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A Personal and Political Tribute to Phyllis Jacobson

Lynn Chancer

IT’S A STAPLE of American comedians to make fun of in-laws in general and mothers-in-law in particular. But, in my case and with no offense to Michael, I could have married my husband simply for his parents.

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

A Realistic Post-election Strategy to Modify NCLB

Michael Charney

Thank God for Utah. The potential triumphalism of George Bush and his hold the course view of No Child Left Behind can be blunted. The Utah legislature set the tone in early 2004 with its frontal assault on the arrogance of the federal government in micromanaging the accountability standards of Utah's classrooms. The Utah legislature was on the verge of totally rejecting the federal funds following NCLB before the U.S. Department of Education sent emissaries to Salt Lake City to calm down the cry for state control.

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

A Reply to Stephen Steinberg: Finger-Pointing Toward "Freedom Now!"

Michael Hirsch

I imagine Stephen Steinberg astride a muscular white horse, whip in one hand, pistol in the other, riding to scourge the American left of its racial amnesia. Or he's a biblical prophet, imbued with the divine spirit and setting the highest standards for the community. Sometimes the need for such a seer is self-evident, and sometimes Steinberg fairly meets it. Sometimes.

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

A Special New Politics Symposium: NCLB: A Progressive Response

Lois Weiner

With overwhelming support from both Democrats and Republicans, the Bush administration employed the rhetoric of equity and accountability to forge a legislative package called "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB). NCLB was an omnibus bill that contained numerous provisions that made federal aid to low-income schools and children dependent on schools' accepting new regulations on a host of school policies, from qualifications for teachers to the kinds of instructional materials that can be used.

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

Adoption

Betty Reid Mandell

A country's economic system and its cultural practices shape its adoption practices. For example, in Western societies adoption practices are very different from those in the preliterate subsistence economies of Eastern Oceania.

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

Affirmative Action -- 2003

Reginald Wilson

Winter 2004

Vol:IX-4

Whole #: 36

After Israel's Invasion: An Eyewitness Account from Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel

Marie Kennedy

Gaza: War on Civilians in the World’s Largest Open-air Prison[1]

Summer 2009

Vol:XII-3

Whole #: 47

After Wojtyla: Thoughts for the Times on Democracy and Faith

Chris Rhoades Dykema

The spectacle of adoration following the death of Karol Wojtyla, also known as Pope John Paul the Second -- maudlin and baleful as it was -- was also time wasted by the American left. What incremental analysis it fostered came from the ranks of the faithful, not of the irreverent.

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Albert Shanker's Legacy: Comment on Norm Scott and Vera Pavone's Review in #45

Michael Hirsch

LEON TROTSKY’S TRANSITIONAL PROGRAM begins with words that have made the left nuts ever since.

Winter 2009

Vol:XII-2

Whole #: 46

Albert Shanker's Legacy: Reply to Michael Hirsch

NORMAN SCOTT and VERA PAVONE

MICHAEL HIRSCH’S CRITIQUE misleads, or outrightly distorts, many of the points we made in our review.*

Shanker and NCLB

Winter 2009

Vol:XII-2

Whole #: 46

Alliances Needed

Ron Hayduk

Steve Steinberg highlights a critical issue at an important time. Steinberg is right to draw our attention to the impact of immigration on the project of progressive politics, particularly as it relates to the plight of African Americans.

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

America's soft power dysfunctions: When Arab problems are allowed to wash up on American shores

Emad El-Din Aysha

Our political organization is thoroughly rotten, almost non-existent. It is Carthagian... Never was there such an absurd waste of power, such ridiculous inconsequence of policy—not for want of men but for want of any effective central authority or dominant idea to make them work together.

André Siegfried, England's Crisis, 1931

Winter 2008

Vol:XI-4

Whole #: 44

Another American Dilemma: Race vs. Immigration

Gilbert Jonas

Ever since America's negro slaves were emancipated after the Civil War, our nation's generous immigration policies have worked against the interests and advancement of African Americans.

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Are U.S. Unions Ready for the Challenge of a New Period?

Kim Moody

BY NOW IT SEEMS CLEAR that the United States has entered a new period of contradictory trends that presents a profound challenge to organized labor. First there is the deepening world recession that is bringing down some of American capitalism’s most high profile institutions from Wall Street to Detroit. At the same time, of course, it is wiping out millions of jobs, 4.4 million from December 2007 to February 2009.

Summer 2009

Vol:XII-3

Whole #: 47

Art for the People? Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "The Gates"

Jesse Lemisch

Holy saffron! From February 12 to 27, New York City's Central Park was the site of an exhibition called "The Gates: Central Park New York 1979- 2005," by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude (C/J-C). The Gates consisted of 7503 vinyl structures straddling 23 miles of park pathways, each gate 16 feet high, resting on steel bases (the equivalent, the city boasted, of two thirds of the steel used in the Eiffel Tower), with orange drapes (described by C/J-C as "saffron") hanging down from the tops.

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

Attack and Burn!

Robert Joe Stout

THEY GRABBED ME, THEY HIT ME, they yanked me by the hair and threw me in the back of a pickup. They sprayed me with tear gas and held a knife to my back. They said they were going to rape me and throw me in the ocean. They said other police were raping my novia (girlfriend) right then.

Winter 2008

Vol:XI-4

Whole #: 44

Bolivia: Latin America's Experiment in Grassroots Democracy

Nancy Romer

A NEW ALLIANCE OF DEMOCRATICALLY-ELECTED GOVERNMENTS with a range of socialist programs is sweeping Latin America. New trade agreements that embrace the possibility of pan-regional alliances are being forged. Venezuela, Ecuador, and to a significant extent Argentina, Chile, Nicaragua, and Brazil articulate some policies of uplifting the poor and challenging US and neoliberal hegemony.

Winter 2008

Vol:XI-4

Whole #: 44

Can a Progressive Democrat Make a Difference?: Running Against Hillary

Jonathan Tasini interviewed by Michael Hirsch, and Joanne Landy

Jonathan Tasini made enemies when he ran against Senator Hillary Clinton in New York State's September 2006 Democratic primary. Some liberal Democrats called his effort a quixotic and self-referential campaign, one that would accomplish nothing beyond potentially harming Clinton's own political standing. Others to Tasini's left wrote off his campaign as a diversion, a way of co-opting critics of neo-liberalism onto a narrow path while draining resources from potentially insurgent third party efforts.

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

Can The Left Become Relevant To Islamic Pakistan?

Pervez Hoodbhoy

The left has always been a marginal actor on Pakistan’s national scene. While this bald truth must be told, in no way do I wish to belittle the enormous sacrifices made by numerous progressive individuals, as well as small groups. They unionized industrial and railway workers, helped peasants organize against powerful landlords, inspired Pakistan’s minority provinces to demand their rights, set standards of writing and journalism, etc.

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

Can the Left Ignore Gay Liberation?

