Apologists for imperialism have virtually stopped mentioning Iraq. They keep as quiet as they can about the horrors produced by the US and British sponsored Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. But they crow openly about the Boy’s Own derring-do of our… Continue Reading
Two years ago Nepal went through a classic revolutionary experience. A mass urban uprising combined with the struggle waged by revolutionary guerrillas, who had been operating in the countryside, to bring down the royalist government. In recent months, the non-revolutionary… Continue Reading
The 2008 Socialist Register is the best buy of the quarter. In previous years reviewers in International Socialism have often balked at recommending something of book length which might contain one or two good articles and a dozen poor or… Continue Reading
Mark Twain once quipped, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” Replace the word “lie” with the phrase “ideologically motivated myth” and it sums up what has happened to the commonsense… Continue Reading
The rapid growth of the Chinese economy is gaining admiration not just from the columnists of the Financial Times, but also from sections of the left internationally. So the Left Front government in West Bengal in India (see Aditya Sarkar… Continue Reading
Political explosions are so frequent in Latin America these days that it is sometimes hard to keep up with them. The most surprising ones last year were in Mexico—first with the mass demonstrations in Mexico City against the rigging of… Continue Reading
New Left Review continues to amaze those of us who got put off it by the academic obscurantism of many of its articles in the mid-1990s. The July-August issue contained at least three articles well worth anyone reading. R Taggart… Continue Reading
The January issue of Monthly Review was worth £3 of anyone’s money. John Bellamy Foster provides a very useful survey of developments in US strategic policy that lay behind the decision to go to war against Iraq—and draws conclusions about… Continue Reading
The Bolivian election was due to take place two days after we went to print. But the country seems likely to be in turmoil in the months ahead, whatever the outcome. Two recent articles are a useful complement to Mike… Continue Reading
The last two issues of New Left Review have contained some unusually interesting material. Susan Watkins (NLR 33, May-June) provides a very useful analysis of the background to the attempt to push through the neo-liberal European constitution. She explains what… Continue Reading