Delorme's Republic

 

We are not sure who Michel is, but his videos on important figures in Haitian intellectual thought and history are good overviews. Here he is discussing Delorme's Les théoriciens au pouvoir: causeries historiques, a work definitely inspired by the legacy of Classical and French political thought. Eddy Arnold Jean has also summarized the important work very well in terms of what it represented in 19th century Haitian political thought. In other words, despite the opposition of the Nations and Liberals in late 19th century Haiti, Delorme, of the National side, also believed in an exclusionary political state in which democracy did not entail the the participation of the masses. Instead, democracy was government in "view" of the people, not of the people. Haiti needed a government of enlightened men (women need not apply here) in an aristocratic sense to act on the best interests of the masses. Aristocratic in this context meant those who proved their worth, not just those born into wealth and privilege. 

In a general sense, this did not differ from the Liberals who argued for power to the most capable. However, the Liberals and Nationals did, to a certain extent, represent different wings of the Haitian upper classes (largely but not solely "mulattoes" in commerce and land-owning "blacks). Of course, the "race" or "color" element is contradicted by the membership of the parties and the chief ideologues. Delorme's interests in agriculture as the basis of building a strong state might also distinguish him from some of the Liberal intellectuals who expressed interest in industrialization. Delorme understood that without addressing very basic, fundamentals like farming and roads, industrialization would not happen or would not occur in such a manner that would build wealth.  To a certain extent, he was proven correct about the utter failure of the Haitian economy and the loss of sovereignty. 

Sometimes we believe the Haitian political class should be forced to reread classic Haitian authors like Delorme but they have, in even more perverted ways, corrupted his already problematic political philosophy. The enlightened philosopher or poet presidents have either failed to materialize or proven themselves willing and able to rule in opposition to the interests of the people. The exploitation of the color question certainly did not help here, as Duvalier and other like-minded intellectuals used it as part of the justification for political power to noirs and the middle-class. While they may have, in some cases, represented a shift to a more meritocratic "aristocratie" in the Delormean sense, the Haitian political class continues to operate in the same destructive manner. 

The Roots of Haitian Despotism

With all the news of Haiti's economic, social, and political crises these last few years, we have decided to revisit Robert Fatton's The Roots of Haitian Despotism. Borrowing from Bourdieu and the notion of an authoritarian habitus embedded in Haitian governance since the 1801 Constitution of Toussaint Louverture, Fatton seeks to elucidate Haitian political despotism or authoritarianism as part of a repertoire of practices, attitudes, and behavior grounded in the material foundation of society. Fatton traces this to the heritage of white colonial absolutism and the coercive slave labor of the plantation economy of Saint Domingue. He defines habitus as a "structured structure" in which the conditions for despotism and corruption could become so rife. Due to the unique conditions surrounding Haitian independence, despotism was almost inevitable because of external factors that necessitated the militarization of society, further eroding civil institutions and aligning the fate of the young nation with its elites who benefited from caporalisme agraire to revive plantation agriculture, Haiti's export economy, and protect independence. 

In this context, it becomes no surprise that politics in Haiti is that of the belly (politique du ventre). The mangeurs use the state to increase their own wealth and power under a system Fatton terms presidential monarchism. Presidential monarchism entailed widespread corruption and repressive practices to stay in power and retain the loyalty of dependents. Paradoxically, these regimes also encouraged rebellions, uprisings and conflict as other contenders seek the power and wealth linked to political control. Unsurprisingly, paternalism and the discourse of the president as "father" of the people sought to mask the cruel face of the various presidential monarchs and dictatorships of Haiti while exploiting the color question could also be used to appeal to the masses without any reforms or end to corruption and authoritarian rule. Fatton cites examples of this under Soulouque and Papa Doc while these aforementioned rulers and Aristide additionally used parastatal forces to supplement their power and terrorize the population (zinglins, macoutes, and gangs under Aristide). 

