Lalgarh is invaded. Lalgarh is bloody. In the name of stopping Maoist activities, the combined forces acting on behalf of the Indian state have declared war on the people with such alacrity, and have established a nightmare of terrorism in village after village, that words fail us in our attempt to condemn them.
The Tragedy of the Left’s Discourse on Iran
19 July 2009, byThe electoral coup and the subsequent uprising and suppression of the revolting voters in Iran have prompted all sorts of analyses in Western media from both the Right and the Left. The Right, mostly inspired by the neo-con ideology and reactionary perspectives, dreams of the re-creation of the Shah’s Iran, looks for pro-American/pro-Israeli allies among the disgruntled Iranian public, and seeks an Eastern European type velvet revolution.
Time, Acceleration, Crisis and Climate Change
19 July 2009, byTime is money - this proverb is as common as absurd. Absurd, because there is no reliable definition of the term “time” other than the physical one. Therefore it is not at all clear what “money” actually expresses here. The preoccupation with the idea of “time”, which many philosophers and sociologists have already grappled with more or less in vain, may appear somewhat esoteric at first glance in connection with the present combined economic and ecological crisis.
A balance sheet of the European elections
16 July 2009, byThe principal lessons of the European elections of June 7, 2009 are the following: massive abstention; a progression of the Right flanked by the far Right; a collapse of social democracy; an increase in the votes for the ecologists; the radical Left, left reformist or anti-capitalist, maintains its positions, without making new advances, except in Portugal and in Ireland.
Crisis of the Iranian regime and popular mobilisation
13 July 2009, by"Despite the repression and media blackout organised by the regime the popular mobilisation continues. Demonstrations are attempted in Teheran and in the big cities. The regime seeks to impose a significant degree of violence so as to smother the mobilisation. The big cities are in a quasi permanent state of emergency, with blocking of the main roads and filtering of traffic."
Destiny of a Revolutionary
12 July 2009, byPhil Hearse welcomes an impressive new biography of Ernest Mandel, but questions whether it does justice to the scale of the famous revolutionary’s achievements.
Re-Arming the Left
12 July 2009, byThe current political crisis takes place against the background of the worst economic crisis for at least 80 years, maybe longer. For half a century Marxists debated whether another 1930s type crash and slump was possible. Some thought we might be there in 1987, some with the crash in Russia and East Asia and 1997 and some with the dot.com crash in 2000-1.
Obama’s Cairo Speech
5 July 2009, byObama attempts to rescue American ’soft power’ from the wreckage of the Bush-Cheney regime
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