Latest articles
Egypt Under Empire, Part 3
by Andrew Gavin Marshall / July 31st, 2013
Between 1952 and 2011, Egypt was ruled by three military dictators: Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak. Nasser placated labour unrest and imposed many social programs that benefited the population. Sadat subsequently began to break down the ‘social contract’ with Egyptian society, and when Mubarak came to power in 1981, the following three decades witnessed the imposition of a neoliberal order, complete with crony-capitalists, corrupted bureaucracies and a repressive police force. Three decades of increased poverty, polarized wealth and power, and increased labour unrest all laid the groundwork for the 2011 popular uprising.
As Nasser came to power in Egypt in 1952, …
by Ellen Brown / July 30th, 2013
When the Occupiers took an interest in moving San Francisco’s money into a city-owned bank in 2011, it was chiefly on principle, in sympathy with the nationwide Move Your Money campaign. But recent scandals have transformed the move from a political statement into a matter of protecting the city’s deposits and reducing its debt burden. The chief roadblock to forming a municipal bank has been the concern that it was not allowed under state law, but a legal opinion issued by Deputy City Attorney Thomas J. Owen has now overcome that obstacle.
Establishing a city-owned San Francisco Bank is not a …
by Bill Purkayastha / July 30th, 2013
Al Capone turned down the Nobel Peace Prize for financial reasons: he didn’t want the IRS to suspect he had taxable income (they figured it out anyway). Charles Manson, on the other hand, turned down his Nobel Peace Prize simply because the State of California wouldn’t let him leave his Maximum Security facility to travel to Norway, nor would they let him keep the prize money. He thought this was blatantly unfair, and was further incensed when they gave the prize he turned down to Henry Kissinger. “I mean, like, hey Man. That guy’s like, a real mass murderer, like, …
How the Palestinian Bogeyman Resurfaced Like Never Before
by Ramzy Baroud / July 30th, 2013
When I left Gaza for the first time on my own, twenty some years ago, I was warned of a notorious officer who headed Egypt’s State Security Intelligence at the Rafah border. He “hates Palestinians,” I was told.
My friends and neighbors in Gaza warned me not to greet him with ‘Assalamu Alaikum’ – peace be upon you – if that particular officer were to be on duty on that day. Yes, the officer also hated any reference to Islam, even the very greeting.
When I entered the mukhabrat office, I was startled by his presence. He was a very large, clean-shaven …
An interview with B.J. Sabri, an observer of Middle East politics
by Kim Petersen / July 30th, 2013
The “revolutionary” events in Egypt have caught much of the world’s attention. To get a handle on what it all means, I can think of few better people to turn to than B. J. Sabri. I have often collaborated with Sabri on essays, and whenever I have, they turn out to be the best work I have been associated with. Sabri has lived in a few countries and is multi-lingual. Being an Iraqi-American, he authored many articles on the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He is fluent in Arabic, and this gives him the advantage of taking in first hand what …
Billionaire Gets New Sports Arena in Bankrupt Detroit
by David Zirin / July 30th, 2013
Captivity, Torture and Slow Death
by John Stanton / July 30th, 2013
Sea World is under fire after its trainers failed to help a distressed pilot whale stuck on a ledge for at least 25 minutes as the audience watched in horror. The disturbing incident was caught on camera by one attendee who says his view of SeaWorld has been changed forever.
— Huffington Post, 29 July 2013
I’ve been on a hunger strike since Feb. 10 and have lost well over 30 pounds. I will not eat until they restore my dignity. I’ve been detained at Guantanamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime…. I have …
by William Manson / July 30th, 2013
Over fifty years ago, the radical sociologist C. Wright Mills wrote The Power Elite (1956), in which he described how the “command posts” of U.S. society had become interlocking, intertwined–and interchangeable. This cadre of elite-managers and investors not only utilized the federal government for their interests, but periodically occupied the actual executive positions in the government (and/or military) from which policies favorable to their interests could be more directly implemented.
