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October, 2008

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October 2007

Mills Interview
by Dawson


June 2007

Drop Charges, Release Dr Binayak Sen Forthwith


October 2006

It Could Happen Here
by Gregory Meyerson and Michael Joseph Roberto


September 2006

Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?
by Joseph Ball

What Maoism Has Contributed
by Samir Amin


May 2006

Universal Rights and Wrongs: Roper v. Simmons, Torture and Judge Posner
by Michael E. Tigar


September 2005

Alice Thorner (1918–2005): A Tribute
by Utsa Patnaik


August 2005

Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) on the Successful Attack on the Fortified Army Base in Kalikot on August 7th-8th, 2005


July 2005

Internal Debate within the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)


June 2005

Nepal—The Most Significant Popular Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the World Today
by Randhir Singh

Debate Over the Future of the AFL-CIO: More Heat than Light
by Bill Fletcher, Jr.


May 2005

Hands off
Assata Campaign

Statement from the Black Radical Congress

Will Miller:
The Life of an Activist-Educator

by Ron Jacobs


April 2005

A Note on the Death of André Gunder Frank
(1929-2005)

by Samir Amin


March 2005

Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Royal Dictatorship and the Need For a Democratic Republic in Nepal


February 2005

The Future of Organized Labor in the U.S.: Reinventing Trade Unionism for the 21st Century
by Kate Bronfenbrenner, Donna Dewitt, Bill Fletcher, Jr., et al.


January 2005

On December 24, 2004, Maoists in China Get Three Year Prison Sentences for Leafleting


May 2004

William H. Hinton (1919 –2004)
by John Mage


April 2004

Can the Working Class Change the World?
by Michael D. Yates


December 2003

A Turn for the Worse in the United States: Criminalizing Dissent
by Lynne A. Williams, Esq.


September 2003

Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Failure of the Peace Talks in Nepal


August 2003

Remembering W.E.B. Du Bois
by Bill Fletcher, Jr.


June 2003

Gilbert Achcar Interviewed by David Barsamian


May 2003

Fidel Castro: May Day 2003


March 2003

Understanding the U.S. War State
by John McMurtry


February 2003

Women’s Leadership and the Revolution in Nepal
by Com. Parvati


November 2002

The Face of Empire
by William K. Tabb


September 2002

A Communication from the Revolutionaries in Nepal on the Current (September 2002) Situation in the Civil War

Comparisons Between Recent U.S.-Backed Coups: Caracas and Kathmandu
by Wayne Madsen

Everything Has Not Changed Since 9/11
by Bill Fletcher, Jr.


May 2002

A Struggle Within the Chinese Communist Party

Letter of the Fourteen

Letter of Ma Bin and Han Yaxi


April 2002

Goldilocks Meets a Bear: How Bad Will the U.S. Recession Be?
by Fred Moseley

Hypocrisy and Human Rights
by H. E. Mr. Felipe Pérez Roque


January 2002

Birthpangs of Democracy in Nepal: Commentary from Dr. Baburam Bhattarai


November 2001

Terrorism and Human Rights
by Michael E. Tigar


September 2001

Terror Attacks of September 11, 2001
Statement from the Black Radical Congress


August 2001

Will We Awaken and Find That No One Is Left
by Bill Fletcher, Jr.


July 2001

A Tale of Two Conferences
by Bill Fletcher, Jr.


June 2001

The Letter of Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Palace Massacre in Nepal


April 2001

African Leaders Hide Political Woes Behind Homophobia
Statement from the Black Radical Congress

Statement on the Rebellion in Cincinnati and Continued Police Terror
Statement from the Black Radical Congress


March 2001

Communists Return to Power in Moldova: Hope for a Communist Democracy in the Former Soviet Union?
by John Mage

Contemporary
Police Brutality and Misconduct: A Continuation of the Legacy of Racial Violence

Statement from the Black Radical Congress

We Must Succeed!
The Black Radical Congress Campaign

Statement from the Black Radical Congress


February 2001

A Silent Coup d’État: Only in America
by Edward Greer

U.S. Wouldn't Tolerate Our Election
in Nicaragua

by Robert W. McChesney

Media Giants Have a Pal at the FCC
by Robert W. McChesney

     

“Interview with Kathryn Mills and Pamela Mills”
by Michael Dawson

In 1956, C. Wright Mills wrote a personal letter to his friends Harvey and Bette Swados. "Let's not forget," Mills advised the Swadoses, "that there's...more that's useful in...the Sweezy kind of Marxism than in all the routineers of J.S. Mill [a.k.a. variants of modern political liberalism] put together."


