A significant sentence. On the Al Jazeera Web site, there was a report of Saudi Arabia’s condemnation of Hamas’ and Hizbullah’s “adventurism.” The Saudis claimed that “gains” made by Arab leaders were being put in danger. The Al Jazeera report carried the pithy comment to the effect that the Saudi government did not say […]
Subjects Archives: Movements
Nepal: Witnessing the People’s Movement
As the Nepalese people’s struggle against the autocratic feudal monarchy to establish a democratic republic hit a high point during the month of April, it coincided with the arrival from India of the Second International Road-Building Brigade. While the old oppressive and exploitative feudalist world was being attacked and dismantled in the country’s towns […]
When Will the AFL-CIO Leadership Quit Blaming the Chinese Government for Multinational Corporate Decisions, US Government Policies, and US Labor Leaders’ Inept Reponses?
The AFL-CIO has just formally petitioned the Bush Administration to “take immediate action to stop exploitation by the Chinese government and multinational corporations of workers in China, who are paid as little as 15 cents per hour” (AFL-CIO, “AFL-CIO Files Workers’ Rights Case Against China ,” Press Release, June 8, 2006). It appears that the […]
When the Union Is the Boss
Editor’s Introduction It’s no secret that there exists (1) a high turnover rate among entry-level organizers, many of whom are (2) young college graduates, rather than people recruited out of the communities that are organizing targets — the interrelated problems that Kevin Funk’s essay below illustrates. Daisy Rooks’ qualitative study (based on interviews with […]
Reflections on the June 9-10, 2006 Hong Kong Conference: “The Fortieth Anniversary: Rethinking the Genealogy and Legacy of the Cultural Revolution”
Flying into Hong Kong with my wife, Amy Demarest, early in the morning of June 8, 2006 and jetlagged, I wasn’t sure I’d be up to the next two days of a fully packed conference on the Cultural Revolution. The conference was sponsored by the China Study Group, Monthly Review, and the Contemporary China […]
Is the Fight for Union Democracy Corrupt? A Review of Robert Fitch’s Solidarity for Sale
Robert Fitch. Solidarity for Sale. PublicAffairs, 2006. In Solidarity for Sale, Bob Fitch argues that the defining weakness of U.S. unionism bubbles up from a single poisoned well: corruption. Much of his book is a well-written account of the rise of business unionism in this country — and business unionism’s ability to hold onto power […]
Mexican and Central American Labor: The Crux of the Immigration Issue in the U.S.
Capitalism’s demand for cheap labor is the thread that runs throughout the history of immigration in the U.S. and remains the central issue today. Currently, the crux of the immigration issue is the status of the undocumented Mexican and Central American labor force working in this country. Just how closely the U.S. economy is linked […]
What Really Happened in Tehran on June 12?Did Human Rights Watch Get It Wrong?
Even before Iran was rocked by the mass uprising of 1978-79, I understood that moralists of all stripes shroud certain tragedies with unique reverence as a means of discouraging dissent. Three decades later, Iran’s opposition movement — and occasionally Human Rights Watch — are grounded in orthodoxies of their own even as they struggles against […]
The Occupation Doesn’t Stop at the Checkpoint
I. The New Israeli Left The new Israeli Left — Zionist and liberal — reinvented itself immediately following the 1967 war.1 During the 1948 war and its aftermath, the Zionist Left had difficulty in working out the contradiction between its socialist obligations to social and political justice and being an inseparable part of the […]
COSATU Open Letter in Support of CUPE Resolution on Israel
Introduction by Socialist ProjectThe passing of a resolution on 27 May 2006 by the Ontario Division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in support of the Palestinian peoples has sparked a great deal of notice across the North American labour movement, and, indeed, the international labour movement. Resolution 50 clearly states the case […]
Immigrants, Advocates Take Sides on Senate Guest-Worker Bill
Andrew Stern, president of the 1.7-million-member Service Employees International Union, once likened the leadership of a mass movement to the crew on a sailboat. What matters is the wind in the sails, he said, not the fight over who steers. The wind behind the movement for immigrant rights had reached gale force by May […]
Port Militarization Resistance, Olympia, May 2006
Click on a photo for a larger view. 23-25 May 2006 29 May 2006 On the eighth day of the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, the U.S.S. Pomeroy has docked to take the Stryker Brigade to Iraq. The resistance escalates, the Port fence is shaken and nearly taken down before a riot squad enters the […]
The Next Greed Revolution
“Green-minded activists failed to move the broader public not because they were wrong about the problems, but because the solutions they offered were unappealing to most people.” — Alex Steffen, “The Next Green Revolution,” Wired Magazine, May 2006 — It’s about time you woke up to the good news, Jimmy! If we can just unleash the […]
Stiglitz: Those Who Must Be Compensated Are the Bolivians, Not the Companies [De haber compensación, debe ser para los bolivianos, no para las empresas: Stiglitz]
Consecuencias de largo alcance tras la nacionalización en Bolivia: FMI La manera de negociar con los afectados será el factor clave, según el organismo financiero Evidente, el fracaso del modelo neoliberal impuesto por EU, sostiene el Nobel de Economía Imagen de la planta de gas San Alberto, que operaba la brasileña Petrobras, el pasado 1º […]
The Sewing Factory in Gaza, the Administration in Tel-Aviv, and the Owners in New York: Israeli Industrialists’ Strategy in the Global Supply Chain
The aim of this paper is to try to understand the Israeli industrialists’ strategy in the globalization process in the course of the recent years. The new strategy was implemented in the days of the first Intifada (the Palestinian uprising) in the late 80s. At that time voices were heard in the Association of Israeli […]
Union Mines, Safer Mines
A union presence at the Sago mine might well have prevented the disaster. Training at a union mine is strictly enforced. Workers, in rotation, walk the three alternate escape routes monthly and train on priorities in case of an emergency. Barricading as was done at Sago is the fourth and final resort. There were no […]
“Hispanic Quebec” Makes Its Entrance [L’entrée en scène du «Québec hispanophone»]
En ce Premier Mai 2006, des milliers et des milliers de Latinos se sont absentés du travail et de l’école, ont manifesté dans les rues des principales villes américaines et ont fait grève de consommation pour protester contre le projet de loi HR 4437 sur le contrôle de l’immigration illégale et faire reconnaître leur apport […]
Whither Nepal?
Faced with an explosion of pro-democracy strikes and mass demonstrations, Nepal’s King Gyanendra was forced to reinstate parliament last week. Gyanendra had abolished parliament in October 2002 and seized absolute control in February 2005, but his attempts to regain his grip through repression last month only sparked further rebellion. On April 28, the Seven-Party Alliance […]
Nepal and Venezuela:For Popular Democracy, against Ceremonial Democracy
Any serious and honest survey of the Maoist movement would convey the truth that its main agenda has been to establish essential democratic institutions that devolve political and economic power to the masses. In every negotiation with the King and the parliamentary forces, the Maoists have asked for an unconditional constituent assembly, during whose election […]
Constituent Assembly Now!
Yesterday’s so-called royal proclamation does not have any worth and significance other than fulfilling feudal arrogance and underrating the great Nepalese sea of the masses, which, chanting slogans of constituent assembly and republic, is flowing into the streets to give a new direction to the world by creative application of people’s revolution in the […]
