July 25 Demonstrations in 110 Cities Support Iranian Protests

July 25 was a “Global Day of Action for Iran” that saw demonstrations in 110 cities around the world. Thousands marched to express solidarity with the protests in Iran against the fraudulent presidential election June 12 and for basic human rights. The demands put forward July 25 were for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including journalists, students and activists; freedom of speech and assembly; an end to censorship and the exclusion of journalists from the country; an end to the government’s attempts to censor the internet; and a new election for president, to be supervised by the United Nations.

Scattered protests in Iran in apparent recognition of their international support on the 25th were quickly repressed. Iranians have largely stopped the mass protests of last month due to the arrests and beatings instituted by the government. Unknown numbers of people have been killed and disappeared since the protests began after the election. One speaker at the rally in N.Y. said the families who have been given their loved ones bodies are “the lucky ones” compared to those who cannot get any information about their disappeared relatives. But “the lucky ones” are forbidden to hold funerals for their loved ones.

Some 3,000 people have been arrested, not only during protests but also in night-time raids of activists’ and intellectuals’ homes. Many are still imprisoned under what are referred to as “harsh conditions”– such as those in notorious Evin prison, where people are tortured until they swear loyalty to the regime. They are not allowed to have visits from their families or lawyers. (For a list of those imprisoned, killed, injured, etc., see International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.) Read More

Why They Won’t Do Away with Speculation

By Andrew Kliman.

Don’t be fooled by all of the hand-wringing and crocodile tears being shed over the role of financial speculation in bringing about the current economic crisis.  Policymakers aren’t going to do away with speculation.

And the reason isn’t that there’s a conspiracy between them and the speculators.

Paul Krugman gives away the fundamental reason is his latest (July 21, 2009) New York Times post:”Any time you have a market, there’s some opportunity for speculation.” Read More

On “New Passions and New Forces”: Marxist-Humanism’s Break from both Spontaneism and Vanguardism

By Andrew Kliman.

In a April 18, 1976 piece, “Our Original Contribution to the Dialectic of the Absolute Idea as New Beginning:  In Theory, and Leadership, and Practice,” Dunayevskaya stated, Read More