International Politics and Economy

Trump depended on the Liberal Int’l Order he Despises

Dockworker strikes in solidarity with Gaza have a long legacy

Since dockworkers operate at a crucial “choke point” in the military supply chain to Israel, their boycotts are a powerful form of solidarity with Gaza. Peter Cole ( Waging Nonviolence ) – In the weeks leading up to the latest ceasefire, protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza widened and deepened across the world. In early […]

Democratic Socialists of America

Socialism or Barbarism: Reviving the History of the American Left

Tomdispatch

By Eric Ross | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – More than a century ago, from a Berlin prison cell where she was confined for her uncompromising opposition to the slaughter of the First World War, Rosa Luxemburg warned, “Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.” Her diagnosis remains […]

Authoritarianism

Trump’s Siege of Chicago: “War Within” and the City’s Defiant Fight Against Tyranny

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Among the most beautiful cities in world, my hometown Chicago has been defiled, violated, and ravaged by Trump’s paramilitary shock troops under the pretext of immigration enforcement. Though confronted by an anti-immigration army, neighborhoods throughout Chicagoland have mobilized in experimental and collective ways to push back against the […]

Democracy

Syria’s new Leader promised Democracy, but excluded Women from Parliamentary Elections

The Conversation

By Kinda Alsamara, The University of Queensland; Eleanor Gordon, Monash University, and Elliot Dolan-Evans, Monash University (The Conversation) – Women’s political participation is often treated as a measure of a country’s commitment to equality and democracy. Earlier this year, Syria’s new leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, described his country as moving in a “democratic direction” after […]

Cartoon

Famed Cartoonist Jules Feiffer Taught Us to Fail Up and Never Surrender

Tomdispatch

By Robert Lipsyte ( Tomdispatch.com ) – It’s been more than nine months now since my friend, famed cartoonist Jules Feiffer, died, a week before his 96th birthday after continually warning me that the evil spirit that had descended on this country was leaving him frightened and dispirited. He was glad, he told me, that […]

Academic Freedom

Academic Freedom Under Siege: Right Wing Repression and Principled Resistance

Mehmet Rakipoglu and İbrahim Ozcosar

By Mehmet Rakipoğlu and İbrahim Özcoşar | – Exeter, UK and Mardin, Türkiye (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In the aftermath of 7 October 2023 – when Hamas’s surprise “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack and Israel’s devastating genocidal war on Gaza shook global politics – Western academia has entered its own crisis. From the United States […]

Democracy

Syria’s Parliamentary Election Results look Alarmingly like Iraq 2005, which produced a Civil War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Syria’s parliamentary elections on October 5 raised alarm flags for me on several grounds. First, they were not conducted on the basis of a direct vote. Sixty “constituencies” were established to elect 121 members of the People’s Assembly of Syria (only 119 were actually elected). Another 70 members will be […]

Authoritarianism

We Must Not Look Away from Palestine: Resisting Oppression and Pursuing Justice

Roy Eidelson

Roy Eidelson Note: This essay is adapted from the author’s August address at the American Psychological Association annual convention and from a webinar he presented in early September. The webinar includes many visual depictions of the topics discussed here. ( Counterpunch ) – Welcome everyone. I’m Roy Eidelson, president of the Society for the Study of Peace, […]