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“Whose Streets? Our Streets!”: Reflections on the World’s Largest Demonstration, Ten Years Later
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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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‘Naxalbari . . . Will Never Die’: The Power of Memory and Dreams
Here is the full-text of what I said — as also, what I wanted to say but restrained myself because of the time constraint or because of my diffidence — at the book release of Gautam Navlakha’s Days and Nights in the Heartland of Rebellion (Penguin Books, 2012), organised by Sanhati at the Gandhi […]
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Capitalism and “Human Nature”: A Rebuttal
In the celebrated section of The Wealth of Nations in which he discusses the advantages of the division of labor, Adam Smith advances the thesis that “common to all men” is a “propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another.” Smith hedges on whether this “propensity” is a matter of original human nature […]
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Can Syria Avoid the Fate of Libya and Iraq? Interview with Issa Chaer
Dr Issa Chaer is a member of the Syrian Social Club (based in England). Carlos Martinez: Thanks very much for agreeing to be interviewed. You have been very active in spreading information about the Syria conflict. Can you explain why you have chosen to give so much time and energy to this cause? Issa Chaer: […]
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Furor in France: Mission Civilisatrice and “Muslim Rage” in the Motherland
As Muslims around the world protest their contemptuous treatment by the West, catalyzed by the provocative, racist American film Innocence of Muslims, the French media added fuel to the fire of by publishing offensive cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Left-wing alt-weekly Charlie Hebdo ran cartoons that depicted a naked, turbaned Muhammad in profoundly racist and […]
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All Sorts of Roguery? The ‘Financial Aristocracy’ and Government à Bon Marché in India
My voice is a crime, My thoughts anarchy, Because I do not sing to their tunes, I do not carry them on my shoulders. — Cherabandaraju, who was the lead accused in a “conspiracy case” involving poets and their poetry. It’s been two decades and a year since India’s elite embraced neo-liberalism. Money — the […]
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Interview with Ammar Waqqaf Regarding the Crisis in Syria
Ammar Waqqaf is an independent Syrian political analyst based in England. Q: Why do you think the western powers are so keen to see regime change in Syria? A: Western powers would be fools not to exploit such an opportunity to turn a key regional player from an opposing side into an allied one. Achieving […]
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Impoverishing Europe
The crisis is not relinquishing its grip on Europe. From autumn 2008 to early 2009 the world market experienced the deepest slump in economic output since the Second World War. This is a global crisis. Even in emerging economies like China, Brazil, or India economic growth declined and could not compensate for the recession […]
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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 […]
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#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 […]
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Human Rights in the New Libya
Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela. Cf. “A Libyan diplomat who served as ambassador to France for Muammar Gaddafi died from torture within a day of being detained by a militia from Zintan, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday. . . . On January 26, humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres said […]
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And Papandreou Says He Is a Socialist
Papandreou writes on a blackboard as a punishment meted out by Germany and France: “I must not consult the Greek people I must not consult the Greek people I must not consult the Greek people I must not con. . . .” Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | […]
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Interview with Salim Lamrani: “The Economic Sanctions against Cuba Constitute the Principal Obstacle to the Development of the Country”
Salim Lamrani. État de siège; les sanctions économiques des États-Unis contre Cuba(State of Siege: The United States’ economic sanctions against Cuba). Prologue by Wayne S. Smith. Preface by Paul Estrade. Paris, Editions Estrella, 2011. 15 euros. CSF: You’ve just published a new book under the title État de siège. What exactly do you cover […]
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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. . . […]
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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, […]
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Germany’s Euro Trilemma: Interview with Yanis Varoufakis
Yanis Varoufakis is a prestigious economist who heads the Department of Economic Policy at the University of Athens. From 2004 to 2007 Varoufakis served as economic adviser to George Papandreou. Author of several books on Game Theory, Varoufakis is also a recognized speaker and often appears as guest analyst for news media such as the […]
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Al Jazeera and U.S. Foreign Policy: What WikiLeaks’ U.S. Embassy Cables Reveal about U.S. Pressure and Propaganda
“Al Jazeera is a vital component to the USG’s strategy in communicating with the Arab world.” — Joseph E. LeBaron, U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, November 6, 2008 “Al Jazeera Board Chairman Hamed bin Thamer Al Thani has proven open to creative uses of Al Jazeera’s airwaves by the USG beyond straightforward interviews.” — Joseph E. […]
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Intercepted Phone Call: NATO Ground Troops Assisted Tripoli Invasion; “Mass Graves” in Misurata
US and European troops participated in the invasion of Tripoli and are still stationed there, according to an intercepted telephone call between officials of Libya’s National Transitional Council, the body purporting to represent NATO-allied rebels in the Libyan civil war. The call also reveals the existence of mass graves in or near Misurata which, one […]