List Dump

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is an international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict and government repression. Today it is actively organizing and numbers about 2000 members worldwide, of whom roughly half (approximately 900)are in good standing (that is, have paid their dues for the past two months). IWW membership does not require that one works in a represented workplace, nor does it exclude membership in another labor union.

Perhaps best known for A People's History of the United States, which presents American history through the eyes of those who are outside of the political and economic establishment, Zinn was raised in a working-class family in Brooklyn, and flew bombing missions for the United States in World War II, an experience he now points to in shaping his opposition to war. In 1956, he became a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, a school for black women, where he soon became involved in the Civil rights movement, which he participated in as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and chronicled, in his book SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Zinn collaborated with historian Staughton Lynd and mentored a young student named Alice Walker. When he was fired in 1963 for insubordination related to his protest work, he moved to Boston University, where he became a leading critic of the Vietnam War.

Michael Parenti is one of the nation's leading progressive political analysts. His latest book, Culture Struggle, instructs how to hink about cultural imperialism, cultural relativism, racism and gender oppression; this book treats culture as a component of social power and political struggle in the United States and elsewhere.

SDS was the largest and most influential radical student organization of the 1960s. At its inception in 1960, there were just a few dozen members, inspired by the civil rights movement and initially concerned with equality, economic justice, peace, and participatory democracy. With the escalation of the Vietnam War, SDS grew rapidly as young people protested the destruction wrought by the US government and military. Polite protest turned into stronger and more determined resistance as rage and frustration increased all across the country.

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) is an armed revolutionary group based in Chiapas, one of the poorest states of Mexico. Their social base is mostly indigenous but they have supporters in urban areas as well as an international web of support. Their most visible voice, although not their leader, is Subcomandante Marcos (currently a.k.a. Delegate Zero in relation to the "Other Campaign"). Unlike the Zapatista comandantes, Subcomandante Marcos is not an indigenous Mayan. The group takes its name from the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata; they see themselves as his ideological heirs, and heirs to five hundred years of indigenous resistance against imperialism. Some consider the Zapatista movement the first "post-modern" revolution: an armed, yet non-violent (despite an uprising in the early 1990s) revolutionary group that incorporates modern technologies like satellite telephones and the internet as a way to obtain domestic and foreign support. They consider themselves part of the wider alter-globalization, anti-neoliberalism social movement.

Z is an independent monthly magazine dedicated to resisting injustice, defending against repression, and creating liberty. It sees the racial, gender, class, and political dimensions of personal life as fundamental to understanding and improving contemporary circumstances; and it aims to assist activist efforts for a better future. Z Magazine was founded in 1987, by two of the cofounders of South End Press. The name was inspired by the movie Z, directed by Costa-Gavras, that tells the story of repression and resistance in Greece. Comrade Z (a leader of the resistance) has been assassinated and his killers, including the chief of police, are indicted. Instead of the expected positive outcome, the prosecutor mysteriously disappears and a right-wing military junta takes over. The security police set out to prevent “a mildew of the mind,” an infiltration of “isms” or “spots on the sun.”

Alexander Cockburn (pronounced "co-burn") is a self-described radical Irish journalist who has lived and worked in the United States since 1973. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch. He also writes the "Beat the Devil" column for The Nation and a weekly syndicated column for the Los Angeles Times. Cockburn is also a regular contributor to the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Outspoken criticism of US foreign policy, from its policies in Central America in the 1980s, including the Iran-contra scandal, to the First Gulf War in 1991, the Kosovo War in 1999, and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2003 invasion of Iraq. Characteristics of Cockburns writings: *Criticism of the government of Israel based on its treatment of the Palestinians. *Calls for political reform in the United States, mostly focused on criticising the Democratic Party for failing to provide a progressive alternative to the Republican Party. *Contempt for the mainstream establishment, in particular for public figures who, in his view, garner mainstream respectability by criticising those to their left; targets have included the New York Times, Sen. Barack Obama, representative Bernie Sanders, the late academic Irving Howe and some of his The Nation colleagues, including Marc Cooper, David Corn and Eric Alterman. Cockburn has also been highly critical of his former friend and colleague, Christopher Hitchens. *Criticism of 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Mike Davis (born 1946) is an American social commentator, urban theorist, historian, and political activist. He is best known for his investigations of power and social class in his native Southern California. Davis is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Irvine, and an editor of the New Left Review. He also contributes to the British monthly Socialist Review, the organ of the Socialist Workers Party of Great Britain. As a journalist and essayist, Davis has written frequently for, among others, The Nation and the UK's New Statesman. He is a self-defined international socialist and "Marxist-Environmentalist". Davis' scholarship is noted for exhaustive fact gathering from historical accounts, news archives, and scientific works. Reviewers have praised his powerful prose style and his unflinching exposés of economic, social, environmental and political injustice. His book Planet of the Slums inspired a special issue of Mute Magazine on global slums

Stan Goff (born 1951) is a writer, activist, and blogger in the United States on topics including peak oil, militarism, imperialism, race, gender, and class. He is a retired Special Forces master sergeant, and was in the U.S. military from 1970 until 1996, and received the Combat Infantryman Badge. He is an anti-war activist, feminist, and socialist (once describing himself as "red as a baboon's ass and proud of it."). He is the author of Hideous Dream, Full-Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century, and Sex & War. He is currently the author of the weblog Feral Scholar and contributor to Huffington Post.