Sultan Galiev – a forgotten precursor. Socialism and the National Question
The book on which these reflections are based has just been published under the auspices of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (6e section).1 It is a conscientious and detailed study of a set of questions which have on the whole been given far more serious attention in the Anglo-Saxon countries than in France, where gratuitous political prophecy passes for scientific research all too often. A book like this is usually received with a priori suspicion in militant circles, and even elsewhere. My aim is to offer some counterweight to this traditional sectarianism.
Sultan Galiev is one of the men who played an important part in the early days of the Communist International and the Soviet Union. Most socialist militants are aware of him only through a passing reference made by Stalin,2 rather an emotional reference, I used to think. Perhaps I was right. To have aroused some emotion in Stalin is already something in the way of an achievement. Continue reading…
History, a subject which is on the required learning list starting in elementary school, is mostly written and edited by those in power. The textbooks are selected using government guidelines. It is no secret that these texts often contain mistakes. Oral histories have recently found favor, or at least qualify for graduate student projects. Until now, if it wasn’t written down, it didn’t happen.
In response to a 1 June Human Rights Watch letter calling for the transfer of Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) soldiers to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the umbrella organisation IBUKA expresses concern over the absence of measures to bring Western parties complicit in Rwanda’s 1994 tragedy to task. While broadly applauding Human Rights Watch’s commitment to justice, IBUKA and its associates AVEGA and AERG take issue with the letter’s suggestions that RPF soldiers should be tried in the same manner as genocidaires. Missing from the discussion, IBUKA contends, is the role of Western governments in the genocide, an omission which needs to be swiftly rectified if rich countries are not simply to be immune from international justice.
Korir Sing’Oei Abraham argues that Africa’s opposition to the adoption of rights for indigenous peoples — who are often nomads or hunter gatherers — has largely been informed by misconceptions and myths. He points out that the right to self-determination sought by these marginalised groups has been recognised by the AU as being consistent with the principles of a country’s territorial integrity.
Dr Jumma Khan Marri is a Baloch political leader and son of the legendary Baloch leader Mir Hazar Khan Marri who led the Baloch freedom struggle in the 1970s and 1980s. Dr Marri did his schooling in hiding in Sindh, Hyderabad and Karachi at the height of the military operation in Balochistan. His family was on top of the list of most wanted people by the Pakistani military and the Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence. 
For generations of Americans, the American dream stood for opportunity. The dream was rooted in the belief that, in a peaceful and democratic society, citizens were free to pursue their goals, and honest effort would result in a satisfactory degree of material comfort. The idealistic notion that in America one might reasonably aspire to a better life for oneself and one’s family was a powerful symbol. It spoke not merely to personal aspirations but to our aim as a society as well. 
The full-scale globalization, erasing of the borders between countries and cultures become evident now. Nevertheless these processes of the mankind’s development are not exclusive and prevailing. Observers from the main world institutes and mass-media mention the phenomenon of another kind – the basic interest to tradition, archaic, to the origins which is now inherent to the different parts of society. They notice the explosion of self-conscience of the peoples living in the different parts of the world and revealed less activity in the world policy earlier. 
Speaker of the Georgian “Society of Irakly II” Nana Japaridze is meditating on the questions of war and peace. The correspondent of the portal www.geopolitica.ru Yana Belyanina have taken an interview from her.