Latest articles
by Vijay Prashad / December 7th, 2019
On 25 November 1960, three of four of the Mirabal sisters – María Teresa, Minerva, and Patria – of the Dominican Republic were assassinated for their resistance against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. The youngest of the three – María Teresa – said before her death, ‘Perhaps what we have most near is death, but that idea does not frighten me. We shall continue to fight for justice’.
Twenty-one years ago, at the first Encuentro (Encounter) of feminists from across South America held in Bogotá (Colombia), the idea germinated to …
by Klaudia Kerekes / December 7th, 2019
The Union of Cypriots is one of the prominent organizations that is fighting against the Turkish occupation of Cyprus and struggles for a united Cyprus. It also took the world’s attention with its strong image and messages lately. Today, you can hear its name when the Cyprus subject opens, anywhere, despite the fact that the solution it supports for the reunification is not the one supported by the foreign powers included in the “Cyprus game” such as Greece, Turkey or United Kingdom. It believes …
by Edward J. Martin / December 6th, 2019
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – and its two predecessor organizations, the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM) – emerged in the early 1970s, during a long-term rightist movement in the United States.
The DSA’s contribution to the American Left was its new founded identity as a radical organization born out of a merger between the DSOC and NAM. DSA also sought to become a democratic, socialist party, which fostered the inclusion members, similar to that of the Bernie Sander’s presidential campaigns (2016, 2020). Nevertheless, it was under the leadership of DSA Michael Harrington’s penetrating critique …
by Eric Zuesse / December 6th, 2019
In the December 4th statement that was made by Stanford University law professor Pamela Karlan was this:
We have become the shining city on a hill. We have become the nation that leads the world in understanding what democracy is. One of the things we understand most profoundly is it’s not a real democracy, it’s not a mature democracy if the party in power uses the criminal process to go after its enemies. I think you heard testimony, the Intelligence Committee heard testimony about how it isn’t just our national interest in protecting our own elections. …
by Robert Hunziker / December 6th, 2019
For tens of thousands of years the Arctic’s carbon sink has been a powerful dynamic in functionality of the Earth System. However, that all-important functionality has been crippled and could be permanently severed. According to new research based upon field observations conducted from 2003 to 2017, a large-scale carbon emission shift in the Earth System has occurred.
The “entire Arctic” now emits more carbon than it absorbs, a fact that can only be described as worse than bad news. “Given that the Arctic has been taking up carbon for tens …
by Yves Engler / December 6th, 2019
Most Canadians would be surprised to learn that the sun never sets on the military their taxes pay for.
This country is not formally at war yet more than 2,100 Canadian troops are sprinkled across the globe. According to the Armed Forces, these soldiers are involved in 28 international missions.
There are 850 Canadian troops in Iraq and its environs. Two hundred highly skilled special forces have provided training and combat support to Kurdish forces often accused of ethnic cleansing areas of Iraq they captured. A tactical helicopter detachment, intelligence officers and a combat hospital, as well as 200 Canadians …
Interview with Douglas Valentine
by Michael Steven Smith and Heidi Boghosian / December 6th, 2019
Michigan Native Fights to Protect ballena asesina
by Paul Haeder / December 5th, 2019
Facts about orcas abound in Colleen Weiler’s brain, because her role is to lead policy research and engagement around what we call the Southern Resident Orcas (SROs).
Her job is with the Plymouth, Massachusetts-based US headquarters of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation non-profit, established 32 years ago in England.
Our name is what we do.
Protecting cetaceans involves direct action, lobbying lawmakers, public engagement and education/outreach to the public.
Her official title is Jessica Rekos Fellow for Orca Conservation and, for the past five years, her focus has been on orca recovery. Now headquartered in Newport, she has also been tracking the efforts of …
by Peter Koenig / December 5th, 2019
The impunity with which the US aggresses Hong Kong is insane. Equally or more insane is western media coverage of what is going on in Hong Kong. Not one word on how the incredible “pro-democracy” vote of the rather unimportant District Council Elections was achieved. Of the 18 District Councils, 452 of 479 seats (71%) went to “pro-democracy” candidates. Such an extreme anti-Beijing vote could only be obtained by massive western propaganda at the cost of millions of dollars, targeted with algorithms, developed on the principles of the now (apparently) defunct Cambridge Analytica. And this with 70% of eligible voters …
by Andre Vltchek / December 5th, 2019
Good bye, Lebanon, metaphorically and truly.
Good bye to a country which, many believe, actually has already ceased to exist.
For five long years I have been commuting between the Asia Pacific and the Middle East. And Beirut, for all that time, was one of my homes.
I arrived in Beirut when the situation in the region was beginning to be unbearable; when destabilized, tortured Syria commenced losing its children in large numbers. They were forced to leave their homeland, heading for Beirut and Beqaa Valley, and, in fact, to all parts of the world. I arrived when Syrian refugees were freezing to …
by Richard Greeman / December 5th, 2019
MONTPELLIER, France — On the eve of an “unlimited” (open-ended) General Strike called for today, more and more unions and protest groups are pledging join in.