Of the various heads of state, Duvalier appears to have been the master of employing messianic overtones, paternalism, use of the macoutes to terrorize the population and opposition. His redistribution of the spoils of power cleverly created more profits for the top of the power pyramid while the macoutes were cheaply paid for their services. Fatton refers to this as the gangsterization of politique du ventre (107). However, he disagrees with Trouillot classifying Papa Doc's regime as totalitarian since he lacked a mobilizing mass, party ideology, and advanced bureaucracy to qualify as totalitarian (194). Of course, how many totalitarian regimes actually do achieve complete totalitarianism or fascist control, especially in a places like Haiti without a history of mass political parties? Perhaps "creole fascism" is a more accurate term for something that acquired aspects of the worst 20th century states but lacked other features. 

The rest of the book focuses on various other factors in the growth and maintenance of Haiti's authoritarian habitus. The US Occupation in the 20th century furthered the trend and revealed the deep divisions within Haitian society. For Fatton, the caco rebellions failed because Peralte and Batraville did not create alliances with the urban poor and progressive intelligentsia and failed to call for other changes for the rural population. This would seem to be a result of the various failed, coopted caco or piquet uprisings of the 19th century which never led to systematic reforms or democratic power sharing between the peasantry, urban poor, and the elites (both civil and military). The increase in political centralization during and after the Occupation strengthened the hold of the authoritarian regimes (either US military or subsequent Haitian administrations) in the countryside with more powerful section chiefs in the countryside and later administrations continued the authoritarian habitus. Under Baby, Doc, some liberalization was introduced but only followed by low-level democracy under neoliberal conditions imposed by the US and dominant world system. Neoliberalism's anti-democratic effects led to "low intensity democracy" under Aristide and Preval (205). Thus, Haiti after Duvalier became a ceremonial democracy within the same habitus, so corruption, despotic governance, lack of accountability, and the reliance on gangs, death squads, and violence continues today. 

How does one make sense of the Haiti of today, over a year after the assassination of Moïse? The habitus described by Fatton seems just as relevant today though the apparent independence of some gang leaders and the breakdown of state authority suggests the state has some of its enforcement capabilities. Today's Haiti retains aspects of the authoritarian habitus in a state with a weaker monopoly on violence. To what extent the notion of habitus is a useful heuristic can be debated since it does resemble culturalist arguments of Haitian underdevelopment, even if the primary origin of the phenomenon is the plantation economy of Saint Domingue. Nevertheless, we feel that this is an important book that endeavors to move away from blaming Haiti's woes on its allegedly "African" influences of "primitive" Vodou and progress-resistant cultural impulses. 

Haiti in the New World Order

Alex Dupuy's Haiti in the New World Order: The Limits of the Democratic Revolution is one of those studies we should have read several years ago. Probably should have been done around the same time we read Dupuy's book on Aristide, but this one has the benefit of being written in the 1990s and focusing entirely on the first term of Aristide and how his eventual return to Haiti to complete that term was related to US foreign policy and neoliberal structural adjustments in a post-Cold War world. As Dupuy convincingly outlines in the early chapters, the new world order of neoliberal reforms promoted by the US, IMF, World Bank, and USAID would not have favored development for countries like Haiti and would not have alleviated the misery of the population. 

However, even a liberal capitalist state would have represented progress over the prebendary Haitian state and could have won over a share of the bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, one can see how the very conditions in which Aristide was allowed to return to Haiti after the first coup diminished the left-leaning social democratic agenda of Lavalas while recognizing how it deviated from Cold War-era US interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean (which usually involved intervention against leftist or left-leaning governments and support for military dictatorships). Aristide's first term must be contextualized in the new era in US foreign policy as well as the years of pro-democracy activism and struggles in Haiti since the fall of Duvalier in 1986. 

Reading Dupuy's book and thinking about his later analysis of Aristide as a politician who never relinquished the robe of the prophet for the clothes of the prince, one cannot help but feel Haiti may have been better off with Aristide remaining outside of formal politics. His real charisma and footwork for political, economic, and social changes in the 1980s was perhaps squandered or misdirected by his decision to run for president. Perhaps he really think believe it was a messianic or mystical relationship he enjoyed with the Haitian people and God was calling him to run to create a newer, better Haiti with dignified poverty instead of abject poverty most Haitians survive under. 

