En su vehemente proceso al islam y al estatus de inferioridad legal y de sumisión de la mujer que prevalece en la mayoría de países musulmanes, Telima Nesreen, Ayaam Hirsi Ali y otras emancipadas de su credo religioso han evocado y evocan repetidas veces el nombre del autor de Cándido: “Permitidnos un Voltaire . . […]
Geography Archives: Africa
Countries in the continent of Africa
Blood Diamond
With awards season now upon us, Leonardo DiCaprio seems poised for a walk down the red carpet at next month’s Academy Awards. Having already garnered two Golden Globes nominations for best actor (one for his performance in The Departed and the other in Blood Diamond), an Oscar nod is likely to follow. Many filmgoers who’ve […]
The Limits of Abolitionism: British Imperial Policy in Egypt
“We cannot admit rivals in the East or even the central parts of Africa . . . to a considerable extent, if not entirely, we must be prepared to apply a sort of Munro [sic] doctrine to much of Africa.” — Lord Carnarvon1 The original Monroe Doctrine initiated in 1824 prevented European interference in the […]
Somalia: A History of US Interventions
There’s a woman — some call her “Black Hawk Down” lady — who lives in a packed, squalid neighborhood in the middle of Mogadishu and runs a rather simple but grisly museum. For under a dollar, visitors can view her prized possession, the mangled, mud-splattered nose of a US Black Hawk helicopter that was […]
Nadia Cherabi, Producer-Director: A Regard for the World and Human Beings [Nadia Cherabi. Productrice-réalisatrice: Un regard sur le monde et les êtres
Aussitôt achevées ses études de sociologie, elle s’est précipitée sur le cinéma. Sans doute achevée pour y trouver des moyens vivants d’interroger notre société et de porter un regard sur les choses mais surtout les êtres, mettant en valeur ceux qui émergent en dépit des modèles formatés. Vous vous êtes signalée par un docu-fiction sur […]
The Phenomenal Form of Contemporary Social Movements: An Interview with Georgy Katsiaficas
Annual Fundraising Appeal Friends of MRZine and Monthly Review! The continuing existence of MRZine and Monthly Review depends on the support of our readers. Unlike many other publications, we make all new Monthly Review articles, as well as MRZine articles, available online, free of charge. We do so without drawing any advertising money at all […]
Is Cosatu Playing with the Devil?Investigating the AFL-CIO and Its Solidarity Center
Annual Fundraising Appeal Friends of MRZine and Monthly Review! The continuing existence of MRZine and Monthly Review depends on the support of our readers. Unlike many other publications, we make all new Monthly Review articles, as well as MRZine articles, available online, free of charge. We do so without drawing any advertising money at all […]
One Unified African People:An Interview with Obi Egbuna
Annual Fundraising Appeal Friends of MRZine and Monthly Review! The continuing existence of MRZine and Monthly Review depends on the support of our readers. Unlike many other publications, we make all new Monthly Review articles, as well as MRZine articles, available online, free of charge. We do so without drawing any advertising money at all […]
Is Canada an Imperialist State?
Has Canada become an imperialist state, as some on the Left argue? On the surface, a case can be made. Why did Canada participate in the kidnapping and expulsion of Haiti’s elected head of state, Jean-Bertrand Aristide? Why are Canadian troops fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan while supporting a regime dominated by feudal warlords? […]
One Big Push
A NEW MOMENT It’s a new political moment for the antiwar movement. Washington’s failure in Iraq is undeniable: even Henry Kissinger says a U.S. victory is impossible. The Iraq war was the prime reason the U.S. electorate delivered a huge “thumping” to George Bush on November 7. The administration is openly flailing about for any […]
Criminalizing Compassion in the War on Terror: Muslim Charities and the Case of Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir
“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But . . . the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’” — Martin Luther King, Jr.1 “The truth […]
The Slow Suicide of the West [El lento suicidio de Occidente]
Occidente aparece, de pronto, desprovisto de sus mejores virtudes, construidas siglo sobre siglo, ocupado ahora en reproducir sus propios defectos y en copiar los defectos ajenos, como lo son el autoritarismo y la persecución preventiva de inocentes. Virtudes como la tolerancia y la autocrítica nunca formaron parte de su debilidad, como se pretende ahora, sino […]
Freedom from Religion: An Interview with Alexander Saxton
RELIGION AND THE HUMAN PROSPECT by Alexander SaxtonBUY THIS BOOK I first met Alexander Saxton in 1997 at a conference on the “problem of whiteness,” held at the University of California, Berkeley, at which we were both speakers. Although we had never met, I considered him a mentor, particular his book, The Rise and Fall […]
Post-American Geopolitics
I. Three Metropoles, Four Peripheries Many of us on the Left have pondered what would replace the Cold War division of the planet into the First, Second, and Third World. Though the three worlds thesis was arbitrary at best — the social divisions within nation-states are often more significant than the distinctions between nation-states — […]
Survival Politics in Decaying Detroit
Most people know that Detroit, the once-vibrant automotive capital, has been in an economic tailspin for decades. Legions of “post-industrial” analyses have properly assigned responsibility for it to profit-motivated factors in capitalist decision-making since the late 1950s. The human cost of the tailspin is nearly beyond comprehension for those who are not directly affected by […]
Catch a Fire: The Anatomy of Reluctant Insurgency
In the modern world, where the state exercises the ultimate power over life and death, what would cause a common man or woman to join an insurgency against the powers that be? Not become a terrorist. Terrorism is defined as the systematic use of terror as a means of coercion. History shows that all too […]
Tangled Up in the Milieu: An Interview with Max Elbaum, Author of Revolution in the Air
REVOLUTION IN THE AIR: Sixties Radicals turn to Lenin, Mao and Che by Max ElbaumBUY THIS BOOK I first met Max Elbaum in Vermont in 2002 at a conference against the war organized by the Burlington (VT) Anti War Coalition. We had communicated via email and telephone before about his book Revolution in the Air […]
Brazil: What Is at Stake in the Second Round [Brasil: Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta]
Nadie puede ser neutro, nadie puede ser equidistante, nadie puede ser indiferente Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas si Petrobras va a ser privatizada — como afirmó el asesor de Alckmin, Mendonça de Barros a la revista Exame — y, si con ella, también el Banco de Brasil, la […]
To End the Israeli-Arab Conflict [En finir avec le conflit israélo-arabe]
Nous appelons, alors que le Moyen-Orient est plongé dans sa crise la plus grave depuis des années, à une action urgente de la part de la communauté internationale en vue d’un règlement global au conflit israélo-arabe. Nous sommes tous perdants dans ce conflit, à l’exception des extrémistes, qui prospèrent à travers le monde en exploitant […]
Ousmane Sembène: The Cineaste Who Has Not Finished His Mandate: At 84, the Senegalese Director Continues to Shoot Films [ Ousmane Sembène : Le cinéaste qui n’a pas encore fini son mandat A 84 ans, le réalisateur sénégalais continue de tourner des films]
« Qu’est-ce que cela peut faire que je lutte pour la mauvaise cause, puisque je suis de bonne foi ? Et qu’est-ce que ça peut faire que je sois de mauvaise foi, puisque je lutte pour la bonne cause. » — Jacques Prévert A 84 ans, il reste un éternel jeune homme. Ce Casamançais de […]
