In the 1970s, when Iran’s Fedayeen and Mojahedin1 groups were engaged in an urban guerrilla struggle against the former Shah’s dictatorial regime, a faction of the Iranian Student Association (ISA) in the United States called Ehyaa2 had managed to convince some in the US Left, in particular America’s Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), that a […]
Subjects Archives: Movements
Iran’s Quiet Revolution: Mohammad Javad Jahangir’s The Invisible Crowd
According to Ervand Abrahamian, a scholar of Iran’s contemporary history, George Rudé’s observation that “perhaps no historical phenomenon has been so thoroughly neglected by historians as the crowd” is particularly true about the Middle East.1 While European journalists have invariably portrayed oriental crowds as “xenophobic mobs” hurling insults and bricks at Western embassies, local conservatives […]
“Me Detain Zelaya? What Are You Saying!”
Today in passing, a Honduran colleague told me that the latest news was that the national police were on strike because they had not been paid and that, when the de facto regime’s designate to run the Treasury, Gabriela Nuñez, said she would get them back pay, they said they would refuse to accept […]
Riding the “Green Wave” at the Campaign for Peace and Democracy and Beyond
There are many problems with the Campaign for Peace and Democracy’s “Question & Answer on the Iran Crisis,” issued by the CPD on July 7, and widely circulated since then.1 The CPD adopted this format, it tells us, because “some on the left, and others as well, have questioned the legitimacy of and the need […]
Manuel Zelaya: Democracy Has a Price and I Am Prepared to Pay It
When the Managua embassy press conference of the constitutional president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya Rosales ended, I was able to get into the president’s vehicle along with his Minister of the Presidency, Enrique Flores Lanza, to go to an interview with international media. In just a few days — or perhaps hours — President Zelaya […]
Goodwin or Kalecki in Demand? Functional Income Distribution and Aggregate Demand in the Short Run
Abstract In a seminal paper on Marxian business cycle theory Goodwin (1967) presented a model, which assumed that a higher wage share leads to lower investment and thus a general economic slowdown. In contrast Kalecki (1971) was arguing that a higher wage share would have an expansionary effect because the consumption propensity out of […]
Not Your Grandfather’s Labor History
Robert Cassanello, Melanie Shell-Weiss, eds. Florida’s Working-Class Past: Current Perspectives on Labor, Race, and Gender from Spanish Florida to the New Immigration. Working in the Americas Series. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008. 320 pp. $69.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8130-3283-2. Once upon a time, but within this reviewer’s scholarly lifetime, the primary focus of labor […]
Recapturing the Middle Ground: “Reasonable Belief” in the European Enlightenment
David Jan Sorkin. The Religious Enlightenment: Protestants, Jews, and Catholics from London to Vienna. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. xv + 339 pp. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-13502-1. On January 14, 1791, the Comte de Mirabeau delivered a speech to the National Assembly in defense of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the controversial project […]
Artists in Resistance: For the Defense of Democracy in Honduras
Artists mobilize again to repudiate the coup d’état and the de facto government in Honduras, in what we shall call the Plaza of Resistance, where Isis Obed Murillo was murdered on the 5th of July. 11 July 2009 Red Lésbica Cattrachas is a lesbian feminist group. For more information, contact Cattrachas general coordinator Indyra M. […]
After the Iranian Uprising
Even before the crisis over the election outcome broke, the prognosis for Iran in the coming year was not good. Back in October oil prices had started to fall and the contractionary measures taken by the Central Bank several months earlier to rein in inflation had slowed the economy. Last year, Iran’s imports had soared […]
Feminists in Resistance: For the Defense of Democracy in Honduras
28 June 2009 29 June 2009 30 June 2009 30 June 2009 1 July 2009 1 July 2009 4 July 2009 5 July 2009 6 July 2009 7 July 2009 Red Lésbica Cattrachas is a lesbian feminist group. For more information, contact Cattrachas general coordinator Indyra M. Aguilar: .
Literatures of Resistance: An Afternoon in Solidarity with the People of Iran
Saturday, July 11, 2009; 2 to 5 pm Bowery Poetry Club in New York – 308 Bowery (between Houston and Bleecker) F train to 2nd Ave, 6 to Bleecker. Join us as these and other artists of conscience bear witness, in poetry and music, to the struggle for democracy in Iran. Readings and performances […]
Iran Today: Democracy, Dissent, Repression, and Solidarity
Monday, July 13, 2009 7:30 pm The Brecht Forum, 451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune Streets), New York Please join us for a roundtable discussion with three leading Iranian analysts: Ervand Abrahamian, Hamid Dabashi, and Arang Keshavarzian. The discussion will be moderated by Leili Kashani and be opened up to the public. Come […]
President Zelaya: De Facto Government’s Military Repression Is a Criminal Act
Caracas, 5 July 2009, ABN — The legitimate president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, said this Sunday from El Salvador that the repression that the de facto government of Honduras carried out against demonstrators, who were peacefully calling for the return of the constitutional president, is a criminal act. “The acts of violence committed on Sunday […]
Joint Statement of Iranian Documentary Filmmakers on Iran Today
Iranian Documentary Filmmakers’ Declaration Déclaration des documentaristes du cinéma iranien بیانیه جمعی از مستندسازان سینمای ایران درباره ایران امروز We say this as a warning: depriving citizens of peaceful and respectful communication in the midst of the tense circumstances of the present time can lead to a violent reaction on the part of society, […]
Honduran Popular Movements Wait for Insulza outside OAS in Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa, 3 July 2009, ABN — Thousands of Hondurans who marched this Friday from the Francisco Morazán National Pedagogical University, at the heart of the city of Tegucigalpa, to the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in the Central American nation of Honduras are waiting for the meeting of José Miguel Insulza and […]
Repression in Honduras
The director of “Llaguno Bridge, Keys to a Massacre,” Angel Palacios, is in Tegucigalpa, from where he sent this video. Angel Palacios, the director of “Llaguno Bridge, Keys to a Massacre,” is in Honduras, recording repression during the coup d’état. Uploaded to YouTube on 30 June 2009. Published by Radio Nacional de Venezuela and YVKE […]
The Indigenous in Honduras Denounce Humiliating Treatment of Honduran Women
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 […]
Military Coup in Honduras Threatens Democracy across Central America
June 29, 2009 The military coup d’état in Honduras is a dangerous step backward for Honduras and threatens democracy across Central America. Democracies thrive only when democratic institutions operate peacefully and under the rule of law. The military coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya brings back terrible memories of the 1980s when the Honduran military […]
Honduras: Dawn of General Strike
There was a curfew until 6 AM. The city is militarized. Hondurans remain in the streets, demanding the return of their president, Manuel Zelaya, keeping a vigil all night. This Monday morning began in Honduras with people demanding the return of democracy, ready for struggle. There was a curfew until 6 AM. The city […]