On August 4, 2020, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on Venezuela. Appearing before the committee was U.S. State Department Special Representative Elliott Abrams.
Subjects Archives: Imperialism
Imperialism, Globalization, and War
American left silence on China helps lay foundation for the U.S.’ New Cold War
When it comes to China, Democracy Now, Jacobin, The Nation and others on the imperial-minded U.S. ‘left” are allies of white supremacy.
Ask an expert: Congress plans to spend billions on dangerous, unnecessary nuclear weapons
This week is the 75th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only time nuclear bombs have been used in a conflict—and one could only hope the last time. To commemorate the anniversary, I thought it would be appropriate to devote this column to taking a hard look at current U.S. nuclear […]
Another Hiroshima is coming…. Unless we stop it now
In a major essay to mark the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, John Pilger describes reporting from five ‘ground zeros’ for nuclear weapons – from Hiroshima to Bikini, Nevada to Polynesia and Australia. He warns that unless we take action now, China is next.
Do not reach for the sky just to surrender
The novel coronavirus continues its march through the world, with 18 million confirmed cases and at least 685,000 deaths. Of these, the United States of America, Brazil, and India are the worst-hit, harbouring about half of the world’s cases.
Bolivia begins the week with an indefinite general strike and roadblocks
In the early hours of this Monday morning, the indefinite general strike and roadblocks began throughout Bolivia, called by the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) and the organizations that constitute the Unity Pact, which demand that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal respect the election date established by law for September 6.
Document exposes new U.S. plot to overthrow Nicaragua’s elected socialist gov’t
A disturbing new document outlines plans for a U.S. regime-change scheme against Nicaragua’s elected leftist government, overseen by USAID, to bring about a “market economy” and a purge of Sandinistas.
A review of Andreas Malm’s Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century
What can a virus tell us about climate breakdown, in its causation and in humanity’s response?
Seeking peace on the Korean Peninsula
Although the date drew little notice in the U.S. media, July 27, 2020 marked the 67th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement, an agreement that ended the fighting but not the war between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).
Happy Birthday: Critique of Dialectical Reason!
On the 60th anniversary of Jean-Paul Sartre’s key text on Marxism, Robert Boncardo shows us why it is still relevant, and urgently needed, today.
A tale of two Chomskys: Cancel culture vs. neoliberal hegemonic soft power
Noam Chomsky has been writing about the lack of democracy under neoliberal hegemony for decades, which is why I was so surprised that he signed the recent Harper’s Letter.
China & U.S. power
Can China do much to fight back against the power wielded by the U.S. in the world economy? At first sight, that looks unlikely. China is big, but world trade is conducted in dollars, and the U.S. has economic, political and military influence across the globe.
ATOMIC BOMBINGS AT 75: Scholars speak out against ‘unnecessary’ attacks
Japan was ready to surrender, making the atomic bombings of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki two days later, totally unnecessary and morally indefensible, say a panel of scholars in two video discussions.
A fractured empire, within and without
Two things seem certain at this point: (1) The Trump administration will continue to extend its heavy handed neofascist tactics in the next three months, seeking to expand its political base by these means, and (2) the White House and the Republican Party will try to engineer another set of stimulus payments/tax cuts in early […]
The Black Caucus and the dictatorship of (White) capital
Black politics does not exist in the Democratic Party, because the duopoly system serves only the corporate rulers.
Trade and tensions between the U.S. and China
The Donald Trump administration uses every mechanism to cut China out of the global supply chain, but nothing seems to be working as a resolute China is unwilling to back down and dismantle its technological gains.
Crisis and Virus: COVID-19 in context
“Now this liberal virus, which pollutes contemporary social thought and eliminates the capacity to understand the world, let alone to transform it, has profoundly penetrated the whole of the ‘historical left’ formed in the aftermath of the Second World War” (Samir Amin, 2003, 41)
‘Trump’s troops are breaking the law and creating chaos’
Janine Jackson interviewed legal scholar Marjorie Cohn about secret police in Portland for the July 24, 2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
A “brazen giveaway” GOP HEALS Act is a $30 billion bonanza for the Pentagon
The new $1 trillion GOP HEALS act includes billions for F-35 fighters, Apache Helicopters, and other welfare programs for the Pentagon.
A Fifty-Year journey for truth and justice
The back cover of Diana Johnstone’s Circle in the Darkness calls the memoir “a veteran journalist’s lucid, uncompromising tour through half a century of contemporary history,” one that “recounts in detail how the Western Left betrayed its historical principles of social justice and peace and let itself be lured into approval of aggressive U.S.-NATO wars […]
