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"30 Books, Not One Review:
Chomsky and Academic History"
John H. Summers, Counterpunch
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." — Karl Marx, "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right"
Noam Chomsky has written more than 30 books over the last three decades. Yet neither the Journal of American History, nor the American Historical Review, nor Reviews in American History has reviewed them. If the journals had overlooked one or two of Chomsky's books, then the omissions might not rise to the status of a problem, and could be attributed to a combination of reasons each of them incidental to Chomsky himself. If the journals had in fact devoted attention to him, but the preponderance of the attention had been hostile, then they might stand accused of harboring a bias. This is the most respectable way to disagree about such matters. But the journals have not done enough to deserve the accusation. They have not reviewed a single one of his books. Chomsky is one of most widely read political intellectuals in the world. Academic history pretends he does not exist.
Why is this so?
Anonymous Comrade writes
"Tank Girls: the Frontline Feminists"
Christine Aziz, Independent
These women have come from around the world to bring down Iran's ayatollahs. So why were they bombed by the West? Christine Aziz visits their
desert HQ
As the coalition bombs hit the flat salt plains on the north-eastern border of Iraq, members of a little known, female-led Iranian army huddled in a bunker. While the earth shook, showering dust on their neatly pressed khaki headscarves, 25-year old Laleh Tarighi and her fellow combatants tried to protect themselves.
Eighteen months later, recalling the terror of being attacked by British and US bombers during the invasion of Iraq last year, Tarighi, a former pupil of Parkside and Hill Road School in Cambridge, says: "We were puzzled more than afraid. We knew our officers had sent messages to the Pentagon insisting that we were neutral and shouldn't be attacked. We were only in Iraq to overthrow the Islamic fundamentalist regime across the border in Iran."
Michael Bell writes:
"What is Money?"
Michae Bell
Someone once said, or there was a song entitled, “Money is the root of all Evil”. So I ask, “ What is Money?”
* Is it a means of exchange, a facilitator?
* Is it a metal object, a piece of paper, a book entry, a hand shake?
* Is it tangible, solid, structural or is it an illusion?
* is it a commodity, like sheep, like iron ore, like bread?
* Does it grow, is it alive, is it conscious? If not, who creates, directs,
controls it? Is it out of control?
* Does it need control? Will it kill us? Who benefits, who looses?
* Is it a health hazard? Is it responsible for depression? Did it create
or extend gambling? Does it cause excessive or lack of medication?
* Does it support the rich or the poor?
* Does impede creative thinking, support for the impoverished?
* Does it cause poverty, dumping, deprivation, global warming?
* Is it responsible for wars, resource depletion, environmental
degradation, design obsolescence, high technical solutions, structural
decay?
* Does it accelerate the depletion of the earth’s resources, oil, minerals,
soil, rain forests, oceans?
* Does it create or impede progress?
* Is it a catalyst for development?
* Who needs it, banks, multinational corporations, stock markets,
supermarkets, governments, nomads, the people?
* Is it necessary for the proliferation of free trade agreements?
* What does it achieve, growth, booms and busts, inflation,recessions?
* Does money in the form of unearned income create inequities?
* Are compound interest rates the problem or is it money itself?
* Should the use of money be changed?
* Should interest be abolished or should it be replaced by a fee on
transactions?
* Should money be abolished or just taken out of the hands of banks,
and financial institutions, including stock exchanges?
Michael Bell writes
"The Big Picture Look at the Planet"
Mihael Bell
The problems facing the planet, which are the result of the activity of its people, in part, stem from the fact that we tend to compartmentalise the problems, put into separate boxes hunger, terrorism, disease, global warming, growth.
We do not deal with all matters as part of the whole because it is too complex.
"KPFA: Democracy Deferred?"
Bill Mandel
Bill Mandel, now 88 years young, was a KPFA and
Pacifica broadcaster for 37 years, until he was
removed by station management in one of their many
corporate purges, despite the fact — or perhaps
because of the fact — that he had been one of the
station's most popular and politically-cogent
broadcasters.
For more information about Mandel, see his website,
here. Mandel's autobiography,
Saying No To Power (Introduction by Howard Zinn), is a
history of how the American people fought to defend
and expand its rights since the 1920s, employing the
form of the life of a 30s AND 60s activist, one who
was involved in most serious movements: student,
labor, 45 years of efforts to prevent war with the
USSR, civil rights South and North, women's liberation
(Mandel's late wife appears on 50 pages), 37 years on
Pacifica Radio (where he invented talk radio), and
civil liberties. On Mandel's website, you can also see
and hear his testimony before different
McCarthy-Cold-War-Era witch-hunting committees (used
in six films and a play). Mandel is the author of five
books in his academic field.
