The Syrian uprising which erupted nearly six months ago seems to be settling into a dangerous deadlock with neither side — the regime or the opposition — willing to budge from its stated position. The daily toll of deaths and injuries climb ever higher with no resolution in sight. The regime seems insistent on […]
Subjects Archives: Movements
The Shape of Things to Come in Libya: Interview with Michael Parenti
Michael Parenti: Expect the same thing as you saw happened in Yugoslavia and in Eastern Europe. There will be a massive privatization taking place. The public economy that the Gaddafi government had built over 40 years, which included public subsidies for housing, for education, for healthcare — all those things will be privatized. The […]
Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa
Excerpt: As envisioned by the Department of Defense (DOD), AFRICOM aims to promote U.S. strategic objectives and protect U.S. interests in the region by working with African states and regional organizations to help strengthen their defense capabilities so that they are better able to contribute to regional stability and security. AFRICOM also has a […]
Subjecting Spanish Constitution to Market Reform
Spanish Constitution, Approved by the Constituent Cortes on 31 October 1978, Reformed by Markets in 2011 Juan Ramón Mora is a cartoonist in Barcelona. This cartoon was first published in his blog on 30 August 2011 under a Creative Commons license. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). Cf. “Folletos para imprimir […]
Corruption and Party Politics in the Late Soviet Period
Luc Duhamel. The KGB Campaign against Corruption in Moscow, 1982-1987. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010. 312 pp. $26.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8229-6108-6. Luc Duhamel’s study of an extensive anticorruption campaign in Moscow in the mid-1980s is riveting. At multiple levels, this work provides new information and perspectives on a period of stalemate, factional competition, […]
Abdulhakim Bashar of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria: “The Kurdish Parties of Syria Don’t Want Blood Spilled between Us and the Syrian Regime”
Rudaw: The situation in Syria is turning increasingly violent and the western world has called on President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Where do you think things will go from here? Abdulhakim Bashar: The Syrian regime will not fall merely based on the words and pleas of the west. The regime has made up its […]
AU Calls for Inclusive Transitional Government in Libya
Note that the African Union, bucking the imperialist pressures, refused to recognize the rebel Transitional National Council as the sole legitimate representative of Libya. — Ed. The Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU), at its 291st meeting held on 26 August 2011, at the level of the Heads of State and […]
Ecuador Expresses Its Concern about Libya and Human Rights
Regarding the recent events in Libya, Rafael Quintero, Undersecretary for Asia, Africa, and Oceania, reiterated Ecuador’s disagreement with disrespect for the territorial integrity of that country. He expressed Ecuador’s insistence that international conventions be complied with, that human rights in Libya be respected, and that no attempt be made to take the Libyan case as […]
Messianism versus Democracy
The Central government’s flip-flops on Anna Hazare are obvious: it went from abusing him (through the Congress spokesperson) for sheltering corruption, to extolling him for his idealism; from arresting him, without any justification, and getting him remanded to judicial custody for a week, to releasing him within a few hours. But the Anna group’s flip-flops […]
Separating Fact from Fantasy in Bolivia: A Review of Jeffery R. Webber’s From Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia
The election of Bolivia’s first indigenous president, on the back of a mass rebellion that overthrew successive governments, has stirred great interest in this small Andean nation. Given that the Evo Morales government recently celebrated its 2000th day in power — a feat in its own right for a country that has had around 180 […]
Labor’s Defeat in Wisconsin and the Specter of 2012
On March 9, 2011 Republicans at the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin approved Governor Scott Walker’s bill ending most collective bargaining rights for union-organized state employees. The capitol had been occupied for over a month by unionists, students, and their supporters who were opposed to the bill. This was the first mass labor upsurge of […]
Continental Day of Solidarity and Action, in Support of Pelican Bay Strikers’ Five Core Demands
Tuesday, August 23rd, 4:30-6:30 PM Join us and make some noise at Governor Cuomo’s Office for THE CONTINENTAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY AND ACTION IN SUPPORT OF THE PELICAN BAY STRIKERS’ 5 CORE DEMANDS On August 23rd, there will be a special Legislative Hearing on Torture and the Solitary Housing Unit at Pelican Bay in […]
The Future of Arab Revolts: Interview with Samir Amin
The way Egyptian scholar and researcher Samir Amin sees it, nothing will be the same as before in the Arab world: protest movements will challenge both the internal social order of Arab countries and their places in the regional and global political chessboard. Hassane Zerrouky: How do you see what’s happening in the Arab […]
Obama’s Gift to Verizon: The Poison Pill in PPACA Used to Extract Concessions from Labor
Since Saturday night (August 6), 45,000 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) have been on strike from Massachusetts to Virginia — in the largest private sector work stoppage in the last seven years. Health care cost shifting is high on the list of givebacks demanded […]
Saudi King Calls for Freedom in Syria
The King of Saudi Arabia calls for “freedom” in Syria . . . but where in Saudi Arabia is Khaled al-Johani? Saad Hajo is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon was first published in As-Safir on 9 August 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. | Print
Labor Idle As Obama, Democrats Back “Raw Deal” for Working People
After it was too late to make a difference, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry denounced the debt-ceiling agreement as “a raw deal for working people and the 30 million Americans who are still looking for work.” In fact, neither SEIU, the AFL-CIO, nor AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka aggressively mobilized union members against the deal […]
Interview with Joshua Landis: Sanctions against Syria Will Only Hurt People
Joshua Landis: Hama, which is the center of this crackdown, left government control about three weeks ago. The governor called off the troops and withdrew security from the town. He was summarily fired. The government realized that this was a big mistake. . . . The government is clearly trying to take control of […]
Syria: What Is Going On in Hama?
Hama has suffered for the (at least) past three weeks from lawlessness and nearly complete absence of the entire state and its organs, and from control by groups of armed teenagers and criminals who (left without any other choice, in the opinion of the US and French ambassadors) actually erected roadblocks and expropriated the […]
India: Saying No to Iranian Oil to Please America
“[A]n assessment of whether India is fully and actively participating in United States and international efforts to dissuade, isolate, and, if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear weapons capability (including the capability to enrich uranium or reprocess nuclear fuel), and the means to […]
Revolt in the Arab World, But Not in Iran — Why?
Iran is a different case because the country already had a revolution in 1979. Even those Iranians who are in the opposition called for reform within the system rather than revolution. It is not a climate of fear that explains the survival of the Islamic Republic but the absence of revolutionary fervour. No state can […]
