“Sanctions alone cannot eradicate apartheid; that task is ultimately left to the people of South Africa themselves. But economic pressure and political isolation of the South African government can hasten the day when justice and freedom reign in that troubled land.” — Richard L. Trumka, June 23, 1987 “We call on other workers and unions […]
Archive | Commentary
Monthly Review Magazine
China Wins Struggle for Pipelinestan
A common explanation for the US presence in Afghanistan is Washington’s interest in Central Asian fuel sources — natural gas in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and petroleum in Kazakhstan. The idea of Zalmay Khalilzad and others was to bring a gas pipeline down through Afghanistan and Pakistan to energy-hungry India. Turkmenistan became independent of Moscow […]
The Current Conjuncture: Short-run and Middle-run Projections
1. Where We Are: a) The world has entered a depression, whose greatest impact is yet to come (in the next five years). b) The United States has entered a serious decline in geopolitical power, whose greatest impact is yet to come (in the next five years). c) The world environment is entering into serious […]
Organizing for the Anti-Capitalist Transition
The historical geography of capitalist development is at a key inflexion point in which the geographical configurations of power are rapidly shifting at the very moment when the temporal dynamic is facing very serious constraints. Three-percent compound annual growth (generally considered the minimum satisfactory growth rate for a healthy capitalist economy) is becoming less and […]
Lebanese Shia Women: Temporality and Piety
For many Shia Muslims in Lebanon since the late 1970s — particular practices of piety have become part of a discourse that is held up as an alternative to notions of a secular modernity. In this process, an identity has been forged that is understood to be both pious and modern, and where notions […]
US-Iran Talks: The Road to Diplomatic Failure
The talks between the G5 plus 1 and Iran are careening toward a premature breakdown. If they do fall apart, it will be due in large part to a serious diplomatic miscalculation by the Obama administration. Along with its European allies, the Obama administration seized on a plan that cleverly asked Iran to divest […]
Mexican Electrical Workers Union Changes Strategy in Face of Calderón Government’s Intransigence
The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) continues its fight for its members’ jobs and for the union itself, but now, two months since President Felipe Calderón’s liquidation of the state-owned Light and Power Company, seizure of the facilities, and firing of the 44,000 workers, and faced with the government’s intransigence, the union has been forced […]
Iran: Six Months Later
It has been a hell of a year for Iran. Just last winter the nation’s elites were basking in 30 years of revolutionary triumph, launching satellites, enriching uranium, and holding neocon hawks at bay. Then, weeks of fervent presidential campaigning drew out the best and worst of Iranian society’s antagonisms, culminating in a poll exactly […]
The Impact of the Crisis on Women in Central and Eastern Europe
1. Impact on Women in Different Social Groups Financial and economic crises and a rapid loss of existential security are nothing new for women and men in the former socialist bloc countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). These crises have been a permanent condition of everyday life for the majority of populations in […]
Copenhagen and Capitalism
Paul Jay, Senior Editor, The Real News Network: So let’s talk about Copenhagen. If in fact most of the scientific community is quite persuaded in the climate change science, and certainly they are, and all the world governments say they are, what’s preventing us from getting a serious agreement, and particularly with China and […]
International Politics & Contemporary Art: A.S. Dhillon’s World Party/Model UN
A.S. Dhillon’s recent decision to paint again has to be seen not as his abandonment of creating public installations but as a step towards extending his social practice by specifically addressing the specialized audience of contemporary art. This transition from the outside to the gallery, the specialized space of art, is a process that began […]
FHA Troubles Are Likely to Curtail Demand
Most modification plans leave homeowners without equity and paying excessive housing costs. The Federal Housing Authority has been taking steps over the last month to tighten its standards on the loans it guarantees, most notably by dropping several initiators who have had especially bad track records. While this is a necessary and appropriate step given […]
The Future as History
A Historical Perspective We all know that when a glass of tea is three quarters full, it is also one quarter empty. I would like to dismiss the empty part of this dialectic first, the history that pertains to the self, to me, and then to talk a bit more of the history concerning […]
Why Are We in Afghanistan?
Take a look at the map. Afghanistan is next to or near Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan, and India. These are all countries that are vitally important to the United States as key allies or enemies, and as potential economic and political competitors. Afghanistan is also next to Turkmenistan and other Central Asian Republics that are […]
Bassidji: Talking to the Other Side
A young boy sits on rusted tank tracks in the desert bordering Iran and Iraq. His head is bowed, and he’s sobbing. A few yards away, a dozen bearded men gather around a Shiite cleric. The men weep as the cleric recounts the story of a fearless martyr killed during the Iran-Iraq war. He […]
Copenhagen Climate Deal Headed for 3.5°C
A sobering new assessment by the “Climate Action Tracker” of the emission commitments and pledges put forward by industrialized and developing countries for the Copenhagen climate negotiations shows that the world is headed for a global warming of well over 3°C by 2100. Carbon dioxide concentrations are projected to be over 650 ppm, with […]
A Scandal about Afghanistan Shakes Berlin
Like the peaks of the Hindu Kusch dominating much of Afghanistan, the war in that unhappy country increasingly overshadows the political scenery in Germany. Parallels with the situation in the USA are unmistakable. On December 3rd the Bundestag voted on prolonging the use of German troops in Afghanistan for another year. But before the delegates […]
The Contradictions of Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez
On November 7, 2009, the Western media devoted ample space to the Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez. The news from Havana about the dispute between the dissident and Cuban authorities circled the world and overshadowed the rest of the news.1 Sanchez recounted her mishap in detail on her blog and in the press. In doing so, […]
SF State Students Occupy Business Building to Protest Fee Increases and Attack On Public Education
San Francisco State University students occupied the Business School and hundreds of students supported the occupation on 9 December 2009. Produced by Labor Video Project. Contact: P.O. Box 720027, San Francisco, CA 94172; (415) 282-1908; . | | Print
A “Game Changer” in the Middle East:Interview with Toufic Haddad
Toufic Haddad: A prisoner exchange would be a real game changer in the Middle East if it is actually able to take place. I’m less optimistic that it will. The fact is it would be the first time that a political faction would be able to win such concessions out of Israel. We’re talking about […]
