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) […]
Subjects Archives: Democracy
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 […]
Cinema as a Democratic Emblem1
Philosophy only exists insofar as there are paradoxical relations, relations which fail to connect, or should not connect. When every connection is naturally legitimate, philosophy is impossible or in vain. Philosophy is the violence done by thought to impossible relations. Today, which is to say “after Deleuze,” there is a clear requisitioning of philosophy by […]
Parsa
Here is Parsa. He is ten months old. He is my nephew and I love him with all my heart and soul. Parsa was born just eight days after the second sanction resolution against Iran. Parsa has learned a few things since he was born ten months ago. He points to everything that seems […]
The Renewal of Democracy: An Interview with Paul Ginsborg
Paul Ginsborg is Professor of Contemporary European History, University of Florence and a frequent public commentator on politics and life in Italy. His books include A History of Contemporary Italy, Society and Politics 1943-1988, Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society and the State, 1980-2000, and the bestselling biography Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony. He […]
Israel: Democratic Rights in Peril
The Israeli government took this week a new measure in its attempt to suppress democratic rights in Israel. The government has approved a bill banning all commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, under penalty of Imprisonment. The bill is yet to pass in the Israeli parliament, subject, for now, to heavy criticism from many […]
The Case of Dr. Binayak Sen: “Punishment by Trial” Threatens Democracy
The text of a letter written by the venerable Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, former Supreme Court Judge, to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dated April 17, 2009: I would like to bring to your attention a case of grave injustice which is a cause of much shame to Indian democracy: that of Dr. Binayak Sen, […]
Wanted: Red-Green Alliance for Radically Democratic Reorganization of Production
Private capitalism (in which productive assets are owned by private individuals and groups and in which markets rather than state planning dominate the distribution of resources and products) has repeatedly demonstrated a tendency to flare out into overproduction and/or asset inflation bubbles that burst with horrific social consequences. Endless reforms, restructurings, and regulations were all […]
El Salvador: Voting in Rebel Territory
Heading out from San Salvador to Chalatenango, the roads are covered with political propaganda from the ruling right-wing ARENA party. In the lead up to the March 15 presidential elections in this small Central American country, all of the utility posts have been painted in the party’s colors of red, white, and blue. Presidential […]
Why the Islamic Republic Has Survived
Obituaries for the Islamic Republic of Iran appeared even before it was born. In the hectic months of 1979 — before the Islamic Republic had been officially declared — many Iranians as well as foreigners, academics as well as journalists, participants as well as observers, conservatives as well as revolutionaries, confidently predicted its imminent demise. […]
ATPC Communiqué on the Death of a CGTG Comrade
In spite of the tireless calls of the Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP, Collective against Exploitation), the employers and the French government have let the situation deteriorate. Instead of really facilitating the negotiations, the French government’s representatives went from evasions to evasions (the prefect left the negotiation table on the 28th of January, and the […]
Afghanistan and the Soviet Withdrawal 1989: 20 Years Later
Washington D.C., February 15, 2009 — Twenty years ago today, the commander of the Soviet Limited Contingent in Afghanistan Boris Gromov crossed the Termez Bridge out of Afghanistan, thus marking the end of the Soviet war which lasted almost ten years and cost tens of thousands of Soviet and Afghan lives. As a tribute […]
Somalia: Daunting Challenges
The parliament broadened by the Djibouti peace process elected Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of the executive council of the Islamic Courts Union, as President of Somalia. The Ethiopian occupation alone had failed to shore up the Transitional Federal Government, so Washington had to try a new tack. Al Jazeera’s report, however, indicates trouble […]
Interview with Maya Jribi, Leader of the Progressive Democratic Party of Tunisia:”Our Youth Have Neither Hope Nor Future”
“In Tunisia, the youth have lost hope and prospects. The movement of Gafsa is a matter of the whole society.” So says Tunisian biologist Maya Jribi, the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), which strongly supports the struggle of miners in Gafsa. The PDP is one of the main opposition parties against President […]
Resistance and Recovery: The Republic Windows Workers Tour
UE Local 1110 members — the workers who occupied Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors Plant in December and won — are visiting with, and being hosted by, labor and community groups from Michigan to Vermont during the next several weeks. Join Jobs with Justice, UE, and other groups in celebrating the successful resistance at Republic […]
UE: California Company Ready to Purchase Assets of Republic Windows, Put UE Members Back to Work
14 January 2009, Chicago UE Local 1110 announced today that the leading company in the green window business — Serious Materials, based in Sunnyvale, California — is in the final stages of working out an agreement to purchase the assets of Republic Windows and Doors. Members of UE Local 1110 staged a sit-in last month […]
Open Letter to Israeli Soldiers
Introduction Please sign the following statement, which we hope to be able to publish soon in Israeli newspapers. Donations to help pay for publication can be sent via PayPal by clicking here. We encourage organizations to sign by sending us email. Jews Call on Israeli Soldiers to Stop War Crimes We Jews in the […]
Israeli Communists Thank Hugo Chávez, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Israeli Communists Sent a Message to Hugo Chávez, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela The Israeli Communists sent a message to the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, today (Thursday, 8 January 2009). In the name of the members of Israel’s Communist Party, they thanked Chávez for his courageous […]
Power in the Early Republic, Inc.
“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]
Neocons, Republicans, and War Criminals Rave about Obama’s “Team of Rivals”
“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]
