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Tariq Ali: “Nobody in Washington Knows What the War Aim Is”
Tariq Ali says in an interview with Der Standard: To continue its war in Afghanistan, the US accepts the risk of destabilizing Pakistan. But only a regional diplomatic approach can help. STANDARD: How would you evaluate the danger often invoked today that Pakistan is collapsing and its nuclear weapons may fall into the hands […]
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Roxana Saberi’s Case: How Should the U.S. Respond?
Q.: Iran is urging President Obama not to comment on Roxana Saberi’s case. How should the Obama administration proceed at this point? “To be honest with you, as of right now, I think the best thing is just to wait. President Ahmadinejad announced that they’re gonna give her a fair shot, and I think […]
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Interview with Alí Rodríguez Araque, Minister of Economy and Finance, Venezuela
The government estimates the growth rate will be 2% at the maximum this year.
“The strategy is to create a public instrument in which the banks place certain percentages of their targeted portfolios.”
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Osvaldo Martínez: “The Crisis Is Not an Abnormality in Capitalism”
2009 started off badly. The international economic crisis is the top priority of governments, companies, international organizations, and individuals preoccupied with having a roof to sleep under and food on the table. The situation has surprised almost everybody, albeit Cuba to a lesser degree. Almost a decade ago, Comandante Fidel Castro warned that the […]
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Keynes, Capitalism, and the Crisis
The essence of Keynes’s contribution was the demolition of Say’s law of markets. Say’s Law argued that supply created its own demand, so that there could never be an actual glut of production. Marx had rejected Say’s Law from the beginning, calling it “the childish babbling of a Say, but unworthy of Ricardo.” But neoclassical economics was built on it.
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Dangerous Decisions in Afghanistan: Interview with Aijaz Ahmad
Aijaz Ahmad: The Obama administration has already made two — in my view — very dangerous decisions. One is to send 17,000 more troops right away. And even more dangerous and disastrous in the long term, I believe, is the decision to arm large numbers of militias in various provinces where the Taliban are active. These actions will only destabilize and create a situation much worse for the people of Afghanistan and would make the solution even much more difficult.
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Interview with Mohammed Nafa’h, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Israel
“Supporting the Palestinian people’s struggle for self-determination is a duty of Israeli communists.” The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and its front Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) were the only political forces in Israel that confronted the massacre perpetrated by the Tzahal (IDF), the Israeli armed forces, in Gaza last January. Regrettably, […]
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A Voice of Peace in Sderot: Interview with Nomika Zion
Sderot is a small city about 1km away from the Gaza border, well known because it has suffered many hits from the Qassam rockets that the Gaza resistance has been launching on and off for about 8 years. When we think of residents living under the threat of missiles, hiding in bunkers, it’s quite […]
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The Crisis of Global Capitalism and the Environment: Interview with John Bellamy Foster, Editor of Monthly Review and Professor of Sociology, University of Oregon, for Eleftherotypia (Greece)
CP: After twenty-five years of sporadic growth and extreme polarization of income and life conditions around the world, actually existing neoliberalism seems to be on the verge of collapse. Where do you situate the current crisis in the history of the development of global capitalism? JBF: Neoliberalism has clearly collapsed. But as Fred Magdoff […]
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Interview with Maya Jribi, Leader of the Progressive Democratic Party of Tunisia:”Our Youth Have Neither Hope Nor Future”
“In Tunisia, the youth have lost hope and prospects. The movement of Gafsa is a matter of the whole society.” So says Tunisian biologist Maya Jribi, the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), which strongly supports the struggle of miners in Gafsa. The PDP is one of the main opposition parties against President […]
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Women of Gaza: Interview with Islah Jad
Islah Jad is a Ph.D holder from SOAS (School of African and Asian Studies), University of London. She lectures on gender and politics in the Women’s Studies Institute and Cultural Studies Department, Bir Zeit University, Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine. Rochelle Jones: Israel’s attacks on Gaza have taken a heavy toll. What is your understanding […]
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A Structural Crisis of the System: Interview with István Mészáros
István Mészáros won the 1971 Deutscher Prize for his book Marx’s Theory of Alienation and has written on Marxism ever since. He talks to Judith Orr and Patrick Ward about the current economic crisis. The ruling class are always surprised by new economic crises and talk about them as aberrations. Why do you believe they […]
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Interview with Mariela Castro on the Future of Sex and Socialism in Cuba
Mariela Castro is Director of the National Center for Sex Education in Cuba. Anastasia Haydulina: One day your uncle Fidel Castro . . . is going to die. Do you think his death will change the status quo of your Cuba? Mariela Castro: First of all, the death of Fidel will bring great suffering […]
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Bailout Costs $8.5 Trillion: Interview with Nomi Prins
The Real News: The 800 billion announced Tuesday and 7.76 trillion from the Bloomberg estimate add up to $8.56 trillion or $26,500 for every man, woman, or child in the United States. We spoke to journalist and author Nomi Prins about where these trillions might come from. Nomi Prins: . . . All of […]
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Is the Financial Crisis the Achilles Heel of Capitalist Globalization?
金融危機是全球化資本主義的罩門? 知名經濟學者阿敏專訪 Samir Amin: “It’ a monster, yes, it’s a monster, but it’s a monster which can be defeated also. This pattern of globalization, this pattern of the exclusive rule of dominant capital, that is, of oligopolies, is not acceptable and is not accepted. The breakdown is starting by the financial crisis, because financial […]
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Nawal El Saadawi — in Dialogue
Less than a minute in, Nawal El Saadawi, the ideological godmother of Muslim feminists, flouts author interview protocol rather fabulously, by pretending she’s not really doing one. I’m at a sunny breakfast table in Edinburgh on the last day of her UK book tour, to discuss the republication of her seminal 1970s books, but […]
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Russia Draws Closer to Venezuela
Zaa Nkweta, The Real News: Venezuela just announced that it plans to buy Russian tanks as well as Russian armed reconnaissance vehicles. At the same time, the Russian naval fleet is on its way to Venezuela to conduct joint military exercises. What do you make of this? Forrest Hylton: On the one hand it’s […]
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Thomas Ferguson and Robert Johnson, Authors of “Bridge Loan to Nowhere”
Play now: Download: mp3 file Cf: “Bridge Loan to Nowhere,” The Nation (22 September 2008) This interview was broadcast on the “Media Matters with Bob McChesney” program (AM580) on 28 September 2008. | | Print
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Chinese Nationalism
Chinese Nationalism Paul Jay: To what extent is there development of big power nationalism, perhaps in the armed forces, in the Chinese Communist Party itself? Minqi Li: My own view is that, as far as China’s ruling elites are concerned, concerning China’s big capitalists, I’d say nationalism is not so much their own ideology. […]
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The Geo-politics of Oil
Paul Jay: Welcome back to our interview with Aijaz Ahmad, asking a question: “what would a rational US foreign policy for the United States look like?” Aijaz, at the core of much of US foreign policy is the assumption that the United States needs its military prowess to defend its oil interests, whether it’s […]