Subjects Archives: Marxism

  Arthur Hyman, Alfred Ivry, ed.  Maimonidean Studies.  Volume 5. Jersey City: KTAV Publishing House, 2008.  442 pp. $49.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-88125-941-4. The fifth volume of Maimonidean Studies is an eclectic amalgam of studies, the majority of which are based on papers delivered at a conference in New York City commemorating the 800th anniversary of […]

Perhaps the most significant feature of the recent Indian election is the loss suffered by the Left.  The BJP’s defeat was more or less anticipated, except by the psephologists, as was some loss by the Left; but the actual extent of the Left’s loss has been quite staggering.  True, its vote share has fallen only […]

  The curfew is not the only means of population control — now the de facto government is bent on suppressing the visibly identifiable sectors, in this case the indigenous population of the Central American country. Antonio Martínez, an indigenous leader, via TeleSur, reported on Wednesday that the international agencies that talk so much about […]

  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 […]

  Humanism and Human Rights Who or what is the ‘human’ of human rights and the ‘humanity’ of humanitarianism?  The question sounds naïve, silly even.  Yet, important philosophical and ontological questions are involved.  If rights are given to beings on account of their humanity, ‘human’ nature with its needs, characteristics and desires is the normative […]

  Here we publish an interview with Farian Sabahi, an Italian-Iranian professor at Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Turin.  A professional journalist, Sabahi has been writing for Corriere della Sera for several months.  She was a guest of LibrInTerra on the 26th of March, presenting her two books Storia dell’Iran [A History […]

Pop psychology has long had a term for the political marriage between LGBT people and the Democrats — it is a dysfunctional relationship. The Democrats court the votes and money of gays and lesbians, but offer few gains and a stunning share of abuse in exchange.  For those LGBT activists wooed by the Democrats, ditching […]

This much is clear: not in a long time has capitalism been so critically questioned in the US and “socialism” so widely debated as a social alternative.  The left can and should seize this moment.  One part of doing that is to formulate a new program — including a new definition of socialism — that […]

  Fit Chick Unbelievable Knockers Earlier in 2003 this T-shirt (Fit Chick Unbelievable Knockers) became one of the best-selling items ever for the British high street fashion store French Connection.  Like French Connection’s generic T-shirt ‘fcuk me’ and the World Cup inspired bestseller, ‘fcuk football’ it was a huge success.  It could be seen everywhere, […]

The keynote address at the “Climate Change, Social Change” conference (organized by Green Left Weekly), Sydney, Australia, 12 April 2008. This address became the basis for John Bellamy Foster, “Ecology and the Transition from Capitalism to Socialism” (Monthly Review, November 2008), which in turn became the last chapter of The Ecological Revolution: Making Peace with […]

  A discussion with Judith Butler on public mourning: Antigone, grieving, victimization, the production of certain populations as “ungrievable”, and the politics of public mourning as the expansion of our ideas of what constitutes a livable life, the expansion of our recognition of those lives that are worth protecting, worth valuing. Nelly Kambouri: In your […]

  “Fetishism: the Key to Sensuality”; “Is Cannibalism a New Religion?”; “Syrian Lingerie”; “I Am Gay, Therefore I Do Not Exist.” . . .  With such a table of contents, Jasad (“body” in Arabic), a Lebanese, Arabic-language, cultural quarterly “specializing in the art, literature, and science of the body,” might be mistaken for an unidentified […]

  My computer, today, is still at Tel Aviv police headquarters where it stayed after my two-hour interrogation last week.  I am not given, I believe, to conspiracy thinking but the thought crossed my mind, comically rather, whether I’d ever written anything unkind about my neighbor or his family. This morning, when I brought my […]

A colleague of mine who now works as an editor at a large German daily newspaper told me about an experience he had while enroling in Jewish Studies.  Since the main currents of Judaism and Islam both flow through the same cultural space with a strong Arab influence, he thought it would be wise to […]

Essayist, thinker and professor in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, Butler is best known for her studies of gender and sexuality, in which she examines the question of what it means to remake, to resignify, the restrictive normative concepts of sexual life and gender. Is it possible to establish any […]

  The past decade has witnessed a renewed interest in social policies, and some governments have increased social spending to soften the impacts of economic reform.  These changes have come in the wake of widespread realization of the failure of the neoliberal economic model to generate economic growth and dynamism and to reduce poverty.  Meanwhile, […]

Nancy Fraser‘s analysis of the obstacles to social and political justice represents an advance at a theoretical level for those who face the dilemmas of social practice.  In this sense, her work reinforces the importance of the role of the intellectual, not only when it comes to dealing with moments of crisis, but also with […]

7 May 2009 — The All Nepal Women’s Association – Revolutionary (ANWA-R) protested against President Ram Baran Yadav’s unconstitutional reinstatement of the Chief of Army Staff, General Rookmangud Katawal, despite the cabinet’s decision to fire him.  The protesters said that the president’s move threatens the civilian rule and democracy. For the background, watch Ben Peterson, […]

Workers and activists gathered in the central plaza of Asunción, Paraguay on May 1st to commemorate International Workers Day.  Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo marked the day by raising the minimum wage by 5%, half of what many of the unions present were demanding.  But another piece of news set the tone for this annual gathering: […]

  Sex workers from Kolkata took to the streets in their dozens to demand the legalization of the world’s oldest profession on International Labor Day.  Sonagachi is the biggest red light district in Kolkata and one of the largest in Asia. Around 500 sex workers took part in the march, which was organized by a […]