Archive | June, 2009

The head of state emphasized that the victory of his Iranian counterpart represents the sentiments of the Iranian people and their commitment to building a new world.  He conveyed the messages of congratulations sent by the other leaders of the Petrocaribe member states.  Ahmadinejad obtained more than 65 percent of votes. Presidential Press Basseterre, Federation […]

In May 2007, the battle between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army broke out in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon.  Amidst heavy fighting, the Lebanese army had systematically destroyed the entire camp by September 2007.  Two years later, nearly all the rubble has been cleared from the “old camp,” the core of Nahr […]

An Open Letter to the Left from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) Labour’s vote collapsed to a historic low in last week’s elections as the right made gains.  The Tories under David Cameron are now set to win the next general election. The British National Party (BNP) secured two seats in the European parliament.  Never […]

June 11, 2009 Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has entered the second week of his hunger strike to protest the policy of isolation and solitary confinement practiced by the Israeli prison administration against Palestinian prisoners. This is an urgent situation and requires broad solidarity and […]

Barack Obama’s Cairo speech heralds a shift from the Islamophobic rhetoric of the Bush regime, but not from the long-term aims of the U.S. empire. Predictably, Barak Obama’s speech in Cairo came under hysterical criticism from the right.  Sean Hannity screamed that Obama gave “sympathizers of 9/11” a voice on the world stage, Charles Krauthammer […]

Iran’s election commission still hasn’t counted all the votes (roughly 32 million votes in total), but, according to the official results based on about 28 million votes counted so far, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (18,302,924 votes) defeated Mir-Hossein Mousavi (8,929,232 votes). Most of the Western media were predicting a close race, and some were even suggesting that […]

This is the fourth in a series of articles on “Ideas for the Struggle” by Marta Harnecker. 1.  For a long time, left-wing parties were authoritarian.  The usual practice was bureaucratic centralism, very much influenced by the experiences of Soviet socialism.  All criteria, tasks, initiatives, and courses of political action were decided by the party […]

Mohamed Gaber is a graphic designer and photographer in Cairo, Egypt.  Check out his blog Egyptian Leftist at .

  Rakhshan Bani-Etemad is an Iranian filmmaker.  This film was brought online on 7 June 2009.  The structure of this documentary film is based on questions about women’s rights activities raised from a wide range of viewpoints about women’s issues and, in the last part, on the 2009 presidential candidates’ viewpoints and programs concerning the […]

Yesterday I was listening to the Round Table TV program when it analyzed, among other topics, Operation Peter Pan, one of the most repugnant acts of moral aggression carried out against our country. Patria potestas is an extremely sensitive issue. That was a repugnant low trick. One of the novels by Mikhail Sholokhov that I read some years later included a reference to that kind of slander which had already been used against the Revolution of October 1917.

Results of a New Nationwide Public Opinion Survey of Iran before the June 12, 2009 Presidential Elections Executive Summary: In a new public opinion poll across Iran before the critical upcoming June 12, 2009 Presidential elections, a plurality of Iranians said they would vote for incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranians also continue overwhelmingly to favor […]

  An excerpt from a report published by the Congressional Research Service: “Middle East Elections 2009: Lebanon, Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq” (18 May 2009). Major Candidates and Possible Outcomes The incumbent is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a non-cleric elected in a two-round contest in 2005, who derives support from conservative factions and has opposed any compromise with […]

Below is an Interview with Manushi Bhattarai.*  She is part of the Maoist Ticket that swept the student elections at Tribhuvan University — Nepal’s largest.  She discusses the revolution, recent political developments, the international situation, and the role of youth. Ben Peterson: Thanks a lot for meeting with me.  The All Nepal National Independent Student […]

Play now: Sasha Lilley: Over the past four decades, the number of workers in unions has declined steeply, so that today only 12.4% of American workers are represented by unions.  Yet there are great hopes that that trend may be reversed, and at least in some parts of the country, union membership has increased slightly […]

  Every so often someone comes along who is so brave and so inspiring that you just can’t sit by and remain silent when you learn they need your help. We’re writing to you today about one of these rare people. His name is Ezra Nawi. You’ve probably never heard of him, but because you […]

  Since June 2007 Gaza has been under siege by Israel.  Israel has been preventing the import of food, medical supplies, fuel, electricity and spare parts needed for water and sanitation systems. LifeSource, founded in 2007, is a Palestinian-led collective of people who recognize it is crucial to address the current and unfolding regional water […]

See, also, Food Crisis and the Global Land Grab at , a new Web site set up by Grain. PHNOM PENH, 10 June 2009 (IRIN) — Sam Pov, a rice farmer in Cambodia’s western Battambang Province, is very worried that his land will be taken over by a foreign investor. “I’ve heard the rumours about […]

Monday 8 June 2009 We are a group of Iranian academic and antiwar activists in Europe and the United States who, in the past few years, have consistently defended Iran’s national interests in all areas including its right to develop peaceful nuclear technology.  Our varied activities in the face of anti-Iran propaganda by the neoconservatives […]

On the US-Iran relationship, President Obama seems to be talking from both sides of his mouth.  From one side we hear promising messages of dialogue and a “new beginning” with Iran; from the other side provocative words that seems to be coming right out of the mouth of his predecessor, George W. Bush. For example, […]

Dear Friend, In partnership with Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, the Free Gaza Movement (FG) is launching its “Right to Read” campaign which will use the FG boats to deliver textbooks and other educational supplies to universities throughout the occupied Gaza Strip. This is not a charitable endeavor.  Rather it is an act of solidarity and […]