John D'Emilio

THE JESUITS TRAINED ME WELL. My high school speech and debate coach taught me how to speak in complete paragraphs and to construct what he described as a "seamless" argument. Many years later, a close friend and fellow historian used the same word in reference to my historical writing. He described one of my books as a "seamless" narrative.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

Card Check: Labor's Charlie Brown Moment?

Robert Fitch

The Passive Revolution

Sometimes the story is just an appendage to the back-story. What it means for Sisyphus to watch his rock roll back down the hill can't be understood unless we know it was not exactly the first time. Organized labor's recent effort to move the Employee Free Choice Act -- popularly known as "card check" -- up Capitol Hill involves a similar back-story.

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Card Check: Labor's Charlie Brown Moment?

Robert Fitch

The Passive Revolution

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Card Check: Labor's Charlie Brown Moment?

Robert Fitch

The Passive Revolution

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Card Check: Labor's Charlie Brown Moment?

Robert Fitch

The Passive Revolution

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Card Check: Labor's Charlie Brown Moment?

Robert Fitch

The Passive Revolution

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Card Check: Labor's Charlie Brown Moment? (part 2)

Robert Fitch

Go back to part 1

Economic Foundations of Business Unionism

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Card Check: Labor's Charlie Brown Moment? (part 2)

Robert Fitch

Go back to part 1

Economic Foundations of Business Unionism

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Child Labor in the World Economy

Glenn Perusek

A world away from us, in the straits of Malacca, between Indonesian Sumatra and Malaysia, approximately 2,000 fishing platforms, known as jermals, operate miles from shore. Fewer than 400 are officially registered with the Indonesian government; the rest operate illegally. These small fishing platforms are built from giant logs that are sharpened like stakes and dropped from barges into the sea floor in water up to twenty meters deep. They form an open-ended rectangular stockade to which smaller timbers are lashed horizontally.

Winter 2004

Vol:IX-4

Whole #: 36

China: End of a Model…Or the Birth of a New One?

Au Loong Yu

CHINA’S THIRTY YEARS OF NEARLY UNINTERRUPTED HIGH GROWTH has encountered great challenge as the global economic crisis has hit China’s export hard. Since China’s trade as a percentage of GDP is as high as 70 percent, the export-led growth mode has practically ended. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is aware of this. Back in April, 2008 President Hu Jintao spoke of the need to change the mode of development from export-led growth to domestic-led growth by expanding domestic demand. In November the 4 trillion RMB (rinminbi, “people’s currency”) of rescue package followed.

Summer 2009

Vol:XII-3

Whole #: 47

Class Struggle: Section 17, The Annunciation by Carlo Crivelli

Robert Kelly

This is the Renaissance,

everything is for sale. The poor man

is greedy (that's why he's poor –

does Ficino tell us this, or Bruno?),

ill-dressed, his hair a mess.

Yet this transaction is directly underneath

the glory of God.

These characters (dubious seller,

too-comfortable doubtful buyer)

are closer to the Divine Light

than Mary is. What does this mean?

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Confronting Horror: Writing About Torture

Kristian Williams

I DID NOT DREAM OF BEING TORTURED.

But I did dream of being caged, of being bound and blindfolded, of being kept cold and naked in a small steel box. I dreamed of terrible footsteps, always approaching, and the chilling sound of metal clanging against metal. I dreamed of endless screams, and of shadows that stretched toward me, and of hands holding instruments that I could never quite see.

The dreams ended, always, before the pain could become real. But that is a small matter. The fear was real enough.

Winter 2008

Vol:XI-4

Whole #: 44

Constructing a Critical Political Theory

Stephen Eric Bronner

CRITICAL THEORY HAS ITS POLITICAL roots in what has been termed “the heroic phase” of the Russian Revolution. This was the period from 1917-1923 in which the radical democratic vision of workers’ councils — or “soviets” — dominated both the communist movement and its radical offshoots.

Summer 2009

Vol:XII-3

Whole #: 47

Darfur: The World's Most Famous Humanitarian Disaster

Steven Fake and Kevin Funk

The emergence of Darfur as a cause célèbre in the West has been one of the more notable propaganda achievements in recent memory. Though the Darfur region of Sudan has been the scene of great human suffering, a death toll of perhaps 300,000 and a population of displaced persons numbering well over 2 million qualifies Darfur as serious but — regrettably — hardly unique for the scale of its violence in the first decade of the 21st century.

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

Does Buhle Ask Union Democracy to Save the World?

Herman Benson

It is difficult to know just what Paul Buhle is driving at; it's even more difficult to figure out what relevance his remarks have to what I wrote in New Politics about the undemocratic leanings of the New Unity Partnership.

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

Does Immigration Hurt U.S.-Born Workers?

Martin Oppenheimer

1.

Winter 2008

Vol:XI-4

Whole #: 44

Eight Kinds of Strength

Marcia Gallo

A Tribute to Valerie Taylor, Lesbian Writer and Revolutionary
Marcia Gallo

The Sweet Little Old
Gray-Haired Lady in Sneakers1

I am a woman,
a lesbian,
a poet,
poor,
handicapped,
radical,
Indian,

Winter 2009

Vol:XII-2

Whole #: 46

Empowering People with Disabilities

Ravi Malhotra

When most on the left think about the politics of caregiving, they think about finding a caregiver for their elderly parent or daycare for their preschool child. Or they think about the (frequently romanticized and flawed) feminist debates that interrogate whether there is a feminist ethic of caring and the implications of this for feminist politics.

Summer 2006

Vol:XI-1

Whole #: 41

Feminism in "Waves": Useful Metaphor or Not?

Linda Nicholson

By the early 1990s, it had become clear that the kind of feminist activity that had blossomed from the late 1960s through the late 1980s in the United States was no longer present. Consequently, many began to ask: what was the present state of feminism?

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Finland Is Soft on Crime

Dan Gardner

AS PRESSURE GROWS in Canada to adopt the American justice model of harsh prisons and long sentences, Finland has saved millions and prevented centuries of human misery doing the opposite.

Summer 2007

Vol:XI-3

Whole #: 43

Foosball with the Devil: Haiti, Honduras, and Democracy in the Neoliberal Era

Adrienne Pine

From the perspective of Honduran and Honduranist scholars, the most common reference to Haiti is as a point of hemispheric comparison. Whether measuring GDP per capita, state legitimacy and citizens’ political tolerance, or corruption, the phrase “Honduras ranks last…after Haiti” seems to be de rigueur. This is no coincidence: the policies and structures that have effected extreme poverty and highly concentrated wealth in both places are very much connected.

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

Foster Care

Betty Reid Mandell

Victorian philanthropists didn't mince words when they talked about poor kids -- those kids were dangerous or perishing -- that is, in danger of becoming criminals or already sunk in crime. The philanthropists formed charity schools, "Ragged Schools," and Sunday Schools to teach these children some morals and a little reading -- not enough to give them big ideas about their station in life, but enough to get them to work a little more efficiently and obediently. Boys got a little math; girls didn't because they were headed for domestic work.

