Articles by RD
We found 3647 results.
BOLIVIA CREATES A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR CLIMATE TALKS THAT FAILED AT COPENHAGEN
Pablo Solón - The Guardian,
26 Mar 2010
Bolivia will host an international meeting on climate change next month because it is not prepared to ‘betray its people.’In the aftermath of the Copenhagen climate conference, those who defended the widely condemned outcome tended to talk about it as a "step in the right direction". This was always a tendentious argument, given that tackling […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) DEPOIS DE ELEGER DILMA PRESIDENTE, LULA VAI CORRER MUNDO PARA CHEGAR À ONU
Antonio Carlos Lacerda - Pravda Brasil,
24 Mar 2010
Depois que o jornal inglês The Times disse que o presidente do Brasil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, que recentemente brincou estar "contaminado pelo vírus da paz", estaria avaliando uma tentativa de se tornar o próximo secretário-geral da ONU, cresceram as especulações da imprensa a respeito dessa possibilidade. Tanto cresceram que o presidente já estaria […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) ESPANHA: PARTILHA DE FICHEIROS NÃO É PIRATARIA
Esquerda.net, Portugal,
18 Mar 2010
Juiz de Barcelona decide que blogger que divulga links de partilha de filmes e músicas não atenta contra os direitos de propriedade intelectual. Um juiz de Barcelona decidiu que o blogger Jesus Guerra Calderon é inocente das acusações de violação de propriedade intelectual que lhe fizera a Sociedade Geral dos Autores e Editores da Espanha. […]
→ read full articleON THE WAIHOPAI THREE VERDICT, AND EAST JERUSALEM
Gordon Campbell,
18 Mar 2010
The acquittal of the Waihopai Three for their attack on the Waihopai spy base is as welcome as it is surprising. To succeed in court, one would have thought they would need to have proved a direct connection between the base near Blenheim and the war atrocities inside Iraq and/or the renditions occurring elsewhere – […]
→ read full articleACTIVISM IS CHANGE: A VIEW FROM THE STRUGGLE IN GAZA
Ramzy Baroud – Toward Freedom,
18 Mar 2010
An activist is a person who feels strongly about a cause and who is also willing to dedicate time and energy towards advancing and realizing this cause. This might be my own limited interpretation of what activism means. I was born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp where the daily struggles of the community […]
→ read full articleBANNING CLUSTER BOMBS: LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS OF CONFLICTS
Rene Wadlow - Toward Freedom,
18 Mar 2010
In a remarkable combination of civil society pressure and leadership from a small number of progressive States, a strong ban on the use, manufacture, and stocking of cluster bombs will come into force on August 1, 2010 now that 30 States have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The Convention bans the use, production, transfer […]
→ read full articleBEYOND ORWELL: THE ELECTRONIC POLICE STATE, 2010
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
17 Mar 2010
A truism perhaps, but before resorting to brute force and open repression to halt the “barbarians at the gates,” that would be us, the masters of declining empires (and the chattering classes who polish their boots) regale us with tales of “democracy on the march,” “hope” and other banalities before the mailed fist comes crashing […]
→ read full articleNETANYAHU AGAINST THE REST OF THE WORLD
Bernhard Zand - Spiegel,
17 Mar 2010
Rarely before have Jews and Arabs been as united as they are in the face of the Iranian threat. But Israel’s government is deliberately ignoring this historic opportunity to push the peace process forward. Indeed, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government seems satisfied with the status quo.One of the tenets of the Middle East conflict has always been […]
→ read full articleBILLIONAIRES AND MEGA-CORPORATIONS BEHIND IMMENSE LAND GRAB IN AFRICA
John Vidal – Mail & Guardian,
10 Mar 2010
20+ African countries are selling or leasing land for intensive agriculture on a shocking scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era. We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon […]
→ read full articleBOLIVIA, A BEACON OF HOPE
Matt Kennard – The Guardian,
9 Mar 2010
The inspiring example of Evo Morales’s Bolivian government. There’s a game I’ve been playing recently. Any time I read the news and get depressed about the parlous state of our world, I type "Bolivia" into Google news and wait for the results. It’s really all you need to brighten up your day. In the last […]
→ read full articleHONDURAS AFTER THE COUP: FEAR AND DEFIANCE
Peter Lackowski - Toward Freedom,
5 Mar 2010
"Nos tienen miedo porque no tenemos miedo." ("They are afraid of us because we are not afraid of them.") This slogan was chanted by the thousands of demonstrators who defied the illegitimate de facto government imposed by the Honduran military in the protests that erupted throughout the country immediately after the after the coup of […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) COMISSÃO EUROPEIA AUTORIZA O CULTIVO DE BATATA TRANSGÉNICA
Esquerda.net, Portugal,
4 Mar 2010
Pela primeira vez desde 1998, a Comissão Europeia autorizou o cultivo de um transgénico: a batata Amflora, produzida pelo grupo alemão BASF. Aceitou também a comercialização de milho da Monsanto. A Comissão Europeia autorizou o cultivo de um transgénico, o que não acontecia desde 1998 e aproveitou para autorizar também a comercialização, mas não o […]
→ read full articleGM POTATO APPROVAL ‘A BIG STEP FOR GERMANY’
Josh Ward - Spiegel,
4 Mar 2010
The European Union has approved its first genetically modified plant since 1998. Though it claims its green light for BASF’s Amflora potato breed is based on "sound science," that will do little to satisfy opponents. German editorialists differ in their stances on the debate over what critics call "Frankenstein foods."Genetically modified (GM) plants have always […]
→ read full articleISRAEL AND APARTHEID: IS IT A FAIR COMPARISON?
