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 […]
Geography Archives: Africa
Countries in the continent of Africa
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 […]
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 […]
The Iran-Saudi Assassination “Hoax”?
I have been staring incredulously at my TV screen these past few hours as the story of Iran’s alleged assassination attempt of a Saudi diplomat in Washington unfolds in dramatic increments. Reporters keep repeating the theme “like out of a Hollywood script” as they eke out increasingly unlikely details about this “terror” plot. My immediate […]
Protest 10 Years of War on Afghanistan
Oct. 15 is a day of nationally coordinated antiwar actions in cities across the U.S., the 10th anniversary of the massively destructive and criminal U.S. war on Afghanistan. When the U.S. government began its attack on Afghanistan 10 years ago, President Bush called it a “war on terror.” It was followed by 8 years of […]
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya: Worthy Victims and Unworthy Victims
Trafalgar Square, London, 8 October 2011, Video by Harry Fear TV At the very moment we are here, the United States, Britain, and France are bombing a city in Libya called Sirte. There are 100,000 people. Day and night, residential buildings, clinics, schools have been hit with fragmentation bombs and Hellfire missiles. . . […]
Libya: NATO Provides the Bombs; The French “Left” Provides the Ideology
Last April, former Le Monde diplomatique director Ignacio Ramonet published (in Mémoire des Luttes) a text entitled “Libya, the Just and the Unjust.” The war had been started a few weeks earlier, inaugurated by French aircraft which had the honor of dropping the first bombs on Tripoli. On March 19, “a wave of pride […]
The Military Intervention in Libya and the Growing Threat against Syria
Address to the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, 26 September 2011 Excerpt: As early as the 21st of February, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz had warned that NATO was inexorably preparing a war against Libya. Since then, Cuba has indefatigably engaged in the defense not of a government […]
WFTU: ‘Support People, Oppose Imperialist Interference in Arab Countries’
The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) organised on September 13-14 a two-day international trade union meet in the European Parliament complex in Strasbourg, France, to express solidarity with the fighting people of Arab countries and voice strong protest against the hegemonic interference of US imperialism and its European allies in the internal affairs […]
Al Jazeera and U.S. Foreign Policy: What WikiLeaks’ U.S. Embassy Cables Reveal about U.S. Pressure and Propaganda
“Al Jazeera is a vital component to the USG’s strategy in communicating with the Arab world.” — Joseph E. LeBaron, U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, November 6, 2008 “Al Jazeera Board Chairman Hamed bin Thamer Al Thani has proven open to creative uses of Al Jazeera’s airwaves by the USG beyond straightforward interviews.” — Joseph E. […]
Libya, Egypt: Fashioning Democracy, Packaging Revolution
Democracy, democracy. Don’t we just love it? Don’t we love it as a pretence for furthering our international ambitions? Don’t we love it when it means cheaper oil and cosy partnerships? In the case of Libya, the façade of supporting a democratic movement has fallen from even our most blatant sources of propaganda. To quote […]
NATO Continues Its Air Strikes in Libya
“Chart with NATO sorties in #Libya shows that strikes continue with same ferocity as before the declared victory in Aug.” — Daniel Nouri Related: here is a map of sixteen cities that NATO attacked between Aug 22 and Sep 16: Daniel Nouri is a Python and JavaScript enthusiast with nine years of professional Python […]
The New Scramble for Africa
Is current U.S. foreign policy in Africa following a blueprint drawn up almost eight years ago by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, one of the most conservative think tanks in the world? Although it seems odd that a Democratic administration would have anything in common with the extremists at Heritage, the convergence in policy and […]
9.11 with Samir Amin
“Libya is something very different from what happened in Egypt and Tunisia. It was not a pacific demonstration of people. It was, from the very start, armed groups against other armed groups, the regime. I’m not at all defending Gaddafi, but what is very specific of the case of Libya is that the so-called […]
Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill: Interview with Arundhati Roy
“These NGOs funded by the World Bank, Ford, and so on — why are they participating, mediating what public policy should be? . . . The World Bank runs 600 anti-corruption programs just in places like Sub-Saharan Africa. Why is the World Bank that interested in anti-corruption? I looked at five of the major […]
Syria: Testing Time
Syria remains relatively calm as efforts to destabilise its government through orchestrated attacks by rebels fail. Life in the Syrian capital, Damascus, seems to be continuing as normal. The streets and the mosques are crowded after the devout break their Ramazan fast in the evening. The security presence is minimal. In fact, there are […]
Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa
Excerpt: As envisioned by the Department of Defense (DOD), AFRICOM aims to promote U.S. strategic objectives and protect U.S. interests in the region by working with African states and regional organizations to help strengthen their defense capabilities so that they are better able to contribute to regional stability and security. AFRICOM also has a […]
The Shape of Things to Come in Libya: Interview with Michael Parenti
Michael Parenti: Expect the same thing as you saw happened in Yugoslavia and in Eastern Europe. There will be a massive privatization taking place. The public economy that the Gaddafi government had built over 40 years, which included public subsidies for housing, for education, for healthcare — all those things will be privatized. The […]
George Monbiot and the Guardian on “Genocide Denial” and “Revisionism”
On Tuesday, June 14, the Guardian of London published “Left and Libertarian Right Cohabit in the Weird World of the Genocide Belittlers.”1 In this nearly 1,100-word commentary, the British writer George Monbiot attacked the two of us (among others) as “genocide deniers” and “revisionists” for our writings on the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Monbiot also […]
Unlocking Libya for TNC(s)
With the hammer of NATO against the Gaddafi forces, Uncle Sam seeks to unlock Libya for the TNC(s). . . . Gervasio Umpiérrez is a cartoonist based in Montevideo, Uruguay. This cartoon was published on his blog on 23 August 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. Cf. “Libya’s economic freedom score […]