Summer 2006

Vol:XI-1

Whole #: 41

France: Crescendo of the Class Struggle

Vincent Presumey

In France we have just experienced a great wave of strikes that directly addressed matters of political power. French history is defined by explosions of militancy which, for our governing class and for most of our journalists, are a "French sickness" that would be good to get rid of: before 2003 there was 1995; before 1995, 1968; before 1968, 1953 and so forth, all the way back to the Revolution. But this time there is something new: the latest wave of militant action is not an end to itself and is only an introduction.

Winter 2004

Vol:IX-4

Whole #: 36

French Workers Face the Crisis

Léon Crémieux

TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL SEITZ

GUADELOUPE HAS MADE AN IMPRESSION . . . but not yet on the French union movement.

The capitalist crisis affects France as it does all industrialized countries.The ingredients are the same:

Summer 2009

Vol:XII-3

Whole #:

From the Editors

Marvin Mandell and Betty Reid Mandell

Exactly 40 years ago we received an article from Poland with views of the Soviet system close to ours: We saw it as a new form of exploitation, and we opposed it with the same vigor we opposed capitalism. We published the article, by Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski, in our spring and summer '66 issues as "An Open Letter to the Party." When both men were released from prison, they founded KOR, an organization that succeeded in uniting workers and intellectuals. From that came Solidarity.

Summer 2006

Vol:XI-1

Whole #: 41

From the Editors

Marvin Mandell and Betty Reid Mandell

For more than 150 years socialists have insisted that only workers themselves can make any fundamental change in social relations because only workers organizing themselves in the process of struggle to become a governing class can ensure that the old class society isn't reproduced by a new class of exploiters; the new society created by them would have democratic workers' control over the means of production. Revolutions in such countries as China, Cuba, Vietnam, and N.

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

Gay Leftie Seeks Straight Friends

Martin Duberman

THE PRESENCE ON MANY CAMPUSES of a significant number of liberals ("Of course gay people are entitled to the full rights of citizenship") proved critical in allowing lesbian and gay studies to gain a toehold.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

Getting Out of Iraq

Gilbert Achcar and Stephen R. Shalom

[Editors' Note: The article "On John Murtha's Position" is reprinted here from ZNet, Nov. 21, 2005, followed by a postscript written especially for New Politics.]

On John Murtha's Position

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Green Is the New Green: Social Media and the Post-Election Crisis in Iran, 2009

Negar Mottahedeh

The Persian language blogosphere is rich, varied, and dynamic. Of the 100 million blogs registered around the world in 2005, 700,000 were Persian language, either inside Iran or in the diaspora. Of these, over 60,000 are updated frequently. With over 20 million Iranians connecting to the internet, and over 600,000 Iranians signed up on Facebook by the presidential election of the summer of 2009, the Iranian cyber community is by far the most dynamic such community in the Middle East, and one that is unambiguously diverse.

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

Herman Benson and the New Unity Partnership

Paul Buhle

Anything Herman Benson writes on the labor movement is provocative and useful for discussion -- even if on occasion, in my view, it also happens to be somewhat skewed. When organized labor faces the prospect of a turning point as potentially large and also as disappointing as that of ten years ago, the implications loom before all of us.

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

Homeless Shelters: A Feeble Response to Homelessness

Betty Reid Mandell

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE SOMEONE to say to you, "Come with me into the bathroom? I want to watch you pee into this paper cup to see if you have been taking drugs." That is what is happening in some shelters for homeless families in Massachusetts. Steve Valero, a lawyer at Greater Boston Legal Services, is indignant about this and has been telling shelters that it is an illegal practice.

Summer 2007

Vol:XI-3

Whole #: 43

Human Rights and the Colombian Government: An analysis of state-based atrocities toward non-combatants

James J. Brittain

The Colombian civil war, similar to other Latin American conflicts over the past 50 years, has had a large portion of non-combatants mortally affected by the horrors of conflict. However, those killed or injured in Colombia are not indirect results of the discord but are in-themselves strategic military targets (Stokes, 2005; Lernoux, 1982). The reasoning behind invoking this aggression against the unarmed Colombian populace is due in part to the ever-increasing strength of the primary insurgent movement within the country.

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Hyde Amendment: The opening wedge to abolish abortion

Marlene Fried

Advocates on both sides of the abortion issue have made sure that the anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 22 is highly visible. Supporters and opponents use the date to rally their forces. In contrast, September 30, the date in 1976 that federal Medicaid funding for abortion was banned by the Hyde Amendment, has not gained the same attention.

Summer 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

Immediate U.S. Withdrawal and the Hope for Democracy in Iraq

Joanne Landy

The peace movement should call for the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq and the closing of all military bases there: no temporizing, no negotiations, no timetables -- just bring the troops home, now. Peace activists should say to the American people that the occupation is part and parcel of an imperial U.S.

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

Immigration, African Americans, and Race Discourse

Stephen Steinberg

We believe this article begins an important conversation on the left. We will be publishing various responses to it in our next issue, along with a reply from Stephen Steinberg. In addition, this article will be published in the Winter issue of New Labor Forum, together with a different set of responses and a reply from Steinberg. We urge readers to follow this debate in both venues. -- Eds.

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

In Defense of Tactical Voting (Sometimes)

Stephen R. Shalom

The November election poses a dilemma for leftists. Both major parties embrace the agenda of corporate America. Neither challenges the assumptions of American empire, and politics as usual will be followed by a Washington regime that will be at best agnostic toward the needs of progressive social movements if not hostile to it. Against this, Ralph Nader is again launching a crusade against both parties.

Summer 2004

Vol:X-1

Whole #: 37

In Defense of Washington and Wall Street

Robert Fitch

1. The Crisis of 2007-2008

Winter 2009

Vol:XII-2

Whole #: 46

India: General Elections 2009 and the Neoliberal Consensus

Ravi Kumar

The General Elections 2009 have further entrenched the rule of neoliberal capital.[1] This entrenchment has happened due to certain factors, two discussed here in detail. These two factors include the distancing of the Left from working class politics towards electoralism, which resulted in absence of a long term mobilizational politics along class lines; and the role played by identity politics in the consolidation of the neoliberal regime.

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Intellectuals and Anti-Fascism: For a Critical Historization

Enzo Traverso

We are witnessing today a paradoxical and unsettling phenomenon: the rise of fascist-inspired political movements in the European arena (from France to Italy, from Belgium to Austria), accompanied, in the heart of intellectual circles, by a massive campaign to denigrate the entire anti-fascist tradition.

Winter 2004

Vol:IX-4

Whole #: 36

Introductory Note to Onfray

Doug Ireland

Michel Onfray, the brightest star among the younger French philosophers, is a brilliant prodigy, a gifted and prolific author who, at the age of only 46, has already written 30 books.

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Iran: Reform and Revolution

Yassamine Mather

Recent news about Iran has been dominated by U.S. attempts to increase sanctions, and one could be forgiven for thinking the world hegemonic capitalist power is preparing war against a major nuclear power. The reality is far different: all the fuss is about a country where nine months of mass protests have not only weakened the state but also divided the ruling circles, making reconciliation at the top impossible.

