Category: Monthly Review Press /

Official Statement from the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba

Official Statement from the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba

On the occasion of the demise of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba declares nine days of National Mourning, as from the 06:00 hrs. of November 26 th, until the 12:00 hrs. of December 4th, 2016. For as long as the National Mourning is in place, public activities and shows shall not be held, the national flag shall be flown at half-staff in public buildings and military facilities. The radio and television shall broadcast informative, patriotic and historic programs.

Bill Nigut of GPB News, with Alan Wieder, Remember Studs Terkel

Bill Nigut of GPB News, with Alan Wieder, Remember Studs Terkel

Alan Wieder, author of Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation, and Bill Nigut of Georgia Public Broadcasting, discuss the legendary author and raconteur Louis (Studs) Terkel
Go directly to GPB’s site or click below to listen:

NYC Condolences Book for Fidel Castro at Mission of Cuba to United Nations

NYC Condolences Book for Fidel Castro at Mission of Cuba to United Nations

The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cuba to the United Nations communicates that following the decease of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba declares nine days of National Mourning, from 06:00hrs on 26 November to 12:00 hrs on 4 December 2016. ¶ The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cuba informs that a Condolence Book will be placed at the Mission, located at 315 Lexington Avenue, NY 10016, from Monday 28 November until Sunday 4 December, from 9:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m. and 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.

“Studs Terkel and third-party politics” by Alan Wieder, via LINKS.org

“Studs Terkel and third-party politics” by Alan Wieder, via LINKS.org

When Noam Chomsky recently told Amy Goodman that he would hold his nose and vote for Hillary Clinton if he lived in a swing state, it reminded me of Studs’ statements during the 2000 Gore-Bush election for the presidency. In 2000, Studs endorsed Ralph Nader, but like Chomsky at the present time, he suggested that it might be prudent in certain cases to vote for Gore. In 1970, when Chomsky appeared on Studs’ show to discuss his book, The New Mandarins, much of the conversation focused on conquest and corporate power. And the men agreed that grassroots movements, not heroes, changed history…. ¶ So each day when I hear Trump and Clinton speak, I long to hear Studs talking about the coming election.

“New Era Demands Cooperation, Not Competition”: Facing the Anthropocene reviewed in Earth Island Journal

Ian Angus’ Facing the Anthropocene is required reading. Why? Angus weds natural and social processes of planetary import in 2016. To this end, his ‘essential background and context’ advances a vital discussion. The book, short and sweet at 277 pages, joins a literature of eco-social critiques from radical writers such as Paul Burkett, Brett Clark, Rebecca Clausen, John Bellamy Foster, Naomi Klein, and Stefano B. Longo. Foster’s Foreword sets the stage…

John Smith “meticulously demolishes” GDP illusions: Socialist Review

John Smith “meticulously demolishes” GDP illusions: Socialist Review

Everyone remembers the 1,133 deaths from the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse. But who knows about Bangladeshi workers who earn just one euro cent for every 18 T-shirts they make, and take home €1.36 after a ten or 12 hour day? ¶ Ultimate villains of this ‘super-exploitation’ are corporate buyers from the Global North and race-to-the-bottom capitalist market competition. ¶ John Smith uses such atrocities to expose the ways that conventional statistics understate the value of outsourced commodities created in the Global South….

John Smith’s “Rigorous Exposé Of Neoliberalism” in Britain’s The Morning Star

John Smith’s “Rigorous Exposé Of Neoliberalism” in Britain’s The Morning Star

This seminal and original study of contemporary imperialism should be on every militant’s bookshelf, not least because it is tightly argued, exhaustively researched and unashamedly Marxist throughout. ¶ John Smith’s central argument is that the decline in manufacturing in the Western industrialised countries, and its rise in the so-called Third World, are part of a deliberate strategy by transnational corporations to exploit low wages, underpinned by appalling working conditions, in order to realise super profits….

Remembering Studs Terkel via Alan Wieder and Alternet

Remembering Studs Terkel via Alan Wieder and Alternet

One of three sons of immigrant jews from Bialystok, Poland, Louis “Studs” Terkel was born on May 16, 1912, in New York City. In 1922, Studs moved with his parents and his two brothers to Chicago, where he lived for the rest of his life. Actor, disc jockey, author, raconteur, husband and father, Studs is probably best known as host of the The Studs Terkel Show from 1952 to 1997 on Chicago’s WFMT. The program earned him the title of ‘Mr. Chicago’ and many people in the city have said they always knew it was between ten and eleven in the morning if they caught an earful of his radio program….