Archive | Commentary

Today — Tuesday, April 6, 2010 — the Obama Administration will proclaim, as a matter of declaratory policy, that the United States claims the prerogative to use nuclear weapons against the Islamic Republic of Iran, even as Iran remains a non-nuclear-weapons state.  The Administration will make this declaration as part of its much anticipated Nuclear […]

  Today’s ruling for Comcast by the DC Circuit Court could be the biggest blow to our nation’s primary communications platform, or it could be the kick in the pants our lawmakers need to finally protect it.  Either way, the future of the Internet, the fight for Net Neutrality, and the expansion of broadband is […]

  5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time […]

Once again the Thai NGOs have sided with the military-installed royalist government against the demands of hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy Red Shirts.  The Red Shirts, who represent millions of ordinary working people in urban and rural areas, have been staging huge protests in Bangkok in recent days.  Their demands are for the dissolution of […]

  John Bellamy Foster.  The Ecological Revolution: Making Peace with the Planet.  New York: Monthly Review Press, 2009.  288pp.  $17.95 (pb).  ISBN 9781583671795. This book is a major achievement.  It combines enormous breadth of scholarship with consummate theoretical integration to produce a powerful political argument.  It should be required reading for anyone who cares about […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | | Print

Author’s note: This is a response to Claudia Rosett’s “Turkey Tilts toward Iran,” published on 26 March 2010 by Forbes.com. Forbes columnist Claudia Rosett — who just so happens to be “a journalist-in-residence” with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a neo-conservative think tank — feigns her regret for having to report a “disturbing talk” […]

The Fifth Five-Year Plan of the Islamic Republic of Iran (1389-93, 2010-14), still under review by the parliament, has a clear goal for reducing inequality in five years — a Gini index of 0.35 for income.  This is a substantial reduction from the high level of inequality that has plagued Iran in recent years.  The […]

During the House debate over the Kucinich resolution calling for a timetable for military withdrawal from Afghanistan, Rep. Bob Filner, chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, pointed out that hundreds of thousands of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have gone to the VA for service-related injuries. The video of Filner’s statement […]

  An interview with Egyptian economist Samir Amin: his latest book reiterates his search for alternatives to surpass capitalism, which he describes as “a historical parenthesis”; meanwhile, processes of migration are building a planet of slums. “Memoirs of an Independent Marxist”: that is the subtitle of A Life Looking Forward (Zed Books, 2006), the latest […]

Abstract: From the moment Marx and Engels became involved with the League of the Just, Marxism has always had a long and often difficult relation with theology and the Bible.  Some of the leading figures of the twentieth century were no exception — Althusser, Adorno, Gramsci, Lefebvre, Eagleton are just a few.  And in our […]

“I don’t own a gun.  I don’t own any weapons and I’m not prepared to own any. . . .  My only weapon of defense is that I won’t leave this place.” — Abu Sagr, Al-Hadideya, Jordan Valley Trailer Philip Rizk is an Egyptian-German freelance journalist living in Cairo, Egypt, where he is currently completing […]

April 3, 2010 Istanbul, Turkey — Following months of preparation, a coalition bringing together a number of organizations and movements working to break Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza was announced yesterday in Istanbul.  The coalition, composed of the Turkey-based IHH (Insani Yardim Vakfi) organization, the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG), the […]

  The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), in the face of continuous murders, persecution, and torture, as well as the political repression in general by the regime that is the heir to the coup, says: 1.  We condemn the crimes perpetrated against the members of the Resistance who are answering […]

See, also, “Police Violence Marks Tekel Workers’ Protest in Turkey” (Hürriyet Daily News, 1 April 2010); “26 Mayıs’ta AKP’ye genel grevi gösterelim” (Sendika.org, 1 April 2010); “Planned Tekel Protest Barred by Police” (Today’s Zaman, 2 April 2010); “More Pepper Gas for Turkey’s Tekel Workers on Second day” (Hürriyet Daily News, 2 April 2010); Tolga Korkut, […]

Tuesday, April 6 at 5:00 to 7:00 pm at the Riverside Church, Room 9T 490 Riverside Drive (between 120th Street and 122nd Street) entrance at Claremont Ave. & 121st Street The James Earl Chaney Foundation, the Social Justice Ministry of the Riverside Church, and the National Coalition for Prisoners of Political Conscience, invite you to […]

A photo essay on the military presence in our nation’s capital. . . . Stephanie Westbrook is a US citizen who has been living in Rome, Italy since 1991.  She is active in the peace and social justice movements in Italy and traveled to Gaza in June 2009.  She can be reached at . | […]

The establishment survey (CES) showed the economy adding 162,000 jobs in March, the biggest increase since March of 2007.  The household survey (CPS) showed the unemployment rate remaining steady at 9.7 percent with the employment to population ratio edging up to 58.6 percent, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from its low last November.  There […]

Momentive Performance Materials stewards and workers represented by IUE/CWA Local 81359 were joined by labor leaders and activists from around the Capital District of Upstate New York in a wide-ranging discussion of labor strategy and tactics on Wednesday, March 31 in Waterford, New York. Momentive workers, formerly employees of General Electric, suffered 25 to 50 […]

Lia Tarachansky: Every Friday, for a year, protesters have been demonstrating in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.  They are demanding the end of settler takeovers of Palestinian homes.  In recent years, settlers won court cases that led to the evictions of Palestinian families from this neighborhood.  Settlers see the land as theirs based […]