:: Analysis
Culture and the challenges of the contemporary world
01.21.2003To write of culture is to write of art, ideology, education, sport and many other things. Culture can be discussed from numerous perspectives including personality, aesthetics, politics and history.
Interview with James Petras in Turkey: To support critically Erdogan government is a pact with the devil
Çigdem Çidamlý and Hakan Tanittiran :: 01.16.2003James Petras was in Turkey during 7th-17th January 2004. This was his first visit to this country, very close to his family origins, and the visit all together was a very valuable contribution for the Turkish activists and militants of the social movements, who for a long time knew and followed his studies, especially on imperialism and Latin American social movements.
2003: A Year of Imperial wars, economic crises and popular uprisings
12.28.2002The political and social struggles over the past decade have once again proven that the \”prophets\” of long cycles based on economic projections cannot understand the most profound events of contemporary history.
Antonio the swindler
08.18.2002Antonio showed real entreprenurial spirit at an early age. As an altar boy he sold the wine left over from Communion to a ne\’er do well friend of the family before the priest could wet his lips.
Wanted: A UN Secretary General with integrity
08.12.2002Many progressives around the world looked to the United Nations Organization (UNO ) as the best institution for peacefully resolving conflicts and serving the cause of justice, free from the control of big power interests.
Who rules the World?
05.14.2002A lot of superficial books and articles have been written about \”globalization\”, \”global corporations\” and \”empire\” without the least notion of the real structure of power.
Right/left polarization: The ballot box and the street
05.10.2002The news media, academics and conventional politicians have focused on the growth of the electoral power of the Right and far Right.
The Bellringer
04.06.2002Ibrahim woke up before dawn as was his habit for as long as he could remember. He slipped his feet into the slippers by his bed, picked up the matches by the side of the bed, lit a candle and then ignited a small kerosene stove.
The Archbishop’s voracious appetite
03.30.2002He came out of a trap door flashlight in hand, without his elegant vestments and his rings - impediments for the task at hand. In his nightshirt and slippers he slipped into the bathroom next to the dormitory and sat on the toilet waiting.
Anti-globalization, militarism and lamebotismo
03.26.2002There are three major forces acting in the contemporary world: the anti-globalization movement, increasingly opposed to the dominance of Euro-U.S. capital and imperial wars; Washington\’s militarization of global and domestic political-economy; and the increase of lamebotismo among Third World leaders eager to curry favor from Washington in exchange for loans, access to markets or simply because of ideological servility.
The struggle for Socialism today
03.03.2002A discussion of the struggle for socialism today should begin what is and is not socialism. It is important to have political clarity about false alternatives as well as the basic components of a socialist society.
A writer of exceptional talent
01.23.2002Early on Biperdhar Sukumar was resentful of everyone and everything around him: when Mukarjee\’s son Ravi got a brand new bicycle, he told himself it was because his shop keeper father cheated his customers, taking advantage of the ignorant cane cutters.
Socialist values and culture
01.04.2002A discussion of socialist values and socialist culture begins with a discussion of the values and interests of the socialist intellectuals.
Non-Governmental Organizations in a conjuncture of conflict and war psychosis
12.04.2001The September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington and the ramifications define a new conjuncture for social movements and NGOs.
Open letter to french “friends of America”
11.20.2001The images and realities of US intellectual and political experience as reflected in the columns of rightwing journalists in Europe is highly simplified if not outright distorted.
Empire with imperialism
10.29.2001Empire (*) is a strange book. At a time when the U.S. is the only super power, when almost fifty percent of the 500 biggest multi-nationals are U.S. owned and headquartered, and Washington is leading a war of intervention against Afghanistan (after previous interventionary wars in the Balkans, Central America (Panama), Carribean (Grenada) and proxy wars in Colombia (Plan Colombia) and earlier Angola, Mozambique, Nicaragua, the authors of this widely praised book tell us that imperialism is a thing of the past.
The myth of the Third Scientific-Technological Revolution in the era of neo-mercantilist empires
07.28.2001The 1990s was a decade in which the most influential writers, journalists and academics wrote, spoke and polemicized about two over-riding themes: the \”globalization\” of capital, and the \”New Economy\” (NE) based on the growth of information technology (IT), the bio-technical and telecommunications \”revolution\”.
Neo mercantilist empire in Latin America: Bush, ALCA and Plan Colombia
06.17.2001The fundamental problem facing the Bush Administration is expanding and consolidating the U.S. empire at a time of intensifying competition from rivals, growing economic recession in Euro-America and crises in Asia and Latin America, and rising socio-political opposition especially in Latin America, Russia, China and on special occasions in Western Europe and the U.S.
Left intellectuals and the desperate search for respectability
03.18.2001When George Soros, one of the biggest and most rapacious speculators in the world, published a book calling into question some of the most destructive aspects of speculative capital, left intellectuals raced to reproduce his quotes as evidence that indeed \”global capital\” was a threat to humanity.
The Asian crises and U.S. hegemony
03.18.2001A framework for understanding of the rise and demise of Asian capitalism requires a look at the larger historical context and the role of imperial politics.
Notes toward an understanding of revolutionary politics today
03.16.2001To understand the present and future of revolutionary politics requires an historical analysis of the previous half century.
The CIA and the Cultural Cold War Revisited
11.18.1999Frances Stonor Saunders, Who Paid the Piper: The CIA and the Cultural Cold War (London: Granta Books).