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

Iranian Workers say: "We have nothing to lose but our unpaid wages"

Yassamine Mather

Half a year after the demonstrations of June, 2009 in Iran, it is probably easier to examine in more depth the events that changed the country's political landscape. The bourgeois media in Iran and abroad is unanimous: the presidential elections of June 2009 and predictions of a Moussavi victory gave hope that change within the exiting regime was possible; millions of Iranians took part in the elections; the regime rigged the results; the rest is history.

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Iraq and the Idea of Freedom

Peter Hudis

Wadood Hamad is correct that many today are "stuck between two inadequate visions" -- either apologizing for U.S. imperialist actions or "cheering any misguided ‘apparent' resistance to imperialism." Avoiding these false alternatives is not only needed to develop a successful antiwar movement; it is needed to ensure that the idea of freedom is not forsaken by today's radicals.

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

Iraq and the Third Camp

Barry Finger

The Third Camp alternative is ultimately expressed by the potential of the Iraqi working class assuming the leadership of the anti- imperialist movement. We do not and cannot claim that this third camp is presently a conscious alternative on the part of those who will make it possible.

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

Iraq: The Case for Immediate U.S. Withdrawal

Joanne Landy

IT'S HARD TO SEE HOW the Bush administration is going to win the war in Iraq. Despite all the official bravado, a cloud of doom is descending on the White House, and with good reason: international outrage is mounting at U.S. behavior at Abu Ghraib prison and throughout Iraq, more and more Americans are concluding that the war is going badly, and Iraq is proving uncontrollable with reports, in May, that only 35 percent of Iraqis want U.S.

Summer 2004

Vol:X-1

Whole #: 37

Iraq: The Democrats to the Fore

Barry Finger

IN HIS BRILLIANT SATIRE of the plight of the Palestinians as a captured nation, Emile Habiby introduced Saeed, the ill fated pessoptimist. His beleaguered hero explained his inability to differentiate between optimism and pessimism in this way: "When I awake each morning I thank the Lord he did not take my soul at night. If harm befalls me during the day, I thank Him that it was no worse.

Summer 2007

Vol:XI-3

Whole #: 43

Is the Bush Administration Fascist?

Matthew N. Lyons

The idea that the Bush administration is imposing fascism on the United States has become increasingly commonplace in leftist and liberal circles. It's often taken as a given in political discussions, at protest rallies, and on the Internet. Sometimes this is little more than name calling, but over the past six years, a number of critics have offered serious arguments to back up the claim, and the claim deserves serious attention.

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

Jean Meslier and "The Gentle Inclination of Nature"

Michel Onfray

translated by Marvin Mandell

I. Of a Certain Jean Meslier

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Keeping the Communist Party Straight, 1940s-1980s

Bettina Aptheker

GROWING UP IN A COMMUNIST FAMILY and in Communist circles in New York City in the late 1940s and 1950s sexuality of any kind was never discussed, ever, in any context, for any reason. I am not laying claim to any kind of universal experience in saying this; I am only commenting on the absence of discussion in my own experience.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

Latin America: A Resurgent Left?

John L. Hammond

LEFTISTS WON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN 2006 across Latin America: starting (at the end of 2005) with the stunning victory of Evo Morales in Bolivia, through the election of Socialist Michele Bachelet in Chile, the predictable reelection of Lula in Brazil and Hugo Chàvez in Venezuela (though Lula, winning less than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, was forced into a runoff), and the runoff victory of Rafael Correa in Ecuador.

Winter 2008

Vol:XI-4

Whole #: 44

Leaving Public Schools Behind

Stan Karp

It is a measure of how far the right is reaching that the left today finds itself defending the very existence of public education from the forces of privatization, commercialization, and even federal policy. Just four years after 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole campaigned on a platform of abolishing the Department of Education, the Bush administration came into office with a massive expansion of the federal role in education as its number one domestic priority.

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

Left Politics and Posturing in the Presidential Race

Michael Hirsch

Summer 2004

Vol:X-1

Whole #: 37

Left-wing Homosexuality: Emancipation, Sexual Liberation, and Identity Politics

Jeffrey Escoffier

Socialism without fucking is dull and lifeless.

-- The heroine, WR: The Mysteries of the Organism,
a 1971 film directed by Dusan Makavejev.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

LGBT Political Cul-de-sac: Make a U-Turn

Sherry Wolf

Electoral Cul-de-sac

Winter 2009

Vol:XII-2

Whole #: 46

Making Sense of Latin America's "Third Left"

Marie Kennedy and Chris Tilly

EMIR SADER EMBODIES, to the extent any one person can, the trajectory of Latin America's left movements. A Marxist sociologist with a long track record of studying Latin American politics, currently Executive Secretary of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), Sader is Brazilian by birth but fled Brazil at the end of the 1960s as the dictatorship tightened its grip.

Winter 2008

Vol:XI-4

Whole #: 44

Mar del Plata, Argentina: The (People's) Summit of the Americas

Lois Weiner

On November 2-5, as two dozen heads of state gathered in Mar del Plata, Argentina for a hemispheric summit to negotiate trade agreements, thousands of global justice activists, I among them, participated in a concurrent "People's Summit" ("cumbre de los pueblos") or "counter-summit" ("contracumbre"). The official summit meetings were moved to Mar del Plata, a seaside resort which is a five-hour bus or train trip from Buenos Aires, to deter mass protests.

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Marx and Weber: Critics of Capitalism

Michael Lowy

In spite of their undeniable differences, Marx and Weber have much in common in their understanding of modern capitalism: they both perceive it as a system where "the individuals are ruled by abstractions (Marx), where the impersonal and "thing-like" (Versachlicht) relations replace the personal relations of dependence, and where the accumulation of capital becomes an end in itself, largely irrational.

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

Middle East Developments

Stephen R. Shalom

"What we're seeing here, in a sense, is ... the birth pangs of a new Middle East...."

-- Condoleezza Rice, July 21, 2006

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

Mobilizing Immigrants and Blacks

Peter Drucker

As Stephen Steinberg says, "There is nothing progressive about flooding the lower echelons of the labor market with desperate immigrants who depress wages . . . It is also problematic when the nation imports workers to fill higher echelons of the job pyramid. . . ." Progressives should support elements of his policy agenda such as vigorously enforcing anti-discrimination laws, expanding affirmative action and creating a job corps for minority youth.

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

More War, No Debate: Progressives Give Clinton a Free Pass

Howie Hawkins

1, 2, 3, 4,
Clinton voted for the war!
5, 6, 7, 8,
That was not a real debate!

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

NCLB: A Parent Perspective

Michele Brooks

Ask any parent what their hope is for the education of their child and they will tell you "a good education is one that provides my child with a broad range of opportunities and experiences to gain the knowledge and skills to be successful in life." Parents, especially those in disadvantaged communities and parents of color, whose children attend underperforming schools, want accountability.

