It is fair to say that the anti-war movement in the US is moribund. A movement that put a million people in the streets a month before the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and has drawn as many as half-a-million protesters to protests as recently as January 2007 has failed to mobilize anything even near […]
Geography Archives: Mexico
60 Years of Palestinian Dispossession . . . No Reason to Celebrate “Israel at 60”!
“Even after fifty years of living the Palestinian exile I still find myself astonished at the lengths to which official Israel and its supporters will go to suppress the fact that a half century has gone by without Israeli restitution, recognition, or acknowledgment of Palestinian human rights and without, as the facts undoubtedly show, connecting […]
Liberalizing Food Trade to Death
Introduction People across the world, from Mexico to Mozambique, have once again been taking to the streets in protest. The reason is to demand that their most basic need be met: access to food. With food prices skyrocketing over the last few months, billions of people around the globe have been relentlessly driven towards starvation. […]
Rebuilding Labor’s Power: There Are No Shortcuts
See, also, Stephanie Luce, “The Future of the Labor Movement? Reflections on the Labor Notes Conference,” MRZine, 22 April 2008; and Dave Regan, “Why We Demonstrated in Dearborn,” MRZine, 2 May 2008. I am not surprised Dave Regan doesn’t remember our argument. I am sure he hears my concerns all the time, but the conversation […]
Making a Killing from Hunger: We Need to Overturn Food Policy, Now!
For some time now the rising cost of food all over the world has taken households, governments and the media by storm. The price of wheat has gone up by 130% over the last year.1 Rice has doubled in price in Asia in the first three months of 2008 alone,2 and just last week it […]
The Future of the Labor Movement? Reflections on the Labor Notes Conference
See, also, Dave Regan, “Why We Demonstrated in Dearborn,” MRZine, 2 May 2008; and Stephanie Luce, “Rebuilding Labor’s Power: There Are No Shortcuts,” MRZine, 2 May 2008. I had a fantastic time at the Labor Notes conference last weekend, and am eager to build on the new connections I made and campaigns I learned about. […]
Barack Obama’s Speech on Race: New Challenges for Him, the Democrats, and Us
Barack Obama’s speech on race, the greatest speech by a major American political figure in decades, elevates the discussion of race in America to a new level. What makes this speech so powerful is not only what he said, but also what it requires us to ask and what it demands that we reply. With […]
The Economic Crisis, the American Working Class, and the Left: The Situation Today and the Situation in 1930
The world appears to be on the verge of an economic crisis and, if it turns out to be as serious as some think, one that could rival or exceed the great panics of the late nineteenth century and the decade-long Great Depression. The crisis began with unscrupulous mortgage lending on an enormous scale, leading […]
The Free Trade Assault on Farming in Mexico: Ya Basta!
The battle against US imperialism and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has once again been taken to the streets of Mexico City. On the 31st of January, hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers came out in protest against the free trade onslaught that the people of Mexico have been subjected to. This time, […]
A Continental Campaign for Living Wages and Social Justice
A coalition of Mexican unions and social movements has been calling for a continental workers’ campaign for a living wage and social justice in the three NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) countries. The original call was made in November 2006 (see Richard Roman and Edur Velasco, “Mexican Workers Call for a Continental Workers’ […]
Talking Immigration with Mr. Block
The comic strip adventures of Mr. Block first appeared in 1912 in publications of the Industrial Workers of the World. With his thick, cubic head, Mr. Block, the creation of IWW cartoonist Ernest Riebe, typified a classic type of US worker: scoffing at the idea of working-class solidarity, Mr. Block always sided with his employers […]
North San Diego County Ready for Dialogue on Immigration
The co-authors of The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers have been facilitating dialogues on immigration at various places around the country since the book’s publication by Monthly Review Press in July 2007. Below is a report on one of these dialogues, by co-author Jane Guskin. Guskin will be on the panel “The Battle for […]
Nicaragua: The First Year of the Ortega Government — A Balance Sheet
Mónica Baltodano was one of the Guerrilla Commanders of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) during the long struggle against the Somoza dictatorship. In 1979, she was part of the command structure in Managua that directed the insurrection in the Nicaraguan Capital. During the subsequent revolutionary period in Nicaragua, she served as Regional Affairs […]
Meeting Resistance: Iraqi Insurgents Speak for Themselves
Meeting Resistance: A film by Molly Bingham and Steve Connors. Now showing at various locations. For a schedule, go to: www.meetingresistance.com. Available soon on DVD. Meeting Resistance is that rarest of discourse in the contemporary world — the true voice of the victims of US imperialism — edited, of course, as any coherent documentary must […]
Race, Poverty, and the Neoliberal Agenda in the United States: Lessons from Katrina and Rita
Abstract The global economic system has come to be dominated de facto by institutions subscribing to and enforcing the neoliberal agenda. Since the end of World War II, these institutions have sought not only to regulate but, in a manner reminiscent of classical colonialism, to control global resources facilitated by the emergence of the neoliberal […]
Indianismo and Marxism: The Missed Encounter of Two Revolutionary Principles
This important article by Álvaro García Linera, now Vice President of Bolivia, was first published in 2005. It traces the contradictory evolution of the two most influential revolutionary currents in the country’s 20th century history and argues that Marxism, as originally interpreted by its Bolivian adherents, failed to address the outstanding concerns of the indigenous […]
The NNIRR and Immigration Reform: Time for a Clear Alternative
HOUSTON, TX. The National Conference for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (January 18-20) organized by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) took place during a critical period in U.S. immigration history. Over five hundred NNIRR members, activists, and organizers (including numerous immigrants and their organizations) came to the conference to share their experiences, […]
Who Rules Cincinnati?: Seven Corporations Dominate Cincinnati’s Economy, Society, and Politics, Leading to Poverty and Distorted Development
A new study titled “Who Rules Cincinnati?” published on the Internet today argues that seven corporations have dominated the City of Cincinnati’s economy, society, and politics, leading to “distorted development” and “grotesque contrasts between rich and poor” with “a particularly damaging impact on the African American population.” The study, a compendium of information on Cincinnati-based […]
Good Time Charlie’s War
George Crile (Charlie Wilson’s War, 2003) credits the Houston Congressman with convincing House Members to overcome their valid doubts and keep funding Zia ul Haq. Members knew in 1979 that the Pakistani dictator had overthrown and murdered President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Benazir‘s father), that his human rights record was abominable, and that he fostered a […]
The Failure of Climate Change Economics
In 1896, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius developed a theory to explain the likely impact of burning coal on the climate. Arrhenius claimed that, due to human activity, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere would increase, creating an “enhanced” greenhouse effect. His theory did not enjoy consensus in his time, but the scientific community […]