Drop Charges, Release Dr Binayak Sen Forthwith

We, the undersigned, are dismayed at the continued detention of Dr Binayak Sen, General Secretary of the Chhattisgarh People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), since May 14. Dr Binayak Sen is also the National Vice-President of the PUCL, one of the oldest civil liberties organisations in India.[more]


Annette Rubinstein: 1910-2007

Annette T. Rubinstein, a friend and comrade of Paul Sweezy, Leo Huberman, and Harry Magdoff from the founding of Monthly Review in 1949 died on June 20th, aged 97. An active socialist for 75 years, Annette was the author of more than 20 essays and reviews on literary and political subjects for MR, as well as innumerable articles in Mainstream, Science & Society, and Jewish Currents, among others. She wrote the standard progressive introduction to English literature, The Great Tradition: From Shakespeare to Shaw as well as American Literature: Root and Flower, an invaluable overview of that country's literary history. Both emphasize the massive, but officially hidden, presence of the literature of resistance to oppression at the heart of the history and development of modern English language and literature. In her last public appearance, on the occasion of her 97th birthday in April, Annette returned to this topic in her talk and gathered her strength to do an effective public reading in Shelley’s The Mask of Anarchy.


The Nepali Revolution and International Relations
JOHN MAGE

A revolutionary civil war in Nepal ceased de facto with the popular triumph over King Gyanendra in April 2006, and de jure with the peace agreement reached in November 2006.  The Royal Nepal Army ("RNA") now calls itself the Nepal Army, and the peace agreement requires its democratization under the authority of the new government that includes the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).  As of the date of writing this has not yet occurred and the Nepal Army is still commanded by those, primarily of the quite literally feudal elite, who -- with U. S. "advisers" -- had pursued the civil war with lawless brutality and impunity.  Yet it is important not to underestimate the extent of the revolutionary changes in Nepal.  Today both Nepal Army and the revolutionary armed forces (the People's Liberation Army or "PLA") are given in substance equal status under a peace agreement negotiated by the Nepalis themselves, and administered with the assistance of the United Nations.


Reflections
FIDEL CASTRO RUZ

More than three billion people in the world condemned to premature death from hunger and thirst. THAT is not an exaggerated figure, but rather a cautious one. I have meditated a lot on that in the wake of President Bush's meeting with U.S. automobile manufacturers.


It Could Happen Here
GREGORY MEYERSON and MICHAEL JOSEPH ROBERTO

A deepening crisis pervades Pax Americana and with it a rising interest in fascism and the fear that it may be coming or is already here. While some observers are alarmed at the prospects of fascism, others dismiss the topic as conspiracy theory or just plain rubbish. In the most absurd recent use of the term, George W. Bush has declared America at war “with Islamic fascists seeking to destroy freedom loving societies.” It is hard here not to invoke Huey Long’s famous idea that fascism would come to America clothed as anti-fascism.


Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?
JOSEPH BALL

Over the last 25 years the reputation of Mao Zedong has been seriously undermined by ever more extreme estimates of the numbers of deaths he was supposedly responsible for. In his lifetime, Mao Zedong was hugely respected for the way that his socialist policies improved the welfare of the Chinese people, slashing the level of poverty and hunger in China and providing free health care and education. Mao’s theories also gave great inspiration to those fighting imperialism around the world. It is probably this factor that explains a great deal of the hostility towards him from the Right. This is a tendency that is likely to grow more acute with the apparent growth in strength of Maoist movements in India and Nepal in recent years, as well as the continuing influence of Maoist movements in other parts of the world.


