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Wrestling with the Past

Sonya Huber.   Opa Nobody.   Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.  xvi + 358 pp.  Illustrations.  ISBN 978-0-8032-1080-6; $24.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8032-1080-6. In recent years, scholars have grappled with the specific manner in which recent generations of Germans and Austrians have confronted their own familial complicity in Nazism.  The narratives revealed by these studies […]

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From the Crisis of Distribution to the Distribution of the Costs of the Crisis: What Can We Learn from Previous Crises about the Effects of the Financial Crisis on Labor Share?

Abstract The paper analyzes the possible distributional consequences of the global crisis based on the lessons of the past crises experiences.  The decline in the labor share across the globe has been a major factor that led to the current global crisis.  What we are going through is a crisis of distribution, and similarly the […]

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The Crisis Will Be Profound and Prolonged. . .

It’s been several months since the crisis of capitalism was unleashed on the international level, with its epicenter in financial capital and the US economy.  Now we have more evidence that this crisis will be profound and prolonged, affecting all the peripheral economies — including Brazil. Many analyses of the crisis have been published in […]

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I Am a European Roma Woman

This campaign film by Amnesty International and Mundi Romani drawing attention to the importance of women and the complexity of the Roma identity was released on 6 March 2009, in time for International Women’s Day.  The campaign seeks to combat the escalating violence against the Roma people in Europe, including Hungary, which is threatening the […]

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Closed Zone

שטח סגור | Closed Zone | منطقة مغلقة Despite declarations that it has “disengaged” from the Gaza Strip, Israel maintains control of the Strip’s overland border crossings, territorial waters, and air space.  This includes substantial, albeit indirect, control of the Rafah Crossing. During the past 18 months, Israel tightened its closure of Gaza, almost completely […]

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Social Change, the Women’s Rights Movement, and the Role of Islam

The implementation of Shari’a reinforced the patriarchal order and institutionalized gender inequality in post-revolutionary Iran.  Nevertheless, the modernization of society has led to profound changes in the lives of Iranian women and in their attitudes regarding men’s authority.  The modernization of women’s attitudes1 has in turn led to their mounting resistance or opposition against gendered […]

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Where Are Iran’s Working Women?

See, also, Hajir Palaschi, “Interview with Shahla Lahiji on Women’s Presence in the Labor Market: No Vocation Must Be Prohibited for Women,” Trans. Yoshie Furuhashi, MRZine, 18 February 2008. The Iranian Revolution and its aftermath have generated many debates, one of which pertains to the effects on women’s labor force participation and employment patterns.  For […]

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Dignified Rage, Internally Displaced People, and “Buying Consciences”

A delightful surprise awaited us as the 3rd phase of Digna Rabia (Dignified Rage) began on January 2nd.  Philosophers, writers, activist organizations, journalists, musicians, and the EZLN participated in panels, all addressing the general theme of Otro Mundo, otra política (Another world, another politics).  Several thousand packed the CIDECI auditorium to overflowing and managed to […]

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Charles Darwin: Reluctant Revolutionary

In 1846, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The German Ideology, the first mature statement of what became known as historical materialism.  This passage was on the second page: We know only a single science, the science of history.  One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature […]

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A Call to End All Renditions

Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian residing in Britain, said he was tortured after being sent to Morocco and Afghanistan in 2002 by the U.S. government.  Mohamed was transferred to Guantánamo in 2004 and all terrorism charges against him were dismissed last year.  Mohamed was a victim of extraordinary rendition, in which a person is abducted without […]

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Palestinian Opinions after the Gaza War

Fatah and Hamas The results of the public opinion poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) during the period 29-31 January 2009 show that the majority of respondents (46.7%) believed that Hamas came out of the war victorious compared with only 9.8% who said that Israel won the war.  Over one-third, 37.4%, […]

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Radicalize the Alternatives: World Social Forum in Belem

The World Social Forum (WSF) in Belem isn’t just another forum.  It’s the first WSF since the outbreak of the 2008 economic crisis, held at a moment when the total failure of neo-liberalism and the destructive character of global capitalism are exposed in all their harsh reality.  Besides, the Brazilian Amazon is a privileged place […]

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“I Knew the Shah” and “I Knew Khomeini”

On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, Al Jazeera is running a special series of programs on Iran. Rageh Omaar, “I Knew the Shah,” Part 1 (Al Jazeera, 17 January 2009) Rageh Omaar, “I Knew the Shah,” Part 2 (Al Jazeera, 17 January 2009) Rageh Omaar, “I Knew Khomeini,” Part 1 […]

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BBC Spurns Gaza Appeal

There is an urgent need for humanitarian aid in Gaza.  So far, the death toll is more than 1,200, including nearly 300 children.  Pictures broadcast around the world prompted the UK Disasters Emergency Committee, an organization which brings together 13 of the UK’s biggest charities, including the Red Cross and Oxfam, to broadcast an appeal […]

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An Unarmed Palestinian Woman Confronts Israeli Soldiers

This footage was first shown in the W (World Wide Weekly) program on South Korea’s MBC.   Brought to YouTube by oli505 11 months ago, it has been watched 306,150 times as of 12 January 2009, 15:15 PM.  The brave Palestinian woman in the video has been identified by Mitchell Cohen as Huwaida Arraf, a […]

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Montreal Activists Serve Eviction Notice to Israeli Consulate

In the early morning of Thursday, 8 January 2009, in protest against the Israeli military offensive against the people of Gaza, Montreal activists took action at the Israeli Consulate in Montreal. In solidarity with the 1.5 million people in Gaza, demonstrators in Montreal demanded that the state of Israel end its military offensive and lift […]

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