Two things are unusual about this strike. The first is that it is open-ended, rather than the usual one-day ritualistic protest marches, and it may be prolonged from day to day by workers’ assemblies as long as necessary. The second is that the Yellow Vests, the self-organized, horizontal, social movement that sprung up spontaneously just over a year ago and is still popular despite severe repression, have decided to converge with the strike.
Just …
by Alex Anfruns / December 5th, 2019
From the terrace of Wi’am, also known as the “Palestinian Conflict Resolution Centre”, you can see a horizon interrupted by the Israeli wall and a cloud of tear gas. At the foot of it, a narrow path leads the visitor off the tourist circuit to the refugee camp of Aida, jealously guarded by soldiers. At the entrance to the camp we see a large key to the return, symbolizing the identity that the 1948 refugees are unwilling to renounce. It is the Nakba or “catastrophe” as a consequence of …
by Shawgi Tell / December 5th, 2019
David Osborne is a well-funded neoliberal demagogue who has authored several books advocating the elimination of the public sphere and public interest. He has long championed the narrow private interests of major owners of capital.
Osborne has spent much of his life openly attacking the public sector and pushing for its privatization (“reinvention” and “innovation”) as fast as possible. This includes aggressively promoting school privatization through the creation of poor-performing pay-the-rich schemes like charter schools.
In a November 2019 article in the Wall Street Journal, [1] Osborne nonchalantly repeats one of …
by Binoy Kampmark / December 5th, 2019
Surveillance activities and the law are often at loggerheads. The former specialises in destroying privacy; the latter, in so far as it might be adequate, sometimes furnishes a means of preserving it. When it comes to exposing overly-eager surveillance activity, obstacles arise. Ironically, the privacy of agents, and the sacrosanct nature of their abuse, become points of issue. Public interest tests are employed, often against the public. To expose such conduct might be to compromise the State apparatus altogether.
To prosecute an open case of fair spread and free access to evidence often requires material deemed sordidly compromising. When it comes …
by CGTN / December 5th, 2019
Countless terrorist attacks occurred in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang from 1990 to 2016. Terrorism has destroyed many innocent lives, similar to what has happened around the world. Such extremism has uprooted the peaceful lives of local residents in the region.
https://youtu.be/5BtIqBU8hk8
by Colin Todhunter / December 4th, 2019
The UK-based Independent online newspaper recently published an article about a potential link between air pollution from vehicles and glaucoma. It stated that according to a new study air pollution is linked to the eye condition that causes blindness.
The report explained that researchers had looked at vision tests carried out on more than 111,000 people across Britain between 2006 and 2010 and cross-referenced results against levels of air pollution in their neighbourhoods. Those living in areas with higher amounts of fine particulate matter were at least 6% more likely to have glaucoma than those in the least polluted areas.
Glaucoma affects half …
by Paul Haeder / December 4th, 2019
The word was the ember and the forest was my life.
? Jimmy Santiago Baca, “Coming into Language,” March 3, 2014
We’re at the Flip ‘n Chicken sharing food, swapping stories about El Paso, and philosophizing about what it means to be an educator in the Early Childhood program at Oregon Coast Community College.
His looks are a cross between Lee Trevino (golfer from El Paso) and my buddy the muralist from El Paso, Mario Colin.
My hope is that I can influence high school students to become teachers . . . to be better teachers . . . go to grad school …
by Gerald E. Scorse / December 4th, 2019
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) struggles every day with an infernal problem. It’s expected to separate taxpayers from their hard-earned money and leave them feeling well-treated at the same time.
They don’t feel well-treated, far from it. According to the 2019 report to Congress by the National Taxpayer Advocate: “The current state of IRS customer experience lags far behind other government agencies and the private sector”
But the IRS doesn’t lag behind when it comes to return on investment, or ROI. That’s the standard measure of “bang for the buck”—in this case how many dollars the Treasury takes in for each …
by Media Lens / December 4th, 2019
Thoreau got it right:
‘Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.’ (Thoreau, ‘Walden’, Penguin, 1983, p.68)
The same is certainly true of propaganda. We can laugh now at McCarthyite paranoia warning of Soviet tentacles threatening every aspect of Western life during the Cold War. In the 1940s and 1950s, Hollywood produced dozens of anti-communist films with titles like I Married a Communist and I Was a Communist for the FBI. Large-circulation magazines were titled, Communists are after Your Child. Even children’s comics declared:
‘Beware, commies, …
Going to the ICJ
by Binoy Kampmark / December 4th, 2019
Leaders currently in office rarely make an appearance before either the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court. International law remains affixed to the notion that heads-of-state are, at least for the duration of their time in office, safe from prosecution. Matters change once the time in office expires.
