Latest articles
by Graham Peebles / December 19th, 2016
Commercialisation has poisoned all areas of contemporary life, and together with its partner in crime, consumerism, is the principle cause of man-made climate change.
Operating under the suffocating shadow of neo-liberalism, the market forces of commercialisation act blindly and indiscriminately. The presiding deity is money; the goal of endeavour quick profit and limitless growth – no matter what the human or environmental costs may be. And the consequences to both are great, long-term and far-reaching: global climate change, with its numerous effects, and the wholesale destruction of the natural environment being the most significant.
Bleak prospects
The Earth is our home, ‘our sister’, …
by Doris Michol Sippel / December 18th, 2016
Introduction
Although the adoption industry celebrates National Adoption Month and World Adoption Day in November, families torn apart will not be rejoicing. This exposé addresses the most insidious legal policy that the multi-billion dollar adoption industry uses to their advantage: identity theft of children. From the 1930s to the present day, adoption re-assigns identities by court order that requires replacing birth certificates of all adopted people, even in socially-open adoption. A brief history of the purpose behind the passage of these laws and explanations as to how they violate adoptees’ civil and human rights will be presented. This piece concludes with …
by Jonathan Cook / December 18th, 2016
There is an astounding double standard being applied to the US presidential election result.
A few weeks ago the corporate media were appalled that Donald Trump demurred on whether he would accept the vote if it went against him. It was proof of his anti-democratic, authoritarian instincts.
But now he has won, the same media outlets are cheerleading the establishment’s full-frontal assault on the legitimacy of a Trump presidency. That campaign is being headed by the failed candidate, Hillary Clinton, after a lengthy softening-up operation by US intelligence agencies, led by the CIA.
According to the prevailing claim, Russian president Vladimir Putin stole the election on …
by Binoy Kampmark / December 18th, 2016
While the shattering Brexit vote of June had a deservedly chilling impact in Brussels and other European capitals, the grey suits have been busy pushing various lines on the consequences Britain faces for leaving the European Union. The technocrats in Europe will be making sure they make things as difficult as possible. Back in London, rhetoric and deflection is in heavy supply.
Various multinational companies find the notion of uncertainty certain economic death. Japanese and US firms, for instance, have sought clarity on what passporting arrangements will exist in a post-Brexit order. So far, they have gotten little other than poorly …
by Daniel Espinosa / December 17th, 2016
The Russians are coming! Once again, the structural bias of the American news media in favor of the ‘official version’ turns them into a propaganda tool. Intelligence sources point out Russian interference in recent elections. However, WikiLeaks-related sources say the Democratic Party’s mail leak was the working of a whistleblower within that institution.
“Experts point out…”, “Specialists agree…”, “There is a consensus among intelligence agencies …” While the plot’s been cooking for several months now, it was the DNC leaks and Hillary Clinton’s subsequent defeat against Donald Trump what finally put the ‘serious’ press, mainly the Washington Post and the New …
by Medea Benjamin / December 17th, 2016
While the world is transfixed on the epic tragedy unfolding in Syria, another tragedy—a hidden one—has been consuming the children of Yemen. Battered by the twin evils of war and hunger, every ten minutes a child in Yemen is now dying from malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory-tract infections. A new UNICEF report shows over 400,000 Yemeni children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Without immediate medical attention, these children will die. The situation is so dire that over half of the entire nation’s 25 million people lack sufficient food.
Why are so many of Yemen’s children going hungry and dying? Since 2014 Yemen has been …
by Gary Leupp / December 17th, 2016
Corporate TV news anchors including MSNBC’s Chris Hayes are reporting as fact–with fuming indignation–that Russia (and specifically Vladimir Putin) not only sought to influence the U.S. election (and–gosh!–promote “doubt” about the whole legitimacy of the U.S. electoral system) but to throw the vote to Donald Trump.
The main accusation is that the DNC and Podesta emails leaked through WikiLeaks were provided by state-backed Russian hackers (while they did not leak material hacked from the Republicans). I have my doubts on this. Former U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan and torture whistle-blower Craig Murray, a friend of Julian Assange, has stated that the DNC …
by Yves Engler / December 16th, 2016
What’s left and what’s right? Usually it is obvious, but sometimes you have to take a step back and consider the bigger picture.
