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The Second Founding of Bolivia [La segunda fundación de Bolivia]
El 22 de enero del año 2002, Evo fue expulsado del Paraíso. O sea: el diputado Morales fue echado del Parlamento. El 22 de enero del año 2006, en ese mismo lugar de pomposo aspecto, Evo Morales fue consagrado presidente de Bolivia. O sea: Bolivia empieza a enterarse de que es un país de mayoría […]
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A Track Runs through It:Why Railroad Workers and Trackside Communities Should Fight for Jobs and Environmental Justice Together
The United Transportation Union, which represents railroad conductors and some engineers, reports that negotiations with the railroad corporations had broken down over the issue of crew reduction. The carriers are demanding the implementation of one-person train crews for many routes on the US freight rail system. The current standard train crew is two, an engineer […]
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Venezuela Leads the Way: Welfare Mothers and Grassroots Women Are the Workers for Social Change!
There is screaming, hugging, chanting, and many shhhs; the group takes a momentary pause in their celebration to hear the news. A delegation of 70 women from all over the world, including, India, Uganda, Guyana, the UK, and the US, stand together in the community of La Padera, Venezuela, awaiting the details. Juanita Romero, also […]
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Homo Economicus vs. Aam Aadmi: Crisis of Democracy
During the twentieth century, there were two major shifts in mainstream economic thinking. These two major changes were the Keynesian revolution of the 1930s and the return of orthodoxy on the back of the Rational Expectation and Monetarist school in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Each of the shifts was preceded by a […]
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Red Seas
RED SEAS: Ferdinand Smith and Radical Black Sailors in the United States and Jamaica by Gerald HorneBUY THIS BOOK Red Seas: Ferdinand Smith and Radical Black Sailors in the United States and Jamaica. By Gerald Horne. New York University Press, 2005, 358 pp. The political connections of Harlem and the British West Indies have been […]
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Rabbi Lerner, the Green Party, and Divestment from Israel
The US Green Party called for divestment from Israel on 21 November 2005: The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) publicly calls for divestment from and boycott of the State of Israel until such time as the full individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people are realized. . . . The party […]
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What’s Wrong with Tort Reform?
MANUFACTURING DISCONTENT: The Trap of Individualism in Corporate Society by Michael PerelmanBUY THIS BOOK Given the absence of criminal penalties for corporate misbehavior, society needs an alternative means to protect itself against corporate abuses. Ideally, effective regulation might help to keep corporations in line, but the regulatory structure in the United States is embarrassingly weak. […]
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Great Target, Bad Aim: Robert Greenwald’s Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices
Thanks to Michael Moore, the growth of a moderately-aroused left-liberal public since the invasion of Iraq, and the low manufacturing costs of DVDs, the politically-conscious documentary film has reemerged in the United States. A central figure in this movement has been the seasoned producer-director Robert Greenwald. Formerly known for TV epics like Flatbed Annie and […]
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In the Land of Bolivar
Caracas, Venezuela — Under the elevated lines in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union has been waging a battle against poverty that has taken them to center stage of the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. Led by Cheri Honkala, a formerly homeless mother, the KWRU began by building encampments […]
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Visiting Herman
It could be worse, I say to myself, as I buy my Trailways ticket, he could be on death row. He could be dying in a prison infirmary; he could be getting beaten up by racist gangs. Instead, Herman Bell is doing 25 years to life at a prison outside New York City, where we […]
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Weighty Alternatives for Latin America Discussion with Heinz Dieterich [Ernsthafte Alternative für Lateinamerika Gespräch mit Heinz Dieterich]
The following is a conversation with Heinz Dieterich about his friendship with Hugo Chávez, irregular war, the new Venezuelan military doctrine, and an account of the Bolivarian revolution in Latin America. Heinz Dieterich is a sociologist and economist. He has been a professor at Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City since 1977. Since the 1990s, […]
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What Brought Evo Morales to Power? The Role of the International Indigenous Movement and What the Left Is Missing
What has been left out of reports and analysis in both the mainstream press and among anti-imperialists and leftists about the triumph of Evo Morales’ election as President of Bolivia is the role played by the three-decade international indigenous movement that preceded it. Few are even aware of that powerful and remarkable historic movement, which […]
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Pentagon Database Leaves No Child Alone
Click on the image for a larger view. Doug Minkler, “Campus Predator” (3 February 2006) All over the country, organized citizens are fighting to restrict the military’s presence in schools. But having recruiters troll high school cafeterias is just one way the Pentagon inundates our youngsters with messages to “Go Army!” Since 2002, the U.S. […]
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Brazilian Army Study Details North American Military Presence in South America [Estudo do Exército detalha presença militar norte-americana na América do Sul]
Brasília — Há muito tempo a América do Sul tem sido uma área estratégica para os Estados Unidos, o que levou os norte-americanos a trazerem militares na região. Exemplo maior talvez tenha sido a Doutrina Monroe, aprovada pelo Congresso norte-americano em 1823. Surgida como forma de impedir a recolonização européia da América, com o tempo […]
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Kenneth Timmerman’s Iranian “Democracy” and the “Intelligence” Summit
While George Bush, the man who controls the trigger of the world’s greatest nuclear arsenal, expresses his fear that a “non-transparent” and nuclear Iran might use its non-existent nuclear weapons to blackmail the world, and his Secretary of State tells the media that the time for talking with the regime in Tehran is over, a […]
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Street News and NYC’s Homeless: An Interview with John “Indio” Washington
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch, he said to me, “You must not ask for so much.” And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door, she cried to me, “Hey, why not ask for more?” — “Bird on a Wire,” Leonard Cohen John “Indio” Washington, 67, is editor-in-chief of Street News […]
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Getting to the Point of No Return: A Conversation with Andre Vltchek
Andre Vltchek Andre Vltchek is a Czech-born American writer who has written for Der Spiegel, Asahi Shimbun, the Guardian, and many other international papers. He has reported on the violence of the neo-liberal order from all over the globe, but especially from Indonesia, about which he has made a ground-breaking documentary: Terlena: Breaking of a […]
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Manderlay
Let me begin by getting the boilerplate that appears in every review of a movie by Lars von Trier out of the way: a) Lars von Trier is a provocateur whose films may very well be mere exercises in cynicism; b) Lars von Trier dares to make films about America without ever having visited the […]
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Say Anything
A short time ago, Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein wrote a column starting, “I don’t support our troops.” It was a well-reasoned piece by most standards, though Stein unthinkingly repeats the urban legend about “peaceniks” spitting on troops returning from Vietnam. For his honesty, he received a hundred “hate e-mails” on his (unpublished) personal […]
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Workers Fighting Back
Download the flyer: pdf; and doc! Guest Speakers: Jerry Tucker: Former UAW Intl Executive Board Member & co-founder of the New Directions Movement in that union and labour educator/activist; Dennis Delling: Long-time Delphi worker and participant in current struggle; Mike Vince: President, CAW Local 200 (Ford); Sam Gindin: Retired CAW staff and currently Packer […]