The Fairmont Conference In late September 1995, five hundred of the world’s economic and political leaders met in San Francisco’s prestigious Fairmont Hotel upon the invitation of an institution headed by Mikhail Gorbachev. The conference was financed by some American super-rich, possibly in gratitude to Gorbachev’s “services rendered” in the ex-Soviet Union. The task required […]
Geography Archives: Iraq
I Will Salute No More Forever
St. Louis — His government broke his heart but it could not break Air Force veteran Charles Powell’s spirit. Fighting back tears, the 64 year-old vet stood tall and resolute in front of 400 of his comrades, describing in verse the final steps of a painful disillusionment. Each summer during the national convention of Veterans […]
Neo-Nazis in Germany, or Déjà Vu?
An argument at a summer fair in the small town of Muegeln, between Leipzig and Dresden, ended with a mob of fifty drunken young men wielding knives and other weapons and shouting “Foreigners Get Out!” chasing eight men from India — longtime residents in Muegeln — across the town square. The Indians, some badly wounded, […]
“Labour for Palestine” Responds to U.S. Anti-Boycott Statement
27 August 2007 In July 2007, a group of labour leaders from the U.S. issued a statement opposing the growing international campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The statement was signed by a number of presidents from unions including the American Federation of Teachers, the American Postal Workers Union, the Communication Workers […]
Zionists Attack Mural of Palestinian Resistance
We are writing to ask for your support for a mural on 24th and Capp St that is under attack by Zionists. The mural depicts related images of struggle by indigenous communities against forces of imperialism, racism, and economic oppression. Its major theme is breaking down walls — those in Mexico, Palestine, Iraq — […]
Former Enemies Find New Way Forward
St. Louis — A young man from Palestine and another from Israel riveted 400 U.S. military veterans to their seats last week in this city on the Mississippi River. What captivated the audience was their recent decision to put down the guns they’d pointed at each other for years. The two members of Combatants for […]
Moratorium Marathon for Peace
“WAR . . . huh . . . yeah What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.” — Edwin Starr‘s No. 1 Hit, “WAR,” 1970 Edwin Starr’s antiwar blockbuster hit Number 1 less than a year after the Vietnam Moratorium brought millions of us into the streets in October 1969. Nearly forty years later, we are […]
Peace Movement Overthrows Government, Cheney Dies
(PU) Former Vice President Richard B. Cheney was found dead today at the Daniel Ellsberg Reeducation Center for War Criminals and the Psychopathically Challenged. Using twine he had pilfered from a macramé class, Mr. Cheney apparently hanged himself after a particularly grueling group therapy session in which participants were asked to go deep within themselves […]
Iran’s Progress in Mastering Nuclear Energy Sparks New Threats of Aggression
In recent months Iran has made large strides toward mastering nuclear technology. Alarmed by these advances, the Bush administration and its European allies have stepped up their hostile actions and threats, specifically: Attempting to prevent the entry into service of Iran’s first nuclear power plant at Bushehr. The Bushehr reactor will use nuclear fuel […]
Nobel Laureates and International Organisations Speak Out on Hiroshima’s Anniversary: For a Middle East Free of All Weapons of Mass Destruction
International Statement for a Middle East Free of All Weapons of Mass Destruction Despite the unfolding tragedy in Iraq and the dangerously spiraling crises in the Middle East, another war of an unprecedented scale, this time against Iran, is looming near. The environmental and human cost of this war would, by comparison, dwarf the suffering […]
We Are All Prophets Now: Responsibilities and Risks in the Prophetic Voice
Sermon delivered August 5, 2007, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. It may be the fate of humans always to believe that we live at the most important time in history, that our moment is the decisive moment. But even factoring in this tendency toward collective self-centeredness, it is difficult to ignore that today we face […]
Hassan Juma’a, President of Iraqi Federation of Oil Union
حسن جمعه عواد الاسدي رئيس اتحاد نقابات النفط Hassan Juma’a Awad al Assadi, President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), spoke to over 200 people at Friends Meeting House in London on Wednesday, 18 July 2007. The IFOU represents 26,000 workers across Iraq. They have struck three times against the privatization of Iraqi […]
Israel’s Jewish Problem in Tehran: So Why Hasn’t Iran Started by Wiping Its Own Jews off the Map?
Iran is the new Nazi Germany and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the new Hitler. Or so Israeli officials have been declaring for months as they and their American allies try to persuade the doubters in Washington that an attack on Tehran is essential. And if the latest media reports are to be trusted, it looks […]
Turkish Elections and After
The July 2007 elections ended with results beyond the expectations of most observers. We will watch for possible coming earthquakes. To explain the AKP’s election victory, in addition to the AKP’s own tactics and policies, exogenous factors should be taken into consideration. These include the large vacuum at the centre right and center left of […]
Empire and Its Fixers
Ayub Nuri, a Kurdish man from Halabja, was a fixer for the Western media in Iraq (he is now based in New York City, having received a scholarship from Columbia).1 A fixer, in the words of Nuri, is “a journalist’s interpreter, guide, source finder and occasional lifesaver.”2 Local fixers, more or less, shape what foreign […]
Iraq Wins Its First Asian Cup Victory, Scenes of Jubilation in Baghdad [L’Irak remporte sa première Coupe d’Asie, scènes de liesse à Bagdad]
L’Irak a créé la surprise, dimanche 29 juillet, en battant l’Arabie Saoudite 1-0 en finale de la Coupe d’Asie de football, à Djakarta. Le capitaine de l’équipe, Younis Mahmoud, a inscrit le but de la victoire à la 71e minute pour offrir à l’Irak un succès inespéré. C’est la première fois que l’Irak, véritable sensation […]
Profit without End: Capitalism Is Just Getting Started
Debates concerning the “Socialism of the 21st Century” are experiencing an upswing at the moment. However, this century will initially be rather one of capitalism than socialism. Not because there is once more an economic recovery. Prosperity and crisis alternate constantly in capitalism, but behind this up-and-down process are tendencies towards an extension and further […]
George Galloway and the Al-Yamamah Scandal
George Galloway gets suspended from the Commons even as the investigation into the Al-Yamamah deal (which may implicate the UK government in Saudi money laundering for terrorist cells: Simon Jenkins, “Who Exposed This Colossal Bribery? Why, the Feral Beast,” Guardian, 13 June 2007) gets scrapped. Galloway notes: “The Serious Fraud Office investigation into BAe was […]
Fighting with Audacity, Intelligence, and Realism
Achievements of the Cuban Revolution are well known to Monthly Review readers. What is striking about Raúl Castro Ruz’s address on 26 July 2007 (an excerpt from which is reproduced below), on the occasion of Cuba’s National Day of Rebellion, is not his tribute to them but his candid assessment of the “errors which […]
Apartheid Americana
Two of my friends were just beaten and arrested by Brooklyn police. My friends, Michael Tarif Warren and Evelyn Warren, are African-American attorneys whose work consists, in part, of defending victims of police violence. I want to tell you about how police punched and humiliated these good people on the corner of Vanderbilt and Atlantic, […]
