Subjects Archives: Media

  • The Nakba Law: In German It Sounds Worse

      “It is forbidden to mourn on the founding day of the state.” — Israel 2011 Tel Aviv, Israel, 9 May 2011 Zochrot is an NGO whose goal is to introduce the Palestinian Nakba to the Israeli-Jewish public, to express the Nakba in Hebrew.  This is in order to promote an alternative memory to the […]

  • Post-3/11 Japan: Learning from Crises Past, Facing the Critical Present

    Two months after the disasters of March 11, most of the rhythms of everyday life have returned to Tokyo.  Although dimmed city streets remain as daily reminders of the critical nuclear situation 140 miles north, the university campuses that were deserted over an extended spring break have refilled.  Although the earth still shivers, the anxious […]

  • Interview with Michael Munk, Author of The Portland Red Guide

      Michael Munk’s The Portland Red Guide is a historical guidebook of social dissent in Portland, Oregon, and links notable radicals, their organizations, and their activities to physical sites in the city. We had a brief conversation over e-mail with Michael Munk to talk about the book, now in its Second Edition, and his experience […]

  • Turkey: Freedom of opPRESSion?

      On December 24th, 2010, a publishing house in Turkey was raided by the police.  Without any prior warning, its office’s electricity was cut off, and special operations teams surrounded its building.  Walls were rammed, doors were torn apart, and people working for Ozan Publishing were arrested and tortured. Not satisfied with that, the police […]

  • Find A May Day Action Near You

    May Day Toast to the Workers of the World

    Let’s drink a toast to all those farmers, workers, artists and intellectuals of the last 100 years who without thought of fame and profit . . . worked tirelessly in their dream of a worldwide socialist revolution, who believed and hoped that a new world was dawning and that their work would contribute to a […]

  • Iran’s Islamist Bloggers Divided over Khamenei vs. Ahmadinejad

      It appears from Iranian Islamist blogs that the honeymoon between Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Republic’s Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is finally over.  Some reject Ahmadinejad in favor of the Supreme Leader while others show unwavering support for Ahmadinejad. It all started when President Ahmadinejad accepted the resignation of the Iranian Minister […]

  • Maseerat al ‘Awda, the Return to Palestine March

      Following a general meeting that brought together representatives from various Palestinian and Lebanese civil society organizations as well as individual activists, the Organizing Committee of Maseerat al ‘Awda, the Return to Palestine March, has announced the launch of its preparatory activities. The “Return to Palestine March” will take participants to the border with Occupied […]

  • The War in Libya: Race, “Humanitarianism,” and the Media

      Firing for Media Effect: Setting the “African” Agenda “We left behind our friends from Chad.  We left behind their bodies.  We had 70 or 80 people from Chad working for our company.  They cut them dead with pruning shears and axes, attacking them, saying you’re providing troops for Gadhafi.  The Sudanese, the Chadians were […]

  • After Yugoslavia: Alternative Balkanization from Below, against the Belgrade Consensus

      Andrej Grubacic.  Don’t Mourn, Balkanize! Essays after Yugoslavia.  Introduction by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.  PM Press, 2010. This is not a typical book review and I am not a detached reader.  The book’s author, Andrej Grubacic, is a friend and collaborator, a comrade in the truest sense of the word.  And as he makes clear throughout […]

  • The Revolution of Anger

      ثـــــورة غضــــــب Never will we accept humiliation We are the lovers of martyrdom Raise your voice and say it loud My cause is my nation, and my blood my weapon! Never will we accept humiliation We are the lovers of martyrdom Raise your voice and say it loud My cause is my nation, and […]

  • Gaza Honors Slain Italian Activist Vittorio Arrigoni

      Cf. Egidia Beretta Arrigoni, “Vittorio non è mai stato così vivo come ora” (Il Manifesto, 17 April 2011); “The mother of pro-Palestinian activist Victorio Arrigoni reaffirmed that his body should not return via Israel. . . . Egidia Beretta replied that ‘Israel did not want him when he was alive and won’t have him […]

  • The Congress Debates

    This morning at 10:00am I listened to the delegates’ debates at the 6th Congress of the Party.… There were so many commissions that, logically, I couldn’t listen to everyone who spoke.… They were meeting in five commissions to discuss a number of issues. Thereafter I, too, took advantage of the breaks to breathe calmly and eat some energy providing food. They surely had more of an appetite given their work and age.

  • Disinformation about Syria in Western Media

    A number of news reports by AFP, the Guardian, and other news agencies and outlets are suggesting that Syrian security forces were responsible for shooting nine Syrian soldiers, who were killed in Banyas on Sunday.  Some versions insist that they were shot for refusing orders to shoot at demonstrators. Considerable evidence suggests that this is […]

  • Comrade Gagarin

      “An astronaut son of a carpenter, Yuri Gagarin, a son of Red October” I Giovani Comunisti/e (Young Communists) is the youth wing of the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (Communist Refoundation Party).  Music by Banda Bassotti (“Juri Gagarin”).  Cf. “Gagarin’s experience shows that the son of a Soviet carpenter enjoyed material foundations to make it […]

  • Ohio House Bill 153: “Charter Universities” and Increasing Teaching Loads

      Testimony of Sara Kaminski, Executive Director,Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors,before the House Finance Subcommittee on Higher Education, 7 April 2011 Chairman Gardner, Ranking Member Garland, and distinguished members of the Higher Education Subcommittee: my name is Sara Kaminski, and I am the Executive Director of the Ohio Conference of the […]

  • Japan’s Nuclear Power Plant Workers, Exposed to Radiation, Hidden from Sight

      隠された被爆労働:日本の原発労働者 Kenji Higuchi (樋口健二) is a photographer in Japan, acclaimed for his work of documenting the effects of industrial pollution and the exploitation of nuclear power plant workers.  This documentary film was released by Channel 4 (UK) in 1995.  Cf. Tim Shorrock, “Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare (Part One)” (18 March 2011); Tim Shorrock, “Japan’s Nuclear […]

  • Arming the Libyan Rebels

      Jon Stewart: Jon Stewart: Oh, people, we are now into our third week of a military bombing campaign in Libya, Operation Odyssey Dawn.  The operation cleverly named for the Odyssey, a 20-year harrowing journey through a hellscape where nearly everyone is killed.  Adding “dawn” . . . so it’s the earliest part of that […]

  • In Memory of Our Beloved Friend Juliano Mer-Khamis

      Juliano Mer-Khamis embodied the uncompromising struggle for freedom and for dignity.  With his brutal murder the Palestinian struggle has lost a brilliant, charismatic, and courageous fighter for justice and freedom.  Both parts of his life’s work were seamlessly joined.  His art was inseparable from his political commitment.  The dignity and humanity which his art […]

  • Syrians Living Abroad, Standing Up for Syria and Bashar

    Bashar al-Assad is a lucky man.  Even the mother of the Angry Arab (himself no fan of the Syrian president) seems to like him: “As my mom says about him: he is the best educated among Arab leaders (many of whom are illiterate) and it shows.” — Ed. Beirut, Lebanon, 27.03.11 Cairo, Egypt, 31.03.11 Bucharest, […]

  • Japan’s Muslim Community Aiding Tsunami Victims

      People from all walks of life and different faiths have come to the aid of the victims.  Members of the Muslim community of Tokyo are among the thousands of sincere and caring volunteers who are rushing supplies to Japan’s needy. . . .  Between Tokyo and the ravaged areas lies Fukushima Prefecture, where radiation […]