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Killing the Dark Bodies: Execution as Market Sustainability & State Redemption
From: Sam <xxx@xxx.com> Subject: Re: The Soul of Money Date: December 13, 2005 11:40:11 AM CST To: Lisa Arrastía<arras004@umn.edu>Good morning, chica, Mom and Marty hosted a brunch fundraiser for “Death Penalty Focus” on Sunday, which was uplifting. Mike Farrell (Captain B.J. Hunnicut of M.A.S.H. fame) spoke at the fundraiser. He’s a long time death […]
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Seattle Votes for a Right to Health Care
Measure No. 1, as it appeared on the ballot: Advisory ballot measure No. 1 concerns the right to health care. If approved, the measure would advise the mayor and the city council that every person in the US should have an equal right to quality health care, and that Congress should implement that right. The […]
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Blind Man with a Pistol: The Evolution of the Modern Police State as Seen by Prison Authors
“What started it?” “A blind man with a pistol.” “That don’t make sense.” “Sure don’t.” — Chester Himes Minorities and most poor people in the inner cities have always lived with the knowledge that (for them at least) the forces of unlawful suppression and misuse of power far too often masqueraded as the forces of […]
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Economic Inequality and US Politics
Over the last twenty-five years, economic inequality in the US grew. As the gap between haves and have-nots worsened, social injustices and tensions increased. As usual, politicians in power have devised projects and campaigns designed to distract attention from these realities. Opposition politicians wonder whether they dare attack growing inequality and champion programs for less […]
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From Bill Bennett to the American Nazi Party — Protest Racism in All Its Forms
The protest against the Nazis in Toledo on October 15, 2005 was an appropriate response to the violent racism that the Nazi party represents. Wherever racist groups like the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan go, they need to be exposed for what they are, not ignored. Sure, they may be (willing) pawns in a […]
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Things That Rise Up in the Night: A Howl-oween Treat
Have you ever felt that something was “wrong” with you? That something about you was so hideous, so unspeakably repulsive, so dark and unknowable that people could never, ever accept you? Something . . . “monstrous”? Of course you have. Later, you discovered there were others like you. You turned your shame into pride, and […]
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Induced Failure
The current penal system in America is not working. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that it predisposes prisoners to recidivism (a relapse into a life of crime). Since man is ultimately a product of his environment, the current system’s products speak for themselves: failure. The system’s practices set […]
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“George Bush Doesn’t Care about Black People”
Watch the Black Lantern‘s video of “George Bush Doesn’t Care about Black People” by the Legendary K.O.:
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Waiting to Be Paid
[What follows is an essay written in response to Michael D. Yates’ call for essays on work. — Ed.] I have a number of jobs. I homeschool a special needs child, I work part-time in a cat shelter, and I work part-time in our family business, a solo CPA practice. My husband works about […]
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New Orleans:
The world watched as people of New Orleans were herded into the Superdome, only to find themselves in a wretched and unsanitary place with no food, water, or proper medical care. Those in areas of high flooding fled to their rooftops, begging rescue helicopters to airlift them to safety. Many died trapped in their […]
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“We Went into the Mall and Began ‘Looting'”: A Letter on Race, Class, and Surviving the Hurricane
[Peter Berkowitz is a long-time Monthly Review subscriber. He was in New Orleans bringing his son Ernesto to begin his freshman year at Loyola when they were caught in the hurricane. Peter and Ernesto spent five days on the street by the Convention Center. Below is a letter Peter sent to his mother upon […]
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New Orleans Black Community Leaders Charge Racism in Government Neglect of Hurricane Survivors
A national alliance of black community leaders will announce the formation of a New Orleans People’s Committee to demand a decision-making role in the short-term care of hurricane survivors and long-term rebuilding of New Orleans. Community Labor United (CLU), a New Orleans coalition of labor and community activists, has put out a call to activists […]
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Insuring Inequality: The Privatization of Public Education in the U.S.
The education gap in the U.S., like the wealth chasm, is growing ever wider, and equal educational opportunity, the perennial dream of working-class and progressive people, is being undermined by neo-conservative forces. Although free universal public education was adopted early in U.S. history, equal opportunity has never been realized. Since colonial times, education has been […]
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GM, the UAW, and U.S. Health Care
General Motors Corp. is losing market share and money. Basically, GM’s business downturn is being driven by UAW members having made more cars and trucks than can be sold in the marketplace. Thus, the company wants to re-open its four-year labor contract with the UAW to cut employee health-care costs, unilaterally if need be. GM […]
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Indocumentado/Undocumented
Solo, Frente a luces ajenas Oye otras voces calladas, distantes: Este puente te lleva al olvido, Te cambia de nombre. Ya nada será tuyo Escucha el sonido del tren que se aleja, El viento que roza la tarde. Ya nada será tuyo Y cuando vuelvas Traerás en las uñas, en el tacto, en tu aliento, […]
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Social Medicine 101
Bastille Day 2005 inaugurates the new Monthly Review Webzine. Paris is also an excellent place to begin a series on social medicine. For it was in Paris, in 1830, that one of the seminal papers in social medicine appeared. While the Parisian workers overthrew Charles X, the last of the Bourbons, a French physician, Louis Rene Villerme published a paper examining mortality patterns in different Parisian arrondissements (districts).