Edward C. Corrigan – Dissident Voice,
2 Mar 2010
There is a controversy raging in North America over Israeli Apartheid Week (March 1-7 2010).1 A resolution was passed in the Ontario Provincial Parliament which was unanimously supported (only 30 MPPs voted) and declared the comparison of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to apartheid as “odious.” To quote an article in the Toronto Star Canada’s […]
→ read full article
PERU FARMERS ABANDON COCA
Rosiland Jordan - AlJazeera,
2 Mar 2010
Peru has long been one of the world’s largest producers of coca, the plant often used to produce cocaine. It figures alongside Afghanistan, Colombia and Mexico in the list of countries where growing plants that can yield narcotics is a multibillion-dollar industry. Although Peru has seen a recent surge in the coca production, a United […]
→ read full articleLATIN AMERICA’S PATH TO INDEPENDENCE
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
26 Feb 2010
With the creation of a new regional organisation, Latin America is emerging as a power bloc with its own interests and agenda. Latin America took another historic step forward this week with the creation of a new regional organization of 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries. The United States and Canada were excluded. The increasing […]
→ read full articleFOLLOWING THE MINERAL TRAIL: CONGO RESOURCE WARS AND RWANDA
John Lasker – Toward Freedom,
20 Feb 2010
The Rwandan government and its military have largely been suspected by a UN Panel of Experts, human rights organizations and independent journalists, of financially supporting a number of violent militias that have destabilized the eastern Congo region to illegally traffic millions-of-dollars worth of minerals such as coltan, gold, and cassiterite. These minerals are then brought […]
→ read full articleTHE HUMANITARIAN MYTH
Richard Seymour – Socialist Worker,
11 Feb 2010
The author of The Liberal Defense of Murder analyzes the propaganda manufactured to justify U.S. actions in Haiti after the earthquake.WITHIN DAYS of Haiti suffering an earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter scale, the U.S. government had sent thousands of 82nd Airborne troops and Marines, alongside the super-carrier USS Carl Vinson. By this Sunday, a […]
→ read full articlePEPE LOBO, IMPERIALISM AND THE RESISTANCE: CONSOLIDATING THE COUP IN HONDURAS
Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber – Counterpunch,
10 Feb 2010
A country of sharp inequality and class polarization, Honduras recently returned to the frontlines in the battle for Latin America’s soul. The terrain of struggle has shifted on multiple occasions over the last seven months, following the military coup against the democratically-elected President, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya. The battle entered its latest phase last week with […]
→ read full articleMBAs UNPREPARED FOR A MORALLY COMPLEX FUTURE
Thomas N. Gladwin and David Berdish – Financial Times,
9 Feb 2010
Following Copenhagen, we face a perfect storm of global moral questions: what do we owe future generations, the deprived and the environment? Companies are being challenged to declare and act on their social and moral obligations. But business schools are failing to prepare leaders for this challenging task. The Aspen Institute’s latest Beyond Grey Pinstripes […]
→ read full articleCOULD U.S. AIR STRIKES PUSH PAKISTAN INTO KHMER ROUGE TYPE GENOCIDE?
