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Anti-globalization or anti-imperialist? If any uncertainty remained in the minds of most of the world’s people after the World Social Forums in 2002 and 2003 as to the perspective of the global justice movement on this question, then surely the worldwide, coordinated demonstrations against the American war on Iraq last year erased that doubt. Or did it?

In the articles and conversations that make up Perspectives on the Global Justice Movement, Gloves Off presents views from Latin America, Europe and the US on the future, the challenges, and the contraditions facing the movement.
  • Brazilian socialist militant and sociologist—Emir Sader—talks about the World Social Forum, neoliberalism, imperialism, NGOs and the Lula government in an interview we call A Brazilian Perspective.
  • Italian Marxist economist Giovanni Mazzetti, one of the most influential thinkers of the Italian Left, offers his perspective on the limitations and contradictions facing the movement today in his interview with Gloves Off, Social Amnesia in the Movement? and in his article, Where Do the Anti-Global Movements Come From?
  • American cultural historian Barbara Epstein spoke with Gloves Off last September about the potential for meaningful convergence between the global justice movement, the antiwar movement, and traditional labor organizations in the US in the interview, The Global Justice Movement: A New Left?
  • GLOVES OFF MANIFESTO
    On F15 2003 the world witnessed massive, global rallys against US-"coalition" imperialism. On M20 2004, the newly expanded editorial collective of Gloves Off calls for a global year of economic and political education.

In mid-May we publish Perspectives on the Global Justice Movement: Part Two.
Paul Sweezy (1910-2004)
History File on Marxist economist Paul Sweezy

Paul Sweezy passed away on February 27, 2004 at the age of 93. Sweezy founded Monthly Review in 1949 with Leo Huberman. In 1966, with Paul Baran, he published the book Monopoly Capital, which argued a "stagnation theory," at the heart of which was the idea that capitalism had so altered since Marx's time, the secular tendency of the rate of profit to fall was no longer applicable.

Paul Sweezy—and Monthly Review—have been called "institutions" of the American Left. Gloves Off's History File on Paul Sweezy presents E. Ahmet Tonak's and Sungur Savran's extremely thoughtful interview with Paul Sweezy in 1986, in which they discuss Sweezy's life and theory, including Monopoly Capital's departure from Marx's theory of value. The file also presents memorials and obituaries that mark Sweezy's passing.

from the weblog archive—2.6.2004 | 2:09pm
The Maturing Movement Against Sweatshops
Cooperation is the new watchword among students, monitoring groups and corporations. "We have a preference for cooperation because it leads to action more quickly," says Scott Nova, executive director of the WRC. He notes that the group's quiet intervention in two Indonesian factories recently prompted corporations to comply with health-benefit laws and to open the door to independent unions there. [from In These Times]

from the weblog archive—8.27.2003 | 12:46am
Monbiot on the UN
In recent Guardian articles ["We can seize the day" and "Beware the bluewash"] that co-incide with the release of his new book, The Age of Consent—a manifesto for "global democratic revolution"—George Monbiot sketches out his vision for a reformed United Nations. [Also worth noting is his July 10th radio interview with Doug Henwood archived on the Left Business Observer.] Whatever your views on Monbiot, his proposals and challenges to the global justice movement
FULL METAL FANTASY
Gloves Off co-editor Joe Smith launches his first column with a number of well-placed jabs at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

WORLD TRIBUNAL ON IRAQ
Revelations of systematic US torture of Iraqi prisoners makes the deliberations of an autonomous, world-people's court passionately relevant.

The WTI describes itself as "a project of the global anti war movement with sessions and events held in London, Mumbai, Copenhagen, Brussels, Hiroshima, Paris, Monterrey, Munich, Seul, Barcelona, Istanbul, Rome, Berlin, San Jose, Stockholm, Lisbon, New York..."
World Tribunal on Iraq homepage
New York leg
Webcast
Article from Boston Globe: "Iraq: Calling Conflict Illegal, Forum Takes US to Task"
Sara Burke | 5.8.2004 | 12:59pm

MAY DAY LINKS
The Green (Maypole)
The Red (Haymarket)
An Ending
The American Roots of May day
Joe Smith | 5.1.2004 | 10:09am

PHOTOS OF TORTURE BY UK TROOPS IN IRAQ EMERGE
In Iraq the UK has prided itself on the fact that it supposedly does not engage in the brutalities of the Americans. It now appears that the main coalition partners are not so different in their techniques. The second part of the article contains a chilling eyewitness account of the torture.
The witness implies that this sort of behavior is quite routine. "You normally try to leave off the face until you are in camp," he told the Mirror. "If you pull up with black eyes and bleeding faces, you could be in a bit of shit. So [until then] it is body shots, just scaring him." [The Guardian]
Joe Smith | 5.1.2004 | 9:02am

CORPORATE SPIN ON TORTURE OF IRAQI PRISONERS BY US SOLDIERS
Photographs of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by US soldiers (including smiling male & female soldiers posing for pictures next to prisoners being sexually humiliated) were broadcast yesterday by CBS.  The pictures were apparently taken last fall in Abu Graib prison.  If you have not had the chance to see them Rahul Mahajan has placed the photographs on his weblog.

It has caused acute embarassment for Tony Blair who just last week was taking a high public profile in support of the assault on Falluja.  The British government is doing a very careful dance between condemnation and reaffirmation of its support. The Guardian is the only newspaper I came across that asks whether the abuses are accidental or not.  It quotes Amnesty International which says that such incidents occur with alarming frequency suggesting that the abuses are systematic and not isolated.  The group notes that reports of other incidents ibvolving torture of prisoners have gone univestigated by the coalition.

So what about coverage in the American press?  This issue proved to be so involved, we made a special page just for the related links. Click here to read more.
Joe Smith | 4.30.2004 | 11:17am
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