What Maoism Has Contributed
SAMIR AMIN

The Second International's Marxism, proletarian-and-European-centered, shared with the dominant ideology of that period a linear view of history—a view according to which all societies had first to pass through a stage of capitalist development (a stage whose seeds were being planted by colonialism which, by that very fact, was “historically positive”) before being able to aspire to socialism. The idea that the “development” of some (the dominating centers) and the “underdevelopment” of others (the dominated peripheries) were as inseparable as the two faces of a single coin, both being immanent outcomes of capitalism's worldwide expansion, was completely alien to it.


Universal Rights and Wrongs: Roper v. Simmons, Torture and Judge Posner
MICHAEL E. TIGAR

The title of a talk should arouse curiosity and even skepticism. The title must give the speaker enough leeway to change the content at will. After all, I chose this title with only a vague idea of what I might actually say. Oh, I knew then and know now the subjects I will discuss. I have studied, written and practiced about them for more than forty years.


The Bamako Appeal

The Bamako Appeal aims at contributing to the emergence of a new popular and historical subject … It seeks to advance the principle of the right to an equitable existence for everyone; to affirm a collective life of peace, justice and diversity; and to promote the means to reach these goals at the local level and for all of humanity.


Alice Thorner (1918–2005)
UTSA PATNAIK

Alice Thorner’s life was lived in three continents, and her interests lay in studying processes of change in India’s colonial economy and the experience of planned development following decolonisation. She interacted for over six decades with academics and academic-bureaucrats, who were not inconsequential actors in what Gunnar Myrdal had termed the ‘Asian Drama’, and she too played a part in that unfolding drama. It was while visiting England on the eve of the WW11 in 1939 with husband Daniel who was researching his thesis at the India Office library in London, that she first met the group of enthusiastic Indian nationalists which included V. K. Krishna Menon, P.N. Haksar, K.T.Chandy and Feroze Gandhi. Many were to become lifelong friends.


Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) on the Successful Attack on the Fortified Army Base in Kalikot on August 7th-8th, 2005

The revolutionary forces in Nepal led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) have been engaged in a country-wide people’s war (“jana youdha”) against the royal government. Much of the country has been liberated. The palace and the Royal Nepal Army now retain control over the central valley of Nepal and areas adjacent to their fortified bases in the district towns in the countryside, and few other areas.


Internal Debate within the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

This past winter we heard reports of a heated dispute within the leadership of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the guiding party of the revolutionary struggle in Nepal. The old regime in Nepal, a brutal military dictatorship under King Gyanendra Shah, on February 1st, 2005, carried out a coup against the remnants of legality within that part of the country it still controlled—the central valley of Nepal (containing the capital Kathmandu), and the area immediately surrounding the army’s fortified bases elsewhere, primarily in district towns. The rest of the country has been liberated, and is self-governing under revolutionary leadership, with the CPN(M) playing the leading role. But Nepal’s limited communication links with the rest of the world are concentrated in Kathmandu, and the royal military government was able to sever all links not under its control at the time of the February 1st coup. Under these circumstances it was not possible to determine the trustworthiness of the various reports of the dispute with the CPN(M) leadership.

Related Essays:
Communiqué of May 27th
On Comrade Laldhoj (Baburam Bhattarai)’s Letter and Other Activities
Note of Dissent Presented by Com. Laldhwaj
Basic Questions for Inner-Party Discussions


Nepal—The Most Significant Popular Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the World Today
RANDHIR SINGH

Randhir Singh, former Head of the Department of Political Science in the University of Delhi, now retired, is a long time friend of Monthly Review. He sent the following essay to MR's Harry Magdoff, and we think it deserves a wide circulation. The essay was written as the introduction to the forthcoming Monarchy versus Democracy-the Epic Fight in Nepal by Baburam Bhattarai.


Debate Over the Future of the AFL-CIO: More Heat than Light
BILL FLETCHER, JR.

A debate over the future of the AFL-CIO, the federation of most unions in the USA, has been underway for some months and, for the life of me, while the debate becomes more intense, the differences seem to blur. Yet, the feeling that one gets is that we are headed for a train wreck.


