Articles

The Explosion of Debt and Speculation

by Fred Magdoff

November 1, 2006

In a series of articles in Monthly Review and in Monthly Review Press books during the 1970s and 1980s, Harry Magdoff and Paul Sweezy proposed that the general economic tendency of mature capitalism is toward stagnation. A shortage of profitable investment opportunities is the primary cause of this tendency. Less investment in the productive economy (the "real economy") means lower future growth. Marx wrote about the possibility of this very phenomenon

The Twilight of Personal Liberty: Introduction to ‘A Permanent State of Emergency’

by Michael E. Tigar

November 1, 2006

"The law is a mask that the state puts on when it wants to commit some indecency upon the oppressed." I put these words into the mouth of a character in my play "Haymarket: Whose Name the Few Still Say with Tears." Jean-Claude Paye has once again done us a service by showing how those words can come true. In theory, the bourgeois democratic state, as defined in the American constitution, was to operate under two basic principles. The first of these was separation of powers. Legislative and executive action would be held to a standard of legality by the action of unelected and therefore presumably independent judges. The second principle, elaborated more fully in the Bill of Rights, is that certain invasions of individual personal liberty are forbidden, and that the judges will provide a remedy against those who commit such invasions

A Permanent State of Emergency

by Jean-Claude Paye

November 1, 2006

The function of criminal law has been altered within the context of the anti-terrorist struggle. Normally, criminal law treats prosecuted persons as individuals. The criminalization of terrorist organizations and the criminalization of participation in or support for such organizations create offenses of collective responsibility. The object is to attack actual or potential organizations. It is no longer just the act of committing a crime or even the intention of doing so that is prosecuted. Merely belonging to a group that is considered terrorist by the government is sufficient for punishment

No Corporation Left Behind: How a Century of Illegitimate Testing Has Been Used to Justify Internal Colonialism

by Margot Pepper

November 1, 2006

"I feel like a bad person."

"I feel like a snail without a shell whose heart has been stepped on."

These feelings were jotted down in Spanish by my second graders during the four weeks of standardized tests required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The educational policy was instituted on the heels of the September 11 attacks by President George Bush, backed by both Democrats and Republicans. My students are required to take tests in Standard English, though half have yet to make the transition from Spanish to a second language in my immersion classroom

Cuban Doctors in Pakistan: Why Cuba Still Inspires

by Aasim Sajjad Akhtar

November 1, 2006

The signs point to the fact that the symbol of the Cuban revolution is reaching the end of his road. Even if it does not formally mark the definitive end of almost fifty years of undisputed leadership at the helm of the island republic, Fidel Castro's handing over of power to brother Raul in late July is surely a precursor to what will happen sooner rather than later

Who Is Threatening Our Dinner Table? The Power of Transnational Agribusiness

by Byeong-Seon Yoon

November 1, 2006

In December 2005, anti-liberalization and antiglobalization protest groups around the globe gathered in Hong Kong where the Sixth World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference was being held. Farmers' groups that were part of the Hong Kong gathering took the position that agricultural trade rules should be impartial to all World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries and not determined by a handful of agriculture-exporting countries. What suddenly prompted these farmers to come together in this way over the issues of food sovereignty and the expansion of farmers' rights?

Notes from the Editors, October 2006

by The Editors

October 1, 2006

Fidel Castro's illness in August has nurtured the hopes of Miami-based Cuban émigrés and the U.S. ruling class that a "transition in Cuba" will soon be possible. It is often implied that this is a question of a transition to "democracy" and "free elections." However, what is actually being planned in Washington, as part of a decades-long strategy, is an immediate transition back to capitalism in Cuba—at whatever the cost to the Cuban people

A Son’s Reflections

by Fred Magdoff

October 1, 2006

Harry died in the early hours of January 1, 2006, at our house in Burlington, Vermont, where he had lived for three and a half years. As he died, I laid on the big double bed facing him and held his arms, with my wife, his caregiver, and his good friends Gladys and Percy Brazil there too. Talking with them after he died I reflected on how it had been an honor to have Harry live with Amy and me since my mother Beadie had died and to help him get the most out of his final years. It was also fun and intellectually stimulating, although sometimes a challenge because of my health problems and our work schedules

The Optimism of the Heart

by John Bellamy Foster

October 1, 2006

The following intellectual biography of Harry Magdoff is a slightly revised and expanded version of a piece that was posted on MRzine a few days after Harry's death on January 1, 2006. It evolved out of an earlier biography I wrote for the Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists in 2000. Since the aim of this biography was to present the basic facts of Harry's intellectual career, personal feelings and observations were largely excluded. A brief word on Harry's character and the warm emotions he engendered within those who knew him therefore seems essential here

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