Even then, back in the Fifties, this was certainly not a new phenomenon in the U.S. For instance, a century ago, oil/finance mogul Paul Mellon “served” as Treasury …
The Anti-Empire report
by William Blum / July 29th, 2013
t’s not easy being a flag-waving American nationalist. In addition to having to deal with the usual disillusion, anger, and scorn from around the world incited by Washington’s endless bombings and endless wars, the nationalist is assaulted by whistle blowers like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, who have disclosed a steady stream of human-rights and civil-liberties scandals, atrocities, embarrassing lies, and embarrassing truths. Believers in “American exceptionalism” and “noble intentions” have been hard pressed to keep the rhetorical flag waving by the dawn’s early light and the twilight’s last gleaming.
That may explain the Washington Post story (July 20) headlined “U.S. …
by Kim Petersen / July 29th, 2013
Settlers enjoyed a seeming free permission: to dispossess natives at will of all the best land, turn them out of traditional fishing locations, disrespect elders, women, children and religion, leave whole communities without political representation and punish men for breaking laws which they could have no means of knowing existed. It was inconceivable that all this change could happen overnight without violence. Instead, there was the greatest imaginable violence: genocide.
— Tom Swanky, The Great Darkening
The charge of genocide in the colonial-imperialistic dispossession of the Original Peoples of Turtle Island, in particular the northern landmass designated Canada by the dispossessors, is …
Part 2 of 6: The Resurgence of the National Bourgeoisie
by Gearóid Ó Colmáin / July 29th, 2013
In spite of failing to free Brazil’s economy from IMF debt control, Lula de Silva’s leadership of Brazil also had important successes, particularly in the international political area. These progressive polices did not fail to raise eyebrows in Washington. Lula re-orientated Brazil’s foreign policy by opening up contacts with Cuba, condemning the US embargo on that country and offering significant loans and investments to the chagrin of Washington; Lula refused to classify the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as terrorists; the Brazilian leader had close relations with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela; was a strong advocate of Latin American integration …
The Twilight of the White Majority
by Bill Annett / July 29th, 2013
The rich get richer; the poor get children.
— Author unknown
During 2012, in the United States, a strange thing happened. For the first time in history, fewer white babies were born than the total of black, brown, yellow, red and beige babies. Another first for that group of little white privileged squalling brats was that fewer of them were born than there were old white geezers who died. Blame that, if you will, on our immigration policy — uncertain and hesitant as it is — or perhaps cite the demographic contraceptive fact that as people …
by Paul Craig Roberts / July 29th, 2013
Amitai Etzioni has raised an important question: “Who authorized preparations for war with China?” Etzioni says that the war plan is not the sort of contingency plan that might be on hand for an improbable event. Etzioni also reports that the Pentagon’s war plan was not ordered by, and has not been reviewed by, US civilian authorities. We are confronted with a neoconized US military out of control endangering Americans and the rest of the world.
Etzioni is correct that this is a momentous decision made by a neoconized military. China is obviously aware that Washington is preparing for …
A masterclass in propaganda
by Jonathan Cook / July 29th, 2013
I have just watched We Steal Secrets, Alex Gibney’s documentary about Wikileaks and Julian Assange. One useful thing I learnt is the difference between a hatchet job and character assassination. Gibney is too clever for a hatchet job, and his propaganda is all the more effective for it.
The film’s contention is that Assange is a natural-born egotist and, however noble his initial project, Wikileaks ended up not only feeding his vanity but also accentuating in him the very qualities — secretiveness, manipulativeness, dishonesty and a hunger for power — he so despises in the global forces he has taken on.
This …
by Iman Safi / July 29th, 2013
The issue of refugees continues to plague the world with a reality that it prefers to ignore. But the world will either have to face it or opt to continue ignoring it at the risk of having to deal with graver consequences sooner or later.
The number of registered refugees has risen significantly over the last few years, and the nations that are would-be recipients of refugees are confronted with policies they need to have in place, with growing concerns amongst their voters regarding numbers of refugees hitting their home turf. Whilst many of the would-be refugee recipient countries are signatories …
by Jack A. Smith / July 29th, 2013
There are times when the Obama Administration’s deep attachment to U.S. militarism and excessive praise of the armed forces causes the White House to seem either out of touch with reality or intentionally dishonest in its praise of America’s past wars.
