Subjects Archives: Inequality

  Firing for Media Effect: Setting the “African” Agenda “We left behind our friends from Chad.  We left behind their bodies.  We had 70 or 80 people from Chad working for our company.  They cut them dead with pruning shears and axes, attacking them, saying you’re providing troops for Gadhafi.  The Sudanese, the Chadians were […]

  Andrej Grubacic.  Don’t Mourn, Balkanize! Essays after Yugoslavia.  Introduction by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.  PM Press, 2010. This is not a typical book review and I am not a detached reader.  The book’s author, Andrej Grubacic, is a friend and collaborator, a comrade in the truest sense of the word.  And as he makes clear throughout […]

  On 4 April 2011, when David Chandler’s essay below was first published in e-IR, French and UN forces intervened in Ivory Coast on behalf of Alassane Ouattara and his forces, eventually deposing President Laurent Gbagbo on 11 April 2011.  Humanitarian pretexts were offered for that intervention, but rather perfunctorily, almost as an afterthought to […]

  Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, April 17, 2011, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat salutes all of the over 5,700 Palestinian prisoners inside the Israeli occupation’s jails, and calls upon all those concerned for justice and freedom to join and build the largest possible international movement to secure the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners, and of […]

  Zenaida Velasquez is a sister of Ilse Velasquez, a Honduran teacher recently killed by the military-backed regime in Honduras. Dear Representative Nancy Pelosi: Right now I am in Honduras, my country of birth. I came here due to an emergency — bad news. . . My youngest sister, Ilse Ivania Velasquez Rodriguez, a dedicated […]

Several thousands of Tunisians protested outside the Saudi Embassy on 15 April 2011, demanding the extradition of fugitive Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Cf. “Former President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, who fled the country after a popular uprising forced him out in January, is now facing 18 legal cases, Tunisia’s official news agency […]

  The murder of human rights activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, is a tragedy for his family, for those of us who knew him, and for the Palestinians who loved and admired him.  The Steering Committee of Freedom Flotilla 2 condemns this senseless murder and the people who are behind it.  They took the life of one […]

  The Supreme Court has granted bail to civil rights activist Dr. Binayak Sen. Ilena Sen: This Part of Nightmare Is Over See, also, Jonathan Kennedy and Lawrence King, “The Conviction of Binayak Sen” (The Lancet, 16 April 2011); “Binayak Sen’s Mother Anasuya Sen: He Is Honest and Patriotic” (NDTV, 14 April 2011); PTI, “Supreme […]

“Demand an end to the intimidation, torture and killing of peaceful protesters, human rights activists, and health and medical personnel in Bahrain at the hands of the Bahraini military and security forces provided by Saudi Arabia and other states.” — American Council for Freedom in Bahrain Washington, DC, 15 April 2011 For more information about […]

  “Syria hosts the largest number of Iraqi refugees who have fled their home since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.  Estimates as to how many refugees are huddled in Syria vary, but most organizations estimate that roughly 1.2-1.5 million Iraqis have staked a temporary claim on neighboring soil.  ‘Temporary,’ however, is a relative time-frame for the […]

  House Budget Chair Paul Ryan’s proposal for Medicare has two primary goals.  It would end Medicare as a government program and shift it to private insurers, and it would reduce the government’s payments to the program, shifting more of the costs to the Medicare beneficiaries. This analysis by the Congressional Budget Office* demonstrates that […]

  There are some sectarian slogans being chanted by SOME (not all) protesters in Syria (they refer to the need for “Sunnis who fear God”).  It is an opportunity to make this point: if one supports protests and revolutions against all Arab regimes (and Iran), it does not follow that one should endorse all strands […]

Gilbert Achcar defends the recently “UN-authorized” imperialist intervention in Libya on the ground that general principles may require exceptions in concrete cases.  “Every general rule admits of exceptions.  This includes the general rule that UN-authorized military interventions by imperialist powers are purely reactionary ones, and can never achieve a humanitarian or positive purpose.”1  This kind […]

This just in from Bloomberg: The West African nation’s 2032 bonds issued a year ago jumped 7.7 percent to 55.438 cents on the dollar, the highest since Dec. 2, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.  The debt has rallied 14 percent in the past two days after Gbagbo troops surrendered. . . .  The country’s […]

Excerpt from Marc Bousquet, “Introduction”: The Occupation Cookbook is a “manual” that describes the organization of the student occupation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences that took place in the spring of 2009 and lasted for 35 days.  It was written for two reasons: to record what happened, and to present the particular […]

Bashar al-Assad is a lucky man.  Even the mother of the Angry Arab (himself no fan of the Syrian president) seems to like him: “As my mom says about him: he is the best educated among Arab leaders (many of whom are illiterate) and it shows.” — Ed. Beirut, Lebanon, 27.03.11 Cairo, Egypt, 31.03.11 Bucharest, […]

March 31, 2011 Caseptla Bailey and Catrina Wallace Civil rights activist Catrina Wallace, who received national acclaim for her central role in organizing protests around the Jena Six case, was convicted today of three counts of distribution of a controlled substance.  She was taken from the courtroom straight to jail after the verdict was read, […]

A few weeks can do a lot to sweep away old assumptions.  Last year U.S. leftists were wondering why the worst economic crisis in 70 years hadn’t inspired a stronger response from its victims; now Arabs have toppled neoliberal regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, and U.S. workers have fought cutbacks and union-busting in Wisconsin with […]

  21 March 2011 The African National Congress Youth League is concerned by the role played by South Africa in the United Nations Security Council.  South Africa voted in favour of UN Security Council Resolution 1973 to impose a No-Fly-Zone in Libya, and did not advocate for a peaceful solution or an African led solution […]

  March 20, 2011 We Urge the Japanese Government to Take the Following Actions Regarding the Crisis at the Fukushima Nuclear Plants: Despite strenuous efforts, there is an increasing danger that large amounts of radioactive material might be released from Unit No. 3, which is loaded with fuel containing plutonium.  We are particularly concerned about […]