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On Eric Hobsbawm’s Passing

  Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012), regarded by many as the top 20th century British historian, passed away October 1st, at the age of 95.  Hobsbawm joined the British Communist Party in 1936, the year he entered Cambridge University, and remained a life-long member.  In a life dedicated to historical scholarship and to draw attention to injustice […]

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Tadeusz Kowalik, 1926-2012

  Professor Tadeusz Kowalik (1926-2012) was a noted Polish economist who played a major role in Polish economic debates for more than a half century.  A graduate of the University of Warsaw, Kowalik was a student of the distinguished Polish Marxist economist Oskar Lange and like his teacher, was a prominent advocate of market socialism […]

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Brazil’s Economic Policy: Does Not Compute

The Brazilian government bets that the domestic market will save the Brazilian economy: that the wage increase above productivity, apart from reducing inequality, will create demand for the Brazilian industry and will offset the overvalued exchange rate.  In other words, the same recipe that produced good results under the Lula administration, it hopes, could be […]

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The Right to Work

“I have no job.” “Ah, yes, reactionaries. . .   Has anyone denied you the right to have one?” Juan Ramón Mora is a cartoonist in Barcelona.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print

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The Epidemic of Terrorism under Turkey’s Mubarak

  A new epidemic has broken out in Turkey.  It’s called “terrorism.”  This ideologically transmitted disease (ITD) appears to be extremely infectious.  Otherwise how can we explain the large and growing number of terrorists in the country? The Associated Press carried out a survey on terrorism convictions in the world.  The figures are worrying.  According […]

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On the Terrorist Attacks in Damascus, Syria

The Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Cuba energetically condemns the criminal attacks by car bombs that took place in Damascus, Syria, causing dozens of dead and wounded.  Cuba condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and firmly opposes the attempts to undermine the stability of Syria, foreign interference, and the threats to its […]

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Raising Flags of Jihad in Syria

  A flag of the Islamic State of Iraq sighted at a Syrian opposition demonstration in Khan al Sabl, Idlib, Syria, 23 December 2011 A jihadi flag sighted at a Syrian opposition demonstration in Binnish, Idlib, Syria, 21 December 2011 A jihadi flag sighted at a Syrian opposition demonstration in Maarat al Numaan, Idlib, Syria, […]

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Neoliberal Rampage in Canada

Like the Grinch who stole Christmas, the Conservative government of Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper has just left a lump of coal in Canadian workers’ stockings.  A cover story in the Globe and Mail of December 22, 2011 announces that federal public pension programs are being targeted for cuts to reduce the federal deficit.1  The […]

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The Metamorphosis

“It was very hard, but I have adjusted to minijobs very well,” thought Gregor Samsa. Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  Cf. “El BCE pidió a España crear ‘minijobs’, trabajos con sueldos por debajo del salario mínimo” [“ECB […]

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Is United States Government a Paper Tiger?

In a 1956 interview with Anna Louise Strong, Mao described American imperialism as a paper tiger.  Of course, the military strength of the United States is unparalleled, especially because this country accounts for about half of worldwide military spending.  Even so, the last three significant wars have shown that the country has been unable to […]

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