What happens when hundreds or even thousands of small and not-so-small organizations come together to meet, dialogue, and present their ideas over the course of a long weekend? The World Social Forum (WSF), an annual gathering of tens of thousands of people from over 100 countries, has provided this space for those able to […]
Geography Archives: Latin America
Do Zionists Run America?
James Petras, The Power of Israel in the United States (Atlanta: Clarity Press, 2006) 190 pages, $16.95 paperback. Widely known as an expert in Latin American history and social movements, and a prolific critic of U.S. imperialism, James Petras has ventured forth in his latest book The Power of Israel in the United States, and […]
The Nepali Revolution and International Relations
This article by John Mage of Monthly Review also appears in the May 19th, 2007, issue of Economic and Political Weekly of Mumbai, India. A revolutionary civil war in Nepal ceased de facto with the popular triumph over King Gyanendra in April 2006, and de jure with the peace agreement reached in November 2006. The […]
The Unanimous Opinion
At the 6th Hemispheric Meeting in Havana, when the discussion turned to the subject of production of biofuels from foodstuffs, which are constantly getting more expensive, the huge majority voiced their opposition with indignation. But it was undeniable that some individuals with prestige, authority and good faith had been won over by the idea that […]
Lessons We Learned from the 6th Hemispheric Meeting in Havana
María Luisa Mendonça brought to the meeting in Havana a powerful documentary film on the subject of manual sugarcane cutting in Brazil. As I did in my previous reflection, I have written a summary using María Luisa’s own paragraphs and phrases. It goes as follows: We are aware that most of the wars in the […]
The Debate Heats Up
Atilio Borón, a prestigious leftist intellectual who until recently headed the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), wrote an article for the 6th Hemispheric Meeting of Struggle against the FTAs and for the Integration of Peoples which just wrapped up in Havana; he was kind enough to send it to me along with a […]
The Tragedy Threatening Our Species
I cannot speak as an economist or a scientist. I simply speak as a politician who wishes to unravel the economists’ and scientists’ arguments one way or another. I also try to sense the motivations of each one of those who make statements on these matters. Just twenty-two years ago, here in Havana, we had […]
The Monthly Review Story: 1949-1984
I wrote this as a paper for a seminar in history during my first year of grad school at the University of Washington in 1984. It was a labor of love for me because it gave me an opportunity to read every single issue of Monthly Review , all of which were carefully kept in […]
On Biofuels and an Energy Revolution
I hold nothing against Brazil, even though to more than a few Brazilians continuously bombarded with the most diverse arguments, which can be confusing even for people who have traditionally been friendly to Cuba, we might sound callous and careless about hurting that country’s net income of hard currency. However, for me to keep silent […]
Cairo Conference Calls for World Resistance against Imperialism
(Because most conference participants face repressive conditions in their homelands, individual’s names are omitted from this report. — JR) Part OneA New Pole of Anti-Imperialist Leadership CAIRO, EGYPT — More than 1,500 activists from the Middle East and around the world met in Cairo, March 29-April 1, under the banner “Towards an International Alliance against […]
The Price of Fire
THE PRICE OF FIRE: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia by Benjamin DanglBUY THIS BOOK For Bolivia’s indigenous majority, the year 1781 is engrained in popular memory as one of open rebellion against Spanish colonialism. Led by Tupak Katari, the indigenous Aymaras of the highlands lay siege to the city of La Paz for […]
Imperial Sunset?
For the first time since its rise as a superpower the United States is facing a serious threat to its hegemony across the globe. In February this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed a security conference in Munich that had 250 of the world’s top leaders and officials in attendance, including such luminaries as the […]
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (and Why They Don’t Want Anyone to See It)
“Out of sight, out of mind” is a basic rule of political propaganda. If a political event is not reported to the public, the public cannot react to it. If that same event is misreported, public reaction can be manipulated. U.S. reports on the attempted coup to overthrow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002 were […]
Straight from the Billionaire’s Mouth
Social critics, from Ida B. Wells to Noam Chomsky, recognize that the elite press can serve as the best tool against the elite. Today’s business magazines have no problem “naming the system,” and they write with clarity and frankness on the inner workings of capitalism and imperialism. My good friend and correspondent Skip recently sent […]
Ten Lashes against Humanism [Diez azotes contra el humanismo]
Una tradición menor del pensamiento conservador es la definición del adversario dialéctico por su falta de moral y por sus deficiencias mentales. Como esto nunca llega a ser un argumento, se encubre el exabrupto con algún razonamiento fragmentado y repetido, propio del pensamiento posmoderno de la propaganda política. No es casualidad que en América Latina […]
The Internationalization of Genocide
Havana. April 4, 2007 The Camp David meeting has just ended. We all listened with interest to the press conference by the presidents of the United States and Brazil, as well as news about the meeting and opinions stated. Confronted by the demands of his Brazilian visitor regarding import tariffs and subsidies that protect and […]
Bolivia: A Movement toward or beyond “Statism”?
It is now more than three decades since neoliberal economic and political ideas began to supplant Keynesian orthodoxies within the treasuries and finance ministries of Western governments and in the policy-making centers of development agencies and financial institutions. Bolivia was one of the first Latin American countries to adopt a neoliberal approach back in the […]
Capitalism’s Three Oscillations and the US Today
Throughout its history and across its geography, capitalism has swung back and forth between private and state forms. The former reduces while the latter enlarges the state’s intervention in the economy. The economic events that precipitate swings (in both directions) have been various mixes of recession and widening inequality. Political oscillations have paralleled the economic. […]
Capital and Empire: An Interview with John Bellamy Foster
Q. 2007 is the 140th anniversary of the publication of Volume One of Marx’s Capital. In your opinion, what is its main contribution to understanding contemporary capitalism? Marx’s object in Capital was to explain capital as a social relation in the fullest dialectical sense and in the process to describe its law(s) of motion. I […]
Hating the Rich
“The rich are not like you and me.” “The poor will always be with us.” Get real and accept it, we are told. Give alms and aid to the poor, tax the rich. Establish private foundations, be a responsible trust baby and give. You’ve heard it all and maybe even believe it in your heart. […]
