Geography Archives: Americas

Peter McLaren, Rage and Hope: Interviews with Peter McLaren on War, Imperialism, and Critical Pedagogy (New York: Peter Lang, 2006), 394 pages, paper $32.95. “One morning they gave us a guinea pig.  It came to the house in a cage.  At midday, I opened the door of the cage.  I returned home at nightfall and […]

  Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review.  Its November 2006 issue features the following editorial.  — Ed. The November 8, 2006 agreement between the seven parties alliance (“SPA”) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (“CPN(M)”) brings peace, confirms the subjection of king and army […]

Occidente aparece, de pronto, desprovisto de sus mejores virtudes, construidas siglo sobre siglo, ocupado ahora en reproducir sus propios defectos y en copiar los defectos ajenos, como lo son el autoritarismo y la persecución preventiva de inocentes.  Virtudes como la tolerancia y la autocrítica nunca formaron parte de su debilidad, como se pretende ahora, sino […]

South of the Border The residents of the colonias of Matamoros, Mexico are refugees of the modern free trade wars.  Located near the maquiladora factories south of the US-Mexico border in the lower Rio Grande Valley, the impoverished colonias provide sharp contrast to the affluent suburbs and bustling shopping malls just across the river in […]

  The bus rumbled along a highway in southwest Iran, passing a series of anti-aircraft batteries and rickety guard towers before pulling in through a checkpoint to the Bushehr nuclear plant compound.  Having anticipated significant difficulties finding, much less nearing, the reactor, I stared in stunned silence at its dome.  So much for state secrets.  […]

RELIGION AND THE HUMAN PROSPECT by Alexander SaxtonBUY THIS BOOK I first met Alexander Saxton in 1997 at a conference on the “problem of whiteness,” held at the University of California, Berkeley, at which we were both speakers.  Although we had never met, I considered him a mentor, particular his book, The Rise and Fall […]

I. Three Metropoles, Four Peripheries Many of us on the Left have pondered what would replace the Cold War division of the planet into the First, Second, and Third World.  Though the three worlds thesis was arbitrary at best — the social divisions within nation-states are often more significant than the distinctions between nation-states — […]

What a treacherous weekend! Campaigning in Greeley, Colorado on Saturday, the WAR PRESIDENT said (to tumultuous applause), “My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision, and the world is better off for it.”  But perhaps not for the 655,000 Iraqis killed on the WAR PRESIDENT’s watch since he lied his way into this […]

The government offensive against Muslims in America met fresh opposition yesterday in Albany, New York when dozens of leaders of the anti-war movement and other progressive causes joined with Muslims to protest the recent guilty verdicts in the trial of Imam Yassin Aref and Mohammed Musharraf Hossain. Aref and Hossain were accused and convicted of […]

Most people know that Detroit, the once-vibrant automotive capital, has been in an economic tailspin for decades.  Legions of “post-industrial” analyses have properly assigned responsibility for it to profit-motivated factors in capitalist decision-making since the late 1950s.  The human cost of the tailspin is nearly beyond comprehension for those who are not directly affected by […]

Discurso de Andrés Manuel López Obrador en el mítin de apoyo al pueblo de Oaxaca, realizado en el Hemiciclo a Juárez de esta ciudad México, Distrito Federal Martes, 31 de octubre de 2006 Amigas y amigos: Nos hemos reunido el día de hoy para expresar nuestro apoyo al pueblo de Oaxaca, que ha sido agredido […]

When I lived in Washington state, some of my closest friends were from the Mexican state of Oaxaca.  I have kept in touch with a few of them, and they have kept me in touch with the rebellion unfolding in the streets of Oaxaca over the past few months.  After the escalation of the situation […]

  My first full realization of homelessness hit as I was waking up, shivering, one cold, damp, and foggy November morning in 1991.  The pain in my lower back was excruciating, not to mention the numbness in my legs and feet.  I was attempting to raise myself to a seated position in response to pleadings […]

  Cornell Global Labor Institute Honors Oscar Olivera On October 5, 2006, the Cornell Global Labor Institute held a reception to celebrate its second anniversary.  The guest of honor was Oscar Olivera, the Executive Secretary of the Federation of Factory Workers from Cochabamba , Bolivia.  The Federation was key in the formation of the Coordinator […]

The overwhelming response by alumni of United States service academies to the anti-war efforts of West Point Graduates Against the War (www.westpointgradsagainstthewar.org) has resulted in a combined arms organization of former and current land, sea, and air officers united against the war in Iraq.  The new organization, Service Academy Graduates Against the War (www.sagaw.org), was […]

En setiembre del 2006, en Lewisburg, Tennessee, un grupo de vecinos protestó porque la dirección de la biblioteca pública estaba invirtiendo recursos en la compra de libros en español.  De los sesenta mil volúmenes, sólo mil pertenecen a alguna lengua diferente al inglés.  El presupuesto del presente año, calculado en trece mil dólares, destina la […]

In recent days, reports have begun to appear in mainstream US media sources such as Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times hinting at a new strategy on Iraq from Washington.  This strategy, which is scheduled to be officially made public after the November congressional elections, is the product of a so-called bipartisan commission headed […]

RAILROADING ECONOMICS: The Creation of the Free Market Mythology by Michael PerelmanBUY THIS BOOKRead Michael Perelman’s blog: UNSETTLING ECONOMICS: A Progressive Look at Economics and the Rest of the Screwed Up World. Michael Perlman is a longtime professor of economics at California State University, Chico.  A prolific author, his newest book is titled Railroading Economics: […]

Pauline Kael, the American film critic, once said that Gillo Pontecorvo was the most dangerous kind of Marxist: a Marxist poet.  When the Italian film director died last week at the age of 86, he had not made a full-length feature in over twenty-five years.  Yet the potency of Pontecorvo’s firebrand poetry can still be […]

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris.  Norton, New York, 2004.  ISBN 0-393-03515-8. 336 pp.  Cloth $24.95. Sam Harris’ The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason is unusual among books recently issued by mainline publishers in that it begins by rejecting all religious faiths […]