“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]
Subjects Archives: Movements
Transforming “the Nursery of Rebellion”
“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]
Neocons, Republicans, and War Criminals Rave about Obama’s “Team of Rivals”
“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]
Thailand: Anti-government PAD Thugs Want Dictatorship to Replace Democracy
Bangkok International Airport has now been closed by fascist thugs from the anti-government “People’s Alliance for Democracy” (PAD). The PAD are demanding that the elected government resigns. This is despite the fact that the government has the backing of the majority of the Thai population and even the majority of Bangkok citizens. This backing has […]
Civil Society against Democracy?
Amaney A. Jamal. Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. 216 pp. $37.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-12727-9. Amaney Jamal’s central insight in this carefully researched book may seem obvious once it is stated. Her “overall hypothesis” is simply that “linkages to […]
The Achilles’ Heel of the Bolivarian Revolution
The media were predicting a disaster for Venezuela’s Chavistas. Desperate for news that was fit to print, the opposition-controlled Venezuelan press and its foreign counterparts convinced many that the time had come for Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian Revolution, after stumbling in a slim referendum defeat last year, to finally come crashing down under its […]
A Big Caravan to Washington? The Auto Crisis: Management, Labor, and the Struggle for the Future
The crisis in the auto industry is about many things: the possible collapse of GM, Detroit gas guzzlers, auto emission standards, the environment, and the need for mass transportation, among others. But as became clear this last week, at the center of it all is the struggle between management and the workers, that is, between […]
Comment on PLO Full-page Advert in the Israeli Daily Press on 20/11/2008
Yesterday, Nov. 20, 2008, the PLO published in ALL major Israeli daily newspapers the policy statement of the ARAB LEAGUE of 2003 (signed by 57 Arab or Muslim States), pledging to sign full peace and establish full normal relations with Israel if it returns to its pre 1967 borders and lets the Palestinians set up […]
“Today We Have Come Out”: Mass Uprising of Tribal People in West Bengal
The events that have been happening during the last one week in the adivasi (tribal) belt of West Midnapur district in West Bengal are so unprecedented that the authorities do not know how to respond to them, and the media doesn’t understand their significance. Even the political parties and civil society are at a […]
The Rise and Fall of the Arab Middle Class in the Middle East: Between Modernization, Nationalism, and Revolution
Keith David Watenpaugh. Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Arab Middle Class. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. xi + 325 pp. $37.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-12169-7. One of the great modern landmarks of the city of Aleppo is the Baron Hotel. The Mazloumians, a wealthy Armenian family of […]
An Open Letter to President-elect Barack Hussein Obama
Dear President-elect Obama, Members of the American Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC) congratulate you on your glorious victory that was felt and admired especially by common men, women and children of all races and economic status in the United States and around the world. Tuesday, November 4, 2008 is a date that will live in […]
“Special” New York Times Blankets Cities with Message of Hope and Change: Thousands of Volunteers behind Elaborate Operation
PDF: www.nytimes-se.com/pdf Ongoing video releases: www.nytimes-se.com/video The New York Times responds: cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/pranksters-spoof-the-times/ Hundreds of independent writers, artists, and activists are claiming credit for an elaborate project, 6 months in the making, in which 1.2 million copies of a “special edition” of the New York Times were distributed in cities across the U.S. by thousands of […]
Venezuela: Crucial Test for Bolivarian Revolution
While on the surface it may appear to be a simple electoral battle, something much different is at stake on November 23. On that day, Venezuelans will go to the polls to elect 22 governors, 328 mayors, 233 legislators to the state legislative councils, and 13 councilors to district committees — including indigenous representation — […]
Paloma Causes Devastation But . . . It Is Fortunate That We Have a Revolution
It is too soon to know exactly what material damage was caused by Hurricane Paloma, the third hurricane of great intensity to hit us in less than 10 weeks during the present hurricane season, but, facing this new blow dealt by nature, we Cubans can affirm that it is fortunate that we have a Revolution. […]
“Next Year We’ll Go Back. . .”: The History of Turkish “Guest Workers” in the Federal Republic of Germany
Karin Hunn. “Nächstes Jahr kehren wir zurück. . .”: Die Geschichte der türkischen “Gastarbeiter” in der Bundesrepublik. Moderne Zeit: Neue Forschungen zur Gesellschafts- und Kulturgeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2005. 598 pp. Tables, bibliography. EUR 46.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-89244-945-4. Karin Hunn’s meticulously researched, highly informative, and well-structured study is a […]
Solidarity Forever?
William Minter, Gail Hovey, and Charles Cobb, Jr., eds. No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950-2000. Trenton: Africa World Press, 2008. xvii + 248 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, index. $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-59221-575-1. This is a remarkable and often insightful collection of essays and reflections, many of […]
World’s Labor Federations React to Financial Crisis with Proposals from Re-regulation to Socialism
Labor unions around the world have reacted to the financial crisis and the economic recession with words and actions reflecting their national experience, their political ideology, and their leaderships. Unions and workers have already seen the financial crisis and the growing recession result in the closing of plants and offices, in shorter workweeks, pay cuts, […]
To Our Arab and Muslim Friends, We Say: We Stand with You
We are witnessing an insidious new wave of demonization of Arabs and Muslims. The presidential race has surfaced deep prejudices that will be here long after we have elected a new leader. Look closely, and you’ll find many right-wing Christian and Jewish groups that deny the fundamental rights of Palestinians, deliberately fueling fear of […]
India’s Combative Anti-Displacement Movement
I recently spent three weeks gathering information about the anti-displacement movement in India. As a guest of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (People’s Movement against Displacement and for Development), I traveled across central and eastern India visiting the sites of proposed industrial and mining projects, Special Economic Zones, and real estate developments. I spoke […]
The Life and Times of Genora Dollinger
Child of the Sit-Downs: The Revolutionary Life of Genora Dollinger, by Carlton Jackson, WKU Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 2008. 256 pages, $39.00 (cloth). This wonderful book is a most welcome biography of Genora Dollinger, labor reformer and feminist. Genora (her husband told Dr. Jackson that she […]
