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 […]
Subjects Archives: Movements
Zainab al-Hosni, the “Flower of Syria,” Alive and on TV: Will Human Rights Organizations and Mass Media Issue Corrections?
Zainab al-Hosni, dubbed the “Flower of Syria,” who the Syrian opposition claimed was tortured and murdered, burned and decapitated, by the Syrian government, has just appeared on Syrian TV, very much alive. Here is the video of the TV interview with Zainab, who says she fled from her family home because her brothers were beating […]
Occupy Boston: Day One
My interpretation of the previous two days as a participant and journalist in Occupy Boston does not reflect the views of other members of the “99 percent” movement, or Occupy Boston as a whole. The $64 trillion dollar question, “When will Americans hit the streets like people in other countries?” has been answered. Over […]
Real Class Warfare: The Great 1934 Longshore Strike in Portland
“Real Class Warfare: The Great 1934 Longshore Strike in Portland” Presentation by Michael Munk Tuesday, October 11 7:30 pm Rialto Poolroom and Bar 529 SW 4th Ave, Portland Free and open to the public Must be 21 or over. On May 9, 1934, thousands of longshoremen along the West Coast walked off the job, […]
Why TWU Local 100 Is Supporting Occupy Wall Street
The Transport Workers Union Local 100 applauds the courage of the young people on Wall Street who are dramatically demonstrating for what our position has been for some time: the shared sacrifice preached by government officials looks awfully like a one-way street. Workers and ordinary citizens are putting up all the sacrifice, and the […]
Cuba: A Tireless Defender of Gay Rights
Francisco Rodríguez Cruz is a Cuban journalist and activist who for over a year has maintained a controversial blog committed to advancing the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Cuba. This is a community that has experienced a difficult history of discrimination on the island. Paquito, as he is […]
Bahrain’s al-Wefaq, Pressured by Regional Players to Compromise
Bahrain’s largest opposition group is resisting grassroots demands for renewed full-scale street protests amid regional pressure to strike a compromise solution with the regime. Al-Wefaq and other Bahraini opposition groups boycotted the country’s parliamentary by-elections last Saturday. But al-Wefaq did not support the latest calls for demonstrations at Pearl Square and may be pushing […]
The Military Intervention in Libya and the Growing Threat against Syria
Address to the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, 26 September 2011 Excerpt: As early as the 21st of February, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz had warned that NATO was inexorably preparing a war against Libya. Since then, Cuba has indefatigably engaged in the defense not of a government […]
Elections in Bahrain: The Latest Ruse to Feign Democratic Change and Cover Up Continuing Repression
Elections held in Bahrain over the weekend are the latest ruse by the regime to feign democratic change. While the charade of ballot box rituals is taking place, the trial of health workers expected to appear in court this week is a fresh reminder that repression in the kingdom is far from over. It […]
Change at Al Jazeera
The Western and Arabic press is full of stories about Al Jazeera and the new direction it will inevitably follow with the selection of a new director-general for its operating networks. The ouster (the official statement did not mention resignation) of Waddah Khanfar has opened doors for speculation. No one really knows what goes […]
Smart New Syria Strategy: Call the Monarchies’ Bluff and Make Them Do What They Are Demanding of You!
For a regime which has, as ICG put it, really inflicted so many wounds on itself (not to mention Syrians) . . . this strikes me as a very effective strategy going forward. You corrupt, collaborationist, monarchical, brutal regimes in the region want us, Syria, to reform and transition out. . . . OK — […]
Practicing Revolutionary Medicine in Cuba and Venezuela
Steve Brouwer. Revolutionary Doctors: How Venezuela and Cuba Are Changing the World’s Conceptualization of Health Care. New York, Monthly Review Press, 2011. 245 pp. $18.95. As Venezuela becomes the first country to reproduce the Cuban medical model on a massive scale, it is doing so in ways that are unique in both form and process. […]
The Selection of Voting Members to Serve on the Federal Open Market Committee
I have long been troubled by the anomaly of having officials — selected with absolutely no public scrutiny or confirmation — voting on some of the most important decisions the federal government makes. Therefore, I introduced H.R. 1512, which eliminates the role of the Federal Reserve’s regional presidents as voting members of the Federal […]
Libya, Egypt: Fashioning Democracy, Packaging Revolution
Democracy, democracy. Don’t we just love it? Don’t we love it as a pretence for furthering our international ambitions? Don’t we love it when it means cheaper oil and cosy partnerships? In the case of Libya, the façade of supporting a democratic movement has fallen from even our most blatant sources of propaganda. To quote […]
Bolivia: US Worked to Divide Social Movements, WikiLeaks Shows
WikiLeaks’ release of cables from the United States embassy in La Paz has shed light on its attempts to create divisions in the social and indigenous movements that make up the support base of Bolivia’s first indigenous-led government. The cables prove the embassy sought to use the US government aid agency, USAID, to promote US […]
Syrian Opposition for Democratic Change Meets in Damascus, without Muslim Brotherhood
Over 200 Syrian opposition figures met in Halboun in the outskirts of the capital Damascus in order to coordinate efforts to build a national opposition movement and to address the anti-government protests that have gripped the country for the last six months. The meeting was attended by Michel Kilo, Fayez Sarah, and Mondher Khaddam, […]
NATO Continues Its Air Strikes in Libya
“Chart with NATO sorties in #Libya shows that strikes continue with same ferocity as before the declared victory in Aug.” — Daniel Nouri Related: here is a map of sixteen cities that NATO attacked between Aug 22 and Sep 16: Daniel Nouri is a Python and JavaScript enthusiast with nine years of professional Python […]
The Machinery of Hopelessness
Excerpt: For at least 5,000 years, before capitalism even existed, popular movements have tended to center on struggles over debt. There is a reason for this. Debt is the most efficient means ever created to make relations fundamentally based on violence and inequality seem morally upright. When this trick no longer works everything explodes, […]
On the Regime and the Opposition in Syria
Despite my very negative position on the regime for private and public reasons, the truth is that the regime is very strong, and neither the outside nor the inside were able to make it change its usual stances. This strength does not come from a vacuum. The regime has a broad popular base that […]
NATO’s Democracy
Kritikal Point, a collective of artists, may be contacted at <kritikalpoint@yahoo.com>. En español. Cf. “How dare Egyptian rebels attack Israeli embassy instead of asking for foreign troops to destroy their museums and libraries? #Egypt #Jan25” (Mazen Shaer, 9 September 2011); “Egyptian revos storm #IsraeliEmbassy while Syrian self-proclaimed so-called revolution icons are promising Israel an […]
