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 […]
Geography Archives: United States
The Politics of Non-Proliferation
If there was a time when Iranian analysts and decision makers would question the benefits of continuing to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, it would be now. The IAEA has allowed systematic US intervention in Iran’s nuclear file, paving the way to a third round of sanctions against Iran’s nuclear programme. But while […]
Colombian Military Incursion into Ecuador Sparks Regional Crisis
On Saturday, March 1, Colombian military forces attacked an encampment of the FARC, the largest Colombian guerilla group, across the Ecuadorian border. The strike, in violation of international law, reportedly killed up to 20 guerrillas in their sleep. Among those killed was Raúl Reyes, a top FARC commander. The attack has sparked a regional crisis […]
Plan Colombia: The Real Destabilizing Force in South America
In surveying US press coverage of the recent tensions between Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, one might come to the conclusion that Colombia has become the victim of the wrath of its evil next door neighbor, Hugo Chavez. Once again, the media spin machine has been turned against Venezuela, bypassing a contextual analysis of the situation […]
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 […]
One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008
The Largest Prison Population, the Highest Incarceration Rate The United States incarcerates more people than any country in the world, including the far more populous nation of China. At the start of the new year, the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults. China was second, with 1.5 million people behind bars, […]
Antioch Confidential
Antioch Confidential examines several documents that were until now Antioch University attorney-client privileged communications. What role has this confidentiality played in the health of a College that has functioned through a decades-old shared governance system, a governance system that has been integrated as a major component of its educational curriculum and that has historically […]
Eliminate Two-Tier Workplaces
This statement/call was provided by the Center for Labor Renewal co-convenor Jerry Tucker, who will be the moderator of the CLR-organized “Reorganizing the Working Class” panel at Left Forum 2008. — Ed. Statement & Call for the Elimination of Two-Tier Workplaces On Saturday, January 26, 2008, over 80 U.S. and Canadian auto industry worker-activists met […]
National Agrarian Strike against U.S. Trade Deal in Peru
A two-day national agrarian strike against a pending Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States ended on Wednesday February 20th, leaving four farmers dead after President Alan Garcia declared a state of emergency and ordered a violent crackdown. Farmers are demanding financial support from the government in the face of a predicted increase in […]
Why Another History of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict?
James L. Gelvin. The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. x + 294 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliographies, glossary, time line, biographical sketches, index. Those who have noted, but not read, James Gelvin‘s The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War may well ask themselves, “do we need another […]
It’s the Empire, Stupid
The status of the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt remains unsettled. Egypt is under heavy pressure from both Israel and the United States to reestablish control and seal the border. In an uncharacteristically blunt criticism of the regime of President Husni Mubarak, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified before the House Foreign Affairs […]
The US “War on Terror” Exported to Rwanda: A Threat to Peace in DRC
There is a common flaw in US foreign policy. In giving aid to foreign nations, the United States prioritizes its own foreign policy goals over any standards of good governance. Because this system of support ignores the realities on the ground, it ultimately backfires, undermining US long-term interests and fueling instability, conflict, and violations […]
Real Muslims, Real Lives: An Enchanted Modern by Lara Deeb
Lara Deeb. An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi’i Lebanon. Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics Series. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. ix + 263 pp. Illustrations, footnotes, glossary, bibliography, index. An Enchanted Modern by Lara Deeb is an important book that illustrates and explores the lives of real, modern, Muslim women. Published […]
Walking Away: The Least Bad Option
Except for a hardy band of neo-con optimists and the official apologists of the Bush regime, almost everyone is agreed today that the United States has gotten itself into a nasty, self-wounding mess in Iraq where it is fighting a drawn-out guerrilla war it cannot win. At the same time, a very large number of […]
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 […]
The Cincinnati Public Schools: Military Recruitment in the Guise of College Prep?
The Cincinnati Public Schools appear to be promoting military recruitment in the guise of college preparation through a corporate program called “Making Your College Search Count.” Students at Walnut Hills High School spent fifty minutes this week in a required assembly listening to a talk about getting into college, and though the presenter never […]
Carl Oglesby’s Ravens in the Storm
Carl Oglesby was once the president of the original Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Before that, he was working for a defense contractor. His last project with the company was to develop a method of delivering Agent Orange so that it would cover the Vietnamese jungle (and the humans therein) with the chemical as […]
The Black Jacobins 70 Years Later
This year marks the seventieth anniversary of C.L.R. James’s The Black Jacobins: Touissaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. This classic account of the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1803 is one of the greatest books in the twentieth century. Its title refers to the Jacobins, the most radical element within the French Revolution who propagated, […]
2008: The Demise of Neoliberal Globalization
The ideology of neoliberal globalization has been on a roll since the early 1980s. It was not in fact a new idea in the history of the modern world-system, although it claimed to be one. It was rather the very old idea that the governments of the world should get out of the way of […]
Five Years Later, Direct Action to Stop the War Reemerges
After more than a decade of military aggression and genocidal sanctions, on March 19, 2003, the United States launched its most recent attack against the people of Iraq. The following day, the people of the world took to the streets in protest. More than 20,000 turned out in San Francisco to take part in coordinated, […]
