Much of what Vijay Prashad writes in Keeping Up with the Dow Joneses is not new, but is said with such clarity and precise insight that this little book will remain a useful resources for activists and teachers for years to come. Keeping Up may be accurately described as a reader on neo-liberal austerity and class warfare in the US.

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San Francisco, CA - Archie Brown was first a ship scaler, and then a longshoreman - a dockworker all his life. He was there 70 years ago, when thousands of maritime workers closed west coast ports from San Diego to Canada. He saw the tanks and guns deployed by shipowners to fence off the docks at the height of the strike. And he remembered what happened next, when police shot into crowds of strikers, killing two union activists, as they sought to break picketlines and escort struck cargo off the piers.

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In a recent booklet, by Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin (P&G), "Global Capitalism and American Empire," Lenin’s theory of imperialism comes in for some heavy criticism. Let’s see if it is justified.

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In recent years a politicized and right-wing Protestant fundamentalist movement has emerged as a major factor in U.S. support for the policies of the rightist Likud government in Israel. To understand this influence, it is important to recognize that the rise of the religious right as a political force in the United States is a relatively recent phenomenon that emerged as part of a calculated strategy by leading right-wingers in the Republican Party who—while not fundamentalist Christians themselves—recognized the need to enlist the support of this key segment of the American population in order to achieve political power.

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The tragedy of 11 September 2001 inexorably has led to the publishing of a small library of volumes exploring the innards of so-called "Islamic Fundamentalism." Among the most celebrated of this genre is the instant volume, penned by the CNN producer, Peter L. Bergen, who has been interviewed frequently on television.

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Violence is integral to right wing politics, and wars and encounters are essential components of its strategy. This is as much true of the Hindutva forces as it is of the US establishment led by Bush.

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Since the early 1990s, the United States government, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and other industrialized countries have pressured developing countries to strengthen their international property rights laws. The intellectual property rights agreement states that patents must be protected for at least twenty years. The agreement forces countries to offer "market exclusivity" to new products until patent rights are fully implemented into a country’s domestic legal system.

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Africa is home to more than 30 million of the 42 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS. Of these 30 million people, only about 1% are receiving anti-retroviral drugs. Globally, 95% of people living with HIV/AIDS have no access to life-prolonging treatments. Access to these treatments is restricted by the high cost charged by pharmaceutical companies that use the intellectual property rights regime and patent system to protect their profits.

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Since the overwhelming April ANC election victory, government ministers have spoken with increasing confidence about the importance of an active and strategic public sector. The incoming Minister of Public Enterprises, cde Alec Erwin, for instance, has said categorically there will be no whole-sale privatisation of strategic public entities like Transnet, Eskom or Denel in the next five years.

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Corporate media attempts to drain us of all passion. We are constantly bombarded by images of shallow performers promoting fashion and consumerism attempting to silence our need to be nothing more than consumers and an exploitable workforce. In this dark context Michael Franti’s new album Songs from the Front Porch is an exuberant burst of light and inspiration.

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Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Carlos Delgado is known throughout the baseball world as one of the most feared sluggers in the game. Last year the 32 year old All-Star hit 42 homers and drove in 145 runs. He has averaged almost 40 home runs a year over the last six seasons. Lately he has put the baseball world on notice that he will use his fame to fight the US’s war on the world.

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While Fahrenheit 9/11 was the box office hit during its first week out, this summer’s blockbuster smash so far is Spiderman 2. Reviewers laud it, audiences line up to see it, everyone’s singing its praises. " You’ve got to see this movie" one friend told me, "it’s so cool! I left with a smile." Another said, " I really liked Spiderman; he’s so adorable. He tries so hard, but he just can’t get it right."

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It is interesting to read between the lines of some of the ultra-right’s more illogical proponents – such as Charles Krauthammer who regularly bloviates on the last page of Time magazine. Krauthammer's attacks on the French indicate the lengths to which the far right will go to distract attention from the bankruptcy of Bush's Iraq war policy.

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Coverage of the San Francisco ruling earlier this month on the abortion ban shows how the political polarization surrounding reproductive rights has invaded the supposedly impartial territory of journalism.

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More Americans have died in Iraq than in all U.S. military operations since Vietnam combined. Reserve and Guard members on extended duty in Iraq and Afghanistan have lost savings, homes and businesses. Now the Army is recalling thousands of honorably discharged soldiers who served less than eight years on active duty. Meanwhile, millionaires are getting tax breaks.

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In Ray Bradbury’s 1953 story, Fahrenheit 451, the lead character, Guy Montag, a fireman, questions his job - which is burning down houses found to have books - after observing some people’s willingness to go down in flames rather than live without their books.

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John Kerry is too pessimistic, says the Bush administration. The economy, it insists, is booming, and voters are tired of hearing about negative assessments of the economy. With 8.2 million men and women officially listed as unemployed, however, it is difficult to say what we have to be optimistic about.

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Micheal Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 is a documentary everyone should see. Pundits on the far right and in the corporate media who insist this film is "liberal propaganda" are absolutely correct; if propaganda is the connective tissue which makes relevant facts accessible to the average person, then yes, this is certainly propaganda.

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William Safire, one of the ultra-right luminaries featured regularly in the New York Times', has decided that NATO is now a "hallow alliance." In two recent Times’ columns, "The Hallow Alliance" (6/28) and "Beware of Certitude" (6/30), he tells us why NATO is in trouble, and at the same time reveals by his subtext the imperial ambitions of his far right buddies.

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There is no way to qualify the harshness of the now over forty-year blockade imposed by the US against the Cuban people since their successful socialist revolution in 1959. It is a hydra with many tentacles.

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