There’s something happeningWhat it is ain’t exactly clearBuffalo Springfield, 1966 Are we in the midst of a momentous turn in world politics? Donald Rumsfeld has been shuffled out of the Pentagon. Daniel Ortega, Washington’s nemesis from the Sandinista Revolution of the late 1970s, is back as President of Nicaragua. Hugo Chavez has been triumphantly re-elected, […]
Geography Archives: Middle East
Abolish It!
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. […]
Consuming Karl
Now that I have mastered the art of writing for social change, I have decided to become a famous literary agent! Of course, before I open my own agency, I’ll need to practice editing. Luckily, the right manuscript recently came to my attention, and I have just finished crafting this cutting-edge feedback. Dear Karl Marx […]
Lebanon: Women against Civil War and Sectarian Divisions [Liban : Les femmes contre la guerre civile et les divisions confessionnelles]
Les derniers développements politiques au Liban, notamment les événements sanglants du jeudi 26 janvier, ont poussé les représentantes de 15 associations féminines libanaises (dont la « Ligue des droits de la femme libanaise », l’« Association « Wardé Boutros » des femmes communistes », « Kafa », « Les dames de Choueifat »…) ainsi que […]
Freedom Fight: An interview with Milenko Srećković
Milenko Srećković is a spokesperson for the Balkan anarchist movement FreedomFight and is one of the editors of the webzine www.freedomfight.net. Q: Could you start by telling us a bit about the alternative media initiative you are involved with? A: FreedomFight is an anarchist, alter-globalist movement created in Serbia in 2003. The FreedomFight movement […]
Toward a Surge for “Out Now”
THE ANTI-SURGE GETS ROLLING It’s not about Bush’s surge anymore. It’s the Antiwar Surge that’s capturing the headlines and threatening to upset all the warmakers’ calculations. On January 27, “a raucous and colorful multitude” (Washington Post) brought their “Out Now!” message to the streets of Washington. With participants ranging from active duty GIs to members […]
Pledge to Abstain — Stop Funding the War
View Current Signatures Sign the Petition To: U.S. Congress Whereas: the U.S. military occupation of Iraq is a cruel and illegal occupation that has cost nearly 700,000 lives, shattered a viable society, and displaced more than a million people, and Whereas: the occupation itself is the single greatest causative agent of inter-Iraqi violence, and Whereas: […]
Israeli Left Archive
Nostalgic? Curious? Historian? We would like to take this occasion to present to you and your friends our new Web site data base: ISRAELI-LEFT-ARCHIVE.ORG The Web site is built around collections of historical documents from various important sections of the Israeli left and peace forces: Women in Black and other sections of the women’s peace […]
Jacques Chirac Minimizes the Threat of an Iranian Nuclear Bomb [Jacques Chirac minimise la menace d’une bombe nucléaire iranienne]
Jacques Chirac a fait, lundi 29 janvier, au sujet du programme nucléaire de l’Iran et de ses conséquences possibles au Moyen-Orient, une série de déclarations tranchant avec le discours habituel de la diplomatie française sur ce dossier. Il parlait à des journalistes du Nouvel Observateur, du New York Times et du International Herald Tribune. Le […]
The Paris III Conference on Assistance to Lebanon: Who Aids Whom? [La conférence de Paris III pour le soutien au Liban : qui aide qui ?]
Le 25 janvier 2007 se tenait, à Paris, la Conférence internationale de soutien au Liban, dite « Paris III », convoquée et présidée par Jacques Chirac. Etaient réunis les représentants de trente-six pays, notamment la secrétaire d’Etat américaine Condolezza Rice, et de quatorze institutions internationales dont le nouveau secrétaire général des Nations Unies Ban Ki-Moon, […]
Visualizing the Iraq Death Toll
Veterans, community groups, and campus activists organized an action of solidarity to make the University of Oregon the second school in the nation to visually represent the Iraq death toll. Two hundred volunteers placed 112,000 white flags around school property, with each flag representing 6 Iraqi lives destroyed during the US occupation. 3,000 red flags […]
Once Again to Washington, DC
Jane Fonda told the crowd at the January 27, 2007 demonstration in Washington DC that it had been 34 years since she had appeared at an anti-war demonstration, due to the lies told about her by the right wing. It has been almost 38 years since my first DC demonstration, the great outpouring of November […]
Academia and Social Change
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the most prominent professional organization for American historians. Its annual meeting, held recently in Atlanta, featured abstruse panels and presentations with titles such as “Disciplined Bodies and the Production of Space, Place, and Race: Atlanta’s Latino Day Laborers at the Cusp of the Twenty-First Century” and “The Desire […]
Two, Three, Many Peace-ins!
Absent a national antiwar political formation on the horizon, local politics can point to the wave of the future. Take Sacramento. A peace-in is underway at the office of Doris Matsui in the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse, named after her late husband who represented California’s 5th congressional district for over two decades. She was […]
Waste, Fraud, and Abuse: Another Day at the Pentagon
When I was a teenager apprenticing at being a trade unionist and a left winger both, two of my favorite books were Labor’s Untold Story and History of the Great American Fortunes. I recommend them to any readers desiring a review of our own history as working people here in the United States. Both are […]
Half-hearted Condolences
Hard to tell which is more upsetting: Hrant Dink’s “unsurprisingly shocking” murder, or the hypocrisies uttered by government officials in his wake. Once words of condolences and condemnation are quickly dispensed with — in a monotone reminiscent of a computerized voice telling a caller that “the number you have dialed is not in service” […]
Unions Mobilize Against WarWill Join Washington Rally
President Bush’s troop escalation, the anti-war sentiment of the new Democratic Congress, and the rising cost of the war are motivating thousands of union members to board buses bound for an anti-war protest Jan. 27 in Washington, D.C. A CALL TO ARMS AGAINST WAR: Edward Hysyk, a top District Council 37 official, said unions […]
Gordon v the Mahdi: From Fighting Slavery to Fighting Fanaticism
This year is the 130th anniversary of Britain’s Anti-Slavery Convention of 1877. In the second of two articles,1 James Heartfield discovers that “Anti-Slavery” turned out to be an excuse for colonisation in the struggle between Gordon of Khartoum and the Mahdi. Successful as the Anti-Slavery ethos of British policy was in rendering British domination as […]
Mass Movement to End the War Now
To endorse the statement below, please go to: www.petitiononline.com/NYCLAW2/petition.html. January 24, 2007 Despite overwhelming rejection of its policies in the November elections, the Bush administration has steadily escalated its war in the Middle East. This has meant not only ordering thousands more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, but arming and financing Israel’s attacks on Lebanon […]
Lebanon Paralyzed by the Opposition [Le Liban paralysé par l’opposition]
Au moins 15 personnes ont été blessées par balles mardi au Liban, où des affrontements ont éclaté entre les partisans du gouvernement et ceux de l’opposition, qui bloquaient les axes routiers avec des pneus brûlés. Dans ce climat de vive tension, l’opposition a appelé à poursuivre le mouvement de grève générale entamé le jour même […]
