Labor historians Marcus Rediker and Peter Linebaugh have vividly described how sailors and other maritime workers were in the vanguard of the creation of an international working class. Unlike most people in the early modern period who largely stayed rooted to the soil of their birth or tied closely to their particular artisanal enterprises, Jack […]
Geography Archives: Europe
Countries in the continent of Europe
On Terrorist Attack in Damascus on February 21, 2013
A terrorist car bombing in close proximity to the Russian Embassy in Damascus which occurred on February 21, 2013 and was carried out by a suicide terrorist bomber, resulted in numerous victims and wounded among civilians, including students of a secondary school. The chancellery and the housing compound of the Russian Embassy were significantly […]
Capitalism Becomes Questionable
The depth and length of the global crisis are now clear to millions. In the sixth year since it started in late 2007, no end is in sight. Unemployment rates are now less than halfway back from their recession peak to where they were in 2007. Over 20 million are without work, millions more limited […]
“Whose Streets? Our Streets!”: Reflections on the World’s Largest Demonstration, Ten Years Later
Leo Zeilig and Sarah Grey
February 15, 2003 Sarah, New York: The wind that whips down the avenues is bitterly cold, but that doesn’t stop us from protesting the drive to war in Iraq. People from all over the city and the Northeast — young and old, hardened activists and first-time protestors — have converged on Manhattan, where the […]
‘Toward the United Front’: Translations for the Twenty-first Century
On February 3, 120 socialists took part in a Toronto meeting to celebrate publication of Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922, available in paperback from Haymarket Books. This 1,300-page volume is the seventh book of documents on the world revolutionary movement in Lenin’s time edited by John […]
Greece’s Big Smog: Neoliberal Austerity, Public Health, and the Environment
Neoliberal austerity in crisis-torn Greece has a significant implication for public health and the environment. The disturbing reality is that the unbearable cost of heating oil for a large portion of the country’s population has led to an increased use of solid fuel heating. The smog that has appeared in Athens and other Greek […]
Golden Dawn: The Development of Greek Fascism
As was the case in 1930s Germany, Greek liberalism has revealed itself to be politically spent. In dealing with the austerity measures imposed upon the country from outside by an international troika consisting of the IMF, European Commission, and European Central Bank, the government has failed comprehensively in the eyes of its electorate. When the […]
Prison for the Man With the Megaphone: Dresden Court Passes a Harsh Sentence Against Participant in Anti-Nazi Protest of 2011
An alleged “ringleader” of protests against a Nazi march on February 19th, 2011 in Dresden was sentenced by a local court to a prison sentence of 22 months. “Eventually the population of Dresden has had enough” — with this opinion, district judge Hans-Joachim Hlava justified his harsh sentence against a participant in an anti-Nazi […]
Davos Mysticism: Elite Optimism Amid Endless Crisis
“An economic recovery has begun.” — President Obama, Second Inaugural Address President Obama’s optimism — baseless as it may be — was surely appreciated at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. For in what was described as the “most optimistic” meeting since 2007, 2,600 members of the global elite convened over the weekend […]
Capitalism, Crises, and a Socialist Alternative: In Conversation With Michael A. Lebowitz
Rebekah Wetmore and Ryan Romard (RW/RR): The crisis of world capitalism starting in 2007 was the most severe crisis of capitalism since the Great Depression and thus far the recovery, both globally and within Canada, has been weak at best. With this mind, to what extent is the current crisis cyclical and in what […]
What Would Karl and Rosa Say?
First, a glance at long-past history — at the American hero Friedrich Wilhelm Augustin von Steuben, known as Baron Steuben. In many ways he was really a phony. His noble title and rank as “Prussian Lieutenant General” were inventions; he had really been dropped from Friedrich the Great’s army as a lowly captain. That he […]
An Unnamed Woman Tortured to Death by Rape in Delhi and the Death of Aaron Swartz; The Degrees of Responsibility — Carmen Ortiz, Manohar Lal Sharma and Colonel Lama
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its January 2013 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. We know nothing about the beliefs of the canon (religious) lawyers among the Christians, but can safely assume that they would consider it a sign of movement in […]
The Promises and Challenges of Bolivia’s Socialist Government
Bolivia’s government entered 2013 on an optimistic note. Socialist-oriented projects aimed at shoring up national independence and protecting indigenous rights seemingly were on track. Now, however, the government is having to deal with emerging reports of official corruption. Opinion surveys show that President Evo Morales, overwhelming victor in two presidential elections and one recall vote, […]
Where Is the Left in the Austere Germany of the “Patriots”?
Things in Berlin are all really up in the air! No, cancel that! Just the opposite; they are grounded — indefinitely! That giant new hub airport for Berlin, named after Willy Brandt, was due to be opened last June after weeks and months of ballyhoo. But it wasn’t. Something was not quite OK with the […]
Interview with Gianni Vattimo: “Only Weak Communism Can Save Us”
Is it true that you are communist? What else can one be, the way things are? Communism left 70 million dead. . . That wasn’t communism. What was it, then? Industrialism. Lenin proposed electrification plus soviets, that is to say, popular control . . . but popular control evaporated! And what remained? Industrialism. Stalin imposed […]
Do We Oppose the Anomalies of Capitalism or Capitalism Itself?
Q. Can you comment on increased public outrage regarding acts of corruption and strivings towards achieving what is considered normal functioning of the capitalist system? A. The question is: Do we oppose the anomalies of capitalism or capitalism itself? Corruption is vastly overrated. Of course, it can reach proportions in which even the normal […]
Zyuganov and Religion: On the Current State of the Russian Communist Party
On 27 October, 2012, Gennady Zyuganov gave a rather important speech. Presented at the 14th plenum of the central committee, it sought to provide the framework for renewing and improving the theoretical work of the party. But this is not any party and Zyuganov is not any leader, for the party is the Russian Communist […]
Catastrophism — Left, Right, and Center
One of the Left’s great challenges is to understand when the great watershed of change is upon people and seize the time. Racism, sexism, inequality, and uncertain futures have weighed heavily on the conscience of many a movement. For every great moment, hundreds of crushing defeats never to be remembered are handed down. Once […]
International Initiative to Stop the War in Syria: Yes to Democracy, No to Foreign Intervention!
We, the undersigned, who are part of an international civil society increasingly worried about the awful bloodshed of the Syrian people, are supporting a political initiative based on the results of a fact-finding mission which some of our colleagues undertook to Beirut and Damascus in September 2012. This initiative consists in calling for a delegation […]
Why Is Cuba’s Health Care System the Best Model for Poor Countries?
Furious though it may be, the current debate over health care in the US is largely irrelevant to charting a path for poor countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. That is because the US squanders perhaps 10 to 20 times what is needed for a good, affordable medical system. The waste […]