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

Neoliberal Strategies to Defuse a Powder Keg in Europe: the "Decade of Roma Inclusion" and its Rationale

Bill Templer

Empire is characterized by the close proximity of extremely unequal populations, which creates a situation of permanent social danger and requires the powerful apparatuses of the society of control to ensure separation and guarantee the new management of social space.[1]

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Neoliberalism, Teacher Unionism, and the Future of Public Education

Lois Weiner

With overwhelming support from both Democrats and Republicans, the Bush administration rewrote the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 2001, drastically changing public education. One of the key initiatives of the Johnson-era "war on poverty," ESEA has been the main source of federal aid to schools serving children in poverty.

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

Neoliberalism, Teachers, and Teaching: Understanding the Assault

Mary Compton and Lois Weiner

TEACHERS IN EVERY PART OF THE WORLD are in the forefront of the struggle to ensure that children receive an education -- whether in U.S. cities, the mountains of Chavez's Venezuela, in civil war-torn Nepal, in Europe's towns and countryside, or in the refugee camps of Sudan.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

No Blank Checks

Staughton Lynd

Barry Finger, Wadood Hamad, and Glenn Perusek all appear to demand the immediate withdrawal of United States forces from Iraq. (Finger, 26: "we demand an immediate withdrawal of occupation forces"; Hamad, 34: "We must demand a timely schedule for the withdrawal of occupation forces from Iraq over a fixed, limited period").

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

No Child Left Behind: A Brainchild of Neoliberalism and American Politics

Carlos Alberto Torres

Neo-liberalism and neoconservatism are in the driver's seat right now and this is not only happening in education.

Michael Apple

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

Nor Meekly Serve Her Time: Riots and Resistance in Women's Prisons

Victoria Law

IN 1974, WOMEN IMPRISONED at New York's maximum-security prison at Bedford Hills staged what is known as the August Rebellion. Prisoner organizer Carol Crooks had filed a lawsuit challenging the prison's practice of placing women in segregation without a hearing or 24-hour notice of charges. In July, a court had ruled in her favor. In August, guards retaliated by brutally beating Crooks and placing her in segregation without a hearing. The women protested, fighting off guards, taking over several sections of the prison, and holding seven staff members hostage for two and a half hours.

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Notes Toward a Vision of The Workers' Movement in Mexico

JORGE ROBLES

TRANSLATED BY DAN LA BOTZ

To the memory of Dale Hathaway and Antonioin Villalba

IN ORDER TO EVALUATE AND UNDERSTAND the current situation of the workers’ movement in Mexico as power has shifted from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to the National Action Party (PAN), it is important to understand the character of the Mexican regime and its historical development. Does a change in the ruling party represent the beginning of a democratic transition and a change in the system?

Summer 2009

Vol:XII-3

Whole #: 47

Oaxaca Uprising

John Gibler

"Ulises nos decia: 'ni marchas ni plantones'. Aqui le demostramos que somos mas cabrones."

("Ulises told us: no marches and no protests. Here we'll show him that we're more badass than he is.")

The Oaxaca Uprising began as an annual, peaceful teachers' strike and exploded into an unarmed uprising after Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz refused to dialogue with the teachers, instead sending in 1,000 riot police to violently lift their protest camp in Oaxaca City's town square, or Zòcalo.

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

Obama and Empire

Thomas Harrison

AS NOAM CHOMSKY OBSERVED, “Obama’s message of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ offered a blank slate on which supporters could write their wishes” (Znet, Nov. 25, 2008). Millions voted for Barack Obama in order to reverse the brutal and catastrophic foreign policy of the Bush Administration, especially the war in Iraq. But as far as fundamental change is concerned, his first months in office (this is being written in mid-April) offer no real grounds for hope.

Summer 2009

Vol:XII-3

Whole #: 47

Obama's Foreign Policy: The View from Canada

Derrick O'Keefe

Canadian author Margaret Atwood famously described the border between our country and the United States as the world’s longest “one-way mirror.”

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

On Liberal & Left Responses To Bush's War on Democracy

Julius Jacobson

Candles no longer flicker on stoops; neighbors no longer gather to mourn and seek solace at silent vigils. In a wide peripheral area, the stench of smoldering fires and death no longer assaults nostrils...

Summer 2002

Vol:IX-1

Whole #: 33

On Socialism and Sex: An Introduction

Christopher Phelps

PREFATORY NOTE: While researching a book on African-Americans and the anti-Stalinist left in the archives last summer, I stumbled across a striking and long-forgotten document, "Socialism and Sex," in a 1952 discussion bulletin, The Young Socialist. In one page, its author H. L.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

Paid Family and Medical Leave

Randy Albelda and Betty Reid Mandell

How many people can afford to take time off from work without being paid? Not many. When a worker gets sick or a child or parent gets sick; when a woman is giving birth or when a parent needs to go to a conference with a teacher, leaving work can not only cost a day's pay, but it can cost advancement in a career. Women, who do most of caregiving, are particularly disadvantaged.

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Pakistan: The Myth of Civilizing War

Adaner Usmani

It would hardly be an exaggeration to suggest that, today, in the baleful shadow of the Great War on Terror, one central site of intra-progressive discord has been the question of the broad Left’s relation to political and militant Islam.

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

Palling Around with Terrorists: Obama and the Israel-Palestine Conflict

Stephen R. Shalom

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama was accused of palling around with terrorists.

This Republican canard was focused on the former Weatherperson, Bill Ayers, but also on Rashid Khalidi, the respected Palestinian-American scholar who had been a friend of Obama’s in Chicago.

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

Pentagon Strategy, Hollywood, and Technowar

Carl Boggs

With the growth of U.S. imperial power and its military reach, warfare today extends across the cultural as well as the institutional and battlefield terrains, the result of great technological changes now altering the very character of modern combat. Expanded military influence within the corporate media and popular culture is an inevitable outgrowth of the largest war machine the world has ever seen.

Summer 2006

Vol:XI-1

Whole #: 41

Queer Reflections

David McReynolds

LET ME USE MY SPACE in part simply as memory, reflections by a homosexual whose sexual orientation, at 78, is academic.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

Questions for the Peace Movement: The U.S. Occupation of Iraq

Joanne Landy

This article is part of an ongoing discussion of the Iraq war and its aftermath. Various New Politics editors will be writing on this subject in future issues, not always with identical viewpoints, and we welcome contributions from our readers.

Winter 2004

Vol:IX-4

Whole #: 36

Race and the Obama Era

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

It has been more than a year since Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first African- American president of the United States. Despite the obvious historic significance of his election, Obama’s actions to date make it very doubtful that his presidency will alleviate the persisting conditions of racism, discrimination, and general inequality that continue to shape the experience of most African-Americans in the United States.

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

Race Relations: the Problem with the Wrong Name

Stephen Steinberg

Which deception is most dangerous? Whose recovery is more doubtful, that of him who does not see or of him who sees and still does not see? Which is more difficult, to awaken one who sleeps or to awaken one who, awake, dreams that he is awake?

