ROBERTO SIRVENTIS—Nuclear Apartheid exposes how “white supremacy” remained alive in U.S. foreign policy thinking and undergirded some American efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Antonio Gramsci’s theory of “cultural hegemony” raised my awareness of how unquestioned assumptions often shape and limit the choices leaders make and while also enabling them to persuade the public that those choices were the only “rational” ones.
AMERICAN BRAINWASH
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Can the Green Party Be Saved From Liberal Tokenism and Black Opportunism? We’ll See.
16 minutes readBRUCE DIXON—In my May 30 column, Why Our Green Parties Haven’t Taken Off, I noted that the GP does get a few important things absolutely correct, and briefly discussed some of its defects and difficulties as well – foggy politics, no organizing methodology, addiction to the models of Democrats and Republicans, and more. It’s a work in progress, often way more work than progress. Some of us are committed to transforming the Green Party into a 21st century left and socialist party, eventually capable of partnering in labor and other organizing ventures and competing for actual power.
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MARGARET KIMBERLEY—The Democrats like war, interventions and United States hegemony. They always have. If anyone wants proof they need only look at their collective hissy fit regarding the Trump and Kim summit. Part of the reaction is caused by fear of Trump getting credit for a foreign policy achievement. But Democrats are also true believers in imperialism. The last thing they want to see is any reduction in the American military presence in Korea or anywhere else.
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ANN GARRISON—The UNHRC is composed of 47 members elected to three year terms within five geographic groups: Africa, Central America and Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and Western European and Other States including the US and Australia. The seats are rarely contested; nations from the various groups just swap votes and take turns. Only the Asia Pacific seat was contested this year.
UNHRC resolutions are neither legally binding nor enforceable, so it’s just a forum, but occasionally it makes news. This year the UNHRC story in the headlines has been that the US might quit the Council over its “anti-Israel bias”—as it now has— before its three-year term expires in 2019.
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ALEC ANDERSEN—The release of detailed plans for the construction of military detention centers throughout the western and southern states, with the capacity to detain massive numbers of undocumented workers fleeing the violence and economic devastation that American imperialism has produced in Central America, represents a new stage in the ruling class’s turn toward authoritarian rule.