October 20th, 2023
The Middle East and the World After October 7, and Israel’s War on Palestine
The October 7 attack by Hamas militants from Gaza into Israel, across one of the most closely guarded borders in the world, constitutes nothing less than a global turning point.
July 15th, 2023
France: Anti-Police Uprising of Marginalized Youth Hurls Challenge to the Entire Social Order
In response to the police murder of a 17-year-old youth, Nahel Merzouk, in the banlieue [variously translated as working class suburb, or even “inner city”] of Nanterre outside Paris, marginalized youth across the country engaged in nearly a week of clashes on the streets with police. During those nights of unrest, they also attacked and set fire […]
April 15th, 2023
French Strikes and Popular Mobilizations Continue, Contesting Not Only Retirement Rollback, But Also Police Brutality and Authoritarian Politics
Since January, more-or-less weekly mass labor mobilizations have continued against a new law that would increase the retirement age from 62 to 64, even after it was rammed through without a vote on March 16. It should be noted that these days of action, ten of them so far, and two of them since March […]
February 24th, 2023
Democracy and the White Working Class vs. “Oligarchy” in the South: Insights from Varon’s New History of the Civil War
Elizabeth Varon’s book, Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War, has just come to my attention, although it was published four years ago, in 2019. Whether intentionally or not, the book gives important illumination to Marxist debates over race, class, and slavery. And a briefer level, it also offers new insights the origins […]
January 30th, 2023
Millions of French Workers Come Out to Oppose Austerity
In 1920, Lenin wrote of how, in approaching “the decisive battle” against capitalism with any chance of success, “one must count in millions and tens of millions” of workers in motion (“Left-Wing” Communism — An Infantile Disorder, Collected Works 31:94). France is not there yet, for its recent strikes have not directly challenged capitalism; nor did they […]
January 15th, 2023
Will Joseph Ratzinger’s Grim Legacy Outlive Him?
The death of Joseph Ratzinger, who served as Pope Benedict XVI (2005-13), was announced just as I was finishing Beverly Gage’s biography of J. Edgar Hoover, a confluence of the personal and the global that brought a certain chill to the spine. While Hoover administered the U.S. FBI for 50 years, repressing socialists and dissidents […]
December 14th, 2022
Donna, vita, libertà: le origini della rivolta in Iran
By Janet Afary, Kevin B. Anderson
This article will appear in Dissent’s Winter 2023 issue, out in January, and was published online on Dec. 2. The Italian version, trans. by Mauricio Acerbo, appeared in his blog, Sandwiches di realtà.
December 12th, 2022
Femme, vie, liberté : les origines du soulèvement en Iran
By Janet Afary, Kevin B. Anderson
This article will appear in Dissent’s Winter 2023 issue, out in January, and was published online on Dec. 2 here We are publishing the French version, which appeared in Entre les lignes entre les mots.
December 04th, 2022
Kadın, Yaşam, Özgürlük: İran’daki Ayaklanmanın Tarihi Kökenleri
This article will appear in Dissent’s Winter 2023 issue, out in January, and was published online on Dec. 2. We are publishing the Turkish version, which appeared in fikrikadim.
December 02nd, 2022
Woman, Life, Freedom: The Origins of the Uprising in Iran
By Janet Afary, Kevin B, Anderson
The massive protests in Iran, fueled by the audacity of young women and children, are rooted in over a century of struggle. This article will appear in Dissent‘s Winter 2023 issue, out in January. French Translation Italian Translation Turkish Translation