Pratap Chatterjee and Tom Engelhardt - Tomdispatch.com,
9 Feb 2010
Almost every day, reports come back from the CIA’s “secret” battlefield in the Pakistani tribal borderlands. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles — that is, pilot-less drones — shoot missiles (18 of them in a single attack on a tiny village last week) or drop bombs and then the news comes in: a certain number of al-Qaeda or […]
→ read full articleMOSSADEGH AND AHMADINEJAD: IRAN FACES ALMOST THE SAME DILEMMA AS 1953
Ardeshir Ommani - Iranian,
3 Feb 2010
There is a stark similarity between some aspects of the political atmosphere dominant over Iran today and those under Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh right before the U.S.-led coup of 1953 that resulted in the overthrow of the legitimate government of Iran and the establishment of a U.S.-puppet government of the Shah. In the period between […]
→ read full articleA MARVELOUS VICTORY
Howard Zinn,
2 Feb 2010
An excerpt from his recent book A Power Governments Cannot Suppress published by City Lights Books, www.citylights.com. In this world of war and injustice, how does a person manage to stay socially engaged, committed to the struggle, and remain healthy without burning out or becoming resigned or cynical? I am totally confident not that the […]
→ read full articleTHE US GAME IN LATIN AMERICA
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
1 Feb 2010
US interference in the politics of Haiti and Honduras is only the latest example of its long-term manipulations in Latin America.When I write about US foreign policy in places such as Haiti or Honduras, I often get responses from people who find it difficult to believe that the US government would care enough about these […]
→ read full articleTHE TERROR CARD: FEAR IS THE KEY TO OBEDIENCE
Rev. Richard Skaff - Global Research,
31 Jan 2010
The Terrorism Industrial Complex (TIC)Webster’s dictionary defines terrorism as the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. [1]. However, the United States code defined terrorism as “(An) act of terrorism means an activity that (A) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the […]
→ read full articlePEOPLE’S HISTORIAN AND PROGRESSIVE HERO HOWARD ZINN DIES
Mark Feeney and Bryan Marquard – Boston Globe,
28 Jan 2010
National treasure, and acclaimed author of "People’s History of the United States" passed away at age 87. Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam… died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was […]
→ read full articleSECURING DISASTER IN HAITI
Peter Hallward – Haitian Analysis,
26 Jan 2010
Nine days after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, it’s now clear that the initial phase of the U.S.-led relief operation has conformed to the three fundamental tendencies that have shaped the more general course of the island’s recent history. [1] It has adopted military priorities and strategies. It has sidelined […]
→ read full articleTHE HUMANITARIAN MYTH
Richard Seymour – Socialist Worker,
26 Jan 2010
The author of The Liberal Defense of Murder, analyzes the propaganda manufactured to justify U.S. actions in Haiti after the earthquake. With U.S. forces obstructing aid and beefing up "security" while Haitians die, no one should accept that the U.S. is motivated by "humanitarianism."WITHIN DAYS of Haiti suffering an earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter […]
→ read full articleWHY SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IS NOT A JOB FOR THE MARKET
Michael Edwards – Open Democracy,
26 Jan 2010
In 2007, I experienced one of those fork-in-the-road moments that seem to occur when you least expect them. It was another day at the office, sifting through e-mails in the Ford Foundation’s glass palace in Manhattan, where I worked as one of the organization’s six directors. As usual, half of my inbox was filled by […]
→ read full articleTHE VOICES OF PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY IN VENEZUELA
Hans Bennett - Upside Down Word,
26 Jan 2010
A review of Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the GrassrootsThere are many different ways that the corporate media continues to misrepresent the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Many critics of this biased media coverage have directly challenged the demonization of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but very few critics, if any, have exposed the media’s virtual erasure of […]
→ read full articleHAITI’S SUFFERING IS A RESULT OF CALCULATED IMPOVERISHMENT
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
26 Jan 2010
Haiti’s poverty is treated as some baffling quirk of history or culture, when in reality it is the direct consequence of a uniquely brutal relationship with the outside world — notably the US, France and Britain — stretching back centuries. There is no relief for the people of Haiti, it seems, even in their hour […]