But his political and tactical errors of resisting a broad left coalition in government, employing threatening rhetoric against the bourgeoisie (which already hated or opposed him), his failure to thoroughly condemn violence or political mobs, and the "deal with the Devil" he agreed with to be returned to office almost ensured an unpleasant end to his political career. Just imagine if he had remained outside of formal politics but supported a broader left-leaning coalition that, while still facing pressure from the military, the haute bourgeoisie, and the US, was able to build a moderately progressive growth with equity economic policy for Haiti? Just imagine if the institutions and practice of democracy had been given the chance to actually develop and Aristide, as an outsider of the formal political process, could have used his charisma and influence to support this trend?

Perhaps it is naïve on our part to think the Duvalierist old guard and neo-Duvalierists would have ever agreed to this, but the last 36 years in Haiti have been a constant struggle for building democratic institutions and stability. The US role in this failed transition seems quite clear, and the old Duvalierists did not disappear since they played a role in 2004 and Martelly's presidency. We just wish Haiti could get a "do-over" for the last few decades, although it would be difficult to see huge progress made in Haiti becoming a "developed" or industrialized country. Perhaps things didn't have to become this bad, with the breakdown of the state, immiseration of the population, proliferation of gangs (and the Aristide years contributed to this), continued drug trafficking, fraudulent elections, and common human rights violations. When will Haiti's next chance for a democratic transition or something else to escape the current cycle present itself?

For Whom the Dogs Spy

Although Raymond Joseph's occasionally oversized ego mars the text, For Whom the Dogs Spy is a breezy read on 50 years of political change and conflict in Haiti. Beginning with his time in Radio Vonvon and the New York-based Haiti Observateur, Joseph chronicles his experience inside and outside of Haitian politics. The underground resistance Radio Vonvon was directed against Duvalier and relied on local informants for radio coverage and criticism of the Duvalier dictatorship. Then, with like-minded Haitians critical of the regime but not Communists, Joseph was part of the group that launched Haiti Observateur, which continued the criticism of the dictatorship that was inherited by Baby Doc. 

Joseph then transitioned to the Wall Street Journal before formally getting involved in Haiti politics as a diplomat. Much of the book is full of anecdotes about his role or contributions to helping Haiti, such as getting HOPE through Congress, making it easier for Préval to meet with Clintons or the appropriate powerful US figures, or his leadership role in defending the image of Haiti after the disastrous 2010 earthquake and securing international aid. Joseph clearly helped to combat Haiti's bad press and tried to combat corruption, inefficiency, and lack of transparency in Haiti's diplomatic staff. There is much to admire here.

Undoubtedly, Raymond Joseph accomplished much in his professional, political and personal lives. Unfortunately, we were sometimes wondering if his braggadocio style might obfuscate more nuanced events or meetings that took place. There was also a surprisingly light critique of Aristide that relied on some extreme language. It was clear that Joseph was not a fan of Lavalas, but to dismiss him as a terrorist because of his past rhetoric displayed a lack of the deeper analysis he exhibited in chapters on the Duvaliers, Préval, and Martelly, whose strongman presidency is covered by the final chapters of the text. We also wonder how Joseph feels today now that his cousin Wyclef's charity has been exposed and the Haiti is arguably in far worse conditions today. 

His several chapters on the ways in which Martelly avoided holding elections, intimidated and threatened the press, gave a pass to kidnappers and drug dealers, and engaged in unbridled public corruption and embezzlement with the tacit approval of the "international community" clearly paved the road to the Hell of Haiti after the assassination of Martelly's successor. Perhaps because of his own political orientation and relationships with powerful US politicians, their role in supporting or cosigning the calamitous, undemocratic elections and transitions have led to the miasma of today. Nonetheless, we hope Joseph writes another book on his experiences in Haiti's troubled democratic transition and the legacy of Duvalierism. Too often one finds young Haitians who believe Duvalier was Haiti at its best, or they have never been taught the darker chapters in their history of repression, state terror, and violence under Papa Doc and Baby Doc. 

