"Ian Rankin once explained to an interviewer (the head of the Indian Communist Party!) that crime fiction is a way of talking about social inequality. Ron Jacobs applies that same maxim to the Sixties... in his wonderfully noir trilogy of those exhilarating and troubled times. And what Rankin does for Edinburgh, Jacobs amply illuminates for the Movement. Much much more than ripping yarns (though they are that too), from a master who's been there, done that, and lived to tell a tale or two."

--Ramsey Kanaan, Publisher PM Press/noir enthusiast

Friday, March 16, 2018

Trump and His Tariffs

Any benefits workers obtain in a capitalist economy are the result of struggle, not the gifts of the owners and financiers.  Supporting the tariffs because of some imagined short term gain is merely buying into neoliberal capitalism’s con game.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/16/trump-and-his-tariffs/

Monday, January 29, 2018

Still Tripping....a New Essay Collection

Still Tripping in the Dark Kindle EditionIf you have never read any of my essays or would like to have some of them in a bound paper version, here's your chance (such as it is....)  Click here

Friday, December 15, 2017

Sinking in the Swamp

The swamp is not being drained. It is becoming more toxic by the day. It is now ebb tide at the pig farm and the sewage is in the pool where your children go to swim.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/15/sinking-in-the-swamp/

Friday, October 20, 2017

Stop the Idiocy! Stop the Mattis-ness!

The (revised) toll in lives was: 36, 546 US soldiers, an estimated 1.5 million Koreans on both sides of the parallel (mostly civilians), 200,000 Chinese soldiers, and another 4000 soldiers from armies that allied themselves with the United States.  In addition, there were more than one million wounded and/or missing.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/20/stop-the-idiocy-stop-the-mattis-ness/

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Can NATO Still Make America Great?

The link below goes to an article I wrote for the previous print edition of Counterpunch magazine.  I am sharing it in the hope that some of you who read it will then subscribe to the print version of Counterpunch.  Why should you do that since you can read Counterpunch online for free?  Because most of the articles in the print issues are not reprinted online is a good place to start....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B01dj5QyuLDed0gtT1JRREhod3NjeXRFRXZxOWZiUFdJOGVz/view?usp=sharing

If you want to subscribe, here is a link to do that.....
https://store.counterpunch.org/subscribe/

Thanks,
Ron

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Sharpening the Contradictions from the Fifty Yard Line

When I used to watch Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath throw the ball back in my earlier years, it seemed most NFL players were white.  They were also assumed to be very patriotic and supportive of the US war on Vietnam and in favor of the more conservative side of US politics.  Whether or not this was as universal as it seemed to be is hard to say since NFL players were not known for expressing their political views in public.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/27/sharpening-the-contradictions-from-the-fifty-yard-line/

Friday, May 12, 2017

McMaster’s Civilized War for Civilization

Just because a general has a new way to fight a war doesn’t mean that war should be fought. The war in Afghanistan is not being incorrectly waged. Instead, it is the war and occupation of Afghanistan that is wrong.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/12/mcmasters-civilized-war-for-civilization/

Thursday, April 27, 2017

One Hundred Years That Shook the World

It’s as if John Reed, author of the classic piece of revolutionary journalism, Ten Days That Shook the World, woke from a decades-long sleep to tell the story of 1917 once again.  Although there is less personal detail, the sweep of Miéville’s story is equal to Reed’s in its breadth while matching it in passion.  It is Reed’s contention that the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers were at the front of the revolution.  One hundred years later, Miéville’s telling agrees.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/27/one-hundred-years-that-shook-the-world/

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Syria: Beyond Western Myths and Half-Truths

A book about history that is ignored by so many....not meant as an endorsement of Assad and his army but certain to be taken that way by those unwilling or unable to look at the broader picture...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/11/syria-beyond-western-myths-and-half-truths/

Monday, March 6, 2017

Islam: A Conversation on Paper

"Mourad and Anderson recently published a book titled The Mosaic of Islam: A Conversation with Perry Anderson. It is a text with a grand mission: to introduce and inform non-Muslims of the history, and philosophical underpinnings and debates that make up the Islamic religion.Despite its rather small size, the book manages to succeed in its task."

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/06/islam-a-conversation-on-paper/

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Fomite Interrogations

Fomite Press, which published my novels (so far) has begun a political pamphlet series.  Here is their explanation of the project:
"Given the exigencies of the time, Fomite would like to step outside its normal literary publishing practice, and add to its offerings a series of bound pamphlets on urgent political, social, cultural, and organizing issues from a radical, anti-capitalist viewpoint."

The titles are interesting and provocative.  My contribution to the project is titled Capitalism: Is the Problem...

Here is a link with more information and ordering details:
http://www.fomitepress.com/Tracts.html

Friday, February 3, 2017

Friday, January 27, 2017

Friday, December 16, 2016

Bargaining for Salvation in the Devil’s Arena

According to the legend, Jes’ Grew comes and goes. Its peaks in the past one hundred years include the jazz age and the age of Rock and roll and Rhythm and Blues. One might argue that certain dance music of the current period might also be a hearkening of the Jes’ Grew infestation, but I think its insistence on mechanization renders its inclusion unlikely. However, Jes’ Grew will never die. And it gestates in festivals like Warren Haynes annual benefit show in Asheville, North Carolina. If it doesn’t save your soul, at least it makes you feel like living for another day.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/16/bargaining-for-salvation-in-the-devils-arena/

Friday, December 2, 2016

Selling Racism--A Lesson From South Africa

The movement against South African apartheid was perhaps the most universal and popular movement in the western world in the 1980s. Hundreds of thousands protested in a multitude of ways—from letter-writing campaigns to shantytown occupations of city squares and college campus greens.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/02/selling-racism-a-lesson-from-pretoria/

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

The Flim Flam Man

It's so damn American. The settler class of white Europeans living away from the big mean city get conned by a loudmouth bullshittin' big city con man who has never made an honest buck in his life. He plays into their fears; of brown skinned foreigners, angry black people still pissed about their ancestors being enslaved, uppity women who misuse the rights they got, and big city banks and financiers who just want to take their money and their land.  Promising to keep the scared people safe, the film-flam man goes back to his rich friends, laughing to himself about how he loves the uneducated. 

Friday, November 4, 2016

The Greeks, the Troika, Resistance and History

As we head into 2017, the world seems to be heading towards even greater uncertainty.  The nationalist rejection of the EU in Britain, the uncertain meaning of the US election and future (at this writing) results, a seeming desire by western capitals and Russia for greater war in the Middle East, and various artificial bubbles created and maintained by the gamblers in the financial markets; all of these seem to point to more of the same for Greece with an ever growing likelihood that the next burst financial bubble will take down more than just those economies considered on the fringe of the central markets.  This uncertainty alone is reason enough to read this book. 

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/04/the-greeks-the-troika-resistance-and-history/

Friday, September 23, 2016

A Change Has Gotta' Come

"Ideally, Demand the Impossible! would be distributed for free at every rally and meeting called to discuss the issues explored therein.  It is not the only book or article that provides an outline of what must be done, but it is certainly one of the most concise and evocatively written ones.  Imagine a series of speeches designed to inspire and teach; to move us from frustration and apathy to the streets; that is what this book is all about."
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/23/a-change-has-gotta-come/