→ read full articleIMF CLARIFIES TERMS OF HAITI’S LOAN
Richard Kim – The Nation,
26 Jan 2010
Last Friday I wrote about the IMF’s new $100 million loan to Haiti. I cited debt relief activists who told me that the new loan would be an extension of the IMF’s existing loan of $165 million. This information was confirmed by the IMF’s press release, which stated that "emergency financing would be provided as […]
→ read full articleONE QUARTER OF US GRAIN CROPS FED TO CARS – NOT PEOPLE, NEW FIGURES SHOW
John Vidal, environment editor – The Guardian,
22 Jan 2010
New analysis of 2009 US Department of Agriculture figures suggests biofuel revolution is impacting on world food supplies.One-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now ends up as biofuel in cars rather than being used to feed people, according to new analysis which suggests that the biofuel revolution launched […]
→ read full articleSTAND SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH THE PEOPLE OF HAITI
Marilyn Langlois - Haiti Emergency Relief Fund Board Member, TRANSCEND Convener for USA,
22 Jan 2010
–When asked “How are they surviving?” Haitian journalist Wadner Pierre responded, “Well, they’re all sharing. That’s what we do. That’s the way Haitians are.” (January 16) –“The city has seen little violence, despite persistent fears that shortages of food, water and shelter will spark unrest.” (January 21) –Photograph of a white female US Navy medic cradling and […]
→ read full articleIRAQ LITTERED WITH HIGH LEVELS OF NUCLEAR AND DIOXIN CONTAMINATION, STUDY FINDS
Martin Chulov in Baghdad - The Guardian,
22 Jan 2010
• Greater rates of cancer and birth defects near sites• Depleted uranium among poisons revealed in reportMore than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war and neglect having left environmental ruin in large parts of the country, an official Iraqi study has found. Areas […]
→ read full articleOBAMA AT ONE: LITTLE SURPRISING IN ABSENCE OF PROGRESSIVE SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Howard Zinn, historian – The Nation,
22 Jan 2010
I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president–which means, in our time, a dangerous president–unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction. I’ve been searching hard for a highlight. The only thing that […]
→ read full articleHOW OBAMA BETRAYS REVEREND KING’S PHILOSOPHY OF NONVIOLENCE
Jeff Nall – Toward Freedom,
21 Jan 2010
Each year, many remember Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s work on behalf of civil rights. Yet the most fundamental piece of his philosophical legacy, his rejection of the utility and morality of violence between individuals and nations, remains at best ignorantly obscured or at worst actively suppressed. In his 1967 book, Where Do We […]
→ read full articlePROFITING FROM HAITI’S CRISIS
Benjamin Dangl – Toward Freedom,
21 Jan 2010
US corporations, private mercenaries, Washington and the International Monetary Fund are using the crisis in Haiti to make a profit, promote unpopular neoliberal policies, and extend military and economic control over the Haitian people. In the aftermath of the earthquake, with much of the infrastructure and government services destroyed, Haitians have relied on each other […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) TERREMOTO É DESASTRE NATURAL, MAS A POBREZA EXTREMA, NÃO
Eduardo Sales de Lima e Igor Ojeda – Brasil de Fato,
21 Jan 2010
Mídia relaciona efeitos graves do terremoto com a pobreza extrema, mas não diz por que o país caribenho é tão subdesenvolvido.Um terremoto oportuno? “A pobreza extrema do Haiti é uma construção histórica bi-centenária” As imagens das TVs de todo o mundo mostram um verdadeiro inferno. Destruição total, corpos estirados, homens e mulheres aos prantos. Os […]
→ read full articleOUR ROLE IN HAITI’S PLIGHT
Peter Hallward- The Guardian,
14 Jan 2010
If we are serious about assisting this devastated land we must stop trying to control and exploit it.Any large city in the world would have suffered extensive damage from an earthquake on the scale of the one that ravaged Haiti’s capital city on Tuesday afternoon, but it’s no accident that so much of Port-au-Prince now […]
→ read full articleTHREE HOLY WARS
Howard Zinn - Truthout,
12 Jan 2010
The Progressive 100th Anniversary Speech in Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2009.Matt Rothschild: For all his fame he’s more humble, or as I told him once, he fakes it better than anyone I know. So, let’s hear it for Howard Zinn. Howard Zinn: Hello. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. As Matt said, I am a […]
→ read full articleTERROR IS THE PRICE OF SUPPORT FOR DESPOTS AND DICTATORS
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
12 Jan 2010
