Geography Archives: Latin America

Fog covered El Alto, Bolivia on Saturday morning as social movements from around the country marched into the city to mark the official passage of Bolivia’s new constitution.  “This is the second independence, the true liberation of Bolivia,” Bolivian President Evo Morales said as he signed the new constitution. The new constitution was approved by […]

  CP: After twenty-five years of sporadic growth and extreme polarization of income and life conditions around the world, actually existing neoliberalism seems to be on the verge of collapse.  Where do you situate the current crisis in the history of the development of global capitalism? JBF: Neoliberalism has clearly collapsed.  But as Fred Magdoff […]

First they rammed the Dignity.  Then they harassed the Spirit of Humanity into turning back to its berth.  Now 18 corsair ships from the Israeli Navy have surrounded the Al-Ikhwa (The Brotherhood) ship, out of Lebanon, and boarded it, ransacking the boat and assaulting its passengers.  The ship was plainly up to no good: it […]

  Roy Chaderton, Venezuela’s Ambassador to the Organization of American States, speaks of numerous members of the Jewish community who have supported the struggles of peoples against imperialism and Zionism, and he rejects any attack against the Jewish people. Watching television footage of one of the necessary and legitimate protests against the Israeli Embassy in […]

Following close on the United Socialist Party of Venezuela’s (PSUV) electoral victory in the November 23 regional elections, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez re-proposed a constitutional reform that would allow indefinite re-election.  The first attempt, bundled with various constitutional amendments that would have accelerated economic restructuring, was defeated 51 to 49 percent in December 2007. Predictably, […]

After Bolivia’s new constitution was passed in a national referendum on Sunday, thousands gathered in La Paz to celebrate.  Standing on the balcony of the presidential palace, President Evo Morales addressed a raucous crowd: “Here begins a new Bolivia.  Here we begin to reach true equality.” Polls conducted by Televisión Boliviana announced that the document […]

25 January 2009 Today’s referendum on Bolivia’s new constitution took place on a rare sunny day for this time of year in La Paz.  Since traffic is prohibited on voting day, families taking advantage of the abnormally quiet streets walked their dogs, ate ice cream, and strolled into the local schools to vote. Across the […]

On Tuesday, December 9, the anti-immigrant lobbyists at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) held a press conference in downtown Washington, DC to promote their “Immigration Reform Agenda for the 111th Congress.” The press conference followed the new line that groups like FAIR have adopted since the financial crisis broke out last September.  Undocumented […]

  In January 1984, mass movements began to rise again in Brazil.  The working class was reorganizing, accumulating organic forces.  Underground parties, such as the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), etc., were already in the streets.  We had won only a partial amnesty, but a majority of exiles had returned. […]

Plaza Murillo, La Paz Cochabamba On Thursday, January 22, the last day of campaigning for the new constitution before the document is set to a vote on Sunday, January 25th, representatives from Bolivia’s diverse social movements convened in downtown La Paz.  The rally, located in the Plaza Murillo, marked the end of over two years […]

I have a six-year-old son.  His name is Jin-Gyu.  He lives off me, yet he is quite capable of making a living.  I pay for his lodging, food, education, and health care.  But millions of children of his age already have jobs.  Daniel Defoe figured out in the 18th century that children are able to […]

Evo Morales a días del referéndum por la nueva constitución en “Bolivia Decide” Dozens of marches and rallies in support of Bolivia’s new constitution, to be voted on this Sunday, have filled the streets of the La Paz in recent days.  On Tuesday, at a rally for the constitution and to celebrate Venezuela’s donation of […]

In the morning on Sunday, January 18, after a heavy rain fell on La Paz, Bolivia, the sun came out, drying the umbrellas of thousands of marchers winding through the city streets.  The mobilization was in support of a new constitution, which is to be voted on this January 25. Eddie Mamani, a resident of […]

István Mészáros won the 1971 Deutscher Prize for his book Marx’s Theory of Alienation and has written on Marxism ever since.  He talks to Judith Orr and Patrick Ward about the current economic crisis. The ruling class are always surprised by new economic crises and talk about them as aberrations.  Why do you believe they […]

On December 5, 2008, over 200 recently-fired workers at the Republic Window and Doors factory in Chicago occupied their plant, demanding that they be paid their vacation and severance checks.  The occupation ended victoriously six days later when the Bank of America and other lenders to Republic agreed to pay the workers the approximately $2 […]

  Speech by His Excellency Mr. Rafael Correa Delgado, president of the Republic of Ecuador, at the commemoration event for the 50th anniversary of the entry of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro into Havana, at Ciudad Libertad, January 8, 2009 Dear Comandante, President Raúl Castro Ruz, I expect that compañero Fidel is watching us, so […]

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the most popular leader in the Arab world, addressed a crowd of Lebanese supporters in a videoconference on 7 January 7. Yesterday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that he would expel the Israeli ambassador in Venezuela.  He, of course, did this in order to show his support for the […]

Amid the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, the agricultural sector continues to struggle.  Although the plunge in agricultural output over the last few years has often been commented on in the Western media, little or no attention is paid to the complex factors contributing to that decline.  Instead, matters are reduced to a simple generalization.  It […]

December 31, 2008 New York City Labor Against the War joins millions around the world in condemning Israel’s ongoing murder and maiming of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza. WHO ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS? Israel claims that it is fighting “terrorism” — the same hollow excuse with which the U.S. tries to justify wars in Afghanistan […]

“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English.  We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history.   Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we put […]