A high-level meeting in Venezuela earlier this month, in which senior Latin American and Caribbean diplomats from 32 countries discussed the creation of a new forum for regional concertation, slipped under the radar of the entire U.S. media. Indeed, the only English-language report on the event that appeared in the mainstream media was filed by […]
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Monthly Review Magazine
Thoughts in a Hijab
“This is the story of Sahar, an Iranian girl, and her personal choice to continue wearing the hijab after moving to the United States.” Produced by Reel Grrls, an organization supporting young women who are beginning filmmakers. 2008. | Print
A Defining Moment of the 2006 Israeli War on Lebanon
Paul Jay: One of the moments of the war that we hear, as we’ve been in Beirut, people talking about is one point during the war where Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is making a speech and tells people to look out to the sea. Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General, Hezbollah: Now . . . […]
What Difference Does a Revolution Make? A Preliminary Contrast of India and China
I. Commonalities At the time of their casting off of colonialism — India gaining independence from Britain in 1947, China putting an end to a century of imperialist domination in 1949 — the two largest countries in Asia shared many common characteristics. Each possessed an enormous continental landmass with a population in the hundreds of […]
The Dawn of Freedom (August 1947)
A poem by Faiz Ahmed.
Iraq: Allawi or Maliki?
Iraq turns to Paul the Octopus of the 2010 World Cup fame: “Just pick the prime minister, form a government, and save us.” Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon was published in his blog on 16 July 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. The text above is an interpretation of […]
The Politics of the Gold Standard in France, 1914-1939
Kenneth Mouré, The Gold Standard Illusion. France, the Bank of France and the International Gold Standard, 1914-1939. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. x + 297 pp. Figures, tables, notes, bibliography, and index. $72.00 (cl.) ISBN 019-924904-0. Kenneth Mouré’s new book extends and develops the analysis of his previous study of Bank […]
Socialism or Reformism?
I We live at a time when resistance to the inequities that exist in this world and the struggle for a better world are almost totally detached from any striving for socialism. Climate change, imperialist aggression, forcible dispossession of peasants in the name of “development”, oppression of the tribal population, gender discrimination, and ecological degradation […]
A New Order in “Greater West Asia”: AfPak to Palestine
When the Soviet Union was in terminal crisis in 1990 and the prospect emerged of the United States establishing long-term domination of the international political system, the influential Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer sought to capture the character of the unfolding geopolitical era. The term he used became a buzzword in then-emerging neo-conservative circles, and […]
There Is No Economic Justification for Deficit Reduction
Statement to the Commission on Deficit Reduction by James K. Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen, jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin, and Vice President, Americans for Democratic Action, June 30, 2010 Mr. Chairmen, members of the commission, thank you for inviting this statement. I […]
Desperately Seeking “Defectors” to Make a Case for an Iran War
Coverage of Shahram Amiri’s departure from the United States and his return to Iran has focused, rather superficially, on the question of whether he was kidnapped or defected and then changed his mind. Frankly, we are more interested in what reports that the CIA tried to pay Amiri $5 million say about the current political […]
Jordan Crossings
Joseph A. Massad. Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan. New York: Columbia UP, 2001. Paperback, 396 pages, ISBN: 0-231-12323-x. In Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan, a book that is painstakingly researched (there are almost 75 pages of end notes alone), Joseph A. Massad explores and analyzes the roles […]
Third Consecutive Month of Deflation as CPI Falls 0.1 Percent in June
The Consumer Price Index fell 0.1 percent in June. This is the third consecutive month of deflation in the broad measure of prices as energy prices continue to fall. The core index of inflation rose 0.2 percent in the month for the first time in nine months. Energy prices had increased nearly 20 percent over […]
The Merkel Model Spreads to Japan
The European public debt crisis, artificially created by the puritan obtuseness of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has spread to even Japan. In fact, Naoto Kan, the new prime minister, mentioned Greece in a speech in which he claimed to fear the collapse of the Japanese economy under a heavy public debt equal to 230 percent […]
ICAHD Denounces Israeli Demolitions (and American Enabling)
July 14, 2010 After an unofficial nine-month “moratorium,” the Israeli government has returned with a vengeance to its policy of demolishing Palestinian homes. Yesterday, July 13, six homes were demolished in East Jerusalem. In Jabal Mukaber, the homes of the Tawil family (15 people) and the Masrawi family (six people) were demolished. In Beit Hanina, […]
Child Labour
Ali Farzat is a Syrian cartoonist. | Print
Piranesi Etching
“Seeing that the remains of the ancient buildings of Rome, scattered for the most part in gardens and fields, are being day by day reduced by the injuries of time or by the greed of their owners. . . , I decided to preserve them in these plates.” — Piranesi, Antichita Romane (Roman Antiquities), 1756 […]
The Magic Kingdom
Pacho Maturana, Colombian, a man of vast experience in these matters, says that football is a magic kingdom, where anything can happen. The recent World Cup confirmed his words: it was a strange World Cup. Strange were the ten stadiums where the matches were held, beautiful, immense, which cost a fortune. No one knows what […]
Negotiations
The spur of the Arab Peace Initiative can’t move the wooden horse of negotiations on the path of peace, tethered as the horse is to the Israeli position. Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon was published in his blog on 30 June 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. The text […]
The Impact of Social Security Cuts on Retiree Income
Executive Summary: There has been a serious push in policy circles to cut Social Security benefits for near- and/or current retirees. The argument for such cuts has been based on the deficits in the federal budget; the finances of the Social Security program have been at most a secondary consideration. However, the finances of the […]
