Subjects Archives: Democracy

  “Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English.  We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history.   Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]

  “Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English.  We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history.   Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]

Bangkok International Airport has now been closed by fascist thugs from the anti-government “People’s Alliance for Democracy” (PAD).  The PAD are demanding that the elected government resigns.  This is despite the fact that the government has the backing of the majority of the Thai population and even the majority of Bangkok citizens.  This backing has […]

  Amaney A. Jamal.   Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.  216 pp.  $37.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-12727-9. Amaney Jamal’s central insight in this carefully researched book may seem obvious once it is stated.  Her “overall hypothesis” is simply that “linkages to […]

Yesterday, Nov. 20, 2008, the PLO published in ALL major Israeli daily newspapers the policy statement of the ARAB LEAGUE of 2003 (signed by 57 Arab or Muslim States), pledging to sign full peace and establish full normal relations with Israel if it returns to its pre 1967 borders and lets the Palestinians set up […]

Tomorrow will be a very important day. World opinion will be following what happens with the elections in the United States. It is the most powerful nation on the planet. With less than five percent of the world’s population, it annually sucks up enormous quantities of oil and gas, minerals, raw materials, consumer goods and sophisticated products from other countries; many of these, especially fuel and products that are mined, are not renewable.

  Karin Hunn.   “Nächstes Jahr kehren wir zurück. . .”: Die Geschichte der türkischen “Gastarbeiter” in der Bundesrepublik.  Moderne Zeit: Neue Forschungen zur Gesellschafts- und Kulturgeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts.  Göttingen: Wallstein, 2005. 598 pp. Tables, bibliography.  EUR 46.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-89244-945-4. Karin Hunn’s meticulously researched, highly informative, and well-structured study is a […]

Trade, within a society and between countries, is the exchange of goods and services produced by human beings. The owners of the means of production appropriate the profits. As a class, they are the leaders of the capitalist state and they boast of fostering development and social wellbeing through market. This they worship as an infallible God.

My name is Dan, and I’m a Republican.  Though it’s been almost eight years since I voted GOP, the shame and regret haunt me daily.  Just the sight of ‘W’ mugging for the cameras on the evening news is enough to fill me with despair. It all started innocently enough.  I tried my first shot […]

I did not want to write a third consecutive reflection, but I can not leave that for Monday.

There is one accurate response to Bush’s “democratic capitalism”: Chavez’s democratic socialism. There wouldn’t be a more accurate way to express the big contradiction that exists between North and South in our hemisphere, between the ideas of Bolivar and those of Monroe.

The big weekend blowout in Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) demonstrates how to cut off your nose to spite your face.  In a series of small, smaller, and smallest secret gatherings, the party leaders — facing a disastrous seepage of members and voters because of their switch rightwards in recent years — got rid of […]

Canadian socialist Jeffery R. Webber interviewed Oscar González, Coordinator of Organization of Social Movements for Popular Power in the Mérida branch of  the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) – Mérida, Venezuela, September 5, 2008. JRW: First, can we start off with your name and position in this organization? Oscar González The PSUV headquarters in […]

As headlines focus on conventions and running mates, the third anniversary of Katrina offers an opportunity to examine the results of disastrous federal, state, and local policy on the people of New Orleans.  Several organizations have released reports in the past week, examining the current state of the city, and grassroots activists have plans to […]

  The 21 year old social partnership pact between unions, employers and the Government in Ireland is entering one of its periodic crises as one national pay agreement Towards 2016 begins to run out and talks on a successor have collapsed. The Government is expected to attempt resuscitation in late August or early September, writes Padraig […]

Earlier this summer, it looked like the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union was about to experience something truly unusual in its history – — a contested campaign for national president.  The last contest for the union’s top Canadian officer was in 1960, a quarter of a century before the formation of the CAW and a […]

Briefly. . . 15 July 2008 Broad Zimbabwean Civil Society adopted Declaration calling for establishment of transitional authority, drafting of a new peopled-driven constitution and subsequent democratic elections DECLARATION BY  ZIMBABWEAN CIVIL SOCIETY REGARDING A TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY IN ZIMBABWE following the “Whither Zimbabwe: National Civil Society Consultative Conference” We, civil society organizations acting on […]

It is 14th Jeth, 2065, [Tuesday, May 27th, 2008] in Nepal, the day before the Constituent Assembly is to convene and declare Nepal a full Republic.  The king remains in his palace.  The form of the new government, who will lead it, whether the old parliamentary parties will join in a Maoist-led government or, as […]

  For the first time in a generation or more, SEIU is facing a substantial movement by internal dissidents seeking to push through democratic reforms.  This push has a two-fold character. One prong is the very public resignation by Sal Roselli, the head of United Healthcare Workers — West (UHW), the third largest local in […]

  In September 2000, I decided to do my part to bring peace to the Middle East.  As a Canadian attorney of Palestinian origin, I believed I could use my legal skills to help broker a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.  Naive?  Perhaps. I left my comfortable life in California and moved to […]

  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’ […]