For example, the Toronto toll debate has exposed a lack of scrutiny of the leading source of corporate profit over the past century by many supposed leftists. Absent a political economy of the auto industrial complex, many Marxists have objectively allied themselves with the private car’s awesome political, cultural and ideological power.
“There is no progressive argument in favour of road tolls,” bellowed Nora Loreto, author of From Demonized to Organized, Building the New Union Movement, …
Part 2: Readings in the Jewish Zionist control of the United States: Interviews with Francis Boyle, James Petras, and Kim Petersen
by B.J. Sabri / December 16th, 2016
From observing the Zionist expressions of power, one stands out above the rest: Dominance. Because it is an umbrella covering various forms of power and influence, dominance is versatile. In the politics of power, dominance is such a force that it can generate authority, adulation, and appeal for association. This phenomenon could happen anywhere and in any society regardless of the personal beliefs of those who acknowledge the Dominance Factor and work within its rules. However, our focus here is Authority. Among all the practical mechanism of Authority, control is the most looked-after commodity because those who possess and employ …
A Racist Violation of Free Speech
by Peter Phillips / December 16th, 2016
Turning Point USA is biased against black faculty and freedom of speech. Turning Pointis 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded on June 5, 2012. They sponsor Professor Watch List, a website meant to expose and document college professors who allegedly discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom. Listed on this watch list are 147 US college professors who have supposedly expressed leftist perspectives. Turning Point accept tips for new additions to the Professor Watch List, but claims to only publish profiles on incidents that have already been reported somewhere else.
Turning Point’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of …
by Chris Time Steele / December 16th, 2016
I just released this new song in solidarity with the Muslim community. It is called From Denver to Dearborn.
From Denver to Dearborn is produced by Giuseppe. It is about the rise of neo fascism and how nazism, white supremacy, and patriarchy are being more and more normalized by the media and people bowing down to repression. I wrote this in solidarity with the Muslim population who face discrimination, surveillance, and attacks. During WWII the Grand Mosque of Paris housed the Jewish population from nazis and after Hurricane Katrina
a mosque in the neighborhood of Algiers was converted into a community …
by Robert Hunziker / December 16th, 2016
Nixon’s final defeat, now underway, can only be understood in the context of a future that is currently manifest, as prognosticated by our greatest writers. Today’s circumstances are just as overpowering as “The World State” of Aldous Huxley’s The Brave New World (1932) with its hypnopaedic education of children and discouragement of critical thinking whilst the people bathed in an abundance of material goodies.
A quickie comparison of Orwell to Huxley explains the compelling relevance of Huxley to today:
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, …
by Binoy Kampmark / December 15th, 2016
Intent and causation are important features in the course of history. The former envisages motive and hope, irrespective of outcome; the latter envisages consequence. Often, these get muddled in the jumbled process of reasoning. An intervention in the affairs of another state goes awry; a historical incident goes belly up with ferocious consequences. Suddenly, in the aftermath, we are wise, we knew better, and we can categorise plans as venal and characters as wicked.
In a world of Clinton-Trump machinations, distinctions about intent and causation have fallen into a soup of conjecture. The stakes to win in November were so high …
by Andre Vltchek / December 15th, 2016
Some fifteen years ago, when I lived in Hanoi, I used to come very often to the rooftop bar at the Meritus Hotel for an evening drink, just to feel the gentle breeze and to spot ancient cargo boats majestically sailing on the surface of the Red River. Sometimes the river could be clearly visible, but often it was covered by fog, like in an old Vietnamese painting.
There were villages on the horizon, consisting mainly of simple ‘tunnel’ houses, and I could also see a few skyscrapers in the center of the city. Far below, the buildings on the shores …
by Ramzy Baroud / December 15th, 2016
When a veteran war reporter like Robert Fisk constructs his argument regarding the siege of Aleppo based on ‘watching’ video footage, then one can truly comprehend the near impossibility of adequate media coverage on the war in Syria.
