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Workers of the World
Labor historians Marcus Rediker and Peter Linebaugh have vividly described how sailors and other maritime workers were in the vanguard of the creation of an international working class. Unlike most people in the early modern period who largely stayed rooted to the soil of their birth or tied closely to their particular artisanal enterprises, Jack […]
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Reaping What You Sow: Reflections on the Western Cape Farm Workers’ Strike
The series of strikes and protests that recently took place in and around farms in South Africa’s Western Cape Province was fuelled by the deep-seated anger and frustration that workers feel. On a daily basis, farm workers face not only appalling wages, bad living conditions, and precarious work, but also widespread racism, intimidation, and humiliation. […]
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On Terrorist Attack in Damascus on February 21, 2013
A terrorist car bombing in close proximity to the Russian Embassy in Damascus which occurred on February 21, 2013 and was carried out by a suicide terrorist bomber, resulted in numerous victims and wounded among civilians, including students of a secondary school. The chancellery and the housing compound of the Russian Embassy were significantly […]
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Capitalism Becomes Questionable
The depth and length of the global crisis are now clear to millions. In the sixth year since it started in late 2007, no end is in sight. Unemployment rates are now less than halfway back from their recession peak to where they were in 2007. Over 20 million are without work, millions more limited […]
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The Unusual Uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan, Two Years On
“Under Fire in Iraqi Kurdistan,” Extract from The Fourth Estate in Iraqi Kurdistan, a film by Rozh Ahmad On February 16th, 2011, in solidarity with the mass uprisings sweeping the Middle East, Kurds took to the streets of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan and the following day demanded an end to their one and only official […]
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“Whose Streets? Our Streets!”: Reflections on the World’s Largest Demonstration, Ten Years Later
February 15, 2003 Sarah, New York: The wind that whips down the avenues is bitterly cold, but that doesn’t stop us from protesting the drive to war in Iraq. People from all over the city and the Northeast — young and old, hardened activists and first-time protestors — have converged on Manhattan, where the […]
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‘Toward the United Front’: Translations for the Twenty-first Century
On February 3, 120 socialists took part in a Toronto meeting to celebrate publication of Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922, available in paperback from Haymarket Books. This 1,300-page volume is the seventh book of documents on the world revolutionary movement in Lenin’s time edited by John […]
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Greece’s Big Smog: Neoliberal Austerity, Public Health, and the Environment
Neoliberal austerity in crisis-torn Greece has a significant implication for public health and the environment. The disturbing reality is that the unbearable cost of heating oil for a large portion of the country’s population has led to an increased use of solid fuel heating. The smog that has appeared in Athens and other Greek […]
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Update on the Colombian Peace Dialogues: Politiquería vs. Program
The most recent victim in Colombia’s conflict, in spite of ongoing conversations between the government and the FARC-EP guerrillas that began last year, seems to be common sense itself. With the government declining to enter a two-part truce at the conclusion of the insurgency’s unilaterally assumed ceasefire on January 20, the war naturally resumed its […]
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Golden Dawn: The Development of Greek Fascism
As was the case in 1930s Germany, Greek liberalism has revealed itself to be politically spent. In dealing with the austerity measures imposed upon the country from outside by an international troika consisting of the IMF, European Commission, and European Central Bank, the government has failed comprehensively in the eyes of its electorate. When the […]
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Expanding Executive Power for Extrajudicial Executions: An Interview with Marjorie Cohn About DOJ Drone Memo
DB: We continue our discussion of the revelations around a memo coming out of the Justice Department that the administration plans to keep up these assassinations and expand the program. Joining us to take a legal look at this is Marjorie Cohn, Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former President of the […]
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The Talented Mr. Takeyh: Why Doesn’t the Council on Foreign Relations Fellow Like Flynt & Hillary Mann Leverett?
If there’s one thing mainstream “Iran experts” hate, it’s well-credentialed, experienced analysts who dare challenge Beltway orthodoxies, buck conventional wisdom, and demythologize the banal, bromidic, and Manichean foreign policy narrative of the United States government and its obedient media. Such perspectives are shunned by “serious” scholars who play by the rules they and their former […]
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Word Goes Out: “Free Colombian Political Prisoner David Ravelo”
Injustice and judicial failings in the case of Colombian political prisoner David Ravelo are outrageous by any standard. By December 11, 2013, that well-known defender of human rights, a resident of Barrancabermeja, had spent more than two years behind bars. The announcement he was convicted and would spend 18 years in jail came that […]
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Prison for the Man With the Megaphone: Dresden Court Passes a Harsh Sentence Against Participant in Anti-Nazi Protest of 2011
An alleged “ringleader” of protests against a Nazi march on February 19th, 2011 in Dresden was sentenced by a local court to a prison sentence of 22 months. “Eventually the population of Dresden has had enough” — with this opinion, district judge Hans-Joachim Hlava justified his harsh sentence against a participant in an anti-Nazi […]
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“Iranian Mothers for Peace” Alert the World on Sanctions and Shortage of Medicines
“Iranian Mothers for Peace,” in an open letter of January 2013 to Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, and Dr. Margaret Chan, the Director General of the World Heath Organization, have alerted the responsible world bodies and human rights organizations to the critical shortage of vital medication due to the US/EU-led sanctions on Iran […]
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Dipankar Chakraborty, Aneek Editor, Passes Away
Dipankar Chakraborty, the founding editor of the independent left Bangla journal Aneek, passed away on Sunday night. He was 71. A cardiac patient, he had suffered a respiratory problem in the evening and died on the way to hospital. He is survived by his wife, son, daughter, and grandchildren. Always active in people’s movements, […]
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SNC’s Khatib Now Ready for Dialogue With Syria’s Assad — Why?
Note: Moaz al-Khatib is the President of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (commonly known as the Syrian National Coalition, SNC, the successor to the Syrian National Council, also known as SNC). | Print
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Davos Mysticism: Elite Optimism Amid Endless Crisis
“An economic recovery has begun.” — President Obama, Second Inaugural Address President Obama’s optimism — baseless as it may be — was surely appreciated at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. For in what was described as the “most optimistic” meeting since 2007, 2,600 members of the global elite convened over the weekend […]
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Zero Dark Thirty: The Woman’s Guide to Success Thru Torture
I. The Globe See the Globe. More than half the 7 billion people on the Globe are women. Women are different from men. Why are women different from men? Because, according to international humanitarian agencies, women have special percentages that stick out. See women’s percentages: Women make up 70% of the world’s poor. Women do […]
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The Kurdish Rebellion in Syria: Toward Irreversible Liberation
The Kurds in Syria, the country’s largest ethnic minority, number an estimated three million. Despite having stayed neutral amid the civil war, they now control most of Syria’s Kurdish north they claim they have “liberated” from the Ba’athist regime and self-govern independently of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA). Although many Kurds still fear “re-occupation” […]