Jeff Richards Web Diary

Politics from the margins of the Australian Labor Party

Adelaide, South Australia

Please note: I only keep three months worth of commentary on this web space. Those who want to torture themselves a bit more should click this hyperlink

There are two ways of communicating on this web log (blog). You can click the hyperlink 'email this blog's author' which is located on the top of the left hand column. On the other hand, if you have some remark about any particular item that I write, you can click the comments hyperlink button which is located beneath every written piece.

I write this stuff because I like writing. Its fun. I am happy that anyone bothers reading it and I am also happy for intelligent conversations about political issues. I don't suffer from the delusion that what I write will change the world. What will change the world is theoretically and historically informed political practice. If you are a responsible human being you should find ways to 'get involved'. You can be conservative, socialist, communist, neo-liberal, anarchist, liberal democrat. You choose your political road... just do it!

Last updated:
8/2/2003; 8:23:53 PM

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MY FAVORITE LINKS

Please click the hyperlink text below to go there.

Christopher Hitchens: Controversial journalist now scorned by many on the left. He is an impressive thinker with an acidic style. Good exercise for the left wing mind

Counterpunch: Acidic magazine of the left. Very focused on the operations of the Washington elite.

Le Monde Diplomatique: Want the best thinkers on politics in a monthly magazine. Here it is. The very best.

Z-Net: Excellent e-magazine. Full of useful links and articles by journalists of the left.

London Independent: This is a wonderful newspaper. For Iraq coverage I go to the search engine and type 'Robert Fisk' and then, separately 'Patrick Cockburn'

London Review of Books: Want really good essays on politics and literature. Try this

New Left Review: Intellectual flagship of the western left since the early 1960's

John Quiggin: Australia's most intelligent economist and political commentator.

The Nation: Published in New York. This is the American liberal lefts best weekly magazine. It has been around for more than 100 years.

Monthly Review: Intellectual journal of the left from New York. Independent of mind. Read and praised by Albert Einstein (who, like Helen Keller, aka Patty Duke, was a socialist)

Andre Gunder Frank: One of the great socialist scholars. Still alive and doing productive work, principally in the area of international political economy. He has his own well maintained web page.

GO TO MY DIGITAL ARCHIVE: CLICK THIS

Monday, July 28, 2003

Ironies in the History of the Left

I recently finished a book by Patrick and Andrew Cockburn titled Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession, an interesting and informed study of the man and the state he ruled over. Its indispensable for developing a study of Iraqi politics. There was one interesting story that has some ironies for the Left to ponder.

In the late 1990’s there was a serious attempt made to kill a number of leading figures in the Baathist Party. The Cockburns argue that it was the most daring and well organised plot against the regime from within Iraq. The group was not fundamentalist or a pro-US. They were primarily an educated, cosmopolitan group influenced by the radical and revolutionary currents of the Latin American left. The irony is that the victim of the assassination, a hated and despised senior member of the ruling elite, was saved only by the excellent work of specialist doctors from Cuba, the very country that did more to inspire the radical edge of Latin America.

Monday, 28 July 2003

2:49:17 PM comment []