In a recent article in the British Independent, Fisk reflects on the siege, uprising and atrocious Nazi massacres in Warsaw, Poland in 1944. The terribly high cost of that war leads him to reject the French assertion that the current siege in Aleppo is the ‘worst massacre since World War Two.’
“Why do we not see the defending …
by Yves Engler / December 14th, 2016
Did Canada lead the international charge against apartheid and white rule in South Africa or criticize a country that, in fact, did?
Recent commentary about Canada’s policy towards southern Africa’s liberation struggles distorts history that should inform debate over Canada’s planned military deployment to the continent today.
A Globe and Mail article last month described “Canada’s strong support for the anti-apartheid movement” while a Kingston Whig Standard story last week claimed a “senior Canadian diplomat and his wife became engaged in providing support to a wide array of South Africans actively opposing the apartheid regime.” A Le Devoir …
Broken Promises
by James Petras / December 13th, 2016
In recent times, and probably since the establishment of universal voting, presidents-elect have systematically violated or broken their promises to their supporters.
This essay begins with the campaign promises of the outgoing President Barack Obama and the President-Elect Donald Trump. We will then examine the reasons why rhetorical populist, peaceful and democratic promises always accompany campaigns and are immediately followed by the victor appointing cabinet members who are committed to elite-driven, militarist and authoritarian policies – so far from the expectations of the voters.
Obama: Style and Substance
…
by Media Lens / December 13th, 2016
Even the most powerful systems of propaganda inadvertently allow uncomfortable truths to slip out into the public domain. Consider a recent BBC News interview following the death of Cuba’s former leader Fidel Castro. Dr Denise Baden, Associate Professor in Business Ethics at the University of Southampton, who has studied Castro’s leadership and Cuban business models, was asked by BBC News presenter Justine Mawhinney for her views on Cuba and Castro. It’s fair to say that Baden’s responses didn’t follow the standard establishment line echoed and amplified in much of the ‘mainstream’ media.
Mawhinney kicked off …
by William A. Blunden / December 13th, 2016
According to unnamed officials a classified assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) blames the Russian government for, among other things, providing WikiLeaks with hacked emails during the run-up to 2016 presidential election. One source referred to this conclusion as the “consensus view” of the intelligence community. Though if that’s the case, then someone forgot to tell all those agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who, in their desire to obtain proof beyond a reasonable doubt (imagine that), have up to now declined to make a definitive statement. Ditto that for the Office of the Director …
by William Boardman / December 13th, 2016
Nobody Won the 2016 Election
Elections have consequences, as the cliché goes, and those consequences are unpredictable, perhaps never more unpredictable than when no one wins the election — but someone takes office anyway. When that happens, the country is largely defenseless, as we learned so disastrously in 2000.
That was when we had five unprincipled Supreme Court justices to thank for promoting an actual (but uncounted) loser to the presidency. George W. Bush proceeded to reward the country’s wary trust by blithely ignoring warnings of a terrorist attack, then using 9/11 to jingo up the fear-laden public mood and urge us …
by Binoy Kampmark / December 12th, 2016
In of itself, technological development is benign. But behind every use is a human agent, and behind that agent is a motive, an inspiration, an agenda. Monitoring one’s employees has become the great mainstay of what companies claim is a productive exercise. The watched employee will have incentives to behave, to prosper, and to fulfil the ethos of the company.
Management at the mining giant Rio Tinto have ambitions to take the technology of monitoring employees to another level – quite literally. Proud to have been at the forefront of various technical innovations in the employment field, the recently proposed surveillance …
by William T. Hathaway / December 12th, 2016
“May you live in interesting times” was a curse the ancient Chinese hurled at their adversaries, wishing them strife, oppression, and struggle. It applies to us now because for all the uncertainties a Trump presidency holds, it will certainly be an interesting time, filled with opportunities for resistance and perhaps revolution.
