Geography Archives: Iran

At a press conference today, journalist Akbar Ganji had just finished vilifying the “intolerant culture” of non-Europeans when he failed to intervene against Western censorship happening right before his eyes.  He is touring the United States to, in his words, raise awareness about government abuses in Iran, including his six-year imprisonment that ended last March.  […]

  Statement issued by the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on the Escalation of Zionist Aggression against the Territory of Lebanon and Palestine. Epic steadfastness and resistance — the epic of Ghazza and al-Karama — continue in the land of Palestine and Lebanon.  The Lebanese and Palestinian peoples are […]

Circular of the Political Bureau of the Lebanese Communist Party on Current Developments for Party Organizations and Friends On Current Developments: The Fifth Day of the Aggression Since the start of the aggression, our party has defined its position and stance as being at the head of those opposing with all possible means the aggression […]

Since the commando assault on 25 June 2006 that led to the death of two Israeli soldiers and the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit, Israel has intensified the almost daily bombing of Gaza which it had started six months ago in response to the Qassam missiles launched towards the Israeli town of Sderot and the […]

  Israel’s military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon have reenergized the neoconservatives, who see an opportunity to regain influence lost as a result of setbacks in Iraq.  While insisting on unconditional U.S. support for Israel, the neoconservatives are also pushing for possible U.S. attacks on Tehran’s nuclear facilities in retaliation for its support of Hezbollah. […]

  When Fabio Grosso placed his penalty kick into the back of the French goal, Italians around the globe erupted into a state of euphoria.  I was one of those Italians, hungrily following every kicked ball throughout Italy’s run to winning its fourth World Cup, which ranks second only to Brazil’s five.  For my brother […]

A series of bomb blasts ripped through packed commuter trains July 11 in Mumbai, India.  Seven bombs exploded one after another during the evening rush hour.  As of this writing, 186 people had died and nearly 800 injured, while hundreds more were still missing. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the bombing. The […]

  Like many millions of fans of “Les Bleus,” France’s multi-ethnic football team, I was stunned and dismayed by the strange denouement of last Sunday’s World Cup final.  Our hero Zinedine Zidane, the greatest player of his generation and an exemplary figure in many ways, was ejected from the game with ten minutes to go […]

  George Galloway MP is the controversial British politician who has proved a thorn in the side of advocates of the Iraq war.  He is a fierce advocate of the Palestinian state, and a redoubtable campaigner against oppression and injustice throughout the world.  In 2005 he made a memorable appearance before the US Senate, successfully […]

The priority of the Iranian people, according to the Zogby poll released on 13 July 2006,1 is economy: 41% say economy should be Iran’s top priority, a far larger proportion than those who regard nuclear capability (27%) or freedom (23%) as the most important.  The correct priority if you ask me, as the Supreme Leader […]

International intrigues and eventually war — with all its now daily horrors — flow partly from the highly unstable economics of global oil.  Not only has this been true for a long time, it promises to continue that way unless and until some mass movement ends it.  The report of US planning to bomb Iran […]

  As trade union and community activists, socialists, and officials in our respective union organizations, we strongly support the recent Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario resolution supporting the international Boycott Israel campaign.  The resolution criticizes Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestinian territory, characterizing it as “apartheid.”  It calls on the union to develop an […]

I received the following open letter from Yassamine Mather, signed by seventeen activists and intellectuals in the Iranian diaspora including herself, and with her permission, I am publishing it here.  Among activists and intellectuals on the Left committed to the advancement of women in particular and the working class in general, as well as to […]

Caracas, 28 Jun. ABN. — Con la finalidad hacerle seguimiento a las relaciones bilaterales y discutir sobre el tema energético, los presidentes de la República Islámica de Irán, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad y la República de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, se reunirán en Teherán a finales de julio. Haga click en la foto para agrandar. Hugo Chávez […]

The depth and breadth of bipartisan commitment to the US empire among America’s political elite is best seen in the House vote on HR 282, the “Iran Freedom Support Act,” essentially a bill to “make U.S. sanctions against Iran under ILSA permanent unless there is a change of government in Iran”1:   YEAS NAYS PRES […]

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Iran must really adore the American model of state conduct.  Contrary to popular perceptions, the decision-makers in Tehran agree with their nemesis, Akbar Ganji, who recently told the Voice of America that the West was “the cradle of civilization.”  Two recent moves by Iran are especially noteworthy […]

A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEOLIBERALISM by David HarveyBUY THIS BOOK Neoliberalism has left an indelible, smoldering mark on our world for the last thirty years.  Eminent Marxist geographer David Harvey, author of A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford, 2005), spoke earlier this year to Sasha Lilley, of the radical radio program Against the Grain, about […]

  My father’s travels ended in 1980. We came back to live the Iran-Iraq war. Zinnah, my sister, was a child of ten when she attended the Dijla (Tigress) Primary School. One day she returned to ask my mother, “Are we Sunni or Shooyouii (Arabic for Communist)?” a word she had most probably picked up […]

Even before Iran was rocked by the mass uprising of 1978-79, I understood that moralists of all stripes shroud certain tragedies with unique reverence as a means of discouraging dissent.  Three decades later, Iran’s opposition movement — and occasionally Human Rights Watch — are grounded in orthodoxies of their own even as they struggles against […]

2,500 US known dead, give or take a corpse or two  Untold tens of thousands of Iraqis. A new and more repressive crackdown in Iraq’s capital city titled, rather lamely, Operation Forward Together.  No Iron Fist this time.  No Desert Storm.  Just Forward Together into the fog or perhaps the abyss.  No one really seems […]