Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots, By Carlos Martinez, Michael Fox, and JoJo Farrell
A Review by Hans Bennett
Scroll down for video interview with co-author Carlos Martinez
There are many different ways that the corporate media continues to misrepresent the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Many critics of this biased media coverage have directly challenged the demonization of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but very few critics, if any, have exposed the media’s virtual erasure of the vibrant and growing participatory democracy in Venezuela. Alas, the new book entitled Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots (PM Press, 2010) offers a powerful correction to this misrepresentation by spotlighting a wide range of people and movements that are actively governing themselves with official governmental structures created since the 1998 election of President Chavez, and the growing non-governmental social movements that have existed for several decades.
PermalinkBREAKDOWN: Violence in Search of U (you)-Turn by Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett
Policy has power to destroy and to heal. BREAKDOWN wrestles with both the manifestations of a pervasive violence and a means toward mending. It lays out the problem in U.S. foreign and domestic affairs and offers a bailout—a turn around, a U-turn in fresh ideas.
American author and independent journalist—a former Peace Corps teacher—Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett decries the way of violence and argues for community consciousness, words over war in content and execution of U.S. foreign and domestic policies. Her book offers a fully documented and indexed account of regressive status quo and progressive society.
This Country Must Change: Essays on the Necessity of Revolution in the USA, edited by Craig Rosebraugh
Review by Hans Bennett
--A review of the new book entitled This Country Must Change: Essays on the Necessity of Revolution in the USA
From 1997 to 2001, Craig Rosebraugh acted as a public spokesperson for the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a self-described “international, underground movement consisting of autonomous groups of people who carry out direct action in defense of the planet.” On February 12, 2002, Rosebraugh was made to testify against his will before the US Congress’ House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. The FBI had recently declared the ELF the #1 domestic terrorist threat, and Congress had subpoenaed Rosebraugh demanding he help them investigate “eco-terrorism.” Rosebraugh had already received seven grand jury subpoenas from various federal investigations, but had always refused to cooperate. After he rejected this particular Subcommittee’s offer to voluntarily testify, they seemed to think that intimidation might help. They were wrong.
Time's Up! An Uncivilized Solution To A Global Crisis by Keith Farnish
Hansen's review of "Time's Up!"
"Keith Farnish has it right: time has practically run out, and the 'system' is the problem. Governments are under the thumb of fossil fuel special interests - they will not look after our and the planet's well-being until we force them to do so, and that is going to require enormous effort. --Professor James Hansen, GISS, NASA"
I think we are beginning to see mounting awareness of the gravity and scope of the crisis afflicting life on earth. Keith's Time's Up! is a huge contribution to understanding the extremity of our situation and providing ideas for facing up to ending a fundamentally false and devouring technoculture. --John Zerzan
This is not an environmental book, even though it is concerned with the environment. It is not a book to save the world, even though the world is clearly in trouble. Ultimately, Time's Up is a book about survival; about ensuring that every individual human has the means to save herself or himself from the global crisis that is unfolding.
Self-Defense for Radicals: A-Z Guide for Subversive Struggle by Mickey Z.
Review by Author: Chellis Glendinning
Cartoons by Richard Cole
PM Press Pamphlet Series, 2010
The prospect of setting words to page about Mickey Z.’s Self-Defense for Radicals catalyzed a certain queasiness. It brought up the rosebush reality of…violence.
In an era of drop-of-the-hat planetary destruction, as dirty wars erupt like acne and respect for Gandhi’s ahimsa has re-blossomed like Persephone’s return, as former Weather Underground activist Mark Rudd is crisscrossing the U.S. calling for a pacifist movement and Hugo Chavez is pronouncing that armed struggle is passé—to purvey violence seems patently verboten.
Guilt By Association: How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War by Jeff Gates
Guilt by Association
The book also shows how guilt by association was deployed to discredit the U.S. by its entangled alliance with the state of Israel. And how association is routinely used as a political tool either to accredit or discredit.
