Introduction On the 17th and 18th of November 2007, the finance ministers and reserve bank governors of the G20 countries, along with leading International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank officials, will be gathering in the seaside village of Kleinmond, South Africa.1 During this meeting — which will be hosted by the current Chair of […]
Geography Archives: Europe
Countries in the continent of Europe
SEIU v. Aramark: On the Mark and On the Move
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is on the mark in organizing the growing army of service workers in the US, and is on the move in sharp contrast to the industrial unions that have been stalled and subverted by anti-union legislation and massive offshoring (see “The Fight of Our Lives: The War of Attrition […]
Capitalism’s Beverage & the Obesity Epidemic
The Los Angeles Times reports that Disneyland is retooling its boats-on-water rides because of the raging obesity epidemic in the United States, “to deal with the delicate problem of bottoming-out boats.” People are simply getting too fat for the existing rides, including the now satirically named “It’s a Small World”: “Forty-one years after the whimsical […]
Twenty Reasons against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran
INTRODUCTION Five years into the US-UK illegal invasion of Iraq and its consequent catastrophe for Iraqi people, peace loving people throughout the world are appalled by the current Iran-US standoff and its resemblance to the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The hawks, headed by Dick Cheney in Washington, are now shamelessly calling for […]
Neoliberal Poison
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its November 2007 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. Now that the global counter-revolutionary assault of the last decades has visibly begun to ebb, the time may be near when an account can be rendered of the […]
A View from the Pakistani Left
In recent days, the already tenuous political situation in Pakistan has made a turn toward the worse. Musharraf’s government clamped down first on the judiciary and other opponents in the government in the first days after his declaration of martial law. More recently, those same forces have prevented even the liberal bourgeois opposition represented by […]
Oil and Efficiency Myths
Everything Americans do requires transportation because our individualized homes, like our jobs and shopping locations, are all considerable distances from one another except in our largest, densest cities. The private automobile rules. Everything we buy in a store got there by truck. Two-thirds of US oil consumption goes for transportation, most of that for private […]
An Imperial Democracy [Una democracia imperial]
A juzgar por los documentos que nos quedan, Tucídides (460-396 a. C.) fue el primer filósofo de la historia que descubrió el poder como un fenómeno humano y no como una virtud que conferían los cielos o los demonios. También fue conciente del valor principal del dinero para vencer en cualquier guerra. Podemos agregar otra: […]
Turkey into the Vortex of the Iraq Quagmire: Another Breach in US Policy
A new dimension of immense importance is being added to the contradictions of US policy in Iraq and the Middle East at large. Turkey, a staunch US ally for over half a century and a NATO member, is threatening to militarily intervene in Northern Iraq, i.e. Iraqi Kurdistan. A resolution was passed by the Turkish […]
An October for Us, for Russia, and for the Whole World
It is no surprise that the imminent ninetieth anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia has become the object of widespread attention. The events of October 1917 were, indeed, an earthquake that shook the world, altering its economic, social and cultural foundations. Many media sources depict this world-historic phenomenon as a mere coup d’état, […]
They Met the Resistance
On one of those beautiful, fall Sunday mornings that can make you feel all is right with the world, filmmakers Molly Bingham and Steve Connors discussed their new documentary about Iraqis fighting the U.S. occupation, Meeting Resistance, 84 minutes of unflinching wallop destined to unhinge the way millions of Americans see their country’s role in […]
J. R. R. Tolkien: Saving the Ecosystems of Middle Earth
In J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Lord of the Rings trilogy (1955-56) the ring is at the center of an epochal ecological struggle over the fate of Middle Earth. Received as fantasy, in its own way this tale nevertheless encapsulates nearly a century of geological, biological, and botanical lore that followed Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859). […]
How Can Anybody Be Persian? [Comment peut-on être Persan ?]
Dans son chef-d’oeuvre Les Lettres persanes, publié en 1721, le grand philosophe français Charles-Louis de Montesquieu s’interroge sur les comportements surprenants des Français : lorsque Rica, son voyageur iranien arrivé à Paris, décide de s’habiller à la française, il constate avec étonnement que ses amis français ne le traitent plus avec l’admiration qu’ils lui portaient […]
On the Ninetieth Anniversary of the Russian Revolution: Why Socialism Did Not Fail
When the Russian Revolution of October 1917 took place, it raised the hopes of the working class worldwide that a socialist state was possible. The civil war that followed plus the intervention of foreign powers devastated the economy, necessitating a postponement in the transition to socialist relations of production. The New Economic Policy was a […]
Surmounting Sectarianism in the Middle East: An Interview with Hisham Bustani
In a recent interview with the Qatari daily al-Raya, the Jordanian Marxist writer and activist Hisham Bustani analyses current issues: the situation in the Arab region; threats against Iran; the “Broader Middle East Initiative”; the U.S., Arab regimes, and Islamists; and prospects of the Arab liberation project. This interview, conducted by the journalist As’ad al-Azzouni, […]
Iran: Bernard Kouchner’s Declaration [Iran : Déclaration de Bernard Kouchner]
La déclaration de Bernard Kouchner appelant à se préparer à la possibilité d’une guerre avec l’Iran est inquiétante. Cette déclaration venant après le discours de Nicolas Sarkozy sur une alternative entre « la bombe iranienne ou le bombardement de l’Iran », simplifiant à l’outrance le problème du dossier nucléaire iranien, vise en réalité à préparer […]
Russian and Iranian Presidents’ Joint Statement
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Tehran, 16 October: A joint statement has been signed following today’s talks in Tehran between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad. Here is its full text. On 16 October 2007, which corresponds to 24 Mehr 1386 in the Iranian calendar, Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the head of […]
The Majority Strike in Public Opinion [La grève majoritaire dans l’opinion]
Mouvement social . Selon un sondage CSA pour l’Humanité, 54 % des Français expriment leur soutien à la mobilisation du 18 octobre. Les diversions du gouvernement sont mises à mal. Et si la tendance s’inversait. . . Pour la première fois, une majorité de Français soutient la journée d’action du 18 octobre contre la réforme […]
Putin in Iran: Interview with Vladimir Putin
Interview with IRNA Information Agency and Iranian State Television and Radio ABBAS ALI HADJI PARVANE: In the name of Allah! Mr President, we are very grateful to you for finding the time to give us this interview in spite of your busy schedule and to answer our questions on Russia’s international position and bilateral relations […]
Globalization Now: The North American Auto Industry Goes South
Understanding globalization, the main trend of capitalism at the beginning of the 21st century, is critical because of the many ways that it is undermining the lives and communities of working people in North America and around the world. Few industries in the developed nations that are not specifically location-bound have been able to resist […]
