Latest articles
by Lesley Docksey / June 20th, 2013
Great Britain is a small island, no more that 600 miles on its longest north/south axis from John O’Groats in Scotland to Lands End in Cornwall. Yet it has the most diverse geology, layer after layer of it laid down over the millennia. In other countries one might travel for 200 miles or even much more before the scenery changes in any way. Here 20 miles will do it, and the most obvious sign is what the old houses are built of. In Dorset where I live the cottages were built in chalk clunch or a mixture of flint and …
Hundreds of Thousands Subject to Government Surveillance and No Real Protection
by Bill Quigley / June 20th, 2013
Thanks to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden many more people in the US and world-wide are learning about extensive US government surveillance and spying. There are publicly available numbers which show the reality of these problems are bigger than most think and most of this spying is happening with little or no judicial oversight.
Hundreds of Thousands Subject to Government Surveillance
The first reality is that hundreds of thousands of people in the US have been subject to government surveillance in each of the last few years. Government surveillance of people in the US is much more widespread than those in power want …
An appeal from Afghanistan to whistle-blow on war
by Dr. Hakim and the Afghan Peace Volunteers / June 20th, 2013
Recognition that 95 million human beings were killed in World War I and II has helped the people of the world understand that the method of war is not cost-effective. An awakened world hoped the United Nations could, as determined in the UN Charter, eventually ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’.
The scourge of war in Afghanistan continues, with the United Nations reporting that more than 3,000 Afghan civilians have been killed and wounded in the first five months of this year, a fifth of whom were Afghan children. So ordinary people should seize opportunities to tell …
by Ashley Smith / June 20th, 2013
After the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and collapse of the ex-USSR a few years later, the U.S. ruling class was jubilant.
It had defeated the Russian empire and now hoped to secure a new unipolar world order. Washington pushed neoliberal globalization to the benefit of U.S. multinationals, attempted to incorporate all the world’s states into American-designed institutions like the World Trade Organization, tried to prevent the rise of potential competitors and threatened to crush any so-called rogue states like Iraq that bucked its dictates.
Whether Democrats or Republicans were in charge, each presidential administration …
Global Power Project, Part 2
by Andrew Gavin Marshall / June 19th, 2013
The Global Power Project, an investigative series produced by Occupy.com, aims to identify and connect the worldwide institutions and individuals who comprise today’s global power oligarchy. In Part 1, which appeared last week, I provided an overview examining who and what constitute the global ruling elite – often referred to as the Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC). In this second part, I will attempt to identify some of the key, dominant institutions that have facilitated and have in turn been supported by the development of this oligarchic class. This is not a study of wealth, but a study of power.
In …
by Democracy Now! / June 19th, 2013
Brazil is witnessing some of its largest protests in decades, after some 240,000 people protested Monday. Tens of thousands continue to take the streets. The demonstrations were initially sparked by an increase in bus fares in São Paulo, but the uprising soon spiraled nationwide amid outrage over government corruption, inequality, failing public services and police brutality against demonstrators. Protesters have also condemned the high level of government spending on the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. We’re joined from São Paulo by Lucia Nader, executive director of the Brazil-based human rights organization Conectas and a participant in the …
by David Macaray / June 19th, 2013
The argument against government regulation of commerce goes something like this: These dreaded regulations are cumbersome, confusing, expensive, inefficient, vaguely “unconstitutional,” and, ultimately, counter-productive, because they hurt the very businesses and industries they were established to protect.
The argument in favor of regulation goes something like this: Our understanding of human nature, the laws of economics, the history of mankind, and a quick glance in the mirror tells us everything we’ll ever need to know. In short, that so-called “self-policing” doctrine being peddled by free market zealots is a howling fraud.