The Book of Destiny: Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Mayans and the Prophecy of 2012 By Carlos Barrios
Discover What the Prophecy of 2012 Means for Your Life
According to the Mayan Elders, at the moment of birth every human being is given a destiny. Our life challenge is to develop ourselves and our skills in order to fulfill this destiny, thus fueling our individual contribution to the planet. At the heart of The Book of Destiny is the sacred Mayan calendar, an extraordinary tool that allows the reader to discover this destiny, along with one’s special Mayan symbol, origin, as well as the protection spirits that accompany them through life. Poetically narrated, the book describes how the calendar contains the scientific legacy of the Mayan people, preserved and transmitted over the centuries through oral tradition and written texts.
The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global by Fawaz A. Gerges
Review by Jim Miles
The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global. Fawaz A. Gerges. Cambridge University Press. N.Y. 2009.
First published in 2005, this text still stands the test of time for the theses that it presented then. In this new edition, Fawaz Gerges writes hopefully and expectantly that the new U.S. President, Barak Obama, can overcome the mistakes he sees that the U.S. has made in its “war on terror.” His hopes will obviously have dimmed somewhat if not greatly in consideration of Obama’s actions in the Middle East, but Gerges’ essential thematic message remains important.
Two main themes underlie the ideas in the book. The first tells of the relationship between bin Laden and Zawahiri and how their ideas interacted and reacted to turn the jihadis from the ‘near’ enemy - the local regional governments - to the ‘far’ enemy - the United States. The second theme is the poor manner in which the U.S. has understood essential differences between ‘near’ and ‘far’ jihadis, the history of their development, and the major divisions within the jihadi proponents. Following from the latter theme, a missing context of Gerges arguments concerning U.S. actions in the Middle East is readily discerned.
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano
"'He has more first-hand knowledge of Latin America than anybody else I can think of, and uses it to tell the world of the dreams and disillusions, the hopes and failures of its people... Galeano denounces exploitation with uncompromising ferocity, yet this book is almost poetic in its description of solidarity and human capacity for survival in the midst of the worst kind of despoliation' Isabel Allende "This book is a monument in our Latin American history. It allows us to learn history, and we have to build on this history" Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela 'I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Galeano's vision is unswerving, surgical and yet immensely generous and humane... Eduardo Galeano ought to be a household name' Arundhati Roy" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
A superbly written, excellently translated, and powerfully persuasive exposé which all students of Latin American and U.S. history must read. - Choice
From Complicity to Contempt An American Writer and Veteran Speaks Out Against American Lies by Timothy V. Gatto
From the Introduction by Eric Larsen From Complicity to Contempt details the changing political views of an Army veteran of 21 years. From the opening of the "Global war on Terror," this writer-patriot saw that his beliefs about his country were no longer based on truth. The Constitution and Bill of Rights were being dismantled in plain sight and the majority of his fellow citizens were either unaware of it or failing to stop it. Gatto's book provides a highly personal but also powerful look into the frustration and anger of an American who came to see that everything he'd stood for throughout his entire life was being turned into a fraud and charade.
Tim Gatto is. . . to our American literary population what the spotted owl is to our national wildlife.
Tim has been writing politically for the last five years and has published on many liberal/progressive venues. He is a 20 year Army veteran, having served in Asia, Europe and the U.S. He was a die hard Democrat until he left the party and formed the Liberal Party of America (LPA). After much hard work the party floundered but Tim's education about the nature of money and politics led to an understanding of the machinations of the stranglehold of the two-party system, the corporacracy and the corporate hold on the media. The political education he obtained and the understanding of rabid control of capitalists in government have led him to embrace many socialist principles. He has a blog, http://liberalpro.blogspot.com, and a radio show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/liberalpro . Tim is a native New Yorker and now lives in South Carolina.
“Afterwar: Veterans from a World in Conflict” by Lori Grinker
Reviewed By Chris Hedges
Maimed, Betrayed and Forgotten:
My father and three of my uncles fought in World War II. I grew up in the shadow of the war. But it was not the romantic war of movies and books, although this romance infected me, but the war of the emotionally and physically maimed. My father, who had been an Army sergeant in North Africa, went to seminary after the war and became a Presbyterian minister. Years after the war he would speak about his rifle and you could almost see his fingers push the gun away. He loathed the military and the lie of war. When our family visited museums he steered us away from the ordered displays of weapons, the rows of muskets and artillery pieces, which gleamed from within cases or roped-off areas.
