Several months ago, an English sociologist told us that she was commissioned by her government to conduct a survey of “moderate Muslims.” The survey was about what a score of Muslim leaders in Great Britain thought about the fight against terrorism, the place of Islam in Europe, religious fundamentalism, etc. According to the sociologist, not […]
Geography Archives: Iraq
Confronting the Economic Crisis: The New Deal at 75 — Lessons for Today
When I was growing up in the 1950s, a photo of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1932-1945) still hung in the homes of some family members and friends. Our only four-term president was remembered by them as the leader — and even the savior — of the country. Those like my parents, who experienced the Great […]
Pledge of Commitment: People of Faith with Palestine in Struggle
Pledge of Commitment: People of Faith with Palestine in Struggle Our world is in crisis. We face a growing, more aggressive empire with an insatiable appetite for consuming the resources of our world, subverting justice and humanity by its desire to strengthen its global hegemony; destroying the environment; feeding racist ideologies and practices of […]
The Sadrist Revolt
The Student Muqtada al-Sadr has decided to take time out of his rebellion for studies. The increasingly popular Iraqi nationalist and Shi’i religious leader, it was reported late last year, is seeking the title of Ayatollah (“Sign of God”). Muqtada’s Iraqi supporters presently confer on him the title of Hujjat al-Islam (“Proof of Islam”), although […]
Ask Ms. Liberty: Advice for the War-Torn
Although it’s been over five years since the United States invaded Iraq, a few non-patriots among us refuse to understand or endorse our wartime zeitgeist. I have, therefore, persuaded our noble, statuesque Icon of America to gas up her torch and shed some light on a few selfish queries posed by our huddled, recalcitrant masses. […]
Obama, Clinton, and McCain Won’t Save the American Economy
The US media and party election machines have once again transformed the run-up to the US elections into a melodrama. Across the country, party candidates have been swaggering across stages, surrounded by stars and stripes and CNN logos, to spew out the latest piece of propaganda that the spin doctors have managed to conjure up. […]
No War: The Movement That Has Dissolved Itself [No war Il movimento che si è dissolto]
Cos’è successo al movimento contro la guerra che esplose nel 2003 mobilitando milioni di persone in tutto il mondo occidentale, al punto da esser definito una volta dal New York Times come «la seconda superpotenza»?Il fatto è che esso non è mai stato un movimento vero e proprio ma solo lo spasmo di un giorno, […]
Basra Assault Threatens Trade Unionists
28 March 2008 Basra Assault Confirms Presence of British Forces a Threat to Political and Trade Union Rights in Iraq In a series of telephone calls from Basra over the past 48 hours, Iraqi trade union activists appeal for solidarity and describe how the so-called ‘Security Plan’ started midnight 24 March with intense shelling […]
Brewing Trouble: How to Drink Beer and Save the World
Christopher O’Brien. Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World. New Society Publishers (November 2006), 275 pages. Beer, like so many other products, is largely in the hands of giant corporations. Therefore, drinking beer can often enrich the same systems of power we as activists are fighting against. Fermenting Revolution: How To Drink […]
How to Counter the Danger of War at This Sensitive Moment
Unfortunately, influential American and Israeli opponents of Iran have been successful: using negative propaganda of the sort that claims that Iran has an intention to cause a nuclear holocaust and that a Third World War and “Islamic fascism” must be prevented, and tying the disaster of Iraq to Iran’s interference, they have turned Iran into […]
“European Universalism Is Used to Justify Imperialism”: An Interview with Immanuel Wallerstein
Sociologist and historian at Yale University, Immanuel Wallerstein has described the globalization of capitalism, and today he criticizes Western “universalist” justifications of expansionism. In your book European Universalism, you revisit the 16th-century debate between Las Casas and Sepulveda on the American Indians. In what respect does this debate seem to you particularly relevant to […]
Unpleasant Anniversaries
March is a cruel month in the recent history of the Middle East. This year is the fifth anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie who was crushed to death by an Israeli soldier driving an armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozer on March 16, 2003 as she attempted to stop the gigantic vehicle from destroying the […]
The March 20, 2008 US Declaration of War on Iran
March 20, 2008, destined to be another day of infamy. On this date the US officially declared war on Iran. But it’s not going to be the kind of war many have been expecting. No, there was no dramatic televised announcement by President George W. Bush from the White House oval office. In fact […]
Beware an Attack on Iran
Is the Bush administration ramping up for an attack on Iran? The signs seem to point in that direction. On March 11, Navy Adm. William Fallon, commander of the U.S. forces in the Middle East, retired early because of differences with Washington on Iran policy. And now, Dick Cheney’s current Middle East tour may be […]
Tombstones Mark Anniversary of Another Infamous Date
March 19, 2003: a date that will live in infamy. Perhaps not in the minds of many of our fellow citizens, but surely to most people around the world. On that date, U.S. military forces invaded Iraq. Almost a year later I was in a small farming village some miles north of Baghdad, accompanying members […]
Latin America Rejects Bush Doctrine
Reeling from the blow that it received in the aftermath of the Colombian military’s illegal incursion on March 1 into Ecuador — which resulted in the brutal massacre of a number of civilians and members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), including its chief negotiator Raul Reyes — US imperialism has once again […]
An Open Letter to All Feminists: Statement of Solidarity with Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Women Facing War and Occupation
As feminists and people of conscience, we call for solidarity with Palestinian women in Gaza suffering due to the escalating military attacks that Israel turned into an open war on civilians. This war has targeted women and children, and all those who live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank, and are also denied […]
My Five Year Old Kid vs. Their Five Year Old War: A Mom’s Call to Action
Y’all remember five years ago? Were any of you on the streets with Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW) in downtown San Francisco five years ago? I wasn’t. I was not on the streets because I had a brand-new baby who needed to eat every two hours, so I couldn’t risk arrest. I […]
Two-State Dreamers: If One State Is Impossible, Why Is Olmert So Afraid of It?
If the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s most intractable, much the same can be said of the parallel debate about whether its resolution can best be achieved by a single state embracing the two peoples living there or by a division of the land into two separate states, one for Jews and the […]
Immigration: The Facts Lead Us in a Different Direction
In November 2007, the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors reducing immigration, released a report entitled “Immigrants in the United States, 2007: A Profile of America’s Foreign-Born Population.” The report was covered widely in the media, and the author, Center staff researcher Steven Camarota, was given many opportunities to repeat his […]
