Shrinkage means the voluntary downsizing of the national economy, including a reduction in gross domestic product. "Voluntary" here indicates a preference for voluntaristic solutions - though not as individualistic and unplanned where well-to-do opt out of the consumerist market model.
COVID-19 and Catastrophe Capitalism (tags)
The scale of the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences on world accumulation are unprecedented, with the global economic costs still increasing. At the end of March, some three billion people on the planet were in lockdown or social-distancing mode.36
Blame the Covid-19 failure on your governments, not on China (tags)
The anti-Chinese narrative is based on false statements and serves to distract people from the failure of neoliberalism. Build hospitals and expand health care! Cut military spending in half!
Terrorism, COINTELPRO, and the Black Panthers -An interview with Angela A. Allen-Bell (tags)
In her new law journal article, “Activism Unshackled & Justice Unchained,” law professor Angela A. Allen-Bell concludes that the US government’s multi-faceted response to the BPP, primarily within the framework of the FBI’s infamous COINTELPRO, was indeed the very definition of terrorism. Bell writes that “the magnitude of the unwarranted harm done to the BPP has not yet been explored in an appropriate fashion. Much like a fugitive, it has eluded justice.” As a result, “the FBI's full-scale assault on the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s remains an open wound for the nation itself. This is more than a national tragedy; this is a human wrong.
Notes on Repostings at LA Indymedia (tags)
Test Posting
Russia
Decriminalizing Bashar al Assad: Towards a more effective anti-war movement (tags)
Building a phoney case for imperialist regime change is, of course, not unusual. What is really curious is that the leadership of the anti-war movement in the west – the people whose clear responsibility is to build the widest possible opposition to war on Syria – has been actively participating in the propaganda and demonisation campaign. Whilst opposing direct military strikes, they have nonetheless given consistent support to the regime change operation that such strikes are meant to consummate.
Amnesty International Denounces Torture in California Prisons --Interview w/ Tessa Murphy (tags)
2 weeks after the release of Amnesty Intl’s new report on the use of prolonged solitary confinement inside California’s ‘Security Housing Units’ (SHUs), entitled "The Edge of Endurance," prisoners initiated another hunger strike, with 500 participants statewide. In this new interview, Tessa Murphy speaks about her visit to California SHUs and Amnesty's report based on the visit.
World Premiere of Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal (tags)
On October 6, the new film "Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal," will be making its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival, and then begin touring around the world. We interview two of the filmmakers.
Will AB 2530 Unshackle Childbirth in California? -Interviewing Tina Reynolds and Vikki Law (tags)
A bill opposing the shackling of pregnant prisoners, AB 2530, has been passed unanimously by the California State Legislature and is now on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk, with thirty days to either approve or veto it. Last year, a previous version of this bill was also passed unanimously by the Legislature, but it was ultimately vetoed by Brown. With Brown’s decision expected anytime, local activists are urgently mobilizing to stop him from vetoing this important bill once again. AB 2530 supporters have created a webpage for the public (not just California residents) to contact the Governor.
Do US Prisons Violate European Human Rights Law? --Interview w/ Hamja Ahsan & Aviva Stahl (tags)
An important ruling is expected early in September from the European Court of Human Rights, regarding whether or not US prisons respect human rights enough for the UK to extradite ‘war on terror' suspects to the US. We interview activist/journalist Aviva Stahl from CagePrisoners.com alongside Hamja Ahsan, the brother of Talha Ahsan, one of the appellants that will be seriously affected by the September ruling, imprisoned since 2006.
Solitary Confinement on Trial --An interview with law professor Angela A. Allen-Bell (tags)
On the eve of Tuesday's Senate hearing on solitary confinement, we interview Angela A. Allen-Bell, a law professor at Southern University in Baton Rouge. The newly released issue of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly features an article by Prof. Bell entitled "Perception Profiling & Prolonged Solitary Confinement Viewed Through the Lens of the Angola 3 Case: When Prison Officials Become Judges, Judges Become Visually Challenged and Justice Become Legally Blind.”
New York Times Promotes War on Syria and Iran (tags)
media
Guantanamo Prison's True Secret: Jason Leopold in Conversation With Andy Worthington (tags)
Activist/Journalist Andy Worthington was recently a guest speaker alongside investigative journalist Jason Leopold at the UC Hastings College of Law, in San Francisco, hosted by the college’s chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. The event, entitled “Ten Years of Guantanamo,” was held amidst protests around the world calling for the prison to be immediately shutdown. Worthington, the author of “The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison,” has been documenting the array of human rights abuses at Guantanamo for over six years now.
