Subjects Archives: Inequality

Written hurriedly in Caracas February 2008 Background These are some brief impressions and reflections in the midst of a short visit to Venezuela.  For 10 days I traveled with a wonderful group of 23, mainly from the New York City area (with delegates from Washington, DC, Washington State, and myself from Vermont).  It was led […]

Nearly seven million Californians lack health insurance, or about every fifth person in the state.  Big papers such as the San Jose Mercury News and the Sacramento Bee are urging the state Senate Health Committee to pass the Núñez-Perata health-care reform bill, ABX1-1.  Gov. Schwarzenegger backs the speaker and senate leader’s bill, which the State […]

HOUSTON, TX.  The National Conference for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (January 18-20) organized by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) took place during a critical period in U.S. immigration history.  Over five hundred NNIRR members, activists, and organizers (including numerous immigrants and their organizations) came to the conference to share their experiences, […]

  South Carolina 2000: Six hundred police in riot gear facing a few dozen angry-as-hell workers on the docks of Charleston.  In the darkness, rocks, clubs and blood fly.  The cops beat the crap out of the protesters.  Of course, it’s the union men who are arrested for conspiracy to riot.  And of course, of […]

Saturday 26.1.08: A countrywide relief convoy and Israeli demonstration in solidarity on the Gaza border with a parallel Palestinian demonstration in the Strip. It is impossible to keep one and a half million people in a huge prison, and if you try an explosion is bound to happen, as happened today at the Gaza Strip’s […]

On 19 November, the Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi received some unusual visitors.  Even the police and security personnel stationed in the heavily-guarded Chanakyapuri area of Delhi where Norwegian and other embassies are located could not figure out the purpose of these visitors.  Though they were Indian citizens, ethnically they belonged to a distinct tribal […]

  Kenya appears to be on the brink of an ethnically charged civil war following a disputed election on December 27. President Kibaki was declared the winner of a second term after a vote that opposition candidate Mr Raila Odinga denounces as rigged and that European Union observers agree was seriously flawed. As tens of […]

  “O there are times, we must confess To harboring a whim — we Like to picture old Karl Marx Sliding down our chimney” — Susie Day“Help fund the good fight.   By contributing to MR, you help reinforce the left and reclaim the future.” — Richard D. Vogel “To do my part, I just […]

  “O there are times, we must confess To harboring a whim — we Like to picture old Karl Marx Sliding down our chimney” — Susie Day“Help fund the good fight.   By contributing to MR, you help reinforce the left and reclaim the future.” — Richard D. Vogel“To do my part, I just got […]

  On the eve of the meeting intended to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians at Annapolis, Maryland, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Israel will build no new West Bank settlements, but will not “strangle” existing Israel settlements.  This means that construction in the 149 existing Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank […]

Tallulah is a small town in Northeastern Louisiana, one of the poorest regions in the US.   It is about 90 miles from the now-legendary town of Jena, and like Jena it is a town with a large youth prison that was closed after allegations of abuse and brutality.  Also like Jena, residents of Tallulah are […]

Upcoming New York Area Events on Immigration with Jane Guskin & David Wilson authors of The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers For information:Website: thepoliticsofimmigration.org/ Blog:thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/ Email: thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com NOVEMBER  2007 Thursday, Nov. 15, between Noon and 1 pm Interview on “Lakou New York,” hosted by Dahoud André and Ernest Banatte (“Mèt Bano”) For listeners in […]

On December 10th, 2003, the leftist newsweekly Jungle World published a pamphlet by the French journalists Caroline Fourest and Fiammetta Venner, which contained a defensive claim which would go on to have a great career: with their assertion that the term “Islamophobia” was coined in the year 1979 by Iranian mullahs in order to denounce […]

  This meeting, after thorough discussion of all aspects of the situation arising from the imposition of State of Emergency by the Chief of the Army Staff, resolves as follows: We strongly condemn the imposition of State of Emergency, promulgation of Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), suspension of fundamental rights and the dismantling of the entire […]

  Cast of Characters Andy: 19, prisoner Shades: 30s, prisoner Place A dormitory in Rikers Island Correctional Facility, New York City Time An evening, early 1960s SETTING:  A bed stretches right from SC.  Other beds are dimly seen behind it.  The right wall has barred windows.  At the head of the bed, SR, is a […]

Author’s Note:  The appearance of General Petraeus’s Counterinsurgency Field Manual, published recently for the US book trade by the University of Chicago Press, has created a stir because of charges of pilfered scholarship, damage to the reputation of UC, and the role of anthropologist Montgomery McFate in writing the book.  The mission of social science […]

  Have you heard an anti-immigrant argument that you feel is wrong,  but need the facts to contest?  (For example: “Immigrants are a drain on social services.”)  Do you have your own fear or concern about the issue?  (For example: “Are the lowest-paid US-born workers really hurt by immigration?”) Bring your concerns to one of […]

The Internal Revenue Service tracks the incomes of Americans as recorded in their tax returns each year.  The latest numbers, covering 1986 to 2005, summarize one basic feature of this country’s evolving economy and politics: the sharply widening gap between haves and have-nots.  Consider the richest 1 per cent of Americans.  They filed 1.3 million […]

  Should the United States, seeking to recalibrate the balance between security and liberty in the “war on terror,” emulate Israel in its treatment of Palestinian detainees? That is the position that Guantanamo detainee lawyers Avi Stadler and John Chandler of Atlanta, and some others, have advocated.  That people in U.S. custody could be held […]

In the last years before his historically catastrophic assassination, Martin Luther King used to lament to his closest comrades that he was “afraid we’re integrating ourselves into a burning house.”  How apt that fear turned out to be is still under-appreciated.  Among the burning rooms that have yet to be discussed is this one: corporate […]