Egypt’s complicity in Gaza’s siege underlines the role of western support for such regimes in the spread of war. If an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor had gone on hunger strike in support of a besieged people in another part of the world, and hundreds of mostly western protesters had been stoned and beaten by police, you […]
→ read full articleTHE HOLOCAUST WE WILL NOT SEE
George Monbiot - The Guardian,
12 Jan 2010
Avatar half-tells a story we would all prefer to forget.Avatar, James Cameron’s blockbusting 3-D film, is both profoundly silly and profound. It’s profound because, like most films about aliens, it is a metaphor for contact between different human cultures. But in this case the metaphor is conscious and precise: this is the story of European […]
→ read full articleEINSTEIN ON PALESTINE AND ZIONISM
Edward C. Corrigan – Dissident Voice,
11 Jan 2010
There is some controversy over Einstein’s political views especially on the issue of Palestine and the creation of a Jewish State. Many Zionists claim Einstein as one of their own. Einstein, however, was a pacifist, a universalist and abhorred nationalism. The recently published book, Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle […]
→ read full articleMEDIA BATTLES IN LATIN AMERICA NOT ABOUT “FREE SPEECH”
Mark Weisbrot - The Guardian,
10 Jan 2010
For at least a month now in Ecuador there has been a battle over regulation of the media. It has been in the front pages of the newspapers most of the time, and a leading daily, El Comercio, referred to the fight as one for “defense of human rights and the free practice of journalism.” […]
→ read full articleAN AMERICAN WORLD OF WAR – THE YEAR OF THE ASSASSIN
Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse - TomDispatch,
9 Jan 2010
What to Watch for in 2010 According to the Chinese calendar, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger. We don’t name our years, but if we did, this one might prospectively be called the Year of the Assassin.We, of course, think of ourselves as something like the peaceable kingdom. After all, the shock of September […]
→ read full articleWHO WOULD BENEFIT POLITICALLY FROM A TERRORIST INCIDENT ON AMERICAN SOIL? THE STRANGE CASE OF UMAR FAROUK ABDULMUTALLAB
Tom Burghardt - Global Research,
9 Jan 2010
Despite some $40 billion dollars spent by the American people on airline security since 2001, allegedly to thwart attacks on the Heimat, the botched attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas Day was foiled, not by a bloated counterterrorist bureaucracy, but by the passengers themselves. Talk […]
→ read full articleOBAMA’S BIOWEAPONS PROGRAM
Tom Burghardt – Global Research,
22 Dec 2009
The Obama administration’s recent declaration on bioweapons would simply be another run-of-the-mill example of our "change" president’s duplicity were it not such an unmitigated disaster. Recapitulating sinister Cold War practices that informed American ruling class consensus when it came to secretly toying with nature’s most deadly pathogens, (a) because they could, (b) because it was, and […]
→ read full articleTHIS IS ABOUT US
George Monbiot - The Guardian,
19 Dec 2009
The talks at Copenhagen are not just about climate change. They represent a battle to redefine humanity. This is the moment at which we turn and face ourselves. Here, in the plastic corridors and crowded stalls, among impenetrable texts and withering procedures, humankind decides what it is and what it will become. It chooses whether […]
→ read full articleCOPENHAGEN CLIMATE PROTESTERS RALLY
Bibi van der Zee in Copenhagen, David Batty and agencies – The Guardian,
13 Dec 2009
Thousands of people march as part of a global protest to demand that governments agree a new climate deal.Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Copenhagen today (Sat, Dec 12, 2009] as part of a global protest to demand governments across the world agree a binding new global deal to tackle climate […]
→ read full articleAGENCY AND INTERVENTION
Jake Lynch, with additional research by Emily Parsons-Lord,
11 Dec 2009
Drug money from trading across the Sahara desert is funding insurgents and ‘terrorists’. So said the UN Office on Drugs and Crime this week, invoking an alarming vision of West African cocaine meeting heroin coming through East Africa, with the proceeds being used by “terrorists and anti-government forces… to fund their operations, purchase equipment and […]
→ read full articleBOLIVIA: REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE
The Guardian – Editorial, Dec 8 2009,
10 Dec 2009
President Evo Morales won a stunning victory in Bolivia yesterday, taking 63% of the popular vote and guiding his party to win control of congress. Bolivia’s first indigenous president has won the biggest popular mandate in recent memory, destroying three political parties that rotated the presidency between them for the last two decades. In doing […]
