A concerningly large portion of the left have taken on the habit of telling themselves a fairytale about Russia. It goes something like this: somewhere
Category: Articles
For years, the Kremlin has cast itself as the patron of a besieged Global South and a defender of Palestinian statehood against Western-backed Israeli power.
From Mina’s Substack At a moment when Iran still stands near the edge of war, it may seem almost like a luxury to ask why
The following article is part of a series of reports in The New Humanitarian exploring the influence of the US Christian nationalist movement on both
The memorandum of understanding signed between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States is a complex event with multiple dimensions. A close reading
After a long vote count, Keiko Fujimori won the presidency, on her fourth attempt, by a margin of around 45,000 votes. The dictator’s daughter —
Central Hall Westminster was full with around 3,000 people attending an international conference against war on Saturday 20 June. The Stop the War Coalition, established
These six texts share a single concern: how political solidarity gets constructed, narrowed, and sometimes disabled by the frameworks through which societies under pressure are
From People and Nature We can support resistance to Russian imperialism while opposing NATO Intro: I put this argument at a Green Left Zoom discussion
On Sunday, June 21, Colombian voters went to the polls to vote in the second round of the presidential election. That same night, after an
On Sunday, June 14, 2026, pensioners from Shush, Karkheh and Haft-Tappeh, towns in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, again gathered outside the local Social Security office,
Can Armenia’s recent elections really be reduced to a contest between a pro-Western Pashinyan and a pro-Russian opposition? To what extent was the outcome driven
From Mina’s Substack When Marjane Satrapi passed away on June 4—tragic, unexpected, and far too soon—the tributes to Persepolis were accompanied by a critique that
The current and very public discourse between Poland and Ukraine over a military unit named after “heroes of the UPA” has produced the diplomatic equivalent
A note on Angela Davis before we begin. Her contributions to exposing racial and social injustice in the United States are significant and worth stating
Trilingual Hong Kong newspapers from the 1940s, a patriotic Japanese business man, and Imperial Appropriation of Decolonial Discourse Note: This article was originally written and
There is a version of Soviet history that circulates in certain corners of the left, passed around like a corrective to Reagan-era Cold War propaganda:
A delegation of Alliance for Workers’ Liberty members visited Lviv and Kyiv in late May. This followed on from earlier delegations in 2022 and 2023,
On June 1, Ethiopia held parliamentary elections. Results should come out this week, and Reuters along with many other outlets is predicting a “landslide win”
Thailand’s military uses its huge Reserve Officer Training Corps program, which enrols 100,000 high school students every year, to instil conservative nationalism and loyalty to
From Africa is a Country Although the UAE doesn’t occupy territory, it arms militias, controls ports, and launders violence through the language of development. Sudan
It’s hard to ignore the selective fixation on the Ukrainian far right and “Ukrainian nazis.” To be clear, I’m not interested in making excuses for
How do socialists reconcile their opposition to military expenditure (especially increased military expenditure) with support for Ukraine being provided with the weapons it needs to
On Monday, June 1, Colombians woke up with an undeniable moral hangover. We felt sad. And angry. It was the morning after the vote in
After a month of protests and roadblocks in Bolivia, the situation is contradictory and difficult, but there is also an opening that creates the possibility
In December 2022, Sharon Slater, president of an Arizona-based conservative Christian organisation called Family Watch International, signed a memorandum of cooperation with the International Islamic Fiqh
From Positions: Politics Is China abolishing the hukou? Since the PRC’s State Council announced a new guideline on public services on May 18, 2026 this question
From Phenomenal World China’s class politics after 1989 In April 1989, a series of explosive pro-democracy movements erupted across China. These movements and their political
From Phenomenal World The recolonization of Venezuela As US planes, helicopters, and special forces stormed Caracas in the early hours of January 3, Vice President
From Equator Generations of organisers and dissidents have kept the Iranian struggle alive A few hours after I was born, my mother and I were
For generations, Jewish-Israeli children have been brought up in an education system where Palestinians rarely appear as Palestinians. Instead, they are “Arabs”, “enemies”, and a
Freedom of Choice The oppression of women in Iran remains one of the clearest expressions of the theocratic order established in 1979. The nationwide “Woman,
In the months during which Iran’s economy has been worn down by inflation, job insecurity, and the consequences of war and regional conflict, working-class women
