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May 2004
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» Commentary
Can the Working Class Change the World?
by Michael D. Yates

A Turn for the Worse in the United States: Criminalizing Dissent
by Lynne A. Williams, Esq.

Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Failure of the Peace Talks in Nepal

Remembering W.E.B. Du Bois
by Bill Fletcher, Jr.

David Barsamian interviews Gilbert Achcar, author of The Clash of Barbarisms: September 11 and the Making of the New World Disorder

Fidel Castro: May Day Rally Speech

Understanding the U.S. War State
by John McMurtry


Coffee Mug

If you missed the “Imperialism Today” conference (or not), you can still celebrate Harry's 90th with this great-looking commemorative mug

The Sage of Imperialism: At 90, Harry Magdoff has Made His Marx by Susan Green


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RECENT ESSAYS ON:
» Africa
» Asia
» Europe
» Feminism/Women
and Politics

» Globalization
» Iraq, U.S. Imperialism, and War
» Labor and
Working-Class Issues

» Latin America
» Media/
Communications

» 9/11–War on Terrorism
» Social/Political
Theory

» U.S. Politics/
Economics


BACK ISSUES:
April 2004
[ V.55, N.11 ]


March 2004
[ V.55, N.10 ]


February 2004
[ V.55, N.9 ]


January 2004
[ V.55, N.8 ]


December 2003
[ V.55, N.7 ]


November 2003
[ V.55, N.6 ]


October 2003
[ V.55, N.5 ]


September 2003
[ V.55, N.4 ]


July-August 2003
[ V.55, N.3 ]


June 2003
[ V.55, N.2 ]


May 2003
[ V.55, N.1 ]

April 2003
[ V.54, N.11 ]

March 2003
[ V.54, N.10 ]

February 2003
[ V.54, N.9 ]

January 2003
[ V.54, N.8 ]

December 2002
[ V.54, N.7 ]

November 2002
[ V.54, N.6 ]

October 2002
[ V.54, N.5 ]

September 2002
[ V.54, N.4 ]

July-August 2002
Cultures of the U.S. Left

[ V.54, N.3 ]

June 2002
[ V.54, N.2 ]

May 2002
[ V.54, N.1 ]

April 2002
[ V.53, N.11 ]

March 2002
[ V.53, N.10 ]

February 2002
[ V.53, N.9 ]

January 2002
[ V.53, N.8 ]

December 2001
[ V.53, N.7 ]

November 2001
[ V.53, N.6 ]

October 2001
[ V.53, N.5 ]

September 2001
[ V.53, N.4 ]

July-August 2001
Prisons & Executions

[ V.53, N.3 ]

June 2001
[ V.53, N.2 ]

May 2001
[ V.53, N.1 ]

April 2001
[ V.52, N.11 ]

March 2001
[ V.52, N.10 ]

February 2001
[ V.52, N.9 ]

Index to Back Issues
[ V.53 ][ V.52 ]
[ V.51 ] [ V.50 ]
[ V.49 ] [ V.48 ]



From the Archives
ESSAYS BY:
» Paul Baran
» Albert Einstein
» Leo Huberman
» Fritz Pappenheim

AN INTERVIEW WITH:
» Che Guevara
» Malcolm X



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vertical rule

May 2004, Volume 56 — Number 1

William H. Hinton (1919–2004)

William H. Hinton died in the early morning of Saturday, 15th of May. 2004. He was born in Chicago in 1919. At the age of 17 he worked his way to the Far East. Without money, he supported himself by washing dishes, and then got a job for six months as a reporter on an English language newspaper in Japan. He continued his travels by way of Japanese occupied Korea and Northeast China, then through the USSR to Poland and Germany, and finally returned to the United States by working as a deckhand on an American freighter. | more |

c o n t e n t s

» Notes from the Editors

Although private corporations under capitalism have always been heavily involved in promoting war, the direct role played by the private sector in the prosecution of war has traditionally been quite limited, falling well short of the supply of combat troops. There are signs that this may now be changing. The decade and a half since the end of the Cold War has seen the rapid proliferation of private military firms, hundreds of which are now engaged in combat and combat-support operations in Iraq and throughout the globe. Some of these firms are subsidiaries of much larger multinational corporations. The private soldiers employed in this industry are mercenaries, but not of the traditional kind. They are employees of corporations that have boards of directors, are publicly traded, participate in the open market, carry out mergers, hire and fire in accordance with market criteria-and above all are not directly responsible to any public authority. In other words, these corporations and their employees are fully integrated with capitalist enterprise as a whole. This phenomenon has recently been dubbed "the corporatization of the military" by Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution analyst and author of Corporate Warriors (2003). | more |.