→ read full articleAMERICANS ARE DEEPLY INVOLVED IN AFGHAN DRUG TRADE
Glen Ford – Black Agenda Report,
4 Dec 2009
The U.S. set the stage for the Afghan (and Pakistan) war eight years ago, when it handed out drug dealing franchises to warlords on Washington’s payroll. Now the Americans, acting as Boss of All Bosses, have drawn up hit lists of rival, “Taliban” drug lords. “It is a gangster occupation, in which U.S.-allied drug dealers […]
→ read full articleTHE ARCHITECTURE OF APARTHEID
Sarah Lazare and Clare Bayard - Znet,
30 Nov 2009
The word "Revenge" is scrawled in Hebrew on a Palestinian school in Hebron. The windows are covered with screens and the play yard obstructed with more screens tipped with barbed wire, to obstruct the stones regularly pelted down by Jewish settlers. The space between the school and the neighboring building is blocked off with large, […]
→ read full articlePALESTINIANS WHO SEE NONVIOLENCE AS THEIR WEAPON
Richard Boudreaux – Los Angeles Times,
27 Nov 2009
Mohammed Khatib and his West Bank supporters hope to rally others to a peaceful campaign for statehood. But fellow Palestinians seem largely indifferent, and Israel’s army is not amused.Reporting from Bilin, West Bank – Every Friday, Mohammed Khatib’s forces assemble for battle with the Israeli army and gather their weapons: a bullhorn, banners — and […]
→ read full article(ITALIAN) I PALESTINESI CHE USANO COME ARMA LA NONVIOLENZA
Richard Boudreaux - Los Angeles Times, Osservatorio Iraq,
27 Nov 2009
Bil’in, Cisgiordania – Ogni venerdì, le forze di Mohammed Khatib si radunano per combattere la loro battaglia contro l’esercito israeliano, e preparano le loro armi: un megafono, degli striscioni – e la forte convinzione che la protesta pacifica possa portare alla creazione di uno stato palestinese.A centinaia marciano verso la barriera israeliana che separa la […]
→ read full articleTHE CHILDREN OF FALLUJA
Martin Chulov and Shehani Fernando – The Guardian,
26 Nov 2009
Doctors are dealing with an increase in chronic deformities in infants in Falluja, where heavy munitions were used in 2004. A Video from The Guardian 4:29-Min VideoCLICK TO VIEW – GUARDIAN.CO.UK
→ read full articleUNPREDICTABLE FUTURES: STORIES FROM WORKER-RUN FACTORIES IN ARGENTINA
Benjamin Dangl - Toward Freedom,
25 Nov 2009
Reviewed: Sin Patron: Stories From Argentina’s Worker-Run Factories, edited by Lavaca, 320 pages, Haymarket Books, 2007. Following the social upheaval in Argentina in 2001-2002 a book was published in Spanish that a lot of activists and independent journalists in the country began trying to get their hands on. It wasn’t in all of the bookstores, […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) UMA HISTÓRIA ÉPICA: IRMÃS NEGRAS
Leonardo Boff,
21 Nov 2009
A Casa Grande e a Senzala não foram apenas construções sociais e físicas, dividindo por um lado os brancos, donos do poder e por outro, os negros, feitos escravos. Com a abolição da escravatura exteriormente desapareceram. Mas continuam presentes na mentalidade dos brancos e das elites brasileiras. As hierarquizações, as desigualdades sociais e os preconceitos […]
→ read full articleREBEL WITCHES AND THE CREATION OF CAPITALISM
Alex Knight – Toward Freedom,
20 Nov 2009
Reviewed: Caliban And The Witch: Women, The Body And Primitive Accumulation, by Silvia Federici, 288 pages, Autonomedia, 2004.Silvia Federici’s brilliant Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation, tells the dark saga of the Witch Hunt that consumed Europe for more than 200 years. In uncovering this forgotten history, Federici exposes the origins […]
→ read full articleDEBATE ON THE U.N. GAZA WAR CRIMES REPORT
Justice Richard Goldstone and former Israeli ambassador Dore Gold,
19 Nov 2009
Packed house hears Justice Richard Goldstone, whose name has become synonymous with the U.N. Human Rights Council’s fact-finding report on the conflict, engage in a public forum with a senior Israeli political figure over widespread criticism of the report among supporters of Israel. "Let me be absolutely clear," Goldstone said. "International law allows, and indeed […]
→ read full articleTHE PLIGHT OF THE ROMA: FROM EUROPE TO CANADA
Reuel S. Amdur – Toward Freedom,
13 Nov 2009
The media have not paid enough attention to the plight of the Roma in Europe. The Roma’s living conditions are miserable, and they suffer from serious discrimination in education and employment, and attacks from racists and neo-Nazis. Because of the conditions they face in Europe, a number of Czech Roma fled to Canada in 2008 […]
→ read full articleGERMANS PRESS FOR REMOVAL OF US NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN EUROPE
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor – The Guardian,
9 Nov 2009
