books

Book Excerpt: America's Addiction to Terrorism

Michael D. Yates, Monthly Review Press Book Excerpt Monthly Review
The following excerpt is the Foreword to America's Addiction to Terrorism. Portside is pleased to share this with our readers. In the U.S. today, the term "terrorism" conjures up images of dangerous, outside threats: religious extremists and suicide bombers in particular. Harder to see but all the more pervasive is the terrorism perpetuated by the United States, itself, whether through military force overseas or woven into the very fabric of society at home.

The New Global Financial Cold War

Michael Hudson / Bonnie Faulkner CounterPunch
The world is being split into two halves: the U.S. dollar orbit, and countries that the U.S. cannot control and whose officials are not on the U.S. payroll, so to speak.

The Part of “Illegal” They Don’t Understand

David L. Wilson Monthly Review
Congress’s 1965 decision to limit immigration from Latin America and the Caribbean coincided with an increase in that immigration—largely, as a result of U.S. policies, including support for vicious dictatorships in many countries, the funding of civil wars in Central America, and the promotion of neoliberal economic programs throughout the region. The result is our current undocumented population of about 11.7 million, including some 8 million workers.

More than Economics: TPP, Empire and Common Security Alternatives

Joseph Gerson Common Dreams
Of course we need international trade negotiations and agreements. But, they must be arrived at via inclusive, democratic, open, and transparent processes. They must be designed to reinforce the security and dignity of the world’s peoples and environmental sustainability.

The Hidden Structure of Violence Who Benefits from Global Violence and War

Marc Pilisuk and Jennifer Rountree Monthly Review
In a few words, it can be said that the book tells it like it is—it describes the vast governmental-industrial-legislative complex that controls our lives via war and violence. This is not conspiracy theory any longer—it is rooted in fact and record. The authors cite names, organizations, places, and dates that not only promote war, but also benefit from it financially.

It's Time We Have a Holiday to Honor Those Who Try to Stop Wars Too

Dylan Matthews Vox
American history is littered with examples of pointless wars fought for bad reasons, and with people who risked their careers and their freedom to oppose them. some wars aren't worth fighting. Some causes aren't worth sacrificing American lives for. Those who've fought to remind the government of those basic facts deserve our respect and our thanks.

Refugee Crisis on Our Border: What Can We Do Now?

Duane Campbell Democratic Left - Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
The recent surge of minors at the border is a symptom of our current failed immigration policy. We need to continue our work with labor and the immigrants' rights movement toward a fair and comprehensive immigration reform for the U.S. - a better bill than the one passed last year in the Senate, which among other things called for doubling the current border patrol by hiring an additional 20,000-plus border agents.

ISIS: The Spoils of the ‘Great Loot’ in the Middle East

Conn Hallinan The Nation
As Iraq tumbles into yet another civil war, it is important to remember how all this came about, and why adding yet more warfare to the current crisis will perpetuate exactly what the “Great Loot” set out to do: tear an entire region of the world asunder.

Popular Movements Toward Socialism: Their Unity and Diversity

Samir Amin; Editors of Monthly Review Monthly Review - June 2014
Samir Amin writes "the movement toward socialism" is a new stage in the decades old struggle of humankind for a more just and equitable society, since the time that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels first wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848. Introduction by the editors of Monthly Review on attempt to bring together a variety of global struggles under the rubric of the "movement toward socialism,"

Seeds of Discord in Ukraine

By Scott Reynolds Nelson The Chronicle Review
Ukraine is in many ways a Russian version of the wild, untamed American West. Roughly translated, the region’s name means "borderland." . . . In roughly the same period that the United States displaced Mexico and Plains Indians in a rush to the Pacific, Russian forces pushed out Turks and Tatars in a drive south toward the Black Sea.
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