Photo from Libcom.org

Finding Common Ground in Crisis: Social Movements in South America and the US

Argentine Neighborhood Assembly, 2001
People in the US seeking ways to confront the economic crisis could follow the lead of South American social movements. From Argentina to Venezuela, many movements have won victories against the same systems of corporate greed and political corruption that produce economic strife across the hemisphere. These movements also have experience holding politicians' feet to the flames once they are elected, a tactic that will be essential once Barack Obama takes office.

Image

Economic Woes? Look to Kerala, India

Political Rally in Kerala
In his 2005 book The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman joined a chorus of economists who touted India as the latest development success story, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. While India has developed a middle class with disposable income for the first time in recent history, such growth has not been accompanied by meaningful poverty reduction.

Image

Will Obama Bring 1990s Food Policy to an End?

Farmers Protest WTO in Hong Kong
Let's just say that Comrade George Bush's $700 billion no-speculator-left-behind bailout of US financiers - perhaps the most significant wave of government takeovers of the economic commanding heights since Fidel Castro's moves in tiny Cuba back in the 1960s - undermines the credibility of neo-conservative insistence that all problems must be solved through unregulated markets.