Author:“James Petras”
The ‘Worker President’ and the Banker Regime: Brazil under Lula DaSilva 2003-2010
11.28.2016 :: Latin AmericaIntroduction: Leftwing academics, writers and journalists have written tendentious articles where they manage to transform reactionary political leaders into working class heroes and present their dreadful policies as progressive advances. Recently, leftist pundits throughout US and Latin America have plagued the reading public with gross distortions of historical events contributing, in their own way, to the demise of the left and the rise of the right.
Foibles, Fables and Failures: The Financial Press and its Keepers
11.23.2016 :: United StatesIntroduction: US officialdom and their media megaphones have systematically concocted narratives having less to do with political reality and more with their hallucinogenic world view. Pre-election and post-election reportage weaves a tapestry of fiction and fantasy.
Presidential Elections: Myths and Deceits
11.17.2016 :: United StatesIntroduction: Every aspect of this year’s US Presidential election has been fraught with myths, distortions, fabrications, wishful thinking and invented fears.
Clinton Promotes War While US Public Opinion Speaks to Anti-Militarist Populism
11.14.2016 :: United StatesIntroduction: Castigating the US electorate as accomplices and facilitators of wars, or, at best, dismissing the voters as ignorant sheep-people (’sheeple’) herded by political elites, describes a partial reality. Public opinion polls, even the polls overwhelmingly slanted toward the center-right, consistently describe a citizenry opposed to militarism and wars, past and present.
US Public Opinion Speaks to Anti-Militarism, the Electorate Votes for Warmongers
11.09.2016 :: United StatesCastigating the US electorate as accomplices and facilitators of wars, or at best describing it as ignorant sheep herded by political elites, speaks only to a partial reality; in public opinion polls, even in ones weighted overwhelmingly to the center-right, the American people consistently opposse militarism and wars, past and present.
The Nemesis and Scourges of the Western World
11.06.2016 :: AnalysisWithout resorting too much to the wisdom of the ancient Greek myths, we have come to believe that states, regimes, movements and people finally will emerge to act as the inescapable agents of the justice leading to the downfall of the Western empire
Wall Street and the Pentagon: Pre-mature Political and Military Ejaculations
11.02.2016 :: AnalysisIntroduction: Wall Street and the Pentagon greeted the onset of 2016 as a ‘banner year’, a glorious turning point in the quest for malleable regimes willing to sell-off the most lucrative economic resources, to sign off on onerous new debt to Wall Street and to grant use of their strategic military bases to the Pentagon.
Washington’s ‘Pivot to Asia’: A Debacle Unfolding
10.24.2016 :: United StatesIntroduction: In 2012 President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter launched a new chapter in their quest for global dominance: a realignment of policies designed to shift priorities from the Middle East to Asia.
Washington’s Global Economic Wars
10.18.2016 :: United StatesIntroduction: During most of the past two decades Washington has aggressively launched military and economic wars against at least nine countries, either directly or through its military aid to regional allies and proxies. US air and ground troops have bombed or invaded Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
Overview of Class Struggle
10.17.2016 :: Latin AmericaThe class struggle from below has taken different forms and directions, with greater or lesser intensity, between countries and within countries in different time periods.
Brazil: The Billion Dollar Coup
10.11.2016 :: Latin AmericaIntroduction: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office through a well-organized, carefully planned operation among the corrupt Brazilian political elite, closely linked to the stock-market, financial institutions and foreign energy companies.
Barbarism in Words and Deeds
10.03.2016 :: United StatesThe US representative to the United Nations, Ambassador ‘Ranting Sam’ Samantha Power, accused the Russian and Syrian governments of ‘barbarism’, claiming Moscow or Damascus had attacked an unarmed United Nations humanitarian convoy delivering aid to civilians in Aleppo.
Propaganda Techniques of Empire
10.02.2016 :: United StatesIntroduction: Washington’s quest for perpetual world power is underwritten by systematic and perpetual propaganda wars. Every major and minor war has been preceded, accompanied and followed by unremitting government propaganda designed to secure public approval, exploit victims, slander critics, dehumanize targeted adversaries and justify its allies’ collaboration.
The Politics of Bombing: Wholesale, Retail and Improvised
09.28.2016 :: Middle EastIntroduction: Bombs, domestic and foreign, are defining the nature of politics in the United States, the European Union and among radical Islamist groups and individuals. The scale and scope of bomb-politics varies with the practioner.
Agriculture: Trade Wars and Food Wars. Obama and the Multi-Nationals
09.19.2016 :: AnalysisThe concentration and centralization of the agro-business multi-nationals advances with gigantic strides: Potash Corp and Agrium have combined into a $30 billion monopoly over the world fertilizer market. Dow Chemical and DuPont combine in a $130 billion dollar deal in the seed and agricultural chemicals sector.
US Proxies and Regional Rivalries
09.10.2016 :: AnalysisUS empire building depends on regional regimes’ support, especially in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. These proxy regimes fulfill valuable military roles securing control over neighboring regions, populations and territory.
Rebellion in the Suites: Tax Collectors and Businesspeople
09.08.2016 :: AnalysisIntroduction: Large-scale political and economic challenges are confronting the US multi-national corporate elite. Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Pfizer and scores of other multinational tax evaders are facing the triple threat of multi-billion dollar fines, the redistribution of their wealth and the possible reintroduction of equitable socio-economic programs, which could undermine their power.
The Financial Times: Megaphone for Mass Murder
08.28.2016 :: United StatesIntroduction: The Financial Times editorial page carries a logo that proclaims: “Without fear and without favour”. Indeed the editors have shown no fear when it comes to. . . fabricating lies, promoting imperial wars decimating countries and impoverishing millions, whether in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and now Venezuela. The fearless “Lies of Our Times” have been at the forefront forging pretexts for inciting imperial armies to crush independent governments.
China’s Pivot to World Markets, Washington’s Pivot to World Wars, and the Debacle of the Latin American Left
08.20.2016 :: AnalysisIntroduction: China and the United States are moving in polar opposite directions: Beijing is rapidly becoming the center of overseas investments in high tech industries, including robotics, nuclear energy and advanced machinery with collaboration from centers of technological excellence, like Germany.
Obama versus Trump, Putin and Erdogan: Can Coups Defeat Elected Governments?
08.09.2016 :: United StatesNever in the history of the United States, has a President and Supreme Court Judge openly advocated the overthrow of a Presidential candidate. Never has the entire mass media engaged in a round-the-clock one-sided, propaganda war to discredit a Presidential candidate by systematically ignoring or distorting the central socio-economic issues of their opposition.
Washington’s Strategic Defeat: Erdogan Trumps Gulenist Coup
08.08.2016 :: Middle EastIntroduction: For the past decade, the US intelligence agencies operating in Turkey have worked closely with the increasingly influential parallel government of Fethullah Gulen. Their approach to power was, until recently, a permeationist strategy, of covertly taking over political, economic, administrative, judicial, media, military and cultural positions gradually without resort to elections or military coups.
Erdoğan’s Coup: Purging Domestic Critics, Gaining External Allies
07.23.2016 :: Middle East“President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan prepared a list of targets for arrest even before the coup (sic) was launched”, European Commission official on Turkey (FT 7/19/2016).