He was an early opponent of the Vietnam War. During a Fourth of July parade in the small farm town where I grew up, he turned to me as the paunchy veterans walked past and said acidly, "Always remember most of those guys were fixing the trucks in the rear." He hated the VFW Hall where these men went mostly to drink. He found their periodic attempts to re-create the comradeship of war, something that of course could never be re-created, pathetic and sad. When I was about12 he told me that if the Vietnam War was still being fought and I was drafted, he would go to prison with me. To this day I have a vision of sitting in a jail cell with my dad.
Radio Free Palestine by Phillip Vine and Stuart Littlewood
Irrepressible Palestinian children... But smiles of happiness may turn to tears of frustration when they grow up to find their dreams dashed in a country ravaged by decades of military occupation... where lands and resources have been stolen, education curtailed, freedom cancelled and travel made almost impossible...
Former CIA analysts Kathleen and Bill Christison, writing in Counterpunch in January 2005, described Bethlehem as a dying little town now partially encircled by the Wall and cut off from Jerusalem, its religious and cultural twin. "Already surrounded by nine Israeli settlements. by a network of roads restricted to Israeli use...
For daring to be a 'fortress' against foreign aggression and a centre of resistance Jenin has been made to suffer dreadfully. In 1938 the British army blew up about 150 houses. An eye-witness wrote to his girl-friend: "It's insupportable, a British terrorism worse than terrorism itself.
A FISTFUL OF POETRY by Richard Jones, introduction by Gilad Atzmon
A new poetry book by Richard Jones all about Palestine and Palestinian resistance. For more details:
http://a-fistful-of-poetry.blogspot.com/
a Poet of Resistance
Resistance is the liberation of the spirit, it is the defiance against gravity. Resistance is to fight for the sake of hope, it is the struggle for the sake of beauty. Resistance is to form landscape out of words, to clothe the scenery with sounds that resemble a familiar language. But Resistance is not just about fighting, it is also to evoke feeling, to put anger into words, to put words into anger, to put meanings into shapes and vice versa.
To write a poem is to defy the symbolic order. To write a poem is to resist. To write a poem is to say NO to oppression. To write a poem is to put yourself in the place of the other. Richard Jones is a poet of Resistance.
"Cool Deliberate Courage: John Eager Howard in the American Revolution" by Jim Piecuch and John Beakes
Book Review: by William Hughes
“Remember Howard’s warlike thrust...” - from “Maryland, My Maryland,” the state’s anthem, by James Ryder Randall
John Eager Howard (1752-1827) was one of Maryland’s finest sons. He was a distinguished infantry officer in the Revolutionary War from the summer of 1776, until 1781. Later, he got involved in politics, serving as governor of Maryland, a state senator, and finally, in the U.S. Senate. When you enter the harbor of Baltimore, his namesake, Fort Howard, now defunct, will be found to the starboard side of your vessel. In addition, one of the major streets in downtown Baltimore City is named for him, as is one of Maryland’s 23 counties. (1) Yet, Howard’s intrepid military exploits haven’t been chronicled in a book, until now.
Thanks to authors, Jim Piecuch and John Beakes, Howard comes alive again in a military biography worthy of such a legend. Its title is: “Cool Deliberate Courage: John Eager Howard in the American Revolution.” Well written and fully documented, the book is 164 pages long. Focused on Howard’s career in the military, the authors, with a wide brush, also retell the story of that war, whose victory by the gallant rebels over the then-mighty British Imperial War Machine helped to establish the Republic.
THE INDIA DOCTRINE (1947-2007) by M. B. I. Munshi
Review by A.K. Zaman Dhaka, Bangladesh
It is almost two years since the first edition of The India Doctrine appeared on Bangladesh bookshelves to wide acclaim and appreciation. The newly revised edition now titled The India Doctrine (1947-2007) is an astonishing work of exceptional depth and analysis and is probably the first book of its kind not only in Bangladesh but also in South Asia as a whole. It is indeed a stupendous effort by Barrister MBI Munshi. While I had a few words of criticism for the original version of the book which appeared to me to be fragmentary and a little disjointed this revised edition is an exceptional work and its various parts have been finely consolidated and is also far better written and organized. As the author reminds us, he had almost two years to write this revised edition and it was certainly time well spent as the language and style is now much easier to follow and effortless to comprehend.
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