What should we be learning about the viability of our economic system from this latest crisis?  Fred Magdoff and Michael D. Yates make the case for the socialist alternative in a recent editorial in Monthly Review, excerpted and read here by Clayton Morgareidge.  

What do we learn from Precious, the movie about a pregnant black teenager, about poverty, education, and matriarchy?  What does it leave out or distort?  The Old Mole's Denise Morris talks with Juell Stuart, a writer and activist from Brooklyn whose article on Precious appeared in Colorlines.  Stuart is a researcheer with the Applied Research Center (ARC).  For another critical review of Precious, go here. 

  There is always music inspired by, and that  inspires,  political resistance, and these times are no exception.  Radical musicologist Brad Duncan talks with Bill Resnick about some recent currents in political music, some of which were heard on today's Old Mole:  "Tina," by the Mekons, "El Pueblo Unido," by Thievery Corporation, "Which Side Are You On," by Rebel  Diaz, and "Celtic Tiger," by Damien Dempsey.