Archive | Commentary

Rasoul Akram Hospital’s doctors and nurses protest the deaths of seven people last night, reportedly shot by basij. Iran – State TV: Seven People Killed Near Rally SiteVideo by France 24 Doctors and Nurses Protest in Tehran, 16 June 2009Video by Saeid Saeid, born in Kermanshah, is an electrical engineer in Enschede, the Netherlands.

Here comes the hysteria and bold-faced lies.  In the wake of the Iranian election, various commentators and so-called reporters in the United States are reacting as if the end of the world was at hand.  Although nobody knows for certain and everyone only has the words of Western press pundits and an angry candidate to […]

Washington, DC (June 16, 2009) — As the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs prepares to mark up the FY2010 budget tomorrow, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation sent today an open letter to subcommittee members calling on them to cut off or, at the minimum, condition military aid […]

Cf. Max Ajl, “Tehran Burning” (Jewbonics, 15 June 2009); and Richard Seymour, “Iran Vote and Protests” (Lenin’s Tomb, 15 June 2009).

Introduction In most countries, political leaders and bosses are using the global economic crisis to once again unleash an attack on workers and the poor.  As part of this, we have seen corporations around the world trying to make workers pay for the crisis by retrenching tens of millions of people.  In the most extreme […]

With high-volume class strife heard in the rumbling of wage demands and the friction of township “service delivery protests,” rhetorical and real conflicts are bursting open in every nook and cranny of South Africa. The big splits in the society are clearer now.  Distracting internecine rivalries within the main left bloc — which saw off […]

Ahmadinejad supporters celebrate their victory while Mousavi supporters protest to contest the election results. Ahmadinejad supporters celebrate. . . . . . . while Mousavi supporters protest. Cf. Abbas Barzegar, “Wishful Thinking from Tehran” (Guardian, 13 June 2009); Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty, “The Iranian People Speak” (Washington Post, 15 June 2009); “Iranians Call for […]

The head of state emphasized that the victory of his Iranian counterpart represents the sentiments of the Iranian people and their commitment to building a new world.  He conveyed the messages of congratulations sent by the other leaders of the Petrocaribe member states.  Ahmadinejad obtained more than 65 percent of votes. Presidential Press Basseterre, Federation […]

  Chicago What are the banks doing with the bailout billions taxpayers gave them, to help us on the road to economic recovery? In the case of Wells Fargo and the Quad City Die Casting (QCDC) factory in Moline, Illinois, nothing good.  In fact the bank is a huge roadblock to recovery.  That’s why on […]

In May 2007, the battle between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army broke out in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon.  Amidst heavy fighting, the Lebanese army had systematically destroyed the entire camp by September 2007.  Two years later, nearly all the rubble has been cleared from the “old camp,” the core of Nahr […]

An Open Letter to the Left from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) Labour’s vote collapsed to a historic low in last week’s elections as the right made gains.  The Tories under David Cameron are now set to win the next general election. The British National Party (BNP) secured two seats in the European parliament.  Never […]

This is the fourth in a series of articles on “Ideas for the Struggle” by Marta Harnecker. 1.  For a long time, left-wing parties were authoritarian.  The usual practice was bureaucratic centralism, very much influenced by the experiences of Soviet socialism.  All criteria, tasks, initiatives, and courses of political action were decided by the party […]

Iran’s election commission still hasn’t counted all the votes (roughly 32 million votes in total), but, according to the official results based on about 28 million votes counted so far, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (18,302,924 votes) defeated Mir-Hossein Mousavi (8,929,232 votes). Most of the Western media were predicting a close race, and some were even suggesting that […]

  Rakhshan Bani-Etemad is an Iranian filmmaker.  This film was brought online on 7 June 2009.  The structure of this documentary film is based on questions about women’s rights activities raised from a wide range of viewpoints about women’s issues and, in the last part, on the 2009 presidential candidates’ viewpoints and programs concerning the […]

Mohamed Gaber is a graphic designer and photographer in Cairo, Egypt.  Check out his blog Egyptian Leftist at .

Barack Obama’s Cairo speech heralds a shift from the Islamophobic rhetoric of the Bush regime, but not from the long-term aims of the U.S. empire. Predictably, Barak Obama’s speech in Cairo came under hysterical criticism from the right.  Sean Hannity screamed that Obama gave “sympathizers of 9/11” a voice on the world stage, Charles Krauthammer […]

June 11, 2009 Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has entered the second week of his hunger strike to protest the policy of isolation and solitary confinement practiced by the Israeli prison administration against Palestinian prisoners. This is an urgent situation and requires broad solidarity and […]

Results of a New Nationwide Public Opinion Survey of Iran before the June 12, 2009 Presidential Elections Executive Summary: In a new public opinion poll across Iran before the critical upcoming June 12, 2009 Presidential elections, a plurality of Iranians said they would vote for incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranians also continue overwhelmingly to favor […]

Below is an Interview with Manushi Bhattarai.*  She is part of the Maoist Ticket that swept the student elections at Tribhuvan University — Nepal’s largest.  She discusses the revolution, recent political developments, the international situation, and the role of youth. Ben Peterson: Thanks a lot for meeting with me.  The All Nepal National Independent Student […]

  An excerpt from a report published by the Congressional Research Service: “Middle East Elections 2009: Lebanon, Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq” (18 May 2009). Major Candidates and Possible Outcomes The incumbent is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a non-cleric elected in a two-round contest in 2005, who derives support from conservative factions and has opposed any compromise with […]