The Politics of Provocation  

An earlier version of this ran at openDemocracy last week, before tens of thousands marched in Benghazi to demand the dissolution of Islamist militias—a demand soon supported by the Libyan government. The plot line could have leapt from the baroque …







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Web Letter: Timothy Messer-Kruse Responds to Thai Jones  

Thai Jones, clearly discomforted by what my book is—essentially an ideological genealogy of a particular strain of revolutionary anarchism that flared into popularity in the 1880s and died in America with the explosion of the Haymarket bomb—employs the age-old dodge …



Horst Brand, 1919–2012  

Horst Brand, a longtime editor and contributing editor of Dissent, died on August 25. At the time of his death, he was at work on what would have been his fifty-seventh article for Dissent. His first article appeared in our …





Who Is Victimizing Chicago’s Kids?  

Yes, schoolchildren in Chicago are victims, but not of their teachers. They are victims of a nationwide education “reform” movement geared to undermine teachers’ unions and shift public resources into private hands; they are victims of wave after wave of …



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The Holocaust Memorial in New Orleans  

Walking the green strip of Woldenberg Park in New Orleans recently, I wasn’t surprised to encounter a Holocaust memorial, but was surprised by how little it elicited in me. The memorial’s trope of “Never Again,” its praise of cultural harmony, …



Chicago Teachers Go on Strike  

Today the Chicago teachers went on strike—their first in almost twenty-five years. The road to the strike has been a long one that includes 1) efforts by the hedge-fund elite behind Stand for [on] Children (SFC) to make such an …



[EVENT] Todd Gitlin on Occupy Nation in Maine  

Todd Gitlin is talking about his new book, Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street, on Tuesday and Wednesday in Maine. “Will there be an Occupy 2.0? Reflections on the roots, spirit, and promise …





DNC Dispatches: “Respect, Empower, Include”  

Community Organizing and Kandahar The Obama campaign’s ground game from 2008 has become the stuff of legend. During the final days of the race, it seemed as though the ratio of field organizers to swing state voters was roughly one-to-one. …



Patricia Cayo Sexton Memorial Service  

There will be a memorial service for long-time Dissent editorial board member Patricia Cayo Sexton on Sunday, October 14 at 3 p.m. The service will be held at the Grand Hall in NYU’s Global Center, 238 Thompson Street, NY, NY. …




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