Be that as it may, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, with an ever dwindling number of peace prizes and awards to her name for questionable responses to the plight of the Rohingya Muslim minority, has a plan. She …
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers / December 4th, 2019
On December 2, the 25th two-week long United Nations climate conference begins in Madrid, Spain. The stated task of the conference, referred to as COP 25 (Conference Of Parties), is to make sure there are plans to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. The goals of that agreement, which are nonbinding, are:
Reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030;
Achieve a net zero global carbon footprint by 2050; and
Stabilize the global temperature increase at 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
Last week, prominent scientists issued a warning that significant changes …
by T. Mayheart Dardar / December 3rd, 2019
US soldiers pose over a mass grave with some 300 bodies of innocent Native American Lakota Sioux, two-thirds women and children, massacred at Wounded Knee, Pine Ridge Reservation in 1891.
When a white man kills an Indian in a fair fight it is called honorable, but when an Indian kills a white man in a fair fight it is called murder. When a white army battles Indians and wins it is called a great victory, but if they lose it is called a massacre and bigger armies …
by Evan Jones / December 3rd, 2019
A court case is currently running in France that is of relevance to more than the French.
During two weeks to 29 November, Banque Nationale de Paris Paribas is being sued in the Tribunal correctionnel of Paris (a mid-level criminal court) by lawyers representing borrowers of loans denominated in foreign currency.
The issue is of broad relevance because Eastern European countries are bogged down in a quagmire of the stuff. Millions of naïve customers were sold loans in foreign currencies to finance housing, auto loans, etc. Welcome to the freedoms of the West. It was a bomb waiting to explode. Explode it …
by John W. Whitehead / December 2nd, 2019
While Congress subjects the nation to its impeachment-flavored brand of bread-and-circus politics, our civil liberties continue to die a slow, painful death by a thousand cuts.
Case in point: while Americans have been fixated on the carefully orchestrated impeachment drama that continues to monopolize headlines, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law legislation extending three key provisions of the USA Patriot Act, which had been set to expire on December 15, 2019.
Once again, to no one’s surprise, the bureaucrats on both sides of the aisle—Democrats and Republicans alike—prioritized political grandstanding over principle and their oath of office to protect …
The End of Netanyahu’s Era and the Political Earthquake ahead
by Ramzy Baroud / December 2nd, 2019
This time, nothing seems to work. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has tried every trick in the book to save his political career and to avoid possible prison time. But for Israel’s longest-serving leader, the honeymoon is certainly almost over.
It is an “attempted coup”, is how Netanyahu described his indictment on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust by Israeli Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, on November 21. Netanyahu’s loyalists agree. On November 26, a few thousand Likud party supporters gathered in Tel Aviv, under the title “Stop the coup”, …
The 2% goal as defence illiteracy
by Jan Oberg / December 2nd, 2019
Political
NATO’s London Summit on December 3 and 4, 2019 displays the deep political crisis of the 70-year-old alliance: Only a dinner and a short meeting, no statement to be issued, quarrels among the leading military members, accusations, substantial differences on Syria …
by Medea Benjamin / December 2nd, 2019
The three smartest words that Donald Trump uttered during his presidential campaign are “NATO is obsolete.” His adversary, Hillary Clinton, retorted that NATO was “the strongest military alliance in the history of the world.” Now that Trump has been in power, the White House parrots the same worn line that NATO is “the most successful Alliance in history, guaranteeing the security, prosperity, and freedom of its members.” But Trump was right the first time around: Rather than …
Billionaire entitlement run amok
by Dave Lindorff / December 2nd, 2019
Billionaire on the mayoral campaign trail in New York. (Mike Bloomberg is the turkey to the right of the chicken and eagle.)
Michael Bloomberg, according to Forbes Magazine the 9th richest man in the world with a net worth this year of $54.7 billion, isn’t just the real billionaire candidate for President in 2020 (Donald Trump’s net worth is almost certainly not counted in the billions, and could be negative for all we know, since he won’t release his …
by Gilad Atzmon / December 1st, 2019
For the last 15 years I have been warning both Brits and Jews of the possibility of serious consequences that might result from the intensive activities of the Jewish Lobby in Britain and beyond. I have written thousands of commentaries about the topic, given endless talks and interviews and published the best selling books on Jewish Identity politics in return for which I have received relentless abuse. However, I survive and with just a bit of luck Britain may also survive the present chaos inflicted …
by Ted Glick / December 1st, 2019
Long-time peace, justice, democracy and lgbtq activist and trainer George Lakey has written a book, How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning, about the strategic centrality to movement-building of the approach of nonviolent direct action campaigning. Built upon his decades of organizing experience going back to the ‘60s civil rights movement, there is a great deal of generalized wisdom all throughout it.
Lakey argues compellingly that what progressives need to be about is not just the tactic of nonviolent direct action but, instead, …