From CIA recruits to Chinamaxxers I’ve been in the business of explaining China to Americans for around 4 years now – starting from online interactions
Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the Christian nationalist youth organization now run by Erika Kirk, has announced the speakers for its 2026 Women’s Leadership Summit, TPUSA’s
Excerpt from an article published in Haaretz on 15 May 2026 The vast majority of responses to Nicholas Kristof’s column about sexual abuse of Palestinian
In “Lenin Versus Democracy,” Dan La Botz replies to criticisms of his article “Goodbye to Lenin and Leninism,” first published in LINKS International Journal of
Even as formal recognition of gender equality has progressed over the 24 years since Timor-Leste’s independence, the legacy of the resistance against Indonesian occupation still
By early May, Putin’s regime appeared to be facing a perfect storm: a battlefield stalemate, economic stagnation, and a visibly faltering state response to crises
Few peoples in the Middle East have been portrayed as a threat as often as the Kurds. For some, they are separatists. For others, terrorists,
Toward the Divine State From the beginning, anarchists suspected that Iran’s revolution might end not in freedom, but in clerical rule. Today, with the benefit
Domestic worker activism is on the rise in Kenya – and across the continent. Liam Taylor is a freelance journalist. This article originally appeared appeared
A recent letter published in Counterpunch, signed by individuals ranging from Ajamu Baraka to Vijay Prashad, proves a remarkable episode in authoritarian apologia from the
From Tempest Somayeh Rostampour argues that opponents of U.S.and Israeli aggression in Iran must move beyond campism—or we will not succeed in rebuilding a genuinely emancipatory
On the occasion of May 8th, Franziska Davies spoke to Vasyl Korotkyi about the changes in German memory culture with regard to Ukraine and the
As women’s presence in state-sponsored nighttime rallies in Iran has increased during the war and even after the ceasefire, this presence has become not only
In the past week, the Islamic Republic executed at least 11 prisoners whose cases had been reported by human rights organizations and state media: Peyman
The military’s record — having seized power by presenting themselves as the people’s protectors against the former repressive regime — is hardly impressive. In late
From +972 Magazine A garbage truck’s tailgate opens slowly. Inside, around 70 Palestinian men are packed tightly together, their eyes struggling to adjust to the
A 2021 Ministry of Education directive – the Children’s Speech Harmonization plan – mandates the use of standard Mandarin Chinese for all preschool instruction and
An international petition against the US-Israeli war on Iran, titled “A Declaration to the Conscience of Humanity” and signed by 175 “personalities” from 30 countries,
A specter is haunting Peru. It isn’t the same one that terrorized the elites in the 20th century, or that of revolutions that promised to
This article first appeared in International Political Sociology, Volume 20, Issue 2, June 2026.
Walaa Alqaisiyas paper in Middle East Critique, “Moving Beyond Imperialist Frameworks: The False Equivalence Between Palestine and Xinjiang”, proves a masterclass in a failure of
Though he has been dead for more than 100 years, Vladimir Lenin continues to stand at the centre of debates about modern Marxism for his
Opposition to US wars unites circles that claim to be opposed to one another. A tribune published in Counterpunch proposes six resolutions regarding the United
Eight weeks into Trump’s war with Iran, the origins of the Islamic Republic are worth revisiting. The regime now confronting Washington was born in the
The Kremlin is exploiting anti-imperialist sentiment in Africa to advance its own imperial ambitions Among the many concepts coined by the Cold War, campism remains
From 26 to 29 March, around 4,000 people gathered in Porto Alegre for a major international conference against the global rise of fascism and against
From the LPE Blog It has often been noted that Elon Musk and Henry Ford have much in common. Both were hailed as technological geniuses
Hungarians have defeated a national autocrat and challenged a broader illiberal international alliance Hungarian voters have swept their far-right strongman Viktor Orbán out of office,
From Futures of Difference Sociologist Cecilia Menjívar shows that violence against women is not a matter of individual acts but a product of converging structural
Kurdistan is often reduced to a militarized myth, erasing society, class, and everyday life. This essay argues for restoring social reality at the center, showing
More organised and more dependent on tech and outside support, the war in Sudan is deadlier than ever for civilians. Kiri Rupiah is the Communities
After a decade in ascendance, ultraconservative populism appears to be on the wane. Viktor Orbán lost last weekend’s election in Hungary and, with the war
A Response to CounterPunch’s Declaration “Six Non-Negotiable Terms from International Scholars…to End the U.S. War on Iran,” and to the Political Framework That Made It
A recurring question in discussions in the fragmented global left is: what should our program focus on? Fighting fascism? Isolating Western imperialism? Life security? Propagandizing