— Søren Kierkegaard

Winter 2001

Vol:VIII-2

Whole #: 30

Reintroducing the Black/White Divide in Racial Discourse

Gregory D. Squires

Does it matter that most of the problems that disproportionately affect black Americans don't stem from racism -- or at any rate, modern day racism? . . . These issues just aren't particularly black anymore. William Raspberry[1]

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Reinventing a Queer Left

Peter Drucker

AS SEVERAL OF THE PARTICIPANTS in Part I of this symposium noted, the association between lesbians, gays, and the left was a constant through much of the 20th century. It is an open question whether that connection will amount to much in the 21st century.

Winter 2009

Vol:XII-2

Whole #: 46

Response

Stephen Steinberg

I knew when I wrote my piece that I was walking through a minefield of controversy, first of all because I challenge the dominant discourse on immigration and call into question many of the orthodoxies of a new generation of immigration scholars. I therefore came prepared to engage in verbal battle with outraged critics whose scholarship has been called into question. Alas, they did not show up at the table!

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Revisiting Foucault and the Iranian Revolution

Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson

February 2004 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. From September 1978 to February 1979, in the course of a massive urban revolution with millions of participants, the Iranian people toppled the regime of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1941-1979), which had pursued a highly authoritarian program of economic and cultural modernization. By late 1978, the Islamist faction led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had come to dominate the antiregime uprising, in which secular nationalists, democrats, and leftists also participated.

Summer 2004

Vol:X-1

Whole #: 37

Revolutionary Prefigurations: The Green Movement, Critical Solidarity, and the Struggle for Iran's Future

Danny Postel

A year has now passed since the explosive appearance of Iran’s Green movement in June 2009. Suspecting malfeasance in the official tally of the country’s June 12 presidential election, millions of Iranians took to the streets. The historian Ervand Abrahamian, author of the classic Iran Between Two Revolutions, described the silent rally of June 15 at Azadi (Freedom) Square in Tehran (London Review of Books, 7/23/09):

Summer 2010

Vol:XIII-1

Whole #: 49

Revolutionary Unionism: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Dan Jakopovich

THERE IS A CONSENSUS among democratic socialists today that the struggle for deep social change has to somehow reflect the kind of society we want to build, but this remains inseparable from the questions of power, political strength and effectiveness because prefiguration goes beyond the "pure" ethical sphere to include wider issues of ideological/cultural, political and socio-economic hegemony. The revolutionary syndicalist answer to the problem of integral prefiguration represents a specific and important historical (and contemporary) synthesis.

Summer 2007

Vol:XI-3

Whole #: 43

Roundups, Detention, and Other Phantoms of Lost Liberty

Mark Dow

In an Alabama district court a few years ago, the Department of Justice made an argument familiar to those who have read immigration cases: it asked the court to keep its hands off. The department argued for what I call "double deference." First, the court should defer to the executive and legislative branches as a matter of course in immigration matters; and second, the court should defer to the jail where the plaintiff was being incarcerated since prison administrators need wide latitude in operating their lock-ups.

Summer 2004

Vol:X-1

Whole #: 37

SEIU Confronts the Home Care Crisis in California

Brandynn Holgate and Jennifer Shea

Defining the Crisis

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

Self-determination and Democracy in the Iraqi Conflict

Barry Finger

The demand for national liberation, for the right of self-determination of a people, is understood by socialists to be a demand for radical, consistent democracy. This at once separates us from those who, such as the Buchananite paleocons, place the inviolability of the national principle above all other considerations and who may consistently oppose imperial interventions on that basis.

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

Socialism and Gay Liberation: Back to the Future

Doug Ireland

IN 1865, WHILE MARX, IN HOLLAND, was playing the Victorian parlor game “Confessions” with his daughter Jenny, when asked for his favorite maxim he replied, “Nihil humani a me alienum puto” or “nothing human is alien to me,” a dictum he had lifted from the second century B.C. Carthaginian slave-turned-playwright Terentius (Terence.)

Winter 2009

Vol:XII-2

Whole #:

Socialism and Gay Liberation: Back to the Future

Doug Ireland

Winter 2009

Vol:XII-2

Whole #: 46

Socialism and Homosexuality

Thomas Harrison

SAME-SEX DESIRE has always been a part of human life.There is much evidence, though not yet conclusive, that a predominant sexual attraction to members of one’s own sex is innate. But innate or not, we know that it is definitely formed early in life, certainly before the age of ten.

Winter 2009

Vol:XII-2

Whole #: 46

Socialism and Sex

H. L. Small

THE GROWTH OF SOCIALISM in the United States has been hampered by the lack of imagination of the leaders of socialist thought. The appeal of the socialist has always been to the future, with a paradisiacal vision of economic plentitude and true democratic freedom.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

Socialists, Democrats and Political Action: It's the Movements that Matter

Michael Hirsch

The following is a slightly expanded text of remarks given at a pre-election debate on the topic, "Is a Progressive Democratic Party Possible." Michael Hirsch, representing the Democratic Socialists of America, spoke for the affirmative, as did Al Ronzoni of Progressive Democrats of America. The negative argument was given by Howie Hawkins of the New York State Green Party and Danny Katch of the International Socialist Organization. The event was held at New York City's Judson Memorial Church on Nov. 3, 2006.

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

Stealing Our Schools

Jackie Dee King

THE FEDERAL "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" law is in trouble. Critics and supporters alike predict that it will not be reauthorized in this legislative year. A growing chorus of voices from the grassroots and from major national organizations is calling for an overhaul of the law or even scrapping it altogether.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

Stephen Jay Gould: An Appreciation

Clive Bradley

Stephen Jay Gould, the palaeontologist and science writer who died last year, wrote -- brilliantly -- on a bewildering series of subjects, but he is perhaps best known for his contribution to four: general evolutionary theory; the sociobiology debate; the relationship between science and religion; and the study (or critique of it) of intelligence testing.

Winter 2004

Vol:IX-4

Whole #: 36

Still fighting: Interview with Judi Chamberlin

Betty Reid Mandell

Judi Chamberlin is one of the founders of the mental patients' liberation movement. In 1988, she wrote On Our Own, a book about her own experience with depression 43 years ago, when she was hospitalized against her will. That book became a kind of bible for the mental patients' liberation movement. Now the 64-year-old activist is dying of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, an incurable lung disorder. Late last year she stopped hospitalizations and instead opted for home hospice care.

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Struggling for Progress, in Iraq!

Wadood Hamad

The current armed insurgency in Iraq, erroneously portrayed by some as "resistance" to U.S. occupation, does not -- nor could it ever -- represent a national resistance movement. While it is true that the medley of insurgents espouses "a mixture of Islamic and Pan-Arab ideas," it is inaccurate to insinuate that they "agree on the need to put an end to U.S. presence in Iraq."[1] For if this were true, why are those elements not fighting U.S. operational headquarters and bases in Qatar, and elsewhere in the Arab world?

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

Sustaining Democratic Life: An Interview with the ACLU's Anthony Romero

Anthony Romero, Kent Worcester and Mark Dow

This is a lightly edited transcript of an interview conducted by Mark Dow and Kent Worcester with Anthony Romero in April 2004 in his lower Manhattan office.