Hands off Assata Campaign
STATEMENT FROM THE BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS

On May 2nd the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Jersey Troopers publicly announced a $1 million bounty for the capture of Assata Shakur. May 2nd also marked the 32nd anniversary of the fatal shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that resulted in the deaths Trooper Werner Foerster andZayd Shakur, and left Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli wounded. Assata and Sundiata were both tried and convicted in separate trials for the deaths of Werner Foerster and Zayd Shakur.


Will Miller: The Life of an Activist-Educator
RON JACOBS

In many parts of our country—in communities large and small—there are activists engaged in a wide range of struggles for social and economic justice. In some communities and states there is one person who stands out as a consistent force for social change. This person inspires others and provides continuity over the years. In Vermont, University of Vermont professor of philosophy Will Miller was such a major force for left education and change—in local communities, at the university, and in the state. A committed socialist and Marxist, Will’s devotion to activism was inseparable from his role as teacher. His devotion to change and knowledge and understanding of history and economics—and his willingness to discuss almost any issue at the drop of a hat—meant that he was an educator both inside and outside the classroom. Unlike most academics (radical or not), Will choose to concentrate on teaching and social change through various means instead of on publishing articles in scholarly journals.


André Gunder Frank (1929-2005)
THEOTONIO DOS SANTOS

Who is the most cited and discussed economist in the world? Don’t waste time looking among Nobel Prize winners and other stars of the mainstream media. André Gunder Frank is by far the most cited and most discussed, as shown by a number of studies on the subject and by the more than 30,000 entries he has on the Internet.


A Note on the Death of André Gunder Frank (1929-2005)
SAMIR AMIN

I met André Gunder Frank and his wife Marta Fuentes in 1967. Our long conversation convinced us that we were intellectually on the same wavelength. “Modernization Theory,” then dominant, ascribed the “underdevelopment” of the Third World to the retarded and incomplete formation of its capitalist institutions. Marxist orthodoxy, as represented by the Communist Parties, presented its own version of this view and characterized Latin America as “semi-feudal.” Frank put forward a new and entirely different thesis: that from its very origins Latin America had been constructed within the framework of capitalist development as the periphery of the newly arising centers of Europe's Atlantic seabord. For my part, I had undertaken to analyze the integration of Asia and Africa into the capitalist system in light of the requirements of “accumulation on a global scale,” a process that by its inner logic had to produce a polarization of wealth and power.


Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Royal Dictatorship and the Need For a Democratic Republic in Nepal

We have over the last four years periodically brought to your attention documents from the leadership of the revolutionary struggle in Nepal, together with our comments attempting to summarize the context. The first such document and commentary was posted in June 2001 http://www.monthlyreview.org/0601letter.htm, on the occasion of the massacre of King Birendra and his family in the Narayanhiti palace in Kathmandu. It was followed in January 2002 http://www.monthlyreview.org/0102bhattarai.htm with a discussion of the resumption of civil war that followed once the new King Gyanendra had established his personal control over the army. The growing success of the revolutionary forces, soon to bring the royal government to the negotiating table with a new truce early in 2003, was marked by a February 2003 http://www.monthlyreview.org/0203parvati.htm document on the role of women leadership in the struggle. The breakdown of the truce, caused by a massacre of unarmed political workers by the U.S. "advised" Royal Nepalese Army ("RNA") on August 19, 2003, was analyzed in September 2003 http://www.monthlyreview.org/0903bhattarai.htm


The Future of Organized Labor in the U.S.: Reinventing Trade Unionism for the 21st Century
KATE BRONFENBRENNER, DONNA DeWITT, BILL FLETCHER, JR., ET AL.

An important debate has commenced within the ranks of organized labor regarding the future of the movement. From our experience we know that the ‘top-to-bottom’ approach to revitalizing workers’ organizations will not foster meaningful membership participation and support. The debate must be joined by rank-and-file union members and leaders, other labor activists, scholars and the broad array of supporters of trade unionism. It must be open, frank and constructive, recognizing that we all have a stake in the outcome of these discussions.


On December 24, 2004, Maoists in China Get Three Year Prison Sentences for Leafleting

A report on the case of the Zhengzhou Four.

