ColaboradoresIn Cuba, there is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, Transsexual (LGBTT) movement whose gestation is found at the intersection of the state and organised civil society. This movement seeks to tackle the main themes of LGBTT reality from the perspective of human rights, health and social integration, while inserting itself into the national project of edifying a just society. Historically, the space for its existence was provided by the country’s Women’s Movement, which was largely responsible for making Cuba, in 2008, the first country in the Americas having the sex-change operation included in the package of universal health care that island’s citizens enjoy.
This January, IIRE Fellow Antonio Carmona Báez interviewed Mariela Castro, president of the Havana-based National Centre for Sexual Education (CENESEX) and a bulwark for the nascent LGBTT movement in Cuba.
The elaborations on gender of the last 20 years, in particular Queer theory, challenge the Marxist approach to the issue of gender oppression, and thereby demand the overcoming of an approach based on the establishment of a hierarchy of priorities between oppressions. At this year's annual Left Forum (the former Socialist Scholar Conference), IIRE Fellow Cinzia Arruzza hosted a panel to discuss this challenge: "Does Marxism have Gender Trouble?" on Saturday, March 19th.
The challenge is to see how a complex relation of material and ideological factors contributes to the continuous reproduction of Capitalism as a whole, and therefore of women's oppression. The panel focused on gender oppression within Capitalism, coping with issues as gender division of labor and social reproduction. In dealing with these topics, the panel took into account the general question of the relation between gender theories, in particular Queer theory, and Marxism. An aim of the panel was the discussion of the critical potential of the notion of gender performativity, and the way in which this transformative perspective might offer a common ground for both Socialist and Queer politics.
The panel was joined by Catherine Sameh, Johanna Brenner and Rutgers University's Nancy Holstrom. For a full programme of this year's Left Forum see: http://www.leftforum.org/conference/2011
¿Cuáles son las implicaciones de la dictadura militar en el seno del nuevo 
gobierno egipcio? Real News Network entrevistó a Gilbert Achar, compañero del IIRE y autor del Cuaderno para el Estudio y la Investigación del IIRE “El choque de las barbaries”. En la entrevista, Achcar, que es profesor de Estudios para el Desarrollo y las Relaciones Internacionales en la Escuela de Estudios Orientales y Africanos, explica las ilusiones sobre el nuevo régimen que, como cliente de los Estados Unidos de América, representa una clara continuidad con el régimen de Mubarak.
The IIRE's latest newsletter spotlights some impresisve accomplishments by the Institute's fellows. The lastest Asian edition of the Global Justice School (GJS), and the Youth School in Amsterdam are also reported. The newslatter also highlights the plans for our upcoming GJS in Amsterdam and other developments. The IIRE's successful contribution to the European Social Forum, also reported in this issue, is one of the reasons why we are extending our fundraising partnership with the SOWS, a Dutch foundation for scientific research.
Thousands of people gathered at La Mutualité in Paris on Sunday, January 24, 2010 to render homage to deceased IIRE fellow Daniel Bensaïd. Hosted by Fred Borras and Myriam Martin, both from the leadership of the NPA and from Toulouse, like Daniel, this was an emotional and militant act of remembrance to his memory.