Just consider other applications of “self-policing.” What if it were applied …
by Harry J. Bentham / June 19th, 2013
During the protest against the G8 in Belfast, protesters appear to have blamed capitalism and demanded socialism as the solution. Is capitalism being falsely accused by protesters with a simplistic interpretation? Are socialism and communism simply old placards that do not offer a realistic chance of leading us away from irresponsible government policy and financial outrages?
This article highlights some of the difficulties in answering the above questions, without delving into a tiresome amount of economic theory. I believe it is justifiable to accuse capitalism of being the source of the world’s current economic throes, but as sloganeers we need to …
The Ecology of a National Security State
by Peter Rugh / June 19th, 2013
Continuing revelations from National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden have cast a spotlight on widespread U.S. government surveillance of Americans and others around the globe, just as the NSA completes a new data farm in Bluffdale, Utah, set to be the largest spy center in the country.
The servers at the innocuously titled Utah Data Facility will have the capacity to store “100 years worth of the worldwide communications, phones and emails,” according to former NSA technical director-turned-whistleblower William Binney. But the ill-examined ecological impacts of the site, and other smaller but similar NSA data hording facilities like it, is far from …
by Ramzy Baroud / June 18th, 2013
Last night at the hotel lobby of an Arab Gulf country, a family walked in aiming for the westernized café that sells everything but Arabic coffee. The mother seemed distant as she pressed buttons on her smart phone. The father looked tired as he buffed away on his cigarette, and a whole band of children ran around in refreshing chaos that broke the monotony of the fancy but impersonal hotel setting.
Chasing behind the children for no other reason but to be constantly vigilant to any unexpected harm was a very skinny Indonesian teenager wearing a tightly wrapped headscarf, worn out …
by Kevin Zeese / June 18th, 2013
The Green Shadow Cabinet stands united in opposition to the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and is committed to defeating this Obama administration effort to enrich and empower global corporations at the expense of people and planet.
For three years, the Obama administration has engaged in 16 rounds of secret negotiations to develop the TPP. Those negotiations have included hundreds of representatives of global corporations. The TPP negotiations have excluded representatives of the vast majority of the American people. It is a fact that the TPP is global economic policy for the 1%, at the expense of the 99%.
Today, all five branches …
Courage Is Contagious
by Nozomi Hayase / June 18th, 2013
As the revelations of mass NSA surveillance raised shock-waves around the globe, 29-year old Edward Snowden came forward to identify himself as the one behind the largest leak in NSA history. His video interview with the Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald went viral and the the world saw and heard the man who left his life behind to expose this insidious global spying program. Snowden spoke of the motives behind his action:
I don’t want to live in a world where there’s no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity…. My sole motive is to inform the …
by Linh Dinh / June 18th, 2013
John is 46 but looks twenty years younger, with not a single white hair or whisker. His grungy style also suspends him in early adulthood. His mom was a registered nurse, then secretary at a garage. His dad sold car parts and drove a mail truck from Philly to Harrisburg in the evening. “I’m not doing as well as my parents, but I’m not trying as hard either,” John confided as he sat in McGlinchey’s, a pint of Rolling Rock in front of him. It was late afternoon, and the place was still quiet, with the jukebox interfering only intermittently. …
by Paul Haeder / June 18th, 2013
I am an alien. Rip Van Winkle. Missed the Faustian Bargain.
Father’s Day. Twenty-thirteen. Took one of my charges to Multnomah Falls on the Columbia Gorge Scenic By-way. One of five charges, but this client – we’ll call him Drew – and I head out because the house where all the other clients live together as five integrated adults is empty this Sunday. Two others took a Disney Cruise to Alaska through a special program for adults with DD – developmental disabilities. Another client is at home, with parents, for a weekend. Yet another one got a Lift (handicapped) ride to …
by Gary Brumback / June 18th, 2013
This article begins the second in a series that takes an inside snapshot of American industries along with their control of a servile government. The first in the series was a three-part synopsis of the military/industrial/political triumvirate, the most deadly and destructive part of the entire corpocracy. ((A Deadly Monster by Gary Brumback (Part 1: Dissident Voice, December 11 2012; Part 2: Dissident Voice, December 19, 2012; Part 3: Dissident Voice, January 18; 2013).)) The present article overviews another industry that is often deadly, the pharmaceutical industry, along with a servile government that provides a variety of hand …
by Mirah Riben / June 18th, 2013
Prejudice may not … be the basis for differential treatment under the law” even if it does not rise from “malice or hostile malice.
