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Monthly Review Magazine

Mohsen Namjoo 2008 US Tour

عقاید نئوکانتی زلف بر باد ترنج بگو بگو گیس یا علی ساربان چنانت دوست می‌دارم آه، که این‌طو جبر جغرافيا من از دل دیازپام ۱۰ (سه راه آذری) تریاک را به بازدمت پز اى كاش رو سر بنه به بالین مرغ شیدا طلوع من شيرين آرامش با دیازپام ده (فیلمی از سامان سالور) TICKETS GO […]

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Many Faces of Youssef Chahine

More celebrated abroad than in his own country, Youssef Chahine tried every film genre, from historical epic to musical comedy.  The Egyptian director, who died on Sunday, 27 July 2008 in Cairo, received the lifetime achievement award on the fiftieth anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival in 1997. His last film Chaos, released in 2007, […]

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What Is Palestine to Me? An Interview with Fatima Hassan

Fatima Hassan, is a prominent South African human rights lawyer who was part of a South African Human Rights Delegation that in early July visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.   The delegation undertook the mission in order to: “support those, Palestinian and Israeli, working daily, by non-violent means, to bring an end to the […]

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Obama in Berlin

I attended the big rally with Obama in Berlin Thursday evening, not as a press representative but as one of the crowd.  And what a giant crowd it was!  The news reports counted “over 200,000,” but, to someone sandwiched in so tight I could hardly lift my hand to scratch my itching nose, much less […]

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Afghanistan Threatens to Become Obama’s Vietnam

  On the occasion of US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s visit to Berlin, Christine Buchholz, a member of the Left Party executive board, comments: Many hopes are tied to Barack Obama, since George W. Bush is the most unpopular American President ever, and Obama promises to improve the social situation and bring the Iraq […]

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Rank-and-File Activism: A Viable Alternative

  “Man’s greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.” — Frederick Douglas Over time, fads come and go, yet for organized labor certain basic principles hold true.  In the “big picture” search for answers to the problems faced by labor today, outspoken […]

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Liberal Philanthropy and the “Birth” of Population Control Environmentalism

Many environmentalists can rightly claim that they (as a social movement) have made valiant efforts to temper the relentless destruction wrought on Planet Earth by its human inhabitants (those luxuriating in their consumer lifestyles in the ‘developed world’ have waged the war against life most relentlessly).  Environmentalists can even claim to have successfully prodded many […]

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Reclaiming the Commons in Palestine/Israel: ¡Ya Basta!/Khalas!

The regime that will succeed the nation-state will not be the fruit of preconception or social engineering, but of sociological and political imagination wielded through transformative actions. — Gustavo Esteva Que se vayan todos (‘Let’s get rid of them all’). — message written on the walls of Argentina The No-state Solution Even as the neo-liberal […]

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Palestine and Israel: What’s Iran Got to Do with It?

Responding to the Israeli voices and actions noisily advocating a preemptive strike against Iran, Ha-Aretz columnist Uzi Benziman (July 21, 2008) writes, “Before bombing Iran, it would be best [for Israel] to solve the conflict with the Palestinians.  By the way, there does appear to be a link between the two threats.”  While Benziman doesn’t […]

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Bolivia: MAS, Opposition Prepare for Recall Referendums

With the victory of an unlikely opposition candidate in the June 29 election for prefect (governor) of Chuquisaca, the number of opposition-controlled prefectures increased to seven out of nine. The result came as the right-wing opposition plots the extension of its regionalized resistance against Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales. Sabina Cuellar — a former […]

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No Human Being Is Illegal

In April 2006, hundreds of thousands of immigrant rights protestors marched in cities across the United States.  They countered prolonged debates about the pros and cons of comprehensive immigration reform with a short but sweet affirmation, scrawled on placards: “No Human Being Is Illegal.”  Their direct assertion challenged the deeply entrenched practices of our government […]

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Jesse Helms and the Theater of the Depraved

On July 8, the resplendently Caucasian, flag-loving, fag-hating, five-term Senator Jesse Helms exited the political scene, stage right, to begin his long-awaited dirt nap.  All the world being a stage, a host of players, including Dick Cheney and John and Cindy McCain, assembled sorrowfully near the starred-and-striped coffin containing the body of the hidebound conservative […]

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The Geo-politics of Oil

  Paul Jay: Welcome back to our interview with Aijaz Ahmad, asking a question: “what would a rational US foreign policy for the United States look like?”  Aijaz, at the core of much of US foreign policy is the assumption that the United States needs its military prowess to defend its oil interests, whether it’s […]

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Tears of Rage, Tears of Hope

Nurses see everything in a day’s work.  But at the maternity ward of Nashville General Hospital, nurses caring for an immigrant woman in labor broke down and cried when the sheriff’s deputy guarding the woman refused to remove the shackles chaining her leg to the bed.  The undocumented woman was detained by local authorities because […]

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How the Left Saved Capitalism

There is an entire genre of theory explaining why the Western capitalist democracies did not undergo socialist revolution in the 20th Century, as Classical Marxism had predicted.  Not surprisingly, most of this material comes from the Left itself.1 We can include Antonio Gramsci’s work on hegemony in this genre, as well as the entire output of […]

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Union-busting by any other name…

The huge meatpacking plant had been cited by government agencies for numerous violations of environmental and labor laws and for “acts of inhumane slaughter” of animals.  New inquiries were under way into allegations of wage violations and the illegal employment of minors.  A large national union was trying to organize the factory’s 970 workers.  But […]

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