New Politics: Yesterday during the September 11 Commission hearings, when he was defending some of the Patriot Act measures that have been criticized, Ashcroft said that a lot of what the Patriot Act did was simply to extend measures that were already in existence.

Anthony Romero: Patently false.

Summer 2004

Vol:X-1

Whole #: 37

The 2004 Elections and the Collapse of the Left

Thomas Harrison

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity

William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

The Antiwar Movement and Iraq

Stephen R. Shalom

The antiwar movement needs to demand the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops and an end to the U.S. domination of Iraq, not because we don't care about Iraqis, but precisely because we do care. And while we support any people's right to resistance, we should not "support the Iraq resistance."

Out Now!

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

The Change We REALLY Want?

Joanne Landy

WITH THE ELECTION OF BARACK OBAMA, millions in the United States and around the world are hoping for relief from the dangerous arrogance and destructiveness of George Bush’s foreign policy. President Obama is expected to take important positive initiatives — like closing Guantanamo and lifting the rule denying international organizations receiving U.S. aid the right to let women know about abortion. When the inevitable right-wing reaction to these initiatives comes, it will be crucial for us in the peace movement to defend them.

Winter 2009

Vol:XII-2

Whole #: 46

The Class Struggle in Post-Soviet Russia

Boris Kagarlitsky

TRANSLATED BY MICHEL VALE

THE RESTORATION OF CAPITALISM on the territory of the former Soviet Union was accompanied not only by unprecedented attacks on the social rights of the population. (Not only rights characteristic of the Soviet system, e.g., the right to housing, were rescinded, but also many of those that in the West are considered a normal attribute of a civilized attitude toward the wage laborer). No less impressive was the ease with which the new bourgeoisie imposed its conditions on the workers.

Summer 2009

Vol:XII-3

Whole #: 47

The Dead-End of Lesser Evilism

Thomas Harrison

Summer 2004

Vol:X-1

Whole #: 37

The Democratic Party and the Future of American Politics

David Friedman

1. Fiddling While Rome Burns

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

The First Neoconservative: Herman Wouk, the Americanization of the Holocaust, and the Rise of Neoconservatism

Joel Brodkin

The justification of the intensive bombing of Serbia in 1999 as part of the need to avoid "another Holocaust" is only a recent event in the Americanization of the Nazi Holocaust: specifically its use as a propaganda theme for the defense of U.S. great power interests.

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

The Global Crisis and the World Labor Movement

Dan La Botz

THE WORLD’S WORKING PEOPLE FACE the greatest challenge in three generations. The economic crisis that began in the banking institutions of the United States last year has rapidly spread around the globe, creating a financial and industrial disaster. In one country after another banks have failed, corporations have gone bankrupt, and millions around the world have lost their jobs.

Summer 2009

Vol:XII-3

Whole #: 47

The Hamas Victory and the New Politics that May Come

Emad El-din Aysha

The title to this article may sound terribly pretentious since, for all we know, in the coming months the Hamas government may very well end up under siege like Arafat and his entourage.

Summer 2006

Vol:XI-1

Whole #: 41

The Immigrant Rights Movement: Between Political Realism and Social Idealism

Dan La Botz

MILLIONS OF IMMIGRANTS took to the streets between March and May of 2006 in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and dozens of other U.S. cities in the largest social and political demonstrations in American history.

Summer 2007

Vol:XI-3

Whole #: 43

The Intra-Immigrant Dilemma

Alan Aja

"Black people should do more to help themselves. . . . We worked for everything we have. They should too." (Cuban-American Miami resident)

"[Whites] are racists by tradition and they at least know that what they're doing is not quite right . . . Cubans don't even think there is anything wrong with it. That is the way they've always related, period." (African-American Miami resident)*

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

The Labor Origins of the Next Women's Movement

Dorothy Sue Cobble

Dorothy Sue Cobble's book, The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America (Princeton University Press, 2002), retrieves the forgotten feminism of the previous generation of working women. Their reform agenda -- an end to unfair sex discrimination, just compensation for their waged labor, and the rights of their families and communities -- launched a revolution in employment practices that has carried over into the present.

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

The New Unity Partnership: Sweeney Critics Would Bureaucratize to Organize

Herman Benson

What John Sweeney did unto Lane Kirkland in 1995 may now be done unto him. On September 18, this year, Sweeney announced he would run for reelection as AFL-CIO president, along with Rich Trumka, secretary-treasurer, and Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice-president. But his term of office doesn't expire until mid 2005, almost two years to go.

Summer 2004

Vol:X-1

Whole #: 37

The Political Economy of Psychotherapy

David Singer

In the U.S. today, psychotherapy, or for that matter any study of the psychodynamics or interpersonal processes involved in mental and emotional difficulties in living, is on the wane. The cause of the decline is the subject here, but to understand it, it must be viewed in the context of the changes to health care in general that have taken place in the past several decades in the U.S.

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

The Question of Palestine

An Interview with Bashir Abu-Manneh

New Politics: 2008 is the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of Israel and of the Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe. What do you see as the Israeli goal and has it changed over the years?

Winter 2008

Vol:XI-4

Whole #: 44

The Rescue of Bulgaria's Jews in World War II

Rossen Vassilev

On February 13, 1998, Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov accepted on behalf of his ex-Communist nation the Courage to Care Award, which the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) had bestowed upon Bulgaria in recognition of the heroism of its people in saving Bulgarian Jews during World War II.

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

The Resistance and the Antiwar Movement

Anthony Arnove

The key challenge for the left today remains that of ending the occupation of Iraq, which did not end with the January 30 elections. A majority of people in the United States now thinks the invasion of Iraq was not worth the high price that has been paid as a consequence. Yet an enormous gap exists between this sentiment and the level of political activity against the occupation.

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

The Return of Limits

Ashley Dawson

"Nature has a habit of returning with a pitchfork" — Francis Bacon

Summer 2007

Vol:XI-3

Whole #: 43

The Return of Limits

Ashley Dawson

"Nature has a habit of returning with a pitchfork" -- Francis Bacon

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

The Soul of Socialism

Ronald Aronson

If one of the great socialist leaders of a century ago could see us now -- Debs, say, or Luxemburg -- he or she would certainly be puzzled by the state of the world. In every direction they would be able to see struggles for liberation or the fruits of such struggles: of those with whom they would immediately be in solidarity, such as women, former slaves, indigenous people, former colonial people, and racial, religious, and ethnic minorities.

Summer 2006

Vol:XI-1

Whole #: 41

The United States in the Middle East The Evolution of Its Israeli Policy

Immanuel Wallerstein

In 2007, the United States has no foreign policy involvement greater and more significant than its military presence in Iraq.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

The Ups and Downs of the Swedish Welfare State: General Trends, Benefits and Caregiving

Helen Lachs Ginsburg and Marguerite G. Rosenthal

[Note: This is a corrected version of the footnoted article that was earlier posted on the web.]