When liberal writers Liu Xiaobo and Yu Jie were recently (and briefly) detained by Chinese police, there was a world wide chorus of denunciation. The liberal writers' endorsement of the U.S. aggression in Iraq made them even more heroic in the eyes of the Murdoch-dominated press. Not surprisingly, there has been no coverage whatsoever of a more egregious case of crackdown on dissent - because it is dissent from the left. On December 21, 2004, four Maoists were tried in Zhengzhou for having handed out leaflets that denounced the restoration of capitalism in China and called for a return to the "socialist road". The leaflets had been distributed in a public park in the City of Zhengzhou on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of the death of Chairman Mao Zedong. Two of the defendants, Zhang Zhengyao, 56, and Zhang Ruquan, 69, were both found guilty of libel, and each given a three-year prison sentence on December 24, 2004. The case has since generated a lot of expressions of solidarity in leftist circles within China. Postings to a leading leftist website in China in the last few days have set out an abridged translation of the incriminating leaflet, the commemorative piece titled "Mao Zedong forever our leader", plus a commentary whose author went to Zhengzhou to show solidarity on the day of the trial on December 21. These pieces have been translated by our comrades at the China Study Group, who have asked that we post them here at the MR website. We are glad to do so, believing that a strong case can be made that the story of the left opposition inside China is the most important and least covered in the world.


William H. Hinton (1919 –2004)
JOHN MAGE

William H. Hinton died in the early morning of Saturday, 15th of May. 2004. He was born in Chicago in 1919. At the age of 17 he worked his way to the Far East. Without money, he supported himself by washing dishes, and then got a job for six months as a reporter on an English language newspaper in Japan. He continued his travels by way of Japanese occupied Korea and Northeast China, then through the USSR to Poland and Germany, and finally returned to the United States by working as a deckhand on an American freighter.


Can the Working Class Change the World?
MICHAEL D. YATES

Radicals of every stripe believe that capitalist economies are incompatible with human liberation. That is, while human beings have enormous capacities to think and to do, capitalism prevents the vast majority of people from developing these capacities. Therefore if we want a society in which the full flowering of human competencies can become a reality, we will have to bring capitalism to an end and replace it with something radically different.


A Turn for the Worse in the United States: Criminalizing Dissent
LYNNE A. WILLIAMS, ESQ.

This is not the article I started out to write. What I wanted to write about was the Patriot Act and the way this Federal statute was giving license to federal, state and local law enforcement to curtail our due process protections, by blurring the line, which is more fluid than ever, between what law enforcement can do in the name of foreign intelligence and what it can do in the name of a domestic criminal investigation.


SEPTEMBER 7, 2003
Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Failure of the Peace Talks in Nepal

In this space we have followed as best we can the evolving revolutionary struggle in Nepal. Our most recent comment in February 2003accompanied the presentation of an interesting article on women's leadership in the revolutionary struggle. We then noted with relief and pleasure the ceasefire of January 29, 2003 that promised to bring an end to the brutality and bloodshed that had engulfed a beautiful people and a beautiful land.


Remembering W.E.B. Du Bois
BILL FLETCHER, JR.

“No nation threatens us. We threaten the world.”—W.E.B. Du Bois (1958) commenting on the role of the United States internationally.

While we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington, we should as well be commemorating another event. On the eve of the 1963 March on Washington, the life of one of the 20th century’s most brilliant individuals came to an end. W.E.B. Du Bois, scholar, Pan Africanist, political leader, champion of the struggle against white supremacy in the United States, died in Ghana, August 27, 1963.


Fidel Castro: May Day 2003

Here is the text of a speech given by Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the Republic of Cuba, at the May Day rally held in Revolution Square.


Understanding the U.S. War State
JOHN McMURTRY

“It is easy. All you have to do is tell the people they are being attacked, and denounce the the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.” — Hermann Goering

Genocide used to be a crime without a name. Although the most heinous of all crimes, the concept was not introduced into international language until after World War 2. Until then, military invasion and destruction of other peoples and cultures masqueraded under such slogans as progress and spreading civilisation.


