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In Crisis, Germans Remember Das Kapital and GDR
Yes, the big economic crisis is hitting Germany, too. The evidence includes the hasty meetings of top politicians and the decision by the government coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats to save the suffering banks with 500 billion Euros in credit. Another piece of evidence: Karl Marx’s famous book Das Kapital is selling better […]
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Reading When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?
Reading Shlomo Sand‘s book When and How Was the Jewish People Invented? (Resling, 2008), I realized that there are actually several, not all related, arguments and debates within it. In other words, it does not have one thesis that can be accepted or rejected as a whole, but an attempt to address various historical issues […]
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Russia Draws Closer to Venezuela
Zaa Nkweta, The Real News: Venezuela just announced that it plans to buy Russian tanks as well as Russian armed reconnaissance vehicles. At the same time, the Russian naval fleet is on its way to Venezuela to conduct joint military exercises. What do you make of this? Forrest Hylton: On the one hand it’s […]
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Iraq: Massive Rally against SOFA
BBC World News “The slogans are clear: no to America, no to the occupation, no to any agreement which would leave US troops here a moment longer. One of Moqtada al-Sadr’s aids [Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Mohammadawi] read out a message from him urging Iraqi Members of Parliament not to betray their country by approving the draft […]
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The Problem Is Capitalism, Not Just the Banks
Don’t panic! That’s the panicked cry of governments and central bankers around the world. Meanwhile their behaviour shows that they expect a very, very deep recession. After repetition over more than a quarter of century — by mainstream economists, ministers, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund — neo-liberal platitudes have been forgotten. Today, we […]
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Israel’s “City of Coexistence” Shows Its True Colors
Israel has been suffering its worst bout of inter-communal violence since the start of the second intifada, with a week of what has been widely presented as “rioting” by Jewish and Arab residents of the northern port city of Acre. The trigger for the outbursts occurred on the night of Yom Kippur, or the Day […]
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The Depression: A Long-Term View
The depression has started. Journalists are still coyly enquiring of economists whether or not we may be entering a mere recession. Don’t believe it for a minute. We are already at the beginning of a full-blown worldwide depression with extensive unemployment almost everywhere. It may take the form of a classic nominal deflation, with all […]
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Monopoly-Finance Capital and the Crisis
Klassekampen: Is the credit crisis a symptom of overaccumulation of capital? It seems to me that investments worldwide, but especially in the United States, were funneled into the traditionally “safe” housing market following the bursting of the dotcom-bubble. This overinvestment in turn generated a new bubble, thus causing today’s havoc. Is this correct? JBF: […]
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Marathon for Peace 2008
“I was born by the river in a little tent And just like the river I’ve been running ever since It’s been a long time coming But I know a change is gonna come.” — Sam Cooke Dear family & friends, Had Sam Cooke not been shot on a tragic day in 1964, he’d be […]
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India’s Combative Anti-Displacement Movement
I recently spent three weeks gathering information about the anti-displacement movement in India. As a guest of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (People’s Movement against Displacement and for Development), I traveled across central and eastern India visiting the sites of proposed industrial and mining projects, Special Economic Zones, and real estate developments. I spoke […]
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Iran: Comprehensive Sustainable Development as Potential Counter-Hegemonic Strategy
The questions regarding variations in social development, economic progress, and political empowerment have produced a voluminous literature over the past century, and because of the complexity of these issues, much important reflection will continue well into the future. In the early 1980s, a United Nations’ Commission coined the term “sustainable development” as a public statement […]
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Wall Street vs Main Street: Finger Pointing vs System Change
Amid the current capitalist crisis, fear spreads and scapegoating surges. Media and politicians charge the predictable suspects. Arrests may follow. Few recognize the system as the problem, rather than this or that group reacting to the system’s demands and pressures. True, the word “capitalism” now arises in public discussion. But there it means big business, […]
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Choreographing Permanent War
Notwithstanding the renewed public concern about the economy in the wake of the implosion of the global financial architecture, the so-called “war on terror” remains at the forefront of the American presidential election campaign as it heads into its final stretch. Despite continuing popular opposition to Washington’s blatant empire-building policies both within the US and around the world, both Messrs. Obama and McCain are reiterating their commitment to good, old-fashioned American-style war making. Indeed, how to take forward the Project for a New American Century will almost certainly be the preeminent issue facing the new occupant of the White House come January.
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The Mad Activist’s Declaration of Codependence
The sages of History say, Know Thyself — and I do. I used to be a peace activist, but thanks to the sages of pop-psychology, I see now that I am a codependent. Yet I refuse to be your ordinary, run-of-the-mill codependent, who’s stuck in a crappy relationship with just one needy, abusive individual. I […]
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How to Think about the Crisis
The Financial Crisis Goes beyond Finance The crisis today in mortgage lending does not come as a surprise to me. I discussed the build up to the crisis in a book published last year, The Confiscation of American Prosperity.1 The book describes more than three decades of concerted efforts to restructure the economy to respond […]
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How the Crisis Saved the German Railroads
The rolling stock of the German railroads, due to be peddled off to the highest stock market bidders on October 27th, has been saved, at least temporarily, and is still nationally owned. That seems to be the one possible bit of good news in the present economic crisis. All the rest is bad. The railroad […]
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The Wall Street Coup and the Bailout Scam
The “rescue” plan is not only fraudulent, it is also the wrong medicine for the ailing economy. The Wall Street took the US (and the world) hostage and extracted a heavy ransom. But while the enormous ransom was successfully extracted, there are no guarantees that the hostages will be set free from the shackles of […]
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Renouncing Zionism, Reclaiming Humanity
It is about time that Jews spoke out strongly and decisively against Zionism, and the newly announced International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is trying to do just that. IJAN is moving towards an “offensive” against Zionism rather than the customary “reactionism,” responding to outrages, which characterizes most solidarity work. This offensive takes two routes: A […]
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The Financial Crisis of U.S. Capitalism
The Will Miller Lecture, University of Vermont, October 28, 2008 Like many people who do not live around here, and maybe some who do, I had not heard of Will Miller, so, on being invited to be part of the Will Miller Social Justice Lecture series, I went to the organization’s Web site and learned […]
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Can the Financial Crisis Be Reversed?
Página/12: What is your opinion about the decision of the Treasury Department to consider taking ownership stakes in many United States banks? Do you think this is the right political-economic strategy? I mean, will it lead to the recovery of the system? JBF: The Treasury Department proposal to purchase majority shares in major U.S. banks […]