The U.S. corporate media have been widely criticized for their refusal to question the Bush administration’s motives and assertions during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Armed with one-sided experts and pundits, the media fanned the passions of the American public, acting as a kind of perverse cheerleader for war with slick TV […]
Geography Archives: Europe
Countries in the continent of Europe
Much Ado about A Lot: Uranium Mining in Canada
An Anishnabe blockade in 1996. Photo by Macdonald Stainsby John Cutfeet outside the Legislature in June 2007. Members of Grassy Narrows and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nations protested mining on their land. Photo Adrian Wyld Opposition to uranium mining has once again become a major topic of coverage by the media. From Australia to Canada, people […]
Haiti: A Modern Tragedy
AN UNBROKEN AGONY: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President by Randall RobinsonBUY THIS BOOK Randall Robinson has written the story of a great tragedy of recent times — the violent overthrow of Haiti’s elected president and government on February 29, 2004. An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a […]
Committee for an Open Discussion of Zionism
A Message from Howard Zinn on behalf of the Committee for an Open Discussion of Zionism Dear Friend: As you may have heard, in late August of this year, The University of Michigan Press, after receiving a series of complaining and threatening emails and letters from an ultra-Zionist group called StandWithUs, an offshoot of Campus […]
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 […]
Andre Gorz — RIP
Andre Gorz, philosopher of freedom, sociologist of work, ecologist and democratic socialist, trade union adviser, journalist and for a time editor of Nouvelle Observateur and Les Tempes Modernes, took his life at 84 on the 24th of September together with his wife Dorine, 83, who was suffering from a degenerative disease. On the 25th […]
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 […]
Questions That the Movement Will Answer: A Conversation with an Anti-Imperialist Organizer
In recent days, the US public has been satiated with a variety of press reports about numerous “new” plans aimed at addressing the US occupation and war in Iraq. Some of these plans are rumored to include recommendations for an eventual withdrawal of all US forces from that country while some urge the Pentagon and […]
Foreign Threat to American Business?
Foreign countries are awash in dollars because they sell so much more to the US than they buy. Increasingly, their governments use some of those dollars to establish and operate investment funds. The funds buy shares in companies around the world. Sometimes they buy companies directly. Called “sovereign investment funds,” the IMF estimates that they […]
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 […]
We vs. Me in the Days of Lean and Mean
In early August I had the good fortune to attend the 2007 Postal Press Association National Editors’ Conference in Reno, Nevada. I presented a workshop on “Linking the Past to the Present,” a way to think about what we can learn from the labor movement of the past and how editors can incorporate such insight […]
Neo-Nazis in Germany, or Déjà Vu?
An argument at a summer fair in the small town of Muegeln, between Leipzig and Dresden, ended with a mob of fifty drunken young men wielding knives and other weapons and shouting “Foreigners Get Out!” chasing eight men from India — longtime residents in Muegeln — across the town square. The Indians, some badly wounded, […]
On Elections, Factions, and Fictions in the Philippines
It’s been more than three months since this year’s senatorial elections were held in the Philippines, and there have been since then plenty of people saying that, far from breaking away from election fraud, the country has witnessed more cheating this year than ever before. I had the opportunity to witness the election process when […]
A Blood Pressure Lowering Guide to the Democratic Party and Democrats
Many folks on the Left, and in our labor movement, are afflicted with frequent bouts of anguish and outrage as we observe the action or inaction of some Democrat in office — or running for office. Those on the Left who claim to be recovered — or never afflicted — by this disease often seem […]
Iran’s Progress in Mastering Nuclear Energy Sparks New Threats of Aggression
In recent months Iran has made large strides toward mastering nuclear technology. Alarmed by these advances, the Bush administration and its European allies have stepped up their hostile actions and threats, specifically: Attempting to prevent the entry into service of Iran’s first nuclear power plant at Bushehr. The Bushehr reactor will use nuclear fuel […]
The Age of Materialism Is Over
“The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has said the age of materialism is over and the world is moving towards spiritual values” (“Ahmadinejad: Materialism Is Outdated,” Press TV 15 August 2007). Is it? His dear imam wrote a letter to Gorbachev in 1989. Among other things, Khomeini said, “However much the Western world may appear to […]
Yes Men and Egoists
On August 8, 2007 a German labor court in Nuremberg issued a temporary restraining order preventing a strike called by the GDL train drivers’ union, to the delight of the business press. The strike had been approved by a great majority of the train drivers, and was due to start on August 9th. The state-owned […]
On the Concept “Totalitarianism” and Its Role in Current Political Discourse
A Cardinal Principle of Modern Liberalism The basic assumption of modern liberalism is that freedom is involved in an ongoing, all encompassing struggle against a dangerous enemy, totalitarianism. The existence of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were and still are presented as the quintessential totalitarian formations. Liberal thinkers stress that totalitarianism is on the […]
Visions of Peace & Justice
Visions of Peace & Justice: San Francisco Bay Area, 1974-2007: Over Thirty Years of Political Posters from the Archives of Inkworks Press. Berkeley: Inkworks Press, 2007, 150pp, oversized color, $30 pbk. The history of colorful political art on the US Left goes back, arguably, to black and white versions of the socialist cartoons borrowed from […]
The U.S.-Indian Nuclear Deal: An Unequal Colonial Treaty
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its Summer 2007 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. Prior to the Friday, August 3rd, 2007 release of the agreed text of the U.S.-Indian nuclear agreement, the media build-up in favor of civilian nuclear technology “transfer” and […]
