Archive | Commentary

Now, more then ever, Israeli activists need a powerful global movement to help us build a just peace in Israel/Palestine.  Looking for effective tools for ending the occupation, we have launched a new website WhoProfits.org listing companies directly involved in the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.  […]

  “In Tunisia, the youth have lost hope and prospects.  The movement of Gafsa is a matter of the whole society.”  So says Tunisian biologist Maya Jribi, the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), which strongly supports the struggle of miners in Gafsa.  The PDP is one of the main opposition parties against President […]

First they rammed the Dignity.  Then they harassed the Spirit of Humanity into turning back to its berth.  Now 18 corsair ships from the Israeli Navy have surrounded the Al-Ikhwa (The Brotherhood) ship, out of Lebanon, and boarded it, ransacking the boat and assaulting its passengers.  The ship was plainly up to no good: it […]

The Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) will soon be no more.  On Thursday, 5 February, its activists will vote for its self-dissolution to create the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA).  Some seven hundred delegates are expected at a four-day conference, 5-8 February, in la Plaine-Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), to launch the new party of Olivier Besancenot. The death certificate […]

Featuring interviews with Abbas Abdi, Ervand Abrahamian, Hamid Algar, Ali Ansari, Abbas Attar, Shaul Bakhash, Abolhassan Banisadr, Daniel Brumberg, Abdolmajid Majidi, Hedayat Matin-Daftari, Abbas Milani, Parviz Mina, Seyed Ali Akhbar Mohtashamipur, Grand Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, Hojatolislam Seyed Hamid Rohani, Barry Rosen, Hashem Sabbaghian, Ayatollah Yousof Sanei, Ebrahim Yazdi, Ardeshir Zahedi, Marvin Zonis. Part 1 Part […]

please keep in mind as you prepare to pass sentence you may at some time be in need of a presidential pardon and I may, understandably, be reluctant to grant it. Dennis Brutus is a South African poet.  Active against Apartheid, he was arrested in 1963 and imprisoned for 18 months on Robben Island.  After […]

  Hadash released a great set of four election commercials today, which feature conversations between a supporter of Meretz and a supporter of Hadash, “The Left vs. the New Left.”  You can see the clips here. My favorite is the one on the Gaza war, which you can watch here in Hebrew.  The Leftie stutters […]

The demonstrations of the indigenous tribal people [‘adivasis’] of West Bengal, India against longstanding police brutality have not dissipated with time, contrary to the expectations of the police, the ruling party of West Bengal the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], and the other mainstream parties, the Congress and the longtime Hindutva fascist allied Trinamool […]

Babylon has fallen, has fallen Yea, Babylon has fallen Woe!  Woe!  Woe! Towers that soared into clear blue are at blocks of stone settled into earth all gone, all shattered ground into scattered dust Babylon has fallen, has fallen Yea, Babylon has fallen Woe!  Woe!  Woe! Now hordes of warring barbarians literate, skilled in killing […]

As job losses hemorrhage, the American economy is in desperate need of a stimulus.  It is becoming increasingly clear that Congress must work rapidly to approve some version of President Obama’s plan. Then, Obama and the Congress should very quickly turn to taking a second, temporary step to create more jobs: creating incentives for companies […]

COSATU and PSC launch Week of Action for Palestine supported by YCL and other progressive organisations In a historic development for South Africa, South African dock workers have announced their determination not to offload a ship from Israel that is scheduled to dock in Durban on Sunday, 8 February 2009.  This follows the decision by […]

Washington, DC (February 3) — The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation announced today that satellite television provider DIRECTV is refusing to accept a paid advertisement from the organization about the U.S. role in Israel’s war on and siege of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Both an extended internet version and the original 30-second […]

Barack H. Obama won the White House on the promise of “change.”  One of the big donors for Obama’s campaign for change was the Service Employees International Union, which spent nearly $30 million for his presidential campaign according to the Center for Responsive Politics.  One of the first changes brought about by the SEIU under […]

  Roy Chaderton, Venezuela’s Ambassador to the Organization of American States, speaks of numerous members of the Jewish community who have supported the struggles of peoples against imperialism and Zionism, and he rejects any attack against the Jewish people. Watching television footage of one of the necessary and legitimate protests against the Israeli Embassy in […]

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) wants its members to believe that their union is just like the alluring but ultimately nightmarish hostelry immortalized by The Eagles.   It’s a place of permanent imprisonment only “programmed to receive” workers and their dues money, not let either go elsewhere when the rhetoric of “progressive unionism” wears thin […]

Lotteries, now run by most of our 50 states, are disguised forms of taxation that fall most heavily on those least able to pay.  In today’s economic crisis, state leaders face rising resistance to taxation from everyone.  Therefore, many of them plan to expand lotteries even more, hoping that no one realizes they represent a […]

Want to hear something weird about the Left?  It’s chock-full of human nature.  For example: Some communist, in the dead of winter, stole my girlfriend’s coat. I take you back a few months.  A cold December.  My girlfriend and I are invited to a “holiday party,” as the Americans say.  Note how the festive noun […]

The World Social Forum (WSF) in Belem isn’t just another forum.  It’s the first WSF since the outbreak of the 2008 economic crisis, held at a moment when the total failure of neo-liberalism and the destructive character of global capitalism are exposed in all their harsh reality.  Besides, the Brazilian Amazon is a privileged place […]

  Despite Promises to Facilitate Humanitarian Aid, Policy of Deliberate Obstruction Continues Even after the Ceasefire: The amount of industrial diesel Israel has permitted to enter Gaza is just 64% of the total needed to operate the power station. Since the fighting ended, Israel has totally obstructed the transfer of vital spare parts needed to […]

The Geir Haarde government of Iceland became the first in the world to fall in the wake of the financial meltdown.  Now, Iceland has a provisional coalition government, headed by the world’s first lesbian prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottit of the Social Democratic Alliance.  Left-Green Movement Chairman Steingrimur J. Sigfusson is reportedly now appointed Minister of […]