REVIEW OF THE MONTH
The Pentagon and Climate Change
The Editors

Abrupt climate change has been a growing topic of concern for about a decade for climate scientists, who fear that global warming could shut down the ocean conveyer that warms the North Atlantic, plunging Europe and parts of North America into Siberian-like conditions within a few decades or even years. But it was only with the recent appearance of a Pentagon report on the possible social effects-in terms of instability and war-of abrupt climate change that it riveted public attention. As the Observer (February 22) put it, "Climate change over the next 20 years could result in global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters."

Ideology and Economic Development
Michael A. Lebowitz

Economic theory is not neutral, and the results when it is applied owe much to the implicit and explicit assumptions embedded in a particular theory. That such assumptions reflect specific ideologies is most obvious in the case of the neoclassical economics that underlies neoliberal economic policies.

Palestinian Women: Fighting Two Battles
Susan Darraj

On March 8, 2003, which is recognized as International Women's Day, several Palestinian women's organizations released a public statement, in which they declared: "Looking towards the eighth of March, we, Palestinian women, stand defiantly over the graves of our innocent martyrs and children, challenging the violations of human rights practiced against our people daily." Later the statement goes on to say: "[W]e raise our voices loudly, as one people, demanding from international society to provide international protection for our people, living, dying and existing under occupation. We demand a halt to all forms of war crimes and violations of our human rights which we face daily. We call upon our civil society partners to build a feminist agenda as an integral part of their programs for the sake of a just society in which all are equal without discrimination or abuse."…

Silencing the Cells: Mass Incarceration and Legal Repression in U.S. Prisons
Richard D. Vogel

People without a voice are not people in any meaningful sense of the word. Silenced people cannot express their ideas; they can neither consent nor protest. They are reduced to being pawns in the schemes of the powerful, mendicants who must accept whatever is imposed upon them. In order to keep people in a state of subjugation, silencing their voices is essential. Nowhere is this clearer than in U.S. prisons.

REPRISE
Why Socialism?
Albert Einstein

Is it advisable for one who is not an expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is.

BOOK REVIEWS
Social Responsibility and the Poet
Kimberly Bird

A review of Poets of the Non-Existent City: Los Angeles in the McCarthy Era by Estelle Gershgoren Novak.

Self-Reflection and Revolution
Astra Taylor

A review of Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960-1975 by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.


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The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century
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Eastern Cauldron

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Eastern Cauldron:
Islam, Afghanistan,
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The Rosa Luxemburg Reader

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Socialist Register 2004

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The New Imperial Challenge: Socialist Register 2004
edited by Leo Panitch
and Colin Leys

The Making of a Cybertariat

f e a t u r e d
The Making of a Cybertariat: Virtual
Work in a Real World

by Ursula Huws

» Read Excerpt

Silent Revolution

f e a t u r e d
Silent Revolution:
The Rise and Crisis
of Market Economics

by Duncan Green

Naming the System

f e a t u r e d
Naming the System: Inequality and Work
in the Global Economy

by Michael D. Yates

» Listen to Interview
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The Marxian Imagination

f e a t u r e d
The Marxian Imagination: Representing Class
in Literature

by Julian Markels

» Read Excerpt

Imperialism Without Colonies

f e a t u r e d
Imperialism Without Colonies
by Harry Magdoff



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Behind the Invasion of Iraq

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Behind the Invasion of Iraq
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A History of Capitalism

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A History of Capitalism: 1500-2000, New Edition
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Clash of Barbarisms

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The Clash of Barbarisms: September 11 and the Making of the New World Disorder
by Gilbert Achcar

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The New Crusade

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The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism
by Rahul Mahajan

Law and the Rise of Capitalism

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Censorship Inc.

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We Are the Poors

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Insurgent Images

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Ecology Against Capitalism

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