Medical Self Defense & the Black Panther Party --An interview w/ Alondra Nelson (tags)
Alondra Nelson, the author of 'Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination' writes that “the Party’s focus on health care was both practical and ideological.” On a practical level, the BPP provided free community health care services. Simultaneously, the BPP railed against the medical-industrial complex, declaring that health care was “a right and not a privilege.”
15 Years of Giving Voice to Women and Transgender Prisoners in California (tags)
An interview with Diana Block, Pam Faden, and Dierdre Wilson --three members of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, which is celebrating its 15th year with an event in SF on Friday Oct. 14.
Al Jazeera's War on Gaddafi (tags)
misreporting
The End of the "Golden Age" of Capitalism and the Rise of Neoliberalism (tags)
"The central point is that the financial sphere has the potential of developing into an autonomous subsystem of the whole economy with an enormous capacity of self-expansion..Like cancer, it has no internal control mechanism. It can only be brought under control by external interventions"
Islamophobia in Western Media (tags)
Muslim vilification
Obama Year Two: Continued Betrayal and Failure (Part II) (tags)
government betrayal
Class Warfare Jeopardizing American Workers' Security (tags)
waging war against vital social benefits
Haiti Is Open for Business (tags)
Haiti is set up for plunder and slow motion genocide
Good and Bad Choices for Energy Policy and the Environmental Movement 2009-2010 (tags)
Two energy/environment phenomena are being widely discussed currently. These are global warming, and its mitigation, and the nuclear resurgence – the worldwide push to supply power with nuclear power plants. Careful study of these issues leads to the following conclusions: 1. Global warming is real and is causing harm. 2. Global warming is mostly due to heat production by human industry since the 1800s, from nuclear power and fossil fuels, better termed hydrocarbons, – coal, oil, natural gas. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2 play a minor role even though they are widely claimed the cause. 3. Both nuclear and hydrocarbon-based power must be eliminated to solve the global warming problem. 4. Nuclear power advocates have commandeered the global warming/greenhouse gas formula to promote nuclear power, based upon two errors: exaggerating the role of CO2 on the one hand and incorrectly claiming that nuclear power plants do not produce CO2 on the other hand. 5. Nuclear power can not be separated from nuclear weapons, which are essential to the consistent drive for American military dominationof the world. This is the reason for nuclear power. Nuclear power does not make sense as a safe, efficient, or economical way to provide energy. 6. Solar and solar-derived (wind, wave) sources of power do not add heat to the environment and can be used to supply virtually unlimited electrical energy without causing global warming. If done properly they will open up new vistas of human freedom and cultural development. They also produce much less CO2 than either nukes or hydrocarbons.
IF Stone: An Iconic Radical Journalist (tags)
one of America's greatest
The Warsaw Ghetto and Gaza Strip (tags)
A comparison of the present fascist policies of the Israeli government with the past atrocities of the Nazis
July Delegation to Venezuela: Human Rights, Food Sovereignty & Social Change (tags)
July Delegation to Venezuela: Human Rights, Food Sovereignty & Social Change The Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of NY invites you to join us in July for a 10-day trip to Venezuela examining advances in food sovereignty and other initiatives for social change.
July Delegation to Venezuela: Human Rights, Food Sovereignty & Social Change (tags)
July Delegation to Venezuela: Human Rights, Food Sovereignty & Social Change The Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of NY invites you to join us in July for a 10-day trip to Venezuela examining advances in food sovereignty and other initiatives for social change.
July Delegation to Venezuela: Human Rights, Food Sovereignty & Social Change (tags)
July Delegation to Venezuela: Human Rights, Food Sovereignty & Social Change The Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of NY invites you to join us in July for a 10-day trip to Venezuela examining advances in food sovereignty and other initiatives for social change.
Albert Einstein was a socialist (tags)
Famous physicist Albert Einstein wrote the essay entitled "Why Socialism?" for the first issue of left-wing magazine "Monthly Review" (May 1949).
The Global Collapse: a Non-orthodox View by Walden Bello (tags)
"Orthodox economics has long ceased to be of any help in understanding the crisis. Non-orthodox economics, on the other hand, provides extraordinarily powerful insights into the causes and dynamics of the current crisis.."
The Long March of the Cuban Revolution (tags)
In 1960, C. Wright Mills warned Americans that the revolution in Cuba was the start of a wider process that would spread to Latin America and the third world. On the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, practically anyone can see that our continent has begun a new era...
Why Socialism? (by Albert Einstein) (tags)
This essay was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949).
The Financialization of Capital and the Crisis (tags)
The stock market- and real estate-bubble occur in advanced capitalism. The government response was to create a second bubble, the great bubble transfer. The real estate bubble crashed last summer. John Bellamy Foster teaches at the University of Oregon and is editor of Monthly Review.
