Archive | Commentary

A red alert from Americans for Peace Now and the National Iranian American Council:* On 3/18/10 Rep. Gohmert (R-TX) began circulating a draft resolution (and seeking original cosponsors on that resolution), “Expressing support for the State of Israel’s right to defend Israeli sovereignty, to protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, and to […]

A Tehran Bureau correspondent in Germany reports on the IranHaus celebration of “cultural dialogue” held at the International Conference Center in Hamburg on 14 March 2010, featuring Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.  “A number of young Iranians were there,” the sight of whom the pro-Green Tehran Bureau correspondent found “very disheartening.”  According to the correspondent, Mashaei, “the […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  This image has been used by Dromos. | | Print

The terse, typewritten note slipped under my door in a sealed envelope confirmed my appointment with India’s Gravest Internal Security Threat.  I’d been waiting for months to hear from them.  I had to be at the Ma Danteshwari mandir in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, at any of four given times on two given days.  That was to […]

“Here is the ultimate paradox of the Great Health Care Showdown: Congress will divide along partisan lines to pass a Republican version of health care reform, and Republicans will vote against it.” — E.J. Dionne, 20 March 2010 Here is where the true beauty of the two-party capitalist political system kicks in. Spiraling health care […]

On March 16, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that she was cutting millions of dollars from SBInet, a high-tech “virtual fence” that Boeing Co. has been developing for use along the U.S. border with Mexico.  Her announcement came just two days before the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) was scheduled to issue a […]

  A talk delivered at the conference “The Left in Palestine/The Palestinian Left,” School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 28 February 2010 This talk is dedicated to the memory of my late friend and comrade, the Arab Marxist Jabra Nicola (1912-74). The terms “Right” and “Left” as used in Israel are misleading: they do […]

As much as we would like to join the celebration of the House’s passage of the health bill last night, in good conscience we cannot.  We take no comfort in seeing aspirin dispensed for the treatment of cancer. Instead of eliminating the root of the problem — the profit-driven, private health insurance industry — this […]

  “My friend told me to call Israel the ’48 lands while in Gaza.  Here’s one of many reasons why, and why a one-state struggle is the right(er) struggle.” — Max Ajl Targeted Citizens, written, directed, produced, and edited by Rachel Leah Jones for Adalah, surveys discrimination against Palestinian citizens in Israel.  With the participation […]

  If this bill were a step forward, we would support it. If we believed and evidence indicated that this bill could be “tweaked” into something better, we would support it. But this bill is a step backwards, a step away from single payer.  This bill further cements the privatization of health care, further enriches […]

Most of the Western media failed to report on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s annual, live Nowruz (Persian New Year) address yesterday in his hometown of Mashhad.  Instead they took conventional snippets from his earlier pre-recorded message for state television.  In doing so, the Western media have again missed important content and context regarding Khamenei’s […]

  Listen to Cindy Sheehan’s interview with Hugo Chavez: Cindy Sheehan: President Chavez, thank you for allowing the truth to be told about Venezuela, and about you and your revolution.  Before the revolution, Venezuela was a nation ruled and used by the oligarchy.  How did the revolution begin and how has it remained relatively peaceful? […]

To Rom, and Parichehr Today I met Iranians who don’t hate Arabs. They smiled and said “hey, selam,” even knowing I was Arab. They didn’t have green eyes, yet they seemed to bear up pretty well without them, and they don’t fault Arabs, not all of us, at least, for Nahavand, and the bloody flare-up […]

  Even as hundreds of thousands gathered across Iran on Thursday [11 February 2010 — ed.] to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Republic, it’s worth noting that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn’t the religious fanatic he is portrayed as in the West.  In fact, in a country where overt allegiance to fundamentalist Shiism […]

At this very moment Nepal is making a constitution through the historic Constitutional Assembly (CA). It is important to note that up till now all prior constitutions handed over to the people of Nepal were through direct intervention of oligarchs or kings. It was the historic ten years of People’s War (PW) (1996-2006) complimented with 19 days of People’s Movement (April 2006) that made it possible to bring about a free and fair CA election in April 2008 as a means to make a people’s constitution by the people themselves. It is under the leadership of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [CPN(Maoist)] and its skillful use of a united front with various parties that the monarchy system was abolished in 2008.

It has been a long and tortuous route. Forty-three years ago, a group of Maoist revolutionaries conceived of and embarked upon a revolutionary road that still inspires their political descendants, alarms the dominant classes, and provokes slander and denigration on the part of the establishment left, post-modernists and well-funded NGO bosses. This is the path of protracted people’s war (PPW). It relies on an alliance of the Indian proletariat with the poor and landless peasantry and the semi-proletariat to establish ‘base areas’ in the countryside, run them democratically as miniature, self-reliant states, carry out ‘land to the tiller’ and other social policies there, thereby building a political mass base to finally encircle and ‘capture’ the cities

The United States was founded as an “infant empire,” in George Washington’s words.  The conquest of the national territory was a grand imperial venture, much like the vast expansion of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.  From the earliest days, control over the Western Hemisphere was a critical goal.  Ambitions expanded during World War II, as […]

“In the police you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters. The wretched prisoners huddling in stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos.” –George Orwell, Shooting An Elephant and Other Essays “. . . the […]

The Guide to the Regional Elections First Round                      Second Round Le Monde reports: “The Left obtained 59% of the votes in six metropolitan regions where it dueled with the Right, according to TNS-Sofres/Logica.  In 12 regions where there were triangle races joined by the National Front, the Socialist Party and its allies scored 49%, against […]

  Higher inequality is associated with lower intergenerational mobility.  More progressive taxation, higher unemployment benefits, more childcare and early childhood education, and other measures that reduce inequality promote social mobility.  Tracking, ability-grouping, and pushing disadvantaged students into vocational education hinder it.  Poorer students have better chances of overcoming their socioeconomic backgrounds in systems where “larger […]