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“We Are Already Dead”: Avraham Burg Attacks the Jewish State, the “Zionist Ghetto” [“Nous sommes déjà morts” : Avraham Burg attaque l’Etat juif, “ghetto sioniste”]
“Avoir défini l’Etat d’Israël comme un Etat juif est la clef de sa perte. Un Etat juif, c’est explosif, c’est de la dynamite.” Ces propos sont ceux de l’ex-président de la Knesset de 1999 à 2003 et ex-président de l’agence juive, Avraham Burg. M. Burg n’a jamais mâché ses mots, mais, dans un entretien publié […]
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French Election’s Deeper Meaning
France’s presidential election results are deeply contradictory. The victory for the “patronat” — the nation’s dominant big business community — may prove extremely dangerous in terms of an enemy reawakened by that victory. The losses for the French left — which still retains the support of half the nation’s electorate — may provoke its return […]
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Imperial Sunset?
For the first time since its rise as a superpower the United States is facing a serious threat to its hegemony across the globe. In February this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed a security conference in Munich that had 250 of the world’s top leaders and officials in attendance, including such luminaries as the […]
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Favorite Color: Red
KARL MARX: A Life by Francis WheenBUY THIS BOOK It is fitting that a man who framed a dialectic based on violent contradiction — on thrust and counter-thrust, struggle and counter-struggle — should have lived a life fraught with contradictions. In Francis Wheen’s biography, Karl Marx is neither hero nor nemesis, but a man of […]
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Human Development and Practice
Opening comments at Conference on Participation, Change, and Human Development at the Centro Internacional Miranda in Caracas, Venezuela on 27 March 2007 The Bolivarian Constitution, in my view, is unique in its explicit recognition (in Article 299) that the goal of a human society must be that of “ensuring overall human development.” From the declaration […]
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Iran and Iraq: Fake Maritime Boundaries
Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, is also a former head of the Foreign Office’s maritime section, who was personally involved in negotiations on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. His 27 and 28 March 2007 blog entries disputing the British claim that its sailors, seized by Iran, were in Iraqi […]
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Comrades in Arms
IVAN’S WAR by Catherine MerridaleBUY THIS BOOK As civilians, we can never understand combat, or empathize with those who have seen it. Samuel Fuller, a World War Two infantryman who saw combat in France — and who later, as a Hollywood director, recalled his trauma in The Big Red One — said it was impossible […]
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“There’s a Need to Be Hopeful”: The Radical Beats of Radio 4
It’s a rare thing to find a group of musicians who are willing to stick to their guns like Radio 4 has. Independently minded, with an eclectic sound and lyrics that eloquently call for radical social change, they have spent the better part of a decade carving out a niche for themselves. Not an easy […]
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A New History [Una nueva historia]
Así como en teología el mismo Cristo sirve para justificar la acumulación de capitales o para suprimir al prójimo en nombre del amor, así también la historia de los oprimidos sirve para crear mitos e ideoléxicos incuestionables, a la medida del poder de turno: el patriotismo, la libertad, la salvación del mundo,nuestro derecho de aplastar […]
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Interview with Heinz Dieterich: “In Venezuela, Conditions for Building Socialism of the 21st Century Have Been Created” [Entrevista a Heinz Dieterich “En Venezuela se han creado condiciones para construir el Socialismo del Siglo XXI”]
P. Profesor Dieterich, ¿Usted inventó el concepto “Socialismo del Siglo XXI”? R. Sí. Lo elaboré a partir de 1996. Fue publicado junto con la teoría correspondiente en forma de libro, a partir del 2000 en México, Ecuador, Argentina, Centroamérica, Brasil, Venezuela y, fuera de América Latina, en España, Alemania, la República Popular de China, Rusia […]
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“A Vote of Conviction Is Now Impossible. One Can Vote Blank or for Ségolène Royal”: An Interview with Michel Onfray, Philosopher and Supporter of a Single Candidate of the Anti-Liberal Left [“Un vote de conviction est désormais impossible. On peut voter blanc ou Ségolène Royal” Entretien avec Michel Onfray, philosophe et partisan d’une candidature unique de la gauche antilibérale]
Annual Fundraising AppealFriends of MRZine and Monthly Review! The continuing existence of MRZine and Monthly Review depends on the support of our readers. Unlike many other publications, we make all new Monthly Review articles, as well as MRZine articles, available online, free of charge. We do so without drawing any advertising money at all […]
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A “Québécois Nation”? Harper Fuels an Important Debate
The House of Commons voted on November 27 to support a Tory government motion that “the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada.” What does it mean? And why now? The second question is easier to answer. The motion was triggered by an unexpected turn of events. Michael Ignatieff, in his quest for the […]
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Afghanistan: Bush’s Other War
Annual Fundraising Appeal Friends of MRZine and Monthly Review! The continuing existence of MRZine and Monthly Review depends on the support of our readers. Unlike many other publications, we make all new Monthly Review articles, as well as MRZine articles, available online, free of charge. We do so without drawing any advertising money at all […]
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A Marxist Poet: The Legacy of Gillo Pontecorvo
Pauline Kael, the American film critic, once said that Gillo Pontecorvo was the most dangerous kind of Marxist: a Marxist poet. When the Italian film director died last week at the age of 86, he had not made a full-length feature in over twenty-five years. Yet the potency of Pontecorvo’s firebrand poetry can still be […]
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How to Stay Out of Gitmo
In case you’ve been too stunned by other newsworthy disasters to pay proper attention, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was just signed into law. This law gives the U.S. government legal permission to do things they’ve been doing sub-legally for years, such as: designate people as “unlawful enemy combatants”; deny these people the right […]
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Appraising the Bamako Appeal: A Contribution to the Debate
1. Introduction This commentary is offered as a contribution to the ongoing debate on the Bamako Appeal. On the 18th of January, on the day preceding the start of the Polycentric World Social Forum in Bamako, Mali, a conference was held in the same capital, commemorating the holding of the Bandung Conference 50 years back. […]
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Anti-Arab Racism, Islam, and the Left
Racism against Arabs and Muslims long preceded the 9-11 terrorist attacks and has much of its roots in Western imperialism in the Middle East, especially Israel’s colonization of Palestine. Yet, the escalation that we witness today can be traced to the war on terror launched after 9-11 by Bush and his neoconservative ideologues with the […]
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Interview with Paul LeBlanc
Paul LeBlanc Paul LeBlanc is what I have called an “organic intellectual,” a scholar and activist who has risen directly out of the working class. Paul is the author of many books, including A Short History of the U.S. Working Class (Humanity Books, 1999) and Black Liberation and the American Dream (Humanity Books 2003), […]
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An Israeli Attack Can Shatter the Relative Safety of Iran’s Jews
One of the neocon myths that has gained currency post-9/11 asserts, referring to opponents of Israel and the United States, that “they are against who we are, not what we do.” Hence, the argument concludes, there is nothing we can do to diminish their antagonism. A variant of this fiction is that Iran’s Islamic elite […]
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Can Political Forces in Lebanon Unite to Confront the Israeli Aggression?
The View of the Lebanese Communist Party on the Latest Developments Friday, 21 July 2006 The Situation on the Ground The Israeli enemy has continued making intensive air strikes at the districts and villages in the south, turning southern villages into isolated islands. Meanwhile the intensity of the bombardment on other parts of the country […]