The Brazilian expression “Greek Present” (Presente de Grego) means unwelcome gift, an obvious reference to the infamous Trojan Horse. The current crisis in Greece might show that the euro was just one of those presents. If the European Union (EU) does not provide sufficient resources to preclude not just a default, but also and […]
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Monthly Review Magazine
Israel’s Region-wide Underground War
Imagine for a moment what the reaction would be if Iranian intelligence was almost universally believed to have assassinated a leader of one of the organisations fighting the Tehran government in a western-friendly state. Then consider how Britain, let alone the US, might respond if the killers had carried out the operation using forged or […]
Rethinking Islam and Masculinity in Germany
Katherine Pratt Ewing. Stolen Honor: Stigmatizing Muslim Men in Berlin. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008. xii + 282 pp. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8047-5899-4; $21.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8047-5900-7. Katherine Pratt Ewing’s Stolen Honor provides an interesting and original approach to analyses of discourses of Islam in Europe by focusing on constructions of Muslim masculinity in […]
A Dangerous Liaison: The Iranian Greens and the West
In the 1979 Revolution in Iran the liberal forces made a fatal mistake: they adopted the old dictum of the enemy of my enemy is my friend and allied themselves with just about every force that opposed the tyrannical rule of the shah. The result was helping to replace one form of despotism for another: […]
IMF in Haiti
The IMF grants Haiti “an emergency aid” of 114 million dollars. . . “Take it, pretty girl, it will make you feel better.” . . . and this tale will never come to an end. This cartoon was first published by Rebelión on 17 February 2010. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). […]
Israel Is at an Impasse: It Can Make Neither War Nor Peace
The Main Points of the Speech We reiterate on this occasion our condolences for the loss of our dear martyrs, and our congratulations as well, for they are ultimately the first victors. They are our glory and pride. I will discuss current challenges and our strategy for addressing them. When we remember these leaders and […]
PFLP Hosts National Unity Meeting of All Factions in Gaza
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hosted a meeting of all national and Islamic forces, including representatives of Fateh and Hamas, in its office in Gaza City, on February 14, 2010. This meeting was the first of its kind to take place in Gaza since the internal division. The objective of the meeting […]
The Crisis and Employment in Asia
Ever since the global financial and economic crisis broke, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has been regularly tracking its impact on the level and quality of employment. In January 2009, the ILO (International Labour Office 2009) indicated that, under alternate scenarios, global unemployment could increase by between 18 million and 51 million people worldwide from […]
In the Tropical Forests of Sumatra: Notes from Climate Change “Ground Zero”
Introduction by Geoffrey Gunn It is probably a cliché to observe that tropical rain forests host the greatest known concentrations of bio-diversity on the planet. Together, the three great global equatorial biozones are central Africa, the Amazon basin, and the Indonesian archipelago, including southern Sumatra Island, and the even more remote tin-rich offshore island of […]
Dresden Beats the Nazis
The Berlin anti-fascists waiting near the Spree River at 4:30 AM for the buses to Dresden were sleepy, cold, and nervous. Not without reason. Some had faced the Nazis a year earlier. Every year these latter-day storm troopers try to misuse the emotions of Dresdeners mourning the loss of 25,000 to 35 000 people in […]
How Credible Is Human Rights Watch on Cuba?
In late 2009 the New York-based group Human Rights Watch published a report titled New Castro, Same Cuba. Based on the testimony of former prisoners, the report systematically condemns the Cuban government as an “abusive” regime that uses its “repressive machinery . . . draconian laws and sham trials to incarcerate scores more who […]
Lessons of the Year: Tailing Democrats Equals Defeat, Only a Mass Movement Can Win
The Democratic defeat in Massachusetts on the anniversary of the start of the Obama administration makes a fitting conclusion to the lessons that the last year should have taught everyone in this country. The question is: will the lessons be learned, especially by left activists? Let us try to see what these lessons are. […]
Do I Look Rich? Student Voices on Fee Hikes in California
For more information about the education crisis and the 4 March 2010 strike and day of action to defend public education in California, go to <checkingeducation.com>, <defendcapubliceducation.wordpress.com/>, or <www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184333923808>. | | Print
The Global Organic Crisis: Paradoxes, Dangers, and Opportunities
The capitalist world has experienced its deepest economic meltdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Paradoxically, whereas the earlier period saw the breakdown of liberal capitalism, the rise of fascism and Nazism, and the Soviet alternative to liberal capitalism, today neo-liberalism and capitalist globalization still remain powerful, and apparently supreme, on the stage of […]
How to Fire a Central Banker: Lessons from Argentina
In the United States, the mismanagement of the financial crisis, in particular the ill designed Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), has led to a wave of populist protests, and to a narrow confirmation vote for Bernanke. In Argentina, where the recession was considerably milder than in the United States and had no financial cause, […]
Israel’s War Drums 2010
When the ceasefire went into effect on the Lebanese-Israeli border in 2006, nobody believed — not for a moment — that this was the end of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. After all, none of Israel’s objectives were met in 2006: Israel Defense Forces’ soldiers were still held captive in Lebanon; and far from being […]
A Wind-up Toy
Obama has wound down. “No problem. We’ll buy another one later: a Hispanic or a woman.” This cartoon was first published by Rebelión on 13 February 2010. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | | Print
Rethinking Jeffrey Sachs and the “Big Five”: New Proposals for the End of Poverty
Jeffrey Sachs has become something of a force in international development circles over the past decade. As special advisor to the UN’s Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, former director of the UN’s Millennium Development Project, and a decorated economist at Columbia University, Sachs certainly has much to brag about. The publication of his runaway bestseller, The […]
Sex-Pol among Allies in the North Atlantic
Do you have an indelible memory of a theater experience? One winter in the 1970s, while I was a film student at Manhattan’s Hunter College, I heard that Mother Courage, by that red cat Bertolt Brecht, was being performed downtown at Wooster Street. So voila! next stop Greenwich Village, and I attended the Wooster Group‘s […]
The WTO as Barrier to Financial Regulation
In most parts of the world today (except perhaps in India, where optimism about the benefits of unregulated financial markets still seems to dominate over the undisputable evidence of their many fragilities) most policy makers talk about imposing regulations on the financial sector. Of course, the events of the past two years in the world […]
