CLASS ANALYSIS

EDITOR—A playground for the sociopathic global rich, and a den of hypocrisy and appalling depravity, Dubai, the hyper-Las Vegas of the Middle East, is now collapsing from within in the wake of Iran’s righteous assault.

GD—Marandi elaborates on the failure of the U.S. and its allies to destabilize Iran or open the Strait of Hormuz by military means, highlighting Iran’s ability to retaliate and escalate the conflict. He discusses the role of proxy forces like Yemen’s Houthis in potentially closing off the Red Sea to further pressure Gulf states allied with the U.S. The interview critiques Western media narratives and political discourse, particularly the false dichotomies imposed on commentators and the demonization of Iranian leadership and society. Marandi argues that Iran’s demands for a political settlement include reparations, regional security guarantees, and a restructured Persian Gulf security framework that prevents future aggression or attacks by U.S. or Israeli forces.

BL—When Marx and Engels proclaimed that the first human societies practiced ”primitive communism” they hardly had much company. In the first half of the 20th century two exceptions were the archeologist V. Gordon Childe and later on the anthropologist Leslie White. It was only in the 1960s and 1970s that empirical confirmation of hunter-gatherers came forth to be seen in the works of Marshall Sahlins’ Stone Age Economics, Morton Fried’s The Evolution of Political Society and Elman Service’s Primitive Social Organization.
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In the 1980s, evolutionary psychology was born as a discipline devoted to not throwing the Darwinian baby out with the Social Darwinian and Sociobiology bathwater. However, all too often, Darwinian evolutionary psychologists played fast and loose with the term “hierarchy”. They find hierarchies among the apes, breezily survey different types of human societies, and then conclude that hierarchy is a cross-species and universal phenomenon.

GER—After launching a war of aggression against Iran, Trump and Netanyahu are attacking more countries. Israel invaded Lebanon and besieged Gaza. US soldiers are fighting in Ecuador and shooting Pakistani protesters. Trump even threatened an embargo on Spain, demanding to use its military bases. Ben Norton explains.

DL—Today, Cuba’s government accused 10 people aboard a US-registered speedboat it intercepted off Cuba’s coast of planning “an infiltration with terrorist aims”. Cuban border guards shot dead four people and injured the other six on the boat, the Cuban interior ministry said, alleging that those on the Florida-registered vessel had fired first. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was investigating the “highly unusual” incident. Dimitri Lascaris speaks with author and independent journalist Arnold August about whether the world just witnessed another failed ‘Bay of Pigs’ military aggression from the United States. Arnold specializes in Cuban affairs.