Archive | Commentary

  Reference ID Date Classification Origin 08BEIRUT1348 2008-09-15 02:18 SECRET/NOFORN Embassy Beirut VZCZCXRO3042 PP RUEHAG RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV DE RUEHLB #1348/01 2591418 ZNY SSSSS ZZH P 151418Z SEP 08 FM AMEMBASSY BEIRUT TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3034 INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE PRIORITY RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY RUEAIIA/CIA […]

Fall 2010 was marked by a drastic rise in attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians. . . . According to a report published by the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, during the olive harvest 50 such attacks against Palestinians were reported.  127 Palestinians were injured in these incidents, and over 3,700 […]

“My name is Bassam ‘Aramin. I am a resident of the town of Anata. . . . At 9:30 am on 16 January 2007, an Israeli Border Guard soldier shot my daughter ‘Abeer in the head from a distance of 15 meters. She died two days later in the hospital. . . . The soldier who killed my daughter is still free.”

In 1968, the world was transfixed by global student unrest.  Less attention was paid to factory uprisings that occurred at the same time and overlapped with campus protests in places like France.  In one small corner of the Ford Motor Company’s huge production complex in Dagenham, England, several hundred women did their part in the […]

Pablo Solón, Bolivia’s Ambassador to the United Nations: To the Via Campesina protesters, to social movements, we can tell you: What you’re doing is key because we, Bolivia, the ALBA countries, are not going to be able to change the reality of these negotiations if the people of the whole world don’t raise their consciousness, […]

Abstract: This paper proposes a new kind of “political arithmetic” as a key element of the foundation for a good society.  Starting from the premise that the labor process in capitalism developed along lines laid down by double-entry bookkeeping, the paper cites the “wondrous errors and confusion” inherent in performing social accounting while retaining the […]

  “And this book is dedicated to you, to young women artists and old women artists, who are aspiring and creating something huge.  Yours is the future I write for.” — Barbara Hammer Barbara Hammer, an acclaimed filmmaker, has made more than eighty films over the past forty years.  For more information about HAMMER!  Making […]

December 3, 2010 Dear President Obama, A week ago, I wrote you on this same subject but since I’ve not yet received a reply either personal or automated, I felt I should try again. As president of Veterans For Peace (VFP), a national organization of military veterans, I want to convey to you our serious […]

Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera: The empire, in the name of diplomacy, is committing third-class espionage — lamentable for a serious country, and lamentable and decadent for an empire.  The reason [for making the WikiLeaks cables available] is to show the public the quality of an empire which — there’s no doubt about it […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  | Print

Abstract: On May 29, 1871, the engineers of Newcastle, England went on strike for a nine-hour day.  “Jobs, Liberty and the Bottom Line” draws on several narratives arising out of the strike and the lives of its participants to frame an investigation of the historical debate over shorter working time and its prime aspiration, disposable […]

After September 11th, 2001, one of the liberal justifications for the military intervention against Afghanistan was the oppression of women, but also of gays, by the Taliban.  People in Europe and the USA received with shock the news that same-sex couples were publicly executed in the Kabul Stadium by bringing down a wall upon them […]

Reformist actions on Student Day in Iran, 7 December 2010 (16 Azar 1389). . . . The 16 Azar assembly of the Islamic Student Association, Tehran University and Tehran University of Medical Sciences Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan Islamic Azad University, Behbahan Amir Kabir University Amir Kabir University […]

“If you’re really worried about the deficits, then you should be really worried about health care costs.” Alan Barber is Domestic Communications Coordinator of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.  Cf. “The cuddly creature on the left sounds a lot like the US media, and the one on the right does a pretty good […]

  US and Canadian UN COP16 observers and climate justice activists will demonstrate against their governments’ position at the climate change conference by joining the Via Campesina and Espacio Mexicano marches and sit-ins throughout Cancun today, then gather at the Cancun Messe this afternoon at 4pm to deliver a specific message to US & Canadian […]

UAW President Bob King and his corporate partners at GM, Ford, and Chrysler-Fiat will blame the competition they’ve rigged on workers and relentlessly degrade them into believing they are worth less and less as profits rise.  That’s not a guess, it’s the drill. History lessons must be revised before the profiteers of war and labor […]

  “We aim to show that religion does not have to be a dividing force between feminists.” A shorter version of the video may be viewed at <vimeo.com/16522936>. | Print  

In the run-up to a new round of nuclear talks between the P5+1 and Iran on Monday, Western commentators are re-hashing old arguments that the Islamic Republic is either too politically divided or too dependent on hostility toward the United States for its legitimacy to be seriously interested in a nuclear deal.  From this perspective, […]

Executive Summary: We use Bureau of Justice Statistics data to estimate that, in 2008, the United States had between 12 and 14 million ex-offenders of working age.  Because a prison record or felony conviction greatly lowers ex-offenders’ prospects in the labor market, we estimate that this large population lowered the total male employment rate that […]

  To His Excellency Mahmoud Abbas President of the Palestinian National Authority Mr. President, I have carefully read the letter of 24 November, by which Your Excellency asks Brazil to recognize the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. As Your Excellency knows, Brazil has historically advocated, particularly under my government, the achievement of the legitimate […]