Category Archives: Book Reviews
Barghouti, Omar. BDS: BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. 2011. Haymarket Books, USA
“The BDS campaign is among the most important forms of such ´resolute struggle´ by the great majority of Palestinians, who resist the colonization of their land and minds and demand nothing less than self–determination, freedom, justice and unmitigated equality…”
Barghouti is one of the new generation Palestinian activists, grounded in the life of a people under siege and understanding the importance of social movements and global solidarity. He writes that Palestinians through social movements have surpassed their leadership and have Read more [...] Comments Off on Barghouti, Omar. BDS: BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. 2011. Haymarket Books, USA
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Baroud, Ramzy. THE SECOND PALESTINIAN INTIFADA: a Chronicle of a People´s Struggle. 2006. Pluto Press, London, UK.
This book fulfills its title´s promise; it is an informative, engrossing, readable and moving history; a chronicle in the best sense of a period and place for which we have had little news or analysis that is not filtered by the aggressors of Palestine and their friends worldwide.
In their foreword, Kathleen and Bill Christison write that, “The Palestinian—Israeli conflict has gone beyond being a mere political problem, beyond the stuff of cool debate. It is a human disaster that can no longer be treated with dispassion… The Israeli Read more [...] Comments Off on Baroud, Ramzy. THE SECOND PALESTINIAN INTIFADA: a Chronicle of a People´s Struggle. 2006. Pluto Press, London, UK.
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Bechara, Soha. Resistance: My Life for Lebanon 2003. Soft Skull Press. USA.
I found this book in a small radical bookshop in Saskatoon this summer, just as the invasion of Lebanon ended with a ceasefire after incredible death and damage had been wreaked in a few days. I know little about this country and even less about Lebanese women so I bought it with interest. And I learned a lot about Lebanon and its political history. What I also found was a very intimate story of a bright young woman from happy Lebanese family with a Christian mother and a Communist father and how she became a member of a secret resistance group, Read more [...] Comments Off on Bechara, Soha. Resistance: My Life for Lebanon 2003. Soft Skull Press. USA.
Filed under Book Reviews, Soha Bechara
Behrangi, Samad. THE LITTLE BLACK FISH. Iranbooks USA.
When the Afghan MP, Malalai Joya, quoted from this book during her talk in Victoria, I looked for it and found it the youth section of the library.
On one level it is a simple & vivid story of a brave and adventuresome fish; but given the political repression in Iran and the author’s politics and the circumstances around his early death in a drowning ‘accident’s, it can also be read as a political allegory.
The Little Black Fish shows that it is impossible to completely suppress expression and resistance; the brave and creative will Read more [...]
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Bennholdt-Thomson, Veronika, Nicholas Faraclas and Claudia Von Werlhof, eds. There is an Alternative: Subsistence and Worldwide Resistance to Corporate Globalization. Zed Books Ltd. London, UK. 2001.
Every once in awhile, involvement in the struggle becomes overwhelming, and an activist needs to recharge, and to remember what drew them into the movement at the start. One way to do this is to read a book that combines cutting analysis with alternatives and hope. There is an Alternative: Subsistence and Worldwide Resistance to Corporate Globalization is such a book
There is an Alternative is an anthology of essays by academics and activists paying tribute to the important work of German scholar and activist, Maria Mies. Mies is widely respected Read more [...]
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Filed under Book Reviews, Claudia Von Werlhof, Nicholas Faraclas, Veronika Bennholdt-Thomson
Bennis, Phyllis. Challenging Empire: How People, Governments and the UN defy US power. 2006. Olive Branch Press, USA
However flawed the UN of the 21st century may still be, it remains a crucial part of any potentially successful effort to mount a serious challenge to US empire. PB
Although this is mainly a book about USA foreign policy and the internal and global resistance to it, Bennis dedicates it: For the dead of Iraq and New Orleans who paid the price for empire.
And an empire that wages war on distant shores also neglects its own shores with disastrous results. The cost of war has to come from somewhere and in the USA it comes from the poor and public Read more [...] Comments Off on Bennis, Phyllis. Challenging Empire: How People, Governments and the UN defy US power. 2006. Olive Branch Press, USA
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Berkson, Sam & Mohamed Sulaiman. Settled Wanderers. 2015. Influx Press. London UK ISBN: 978-0-9927655-4-5
Review and photo of Mohamed Sulaiman by Theresa Wolfwood
Subtitled ‘The poetry of Western Sahara’, this remarkable book is far more than a collection of poetry, little-known in the English-speaking world. It is a concise history and geography of the Saharawi people, the lives of their poets, a glossary and explanation of the unique language of this nation, Hassaniya, its translation into Arabic and English and not least of all, the written words of all languages are enhanced and illustrated by the wonderful art work of Sulaiman who Read more [...] Comments Off on Berkson, Sam & Mohamed Sulaiman. Settled Wanderers. 2015. Influx Press. London UK ISBN: 978-0-9927655-4-5
Filed under Book Reviews, Mohamed Sulaiman, Sam Berkson
Bertell, Rosalie. Planet Earth: The latest weapon of war Black Rose Books, Canada, 2001. The Women’s Press, London, UK, 2000.
“…in spite of fears of abuse, Earth is still an amazing and beautiful creation…It deserves our best efforts. Enjoy it, love it and save it!” RB
Rosalie Bertell believes, as have many ecologists before her, that the current focus on economics is at the expense of ecology and the social environment. In Planet Earth, this internationally-respected scientist states that the most urgent problem facing humanity now is how to sustain Earth, our life-support system. To do this, we must find a new model of global living which is not based Read more [...] Comments Off on Bertell, Rosalie. Planet Earth: The latest weapon of war Black Rose Books, Canada, 2001. The Women’s Press, London, UK, 2000.
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Bjornerud, Marcia. READING THE ROCKS: The Autobiography of the Earth. 2005. Westview Press, USA.
“It [the story of the earth] is larger than all of us, shaped by rules that antedate and superseded every economic, legal and religious doctrine humans have ever created.”
It is not often that a scientist writes a book about her area of study that can be easily understood and appreciated by any reader. Bjornerud is a geologist with a deep and broad love of our planet; she makes the history and existence of our Earth relevant to the important issues facing humanity today. She makes all the vital inks between resource depletion, global warming Read more [...]
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