altering its economic, social and cultural foundations. Many media sources depict this world-historic phenomenon as a mere coup d’état, […]

The recent UAW ratification of the Chrysler contract that contains many of the same provisions that were adopted in the labor agreement signed with GM last month is another major blow to the jobs and welfare of US autoworkers.  Globalization, the Big Three’s grand strategy of pitting the workers of North America against one another […]

“Business unionism” is by far the predominant trend in the United States labor movement, and it has held this dominant position for at least the past 50 years.  It is a form of labor unionism which essentially sees as its basic mission the sale of the labor power of its members to employers on (sometimes) […]