Summer 2006

Vol:XI-1

Whole #: 41

The Wages of Care: Change and Resistance in Support of Caregiving Work

Deanne Bonnar

Industrialized societies have done some things well. They increased the standard of living for large numbers of people, they opened up opportunities for knowledge not found in most agrarian cultures and they have advanced technology to the point where we can explore the solar system and transplant a human heart. This is not to argue that there are not major problems with the systems of distribution and the exploitation of the planet's environment, but by in large they have succeeded in increasing the production of the material basis of life.

Summer 2006

Vol:XI-1

Whole #: 41

The World Social Forum and the Emergence of Global Grassroots Politics

John L. Hammond

[This is an expanded and documented version of an article that appeared in New Politics, no. 42.][1]

Winter 2007

Vol:XI-2

Whole #: 42

There is Good News and Bad News: Religion and Politics

Harvey Cox

Once upon a time, just a few decades back, culture critics were confidently predicting the demise -- or a least the decline -- of religion. Technology, literacy, education, science would take their inevitable toll. Religion would survive, perhaps, in small enclaves, family rituals, and folk festivals. But religion would never be a factor in the public sector, the "political realm." The dead would bury the dead.

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

Three Elegies for Susan Sontag

Ellen Willis

1. Art

Summer 2005

Vol:X-3

Whole #: 39

U.S. Libraries and the "War on Terrorism"

Mark Hudson

In the days and weeks following the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in the northeastern United States, there was a sudden proliferation of U.S. flags and other patriotic imagery in public libraries across the nation. U.S. public libraries have traditionally displayed U.S. flags inside or atop their buildings, even though they are financed by local and state tax money and receive little if any federal funding. But the new patriotic décor went well beyond any simple statement of solidarity with the nation in a time of crisis.

Summer 2004

Vol:X-1

Whole #: 37

Unraveling Iraq: The Sociopolitical and Ethical Dimensions of Resistance

Wadood Hamad

Iraq, as one long conversant in its fervent political history remarked to me, is much like the earth resting underneath a giant rock laid there for a very long time. The U.S.-led invasion of 2003 destabilized -- if not moved -- this rock and unleashed a multitude of organisms that were unknown even to local residents.

Winter 2005

Vol:X-2

Whole #: 38

Venezuela's PSUV and Socialism from Below

Interview with Orlando Chirino

ON MARCH 24, 2007, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez announced to a gathering of about 3,000 supporters that he was creating a Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). The following interview was conducted (by the Venezuelean group aporrea) on April 13, 2007, with Orlando Chirino, national organizer of the UNT (Union Nacional de Trabajadores—National Union of Workers).

Winter 2008

Vol:XI-4

Whole #: 44

Village Elections in China -- Democracy or Façade?

Richard Levy

Do elections of self-governing Village Committees in China's signify a major step towards democracy? How, if at all, do these elections affect power relations among various groups, class strata, and nascent or even actual classes in the Chinese countryside? Inside and outside of the villages, who makes decisions about how the village will evolve or develop?

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Visiting Raúl Castro's Cuba

Samuel Farber

ON JULY 31, 2006, THE CUBAN government announced that due to a serious illness, the nature of which was declared a state secret, Fidel Castro was stepping aside as the head of state. His younger brother Raúl, officially designated as his successor since the early days of the 1959 Revolution, was "temporarily" replacing the commander-in-chief.

Summer 2007

Vol:XI-3

Whole #: 43

Voices from Prison and a Call for Repeal: The Hudood Laws of Pakistan

Abira Ashfaq

In 1979, there were seventy women in prisons all over Pakistan. By 1988, this figure was six thousand. The reason -- the Hudood Ordinances. Promulgated in 1979 by military dictator Zia-ul-Huq in an effort to Islamize the laws of the country, these have been the subject of much controversy and debate.

Winter 2006

Vol:X-4

Whole #: 40

We Call for the United States to End Its Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan!

CAMPAIGN FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY

THIS MAY BE A TURNING POINT for the expanding U.S./NATO wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a time when speaking out clearly and unambiguously against war can make a crucial difference. Today we see signs all too reminiscent of the step-by-step deepening of the U.S. commitment to the war in Vietnam in the 1960s. In response, we declare ourselves firmly against military escalation in the region and for the withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Pakistan now. We also call for an end to drone attacks in both countries.

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

We Can Do It! The Case for Single Payer National Health Insurance

Joanne Landy and Oliver Fein

[Ed. Note: This is a chapter in a forthcoming book Ten Excellent Reasons for National Health Insurance, eds., Mary O'Brien, M.D. and Martha Livingston, Ph.D. (New Press).]

THE TIME HAS COME for single payer National Health Insurance in the United States. We have excellent hospitals, skilled practitioners, the technological infrastructure -- and we're already spending enough money to insure everyone and to improve access to care for many who are covered today by inadequate plans. All we need is the political will.

Summer 2008

Vol:XII-1

Whole #: 45

Weather Underground Rises from the Ashes: They're Baack!

Jesse Lemisch

I attended part of a January 20, 2006, "day workshop of interventions" -- aka "a day of dialogic interventions" -- at Columbia University on "Radical Politics and the Ethics of Life."[1] The event aimed "to stage a series of encounters . . . to bring to light . . .

Summer 2006

Vol:XI-1

Whole #: 41

What Happened to the American Working Class?

Dan La Botz

The collapse of the financial sector of the United States detonated the current global economic crisis, and its auto industry was soon crumpling as well.[1] Yet, though it all began here, American labor unions and workers have been slow to respond and their response has been weak. Millions of workers in hundreds of French cities have struck and demonstrated repeatedly against their government and against the banks and corporations throughout the spring of 2009, and the story was similar in Italy and Greece.

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

Why We Need a Global Green New Deal

Ashley Dawson

The United States, and with it the rest of the world, is experiencing the initial stages of an unprecedented emergency brought on by three intertwined factors: a credit-fueled financial crisis, gyrating energy prices linked to speculation about the future peaking of oil supplies, and an accelerating climate crisis.

Winter 2010

Vol:XI-4

Whole #: 48

Women’s Work, Mother’s Poverty: are men’s wages the best cure for women’s economic insecurity?

Gwendolyn Mink

In the 2008 Democratic Party platform, the only provision with women in the title was one promising "Opportunity for Women." The provision pledged "that our daughters should have the same opportunities as our sons,"¹ confining measurement of women's equality to our access to men's jobs and men's wages. The nomination, then election, of the first African-American presidential candidate portended and promised great change.

Winter 2010

Vol:XII-4

Whole #: 48

You've Been Well Cared For

Betty Reid Mandell

I was sitting in the homeless unit of the Grove Hall Department of Transitional Assistance (welfare department) chatting with some women. One was living in a homeless shelter in Saugus, a town on the north shore of Massachusetts; the other was applying for shelter. They were ashamed to be here. They said that they had worked and held responsible jobs. Life had dealt them raw blows. One had to leave her job because of an injury to her spine that seemed to require endless treatment, and she did not know when she could return to work.

Winter 2004

Vol:IX-4

Whole #: 36

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Shanker and NCLB

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1. The Crisis of 2007-2008

Electoral Cul-de-sac