Clarence Thomas is a former officer and long-time labor activist with ILWU Local 10. I spoke with him about the prospect of a shutdown of the Port of Oakland this evening — a goal of Occupy Oakland demonstrators who called a general strike today. Clarence Thomas: “One of the reasons why they are doing […]
Subjects Archives: Movements
Call-Out for Solidarity with Egypt: Defend the Revolution
A letter from Cairo to the Occupy/Decolonize movements & other solidarity movements. After three decades of living under a dictatorship, Egyptians started a revolution demanding bread, freedom and social justice. After a nearly utopian occupation of Tahrir Square lasting eighteen days, we rid ourselves of Mubarak and began the second, harder, task of removing his […]
Defend Occupy Oakland with the Muscle of Organized Labor
Demonstrators in downtown Oakland protesting the bank-driven economic crisis were brutally attacked by police from 18 Bay Area agencies on Tuesday Oct. 25. Mayor Quan, who was supported by ILWU Local 10 in the recent elections, ordered this bloody assault. Cops used potentially lethal weapons to break up the occupation of Frank Ogawa (now […]
The Time for Action Is Now
“In 1969, a group of black and Puerto Rican students occupied City College demanding the integration of CUNY, which at the time had an overwhelmingly white student body. The occupation spread to other CUNY campuses, forcing the Board of Trustees to implement a ground-breaking new admissions policy.” Such occupations also occurred in the 1980s […]
Liberate Oakland, Shut Down the 1%: General Strike and Mass Day of Action, November 2
Below is the proposal passed by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly on Wednesday October 26, 2011 in reclaimed Oscar Grant Plaza. 1607 people voted. 1484 voted in favor of the resolution, 77 abstained and 46 voted against it, passing the proposal at 96.9%. The General Assembly operates on a modified consensus process that passes […]
Footage of Scott Olsen Being Shot by Police at Occupy Oakland
This footage is proof that Scott Olsen was shot in the face by police without provocation during the Occupy Oakland march on Tuesday, October 25. The moment leading up to the shooting, Olsen was standing completely still. He was then hit in the head with a tear gas canister, which is potentially fatal. Also, […]
Interview with Salim Lamrani: “The Economic Sanctions against Cuba Constitute the Principal Obstacle to the Development of the Country”
Salim Lamrani. État de siège; les sanctions économiques des États-Unis contre Cuba(State of Siege: The United States’ economic sanctions against Cuba). Prologue by Wayne S. Smith. Preface by Paul Estrade. Paris, Editions Estrella, 2011. 15 euros. CSF: You’ve just published a new book under the title État de siège. What exactly do you cover […]
This Is My Will
This is my will. I, Muammar bin Mohammad bin Abdussalam bi Humayd bin Abu Manyar bin Humayd bin Nayil al Fuhsi Gaddafi, do swear that there is no god but God and that Mohammad is God’s Prophet, peace be upon him. I pledge that I will die as Muslim. Should I be killed, I […]
#OWS, Times Square, and the Global Labor Movement
“I’m just a soccer mom. Well, a swimming mom, if you want to be exact.” This is how the middle-aged women holding up the “Worked 1973-2003” sign at Saturday’s Occupy Wall Street rally at Times Square described herself to me. She stood next to a young boy leaning against his dad, the son holding up […]
John Bellamy Foster at Occupy Eugene
At the rally for Occupy Eugene, 15 October 2011 Photo by Rob Sydor Photo by Mickey Stellavato John Bellamy Foster is the editor of Monthly Review. He is the author of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism(with Fred Magdoff), The Ecological Rift, The Ecological Revolution, The Great Financial Crisis, Marx’s Ecology, Ecology […]
Global Revolution
Iván Lira is a Venezuelan artist. | Print
The “Convergence of Interests” in the Arab Revolts
In the wars currently waged on the backs of the Arab revolutions, one particular term stands out in the lexicon of Arab politicians and their columnist and media acolytes: the phrase “convergence of interests,” which has made a big comeback. In Tunisia, liberals of the worst kind, and Islamists of the opportunist variety, have […]
Martin Feldstein Strikes Out Again: Big Time
Harvard economics professor Martin Feldstein, who made himself famous by predicting in 1993 that Clinton tax increases would not raise any revenue, strikes out big time in his proposal for the housing market in the New York Times. He tells readers: House prices are continuing to fall because of the wave of foreclosures; That consumers […]
How to Make an Ecosocialist Revolution
Meetings such as this play a vital role in building a movement that can stop the hell-bound train of capitalism, before it takes itself and all of humanity over the precipice. Building such a movement is the most important thing anyone can do today — so I’m honored to have been invited to take part […]
Letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, regarding the US Allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful No. 1110 11 October 2011 H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon Secretary General United Nations, New York Excellency, I am writing to you to express our outrage regarding the allegations leveled by the United States officials against the Islamic Republic of Iran on the involvement of my country […]
MINUSTAH: Keeping the Peace, or Conspiring against It?
Nou dwe sèl mèt bout tè sa a: We should be the only owners of this land. From an anti-MINUSTAH protest last month. Photo by Ansel Herz. This was Haitian protesters’ message at a demonstration last month against the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH. October marks an upswing […]
#OWS and the U.S. Labor Movement
If you go to Zuccotti Park looking for the U.S. labor movement, you might be disappointed. Other than a presence in the October 5 march and a series of public endorsements, you will find no purple SEIU banners, no occupiers in red & black UNITE-HERE t-shirts, no AFL-CIO booth at Liberty Plaza, and no permanent […]
Bahrain, Where Every Day Is a Friday
Bahraini and GCC security forces continue their systematic suppression of popular protests against the regime. Feelings of tension mount in Manama, as signs of renewed protest become more evident. Manama — At the airport in Manama, there are fewer passengers than usual. Most of the flights are operated by airlines from the Gulf — […]
Occupy the Hood, Occupy Wall Street
“Well, why are people of color missing? There are a couple of easy answers to that.
The American Revolution (#OWS Remix)
Has Wall Street become the site, the space, the barricaded-yet-porous position of the next American Revolution? Is Zuccotti Park, the 33,000-square-foot privately owned yet publically accessible sliver of real estate across the street from the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan the new streets of Chicago (October 1968) or the new streets of Seattle […]