Zombie Files

Zombie Files: Gangs, Drugs, Politics and Voodoo under the Mandate of the United Nations by Max Kail is one of those books whose title alone will deter some readers. The title and occasional references to disturbing things such as human sacrifice and even cannibalism will raise alarm and cause others to dismiss the author as a racist or liar. That's actually quite a shame. Max Kail, presumably a pseudonym, offers an important insider perspective on how ineffective MINUSTAH was at stabilizing Haiti with occasionally useful insights on the nature of the narco-state cabal that runs Haiti and participates or enables kidnappings, gang violence, political corruption, and drug-trafficking. 

However, Kail's title and some of the repetition of hearsay and negative tropes of Haiti's "Voodoo" religion is unacceptable in some quarters. Of course, the reality is quite different and Haitian people themselves have reported cases of (or suspected cases) of human sacrifice and violence driven by beliefs in sorcery or magic. Indeed, there is undoubtedly a darker side to magico-religious worldviews, one in which Vodou is a part of albeit often maligned as black magic. And Kail is probably correct about the darker side of this worldview being used or exploited by gang leaders, the economic elite, and corrupt politicians to plot their actions or terrorize the population. Whether or not a Cite Soleil gang leader actually eats the hearts of rivals or ritually sacrifices a person on a full moon does not matter so much if it reinforces the reputation of certain people as dangerous, terrifying, and ruthless. We just wish the author could have offered more evidence of some of his assertions, like the role of a manbo in assisting Clifford Brandt's kidnapping ring or Aristide's father as a houngan. 

The true value of the text lies in Kail's perspective on the failure of MINUSTAH. In order to actually make a positive difference in Haiti, Kail had to join an unofficial anti-kidnapping working group that actually gathered data and intel with the support of people like Reginald Delva and reliable HNP to arrest the perpetrators. With like-minded others, he had earlier played a role in the targeting of gangs and making Cite Soleil, the notorious slum, safer than other parts of Port-au-Prince. Unfortunately, the UN's own internal bureaucracy, corruption, incompetence, and desire to work with the local government undermined all their attempts to actually improve Haiti for the vast majority of the population. The aforementioned cabal of politicians and wealthy business interests are heavily involved in the drug trade since the 1980s (with Col. Michel Francois, a friend of Martelly) and then the large, effective cartel of Jacques Ketant which appears to have been close with Aristide. In order for them to maximize their profits and power, Haiti must remain a key transit point for narcotics to enter the US and the profits from the drug trade as well as political corruption and aid must continue. 

Several of the examples examined or mentioned in the text have been documented in Haitian and international journalism, so one knows Kail did not fabricate or exaggerate. It is a long, sordid history of corrupt politicians, drug traffickers, gang-elite partnerships, manufactured crises and riots, and real humanitarian disasters which clearly illustrates how morally repugnant the Haitian elites are as well as the collusion of international forces (like the UN) with this savagely inhumane political economic system that disenfranchises and excludes the majority of the population. Basically, Kail is doing in a less academic form what scholars like Fatton have done, showing how the Haitian prebendary state or the "state against nation" framing of Trouillot has acted in the last 20 years since Aristide's second term. Sadly, Haiti today in 2022 seems to have continued on the path of this inexorable decline and impunity continues to be enjoyed by many of the "usual suspects" (Acra, Boulos, Mevs, Latortue, Martelly, Vorbe, and others in this rogues gallery).

Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution

In my perhaps foolish quest to gradually read every book ever written by C.L.R. James, I finally tackled Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution. Focusing on the movement for Ghanaian independence and the relationship between the masses and leadership (as embodied in Nkrumah), the relatively short work provides an interesting avenue to consider The Black Jacobins and the role of colonial peoples in shaping world revolution. Like Toussaint Louverture, Nkrumah emerges as a leader made by the masses, absorbing the best of the West and applying it to the particular conditions of the underdeveloped colony of the Gold Coast. Moreover, Nkrumah would, like Toussaint, make some of his own mistakes once in power to protect the revolution. 

While the appendix material makes one perhaps wonder to what extent James was taken in by charismatic post-independence leaders, there is undeniably much of use to be learned from the experience of the Ghana independence movement, especially in consideration of the all-pervasive myth of African incapacity for self-government. Even the so-called backwards colonial peoples who suffer from illiteracy and allegedly primitive social organizations (tribe and chiefs in the villages) are capable of the most remarkable organization, taking advantage of new technology to demolish every argument of the West against African self-rule. This shows, like the enslaved Africans of Saint Domingue, the capacity of the masses to usher in revolutionary change and shape the course of history.