— President Obama’s Administration, 28, 2013
All Americans have a right to “equal protection” under the law. Yet one class of people are so marginalized they are not even recognized as a discriminated against minority. The least known or even thought of in a discussion of civil rights are adopted persons.
We do not think about adoptees in this way because adoption is viewed as a social good that serves babies and children. Laws regarding adoption seem to have …
Israeli Leaders & Supporters Scramble After Iran Election
by Nima Shirazi / June 18th, 2013
Hassan Rouhani’s unexpected victory in this weekend’s Iranian election has sent Israeli hasbara into a tailspin. The desire for an Iranian bogeyman is so intense in the warmongering mainstream of Israeli and neoconservative discourse that any attempt to mask their pre-election desires and post-election frustration has been futile. Their entire game plan has been on display — every Iranian leader is a New Hitler and every New Hitler must be stopped. The whole point is to stave off any possible reconciliation or even minor deflation of tensions between Iran and the West, namely the United States, …
by Mae-Wan Ho and Eva Sirinathsinghji / June 17th, 2013
Executive Summary
Since the first commercial growing began in 1996, the global area of genetically modified (GM) crops is reported to have increased 100-fold. However, nearly 90 % are confined to 5 countries, with top grower the US accounting for more than 40 %. GM crops have been largely excluded from Europe and most developing countries because opposition has been growing simultaneously as widespread agronomical failures of the GM crops as well the health and environmental impacts are coming to light.
GM remains limited to three major crops – soybean, maize and cotton – and two traits: herbicide (mainly glyphosate) tolerance (HT) …
Chances and dangers for a social revolutionary left
by Wilhelm Langthaler / June 17th, 2013
The old left had failed facing the AKP challenge – because they read them erroneously as a linear prolongation of the military dictatorship. As the authoritarian and culturally repressive tendencies of Erdogan are coming to the fore, a new chance is being offered to social revolutionary democrats. But there is one condition: not to tap into the trap laid out by Kemalism which already had seemed to be moribund.
The starting point of the mass protests, to hinder the destruction of a park in the very heard of Istanbul’s political centre, offered a broad and flexible platform. As the movement is …
Israel stirs the pot in Syria
by Jonathan Cook / June 17th, 2013
For much of the past two years Israel stood sphinx-like on the sidelines of Syria’s civil war. Did it want Bashar al-Assad’s regime toppled? Did it favour military intervention to help opposition forces? And what did it think of the increasing visibility of Islamist groups in Syria? It was difficult to guess.
In recent weeks, however, Israel has moved from relative inaction to a deepening involvement in Syrian affairs. It launched two air strikes on Syrian positions last month, and at the same time fomented claims that Damascus had used chemical weapons, in what looked suspiciously like an attempt to corner …
by Rosemarie Jackowski / June 17th, 2013
There are a lot of things people don’t know about Nader.
Any time the name ‘Ralph Nader’ comes up, it is sure to stir controversy. It is like waving a red flag in front of the Democrats.
We’ve heard it all. “He’s too old”. Let’s look at that one. Would it be acceptable to say: “He’s too white, too Hispanic, too black, too short, too tall…” Ageism is one of the most destructive prejudices that can exist in any culture. It devalues and trivializes an entire class of people — sometimes those with the most experience and wisdom.
Other …
by Ben Schreiner / June 17th, 2013
In the wake of having its illegal domestic surveillance dragnet exposed, laying bare (yet again) the utter duplicity and criminality of the U.S. ruling class, Washington is once again digging deep to conjure up a pretext for yet another war of aggression in the Middle East.
