“A growing number of scientists, environmentalists and other experts have come to the conclusion that the human race has had such a deep and fundamental impact on the planet that we have effectively entered into a new geological age in the history of the Earth. They argue that the changes that have been brought about by human activity over the past 200 years, but more specifically since the end of the Second World War, has had a permanent effect on our ecology. We have, they say, moved from the Holocene to the Anthropocene epoch, one which future scientists will be able to pinpoint just by studying these effects on our environment….¶ Ian Angus will hold a book launch for Facing the Anthropocene at Octopus Books, 251 Bank Street, 2nd floor, Ottawa, on September 27 at 7 pm.” | more…

On September 21, Alan Wieder, author of Studs Terkel, Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation, sat down with David Whettstone in a studio of Washington D.C.’s WPFW. There, on “Community Watch and Comment,”they talked about Studs and played some of his old radio clips. | more…

Alan Wieder talks about Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation with Dan Polletta of Cleveland’s WCPN/WCLV ideastream | more…

in which Ian Angus, author of Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System, talks to Jennifer Estendorp of Inside Ottawa Valley
“What is the Anthropocene you ask?
‘Geologists divide the history of our world into increments, based on what they know about eras,’ explained Ian Angus, local author. ‘Currently, we’re in the Holocene epoch.’ | more…

“Over half a century ago, as Latin American households were celebrating the start of a new year, some good news arrived from Cuba: a guerrilla army with a social base among the peasantry triumphed on the Caribbean island, liberating the country from the tyrannical Batista regime. A political process began that not only aimed to overthrow a dictator, but sought to follow a consistently revolutionary line: genuinely transform society for the benefit of the great majority….” | more…

We are never going to get a better truth-telling antidote than the one John Marciano provides. Longtime activist and scholar, author of Civil Illiteracy and Education, the battle for the Hearts and Minds of American Youth and co-author of Teaching the Vietnam War, Marciano knows his stuff. | more…

“István Mészáros, a well-known Marxist theorist, has material which can be interesting to anarchists. He has an insightful analysis of the current stage of capitalism and the state. He makes Marx’s ‘withering away of the state’ central to his program, and he rejects electoral party politics. But paradoxically, he also supports the late Hugo Chavez’s attempted use of the Venezuelan state to move to socialism. How can we understand this and respond to it?…” | more…

MRP author Alan Wieder talks about his book, Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation with Rick Kogan, host of “After Hours” on Chicago radio station WGN.
And if you’re in Chicago, come hear Alan at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum Tuesday Tuesday, September 13 at 6:00PM for his book release! | more…