No political action can be judged outside its epoch and circumstances. No one knows even one percent of the fabulous history of man; yet, thanks to that history, we know events that exceed the limits of the imaginable. The privilege of having known some of the people involved, including the places where some of the […]
Geography Archives: Europe
Countries in the continent of Europe
Double Standards Against Change in Bahrain: Interview with Maryam al-Khawaja
Protests against the Formula One Grand Prix held in Manama on 22 April could have reminded the world that repression in Bahrain is still ongoing. But once more the so-called international community by and large turned a blind eye: no diplomatic pressure, certainly no “crippling” international sanctions. The Grand Prix went ahead as planned. A […]
Self-Defense for Workers, Against Market Tyranny: An Interview with Michael Perelman
Carlo Fanelli (CF): Your early work pays a great deal of attention to the classical political economists (e.g. Ricardo, Smith, J.B. Say, J.S. Mill, Marx, etc.), with later writings engaging with economic luminaries such as Alfred Marshal and John Maynard Keynes. Could you briefly discuss how this research has influenced your thinking about economics? And […]
Argentina and the Magic Soybean: The Commodity Export Boom That Wasn’t
One of the great myths about the Argentine economy that is repeated nearly every day is that the rapid growth of the Argentine economy during the past decade has been a “commodity export boom.” For example, the New York Times reported last week: Riding an export boom for commodities like soybeans, Argentina’s economy grew at […]
“Fail Again and Fail Better”: Matan Kaminer on J14 Protests in Israel
I met Matan Kaminer in Tel Aviv in January 2012, and we agreed to do an extended interview about the state of the left in Israeli society after the controversial J14 social justice protests. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background? How did you get involved in political activity? I was […]
Pursuing Impossible Objects: An Interview with Simon Critchley
You’ve written about Beckett, Stevens, Blanchot, and others. Literature seems a fundamental concern. Indeed, your own prose is somewhat more literary than other contemporary philosophers’. What is the significance of literature for you? Well, it’s very important. When I stopped playing in punk bands when I was about 19 or 20, I decided I was […]
An Imperialist Springtime? Libya, Syria, and Beyond
Samir Amin: You see, the US establishment — and behind the US establishment its allies, the Europeans and others, Turkey as a member of NATO — derived their lesson from their having been surprised in Tunisia and Egypt: prevent similar movements elsewhere in the Arab countries, preempt them by taking the initiative of, initiating, […]
General Strikes! Looking Backward, Looking Forward
It began on July 14, 1934. That day the San Francisco Labor Council pushed by radicalized rank-and-file workers declared a General Strike, and this led to four days of intense class struggle, the likes of which has rarely if ever been seen in this country. The aim of the General Strike was to support the […]
Tracing the Roots of Intersectionality
Intersectionality as a key concept in women’s studies has up until the present proven rather durable. Feminist journals are peppered with it and feminists use it pretty much without having to explain what they mean, the term’s affinity with feminism taken for granted and its import unquestioned. Attend any women’s studies meeting, and sooner or […]
How to Achieve Peace in Syria
Press Conference, Moscow, 10 April 2012 Sergey Lavrov is Russia’s Foreign Minister and Walid al-Moallem is Syria’s Foreign Minister. Pavel Andreev is Executive Director of RIA Novosti and of the Valdai Club Foundation. James Longman is a BBC producer. Nathalie Novikova and Peter Oliver are RT correspondents. Reema is a Syrian tweep. Wael Yousef […]
Venezuelan Government Expresses Its Full Support for the Syrian People: Communiqué Following the Venezuelan Leader’s Conversation with His Counterpart Bashar al-Assad
The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Comandante Hugo Chávez, communicated this Good Friday, 6 April 2012, with the president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Bashar al-Assad, with whom he had a telephone conversation in the afternoon. The two presidents, who are united by long-standing personal brotherhood, said they continued to closely follow the […]
U.S. Hands Off Mali! An Analysis of the Recent Events in the Republic of Mali
Recent developments in the West African Republic of Mali are raising serious concerns about the possibility of yet another U.S. intervention. On March 22, one month before a scheduled presidential election, a military coup toppled the government of President Amadou Toumani Touré. Quickly taking sides, the regional 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) […]
Democracy Instead of the Fiscal Treaty! We Need a Different Approach to Tackle the Crisis, and a Different Europe
Spring 2012. Merkel and Sarkozy rush from summit meeting to summit meeting, in order to save the euro. The yellow press smears the people of Greece. The struggle over a solution to the crisis is intensifying dramatically: by early 2013, an authoritarian-neoliberal alliance of business lobby groups, the financial industry, the EU Commission, the […]
#Blockupy for Global Change
We are calling for massive protests in Frankfurt this May against the crisis regime of the European Union. We are activists representing a multitude of movements and struggles from different European countries and elsewhere, who have risen up in the past months and years to protest the assaults on our freedoms, jobs, and livelihoods […]
Turning Point on the Syrian Front: Dealmaking in Search of a Face-Saving Exit
In recent weeks, there has been a notable shuffle in the positions of key external players in the Syrian crisis. Momentum has quite suddenly shifted from an all-out onslaught against the Assad government to a quiet investigation of exit strategies. The clashes between government forces and opposition militias in Baba Amr were a clear tipping […]
Deindustrialization and Workers’ Struggle in Serbia
“Yugoslavia was in debt to the IMF. . . . There was a conflict in the six republics of Yugoslavia: who is going to pay the debt? Who is going to pay the debt was also a conflict between developed parts and undeveloped parts of Yugoslavia. . . . [In] this huge debate about who’s […]
Russia: After the Presidential Election
See, also, <chtodelat.wordpress.com>; <seansrussiablog.org>; and <www.sublimeoblivion.com>. | Print
Free Market Health Care: True Stories
I recently wrote an article about my personal experiences in dealing with the medical system while undergoing surgery (“Free Market Medicine: A Personal Account”). In response, a number of readers sent me accounts of their own experiences trying to get well in America. Health care in this country is hailed by conservative boosters as “the […]
Capitalism
Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. | Print
Not Quite “Ordinary Human Beings” — Anti-Imperialism and the Anti-Humanist Rhetoric of Gilad Atzmon
Attempting to latch onto the just, vital, and growing movement in support of the Palestinian national liberation struggle, Gilad Atzmon is one of a very small and unrepresentative group of writers who have argued (in agreement with many Zionists) that there is no meaningful distinction to be made between Jews in general and Israeli atrocities. […]
