On June 18, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing to mark up an original bill, the “Iran Sanctions Act of 2008.” Despite opposition to provisions in the bill from members of the Committee and the Bush administration, the committee overwhelming approved the bill 19-2. On June 17, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote Senate […]
Geography Archives: Europe
Countries in the continent of Europe
From Marx to Morales: Indigenous Socialism and the Latin Americanization of Marxism
Over the past decade, a new rise of mass struggles in Latin America has sparked an encounter between revolutionists of that region and many of those based in the imperialist countries. In many of these struggles, as in Bolivia under the presidency of Evo Morales, Indigenous peoples are in the lead. Latin American revolutionists are […]
The Indian Judiciary, the Salwa Judum Criminal Vigilantes, and Political Prisoner Dr. Binayak Sen
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its June 2008 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. When the issue is class struggle, everyone knows that today’s judiciary in India exhibits no qualitative difference from that of the British colonial regime. When workers try to […]
Naval Blockade against Iran?
The USA and the EU planning to escalate confrontation with Iran. A military blockade discussed. In the conflict over Iran’s civilian nuclear program, the United States and Europe are intensifying confrontation. At the top of the measures that are now being discussed is an international naval blockade by a “coalition of the willing.” As in […]
A Region in Chaos: An Interview with Dr. Mohssen Massarrat
Mohssen Massarrat, born in Tehran in 1942, is Professor of Political Economy and International Relations at Universität Osnabrück. Deutsche Militärzeitung: Professor Massarrat, William Fallon, US Commander responsible for the Middle East, unexpectedly resigned after just one year. A cause for his resignation is obviously the US policy toward Iran. Admiral Fallon criticized the US […]
The Irish “No”: Voting on Behalf of the Silenced Majority of the EU
Today the results were announced of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, a revised version of the prior “free market” EU Constitution decisively defeated by the voters of France and the Netherlands in 2005. The masters of the European Union were careful this time not to permit the peoples of Europe a chance to […]
Che Guevara’s Final Verdict on the Soviet Economy
One of the most important developments in Cuban Marxism in recent years has been increased attention to the writings of Ernesto Che Guevara on the economics and politics of the transition to socialism. A milestone in this process was the publication in 2006 by Ocean Press and Cuba’s Centro de Estudios Che Guevara of Apuntes […]
The Current Financial Crisis and the Future of Global Capitalism
Prophecies of Downfall The fact that Marx finally began with the composition of his long-planned economic work in the winter of 1857/1858 was directly occasioned by the economic crisis that broke out in the autumn of 1857 and the concomitant expectations of a deep trauma from which capitalism would no longer recover. “I am working […]
Can Sudan Survive?
Lecture to Royal African Society, 21 May 2008 The modern history of Sudan is riddled with bloodshed, destruction and squandered chances for peace and democracy. Consistently, the worst case scenario comes to pass and, just when it seems as though things could get no worse, they do precisely that. But occasionally, the Sudanese succeed in […]
Cuito Cuanavale: A Tribute to Fidel Castro and the African Revolution
In March 2008, the President of the African National Congress of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, led a high-level delegation of South African parliamentarians to the site of the victory of the forces of liberation at Cuito Cuanavale in Angola. This visit was linked to the numerous ceremonies in Angola to commemorate the victory of Angola, […]
The Delusion of the “Clash of Civilizations” and the “War on Islam”
The rhetoric about a “clash of civilizations” and a “war on Islam” has found its way easily into Arab intellectual discourse, where it has taken solid root, along with other similar “concepts” (or what I’d rather call “non-concepts” — like the term “terrorism” — since they are extremely vague and yet ideologically loaded) that were […]
Key Contrasting Congresses in Germany
Three all-German congresses were held this past weekend, all important but very different. The bad news first: The beautiful old city of Bamberg hosted the national congress of the National Party (NPD) — the main neo-Nazi party. All attempts to bar it from the city’s Congress Hall foundered on a Bavarian court decision, since the […]
Lessons the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Hold for the War in Iraq?
David A. Bell. The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. x + 420 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 978-0-618-91981-9. The concept of “total war” is not a new one to historians, particularly those of the twentieth century. For many, the […]
In Lebanon, the Spectre of Peace
Hezbollah is the big winner in the accord on Lebanon signed in Doha, Qatar. But everyone — including Washington — is welcoming this asymmetrical compromise. Why? Hard bargaining is underway. . . . In the Middle East, neither the worst nor the best is ever certain. But what happened in Doha, the capital of Qatar, […]
Iran: The Evil State versus the Good People?
Marjane Satrapi’s film Persepolis must have made George Bush and his new ally Nicolas Sarokzy quite happy. After all, despite Satrapi’s rhetoric against the two leaders, her film’s core argument is one that Bush and Sarkozy have long been busy constructing: the evil state versus the wonderful people. Aesthetically, Persepolis is a refreshing and beautiful […]
Riot Squads, Privatization, and the National Front: David Peace’s GB84
In 1984, the Margaret Thatcher regime and the British National Coal Board annulled an agreement reached after the 1974 British miners’ strike. The Board told the British public that they intended to close 20 coal mines and privatize the previously nationalized industry. At least twenty thousand jobs would be lost, and many communities in the […]
60 Years of Palestinian Dispossession . . . No Reason to Celebrate “Israel at 60”!
“Even after fifty years of living the Palestinian exile I still find myself astonished at the lengths to which official Israel and its supporters will go to suppress the fact that a half century has gone by without Israeli restitution, recognition, or acknowledgment of Palestinian human rights and without, as the facts undoubtedly show, connecting […]
Open Letter to Andy Stern about Actions against UHW
Thursday, May 1, 2008 Dear Andy: We are writing to you as journalists, authors, political activists, and educators who are committed to organized labor because of its important role in social justice struggles in the U.S. Some of us have longstanding ties to SEIU and have done research, writing, or labor education work involving its […]
Vermont Peace Activists Occupy General Dynamics Weapons Plant
On May 1st, International Workers’ Day, ten peace activists in Burlington, Vermont entered General Dynamics and locked themselves together in the main lobby of the building in protest against the company’s weapons manufacturing and war profiteering. University of Vermont student Benjamin Dube, one of the dozens of other activists present at the event, leaned out […]
May Day in Germany: Rightists, Leftists, Greens, and Neo-Nazis
May Day remains a national holiday in Germany. So does Jesus’s Ascension Day (whose German name, I’m afraid, is Himmelfahrt) and this year, for the first time in many years, both occurred on the same day. Less pious males frequently celebrate the religious holiday with markedly sexist outings of loud tipplers, often on horse-drawn wagons […]
