Archive | Commentary

Laura Oldfield Ford.  Savage Messiah.  Verso, 2011. HAMLET: Alas poor ghost! GHOST: Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold It isn’t just that the alternatives are written over, or out, it is that they return as their own simulacra.     Mark Fisher from the introduction to Savage Messiah In Tom McCarthy’s […]

a This is the full-text of the introductory remarks made by the author at the Fourth Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Lecture delivered by Arundhati Roy on 20th January 2012 at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai. I woke up this morning to the chirping sounds of the swallows.  Arundhati Roy seems to have brought in those love-birds that […]

One state or two?  Boycott of Israeli goods or goods from the settlements?  Is the lobby the genesis of American wrongdoing in Palestine or is it imperialism?  The questions — regarding vision, strategy, and analysis — produce sharp cleavages on the Left.  Indeed, generally ones much deeper than they need to be.  And they remain […]

Sasha Lilley: Protests against Wall Street have inspired many people to move their money from big banks to smaller banks and credit unions and encourage others to do the same.  Why might you be skeptical of this effort? Doug Henwood: There are several reasons.  First of all, I think a lot of the big banks […]

In circles close to the former Zapatero administration, attempts have been made to represent former Prime Minister Zapatero as the politician who “sacrificed himself to save Spain,” comparing him to former German Chancellor Schröder who, though aware that he would antagonize his electoral base with his clearly neoliberal policies, went ahead with them, for he […]

Below is a statement by the UNAC CC on the assassination of Iranian scientists and the growing threat of war against Iran. Also, UNAC members participated in a national conference call on Tuesday with many other antiwar and Iranian groups.  The meeting called for demonstrations on February 4 to protest the threat of war against […]

Americans wonder who will be president next January; Germans are still uncertain who will live in Berlin’s presidential mansion this February.  Its current resident, Christian Wulff, has been under strong pressure to do just the same as his predecessor did — and resign! For weeks the media have attacked Wulff with angry charges of corruption […]

A young veteran was just arrested for murdering homeless people in Los Angeles.  Regardless whether he is actually guilty, a large number of terrible acts have been committed by returning veterans traumatized from the war.  None of the studies of which I’m aware accounts for such costs (including the cost of imprisoning them) in the […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print

At yesterday’s meeting I saw the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, absolutely calm and composed, completely indifferent to Yankee threats, confident in his people’s capacity to confront any aggression and in the efficacy of Iran’s arms, which are in large part produced by Iranians themselves, for the purpose of imposing on aggressors an impossibly high cost. […]

Experience firsthand the change sweeping through Latin America in the areas of food sovereignty, indigenous resistance, climate justice, and human rights through a trip to Bolivia or Venezuela this summer. Delegation to Bolivia: Food Sovereignty, Indigenous Resistance, and Climate Justice (May 29-June 9, 2012) We will be celebrating indigenous resistance and exploring food sovereignty issues […]

The Great Depression of the 1930s saw the outbreak of a multitude of radical social movements on the Left and on the Right — or ones that were simply sui generis like the “Share Our Wealth” campaign launched by the fiery Louisiana populist politician Huey P. Long, Jr.  Long came from a poor pinewoods parish […]

  The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is waging a battle against union-busting.  ILWU Local 21 in Longview, Washington is under attack by a giant consortium, EGT, which has built a $200 million grain terminal and is running it as a scab operation.  This directly violates the port agreement with ILWU which has had jurisdiction […]

With the war in Iraq now officially over and the Occupy Wall Street movement less visible, life in New York was expected to return to normal.  Instead, several recent passersby in Manhattan’s financial district have reported seeing thousands of deceased Iraqi civilians taking up residence at Zuccotti Park.  The park served for two months in […]

Communiqué The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Comandante Hugo Chávez, in the name of the Venezuelan people and government, condemns the terrorist attack perpetrated today in Damascus, the capital of the brother Syrian Arab Republic, in the strongest and most unequivocal terms, and stands in solidarity with the brave Syrian people, in sending […]

Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain.  | Print

  The policy of cuts to public health applied in Catalonia has caused the closure of referral hospitals, like the Bellvitge hospital, and the closure of Primary Medical Centers (CAPs), making the quality of medical care deteriorate.  One of the closed CAPs is the Rambla Marina CAP, leaving a barrio of nearly 30,000 residents (10,000 […]

Ibrahim Jaza is a Syrian cartoonist.  Note: “Ghalioun” means “pipe” in Arabic.  See, also: “Now, irresponsible people have taken over the leadership of the Syrian revolt. . . .  From the beginning the SNC was marching toward the UN Security Council.  The SNC wanted to exclude Syria from the Arab League and get the Arab […]

Ibrahim Jaza is a Syrian cartoonist.  See, also: “To those of you who don’t believe that the #Syria-n rebels have israeli arms, take a look.  Nothing’s hidden anymore.  pic.twitter.com/mOTfVyT4” (Joud, 25 December 2011); “الهيئة ” و “المجلس” يوقعان اتفاقا “مفخخا” يسمح ضمنا بتدخل عسكري عربي في سوريا لإسقاط النظام  (SyriaTruth.org, 31 December 2011). | Print

  Tunisian Prime Minister (and Ennahdha Secretary General) Hamadi Jebali: “Democracy is just a question of organization.” On the prime minister’s well-organized desk: “Discourse for ‘My Base’”; “Discourse for the ‘Others’*“; “Disclaimers for the Press” * I.e. Dirty bastards of miscreants. Nadia Khiari, aka Willis from Tunis, is a Tunisian painter and cartoonist.  Translation by […]