The following is an interview of me (MDY) conducted by Cedric Muhammad (CM), who is an aide to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. An abbreviated version of the interview appears in The Final Call, the Nation of Islam’s newspaper (available at www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Business_amp_Money_12/article_100637.shtml). […]
Geography Archives: Middle East
The Struggle Continues: Seeking Compensation for Vietnamese Agent Orange Victims, 52 Years On
The drums of war are beating again. The Obama administration will reportedly launch a military strike to punish Syria’s Assad government for its alleged use of chemical weapons. A military attack would invariably kill civilians for the ostensible purpose of showing the Syrian government that killing civilians is wrong. “What we are talking about here […]
An Interview with John Bellamy Foster (for the Sunday Eleftherotypia)
CJP: What began as a financial crisis in 2007 has become one of the biggest unemployment crises in the advanced capitalist world. Could this perhaps mean that the crisis of 2007-08 was not actually caused by finance itself but had its underlying causes in the real economy? JBF: No one doubts that it was […]
#DirenLice: A Milestone in Solidarity Between Kurds and Turks
One of the most hotly debated aspects of #OccupyGezi has been the nature and degree of Kurdish participation. Although from the beginning Kurdish activists have participated intensively in most of the #OccupyGezi protests in metropolitan cities in Turkey, and some MPs of the pro-Kurdish BDP have been closely involved in the movement, the participation of […]
We Can Smell the Tear Gas from Rio and Taksim to Tahrir
To you at whose side we struggle, June 30th will mark a new stage of rebellion for us, building on what started January 25th and 28th, 2011. This time we rebel against the reign of the Muslim Brotherhood that has brought only more of the same forms of economic exploitation, police violence, torture, and killings. […]
Whose Majority? Understanding the Foundations of the Political Conflict Over Gezi Park Protests in Turkey
Turkey has been witnessing one of the most vibrant and creative protests in its history since a group of protestors were subjected to brutal police violence a month ago in Gezi Park, Istanbul. Primarily started as a reaction against the urban regeneration of Gezi Park, protests then proliferated in other parts of Istanbul and […]
Kurds and Turks Share Doubts About Peace Talks Between PKK and Turkish Government
Diyarbakir (Amed) After nearly three decades of war, Turkey’s Kurdistan region, home for an estimated 25 million stateless Kurds, warily awaits a long-lasting peace. For the last 29 years this region has been ravaged by a ferocious conflict between the Turkish army, the NATO’s second largest, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a guerilla movement […]
We Need Your Solidarity With #OccupyGezi Now!
Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (now aka Recop Tazyik Gazdoğan, a pun on the PM’s name and the Turkish words for “truncheon,” “water cannon,” and “teargas”) issued an ultimatum at a so-called local election kickoff rally in a suburb of Ankara, which everybody knew was an attempt to counteract #OccupyGezi. Only a few hours […]
Letter of Support for Demonstrators in Turkey
The Executive Committee of Local 3903 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE 3903) declares ourselves in solidarity with the demonstrators throughout the Republic of Turkey. The demonstrations which began on May 31, 2013 have been entirely peaceful and speak to the conscience of vast numbers of the population of Turkey. The Turkish government’s […]
ILWU’s Northwest Grain Conflict: Business Unionism or Fighting Class-Struggle Unionism
When Wisconsin state workers were courageously occupying the state capitol to protest Governor Scott Walker’s attack on their unions’ right to bargain, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka trumpeted a call for solidarity actions throughout the labor movement on April 4, 2011, the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, killed during the Memphis sanitation […]
“The Economy Is Doing Fine, But the People Aren’t”: Some Facts on the Economic Background of the Protests in Turkey
Speaking about the then dictator of Nicaragua, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt reportedly said: “Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” Whether or not Roosevelt actually said it in so many words is disputable, but there is no doubt that it — i.e., dictatorship is licensed in […]
Urgent Call for Active Solidarity Action to Stop Police Brutality in Turkey!
Dear comrades, friends, sisters, and brothers of our movement! This is an urgent call for more active international solidarity actions with people who are fighting for their democratic rights in all cities and towns of Turkey. Prime Minister Erdogan and his government are attacking people who are trying to voice their democratic demands in all […]
KCK: The Gezi Resistance Is a Message for a New Turkey
The KCK (Union of Communities in Kurdistan) Executive Council said that the Gezi Park protests, which began as social resistance, have sent a message calling for a new, democratic Turkey. The KCK called on the Kurdish people to take initiative, saying that the Kurds should fulfill responsibility by working with the democratic forces in Turkey […]
The Choice for the Working Class Will Certainly Be Created
1. For days now Turkey has been witnessing a genuine popular movement. The actions and protests, which have started in Istanbul and spread all over Turkey, have a massive, legitimate, and historic character. The most important of all is the striking change in the mood of people. The fear and apathy has been overcome […]
Leila Khaled’s Message from Amed/Diyarbakır to #OccupyGezi
“You have to stay in the square, in Taksim, until the government accepts your demands. Don’t leave it. [Stay] there with your peaceful demonstration, your peaceful strike, sit-in. And I call upon women to join it on a wide scale everywhere, in the squares in different cities, not only in Taksim. Long live the people’s […]
#OccupyGezi
31 May 2013 This is our Tahrir. Friday evening. This is probably the busiest street of Ankara at this time of the week. It’s busy today, too — not with traffic, but with thousands of demonstrators. On the surface, everything has only to do with a public park, which is slated to be demolished […]
From Afghanistan, “Thank You, Bradley Manning”
May 29, 2013 A few evenings ago, as the sky began to darken here in Kabul, Afghanistan, a small group of the Afghan Peace Volunteers (APVs) gathered for an informal presentation about WikiLeaks, its chief editor Julian Assange, and its most prominent contributor Bradley Manning. Basir Bita, a regular visitor to the APV household, began […]
Afghan Activist Fahima Vorgetts: Resisting the 1% in Afghanistan, With One Women’s Cooperative at a Time
May 27, 2013 When she was 24 years old, in 1979, Fahima Vorgetts left Afghanistan. By reputation, she had been outspoken, even rebellious, in her opposition to injustice and oppression; and family and friends, concerned for her safety, had urged her to go abroad. Twenty-three years later, returning for the first time to her homeland, […]
Interdom at Eighty: Reflections in Russia, on Dreams Old and Renascent
Russia, as travelers have noted over the centuries, is immense. Most of it is far from large bodies of water. And yet, in a first visit after many years, I came upon some unusual islands right in the heart of the country. But they were not islands in the geographic sense. Some were children’s islands. […]
Bradley Manning Blows Chance to Have Gay Wedding
Gay greetings, LGBT-town! I’m your out-and-proud lesbian pundit. You may recognize me from my latest blog entry, “How Gay Was My Condo.” Today, I bring you a hard-hitting work of in-depth political analysis re: Private First Class Bradley Manning. It seems some malcontents on the Board of San Francisco’s Gay Pride Parade have suggested Private […]
