"Obama" by Serge Halimi

Serge Halimi offers a European and left perspective on Barack Obama. Multilateralism is not on the agenda, but imperialism will be softer, subtler, more inclusive and perhaps not quite so murderous. But the eight-year embargo imposed by President Bill Clinton killed a lot of Iraqis. Read more…

Le Monde Diplomatique (August 2008)
http://MondeDiplo.com/2008/08/01obama


"No Jobs Make Mean Streets" by James Thindwa

After a 30 percent decline in the last decade, gun-related violence is again on the rise in many urban centers, with a disproportionate impact on young black males. James Thidwa examines gun violence in Chicago, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. He roots urban violence in the development of the neoliberal city. The solution: economic and social policies which tackle class and racial disparities. Read more…

In These Times (9/12/08)
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3901/


"Islam, Islamisms and the West" by Aijaz Ahmad

Identity politics in the widest sense is now quite the norm, and it comes to us in many guises, in the actual conduct of politics as well as in political theories and analyses, from the right, the left, the liberal centre. Culturalism, or the view that culture is the primary and determining instance of social existence, is a by-product of this identitarianism, and wherever politics and religion come to inflame each other, religion itself becomes synonymous with culture, and culture with religion, so that, for example, a constitutive difference between Islam and Christianity, as regards the scope for egalitar¬ian politics in their respective zones, can be posited from the left, while the most hard-nosed geopolitical prescriptions can come to us from the right, in the guise of a discourse on religion, culture and civilization.

Socialist Register (2008)
http://socialistregister.com/socialistregister.com/files/SR_08_Ahmad_0.pdf