Commander in Chief Barak Obama’s latest exaggeration of American military prowess took place in Washington July 27 at an outdoor commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the armistice that temporarily halted hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War.
“Here, today,” he told a cheering crowd of elderly U.S. and South Korean veterans, “we can say with confidence that this war was no …
by Tom Burghardt / July 28th, 2013
As the secret state continues trawling the electronic communications of hundreds of millions of Americans, lusting after what securocrats euphemistically call “actionable intelligence,” a notional tipping point that transforms a “good” citizen into a “criminal” suspect, the role played by telecommunications and technology firms cannot be emphasized enough.
Ever since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden began leaking secrets to media outlets about government surveillance programs, one fact stands out: The zero probability these privacy-killing projects would be practical without close (and very profitable) “arrangements” made with phone companies, internet service providers and other technology giants.
Indeed, a top secret NSA Inspector General’s …
by Ron Jacobs / July 28th, 2013
Most of us are familiar with the fact that the global financial markets run twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week with just a few exceptions. This is due in part to the incredible improvements in technology which have enabled trading to occur at rocket speed and across national borders. Also important in this scenario is the loosening of laws restricting financial trading to domestic markets. The combination of these phenomena has helped create a world where the machinations of capital never stop, with the consequence that the insecurity natural to capitalism is enhanced exponentially. Economies are …
Legitimizing France’s “Total Re-conquest"
by Gearóid Ó Colmáin / July 28th, 2013
The objective is the total reconquest of Mali.
— French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, (20 January, 2013)
Presidential elections are due to take place in Mali on Sunday, July 28th. The latest polls indicate a victory for Ibrahim Boubecar Keïta, with Soumaila Cissé coming in second place. There are 27 candidates running in the election. The holding of the election just months after the French military intervention in January 2013 has been widely criticized due to the chaotic state of the country.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon admitted that the elections would not be ‘perfect’ but indicated that they would have …
First Nations and Israel
by Eric Walberg / July 27th, 2013
This month, Canada’s media solemnly related “the sad truth that the country engaged in a deliberate policy of attempted genocide against First Nations people”, referring to government-sponsored abuse of Native children a century ago, which Canada’s Chief Medical Officer Peter Bryce exposed in 1907, but which was hushed up. Bryce was fired and the post of chief medical officer abolished in 1919.
This, of course, is a terrible crime, though the facts have long been known (the study referred to was published in 2006). A study published by Ian Mosby in May this year added fuel to the fire, revealing …
AG Holder promises Russia not to torture Snowden
by Dave Lindorff / July 27th, 2013
I have been deeply ashamed of my country a number of times. The Nixon Christmas bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong was one such time, when hospitals, schools and dikes were targeted. The invasion of Iraq was another. Washington’s silence over the fatal Israeli Commando raid on the Gaza Peace Flotilla–in which a 19-year-old unarmed American boy was murdered–was a third. But I think I have never been as ashamed and disgusted as I was today reading that US Attorney General Eric Holder had sent a letter to the Russian minister of justice saying that the US would “not seek the …
by Robert Jensen / July 27th, 2013
New negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians may begin next week, with much talk of a “new chapter” in the seemingly intractable conflict. A new chapter, perhaps, but who is writing the book?
Any public discussion about the “peace process” is tense, in part because there is no widely shared understanding of the history and politics of — even an appropriate terminology for — the conflict. That’s as true in the United States as in Palestine and Israel.
I never gave much thought to the question until I was 30 years old, in the late 1980s. Before that, I had a …
The Campaign for Peace and Democracy Champions the Proxy War Against Syria
by Jay Tharappel / July 27th, 2013
Recently in June the American activist organisation ‘Campaign for Peace and Democracy’ (CPD) issued a ‘Statement On Syria’ supporting the so-called “Syrian revolution”. If the CPD had issued a similar statement two years ago it would have been somewhat understandable given the fog of war at the time. However by now it should be obvious to all ostensible peace and anti-war activists that there is nothing progressive or worth championing about the imperialist sponsored proxy war currently being waged against the Syrian government of President Dr. Bashar al-Assad; a war fuelled by foreign powers who have outsourced their attack on …
by Michael Truscello / July 27th, 2013
The new advertisements for Apple computers have a curious but familiar tagline: “Designed by Apple in California.” It’s the kind of motto that draws your attention to two things: one, that the product is “designed” in California, but not “made” there; and two, that Apple is in California, and not somewhere outside of the United States, like, say, South Korea, where Samsung, Apple’s principal competitor, is located.
