Alexander Cockburn, one of my journalistic and literary heroes passed away yesterday, after a prolonged battle with cancer. Cockburn's acidic criticism, flourishing prose and general contempt for all that was orthodox, safe and banal, made him one of the greatest...
death
After Rio+20, Brazil’s Cemetery of Mangroves and Fisherfolks | by Nnimmo Bassey
Two visits outside the heart of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, marked the highpoints of my visit to that city for the infamous Rio+20 summit. The first was on 14 June with colleagues from the Oilwatch International network and that visit took us to Caxias. This is a...
The Left under threat in Nigeria | by Baba Aye
May 4, 2012 is a day that I shall not forget. Early in the morning, I heard that my trade union comrade and friend, Olaitan Oyerinde, had been killed. He was shot four times in his home, in front of his wife, about an hour after midnight. Lintin, as some of us used to...
Nurit Peled-Elhanan’s moving reflections on the occupation’s 45th birthday | by Henry Norr
Nurit Peled-Elhanan, daughter of a prominent Israeli general and mother of a suicide bombing victim, and her brother Miko Peled have long been among the most courageous Israeli critics of their nation's treatment of the Palestinians, but this year they're really on a...
Death of a mensch and anti-racist scientist : Phillip Tobias
Phillip Tobias, who died on 7th June 2012 aged 86, was probably South Africa’s most honoured and decorated scientist. He was world renowned for his path-finding work in palaeoanthropology that combined studies of paleontology and physical anthropology. At a time when...
An open letter to Ferial Haffajee | by Eusebius McKaiser
Eusebius McKaiser responds to The Spear's virtual death An open letter to Ferial Haffajee: A response to The Spear's virtual death Dear Ferial, You are obviously one of the country's most respected editors and perhaps even, as Peter Bruce, editor of Business Day,...
The late Christopher Hitchens | by Richard Seymour
A review of Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir (Atlantic, 2010), £9.99 Given Hitchens’s political inconsistencies, Hitch-22 is better than it ought to be, a fact which is a consequence of his undeniable talent A petty bourgeois individualist, in his last years...
Another world is possible | by Phil Gasper
Capitalism creates a society that robs most people of their creative potential, says Phil Gasper PHIL GASPER responds to a supporter of capitalism In the last issue of the ISR (#74), I wrote a column about Marx’s concept of alienation and why work—which Marx claims...
Fear, the African refugees and the cost of maintaining Israel as a Jewish state | by Neta Golan
I am a Jewish Israeli woman who was born in Tel Aviv and has been living in Ramallah and Nablus in the occupied Palestinian territories for the last 12 years. When Israelis, or people who have spent a lot of time with Israelis, hear where I live they often ask me...





