In late spring of 2008, the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations published a report titled “US-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality.” Timed to influence the foreign policy agenda of the next US administration, the report asserted: “the era of the US as the dominant influence in Latin America is over.” At the Summit of the Americas in April the following year, President Barack Obama appeared to be on the same page as the report’s authors, promising Latin American leaders a “new era” of “equal partnership” and “mutual respect.” Four years later, Obama’s second secretary of state, John Kerry, went a step further, solemnly declaring before his regional counterparts at the Organization of American States (OAS) that the “era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.”

The destroy public education (DPE) movement is the fruit of a relatively small group of billionaires. The movement is financed by several large non-profit organizations. Nearly all of the money spent is free of taxation. Without this spending, there would be no wide-spread public school privatization.

Farewell to Anthony Kennedy, the one Justice who kept us guessing which way the Supreme Court would rule on a wide range of issues. With Kennedy gone and Trump honing his list of right-wing replacements, the Court’s decisions will very likely become more predictable – a prospect that makes progressive hearts sink.  Nevertheless, there is no need to assume that the Court will have a conservative majority for the next generation, if not longer, and that there is nothing that can be done about it.

After the preliminary results were announced showing a clear and dominant victory, and both major challengers Ricardo Anaya Cortés and José Antonio Meade accepted defeat, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the president-elect of Mexico, gave a press conference Sunday night to address the people of the nation. From the Hilton Hotel in the center of Mexico City, López Obrador echoed his campaign slogan, declaring that with this win Mexico indeed was making history. Continuing with his populist rhetoric appealing to the widespread distrust of the government by the Mexican people, he reinforced his commitment to stamp out corruption and end the impunity that is rampant in the Mexican Republic.

A report on the current situation of the Philippines, with particular emphasis on labor, in the struggle against violence and oppression.