"KPFA: Democracy Deferred?"

Bill Mandel

Bill Mandel, now 88 years young, was a KPFA and
Pacifica broadcaster for 37 years, until he was
removed by station management in one of their many
corporate purges, despite the fact — or perhaps
because of the fact — that he had been one of the
station's most popular and politically-cogent
broadcasters.

For more information about Mandel, see his website,
here. Mandel's autobiography,
Saying No To Power (Introduction by Howard Zinn), is a
history of how the American people fought to defend
and expand its rights since the 1920s, employing the
form of the life of a 30s AND 60s activist, one who
was involved in most serious movements: student,
labor, 45 years of efforts to prevent war with the
USSR, civil rights South and North, women's liberation
(Mandel's late wife appears on 50 pages), 37 years on
Pacifica Radio (where he invented talk radio), and
civil liberties. On Mandel's website, you can also see
and hear his testimony before different
McCarthy-Cold-War-Era witch-hunting committees (used
in six films and a play). Mandel is the author of five
books in his academic field.

"Theses of Resistance"

Daniel Bensaïd, Viento Sur

We are faced with a double responsibility: the transmission of a tradition
threatened by conformism, and the exploration of the uncertain contours of
the future.

In the course of the last decade (since the disintegration of the Soviet
Union and German unification), something came to an end. But what? Was it
the “Short 20th Century” of which Eric Hobsbawm and other historians speak,
beginning with World War I and ending with the fall of the Berlin Wall?

Or is it the short period that followed World War II, marked by the twin
superpowers of the Cold War, and characterized in the imperialist centres by
sustained capital accumulation and “Fordist” regulation?

Or again, is it the great cycle in the history of capitalism and the
workers’ movement, opened by the capitalist development of the 1880s,
subsequent colonial expansion and the blossoming of the modern labour
movement, symbolized by the formation of the Second International?

s0metim3s writes:

"Wombling Free? Anarchists and the European Social Forum"

Geoffrey Brown

The 2004 European Social Forum, held in London on 15-17 October, attracted more than 20,000 participants. The event featured 500 plenaries, seminars, workshops and cultural events, with more than 2,500 speakers representing every shade of opinion within the global justice movement. The ESF concluded with a 70,000-strong demonstration calling for an end to war, racism and privatisation, and for a Europe of peace and social justice. Hundreds of volunteers gave their services for free. The whole event was made possible by financial support from the Greater London Authority, who also provided free travel for the participants and cheap accommodation at the Dome.