Sure, the obvious reason for the “in California” part is because Samsung has now doubled Apple’s smartphone market share. “Samsung smartphone shipments… grew 60% year over year compared to Apple’s 6.6%,” …
by Stuart Jeanne Bramhall / July 27th, 2013
The Land Value Tax (LVT) is a “radical” form of taxation first proposed by Henry George in his 1879 Progress and Poverty (see What If Marx Got it Wrong?). What George proposes is to replace taxes on wages, purchases, and investments with a tax on unimproved land and natural resources. Fred Harrison’s The Traumatised Society: How to Outlaw Cheating and Save Our Civilisation (Shepheard-Wallwyn Limited, 2012) provides an exhaustive update of George’s original work.
As Winston Churchill famously observed, “History is written by the victors.” Nearly all history books written in the last 400 years were written by or on …
Part 1 of a 6 Part Series
by Gearóid Ó Colmáin / July 26th, 2013
Fascism has presented itself as the anti-party; has opened its gates to all applicants; has with its promise of impunity enabled a formless multitude to cover over the savage outpouring of passions, hatreds and desires with a varnish of vague and nebulous political ideals.
— Gramsci
The Working class spontaneously gravitates towards socialism; nevertheless most widespread (and continuously and diversely revived) bourgeois ideology spontaneously imposes itself upon the working class to a still greater degree.
— Lenin
“It’s not just about 20 cents”. This was the status message of Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook last week, a message that was relayed through several of …
by Yves Engler / July 26th, 2013
What’s the difference between fact and political spin in Canada’s “national” newspaper?
Not much if a recent Globe and Mail article is any indication.
In an article about the overthrow of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, foreign affairs reporter Campbell Clark claims Ottawa faced a “conundrum in responding to” Morsi’s ouster since “the Harper government [is] normally critical of any military takeover”.
Did anybody bother to check if this was true? If anybody had, it would have quickly become obvious that Clark’s claim has no basis in fact. The Harper government has backed military coups, opposed pro-democracy movements and deepened ties to monarchies from …
by Dylan Murphy / July 26th, 2013
Understand that … people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will die or live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act.
— George L. Jackson, former Black Panther activist – shot to death by prison wardens on August 21, 1971.
The mass hunger strike by prisoners in California’s jails has run into its third week. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has refused to negotiate or address the strikers’ five main demands. Prison officials have shown no interest in negotiating an end to the mass hunger strike despite the obvious dangers to the …
by Philip A. Farruggio / July 26th, 2013
Channel surfing these past few days all one sees are a preponderance of talk shows about sex scandals and PEDs (Performance Enhancing Drugs). These so called journalists are up in arms about the audacity of politicians like Anthony Weiner and athletes like Ryan Braun. Over the years, countless colleagues of both these men have done the same thing, some got outed and some never have. The American public, according to these media whores, ‘want justice’!
To this writer, what Braun did is far worse than what a jackass like Weiner is all about. Weiner has a right to have his private …
Usa R. Liberty (1776 – 2013)
by David Wiggins / July 26th, 2013
Lady Liberty committed suicide. She will be remembered fondly by all those who knew her. Usa was 227.
Though she had been in a state of declining health for a number of years, those who knew her remember Miss Liberty as a bold and vivacious woman. Liberty’s close friend, Thomas Jefferson, had some foresight when, years ago, he wrote,
“Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Mr. Jefferson was alluding to the fact that Miss Liberty’s maiden name was Revolution. Like Lady Liberty, the Revolution family was vibrant and idealistic though sometimes misunderstood. Webster …
