Archive | December, 2012

  • Egypt’s New Pharaoh

    Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print

  • New Nicaraguan Law Challenges Violence Against Women

    Nicaragua’s adoption this year of a sweeping law for prevention and punishment of violence against women marks an important gain for women’s rights in this Central American country, says Sandra Ramos, founder and director of the “Maria Elena Cuadra” Movement for Working and Unemployed Women (MEC). Addressing a meeting at Casa Maíz in Toronto on […]

  • The Weakening of Syria Emboldens Israel

    With over 100 now reported killed by Israeli airstrikes, and a further 700 injured, the attack on Gaza is already starting to resemble the 2008-9 ‘Operation Cast Lead’ massacre.  A ground invasion is feared, and Israeli politicians are again trotting out the usual Zionist crowd-pleasers about the need to “bomb Gaza back to the Middle […]

  • Morsi the Equilibrist

    Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print

  • No Safe Haven: Civilians Under Attack in the Gaza Strip

      Salem Waqef (Photo: Lydia De Leeuw) Haneen Tafesh (Photo: Gisela Schmidt-Martin) Ahmed Durghmush (Photo: Lydia De Leeuw) Basma Mahmoud el Tourouq (Photo: Lydia De Leeuw) Mohammed Abu Amsha (Photo: Gisela Schmidt-Martin) Zuhdiye Samour (Photo: Lydia De Leeuw) Duaa Hejazi (Photo: Lydia De Leeuw) Gaza City, 16 November 2012 The Israeli attacks across the Gaza […]

  • Hunger Strike in Prisons of Turkey

      In Turkey 10,000 Kurdish political prisoners are now on hunger strike.  64 of them have entered their 65th day while 79 more have passed their 54th day. The file above, prepared by the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. | Print  

  • Revisiting Dust-Covered Dreams

      Najaf, Iraq, November 11, 2012 I returned from Baghdad last night.  Over coffee this morning, I filled the father of my host family in on my trip.  I told him it was wonderful to see everyone, but I only heard sad stories. A few minutes ago a fierce wind rose, blowing the trees and […]

  • The Strike in Southern Europe

    A storm is brewing in Southern Europe.  In Greece on November 6 and 7 another general strike will take place.  On November 14 Portuguese, Cypriot, Spanish, and Italian trade unions intend to go on strike in opposition to the austerity policies of the European Union.  Belgian and British trade unions, as well as the European […]

  • The Sad Legacy of Moose Dung and Red Robe

    Squaw Point today (photo by David Thorstad)Silent City (photo by David Thorstad) In 1904, the Ojibwe village at Thief River Falls, in northwest Minnesota, was removed to the Red Lake Indian Reservation to the east, much diminished after the tribe’s cession of 256,152 acres between the reservation and Thief River Falls (known as the eleven […]

  • “Environmentally Responsible?”: “Rogue NGOs” Tackle Pacific Rim in El Salvador

    On October 20th, hundreds of people marched in Cabañas, El Salvador to voice their opposition to the proposed gold-mining project of Pacific Rim, a Canadian mining company. The anti-mining movement in El Salvador has been growing over the past decade and in 2007, under pressure from this movement, the Salvadoran government began to put restrictions on the burgeoning, foreign-dominated mining industry.

  • All the News That Doesn’t Fit Anywhere Else

    NYPD to Racially Profile White Males New York, NY — Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced today in a joint press conference that, following a recent study on race and “going-postal” homicides, the New York City Police Department will revamp its Stop and Frisk crime prevention policy by instructing officers to stop […]

  • What Have We Learned Since the “Forgotten Holocaust”?

    Decent news to begin with: Near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate a memorial was finally unveiled to mark the murder of approximately 500,000 Roma people (often called Gypsies) in Nazi death camps.  The decision to erect it was made in 1992, the year a pogrom in the East German city of Rostock was unleashed when Roma refugees […]

  • Whose War?  The War of 1812

    Centennials, bicentennials, and other historical anniversaries — not to mention annual holidays — play a major role in the legitimation of power relations.  And they can be sharp ideological battlegrounds like Columbus Day.  This year is the two hundredth anniversary of the War of 1812, an inconclusive two and a half-year war with Great Britain […]

  • We Refuse Economic Bondage: Stop the Loans

    Dear friends, In the coming period we will again be facing a familiar enemy that many of you have and continue to battle.  International Financial Institutions (IFIs) like the IMF have long had a hand in plundering the Egyptian economy and dispossessing the Egyptian people.  We aim to resist these institutions and their depredations, but […]

  • Health Care Reform, Year Zero

    The ideological ambiguity of health care reform during Obama’s first term concedes few absolute truths.  The enterprise of reforming health care by way of corporate regulation ignites debate across the left spectrum about the Affordable Care Act’s place in the 2012 election and beyond.  Like it or not, the rules of the ACA are now […]

  • Obama vs. Romney

    Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print

  • Berxam (My Lambkin)

    “This song is for all the mothers who are looking forward to their children … 47 days of hunger strike in Turkey!” — Sakina Teyna

  • Police on Playback — Copwatch in New York City

      Stories of police brutality are often told in a way that casts victims as helpless bystanders of cops run amok.  We met with Sean Pagan, a recent victim of police violence, and found that his story changes how we think about policing in New York.  Sean’s story shows that communities are finding new and […]

  • “Fidel Castro is dying” by Fidel Castro

    In the following message, Fidel Castro ridicules the most recent “Fidel Castro is dying” lies of the global imperialist media. He also explains his decision to cease publishing his “Reflections” – a modest assessment that there are other more important matters to occupy the Cuban press. Nonetheless, monthlyreview.org shall maintain the complete “Reflections” blog as an historically unparalleled instance of honest comment on world events as they occurred, by the leading political figure of our time.

  • The Gift of the True Organizer

    In 2003 when I was researching work to rule — a process by which workers slow down production, drive up costs, and thereby leverage negotiations — I called Dave Yettaw.  Dave, a retired auto worker and former president of Flint UAW Local 599, was an old hand and a trusted advisor.  Dave told me that […]