Subjects Archives: Movements

  The talks between the G5 plus 1 and Iran are careening toward a premature breakdown.  If they do fall apart, it will be due in large part to a serious diplomatic miscalculation by the Obama administration. Along with its European allies, the Obama administration seized on a plan that cleverly asked Iran to divest […]

It has been a hell of a year for Iran. Just last winter the nation’s elites were basking in 30 years of revolutionary triumph, launching satellites, enriching uranium, and holding neocon hawks at bay. Then, weeks of fervent presidential campaigning drew out the best and worst of Iranian society’s antagonisms, culminating in a poll exactly six months ago. Overnight the revolution’s orphans and cosmopolitan have-nots demanded their say. As a divided nation literally filled Tehran’s streets, cheerful jeering and honking horns turned into vigilantes with batons and street gangs with bonfires.

  One of the fastest, if not the fastest, growing industries in the world today is based on nanotechnology.  The U.S. government spends $1.5 billion a year on nanoresearch funded by 25 federal agencies under the National Nanotechnology Initiative of 2003.  There are many new journals with “nano” in their titles and dozens more journals […]

  The Real News tiene prueba de como el Tribunal Supremo Electoral de Honduras reportaron cifras equivocadas.  Cifras, se dice, han servido para consolidar el golpe de estado. Realizado por Jesse Freeston, desde Honduras.  In English: Jesse Freeston, “Honduran Elections Exposed” (The Real News, 6 December 2009). | | Print  

In the final paragraphs of a Reflection entitled “The Bells Are Tolling For the Dollar,” published two months ago, on October 9, I mentioned the climate change problem brought on humanity by imperialist capitalism. With regards to carbon emissions I said: “The United States is not making any real effort but accepting just a 4% reduction with respect to the year 1990.” At that moment, scientists were demanding a minimum of 25 to 40 percent by the year 2020.

  Explaining about a draft agreement on nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki noted: “The two sides decided to review the draft.  It is being reviewed in Vienna, and Iran will soon declare its viewpoint.”  However, some officials have already voiced their opposition to the recent nuclear […]

  The elections held in Honduras on November 29 were inherently flawed.  Tens of thousands of troops and police officers manned polling stations and even distributed electoral literature.  These forces have been responsible for killings, rapes, beatings, and detentions of people opposed to the coup.  Media reports cited many people who said they did not […]

The new self-titled humanist president has been a key supporter of the regime through five months of massive human rights violations. “They’ve imposed a coup regime on us.  They’ve assassinated at least 34 of our companions since the coup that removed the legitimate president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya Rosales.  Nationwide, they’ve detained more than 5,000 […]

  I came to Honduras to participate as a human rights observer of the electoral climate in a delegation organized by the Quixote Center.  Several delegations converged, connecting some 30 U.S. citizens with dozens more from Canada, Europe, and Latin America.  In the days prior to the elections we scattered to different cities, towns, and […]

  Jesse Freeston: Only the governments of Taiwan and the United States have sent international observers, and the delegation funded by the US State Department arrived at the Electoral Tribunal at the same time the leaders of all six independent human rights monitors in Honduras were delivering their request that the elections be suspended. Dr. […]

The United States, in its struggle against the Revolution, had in the Venezuelan government its best ally: the choice specimen Mr. Romulo Betancourt Bello. We did not know it then. He had been elected President on December 7, 1958; he had not taken office yet when the Cuban Revolution triumphed on January 1st, 1959. Weeks later I had the privilege of being invited by the provisional government of Wolfgang Larrazabal to visit Bolivar’s homeland, which had been so supportive of Cuba.

  23 November 2009 Hello All, It’s taken me a minute to report on Lynne because I have waited to talk to attorneys after they have visited with her firsthand to discuss Lynne’s situation, needs, and other matters. Lynne Stewart 53504-054 MCC/NY 150 Park Row New York, NY 10007 Above is Lynne’s mailing address.  All […]

  Just what good is freedom if no one is free, And folks go to jail if they dare disagree? And lawyers get punished for doing their jobs? And folks are afraid of the White House lynch mob? Lynne Stewart was doing what she had to do Protecting her client and civil rights, too. She […]

International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute Plan to Observe Elections Controlled by Honduran Military and Police Cf. Eva Golinger, “The Role of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in the Honduran Coup” (Postcards from the Revolution , 6 July 2009) Washington, D.C. – The National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), organizations […]

It is always easy to criticize and dismiss an argument in its weakest formulation. Attacking the policies of the security-centric Indian state establishment, particularly the Home Minister, today does not need much daring. So let us instead take the benign, almost humanist utterance of the Prime Minister in his address to state police chiefs in September 2009: don’t forget, he said, that the Maoist movement has support among the poorest of the poor in the country. Those on the left opposing the impending armed state offensive often invoke this quote from the PM to buttress their point about how these are really poor people, innocent civilians and ordinary villagers who will suffer if the offensive is undertaken

World People’s Resistance Movement: Thank you for meeting with us today. In your article in The Worker #4 ‘The Political Economy of the People’s War’ you write that “the transformation of one social system into another, or the destruction of the old by the new, always involves force and a revolutionary leap. The People’s War is such a means of eliminating the old by a new force and of taking a leap towards a new and higher social system.” Why then did the Maoist party enter the peace process and attempt to change society through Constituent Assembly elections?

  One side is the barely veiled alliance between Washington and Micheletti.  The other side consists of the Constitutional Zelaya Government, the National Front against the Coup d’Etat and the principal former presidential candidate linked to the latter who has decided to boycott the November 29 elections.  The candidate had formally taken his final position […]

What started as a focus on protests against military supremacy has silently led to a focus on support for civilian supremacy.  The retirement of Rookmangud Katawal, the ex-military chief and the main person who triggered the present crisis, has de facto diverted the attention of the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to support civil […]

  During my teaching career I’ve worked under nine different superintendents.  I’ve taught for nearly 30 years, so the average reign of a Milwaukee superintendent has been a little over three years, about normal for big city school districts. While some people, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, decry these short tenures as a […]

  Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review.  Its November 2009 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. We last commented on events in Nepal in our May editorial, following the attempt of the ceremonial president to exercise royal authority by “countermanding” the decision of the […]