Exclusively in the new print issue of CounterPunch
HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.
Archives by Tag 'education'
In West Texas, during the struggles to desegregate the schools in the later part of the 1960s, I listened to attorney Mark Smith caution a small audience that, “You may not like Meskins, but the Constitution gives them the right to equal access to schools. Things have c...
Although many Americans believe their universities are places where administrators and faculty members coexist on a fairly equal basis, the reality is that this is far from the case.
According to recent surveys by the Chronicle of Higher Education, 35 priva...
By now most of us have heard the gruesome details of how Atlanta’s elementary and middle school teachers (and principals) conspired to falsify the scores on state proficiency tests. The investigation not only implicated teachers and administrators, it reached all the ...
In 2008 Rick Shenkman, the Editor-in-Chief of the History News Network, published a book entitled...
Thanks to Chris Nielson for this title’s line and to the nearly dozens of other speakers on Thursday and this weekend who comprise the line up of activist educators in Washington, DC for the Occupy the Department of Education 2.0. This year’s show of force is sponsore...
When I told my father that we were going to call ourselves “Chicanos”, he responded “Chicano, Chicano, those are the people that hang around the parks on Sundays.” I thought to myself, “that is exactly why we want the name.” My generation did not have dreams o...
A recent New York Times article, “Curious Grade For Teachers: Nearly All Pass,” finds incredulous the idea that, “In Florida, 97 percent of teachers were deemed effective or highly effective in the most recent evaluations.” The author goes on to cite s...
Paris.
A few weeks ago, I decided to apply to go back to college–to one of the 20 top liberal arts colleges in America. It turned out to be deceptively simple: No SAT exams, no mammoth tuition fees, no huge student loans, no nail-biting wait to see i...
Every Detroit teacher was fired in the fall of 2012.
Apparently, the nation did not notice. Hence, this story.
On March 26, 2013, 78% of the voting members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers ratified a contract which DFT president, Keith Johnson, called, ...
Boos and hisses fill the auditorium of Brooklyn Technical High as the governing board for New York City’s public schools, the Panel on Education Policy, takes the stage. It’s March 11 and the PEP is meeting to consider a proposal from Schools Chancellor Dennis...
I wasn’t sure what to write about today. I wrestled back and forth with different topics, knowing I needed to write something but lacking the focus to really tackle any of the topics I would normally jump at. Truth be told, I’ve been distracted. Hugely distr...
Hugo Chavez died in early March. Heads of state came to his funeral and sent condolences to his family— except for the US President. Even in death the White House maintained a resentful tone toward a man we had names as an enemy. But what did Chavez do to us? He offered...
For the first time in my life, like 84% of Los Angeles registered voters, I failed to cast a ballot in last week’s election. It was a primary to select front-running mayoral candidates and city council members, a city attorney, controller, community college trustees...
Teachers and students are having a rough time in the United States—and not just because they are in danger of being murdered in their classrooms. Public education itself is under attack, fueled by foundation dollars, government policies and media hype. The problem i...
Senator Ted Cruz has some peculiar ideas about history.
And the newly-elected Tea Party darling from Texas didn’t bother to mince his words or ideas during confirmation hearings for former Senator and GOP gadfly Chuck Hagel.
Although, he did ...
The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone’s connected to the anklebone
The anklebone’s connected to the leg bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!
– Children’s song
November and December...
On December 10, community leaders all across the country held vigils and rallies outside Congressional offices to defend the safety net and protest the so-called “fiscal cliff” negotiations in Washington, DC. It was part of a coordinated national campaign on Internati...
A year ago, on Dec. 15, 2011, Kazakhstan state security forces...
I want to suggest a slight modification of the University of Texas’ motto, “What starts here changes the world.”
A more accurate slogan — while not quite as pithy and probably less effective for public-relations purposes — would be, “What starts...
“Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck.”
—Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”
It seemed like a scene from an auction block. This past Tuesday ...
I have been an activist for over fifty years so I can safely say that I have participated in my share of controversies. I remember some that were particularly acrimonious. When I first joined the faculty at San Fernando State College (now California State University at No...
I’m a white guy from Denver who transferred to Hunter College, in NYC, intending to major in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. In my second semester here, I changed my major to AFPRL—Africana, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studi...
Student debt may succeed subprime mortgages as the next disaster in the crisis of US capitalism. It is estimated at more than $1,000bn and has doubled over the last 12 years. Average debt for graduates with student loans rose to $23,200 in 2008; public university debt was...
This weekend, the second national conference of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) will take place at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. SJP is a nationwide network of student-led organizations advocating for human rights and equality in Palestine and Israel. T...
Bob Meister isn’t the kind of man who comes across as a radical. He’s a bespectacled grey-haired intellectual who looks comfortable in the sort of suit and tie a distinguished professor would wear. That’s probably because he is a professor, a quite disti...