March 2013

Almost everyone in Tunisia believes that the benefits of the revolution are in danger. Perhaps from a “secular” opposition that refuses to admit that the conservative An-Nahda Islamists were the clear winners in the National Constituent Assembly elections in October 2011. Or from the An-Nahda Islamists, who want to use their victory to infiltrate the state from within, while exploiting the fear inspired by the Salafist militias. Or simply from a political circus reminiscent of the Fourth (...)

The US invasion ten years ago broke up the old Iraq; but now its worst elements and aspects have rejoined in different formations, and a frustrating, demoralising stasis seems to have been reimposed. Will it be possible to break this?

Declassified documents now reveal what everybody, especially the Iraqis, always knew: the US invaded Iraq to secure its oil supplies for US and allied companies. It hasn’t quite worked out as planned.

President Juan Manuel Santos announced the opening of peace negotiations with the FARC revolutionaries last year, but didn’t allow representation for the social movements whose demands are at the heart of the struggle.

There are eight million black South Africans with an adequate income, and at least 20 million poor: one in four does not get enough to eat. The ruling ANC has no plans, and perhaps no intention, to change this

What can be thought politically — if not quite yet what can be said — is moving further towards the far right, and certain rightwards commonplaces have become the norm of the centre. Why?

Slovenia’s crisis is political, not economic. Its conservative government has lost its majority and crowds have been massing to oppose privatisations and corruption.

The shale gas revolution was meant to bring lasting prosperity. But the result of the gas glut may be just a bubble, producing no more than a temporary recovery that masks deep structural instability.

Digital manufacturing with 3D printers is for some enthusiasts an anti-consumer concept, promising a return to a craft ethos and an end to outsourcing. But this may not be the real future of the technique.

The high current value of the Brazilian real means that Brazilians fly to Miami to shop at prices a third of those back home. They buy real estate, too.

Everywhere — in post offices, stations, airports, streets — public space is being privatised and pedestrians diverted through commercial spaces.