“Elections in Iran” with Yassamine Mather

This week Eric sits down with Yassamine Mather to discuss this week’s presidential elections in Iran. Eric and Yassamine discuss the important factions (Principlists vs. Reformists) and the ideologies and attitudes they represent. Yassamine provides critical insight into the political and economic conditions of ordinary, working class Iranians living under conditions of economic warfare. Eric and Yassamine examine the issue of economic development and whether the development in Iran has been productive and equitable. Additionally, they discuss the Sistan-Balochistan region both in terms of its strategic importance to the United States and the various terror groups that call it home.

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Yassamine Mather is the Chair of the Hands Off the People of Iran (HOPI) organization. She teaches at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for the Study of Socialist Theory and Movements. Visit the HOPI website at HOPOI.org.

Why did the US finally decide to start arming the rebels? How will this change the calculus of the conflict? Is this crisis turning into a Sunni-Shia civil war? And, for some sides involved, could this be an opportunity to weaken Iran? CrossTalking with Eric Draitser, Michael Hughes and Jason Pack.

Introduction

As I sit down to write the second part of my series on Zimbabwe, I am struck by the difficulty of the task before me.  In the first article, Zimbabwe: The Revolution Continues, I attempted to illustrate the political and economic policies that have made President Mugabe and ZANU-PF the hated enemies of Washington and London.  In so doing, I attempted to position myself as a steadfast supporter of the revolution and unabashed enemy of the neoliberal capitalist counterrevolution personified by Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T.  The juxtaposition between these two opposing forces is critical in determining who is on the side of true independence, and who is on the side of the exploiters with their myriad, multi-colored masks. (Read entire article…)

It has long been known that cyberspace is one of the main battlegrounds in the 21^st century.  However, last week’s shocking revelations about the NSA’s surveillance and data-gathering activities illustrate the extent to which US intelligence seeks “full-spectrum dominance” in cyberspace.

 Although there have been myriad articles in recent days about the various aspects of the NSA surveillance story, none seem to focus on the fact that US intelligence effectively has access to all data transmitted, not just that on Verizon or Google servers.  Essentially, the intelligence community – a convenient euphemism for that complex that includes private contractors and government agencies – acts much like a filter, sifting and straining all information through its various systems.  However, it is important to realize that the system that the government has established is an all-encompassing one, including access to data in company servers in addition to access to the cable and fiber-optic infrastructure that actually transmits the data.

On the one hand, there is the PRISM system which, as the Washington Post reported, allows “The National Security Agency and the FBI [to tap] directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, emails, documents, and connection logs.”  Aside from being a blatant violation of the 4^th Amendment of the US Constitution, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and countless other international standards, the program has been vigorously defended by Obama Administration officials who, like their predecessors in the Bush Administration, invoke the always convenient “National Security” trump card to justify their illegal actions.(Read entire Article)

By Eric Draitser

The coming elections in Zimbabwe are no mere referendum on the leadership of the coalition government.  Instead, the decision before Zimbabweans is a clear one: continue on the revolutionary path of Mugabe and ZANU-PF or follow Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T and their pro-US, neoliberal economic agenda.

While much of Africa has been turned into a chaotic, war-ravaged continent stuck in the destructive cycles of violence, terrorism, and dependence on imperial powers, Zimbabwe has managed to maintain the fierce independence and commitment to revolution espoused by President Mugabe stretching all the way back to the post-colonial liberation struggle.  However, in order to fully understand the sustained campaign of destabilization and subversion by the Western imperialist ruling class, one must first examine the policies of Mugabe and ZANU-PF that have earned them the ire of Washington and London. (Read entire Article)