“Our young generation particularly showed that it still possesses the same political enthusiasm, awareness, and commitment that we saw in the first generation of the revolution. However, with one difference: the hot furnace of the revolution created emotions in the hearts of people, later during the war in a different manner, but today the same […]
Geography Archives: Middle East
“Antiwar Party” Votes for War
The five senators voting against $106 billion for Obama’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were three reactionaries — Coburn (R-OK), DeMint (R-SC), and Enzi (R-WY) — and only two progressives Feingold (D-WI) and Sanders (I-VT). Not voting were two sick senators, Byrd (D-WV) and Kennedy (D-MA), and one just disgraced one — Ensign (R-NV). A […]
Iran: Mousavi States His Case
Mir Hossein Mousavi, the reformist candidate challenging Iran’s authorities on the result of last week’s presidential elections, is a masterful tactician who wants to overturn the re-election of his rival, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, with allegations of a massive conspiracy that he claims cheated him and millions of his supporters. These supporters, identifiable by the color […]
Message to US Peace Groups: A Little Humility Please
(This missive is directed at the non-Iranian “peace organizations” who are presently issuing “statements” on the Iran events for whatever organizational purposes they have in mind. It is not at all intended to be critical of most of the excellent analysis and information exchange occurring, particularly within the Iranian communities.) We Americans love to shoot […]
Brazil: Lula Says There Is No Evidence of Fraud in Iran and Wants to Visit the Country
BBC Brasil Special Correspondent, Geneva President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this Monday in Geneva that there is “no evidence” that there has been a fraud in the Iranian elections and affirmed that he wants to set a date to visit the country next year. “Look, the (Iranian) president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) received a […]
Venezuela Denounces Campaign of Interference against the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Foreign Ministry of Venezuela condemns the vicious and unfounded campaign to discredit the institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, unleashed from outside, to roil the political climate. The ministry denounces the acts of interference in the internal affairs of Iran, designed to threaten and destabilize the Islamic Revolution. (MPPRE) Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela […]
Ahmadinejad Supporter Speaks
Embedded video from CNN Video LEMON: Well, the opposition is up in arms, but there are plenty of people cheering the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Earlier I spoke with an Ahmadinejad supporter. He is a former political science professor at Tehran University and also a former adviser to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) […]
40 National Orgs. Tell Congress, “Freeze Military Aid to Israel Until Israel Freezes Settlements”
Washington, DC (June 16, 2009) — As the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs prepares to mark up the FY2010 budget tomorrow, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation sent today an open letter to subcommittee members calling on them to cut off or, at the minimum, condition military aid […]
The Iranian Elections and the Hysterical Media
Here comes the hysteria and bold-faced lies. In the wake of the Iranian election, various commentators and so-called reporters in the United States are reacting as if the end of the world was at hand. Although nobody knows for certain and everyone only has the words of Western press pundits and an angry candidate to […]
Iran: What Can the Opposition Win?
Hamid Dabashi1 points out that, whatever the truth on the elections, the “fix” has become a “social fact” inasmuch as millions of Iranians are staking their lives on that very belief. He also pointedly satirizes Orientalist assumptions of the Reading-Lolita-in-Tehran variety and takes the opportunity to remind people that solidarity, not “democracy promotion,” is what […]
Workers Creating Hope: Factory Occupations and Self-Management
Introduction In most countries, political leaders and bosses are using the global economic crisis to once again unleash an attack on workers and the poor. As part of this, we have seen corporations around the world trying to make workers pay for the crisis by retrenching tens of millions of people. In the most extreme […]
SA Political Power Balance Shifts Left — Though Not Yet Enough to Quell Grassroots Anger
With high-volume class strife heard in the rumbling of wage demands and the friction of township “service delivery protests,” rhetorical and real conflicts are bursting open in every nook and cranny of South Africa. The big splits in the society are clearer now. Distracting internecine rivalries within the main left bloc — which saw off […]
A Sip of Coffee: Nahr al-Bared Camp, Lebanon
In May 2007, the battle between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army broke out in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Amidst heavy fighting, the Lebanese army had systematically destroyed the entire camp by September 2007. Two years later, nearly all the rubble has been cleared from the “old camp,” the core of Nahr […]
Solidarity Needed Now: Ahmad Sa’adat Enters Second Week of Hunger Strike
June 11, 2009 Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has entered the second week of his hunger strike to protest the policy of isolation and solitary confinement practiced by the Israeli prison administration against Palestinian prisoners. This is an urgent situation and requires broad solidarity and […]
Obama’s Cairo Speech: A Rhetorical Shift in US Imperialism
Barack Obama’s Cairo speech heralds a shift from the Islamophobic rhetoric of the Bush regime, but not from the long-term aims of the U.S. empire. Predictably, Barak Obama’s speech in Cairo came under hysterical criticism from the right. Sean Hannity screamed that Obama gave “sympathizers of 9/11” a voice on the world stage, Charles Krauthammer […]
Ahmadinejad Front Runner in Upcoming Presidential Elections; Iranians Continue to Back Compromise and Better Relations with US and West
Results of a New Nationwide Public Opinion Survey of Iran before the June 12, 2009 Presidential Elections Executive Summary: In a new public opinion poll across Iran before the critical upcoming June 12, 2009 Presidential elections, a plurality of Iranians said they would vote for incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranians also continue overwhelmingly to favor […]
Iran: Major Candidates, Possible Outcomes, and Implications for U.S. Policy
An excerpt from a report published by the Congressional Research Service: “Middle East Elections 2009: Lebanon, Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq” (18 May 2009). Major Candidates and Possible Outcomes The incumbent is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a non-cleric elected in a two-round contest in 2005, who derives support from conservative factions and has opposed any compromise with […]
Statement by a Group of Iranian Anti-war Activists about Iran’s Presidential Elections
Monday 8 June 2009 We are a group of Iranian academic and antiwar activists in Europe and the United States who, in the past few years, have consistently defended Iran’s national interests in all areas including its right to develop peaceful nuclear technology. Our varied activities in the face of anti-Iran propaganda by the neoconservatives […]
Send a Book to Gaza
Dear Friend, In partnership with Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, the Free Gaza Movement (FG) is launching its “Right to Read” campaign which will use the FG boats to deliver textbooks and other educational supplies to universities throughout the occupied Gaza Strip. This is not a charitable endeavor. Rather it is an act of solidarity and […]
Asia: Land Grabs Threaten Food Security
See, also, Food Crisis and the Global Land Grab at , a new Web site set up by Grain. PHNOM PENH, 10 June 2009 (IRIN) — Sam Pov, a rice farmer in Cambodia’s western Battambang Province, is very worried that his land will be taken over by a foreign investor. “I’ve heard the rumours about […]
