What’s the origin of the Islamic Republic’s biggest banking scandal? The financial conglomerate Amir Mansour Arya Investment Development Company allegedly procured several letters of credit from domestic banks totaling $2.8 billion — far above the company’s available collateral. The Arya Group, founded by Amir Mansour Khosravi and now controlled by his son Mah-Afarid, controlled around […]
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#OWS, Times Square, and the Global Labor Movement
“I’m just a soccer mom. Well, a swimming mom, if you want to be exact.” This is how the middle-aged women holding up the “Worked 1973-2003” sign at Saturday’s Occupy Wall Street rally at Times Square described herself to me. She stood next to a young boy leaning against his dad, the son holding up […]
John Bellamy Foster at Occupy Eugene
At the rally for Occupy Eugene, 15 October 2011 Photo by Rob Sydor Photo by Mickey Stellavato John Bellamy Foster is the editor of Monthly Review. He is the author of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism(with Fred Magdoff), The Ecological Rift, The Ecological Revolution, The Great Financial Crisis, Marx’s Ecology, Ecology […]
Europe in Crisis: Interview with Yanis Varoufakis
“My experience of the last year and half during the acceleration of this crisis is that the worst enemy of reason and progress are social democratic parties. I say this painfully. There’s no glee in this statement.” — Yanis Varoufakis The Mess We’re In . . . The Future of Greece A Solution to […]
Pushing the World into the Ring
Uncle Sam, still pushing the world into the ring of multiple conflicts. . . . Hamid Karout is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon was first published in Tishreen on 17 October 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. | Print
Message of Support to Workers in Greece on the Eve of the 48-hour General Strike
We follow the struggle of the class-oriented labour movement in Greece. The struggle of PAME constitutes an integral part of our own struggle. We express our solidarity with the strike of 48 hours, in this battle and struggle against the barbaric measures that are being promoted in Greece, such as the abolition of collective agreements, […]
Libya
Rolando Segura is a TeleSur reporter. He was TeleSur’s Libya correspondent till shortly after the fall of Tripoli. This documentary film was shown at the headquarters of the Union of Journalists of Cuba on 7 October 2011. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print
Production Begins on Empire’s New Script “Iranian Conspiracy”
Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print
Global Revolution
Iván Lira is a Venezuelan artist. | Print
The “Convergence of Interests” in the Arab Revolts
In the wars currently waged on the backs of the Arab revolutions, one particular term stands out in the lexicon of Arab politicians and their columnist and media acolytes: the phrase “convergence of interests,” which has made a big comeback. In Tunisia, liberals of the worst kind, and Islamists of the opportunist variety, have […]
Aerial Views of Sol, #15O
“#15O surpasses all expectations, attracting more indignant people than #15M.” — Bea Burgos Puerta del Sol, Madrid Video by Juan Luis Sánchez Video by Mónica López Cf. <www.facebook.com/democraciarealya?sk=wall>. The above is one of the actions for #globalchange taken in 951 cities in 82 countries on 15 October 2011. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var […]
Martin Feldstein Strikes Out Again: Big Time
Harvard economics professor Martin Feldstein, who made himself famous by predicting in 1993 that Clinton tax increases would not raise any revenue, strikes out big time in his proposal for the housing market in the New York Times. He tells readers: House prices are continuing to fall because of the wave of foreclosures; That consumers […]
Iranian “Plots” and American Hubris
Calls by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary Hillary Clinton to “unite the world in the isolation of and dealing with the Iranians,” in response to an alleged Iranian plot to kill Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador in Washington, reflect a hubristic misapprehension of reality. The Obama Administration mistakenly believes it can exploit the accusations for strategic […]
How to Make an Ecosocialist Revolution
Meetings such as this play a vital role in building a movement that can stop the hell-bound train of capitalism, before it takes itself and all of humanity over the precipice. Building such a movement is the most important thing anyone can do today — so I’m honored to have been invited to take part […]
Elections in Egypt: To Each Opportunist His Own
Yara Kassem is a cartoonist in Cairo, Egypt. This cartoon was circulated via her Twitter account on 14 October 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. Cf. “Egyptian elections sound increasingly like a disaster in the making almasryalyoum.com/en/node/504768” (Blake Hounshell, 13 October 2011); “Egypt’s Communist Party to Boycott Parliamentary Elections” (Ahram Online, 13 […]
Understanding the Capitalist Economic Crisis
John Bellamy Foster: Economic crises are functional to the system in that a crisis helps capital readjust its imbalances, disproportions, as Marxian theories often say, and it sets the basis for a renewed period of expansion. So, regular business-cycle crises . . . help the system. . . . But, in addition to cycles . […]
Syria: BRICS Have Good Reasons to Oppose U.S. and Europe at UN Security Council
There has been a lot of hand-wringing and moralizing about the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) blocking a resolution in the UN against the government of Syria last week. China and Russia used a rare double veto as permanent members of the Security Council, and the other three abstained. “During this […]
MINUSTAH: Keeping the Peace, or Conspiring against It?
Nou dwe sèl mèt bout tè sa a: We should be the only owners of this land. From an anti-MINUSTAH protest last month. Photo by Ansel Herz. This was Haitian protesters’ message at a demonstration last month against the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH. October marks an upswing […]
Massive Pro-government Rally in Syria in Rejection of Foreign Interference
Saba Bahrat Square, Damascus, 12 October 2011 Baghdad Street, Damascus, 12 October 2011 Women and Youth, Damascus, 12 October 2011 Cf. “LOL AlJazeera is saying that tens of thousands were at the rally today while MILLIONS rally at the anti ones. Da funk?” (Joud, 12 October 2011); “Notice that when demonstrations take place in support […]
The Dragon’s Shadow: China’s Banking System
On October 10, the Chinese government announced that it will increase its stakes in the four largest commercial banks, which are already largely public-owned. The move is designed to “support the healthy operations and development of key state-owned financial institutions and stabilise the share prices of state-owned commercial banks”. But why was this move considered […]