Unfortunately, the text does not fully analyze the fall of Nkrumah's administration, but it points to the larger structural impediments to the African state (especially the political economy of corruption as intimately linked to the prominence of the state in the control of the economy, unlike the West where corruption could flourish in their more developed private sectors). So, all things considered, Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution is an interesting work in terms of the larger political significance of The Black Jacobins, which foresaw African independence. Now I must read what James had to say about party politics in the West Indies and more of his analysis of the Russian Revolution. 

Mariners, Renegades and Castaways

I finally finished Moby-Dick, just to be able to read Mariners, Renegades and Castaways, a well-known essay by C.L.R. James on Herman Melville and the world in which we live. I find that we sometimes limit James to just a Caribbean or colonial context, ignoring his provocative works on American life, civilization, and literature. His work on American Civilization, as well as his study of Melville, are intimately linked to 14 years of life in the US and his experience with the barbarous, unjust treatment of immigrants and political dissidents by the US government. As a man from Trinidad who had lived in Europe and engaged with the international Left even before stepping foot on US soil, he was nonetheless very much shaped by his experience in this country. After all, much of his theoretical essays and provocative work on the question of state capitalism, the role of the masses, and anti-vanguardism seem to be a product of his time in the US. 

Although much has been written about the flawed aspects of James's analysis of Ahab and Melville, there is a recurring fear of the totalitarian personality as revealed in Ahab. Reading Melville makes it quite clear, too, how the US by the mid-19th century was a distinct civilization and Melville saw something of the coming crisis of the modern world. Ishmael, the powerless intellectual, Ahab, driven by totalitarian impulse, the diverse and motley crew of a modern, global industry of whaling (and the "savage" harpooners), and the inevitable downfall wrought by obsession and the irrational pursuit of Moby Dick do suggest some merit in James's analysis of the novel. Nonetheless, his study of Melville should be read in light of a Jamesian perspective on US civilization. 

It is in the failure of the diverse, international crew of the Pequod to come together in spontaneous creativity to end their alienation and seize the means of production that unavoidably leads to the demise of the ship. The officers, such as Starbuck, are too attached to their Quaker roots and the ideology of capital to resist, while Ishmael, though ensconced in a milieu of laborers, and friend of Queequeg, remains detached. Philosophy has not yet become sufficiently proletarian. And though a spirit of camaraderie exists among the crew, including the prominence of "savages" to challenge the dominant racial ideology of the day, they lack, in spite of technical proficiency, the wherewithal to overthrow Ahab (succumbing in awe to his attempts to exhibit control of nature or the allure of the doubloon). Nonetheless, there is something quite alluring in Jamesian thought on the US, and the role of mass culture and creative impulses in revolutionary change. It's a welcome change from something like Adorno, who took a rather dismal view to US mass culture, and perhaps remained so blinded by that European conception of high culture that he was unable to see the new "socialism" fermenting. 

Cyril Briggs and the African Blood Brotherhood

Ted Vincent on the African Blood Brotherhood. Essential history from the Pacifica Radio Archives on a key organization grappling with issues of race and class. Issues of the Crusader paper can be found online, too, for additional information Briggs and the ABB. Indeed, one satirical cartoon from their paper hints directly at conflicts with Garvey and the UNIA, bringing to mind similar debates between Marxists and noirists in a Haitian context during the 1930s and 1940s. Other episodes of the series includes a segment on Hubert Harrison and Harry Haywood.

Facing Reality

Facing Reality is the one essay by C.L.R. James that I have been meaning to read for the last year. Well, I finally completed it within the last week or so. Here are some of my rambling thoughts on this most anarchist of James's theoretical works. First, I must admit that I have long been sympathetic to forms of anarchism and direct democracy. James, Boggs, and Castoriadis develop a critique of the dominant Communist and Trotskyist parties as well as the Western liberal welfare state model. 