Big T’s pedal-to-the-metal exploitation of humanity and the planet will accelerate the vicious policies of his two predecessors, poisoning the environment, forcing our financial will around the world, killing thousands of people in imperialist wars, manipulating other nations, modernizing our nuclear weapons, and jailing dissenters at home. Fortress America will …
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, but the New POTUS is on the Record with Insults
by Paul Haeder / December 12th, 2016
Any jackass can knock down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one. LBJ
There will be a million takes on the election results, on the first 100 days in office, and on what four years will play out for the US of A. Towns where I live and work in — Portland, OR, Vancouver and Spokane, WA — sometimes profess that the head of the “free” (sic) world makes no difference to their respective metropolitan and county politics and doings.
We know it’s not true, and many times in this column space with DV, I take the microcosmic …
by Andre Vltchek / December 12th, 2016
On November 30th, I walked into the historic building housing the Cuban Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam. It was getting cold and it was drizzling. Several Vietnamese guards stood silently at the entrance. Flowers were everywhere and a big black photo of Comandante Fidel was facing a busy street.
I explained who I was, and an embassy official first let me into a courtyard decorated with more flowers and images, and later into a room with a beautiful book, into which I penned several sentences of grief, but also admiration and hope.
“People come day and night,” Cuban officials told me. “It is …
by Christy Rodgers / December 12th, 2016
In three days, from December 11-13, 1981, U.S.-trained troops in Central America’s smallest, most densely populated republic, El Salvador, rounded up and killed over a thousand unarmed civilians in the hamlet of El Mozote, in Morazán province, near the Honduran border. This massacre, I believe, still has the dubious distinction of being the largest mass killing of civilians by state forces in the Western Hemisphere in the 20th century.
Most people who know anything about the Central American civil wars in the last decades of the Cold War know that they were U.S. proxy wars, the Reagan Administration’s “line in the …
UN Press Conference Goes off Script
by Russia Insider / December 11th, 2016
Independent journalist Eva Bartlett sets a smug Norwegian reporter straight during a UN Syria Mission press conference.
https://youtu.be/AisvBNXPdG8
by Martha Durkee-Neuman / December 11th, 2016
Each generation carries its own revolution. For years, gun violence has dramatically impacted communities around the United States and a movement for gun violence prevention has emerged to respond. Now, as we reel and rebuild from the results of the election, it is the time for a new generation of organizers to metamorph this movement into one that is intersectional, inclusive and diverse. Young organizers and activists have been left behind by a movement that has focused strongly on background checks but needs to also strategically focus on responses that address the intersectional oppressions linked to gun violence.
My experience with …
by Adnan Al-Daini / December 9th, 2016
The use of foreign-born to precede the name of a person by some newspapers when discussing Brexit, insinuating that their views are suspect, is troubling and divisive. The debate by the leave campaigners is being increasingly framed in terms of patriotism and nationalism, and being foreign-born, presumably, one is not considered patriotic enough. Language and words matter. Is it any wonder, then, that racially and religiously motivated crimes in England and Wales have seen an increase of 41% following the Brexit vote?
Prior to the referendum, President Obama said Britain would be better …
by William T. Hathaway / December 9th, 2016
Let’s welcome our new Commander in Chief by demonstrating how little he knows about the Constitution of the United States. Each incoming president is required on inauguration day to take the oath of office, affirming to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.” But Trump proved his ignorance of this document when he recently wrote, “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag — if they do, there must be consequences — perhaps loss of citizenship or a year in jail!” The Supreme Court, however, thinks otherwise. It has twice ruled that burning the national flag is not a crime …
by Kathy Kelly / December 9th, 2016
December 10th marks the U.N. Human Rights Day, celebrating and upholding the indispensable and crucial declaration of universal human rights. On the eve of this event, I visited a refugee camp housing 700 families in Kabul. Conditions in refugee camps can be deplorable, intolerable. Here, the situation is best described as surreal. As I approach the entrance to the camp with my friends Nematullah, Zarghuna and Henrietta, we are overcome by the stench emanating from an open sewer filled with filth. I ask myself, “Can this be real?”
Inside the camp, primitive mud huts are separated by narrow walkways. When the inevitable snow comes, the ground …