Using the tired menace of weapons of mass destruction, the White House Thursday claimed with “high confidence” that the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons, specifically the nerve agent sarin, against rebel fighters.
Washington’s announcement of “credible evidence” of chemical weapons use by Syrian forces, coming despite a dearth of actual …
Washington Style
by Walter Brasch / June 16th, 2013
It’s Father’s Day, and that means the Great White Republican Hierarchy in Washington smells burnt charcoal and is ready to barbeque some Democrats.
Because Father’s Day is special, the Republican-proposed Sequester is waived, and there is no budget limit for the day’s food and frivolity.
It’s warm this Father’s Day, but the Republicans aren’t complaining about all the fracking heat from their propane grill or the sweat they’re putting into making a nice dinner. They’re sure that it’ll be ice-age cool next year because the destruction of the ozone layer and Climate Change don’t exist.
First onto their searing grill is a slice …
by Tom Burghardt / June 15th, 2013
Ongoing revelations by The Guardian and The Washington Post of massive, illegal secret state surveillance of the American people along with advanced plans for waging offensive cyberwarfare on a global scale, including inside the US, underscores what Antifascist Calling has reported throughout the five years of our existence: that democracy and democratic institutions in the United States are dead letters.
Last week, Guardian investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald revealed that NSA “is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.”
That …
by Katie Miranda / June 15th, 2013
by Gearóid Ó Colmáin / June 15th, 2013
In an interview with the French TV station LCP, former French minister for Foreign Affairs Roland Dumas said:
I’m going to tell you something. I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria.
This was in Britain not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer minister for foreign affairs, if I would like to participate.
Naturally, I refused, I said I’m French, that doesn’t interest me.
Dumas went on …
by Stuart Jeanne Bramhall / June 15th, 2013
In The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability — Designing for Abundance (Northpoint Press), American architect William McDonough and German chemist Dr Michael Braungart offer a new improved version of the cradle to cradle (C2C) vision they first introduced with their 2002 book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. C2C design is an approach to architecture and manufacturing that seeks to lessen environmental damage and the impact of resource scarcity by revolutionizing the way we design products, factories, buildings and cities – as opposed to trying to undo or minimize the negative effects of …
by Dylan Murphy / June 15th, 2013
The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.
Dov Weisglass, advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister in 2006
In 2005 Israel withdrew its settlers from Gaza. Following this there were democratic elections which Hamas won. Since voting the “wrong way” the Palestinian people of Gaza have been subjected to a siege by Israel. The Palestinian people of Gaza are blockaded by land, sea and air by the Israeli Defence Force.
The EU and America have failed to do anything to stop Israel’s war against the Palestinians of Gaza. Most notable were the …
by Vacy Vlazna / June 15th, 2013
Swaggering precariously on his defunct divine right of peace-broker at the American Jewish Committee annual love-fest for Israel, US Secretary of State Kerry, regurgitated with braggart aplomb the tiresome ultimatum on the Palestinian/Israel peace process, “If we do not succeed now, we may never get another chance.”
Seems Kerry is the last to know that the US’s stint as ‘honest broker’ is beyond passé as is his ultimatum. We know that there are many game-changers that can set in motion a genuine peace process with just outcomes for Palestinians and Israelis.
Palestinian Unity
A major game-changer will come the day the …
by Margaret Flowers / June 15th, 2013
The Turkish Health Ministry issued a threat to take medical licenses to practice away from doctors who have been providing treatment to the protesters in Istanbul. They are also demanding the names of all medical volunteers including Emergency Medicine Technicians. This threat constitutes a violation of the human right of the protesters to receive treatment and the principle of medical neutrality.
Since May 27, peaceful protesters have been occupying Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey. The park is the last green space within the city and it was set to be demolished to build another of many shopping centers. What started …
