Early next week, Uzbekistan’s dictator Islam Karimov will visit Brussels for meetings with the Council of the European Union, with European Commission president Barroso, and with NATO. It is difficult to imagine a stronger contrast between the regards for Karimov, and the EU ban and pariah status put upon Belarus’ Lukashenko, another, yet certainly ...

Joseph Vogl is a culture- and literature scientist and lectures in Berlin and Princeton. The 7th of December 2010 he was one of our guests on a MO*lecture in Ghent about capitalism in the 21st century. Title of his lecture: 'Volatile financial markets and the ghosts of capital'. We publish here the full text of his intresting lecture.

Lecture given at the Conference on the ‘Crisis of Capitalism, Welfare State and Labour’, Madrid, November 18, 2010. The Conference was organized by Instituto de Cultura del Sur, an institution under the patronage of eight municipalities of Madrid. Other participants on this Conference were Roberto Savio (WSF), Susan George, Ricardo Petrella, Rémy H ...

“For years, there has been a part of the development sector that existed and expanded on the assumption that the Ferghana was soon to explode”, a former colleague in Kyrgyzstan said after the violence in the south which left between 300 and 800 dead in June 2010. “Eventually they got more than they could deal with.”

The worldwide economic crisis caused a renewed interest in the work of Karl Marx. Only few defend a return to the strict interpretation of the 20th century but a reread of the 19th century analyses seems to inspire answers to the 21st century shortcomings of globalised capitalism. Does Marxism offer ideas that lead to a sustainable and productive e ...

Yemen needs to fight severe safety problems and faces as poorest Arab country millions of political, economical and social challenges. Counter terror programs fail and political powers are steeped in corruption. Can Yemen still be saved? MO*-journalist Tine Danckaers investigated it on the spot.

The offices of Al Ayyam, one of the oldest and most popular independent newspapers of Yemen, now banned, are part of a fort in Aden. Official security forces and the guards of Al Ayyam got into an armed fight in this city in May 2009. At the beginning of this year fights occurred again. During these, the chief editor, Hisham Bashraheel, and two of ...

The relationship between China, Africa and Latin America is set to shape the 21st century. What will define their cooperation? And what will be the consequences for Europe?

For the first time in twenty years, the Myanmar junta organised elections. No one believed this vote was free and democratic. Yet it is not all about repression and standstill in the Golden Land between China, Thailand and India.

Wikileaks, an online repository of classified documents leaked anonymously by whistleblowers, is drawing criticism after posting close to 400.000 classified documents detailing American military operations in Iraq, and gruesome details of detainee abuse by American-sponsored Iraqi security personnel. Beyond discomfort to the defense establishm ...

“The occupation must end.” - “Anti-Semite!” Five words; a mere two phrases suffice to sum up the dialog-gerheads between a growing chorus of American citizens, European citizens, trade unions, academia, an ever-shifting panoply of online forums, and Israel. Brussels, as the personification of what’s perceived by many Israelis as a mainly European b ...

The government of Bolivia will spend 358 million euros (500 million US dollars) during the four coming years for the exploitation of the country's lithium reserves. So far the decision has not been made public.