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The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent in January while core prices rose only 0.2 percent.  Energy prices rose 2.1 percent in the month and were once again the main cause of the greater headline inflation.  By contrast, food prices have not seen high inflation.  Food prices rose 0.5 percent in January, but over the […]

This just in from AFP: “Israel has agreed to let Egypt deploy hundreds more troops in Sinai in order to protect gas pipelines as the country undergoes sweeping political unrest.”  Israel’s agreement to more Egyptian troop deployment exceeding the terms of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty came just as the youth representatives of the tribes […]

After Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned last Friday, we asked Israeli activists as well as people on the street for their opinion about recent events in Egypt. Produced by Ruth Orli Mosser.  This video was released by the Alternative Information Center on 15 February 2011 under a Creative Commons license. | Print

  February 16, 2011 — Networks of sympathizers with the ongoing student strike at the University of Puerto Rico announced today that they will stage simultaneous demonstrations in solidarity with the UPR in cities around the world on Friday, March 11, 2011, and invited all supporters to join them, coordinating their own activities in their […]

  “They renamed it [Manama’s central square] Tahrir Square after the one in Cairo.  They’ve started setting up tents, and vans are bringing supplies of food and water.” — Ahmed Hazim The Euronews video at the top and the Al Jazeera videos below it were released on 16 February 2011.  Cf. <www.facebook.com/TrueRoyalDemocracy>. | Print  

We, the student and precarious workers of Europe, Tunisia, Japan, the US, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Argentina, met in Paris over the weekend of the 11th-13th of February, 2011 to discuss and organize a common network based on our common struggles.  Students from Maghreb and Gambia tried to come but France refused them entry. […]

  Stop Ohio Senate Bill 5.  It’s a job-killing, anti-worker attack on collective bargaining. * * * Update See “Ohio Labor: No on SB5!” (videos of a rally against SB5, Ohio Statehouse, Columbus, Ohio, 17 February 2011). For more information, visit <fightforafaireconomy.org>.   var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print  

What is happening in Egypt is of immense importance, not only due to the importance of the country but also due to the radicality of the demand.  The demand is not just that Mubarak should leave — that is a first step — but that the system be changed, putting an end to the neoliberal […]

Every time demonstrators regrouped, they were attacked again, with rubber bullets, tear gas, and reportedly even live ammunition.  Later two protesters died: Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima and Fadhel Ali Matrook. This video was released by Amnesty International on 15 February 2011.  Cf. As’ad AbuKhalil, “US Is Freaking Out over Bahrain” (Angry Arab News Service, 15 February […]

Much like Mubarak, the former democratic reformer turned long-serving US dictator for the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, demonstrates what can happen to even stalwart defenders of capitalism when they are opposed by their citizens en masse.  Like Mubarak, Marcos previously provided a ray of hope for Western elites intent on quelling popular resistance within their own […]

Workers and students protested in Madison, Wisconsin today against Governor Scott Walker’s “budget repair” bill, which takes away public sector workers’ collective bargaining rights.  “Kill this bill!” 15 February 2011 14 February 2011 For more information, visit, e.g., <www.facebook.com/WiscWorkersRights> and <www.onewisconsinnow.org>.  Cf. “Thousands Converge For Rallies, Hearing On Union Bill” (Channel 3000, 15 February 2011). […]

“Early on today, there was a funeral1 for the first of the victims. . . .  The funeral drew the crowd of — I estimate — as many as 10,000 people, the largest mass gathering we’ve had here in Bahrain for quite some time.”   1  The Funeral of Martyr Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima: This video […]

In Bahrain, too, the shouts of “The People Want to Overthrow the Regime!” الشعب يريد اسقاط النظامPearl Roundabout, Bahrain, 15 February 2011 For more information, visit, e.g., .  Cf. As’ad AbuKhalil, “US Is Freaking Out over Bahrain” (Angry Arab News Service, 15 February 2011). | Print

Critics of the Islamic Republic of Iran held a protest on 25 Bahman 1389 (14 February 2011).  The protest turnout today — far from negligible given the well known severe limits to anti-systemic dissent imposed by the state — apparently failed to meet the expectations of some of its supporters, so one such individual went […]

Egyptians are celebrating the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, as I write.  Inshallah they will celebrate for a long time to come.  But leaderless crowds are not well placed to govern.  The triumph of the Egyptian people leaves the military in control.  Let us hope that Egyptians will find no reason to share the complaint of […]

Wael Ghonim tweets: Once again, this is wrong.  This implies that the revolution was “organized” and orchestrated from the start by the internet activists, which is not true. Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian socialist, journalist, and photographer.  Visit his blog: .  Follow Hossam el-Hamalawy at .  This note was first published in his blog on […]

Among the most watched Bahraini protest videos today is this one showing police attacking protesters in Duraz, Bahrain, 14 February 2011: Protest organizers say a protester by the name of Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima, 27 years old, was killed by police in Manama. For many reasons (the corporate media’s propaganda system, many Bahraini protesters’ apparent religiosity, […]

In the usual roll call of religious communists, Father Thomas J. Hagerty — one of the central figures involved in establishing the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or the Wobblies) in 1905 — seems to have slipped off the radar, with nary an entry on the Marxist Internet Archive and the smallest comment on […]

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation today criticized the Obama Administration for giving Israel “too much love” in its FY2012 budget request to Congress.  The budget request, delivered today to Capitol Hill, contains a record-breaking $3.075 billion in military aid to Israel. “With the United States facing an ongoing budget deficit and debt, […]

Millions of people in Egypt and all over the Middle East erupted in joy as Omar Suleiman announced on Friday that Hosni Mubarak had resigned. The Egyptian military decided to oust a widely-resented dictator as it witnessed the growing threat of a potential revolution being born in Egyptian streets.  Had it been allowed to continue […]