OIL IN TIBET and gold, uranium (tags)
The name of the game is always money, and when it comes to the CIA's war against China by promoting Tibet, that is certainly true. There is oil, uranium, gold and copper in Tibet. No wonder we have this latest hysterics over Tibet during the US oil war against Iraq and Afghanistan and perhaps Iran.
OH, THAT'S JUST FRICKIN GREAT! (tags)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is using out-dated data to form it's report. The deadline for data was over a year ago for info from scientific research. That means all of their predictions are too rosy. And yet, the politicians in the IPCC are softening the language of the report. That's just great. Keep the public stupid about the facts.......they can't handle the truth.
Here Is Where Al Gore Is Coming From - You Had Best Be Aware (tags)
An Update of Climate Science From Around the World This is a collection of articles from google alerts, and a few sites such as NOAA from the past year and a half. It is very compelling information mostly not published in the American corporate media, and shows why the energy giants are spending many millions on their massive dis-information campaign. Please pass this on and post it everywhere you can. And please sign the petition being promoted this weekend with the global environmental music festival.
Scientists are VERY WORRIED About Atmospheric Warming (tags)
Recent reports of climatologists from around the world are revealing that their projections of warming and CO2 levels have been too low. They are startled by what their data is showing and how fast the changes have been happening in the past few years.
Why the recent Climate Report was so Harsh (tags)
Here is a collection of reports about the scientific studies being conducted around the world from just the past few months. These are the reports that went into the IPCC's data bank and where from they came to their latest estimates and projections. The first few have been published after the Feb. 2 IPCC release. The majority of them are from foriegn news agencies and were never published in the US media. Our corporate media wants you to know every detail of a woman who decides to fly to Vegas rather than get married. They don't care if you are aware of the facts regarding our changing climate. Please send this to eveywhere you can.
Your Grandchildren Will Despise You Immensely! (tags)
Expect to hear things like this:
IPCC Report UNDER-ESTIMATES GLOBAL WARMING say experts (tags)
One scientific report which was published the day of the IPCC report shows that the sea level rise will be much more than stated by the IPCC. Here are excerpts from an excellent article posted to the Monthly Review:
Haiti: $100,000 NED Grant to Batay Ouvriye- Anti-Aristide "leftists" (tags)
Recently declassified National Endowment for Democracy (NED) documents reveal that a "leftist" workers' organization, Batay Ouvriye (BO), which promoted and called for the overthrow of the constitutionally elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was the targeted beneficiary of a US $99,965 NED grant routed through the AFL-CIO's American Center for International Solidarity (ACILS). Listed in NED's "Summary of Projects Approved in FY 2005" for Haiti, the grant states, "ACILS will work with the May 1st Union Federation- Batay Ouvriye [ESPM-BO] to train workers to organize and educate fellow workers."
Reflections on Socialism (tags)
The main political task at this moment is to assemble the necessary social forces to defeat Bush and his counterparts in Congress and elsewhere.
NADER'S RUNNING MATE ENDORSES JOHN KERRY! (tags)
"I'm voting my conscience on Nov. 2; I'm voting for John Kerry....His policy proposals involve vision -- like alternative energy, more accessible health care, and funding all those children who have been left behind by the Bush administration."
The Sage of Imperialism: Harry Magdoff (tags)
This conference report was published in: Monthly Review Newsletter, Summer 2003. "Neoconservative hawks should be seen as frustrated outsiders involved in a desperate gamble to shore up declining US power by throwing legitimacy to the winds."
USA Bad Boys: Blackmail and US Intervention in latin America (tags)
US addictions haunt and terrorize world: OIL, WEAPONS, DRUGS. US BAD BOYS and friends in Latin America held power for decades. Now they are run out of town by Hugo Chavez, people of Bolivia and New Ideas. Guns and Money aren’t enough anymore–Hope lives –Struggle Consumes…
Tracking down underreported stories
Why Socialism? By Albert Einstein (tags)
Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition.
U.S. Offensive in Latin America: Coups, Retreats, and Radicalization (tags)
The most powerful and organized challenge to the satellite building project of the empire is in Colombia.
ANNOUNCING AN IMPORTANT EVENT FOR ACTIVISTS AND TRADE UNIONISTS (tags)
ANNOUNCING AN IMPORTANT EVENT FOR ACTIVISTS AND TRADE UNIONISTS
"Monthly Review" on the FARC and Colombia (tags)
A very well documented article on the FARC and the civil war in Colombia by Latin Americanist James Petras.