The Middle East will not be stabilized by threading one crisis at a time. It will only be stabilized by a framework comprehensive enough to
Micheal Nelson Byaruhanga on Uganda’s costly vote, shutdowns and Museveni’s 50 years rule. From Chartist. With 24 hours left to the presidential polling day in Uganda,
The near-exclusive focus of international opinion and the media on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict conceals a far broader and more systemic reality: a forest of internal
A recent article by Vijay Prashad and Tings Chak in the Monthly Review proves another attempt by the campist left to whitewash the ethnic cleansing
From Mina’s Substack In an earlier essay, I argued that the Islamic Republic governs through the geopolitical alibi: the habit of recasting domestic repression as
In anticipation of a conservative winning the 2024 presidential election, the well-funded far-right movement openly outlined its vision for an “ideal” America in its Project
From Liberal Currents Toby Buckle’s “It Wasn’t Fascism All Along” is exactly the kind of argument worth engaging directly. It is a serious argument that
Several hundred demonstrated today against the continued existence of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. In particular, demonstrators called for the dismantling of the memorial, with the
A recent article by Paweł Wargan and Jason Hickel, published by the Progressive International, is adulatory about what it claims to be “whole-process democracy” in
Toward the end of Netflix’s “Into the Manosphere,” documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux chats in Marbella, Spain, with British influencer Ed Matthews. “The people who run
One of the laziest clichés about Iran is the idea that a single, unified “people” are standing against a single, unified “regime.” This formula works
From Mina’s Substack As American and Israeli bombs fall on Iran, a question long central to Iranian political life returns with new urgency: How did
From the London Review of Books The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, met in February with Raúl Castro’s grandson at a Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
Any effort to rebuild the left must begin with firm principles. Opposition to xenophobia cannot be deferred; it must be central. The same applies to
On March 9, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the State Department was “designating the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a Specially Designated Global
From Africa is a Country Why does the anti-Black racism of the US president have defenders in Africa’s largest Black nation? Trump’s posting of racist
From Feminism in India The Transgender Amendment Bill 2026 was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 25th March 2026. The bill was earlier passed by
“It causes me great pain every time I see people of good faith — because I know they act in good faith — reducing Cuba’s
Who invents the national mythology of Belarus? What purposes do new narratives about the country’s past actually serve? Nationalism scholar Nadya Krupenkova examines the top-down
Nissim Mannathukkaren is an associate professor in Dalhousie University’s Department of International Development Studies in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the author of ‘Communism,
From Rest of World Individuals and communities are resisting the demands and practices of Big Tech’s AI infrastructure — such as data centers and digital
A month ago, many articles appeared to remind the Western public of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This wave of articles
On Wednesday, 11th March, 2026, along with 135 other nations, India co-sponsored a resolution of the United Nations Security Council which condemned Iran for attacking
From The Hill A dangerous chain reaction is underway and it may only be beginning. In the wake of U.S. and Israeli military strikes on
The progressive foreign response has often privileged geopolitics and anti-American imperialism at the cost of the struggle for democracy in Iran. The 13th century Persian
For more than a year, Nexus has been tracking the connection between the “manosphere” and antisemitism. A new Netflix documentary, Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere,
Rodrigo Duterte can no longer perform the strongman persona that supposedly generated his appeal, yet the political loyalty towards him has only intensified. “Charisma” can’t
In the following analysis, Somayeh Rostampour shows how the repression that the Iranian government has carried out to crush protests, the monarchist attempt to co-opt
Discourse about antisemitism in America has become a hopeless, meaningless mess. Particularly in the last few years, pro-Israel and right-wing organizations and politicians have insisted
From New Lines Magazine Iran helped the Assad regime crush unarmed protests with staggering violence starting 2011. Now, it has turned those same tactics on
I. What has happened since the United States and Israel launched the latest war on Iran? The United States and Israel started a new round
Solidarity Collectives: Who are you, and how would you describe yourself? What role do you play in Solidarity Collectives? Mira: My name is Mira, and
The US attacked Kharg, but it did not hit Iran’s oil export terminal there. That apparent contradiction may explain the nature of this war better