The Fifth Estate is one of the longest running anti-authoritarian periodicals in the United States. The magazine has gone through several different phases. Some people prefer the phase in the 1980s and 90s when Fifth Estate was a more theoretical magazine which was cutting important ground on topic like the environment and technology. I prefer the current incarnation of the magazine, which is a more eclectic publication on many topics from a wider range of writers and contributors. Fifth Estate has long been published in Michigan, but recent issues have been published in Tennessee and New York City.

Recent years in the United States have seen the growth of more politically left movements in various religious denominations. Some of this is driven by liberals and progressives who are reacting to the rise of the religious right and its influence on religion, culture and politics. The new politically left religious movement are also driven by people interested in focusing on the social justice themes that have been long present in their religions.

The U.S. government and mainstream media are openly hysterical over the recent turn of events in the Middle East. Continuing Iraqi resistance to the U.S.-British occupation and factional infighting in the democratically-elected parliament, the free and fair election of a Hamas government in Palestine, the threat of Hezbollah-led armed forces in Lebanon, and democratic Iran’s refusal to submit to U.S.-led demands that it renounce its nuclear program: these pose serious problems for the imperium. The Bush administration pursued a policy of invasion, occupation and repression in a self-proclaimed quest to spread Western-style “representative democracy” in the region. And yet now, confronted with the results of democratic elections in Iraq, Palestine, Iran, and Lebanon, it pounds the table in protest and gives Israel the green light to go to war against Lebanon.