Women’s Leadership and the Revolution in Nepal
Com. PARVATI

People's War (PW) in Nepal, which was initiated in February 1996 under the leadership of the CPN (Maoist) has been developing in leaps and bounds. The fire of revolution, which initially sparked in a few districts in Western Nepal, has swept all over the country. According to the Government's own account, out of 75 districts in Nepal, PW has affected 73 districts. All these gains could not have been possible without the mobilization of the masses that are the backbone of PW in Nepal. The mobilization of women in particular is apparent in PW in Nepal. Consider their daring feats. They were the first to break the tense silence throughout Nepal caused by the first historic strike that marked the initiation of PW in Nepal on 13 February 1996. On the occasion of March 8th 1996 the All Nepalese Women's Association (Revolutionary) [ANWA(R)] dared to organize a seminar (amidst strong speculation that they all would be arrested) and to voice the need for overall revolution to solve women's oppression. It was after that bold step that other mass organizations started giving their own programmes. Dalit [lowest caste - ed.] women in Kalikot district in western Nepal were the first to snatch rifles from reactionary armed forces and hand them over to the local Party, thus accelerating PW in that district. The first daring historical jailbreak from the heavily fortified Gorkha district jail in March 2001 by six Maoist women is one of the rarest events, perhaps even in world history. Until the clamp down of emergency rule in November 2001, of all the mass organizations the women's organization was the most active and in the forefront of the movement. The successful antiliquor drive, which rocked the whole country in October 2001, in fact forced the government to negotiate with ANWA(R). Consider another feat; even before men in the Party started renouncing their parental properties to the Party, women of Rolpa started forsaking voluntarily their personal jewelry [the main form of women's property - ed.] to the local Party. After the promulgation of the Emergency, more and more women have been raped, killed, incarcerated and disappeared. Despite all this there is a growing participation of women in PW in Nepal.


Diana Johnstone on the Balkan Wars
EDWARD S. HERMAN

Diana Johnstone's Fools' Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions (Monthly Review Press, 2002) is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand the causes, effects, and rights- and-wrongs of the Balkan wars of the past dozen years. The book should be priority reading for leftists, many of whom have been carried along by a NATO-power party line and propaganda barrage, believing that this was one case where Western intervention was well-intentioned and had beneficial results. An inference from this misconception, by "cruise missile leftists" and others, is that imperialism can be constructive and its power projections must be evaluated on their merits, case by case. But that the Western intervention in the Balkans constitutes a valid special case is false; the conventional and obvious truths on the Balkan wars that sustain such a view disintegrate on close inspection.


The Face of Empire
WILLIAM K. TABB

The following is an edited version of a talk presented at the session on "Contradictions and Antagonisms in the Present Phase of Capitalist Globalization" at the European Network for Alternative Thinking and Political Dialogue, November 7, 2002, Florence, Italy.

This is a particularly bittersweet moment for those who oppose the harmful impacts of capitalist globalization, and for those who struggle for the environment, for labor rights and other human rights, against gender and racial bias, national chauvinism and bigotry, unfair taxation and undemocratic control. In short, it is a bittersweet moment for those who struggle to define the kind of world we wish to make possible.


A Communication from the Revolutionaries in Nepal on the Current (September 2002) Situation in the Civil War

On September 5th, 2002 MR received a letter, that we believe from internal evidence to be authentic, from Dr. Baburam Bhattarai—who is one of the leaders of the revolutionary forces in the Nepalese civil war. In the nine months since the last communication from Dr. Bhattarai (http://www.monthlyreview.org/0102bhattarai.htm) was received, the civil war in Nepal has deepened both in scope and brutality. It now extends from one end of the country to the other. The Royal Nepal Army has executed many hundreds—perhaps thousands—of kids in the countryside in faked encounters, "disappearances" and in aerial bombing of civilian gatherings. In this atmosphere the remaining democratic political forces of all tendencies, including the majority faction of the right-wing Congress Party, refused in May to permit the legal extension of the state of emergency. The state of emergency suspends freedom of thought and expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, the right against preventive detention, the right to information, and any right to judicial review of acts committed by the armed forces. The dictatorship of the usurper King, exercised through a minority faction of the Congress party headed by Sher Bahadur Deuba, refused to accept this outcome. On May 27, 2002, parliament was dissolved, the state of emergency extended by decree, and an election called for November 13th.

