I. It seems to me that José Vasconcelos has found a formula on pessimism and optimism that not only defines the feeling of the new Ibero-American generation in the face of the contemporary crisis, but also corresponds to the absolute mentality and sensibility of an era in which, despite the thesis of José Ortega […]
Geography Archives: Europe
Countries in the continent of Europe
Libya: NATO’s Champagne Moment
NATO celebrating its victory. . . Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. The cartoons above were first published in his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 21 October 2011. Cf. “Libya’s Interim Government Wants NATO to Stay” (Tripoli Post, 25 October 2011); Larry […]
15O: Global Indignation
The 15th of October (15O) was the first coordinated global response to the crisis, signifying the emergence of a new international movement. Initially inspired by revolutions in North Africa, through emulation and imitation, protests began in the periphery of Europe. The Mediterranean world thus found itself situated in the epicenter of a new wave of […]
Occupy Wall Street and the Celebrity Economists
The Occupy Wall Street movement has transfixed the nation. In just a few weeks, it has spread from Manhattan to hundreds of towns and cities, and it has now taken root in other countries. It has focused the widespread anger that we feel toward a tiny group of extraordinarily rich individuals (the 1%) who […]
Occupy Wall St, Occupy Uruguay, Occupy Manila International Airport
In my last posting on #OWS, I related a series of conversations I’d had with global trade union activists on their perceptions of #OccupyWallSt. After the article appeared, several global labor activists contacted me with follow-up and feedback. Steve Faulkner, an International Officer at the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU), wrote to say that […]
A Moment of Awakening
The camp has grown since people dropped their tents on Saturday evening, amidst a hail of police batons and riot shields. By Wednesday, you could count well over 100 tents outside St Paul’s Cathedral. ‘People’s Assemblies’ are conducted on a daily basis, where suggestions for improvements are put forward. Khalil Gibran, Jeremy Scahill and George […]
Iran’s Massive Banking Scandal
What’s the origin of the Islamic Republic’s biggest banking scandal? The financial conglomerate Amir Mansour Arya Investment Development Company allegedly procured several letters of credit from domestic banks totaling $2.8 billion — far above the company’s available collateral. The Arya Group, founded by Amir Mansour Khosravi and now controlled by his son Mah-Afarid, controlled around […]
Europe in Crisis: Interview with Yanis Varoufakis
“My experience of the last year and half during the acceleration of this crisis is that the worst enemy of reason and progress are social democratic parties. I say this painfully. There’s no glee in this statement.” — Yanis Varoufakis The Mess We’re In . . . The Future of Greece A Solution to […]
Message of Support to Workers in Greece on the Eve of the 48-hour General Strike
We follow the struggle of the class-oriented labour movement in Greece. The struggle of PAME constitutes an integral part of our own struggle. We express our solidarity with the strike of 48 hours, in this battle and struggle against the barbaric measures that are being promoted in Greece, such as the abolition of collective agreements, […]
The “Convergence of Interests” in the Arab Revolts
In the wars currently waged on the backs of the Arab revolutions, one particular term stands out in the lexicon of Arab politicians and their columnist and media acolytes: the phrase “convergence of interests,” which has made a big comeback. In Tunisia, liberals of the worst kind, and Islamists of the opportunist variety, have […]
How to Make an Ecosocialist Revolution
Meetings such as this play a vital role in building a movement that can stop the hell-bound train of capitalism, before it takes itself and all of humanity over the precipice. Building such a movement is the most important thing anyone can do today — so I’m honored to have been invited to take part […]
Syria: BRICS Have Good Reasons to Oppose U.S. and Europe at UN Security Council
There has been a lot of hand-wringing and moralizing about the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) blocking a resolution in the UN against the government of Syria last week. China and Russia used a rare double veto as permanent members of the Security Council, and the other three abstained. “During this […]
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya: Worthy Victims and Unworthy Victims
Trafalgar Square, London, 8 October 2011, Video by Harry Fear TV At the very moment we are here, the United States, Britain, and France are bombing a city in Libya called Sirte. There are 100,000 people. Day and night, residential buildings, clinics, schools have been hit with fragmentation bombs and Hellfire missiles. . . […]
Before October: The Unbearable Romanticism of Western Marxism
Most Western Marxists suffer from a deep resentment: they have never experienced a successful communist revolution. For some unaccountable reason, all of those successful revolutions have happened in the ‘East’: Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, China, Vietnam and so on. And none of the few revolutions in the ‘West’, from Finland to Germany, […]
European Conference Declaration
After a day of intensive debate, analysis and planning for cooperation and action, the Europe against Austerity Conference heard Coalition of Resistance Secretary Andrew Burgin propose the following Declaration, on behalf of the European Preparatory Committee. The Declaration was unanimously endorsed by the Conference which was attended by over 600 people: This European conference […]
Figuring ‘It’ Out, Putting ‘It’ to Use
As I have understood the task at hand, the editors of Aneek expect me to respond to the question: Is ‘Maoism’ in India an authentic application of ‘Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought’? Frankly, I am not comfortable with such a positing of the question for it seems to suggest one “correct” interpretation of ‘Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought’ […]
Unions Join “Occupy Wall Street”: Interview with Mike Elk
Mike Elk: There are a number of comparisons between the two [the “Arab Spring” and Occupy Wall Street]. In the protests in the Middle East you had people protesting for a number of reasons. . . . They are driven largely by social media, and then institutional actors like unions and other groups start joining […]
“The Market Will Set You Free”
The LED sign at the gate of the Temple of Hell: “The Market Will Set You Free” Jorge Alaminos Fernández is a graphic artist and designer in Spain. This cartoon was first published in Litoral Gráfico on 20 August 2011 under a Creative Commons license. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). […]
Libya: NATO Provides the Bombs; The French “Left” Provides the Ideology
Last April, former Le Monde diplomatique director Ignacio Ramonet published (in Mémoire des Luttes) a text entitled “Libya, the Just and the Unjust.” The war had been started a few weeks earlier, inaugurated by French aircraft which had the honor of dropping the first bombs on Tripoli. On March 19, “a wave of pride […]
The Terrorist Attack in Syria
Grand Mufti of Syria Sheikh Ahmad Badr Eddin Hassoun On October 2, near the University of Ebla in Idlib province, gunmen shot dead the son of the Grand Mufti of Syria Sheikh Ahmad Badr Eddin Hassoun — Saria Hassoun, a student of the university. A victim of the attack also was Professor Mohammad al Omar. […]
