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Biden’s Israel Debacle Puts Obama’s Flawed Middle East Strategy in the Spotlight
Vice President Joseph Biden set out to massage U.S.-Israeli relations this week, but instead ran up against the reality of Israeli politics, manifested in the Netanyahu government’s announcement of the construction of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. The result, as described by the normally rhetorically sober Financial Times, has been to expose “an emasculated […]
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Greece: This Is Just the Beginning!
The austerity measures imposed on Greek workers to reduce the deficits are nothing but a prelude of what may happen to the other European countries. The Greek crisis demonstrates the divisions in the ruling class on the strategies to adopt. For the second time since December 2008, Greece is at the heart of politics […]
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Violence and Revolution
Jean-Clément Martin, Violence et Révolution: Essai sur la naissance d’un mythe national. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2006. 339 pp. Bibliography and index. 23.00 Euros (pb). ISBN 2-02-043842-9. This work subtitles itself an “essay on the birth of a national myth”. The “myth” in question, as the first pages of the Introduction make clear, is […]
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Criminal Courts under Revolution and Empire
Robert Allen, Les Tribunaux criminels sous la Révolution et l’Empire, 1792-1811. Collection « Histoire » Translated by James Steven Bryant (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2005) 318 pp. 22€ ISBN 2-7535-00095-9. At the end of the Old Regime, the judicial system of the kingdom stood accused of all manner of barbarities and atrocities — […]
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Palestinian Revolutionaries on International Women’s Day
Sukant Chandan interviews Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled and Palestinian Gaza resident and revolutionary Shireen Said for International Women’s Day 2010 Leila Khaled: “Palestinian women have a fundamental role in uniting Palestinians” The Palestinian people’s oppression continues due primarily to the financial, diplomatic, and military support that the Zionist state receives from the USA and […]
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Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution
Charles Walton, Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution: The Culture of Calumny and the Problem of Free Speech. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. xiii + 334 pp. Figures, notes, bibliography, and index. $49.95 U.S. (cl). ISBN 0-19-536775-1. In this impressive first book, Charles Walton explores the fate of free speech […]
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Don’t be BAMBOOZLED by the BudgetA University of Washington for the Elite and the Superwealthy? Not On Our Backs!
Democracy Insurgent is a majority people-of-color activist group animated by principles of democracy, anti-racism, anti-imperialism, queer liberation, Third World Feminism, and workers’ power. We are based in Seattle, Washington. We are a member group of the UW Student Worker Coalition. Find out more at <nobudgetcutsuw.blogspot.com> and <democracyinsurgent.org>. Contact us at <d.insurg@gmail.com>. | | Print […]
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Clinton Strikes Out in Brazil: A Security Council Divided on Iran Sanctions
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Brasilia to mount a full court press on the Brazilian government to support a United Nations Security Council resolution imposing tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activities. (Brazil is presently one of the Council’s ten non-permanent members.) And, as accumulating media reports indicate, she was politely but […]
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Lula Tells Hillary Clinton Brazil Seeks Negotiated Solution to Iranian Nuclear Issue
Brasilia — President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva just reiterated, in a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that Brazil will continue to maintain commercial relations with Iran and will seek a peaceful solution to Iran’s nuclear issue. After meeting with Hillary Clinton at the Bank of Brazil Cultural Center, the provisional […]
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Syria’s Strategic Ties to the Islamic Republic: Diplomacy in the Post-Iraq/Post-Peace Process Middle East
Last week, just after we had completed our regional tour to Beirut, Damascus, and Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his own journey to Damascus, for highly publicized meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, HAMAS Political Bureau chief Khalid Mishal, and a “resistance” summit with Assad and Hizballah Secretary General Shaykh Hassan Nasrallah. Ahmadinejad’s trip […]
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Egypt: Workers Protest against Tanta Flax & Oils Company
In 2005 the Tanta Flax & Oils Company was privatized and subsequently bought by Saudi investor Abdellah El-Ka’aky. In May 2009, workers launched a five-month strike backed by the state-controlled Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions (EFTU). An agreement was reached but workers went back on strike in December to protest the deteriorating conditions in […]
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Marx’s Ecology and The Ecological Revolution
Interview by Aleix Bombila, for En Lucha (Spain), of John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review, and author of Marx’s Ecology and The Ecological Revolution En Lucha: In your book Marx’s Ecology you argue that Marxism has a lot to offer to the ecologist movement. What kind of united work can be established between […]
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Venezuela’s Revolution Faces Crucial Battles
Decisive battles between the forces of revolution and counter-revolution loom on the horizon in Venezuela. The campaign for the September 26 National Assembly elections will be a crucial battle between the supporters of socialist President Hugo Chavez and the US-backed right-wing opposition. But these battles, part of the class struggle between the poor majority and […]
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Divided over the Afghan Issue, the Dutch Government Resigns
After fourteen hours of negotiations, the Jan Peter Balkenende government failed, on Saturday, 20 February, to agree on whether to maintain the Dutch contingent in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister announced, in the middle of the night, the resignation of his coalition, which included his party the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the (social democrat) Labor […]
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Labor Voices for Single Payer: Interview with Jerry Tucker
Union members who support single-payer health care have a message for Barack Obama: Ditch the compromised health care legislation that congressional Democrats cooked up and take another look at a Medicare-for-all system. When Obama used his State of the Union address to tell people to “let him know” if there’s a better approach that “will […]
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“A Military Strike at Iran Would Be a Colossal Mistake”: An Interview with Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Vladimir Nazarov
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said last week that Iran’s latest statements and actions were compelling the United States “. . . and other countries” to resort to stiff sanctions. Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Vladimir Nazarov said in his turn that Moscow might support sanctions but that they must be “adequate to […]
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How Credible Is Human Rights Watch on Cuba?
In late 2009 the New York-based group Human Rights Watch published a report titled New Castro, Same Cuba. Based on the testimony of former prisoners, the report systematically condemns the Cuban government as an “abusive” regime that uses its “repressive machinery . . . draconian laws and sham trials to incarcerate scores more who […]
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Iran: The Islamic Revolution Defeats Western Hopes for Regime Change
. . . and Hashemi’s hopes for a palace coup. Iran Celebrates the 31st Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution Green Wave* Ebbs Isfahan Tehran * For the social and political character of the Green Wave, consult Iran’s Last Marxist Nasser Zarafshan: Setareh Derakhshesh, “Interview with Dr. Nasser Zarafshan and Farrokh Negahdar” (VOA Persian, […]
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Seema Is a Human Rights Worker, Not a “Naxali”: Letter to the National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi
Seema Azad, editor of the left-wing journal DASTAK published from Allahabad, was taken into custody by the police Saturday, 6th February, soon after she alighted from the train on her return from the Book Fair at Delhi. She, along with her husband and left-wing activist Vishwa Vijaya Azad, has been detained at the Khuldabad […]
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Violent Student Groups in Venezuela Coordinate Actions with the “Democratic Unity” Opposition Coalition
Many of the students involved belong to the youth divisions of the different political parties from the opposition. Since 2005, US government funding has gone towards training and advising youth leaders and student movements enabling them to enter the political arena. Many question whether the recent student protests against the Chavez Administration in Venezuela […]