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Lessons from South of the Border: Listening to the CJM
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 […]
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Freedom from Religion: An Interview with Alexander Saxton
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 […]
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Post-American Geopolitics
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 — […]
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Hell Is Rising in Oaxaca: An Interview with an Oaxacan Rebel
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 […]
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Why Culture Matters [Qué importa la cultura]
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 […]
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Tangled Up in the Milieu: An Interview with Max Elbaum, Author of Revolution in the Air
REVOLUTION IN THE AIR: Sixties Radicals turn to Lenin, Mao and Che by Max ElbaumBUY THIS BOOK I first met Max Elbaum in Vermont in 2002 at a conference against the war organized by the Burlington (VT) Anti War Coalition. We had communicated via email and telephone before about his book Revolution in the Air […]
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Latin America: The Empty Continent
The Spanish and Portuguese colonization of America is still a kind of theoretical no-man’s land and a political taboo. One can easily understand why Spanish and Portuguese intellectuals avoid any discussion of the topic. Remember the magnificent Centennials of both the Spanish discovery of the Caribbean and the Portuguese discovery of Brazil. Any critical […]
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Brazil: What Is at Stake in the Second Round [Brasil: Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta]
Nadie puede ser neutro, nadie puede ser equidistante, nadie puede ser indiferente Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas si Petrobras va a ser privatizada — como afirmó el asesor de Alckmin, Mendonça de Barros a la revista Exame — y, si con ella, también el Banco de Brasil, la […]
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Devil’s on the Loose: A Review of Forrest Hylton’s Evil Hour in Colombia
EVIL HOUR IN COLOMBIA by Forrest HyltonBUY THIS BOOK There was a period in the 1990s when I honestly thought that Colombia would become Washington’s next Vietnam. Instead, it turns out that the counterinsurgency assisted financially and militarily by Washington is more like the so-called low-intensity conflicts waged by Washington and its clients in Central […]
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The Privatization of God
Custom-made for the Consumer In the 17th century, Blaise Pascal, a genius of mathematics, wrote that men never do evil with greater pleasure than when they do it with religious conviction. This idea — from a deeply religious man — has taken a variety of different forms since. During the last century, the greatest crimes […]
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It’s Not Race or Class — It’s Race and Class: An Interview with Roderick Bush
WE ARE NOT WHAT WE SEEM: Black Nationalism and Class Struggle in the American Century by Roderick D. BushBUY THIS BOOK Roderick Bush is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at St. John’s University in New York. He is the author of We Are Not What We Seem: Black Nationalism and Class Struggle in […]
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Venezuela and South Africa: Redistributive Policies vs. Neo-liberal Economic Policies
Traveling to both Venezuela and South Africa this past summer, through my work as an academic sociologist, I was able to observe firsthand two radically different approaches to “third world” development: a “redistributive approach” in Venezuela, and a set of basically neo-liberal economic policies in South Africa. Although this was not a consciously designed research […]
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Myths as Collective Metaphors [Mitos como metáforas colectivas]
Y el mito y la leyenda son en el fondo metáforas colectivas, o sea, maneras de expresión que la historia encuentra para revelarse a pesar del silencio obligatorio, y a pesar de la obligatoria mentira. El mito, por citarte un ejemplo, el mito de Túpac Amaru . . . verdad . . . es de […]
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Class Struggle and Socialist Revolution in the Philippines: Understanding the Crisis of U.S. Hegemony, Arroyo State Terrorism, and Neoliberal Globalization
Prodded by Amnesty International (AI), the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Asian Human Rights Commission, Reporters Without Borders, and other international organizations, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently cobbled a group to look into the allegations of massive human rights violations — over 729 victims of extrajudicial killings, and 180 involuntary “disappearances,” by the latest count — during her […]
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One of the Goals Is to Open Offices in Various Countries of the World: CIM Is Determined Not to Repeat Errors of the Socialism of the 20th Century [Una de las metas es abrir sedes en varios países del mundo Instan a no repetir errores del socialismo del siglo XX]
Michael Lebowitz, Martha Harnecker y Luis Bonilla. Credito: MIGUEL ACURERO Caracas. A pesar de tener activo cinco meses, ayer viernes fue presentado oficialmente el Centro Internacional Miranda (CMI), que tendrá como objetivo determinar los aspectos ideológicos que enmarcarán el proceso de transformación del país hacia el modo del socialismo del siglo XXI, con la participación […]
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Mexico at the Edge:Toward a Declaration of Dual Power
Mexico stands at the brink of a social upheaval of major proportions after the Electoral Tribunal threw out most challenges by presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, leading him to call for the creation of a new government. (See “Election Decision Favors Felipe Calderon of the Pan.”) In the face of what he calls a […]
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Preface to the Turkish Edition of Naming the System
I am honored to write this preface to the Turkish edition of my book, Naming the System: Inequality and Work in the Global Economy. I thank Neset Kutlug and everyone else who helped bring this edition to fruition. I wrote the book with an international audience in mind, so it is gratifying to see […]
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Despite Settlement with BHP Billiton, Miners Will Continue Campaigning for Chilean Copper [Pese a arreglo con BHP Billiton, seguirán campaña pro cobre chileno]
Mineros de Escondida harán plebiscito para medir apoyo a renacionalización Los patos negros de la mina de cobre La Escondida, quienes recién acaban de superar una difícil huelga de 25 días, planean efectuar en Antofagasta un plebiscito ciudadano que mida el apoyo para iniciar el debate sobre la conveniencia de una renacionalización del cobre. […]
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Appraising the Bamako Appeal: A Contribution to the Debate
1. Introduction This commentary is offered as a contribution to the ongoing debate on the Bamako Appeal. On the 18th of January, on the day preceding the start of the Polycentric World Social Forum in Bamako, Mali, a conference was held in the same capital, commemorating the holding of the Bandung Conference 50 years back. […]
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Anti-Arab Racism, Islam, and the Left
Racism against Arabs and Muslims long preceded the 9-11 terrorist attacks and has much of its roots in Western imperialism in the Middle East, especially Israel’s colonization of Palestine. Yet, the escalation that we witness today can be traced to the war on terror launched after 9-11 by Bush and his neoconservative ideologues with the […]