Comparisons Between Recent U.S.-Backed Coups: Caracas and Kathmandu
WAYNE MADSEN

One thing about the CIA is that their playbook rarely changes. Take for example, the agency's involvement in the recent abortive military coup against Venezuela's democratically-elected President Hugo Chavez. The April 13 Washington Post reported that during the period leading up to the coup against Chavez, “members of the country's diverse opposition had been visiting the U.S. Embassy ... hoping to enlist U.S. help in toppling Chavez. The visitors included active and retired members of the military, media leaders and opposition politicians.”

Everything Has Not Changed Since 9/11
BILL FLETCHER, JR.

This speech was presented at the Norwalk NAACP banquet.


FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
A Struggle Within the Chinese Communist Party

On July 1, 2001 Chinese Communist Party (CPC) general secretary Jiang Zemin delivered a speech recognized immediately to be of great importance. He advocated the admission of capitalists to the Chinese Communist Party.

A struggle broke out within the CPC. Inner party struggles within the CPC do not take place openly. Reports on disputes within the CPC in the press inside China are rare and in a sort of code. Even the Hong Kong press shies away from such a subject. Two letters from prominent older party figures opposing the admission of capitalists to the party began to circulate privately from hand to hand. The existence of these letters, and therefore the existence of the struggle, became widely known. But of public discussion there was none.

Letter of the Fourteen

Letter of Ma Bin and Han Yaxi


Goldilocks Meets a Bear: How Bad Will the U.S. Recession Be?
FRED MOSELEY

Three years ago, I wrote an article for Monthly Review entitled “The US Economy in 1999: Goldilocks Meets a Big Bad Bear?” (March 1999). My answer to that question was yes, Goldilocks would soon meet a big bad bear, i.e. the US economy would fall into recession within a year or so. The recession came a little later than I thought, but, as is well known, the US economy did indeed fall into recession in early 2001.


Hypocrisy and Human Rights
STATEMENT DELIVERED BY H.E. MR. FELIPE PÉREZ ROQUE, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AT THE 58TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS

Mr. Chairman: I do not think it is necessary here to go over truths that are no longer questioned by anybody, such as the ever-increasing lack of credibility and the extreme politicization that today weigh down the work of the Human Rights Commission. Disrepute is growing, time is running out. It is essential that we democratize the methods of this Commission, reestablish with transparency its purpose and rules; in a word, set it up anew. We need a Commission at the service of everyone's interests, and not hostage to the designs of a minority or, as becomes more obvious every day, to the whims of the mightiest.


Birthpangs of Democracy in Nepal: Commentary from Dr. Baburam Bhattarai

We present here an article in English received by Monthly Review from Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, one of the leaders of the revolutionary forces in Nepal. We cannot fully authenticate the piece since there is a revolutionary war under way in Nepal and Dr. Bhattarai is underground. But we believe the article to be authentic from its content alone.


Terrorism and Human Rights
MICHAEL E. TIGAR

Speech given by Michael Tigar at the 25th Anniversary Dinner commemorating Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt.


SEPTEMBER 13, 2001
Terror Attacks of September 11, 2001
STATEMENT FROM THE BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS

During this extremely sad and traumatic time, we extend our sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all those who lost their life on September 11th. We also wish for the speedy and full recovery of those who were injured, and we hope and pray that in the aftermath of the attacks, rescue crews can find as many people still alive as possible.

The Black Radical Congress (BRC) strongly condemns the horrific terror attacks which occurred on September 11th, 2001. The brazen murder of countless thousands of civilians cannot be supported or condoned.


AUGUST 2, 2001
Will We Awaken and Find That No One Is Left
BILL FLETCHER, JR.

