Excerpt: Across US counties, life expectancy in 2007 ranged from 65.9 to 81.1 years for men and 73.5 to 86.0 years for women. When compared against a time series of life expectancy in the 10 nations with the lowest mortality, US counties range from being 15 calendar years ahead to over 50 calendar years […]
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Imperialism and the European “Left”
But revolts, to become revolutionary advances, will have to overcome many obstacles: on the one hand they will have to overcome the weaknesses of the movement, construct a positive convergence of its components, formulate and implement effective strategies; on the other they will have to defeat the interventions (including military interventions) of the imperialist triad. […]
Capitalism and Imperialism
The anti-colonial struggle in the third world countries had brought together workers, peasants, agricultural labourers, artisans, middle class intellectuals, and even the national bourgeoisie into one camp, demanding decolonisation. This was a reflection of the fact that colonialism, or imperialism (if one uses the term in an inclusive sense to refer to all stages of […]
The Palestinian Authority’s Historic Mistake — and Opportunity
No one knows the precise plans of the Palestinian Authority vis-a-vis September: will Mahmoud Abbas declare a Palestinian state within recognized borders and ask that it be admitted as a full member of the UN — or not? Perhaps Abbas himself does not know. Now political leaders often make decisions alone or in consultation with […]
Sexual Predators and Serial Rapists Run Wild at Wal-Mart Supplier in Jordan
Executive Summary: According to witnesses who work at Classic Fashion, scores of young Sri Lankan women sewing clothing for Wal-Mart and Hanes have suffered routine sexual abuse and repeated rapes, and in some cases even torture. One young rape victim at the Classic factory in Jordan told us her assailant, a manager, bit her, […]
Workers in Neocapitalist Romania
David A. Kideckel. Getting By in Postsocialist Romania: Labor, the Body, and Working-Class Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. xii + 266 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-253-34957-6; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-21940-4. During the last twenty years, Romanian mass media and most Romanian intellectuals have typically portrayed the miners of the Jiu Valley in Romania […]
Greek Protesters Are Better Economists Than the European Authorities
Imagine that in the worst year of our recent recession, the United States government decided to reduce its federal budget deficit by more than $800 billion dollars — cutting spending and raising taxes to meet this goal. Imagine that, as a result of these measures, the economy worsened and unemployment soared to more than 16 […]
#Women2Drive
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Cf. “Saudi Women: ‘I Will Drive Myself Starting June 17′” (Jadaliyya, 12 May 2011); “Saudi Women Respond to Exclusion from Voting: Baladi Campaign” (Jadaliyya, 16 May 2011); “The Saudi Women Revolution Statement” (Mona Kareem, 18 May 2011); “Manal al-Sharif: Saudi Woman Drives the Streets of al-Khobar (Video)” (Jadaliyya, 25 […]
Comparison of Annex 1 and Non-Annex 1 Pledges under the Cancun Agreements
Abstract: This report examines four recent detailed studies of countries’ mitigation pledges under the Cancun Agreements, for the purpose of comparing developed (Annex 1) country pledges to developing (non-Annex 1) country pledges. It finds that there is broad agreement that developing country pledges amount to more mitigation than developed country pledges. That conclusion applies […]
Iraq: It’s Still about Oil
Provocative suggestion: Obama’s increasingly desperate efforts to abrogate Bush’s Dec 31 withdrawal deadline and continue the military occupation may reflect, among other considerations, the need to protect the US drilling companies’ business. . . . American drilling companies stand to make tens of billions of dollars from the new petroleum activity in Iraq long before […]
7 Things You Need to Know about the National Debt, Deficits, and the Dollar
Introduction There are seven key points about the national debt, budget and trade deficits, and the dollar, that the public needs to understand in order to be well-informed and prepared to choose among various policy options: 1) The national debt is not literally a generational transfer. This is easy to see because everyone who holds […]
Greece
Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. The cartoon above was first published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 17 June 2011. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). Cf. “Varoufakis Says Greece’s Papandreou ‘On His Last Legs’” (Bloomberg, 16 […]
What’s Wrong with Women in Lebanon?
Most of the time, as soon as I mention that I am a feminist activist, I am immediately hit with a question: “Why? What’s wrong with the situation of women in Lebanon? What could a woman want? She has all her rights and more, she is treated with respect, with dignity. She controls her […]
The Cat and the Coup, Now Available for Free Download
The Cat and the Coup is a documentary game in which you play the cat of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran. During the summer of 1953, the CIA engineered a coup to bring about his downfall. As a player, you coax Mossadegh back through significant events of his life […]
On a Collision Course with the Muslim Brotherhood
Much of the commentary in the Arabic media in recent days has focused on the realignments taking place across the Middle East as a result of the various Arab uprisings. Ammar Nehmeh, an occasional columnist at the Beirut-based leftist daily As-Safir, wrote that forces that traditionally resist U.S. policy in the region, and that […]
Friday, June 17th: Railroad Workers Memorial Day
On Friday, June 17th, Railroad Workers United calls on all railroad workers in North America to observe Railroad Workers Memorial Day to honor and remember those railroaders killed on the job this past year. All railroad workers are urged to wear black shirts to work and to “Mourn for the dead and fight like hell […]
Egyptian Activists Say No to Military Trials
Ragia Omran, Lawyer for “No to Military Trials”: They (the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) consider the country as under “martial law.” They haven’t announced it officially, but this is the justification they use for the use of military trials for civilians. Mona Seif, Activist for “No to Military Trials”: The first demand is […]
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Cf. Fulya Özerkan, “Relief Group Signals U-turn on Gaza Plan” (Hürriyet Daily News, 14 June 2011). | Print
CPI Rises 0.2 Percent
The Consumer Price Index rose 0.2 percent in May — the slowest rate since November — as energy prices fell for the first time since last June. The core rate of inflation ticked up to 0.3 percent and is now running at a 2.5 percent annualized rate over the last three months. Energy prices had […]
Russia, Turkey, and the US Push for Regime Change in Syria
Seldom it is that the Russian Foreign Ministry chooses a Sunday to issue a formal statement. Evidently, something of extreme gravity arose for Moscow to speak out urgently. The provocation was the appearance of a United States guided missile cruiser in the Black Sea for naval exercises with Ukraine. The USS Monterrey cruiser equipped with […]
