Archive | Commentary

“The main actor of the Iranian Revolution was really the crowd.  One American sociologist has described it as ‘the largest protest event in world history’ . . . in fact it had more mass participation than any other major political crisis or revolution.  What is striking about the Iranian crowd is that it’s very, very […]

  Awash in oil, yet its people, for the most part, are destitute.  Nigeria discovered “liquid gold” half a century ago and today is the world’s eighth largest oil exporter.  But the country is plagued by corruption, inefficiency, underdevelopment, and an uprising in its Niger Delta — the area where most of its oil reserves […]

So far, Bush’s plan to maintain a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq has been stymied by resistance from the Iraqi government.  Barack Obama’s timetable for withdrawal of American troops has evidently been joined by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Bush has mentioned a “time horizon,” and John McCain has waffled.  Yet Obama favors leaving […]

Returning to school after winter break, Austin Garrido found that Uloop, an online marketplace for college students, had cut his hourly pay.  Elsewhere on the University of California-Polytechnic’s campus in Pomona, his co-worker Sarah Doolittle also discovered a light paycheck. Unhappy about $8 an hour and shrunken bonuses from the Craigslist-type outfit, the two posted […]

Blood and Oil: The Middle East in World War I Part 1: Surprise Attack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuRoWA-t2B0 Part 2: Military Disaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG-bj-G5me4 Part 3: The Dardanelles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCFVyEWsh5Q Part 4: Suez Advance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbDS3yqQ3a0 Part 5: Gallipoli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Kl8hLOIvk Part 6: Iraq Expedition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4bUWGBbKr8 Part 7: Caucasus Front https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SudftJJvKuo Part 8: Iraq Revisited https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iUcIg28TYs Part 9: Desert War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kC5BvoyYmc Part […]

  Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, proposes that Iran sue the U.S. in the World Court to enjoin it against threats to attack Iran. Part 1: The Libya Precedent “We filed papers with the International Court of Justice in the Hague, on behalf of Libya against the US and […]

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 […]

A Critical Mass bicyclist was attacked by police in Times Square on Friday, 25 July 2008. | | Print

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, […]

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 […]

  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 […]

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 […]

Click on the link and read the full transcript of RussiaToday’s interview with Chavez: “Chavez: Russia and Venezuela Unite as Oil & Gas Giants,” 24 July 2008. This program was broadcast on RussiaToday on 23 July 2008. | | Print

  “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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]