Archive | Commentary

“The Iranians have always figured out how to beat the system. . . . Even Iranians who are opposed to this government, even Iranians who are opposed to the Islamic Republic, don’t really wanna return to being a client state of the United States.” — Hooman Majd

More than 50 years now it is.  The propaganda and hypocrisy of the American mainstream media seems endless and unwavering.  They can not accept the fact that Cuban leaders are humane or rational.  Here’s the Washington Post of December 13 writing about an American arrested in Cuba: “The Cuban government has arrested an American citizen […]

National Front of Popular Resistance Will March Today against Withdrawal of Honduras from ALBA by TeleSur Rafael Alegría, a leader of the Front of Resistance against the Coup d’État, explained that the demonstration called for this Thursday will again demand the restitution of the constitutional president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, to power, as well as […]

Following months of regular blackouts in some regions of Venezuela, the government has implemented energy-saving measures, requiring companies to submit plans to save 20% of their electricity usage, regulating the usage of lighting for advertising, and creating schedules of electricity usage for shopping centers, casinos, and bingo halls. The Ministry for Electricity‘s measures went into […]

  Monday, January 18th, 2010 6 to 7 pm, across from the Metropolitan Correctional Complex (MCC) 150 Park Row and Pearl Street, NYC On January 18th, as our nation commemorates Martin Luther King Day, for the slain civil rights leader who peacefully spoke out against war, racism, and injustice, members of THAW (Theater Artists Against […]

It would be so simple to solve the security crisis for travelers to the USA.  Why not take a lesson from East Germany where, before the more modest West German vacationers came and objected, beaches along the Baltic and most big lakes were always crowded with nudist bathers and campers?  Everybody flying to the USA […]

Sadri Khiari, a Tunisian activist exiled in France since early 2003, is one of the founding members of the Movement of the Indigenous of the Republic (MIR) of which he is currently one of its principal leaders.  He has published, among others, Pour une politique de la racaille.  Immigré-e-s, indigènes et jeunes de banlieue (Éditions […]

The National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales fell 16.0 percent in November, hitting their lowest level since June.  Remarkably, this decline appeared to surprise many analysts.  It should have been entirely predictable. In the prior three months, there had been a sharp surge in home sales.  This surge was obviously driven by […]

Lincoln Gordon died a few weeks ago at the age of 96.  He had graduated summa cum laude from Harvard at the age of 19, received a doctorate from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, published his first book at 22, with dozens more to follow on government, economics, and foreign policy in Europe and Latin […]

  Steven Scully: How serious a threat do we face from Iran’s nuclear capabilities? Flynt Leverett: I don’t view it as a serious or imminent threat.  It is a problem that needs to be managed and dealt with, but it is not a threat.  What we know about the Iranian nuclear program is that Iran […]

  In the early morning hours of December 25, 2009, we lost a revolutionary voice.  Bob Kaufman, a life-long fighter for social and economic equality, succumbed after a protracted struggle with health complications stemming from a brutal attack in 2005.  He was 78. Bob’s assailant was a drug-addicted tenant in his West Baltimore home.  After […]

Unbeknownst to many progressives south of the 49th parallel, an interesting political experiment is unfolding to the north.  Quebec solidaire (QS), a recently formed left-wing party based in the seven-million-strong French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec, is making significant inroads at the electoral level. Following the election of its first and only parliamentarian in December 2008, […]

Beginning the evening of January 14th, 2010, the second North American Historical Materialism Conference will bring together radical scholars and activists from around the world. Graduate Center City University of New York 365 5th Avenue New York, NY [Map] Opening Plenary: Thursday, January 14th, 7pm-9pmPanels: Friday, January 15th, 10am-9pm; Saturday, January 16th, 10am-5:30pm Selected Panels: […]

  Paul Jay: . . . There’s a recent report published by James Heinz of the PERI Institute in Amherst, Massachusetts, on what’s happening at state and local government levels as a result of the financial meltdown.  Here’s some of what he says: “Public education has already emerged as a major casualty of the current […]

Journalist Alexander Cockburn once again questions global warming, asking “Global Warming: Farce, Fraud, or Both?” in a syndicated column that appeared on Christmas day in my local newspaper.  I usually agree with Cockburn about politics, but I think he’s seriously mistaken about global warming.1 Cockburn puts forward four arguments: (1) Researcher Michael Mann produced the […]

  Former presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has issued a statement in which he condemned the disrespect of religious sanctities by some protesters on Ashura day (December 27) and made five proposals for resolving the current issues facing the country, the Tabnak website reported on Friday. The reformist politician also criticized some of the actions taken […]

Congress is almost certain to consider some sort of reform to the immigration system in 2010; when it does, we can expect a repeat of the “tea bag” resistance we saw at last summer’s town halls on healthcare reform.  The healthcare precedent “bodes badly” for immigration, Marc R. Rosenblum, a senior policy analyst at the […]

Communiqué The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its most energetic condemnation of the attempts at destabilization promoted by the United States government against the government and people of Iran. The Bolivarian government is surprised that a group of governments, led by the US Empire, is repeating a campaign of violence to divide […]

The transition out of feudalism to capitalism in Europe, mostly from the 17th to the 19th centuries, took multiple forms.  It was uneven as well, happening in different ways at different rates in different places.  Marx studied that transition’s various dimensions because they offered valuable lessons for the different transition he was interested in: out […]

“One thing is clear: the developments in Iran today are not comparable to the time before the downfall of the Shah.  Back then, the country was united against the Shah.  There were no two sides to speak of.  If there had been two sides, the US would have conveniently arranged for a coup.  Today in […]