Imperialism & War > Middle East
None of the above
07 Jun 2012
Calling on Egyptians to vote for the Muslim Brotherhood is insane, argues Paul Demarty
Reasons for Afghan debacles
12 Aug 2021
Daniel Lazare reviews: Rodric Braithwaite ‘Afgantsy: the Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89’ Oxford University Press, 2011, pp448, £10.28; Artemy M Kalinovsky ‘A long goodbye: the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan’ Harvard University Press, 2011, pp290, £22.95; Bruce Riedel ‘What we won: America’s secret war in Afghanistan, 1979-89’ Brookings, 2014, pp189, £17
Centrality of class independence
12 Aug 2021
Khomeini and the clergy completely outmanoeuvred the left. But it need not have been that way. In his second and concluding article on the role of oil workers in the 1979 revolution, Peyman Jafari stresses the complex nature of ideology and class consciousness
Unnatural disaster
05 Aug 2021
A combination of scorching heat, greed and a warmongering government has resulted in widespread fires. Esen Uslu reports from Turkey
The Imam, the strikers and the black, black oil
05 Aug 2021
There are rich lessons for today in the experiences of the oil strikes of 1978. In the first of two articles Peyman Jafari charts the incredibly difficult struggle for organisation, hegemony and strategy
Anger finds open expression
29 Jul 2021
From Isfahan to Tabriz, Karaj to Tehran, the slogans are clear: ‘Death to the dictator’, ‘Shame on Khamenei’, ‘Hands off Iran’. Yassamine Mather reports on the upsurge of protests
Into the light of hope
22 Jul 2021
Biggest oil and gas strike. A rebellion against neoliberalism. Economic and political demands combine. Ruben Markarian, of the Organisation of Revolutionary Workers of Iran, sees a historic turning point. This article is based on his July 18 Online Communist Forum talk
Looking back over the ruins
15 Jul 2021
The final withdrawal of American troops must be put in the context of the April 1978 revolution and the subsequent reaction. The USA and Saudi Arabia armed, financed and promoted a counterrevolution, which included Osama bin Laden and al Qa’eda and ended in the triumph of the Taliban. This is an edited version of an article written by Jack Conrad and first published in June 2003. Its main target is Sean Matgamna, patriarch of the social-imperialist Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. Nowadays, the AWL describes the Taliban as “Islamo-fascist”; back then, though, they were “our kind of people”
Another forced scuttle
15 Jul 2021
There have been lies and lies and yet more lies. Daniel Lazare savages what has been a comprehensive failure, from the ‘light footprint’ military model to the final humiliating pull-out
Our strike is spreading fast
15 Jul 2021
This statement, translated from Persian, gives an insight into the many challenges faced by the Council for Organising Protests by Oil Contract Workers in standing up to employers and the government
Mossad’s people
08 Jul 2021
Yassamine Mather investigates the murky world of deep penetration, sabotage and assassination
Accumulation of misery
08 Jul 2021
The economy is in deep trouble. Poverty, inequality and personal debt are increasing. Esen Uslu urges the left to do more than blame Erdoğan’s hapless government
Carrying the can
08 Jul 2021
The liberal establishment wants us to believe that the ‘war on terror’ was all Donald Rumsfeld’s fault. Daniel Lazare begs to disagree
Poverty of solidarity
08 Jul 2021
The failure of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to oppose Zionism and the Jewish supremacist nature of the Israeli state renders it politically incoherent, argues Tony Greenstein
Workers unite in huge protest
01 Jul 2021
Yassamine Mather welcomes the post-presidential election upsurge in strikes
Desperately clinging on
01 Jul 2021
The Putin-Biden summit illustrates one thing above all: US hypocrisy. Daniel Lazare looks at election interference and the debacle in Afghanistan