It is bad enough that, by delaying reconstruction aid to Haiti, the United States has failed to give adequate assistance to our neighbor, which was struck by a devastating earthquake one year ago. It is far worse that we have also actively cooperated in its deeply flawed election. Our government helped impose an election […]
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News updates or analysis.
The Political Economy of ‘Democracy Promotion’
14 January 2011 Where are the ‘democracy promoters’ on the Tunisian uprising?, asks Marc Lynch. It’s a fair question: Thus far, a month into the massive demonstrations rocking Tunisia, the Washington Post editorial page has published exactly zero editorials about Tunisia. For that matter, the Weekly Standard, another magazine which frequently claims the mantle of […]
Notes on the Tunisian Revolution
From day one it was clear this was a revolution that was not about bread only, it was also against dictatorship and corruption. The revolution was supported by all segments of society. Poor, middle class, and even upper middle class. Especially the middle class showed its claws in the last days in Tunis. Many friends […]
Arafat’s Ghost
Asʻad Ghanem. Palestinian Politics after Arafat: A Failed National Movement. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010. x + 208 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-253-35427-3; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-22160-5. November 2010 marked the sixth anniversary of the death of Palestinian National Authority (PNA) president Yasser Arafat. For the last two years of his life, the once […]
End “Supermax” Isolation in Ohio State Penitentiary
TO: Warden David Bobby, Ohio State Penitentiary Director Gary Mohr, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Chief William A. Eleby, Bureau of Classification Ohio Department of Rehabilitation We the undersigned call for an end to isolated “supermax” imprisonment in Ohio State Penitentiary. We are especially concerned about the cases of Siddique Abdullah Hasan (Carlos Sanders); […]
Paul Krugman on the Euro Crisis
Paul Krugman does a very good job laying out the issues behind the euro zone crisis in his NYT Magazine piece. There are two additional points that would have been worth noting. First, there are powerful forces who are working hard to prevent the partial or full Argentinification (partial default or a departure from the […]
People’s Rights Forum 2011, Ankara, 21-23 January 2011
People’s Houses (Turkey) is preparing to organize the second People’s Rights Forum on 21-23 January 2011 in Ankara, in a time when people’s rights struggles against neo-liberal capitalist aggression on labour, humanity and nature are growing. The first People’s Rights Forum was held in July 2007 with the common initiative and contributions of People’s […]
Tunisia: The Force of Disobedience
Sadri Khiari, Tunisian activist exiled in France since early 2003, is one of the founding members of the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic (PIR), of which he is currently one of the key leaders. He has published, among others, Tunisie. Le délitement de la cité : coercition, consentement, résistance, éditions Karthala, Paris, 2003; […]
Economic Forecasts
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 11 January 2011. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print
Employer and Worker Experiences with Paid Family Leave in California
Excerpt: As family and work patterns have shifted over recent decades, the demand for time off from work to address family needs has grown rapidly. Women — and increasingly men as well — often find themselves caught between the competing pressures of paid work and family responsibilities, especially when they become parents, or when […]
My Heart, My Fellow Traveler
Laal presents “Meray Dil, Meray Musafir” dedicated to the centenary of the birth of Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The music video is a new interpretation of Faiz’s iconic poem “Dil e Man, Musafir e Man” (My Heart, My Fellow Traveler). While Faiz wrote this poem about exile, this video explores Marx’s concept of alienation within the […]
Lebanese Bloggers Support Tunisian Protests against “Arab Pinochet”
Lebanese bloggers have joined the chorus of concern over the Tunisian riots that have thus far claimed 24 lives. Sympathy and support is extended to the Tunisian youth protesting the authoritarianism, corruption, and poor economic management of President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, dubbed the “Arab Pinochet” by Lebanese blogger, the Angry Arab. The protests […]
Public Works and Wages in Rural India
The “small round” surveys of the NSSO are usually not considered to be so good at capturing trends, because their smaller size makes them non-comparable with the quinquennial large surveys. However, the 64th Round was a much larger survey than normal (with a sample of 1,25,578 households: 79,091 in rural areas and 46,487 in urban […]
Tunisia: A Moment of Destiny for the Tunisian People and Beyond?
On December 17, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a young Tunisian man of 26 years old, heads towards the municipality of Sidi Bouzid, a Tunisian provincial city. He walks calmly towards the entrance of the building with the intention of protesting. Bouazizi, who was unemployed despite holding a university degree as an IT engineer, was gaining his […]
Labor Lawyer Imprisoned in Xi’an for Organizing against Corrupt Privatization of State Enterprises
Highlights: Zhao Dongmin, a labor lawyer and Maoist, was sentenced on 25 October 2010 to three years in prison for applying to set up a workers’ organisation to monitor the privatization of state enterprises and alert the authorities about cases of corruption. The Zhao Dongming case is significant for a number of reasons: First, […]
Hope after Obama
He came out of nowhere offering change you can believe in, and he won. But almost everything he does is an irritating failure to act, a disappointing small measure, or a major giveaway to the rich. After two years it was no surprise that voters turned away from him in the Congressional midterm elections of […]
One Year after Haiti Earthquake, Corporations Profit While People Suffer
One year after an earthquake devastated Haiti, much of the promised relief and reconstruction aid has not reached those most in need. In fact, the nation’s tragedy has served as an opportunity to further enrich corporate interests. The details of a recent lawsuit, as reported by Business Week, highlights the ways in which contractors — […]
The Tax Deal’s Biggest Losers: 40 Million Low-Wage Workers Who Will See Their Taxes Go Up This Year
On December 6, the President said “there is no reason that ordinary Americans should see their taxes go up next year.” Apparently, the Administration staff who negotiated the deal found a reason. According to the estimates of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, some 51 million taxpayers overall will see part of the tax cuts they […]
Which One Gets to Be Called a Terrorist?
This one killed six people while trying to assassinate a blue dog congresswoman. . . This one didn’t kill anyone but was used last month to scare the public in the FBI’s Portland sting operation. I submit the media refuses to call white men terrorists because a significant minority of its audience shares their basic […]
Greece to Build Wall on Turkish Border
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Cf. “The year 2011 promises to be auspicious for the security industry. On the 31st of December, the Greek government announced its intention to build, on the land border with Turkey, a barbed-wire wall to prevent entrance of migrants. A few weeks before that, Israel began building a barrier […]