Pressure is growing within Nato for the removal of the remaining US nuclear weapons on European soil, and for a new doctrine for the alliance that would depend less on nuclear deterrence.The initiative is being driven by the new German government coalition, which has called for the removal of American nuclear weapons on its territory […]
→ read full articleCHOMSKY: ‘US FOREIGN POLICY IS STRAIGHT OUT OF THE MAFIA’
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
8 Nov 2009
Noam Chomsky is the closest thing in the English-speaking world to an intellectual superstar. A philosopher of language and political campaigner of towering academic reputation, who as good as invented modern linguistics, he is entertained by presidents, addresses the United Nations general assembly and commands a mass international audience. When he spoke in London last […]
→ read full articleAMERICA’S NEW CRUSADER CASTLES
Simon Tisdall – The Guardian,
6 Nov 2009
Across the Middle East, the US is building heavily fortified embassies which cut off diplomats and create hostilitiesAfter the US Congress agreed a $7.5bn aid package for Pakistan this autumn, the Obama administration was taken aback by the seemingly ungrateful reaction of its intended recipients. Pakistani opposition politicians fumed about "colonialism" and "imperialism". Military men […]
→ read full articleSAVAGERY AND SILENCE IN THE FIRST WORLD
Sandy Leon Vest – Toward Freedom,
5 Nov 2009
In America – in my country – I fear we are losing the battle for our humanity. Some say we have already lost it.Deep down I think they may be right. Such is the level of violence, voyeurism and detachment displayed this October in Richmond, California, when at least two dozen students cheered, laughed or […]
→ read full articleITALIAN COURT SENTENCES 23 CIA AGENTS OVER RENDITION FLIGHT
Richard Owen in Rome – The Times,
5 Nov 2009
An Italian court sentenced 23 former CIA agents to up to eight years in prison today for their role in the abduction of an Egyptian terrorist suspect in the first trial over “extraordinary renditions”.The Americans were all tried in absentia, but the verdicts were nevertheless hailed by human rights campaigners as an important victory that […]
→ read full articleARRESTING BLAIR
George Monbiot - Published in the Guardian, 26th October 2009,
28 Oct 2009
His bid for the EU presidency gives us the best chance we’ll ever have.Tony Blair’s bid to become president of the European Union has united the left in revulsion. His enemies argue that he divided Europe by launching an illegal war; he kept the UK out of the eurozone and the Schengen agreement; he is […]
→ read full articleTHE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IRAN “THREAT” (Part 1)
Edward S. Herman and David Peterson,
28 Oct 2009
The Iran Versus the U.S.-Israeli-NATO Threats It is spell-binding to see how the U.S. establishment can inflate the threat of a target, no matter how tiny, remote, and (most often) non-existent that threat may be, and pretend that the real threat posed by its own behavior and policies is somehow defensive and related to that […]
→ read full articleTHE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IRAN “THREAT” (Part 2)
Edward S. Herman and David Peterson,
28 Oct 2009
The Iran Versus the U.S.-Israeli-NATO Threats And the media tremble also. Iranian words are also frightening, just as were Krushchev’s "I will bury you," the alleged Sandinista threat of a "revolution without borders," and Grenada’s reported threat to cut off the supply of nutmeg. Notoriously, in the rich load of disinformation that surrounds Iranian President […]
→ read full articleCASHING IN THE WAR DIVIDEND
Jo Comerford,
24 Oct 2009
The Joys of Perpetual WarSo you thought the Pentagon was already big enough? Well, what do you know, especially with the price of the American military slated to grow by at least 25% over the next decade? Forget about the butter. It’s bad for you anyway. And sheer military power, as well as the money […]
→ read full articleREPORT OF THE EVALUATION OF DDR (DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION) AND CIP (COMMANDER’S INCENTIVE PROGRAM) IN AFGHANISTAN
submission of Robin-Edward Poulton,
24 Oct 2009
Paper deliverd by the author to a symposium at Washington, DC on Oct 21, 2009The report consists of five parts: 1: Summary Report 2: Lessons and Recommendations 3: Commander Incentives Programme 4: Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration 5: Annexes ABSTRACT Between 2003 and 2006 the UNDP and UNAMA assisted the Government of Afghanistan to organise the […]
→ read full articleDEFIANT UN BACKS ISRAEL WAR CRIMES REPORT
Gavin Cordon, Press Association,
17 Oct 2009
October 16, 2009 — Britain and France today failed in an attempt to delay a crunch Middle East vote at the UN, amid warnings by Israel that it could derail the peace process. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva voted by 25 to six to refer a controversial report accusing Israel of war crimes […]
→ read full articleWHERE IS THE GOLD?
