Mon 12.08.08| System Upgrades

If part of the Left's agenda involves building a new society, what should that society look like? In a new book, Stephen Shalom proposes a participatory system of political decision-making based on nested councils, and Cynthia Peters examines how family, caregiving and sexuality could be better structured and supported.

Wed 12.03.08| Finance's Failures

Robin Blackburn, "The Subprime Crisis" New Left Review

Robin Blackburn, Age Shock: How Finance is Failing Us Verso, 2007

Understanding the current economic crisis requires grasping the connections between interest rate policy, household debt levels, the securitization of mortgages, and financialization more generally. Robin Blackburn elucidates those connections and discusses the impact of the crisis on pensions.

Tues 12.02.08| Culture of Poverty?

Should poor urban neighborhoods be written off as dysfunctional, disorganized, irredeemable? In a new book, Martin Sanchez-Jankowski contends that poor neighborhoods are in fact organized and functional in important ways. He also found that despite material deprivation, many residents manage to craft lives that are meaningful and rewarding.

Mon 12.01.08| Drug Use & "Harm Reduction"

Beyrer & Pizer, eds., Public Health and Human Rights: Evidence-Based Approaches Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2007

Open Society Institute's International Harm Reduction Development Program

When ideology does battle with science in the arena of drug policy and HIV prevention, which wins -- and who loses? Daniel Wolfe argues that punitive and moralistic approaches violate the human rights of drug users. Mark Townsend describes the history and operation of Insite, North America's first and only legal supervised injection site.

Wed 11.26.08| Tariq Ali on Pakistan

Pakistan may be the linchpin of the US's so-called war on terror, but it is also, as Tariq Ali notes, a wrecked country. Pakistan's neighbor Afghanistan is also devastated; the continuing war there makes meaningful recovery impossible. In a recent talk, Ali addressed key developments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, often dictated by US geopolitical interests.

Tues 11.25.08| Cursed by Oil

The impact of oil exploitation on residents of the Niger Delta is explored in Curse of the Black Gold, which features the photos of Ed Kashi. Kashi describes social misery as well as grassroots resistance to the designs of Big Oil and the Nigerian government. George Caffentzis is encouraged by an emerging emphasis on petroleum as common property.
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