I spoke with a South African friend of mine a few months ago while she was in Namibia. She commented on the beauty of the land and the people. She mentioned to me that she made a similar comment to a Namibian friend of hers and noted how slim so many of the people are. Her Namibian friend responded with great sadness that so much of the "slim figure" she had seen was the result of people infected with HIV/AIDS.


JULY 26, 2001
A Tale of Two Conferences
BILL FLETCHER, JR.

Two weeks ago I attended a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was an unusual meeting. Several leaders of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU, one of the fast growing unions in the USA) went to South Africa to meet with their counterparts in the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU), and several other affiliates of the Congress of South African Trade Unions to discuss 21st century trade unionism. This gathering was remarkable because it differed, in its fundamentals, from so many international union gatherings.


JUNE 6, 2001
The Letter of Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Palace Massacre in Nepal


APRIL 25, 2001
African Leaders Hide Political Woes Behind Homophobia

STATEMENT FROM THE BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS


APRIL 18, 2001
Statement on the Rebellion in Cincinnati
and Continued Police Terror


STATEMENT FROM THE BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS


MARCH 13, 2001
Communists Return to Power in Moldova: Hope for a Communist Democracy in the Former Soviet Union?
JOHN MAGE

Monthly Review Foundation Director John Mage sees in recent events in Moldavia a glimmer of hope for the much-suffering people of the Former Soviet Union.The February 25, 2001 electoral victory of the Moldovan Communist party marked the first return to power of a Communist party in any of the sovereign fragments of the Former Soviet Union ("FSU"). If you have left wing politics and can use a dose of optimism, this event is a positive portent for—at last—an end to the Mafia capitalist regimes of "democratic reform" that constitute the glory of the U.S. victory in the cold war. The most interesting question is not what the Moldovan Communists can achieve in their sovereign ministate, but what can be hoped to happen as a result in the rest of the FSU community. |more|


Contemporary Police Brutality and Misconduct:
A Continuation of the Legacy of Racial Violence


We Must Succeed! The Black Radical Congress Campaign

TWO STATEMENTS FROM THE BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS

Our comrades of the Black Radical Congress have launched a campaign to resist the Police State that lies just underneath the facade of U.S. democracy. To start the campaign, the BRC is circulating an Anti-Police Brutality & Misconduct Petition. The petition in a form intended for the gathering of signatures can be downloaded from http://www.blackradicalcongress.org We welcome this initiative, and will be gathering some signatures ourselves.


FEBRUARY 1, 2001
A Silent Coup d’État: Only in America
EDWARD GREER

So far the most unexpected aspect of the recent change in regime in the Empire of the United States has been the degree to which the actual mechanics of the victory of Bush II has shaken elite consensus on a most central U.S. ideological assumption—the God-given superiority of its adaptable, flexible constitutional democratic republic; model for the entire world and the heavens above if not also the underworld below. From the Supreme Court all the way to first-year Law School students come cries of angry disillusioned protest; cries that have lasted now for going on two months. Here, we post the best discussion that came our way (by Monthly Reviewfriend Ed Greer, a teacher of the law and practicing lawyer) of the startling dishonest crudity with which the extreme-right majority of the Supreme Court decided the U.S. election. |more|


PUBLISHED ON DECEMBER 16, 2000 IN THE MADISON CAPITAL TIMES
U.S. Wouldn't Tolerate Our Election
in Nicaragua

ROBERT W. McCHESNEY

Here is a view (by Monthly Review editor Bob McChesney, and first published in the Madison Capital Times) of what action needs follow from this electoral travesty—an unyielding resistance to every attempt by this illegitimate imperial government to act on its reactionary program as if it had a valid "democratic" mandate.


PUBLISHED ON JANUARY 25, 2001 IN NEWSDAY
Media Giants Have a Pal at the FCC
ROBERT W. McCHESNEY

Less surprising than the continuing anguish of the better and decent part of the U.S. legal profession have been the actual appointments so far of Bush II. One important appointment, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, has not yet received the attention we think it deserves. Bush II has appointed Powell II to this position which enjoys considerable (if indirect) police power over the shape of permitted public discourse. Check out Bob McChesney's account of just who Powell II is (first published in Newsday).

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