Lisa Keller. Triumph of Order: Democracy and Public Space in New York and London. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. xvii + 338 pp. Illustrations. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-231-14672-2; (cloth), ISBN 978-0-231-51847-5. How do a city’s parks, squares, and boulevards enable democracy, and how does the local state negotiate the sometimes fine line between free […]
Subjects Archives: Movements
Beyond “Islam and Human Rights”?
Shahram Akbarzadeh, Benjamin MacQueen, eds. Islam and Human Rights in Practice: Perspectives across the Ummah. London: Routledge, 2008. x + 176 pp. $140.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-415-44959-5. Islam and Human Rights in Practice: Perspectives across the Ummah addresses a vexing theoretical issue: can contemporary human rights practically inform normative and political structures in the Muslim […]
The Young Honduran Revolution
Since the coup of 28 June 2009, the world has been focusing on Honduras. We have already seen images from a country that did not have a history of social movements — at least till now. So, who are these young people? Who are the people organizing these marches? By chance, I was able […]
Spinning the Honduras Coup
In the Summer of 1984, under the oversight of U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, I was deported from Honduras with five other Americans for meeting with union representatives who wanted to tell us about the murders and disappearances of their leaders. At the time, the poor nation was known as “the aircraft carrier USS Honduras” […]
Iran: For Human Rights, Against Intervention
“No matter where we come from, there should never be any support for the US or any outside forces intervening in any country, particularly in Iran. There should be no sanctions. Not only sanctions are not humane but are not effective even, for the purpose of people who are doing them. . . . […]
Open Letter to Iranian Authorities and World Community
As members of the Board of Iranians For Peace (IFP), we are deeply concerned about the events following June 12 election in Iran particularly the street violence, loss of life, and widespread arrests. One of the detainees, Dr Bijan Khajehpour Khoei, is a supporter of the IFP. We appeal to the Iranian authorities to […]
Ecological Revolution for Our Time
John Bellamy Foster. The Ecological Revolution: Making Peace with the Planet. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2009. 328 pp. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels famously urged the world’s workers to unite because they had a world to win, and nothing to lose but their chains. Today, the reality of climate change and worsening environmental breakdowns […]
After the Orange Revolution: “Worldwide Low 4% of Ukrainians Approve of Their Country’s Leadership”
The Orange Revolution in Ukraine, which began with a dispute over the 21 November 2004 run-off vote between the leading presidential candidates, ended by installing Viktor Yushchenko, the Western favorite who cried fraud, into presidency on 23 January 2005. Ian Traynor of the Guardian put the price tag of the Orange Revolution at about $14 […]
Inside the Revolution: A Journey into the Heart of Venezuela
February 2009 marked 10 years since Hugo Chavez took office, following a landslide election victory, and launched his revolution to bring radical change to Venezuela. While wildly popular with many in the country, Chavez’s policies and his outspoken criticisms of the U.S. government have made him powerful enemies, both at home and abroad, especially […]
Honduran Resistance Leaders Speak in Chicago
Labor Express interviews four Honduran civil society leaders, who visited Chicago on 7-8 August 2009 as part of the Honduras Coup Resistance Speaking Tour sponsored by the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC): Abencio Fernández Pineda, Gerardo Torres, Maria Luisa Jimenez, and Luther Castillo. Play now: “We are here, in the […]
Letter to the People of Israel
August 8, 2009 When your government denied us our rights, many ordinary Israelis did not look away. Instead they stood with us. They showed us that Israelis are able to look past our differences and stand up for what is right. I call on the Israeli people once again to help. Early on Sunday, […]
Media Capitalism, the State, and 21st Century Media Democracy Struggles: An Interview with Robert McChesney
The Media, the Left, and Power Tanner Mirrlees: Why do you think it is important for progressives to understand the media and participate in media democracy struggles? Robert McChesney: The media is one of the key areas in society where power is exercised, reinforced, and contested. It is hard to imagine a successful left […]
Honduran Workers Fight for Return of Democracy
Honduras’s three principal labor centrals, the Unitary Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH), the General Workers Central (CGT), and the Confederation of Honduran Workers (CTH) began an open-ended national strike on 6 August 2009. * * * Communiqué The three workers confederations of Honduras, CUTH, CGT, and CTH address the critical political situation that prevails in […]
Imperialism and Struggles for Democracy in West Asia
The history of the West Asia for over a century is one long history of how colonial and imperialist powers, both old and new, have arrogantly plundered, looted, dismembered, manipulated and raped a region for their unbridled self interests. It is a history of total disregard and callous disrespect for the peoples of this […]
Giorgio Agamben’s State of Exception
Giorgio Agamben. State of Exception. Translated by Kevin Attell. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. 104 pp. $15.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-226-00925-4. State of Exception, a book written by Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, is the English translation by Kevin Attell of the monograph Stato di eccezione. Well known are the author’s works that […]
Honduras Coup: A Template for Hemispheric Assault on Democracy
The people of Honduras have now suffered more than 40 days of military rule. The generals’ June 28 coup, crudely re-packaged in constitutional guise, ousted the country’s elected government and unleashed severe, targeted, and relentless repression. The grassroots protests have matched the regime in endurance and outmatched it in political support within the country and […]
August 11, 2009: Global Action Day for Honduras
To the sisters and brothers of all the regions of Via Campesina To the sisters and brothers of all social movements To all the people of the world Since the military coup — after more than 38 days of untiring efforts by thousands of farmers, women, indigenous people, teachers, students, unionists, and ordinary citizens […]
Honduran Resistance to the World: Organize a Boycott against the Military-Business Dictatorship of Roberto Micheletti
June 28th of the this year when the Honduran population was preparing to participate in a popular opinion poll about the installation of a fourth ballot box in which it would decide whether or not to convoke a Constitutional Assembly, thousands of military soldiers kidnapped the Constitutional President of the Republic, Manuel Zelaya Rosales, […]
Reply to the Campaign for Peace and Democracy
The Campaign for Peace and Democracy1 has chosen to interpret our “Riding the ‘Green Wave’” article2 as a “vitriolic and dishonest attack” on its authors, and an “offensive impugning of [their] integrity.” In fact, it is nothing of the sort. Instead, it is concerned with issues of central importance to the left in the United […]
Iran’s “Leftist” Don Quixotes
In the 1970s, when Iran’s Fedayeen and Mojahedin1 groups were engaged in an urban guerrilla struggle against the former Shah’s dictatorial regime, a faction of the Iranian Student Association (ISA) in the United States called Ehyaa2 had managed to convince some in the US Left, in particular America’s Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), that a […]