Indeed, to them, "Fascism, Corporate State, One-Party State, Welfare State, Totalitarianism, all of these are ways in which rationalism attempts to adapt itself to the modern community." Building on their insights from State Capitalism and World Revolution, James argues for the self-movement of the workers as the path toward socialism. Like The Invading Socialist Society, autonomous and self-directed action initiated by the working-class against union bureaucracy, the state, and employers is the beginning of socialism. 

Since the work was published after the Hungarian Revolution and in the midst of the Cold War, the analysis is centered on workers in the advanced economies of the US, Britain, France, and the USSR. Clearly, the influence of self-directed workers in Detroit's  auto industry influenced James, Boggs, and Castoriadis, pushing them away from vanguardist socialist parties of the Leninist mould. Indeed, like James's view of popular democracy in ancient Athens, the working masses, when trusted to act of their own volition, shake the world and challenge technocratic elites, the political forms of rationalism, and offer the only solution to the dilemma of state capitalism and nuclear annihilation. 

However, if James et al. were correct, why did things turn out so differently in the advanced industrial nations? The shifting spatial and social relations within the factory and global economy suggest that the authors were guilty of a romanticized and unrealistic perspective on the attainability of workers councils. I remain sympathetic and find their views of events in Hungary or wildcat strikes in the US fruitful for study, but when large industrial workplaces are less common in the US, how can the self-directed workers establish workers councils and seize the means of production? How can the libertarian socialism espoused here, opposed to vanguards, remain relevant to 2018? Even if it proved to be somewhat prophetic about social change in the 1960s and in terms of Solidarity in Poland?

Despite its limitations, Facing Reality is one of the more intriguing theoretical works of James. It shows, as scholars like Matthew Quest have argued, how James's Marxism was influenced by anarchism (libertarian socialism?) and a rejection of central aspects of Leninism. Furthermore, it persuasively suggests the capacities for the masses are far more developed than we realize. Instead of a fear of the crowd, James and company argue that the masses know their interests and can act in it, for a more egalitarian society. The professional bureaucrats and technocratic elites block this aspiration among the working-class, hence the critiques of rationalism and a call for philosophy to become proletarian. Indeed, this central insight to the role of the division of labor and knowledge in a society is one I find powerful. If we want a more egalitarian society, then every cook must be able to and allowed to govern. Perhaps unrealistic, but it remains a powerful idea.

Modern Politics

Modern Politics, a series of lectures given by C.L.R. James in 1960 (in Trinidad, land of his birth), is a fascinating overview of Western political thought and C.L.R. James explaining his view of the world. While his Marxism is a definite part of the lectures, it's profoundly interesting for how James views the legacy of direct democracy from the Greek city-state (as well as Aristotle and Socrates) and the influence of Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, and Marx in paving the way for a a solution to the problem of modernity (as he saw it in the 1960s). His belief in the dialectic and the power of the masses and revolution to create change also explains more persuasively why James held such a high opinion of popular culture and art meant for mass consumption by writers and artists. Such a perspective on literature, art, aesthetics, and the culture industry is welcome after reading Adorno's writings on US culture industry and jazz. His commentary on fascism, the Social Democratic Parties, Stalinism, and issues of race and gender are fascinating, particularly in the ways in which James does not speak directly to the countries of the world undergoing decolonization (Cuba and Ghana do appear frequently, however, as does the specter of the Cold War and imperialism from both blocs). One wonders to what extent the relationship between James and Williams shaped how much James felt comfortable saying overtly about labor and colonialism within the West Indies...

Hitchens on Orwell

Enjoy this fascinating lecture by Christopher Hitchens on Orwell. I am currently reading 1984 and found this enlightening and pertinent. 

Huxley at Berkeley

I was listening to this a few weeks ago and just decided to revisit it. Huxley's prophetic words about the War on Terror are particularly relevant. 

