Archive | Interview

  Here’s another clue about the real balance of forces in Libya, which has been obscured by the concerted corporate media propaganda.  Washington has decided that the Libyan rebels don’t have what it takes to take Tripoli, where about half of Libya’s population live, on their own (as the rebels admit themselves) and that the […]

  Bahraini man in the revolutionary camp: “Zine El Abidine down, Mubarak down, Al Khalifa down, down, down.” James Bays: “Can the king make political concessions, or is it too late?” Bahraini woman in the revolutionary camp: “It’s too late.  Too late now.  Now the people, they — you can hear them — they want […]

  Patty Culhane: Now that shots have been fired in the name of Bahrain’s government, a key ally to the US and home to the strategically critical US Navy base, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seems to be showing some support for the Bahraini government’s position. . . . Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute: Not […]

  Hossam el-Hamalawy is a member of the organization Revolutionary Socialists as well as of the Center for Socialist Studies in Cairo.  A journalist and blogger, he is one of the “cyberguerrilla” youth at the heart of the revolutions underway in the Arab world.  While constantly occupying Tahrir Square, he seeks to regularly disseminate alternative […]

  Saturday, February 5th, 8 pm (Egyptian time) What are some of the hurdles the protest movement is facing?  Are there divisions emerging while trying to find common ground? Yesterday the square was completely packed with more than one million protestors and Alexandria witnessed similar protests as well as the other provinces.  But there are […]

  Listen to the interview with Michael D. Yates: I know there’s a lot of pent-up anger.  If you take a country like Egypt, where people are suppressed, when they get an opportunity, a real opportunity, like what happened in the wake of the revolt in Tunisia, they will do things, they will take to […]

  Amy Goodman: Your feelings today in the midst of this popular rebellion against the Mubarak regime, calling on Mubarak to leave?  Do you agree? Nawal El Saadawi: We are in the streets every day, people, children, old people, including myself.  I am now 80 years of age, suffering of this regime for half a […]

Ahmad Shokr: Well, the scenes right now are quite remarkable. Literally, tens of thousands are taking to the streets amidst a huge security presence. I’m standing in front of a demonstration of at least a few thousand people who have taken over one of the main bridges in Cairo, calling for the ouster of Hosni Mubarak’s regime. They have raised their hands, stating that they’re peaceful protesters, but have been met by a shower of rubber bullets and tear gas.

  Listen to the interview with Dyab Abou Jahjah: 4th World War: To what extent do you think this popular revolution can achieve not just democratic rights but also something else: social change? Dyab Abou Jahjah: After the dictator left the country, many people of what was the legalized opposition, the parties that were legal […]

On 20 December 2010, the New York Times reported (Mark Mazzetti and Dexter Filkins, “U.S. Military Seeks to Expand Raids in Pakistan”): “Senior American military commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for an expanded campaign of Special Operations ground raids across the border into Pakistan’s tribal areas. . . .  Now, American military officers appear confident […]

  Listen to the interview with Jerica Arents and Mary Dean: Jerica Arents: What’s interesting, we heard many people who are in higher echelons of society [in Bamiyan Province in Afghanistan] say that “US forces need to stay, they are protecting us,” but ordinary people, ordinary Afghans, whom we talked to said, “We want the […]

  While the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, fights his legal battles in front of the cameras (or from the palatial estate in Britain where he is under “house arrest”) the American soldier accused of releasing secret US government documents to him remains hidden from public view.  Army Private Bradley Manning has spent seven months […]

  Paul Jay: Nancy Folbre, in her blog on the New York Times, wrote the following: “The Great Recession has sometimes been dubbed the Mancession because it drove unemployment among men higher than unemployment among women.”  So how is this affecting families?  How is this affecting the future outlook for the population as a whole […]

  Would you say that you’re among the pessimists who regard the five decades of African independence as five lost decades? I’m not a pessimist and I don’t think that these have been five lost decades.  I remain extremely critical, extremely severe with respect to African states, governments, and political classes, but I’m even more […]

  Hooman Majd: Most average Americans, if they only follow the news on Iran the way it is presented, wouldn’t even know that there is a parliament, wouldn’t even know that there are three branches of government in Iran, like America: there’s the executive; there’s the legislative, which is the parliament; and there’s the judiciary.  […]

  Listen to the interview with Samir Amin: Can you tell me very briefly what your book Ending the Crisis of Capitalism or Ending Capitalism? is about? The title of my book is indicative of the intention.  The title, in a provocative way, is Ending the Crisis of Capitalism or Ending Capitalism in Crisis?  As […]

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 […]

  Michael A. Lebowitz will deliver the Fourth Annual Lecture in Memory of Nicos Poulantzas (“Building Socialism of the 21st Century: The Logic of the State”) on Wednesday, 8 December 2010, 7 PM, at the auditorium of the Goethe Institute (Omirou St. 14-16) in Athens, Greece. Mr. Lebowitz, is Marxism still relevant today?  I ask […]

There has been much publicity about the so-called “currency war” arising from the discussions at the recent G20 meeting.  Can you explain what is meant by currency war? The discourse, the rhetoric, on the currency war is very superficial and even misleading.  As everybody knows, what is being said is that the Chinese yuan is […]

  Paul Jay: So if you’ve got more or less zero percent inflation and you’re getting 3 percent on your bond, you’re making 3 percent.  But if inflation’s 3 percent and you’re getting 3 percent on your bond, you’re down to zero.  Now, the Fed is saying that we can do this quantitative easing, increasing […]