"Losing West Virginia"
Mike Davis, Die Zeit
Is it time (to paraphrase Brecht) to elect a new American people?
American liberals usually profess great enthusiasm for the common people.
But sentimental populism took a hard blow on 2 November. The people, by a
slim but decisive majority, elected fear, deception and greed to four more
years in the White House. Indeed, with the exception of the Democratic
redoubt on the Great Lakes, continental America, from Idaho to Alabama, has
become a one-party nation under god. Not even Bruce Springsteen and 48 Nobel
laureates could ultimately swing Ohio to John Kerry. Bush dramatically
increased his 2000 margin of victory in 12 states, while Kerry earned less
than Gore in seven states, including his own Massachusetts.
"Theses of Resistance"
Daniel Bensaïd, Viento Sur
We are faced with a double responsibility: the transmission of a tradition
threatened by conformism, and the exploration of the uncertain contours of
the future.
In the course of the last decade (since the disintegration of the Soviet
Union and German unification), something came to an end. But what? Was it
the “Short 20th Century” of which Eric Hobsbawm and other historians speak,
beginning with World War I and ending with the fall of the Berlin Wall?
Or is it the short period that followed World War II, marked by the twin
superpowers of the Cold War, and characterized in the imperialist centres by
sustained capital accumulation and “Fordist” regulation?
Or again, is it the great cycle in the history of capitalism and the
workers’ movement, opened by the capitalist development of the 1880s,
subsequent colonial expansion and the blossoming of the modern labour
movement, symbolized by the formation of the Second International?
"China and the U.S.: Competing Geopolitical Strategies"
by Immanuel Wallerstein
Ever since Richard Nixon went to China on Feb. 21, 1972 to visit Mao
Zedong, the world's geopolitical alignments have never been the same. The
meeting represented a spectacular shift in geopolitical hostilities of the
post-1945 period. The major consequence was that China and the United
States ceased to act as though each were the other's primary enemy, and
acted as though each were a potential collaborator of the other on the
world scene - collaborator, which is less than an ally. Each has been
careful to do nothing that would allow for a return to the pre-1972 period
which had seen open warfare in Korea and unlimited rhetorical harangue
across the world. This cautious, even wary, relationship has continued
unabated up to today and has survived intact even during the era of U.S.
neo-conservative aggressive foreign policy under George W. Bush.
Anti War Activism Interview
by Stan Goff and M. Junaid Alam
Left Hook
December 22, 2004
Recently, Left Hook co-editor M. Junaid Alam was able to fire off some questions to Stan Goff, a former US Special Forces Master Sergeant with more than two decades of military experience who is now heavily involved in anti-war work with Military Families Speak Out and the Bring Them Home Now campaign, and is also the author of Full Spectrum Disorder and Hideous Dream. Below, he offers his sharp insights on recent tactical, military, and political developments taking place in Iraq, discusses the very real growing signs of discontent within the armed forces, and what the anti-war movement should do about it.
Tap writes:
"Alternative Possibilities for Voting Procedure"
Scientific American
"Has there been any progress in developing fairer ways for people to vote in elections? I recall reading some time back about a system in which people would get one vote per candidate, not transferable between candidates; such a system was said to be fairer overall than one vote per voter." — Vitols, Anaheim Hills, Calif.
Donald G. Saari from the department of mathematics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., gives this overview of voting behavior:
"After two centuries of efforts by mathematicians and political scientists, positive results about 'fair voting procedures' are emerging. This is important because 'fairness' can be a casualty when current methods are used in multiple-candidate elections--such as this year's presidential campaign.
To illustrate, suppose that 200 voters prefer Alice to Candy to Becky (denoted by Alice > Candy > Becky), 195 prefer Becky > Candy > Alice, whereas only 20 prefer Candy > Becky > Alice. The plurality election outcome, where we vote for our top-ranked candidate, is Alice > Becky > Candy with a 200:195:20 tally. While we might worry whether these voters prefer Alice or Becky, Candy's feeble support suggests that she is of no interest to these voters.
"This assertion, however, is false. If we compare candidates in pairs, it becomes arguable that Candy is their favorite. These voters prefer Candy to Alice (215 to 200), Candy to Becky (220 to 195), and Becky to Alice (215 to 200); these rankings suggest that these voters actually prefer Candy > Becky > Alice. Notice how this outcome conflicts with and reverses the plurality ranking. Moreover, it shows that Candy's lack of votes more accurately manifests inadequacies of our commonly used election procedure rather than voter disinterest. The example also shows that, inadvertently, we can choose badly.
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