Said on The Clash of Civilizations

Edward Said articulates the many, many problems of Huntington's famous (or infamous?) book. I was just perusing Huntington's work and shocked by some of the appalling lack of nuance and detail or just vast generalizations he made. For instance, the brief mentions of Haiti emphasize it as some aberration that is a lone civilization or culture, one that is not perceived by Latin Americans as part of the region and seen as bizarre or different from the lens of Anglophone Caribbean peoples. When making these statements, Huntington relies on the words of a Panamanian politician and one quoted Afro-Caribbean. One would think more nuance and evidence would be buttressed by Huntington, akin to his more careful attention to modern Japan, but I guess Haiti does not merit the additional scrutiny. With people like Huntington as an intellectual influence in the Bush administration, one can see why the 2004 coup took the shape it did.

Death of the Liberal Class

I don't agree with everything Chris Hedges has to say, but I think his prescient words on the liberal class are especially relevant to 2016 and the political quagmire we face today. I perused the book in which this talk is based on and find much of it often accurate, especially as regards the liberal establishment in media, politics, and elsewhere's complicity in the service of power. Hedges is one of the best at articulating complex ideas of Chomsky, Wolin and others for thought-provoking and insightful analysis, and much of it strikes me as particularly pertinent to the Democratic party in 2016. 

Political Economy of Mass Media

A fascinating 1989 talk by Chomsky in Madison, WI. Chomsky discusses the manufacturing of consent and relates it to the American interventions in Central America during the 1980s. Fascinating stuff and very thought-provoking, as one would expect from Chomsky. I saw him speak in 2010 and find this 1989 talk more humorous and intriguing than the award ceremony I attended.  Moreover, Chomsky's sense of humor was present in the earlier lectures than what I saw, although I am naturally glad I had an opportunity to see him speak.

The Neoliberal City

The always informative David Harvey speaking on neoliberalism and the city. This brings back memories of Adolph Reed and Frances Fox Piven's similar approach to the neoliberal city and the transition from the industrial city. 

The Stuart Hall Project

A highly recommendable overview of the life and times of Stuart Hall, a pioneer in Cultural Studies of Jamaican origins who studied at Oxford. Hall discusses racism against people of Caribbean and African descent in England, how he came to reject the class/color restrictions of colonial Jamaica, his work as an editor of leftist journals, and broader processes of identity and cultural formation. I have recently rediscovered his other work, documentary series, and his status as a public intellectual, so this film is an excellent introduction. Another worthwhile video is Hall's interview of Trinidadian intellectual, leftist, and avid cricket fan, CLR James, a towering figure of Black thought who influenced Hall.

Haiti in the Early 1970s

Haiti one year after Papa Doc's Death (early 1970s) in a 60 Minutes Special. Worth watching for the not quite accurate US narrator's summary of Haitian history and the use of 'transformation industries' as a phrase to describe sweatshops. Naturally, it's hardly an authoritative source, but another example of the many ways the US media approaches the subject of Haiti through exoticizing, primitive lens. It's frightening how so many of the same economic policies introduced under Baby Doc are being attempted again by the current Haitian government, although one can be glad that there is no longer a business in selling Haitian plasma and cadavers anymore (good riddance, Luckner Cambronne).

Reagan's Welfare Queen Was Real (Kind Of)

Well, I am not surprised a 'welfare queen' actually did exist as a real person, though Reagan exaggerated her exploits, at least the ones involving 'stealing' from public funds. Linda Taylor knew how to cheat the system, but her pilfering the state was nowhere near as unethical or absurd as cuts to social services and other policies pursued by Reagan (let's not even talk about race or Reagan's foreign policy). The sad thing is how black women are demonized as a result because of the media and politicians when the real welfare queens are not hustlers going to great lengths to steal pennies in comparison to welfare for the elite and corporations in this country.

Melissa Harris-Perry's Finer Moment

For a long time my favorite MHP moment from her show on MSNBC is keeping it real with some business-minded corporate hack guest who tried to defend the 'job creators' and '1%' who take risks financially and 'create jobs' and 'wealth.' She keeps it real and talks from personal experience with the realities of life for low-income black communities in New Orleans to demonstrate that being poor is a greater risk (for schooling, jobs, safety, mental and physical health, the list goes on to other disadvantages and risks not mentioned by MHP). Unfortunately, the crisis of poverty will likely not be alleviated anytime soon, but props to MHP for saying something of substance and more meaningful than, say, defending Obama and the Dems.