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Castro as Machiavelli: Bush and Cuban Exiles
Imperial rulers and violently fixated Cuban exiles need Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program to accelerate learning processes and not continue to repeat mistakes. Hey, on Cuba policy, it’s only been 48 years! Fidel Castro, in contrast, learned fast. He used Washington and Miami to improvise material for three chapters in future releases of Machiavelli’s […]
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Achievements and Limits of the First United States Social Forum
The first US Social Forum wrapped up on Sunday, July 1 in Atlanta, Georgia. That it happened at all seems almost miraculous. It is hard to remember any previous comparable gathering of diverse currents of US social movements. This is not a particularly dynamic moment in their history — the anti-war movement is bland […]
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Setting Priorities Straight in the Struggle: On Iran and the Iranian Role in the Arab Region
Before we deal with the topic of the Iranian role in the Arab region, it is useful to recall the complexity of Iran and its different entanglements: For one, Iran is not a “Banana Republic,” and its regime is not a puppet or a client regime of Imperialism. Iran has a regional project and works […]
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Building It Now in Venezuela: Socialism for the 21st Century (Parts 1-8)
Michael A. Lebowitz is professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and the author of Beyond Capital: Marx’s Political Economy of the Working Class, winner of the Isaac Deutscher memorial prize for 2004, and Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First Century, just published by Monthly Review Press. The videos were […]
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An American Student’s Perspective on the Venezuelan Revolution
I recently returned from an eleven-day trip to Venezuela, traveling with fellow students from Rutgers University. The country has been the scene of intense political strife and polarization throughout the nearly ten years that Hugo Chávez’s government has been in power, and during our stay we witnessed various aspects of this conflict. We arrived […]
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Antena 3 and YouTube Censor Debate on Non-Renewal of RCTV License [Antena 3 y YouTube censuran un debate sobre la no renovación de la concesión a RCTV]
Todos los grandes medios de todo el globo alzaron su voz contra el gobierno democrático de Venezuela por la no renovación de la licencia de la televisión RCTV. Las continuas irregularidades en su funcionamiento y, el apoyo al golpe de estado no eran obstáculos para conservar su frecuencia, ya que la “libertad de expresión” de […]
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The US and the 21st Century
Introductory Note: This essay is an adaptation and reworking of a historic 1963 document of the Students for a Democratic Society. Its original was mimeographed in several thousand copies and distributed jointly by the SDS National Office and the newly-created Economic Research and Action Project (ERAP). America and the New Era was intended to be […]
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A Light Within (the Heart of Empire): The 2007 US Social Forum
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 […]
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In Favor of Democracy in the Media, for the Legitimate Right of the Venezuelan Government to Decide Who Shall Broadcast on Its Airwaves [A favor de la democracia en los medios, por el derecho legítimo del gobierno venezolano a disponer del espacio radioeléctrico]
A mediados de los años setenta, los países no alineados reclamaron un Nuevo Orden Mundial económico e informativo. Esa decisión provocó con el tiempo la retirada de Estados Unidos de la UNESCO. Durante muchas décadas, apenas cinco grandes monopolios retuvieron el control de los flujos informativos. Es solamente ahora cuando la exigencia de entender la […]
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Traveling Rutgers University Students Share Their Views on Developments in Venezuela
We, a delegation of students from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, were in Caracas this Saturday at a peaceful demonstration. Imagine a protest that was more of a celebration than an angry mob. Imagine ordinary citizens without ulterior agendas or motives celebrating the right to self-determination in the face of economic imperialism. But, […]
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Zero Hour for Venezuela’s RCTV
The expiration of Venezuelan broadcaster RCTV‘s public concession draws near: at 11:59pm on Sunday, May 27th, RCTV’s concession will expire without renewal, and its space on channel 2 will be handed over to the newly-founded Venezuelan Social Television (TVes), which will begin broadcasts at 12:15am on May 28th. This sovereign decision of the Venezuelan government […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Capital and Nature: An Interview with Paul Burkett
1. The year 2007 marks the 140th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Marx’s Capital. In your perspective, what is the main contribution of that major work to the understanding of contemporary capitalism? Marx’s Capital establishes three essential contradictions of capitalism which grow in intensity as the system develops historically. These contradictions […]
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Labour for Palestine: Can We Build the BDS Campaign?
Just less than a year ago in May 2006, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario unanimously passed in convention its path-breaking Resolution 50 in support for the global campaign against Israeli apartheid. The resolution called on the union to educate its members on the apartheid nature of the Israeli state. It also mandated […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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A Historic Turn: What Is at Stake beyond the Wolfowitz Scandal?
The Boards of the World Band and the International Monetary Fund that are meeting in Washington D.C. on 14-15 April are in dire straits. The President of CADTM-Belgium, Eric Toussaint, explains. The Spring meetings of the WB and the IMF are taking place this weekend. What is at stake? These two institutions are going […]
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For Revolutionary Dignity: President Chávez Announces World Bank Debt Has Been Paid Off [Por la dignidad revolucionaria Presidente Chávez anunció pago de deuda con el Banco Mundial]
“Con este último pago (al Banco Mundial), esa deuda que era en 1998 de casi 3 mil millones de dólares, les puedo decir hoy que no tenemos ni un centavo de deuda ni con el Fondo Monetario Internacional, ni con el Banco Mundial”, exclamó. Declaraciones del Presidente Chávez (MP3 3m) Haga click para escuchar el […]
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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 […]