“Islamic State"” (Daesh) traces its origins to the formation of an Iraqi kernel of Al Qaeda following the US invasion. The self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi joined the latter, when it was led by the Jordanian al-Zarkawi. In 2006, the consultative council of the Mujahedeen in Iraq proclaimed “the Islamic State in Iraq”. It was by involving themselves in the Syrian revolution, fighting the Free Syrian Army (FSA) more than the Assad regime, particularly from 2013, that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant” (Daesh) was able to expand, competing with Al Qaeda and its Syrian franchise, the al-Nusra Front (or Jabhat al-Nusra).
Rasmea Odeh’s Long Struggle
17 January 2015, byA month after her conviction and imprisonment for “unlawful procurement of naturalization,” Rasmea Odeh’s release on $50,000 cash bond was secured on December 11, 2014.
What’s behind Detroit happy talk?
16 January 2015, byDespite happy talk of Detroit “rebounding” from bankruptcy, the basic problems remain: lack of jobs, deep poverty, the state takeover of the public schools and a 28% decrease in state revenue sharing over the last decade.
The situation in the run up to the elections
15 January 2015, byIn the run up to the crucial elections in Greece at the end of the month, we publish an interview conducted by Sozialistische Zeitung with Panos Petrou from International Workers Left (DEA) before the failed attempts to elect a president, or the parliamentary elections were finally called.
We Are All Ayotzinapa
15 January 2015, by“They took them alive and we want them back alive” demanded the families of 43 students kidnapped from Ayotzinapa in the Mexican state of Guerrero. The cry was taken up everywhere, even though many believed they must by now be dead.
Why we cannot hang extremism
14 January 2015, byThe passing of the 21st constitutional amendment with no one voting against it apparently seems a victory for Mian Nawaz Sharif. However, there are reports of dissent within the PPP and the PML-N. Raza Rabbani breaking down into tears and publically admitting that the voting against his ‘conscience’ indicates the massive pressures the parliamentarians felt while voting for the amendment.
Thomas Piketty and public debt
14 January 2015, byWe cannot but rejoice at Thomas Piketty’s refusing the Légion d’honneur that the French governement wanted to award him with at the beginning of 2015. [1]
The AKP, the Kurds and the siege of Kobane
13 January 2015, by“Zero problems with the neighbours” - such was the motto of Turkish diplomacy directed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs (and current Prime Minister) Ahmet Davutoglu since 2009. This goal of “normalization”" of Turkey’s relations with the neighbouring countries was paradoxically accompanied by the “neo-Ottoman” motivation to establish a politico-cultural and economic hegemony over the countries of the Middle East. But the crisis today around the resistance of Kobane shows that these goals seem far from being achieved.
Fourth International: On 25 January, a turning point for Greece and Europe!
12 January 2015, byThis statement was issued by the Secretariat of the Bureau of the Fourth International on 11 January 2015.
A radical introduction to Namibia’s unequal territory
12 January 2015, byNamibia is the least populated country in the planet, and yet one often hears among working class and increasingly middle class groups that one of the biggest challenges in the country is ‘the land issue’. Debates on the land issue after Namibia’s independence in 1990 revolved solely around farmland redistribution, but today they are mainly concerned with the issue of land within towns and cities, where almost half of the population lives.
Footnotes
[1] In this respect see Hubert Huertas, ‘Affaire Piketty : histoire d’une amnésie collective’, 3 janvier 2015, http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/030115/piketty-et-la-legion-dhonneur-lamnesie-du-pouvoir