Howard Zinn,
14 Oct 2009
Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progressexcerpted from aPeople’s History of the United States Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, […]
→ read full articleNOBEL PRIZE FOR PROMISES?
Howard Zinn,
10 Oct 2009
I was dismayed when I heard Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize. A shock, really, to think that a president carrying on wars in two countries and launching military action in a third country (Pakistan), would be given a peace prize. But then I recalled that Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Kissinger had […]
→ read full articleTOWARD A BREAKDOWN OF THE CAPITALIST SUBJECT?
Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval | Le Monde,
3 Oct 2009
Perhaps the economic catastrophe is dissipating the most glaring illusions about the self-regulating market, making global capitalism’s doctrinarians a bit less arrogant, provoking the spectacular conversions of some "leaders" who would urgently like to make us forget their previous blindness. But the catastrophe has not yet brought about the blockage of all the apparatuses, […]
→ read full articleWHILE YOU ARE MINDING YOUR OWN BUSINESS, THE U.S. IS CONSTANTLY MAKING WAR AROUND THE GLOBE
Tom Engelhardt,
23 Sep 2009
As much as it might seem that most of us are going along, living peaceful lives, there’s another kind of America that operates on the same soil — a warfare state."War is peace" was one of the memorable slogans on the facade of the Ministry of Truth, Minitrue in "Newspeak," the language invented by George […]
→ read full articleHUNGER PROBLEM ISN’T REALLY LACK OF FOOD, BUT THE INEQUALITY BETWEEN THE RICH AND POOR
Edgardo Herrera,
22 Sep 2009
After having participated in the Right to Food forum in Mexico, Olivier De Schutter, argued that “taxing food doesn’t seem to be a solution for combating the economic crisis”. He also said that “35 percent of the world’s children who die each year –equivalent to about 6.5 million – die as a result of malnutrition […]
→ read full articleTOXIC ASSETS
George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian, 22nd September 2009,
22 Sep 2009
The Trafigura scandal is just one of thousands of cases of the rich world’s fly-tipping. It was revolting, monstrous, inhumane – and scarcely different from what happens in Africa almost every day. The oil trading company Trafigura has just agreed to pay compensation to 31,0000 people in Cote d’Ivoire, after the Guardian and the BBC’s […]
→ read full articleAMERICA’S ULTIMATE WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION: BIOLOGICAL WARFARE
Tom Burghardt,
5 Aug 2009
Bioweapons Research, Secrecy and Contamination Go Hand in Hand The 2001 anthrax attacks underscore the dangers posed to our health and safety by the Bioweapons-Industrial Complex. The killer(s) employed a military-grade version of the deadly pathogen, a four-mutation blend of anthrax prepared at the government’s test site at the remote Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. […]
→ read full articleAMERICA’S EXPANSIVE BIOWEAPONS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Tom Burghardt,
1 Aug 2009
The dystopian British sci-fi film 28 Days Later opens with animal rights activists breaking into the Cambridge Primate Research facility to free chimpanzees used in a secret weapons program. Terrified by the intrusion, a scientist warns the raiders that the chimps are infected with a genetically-modified pathogen. Ignoring his admonition, the chimps are let loose […]
→ read full articleDEMOCRA-PHOBIA: FEAR OF CITIZEN POWER IN HONDURAS
Al Giordano,
23 Jul 2009
Strip away all the sensationalism, distortion, simulation, ideological axe-grinding, flotsam and jetsam of media coverage of events in Honduras over the past month and it still boils down to one central conflict:The coup regime fears, and was imposed as a last line of defense against, “Citizen Power.” Citizen Power – “Poder Ciudadano,” in Spanish, which […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) BRASIL DEVOLVE 1400 TONELADAS DE LIXO AOS INGLESES
Esquerda.net,
20 Jul 2009
A descoberta de dezenas de contentores em dois portos brasileiros, provenientes de Inglaterra de forma ilegal e contendo lixo doméstico, vem relançar o debate sobre a exportação de resíduos dos países ricos. Os ingleses vão receber o lixo de volta e accionar judicialmente a empresa responsável. O lixo deverá regressar a Inglaterra nas próximas semanas, […]
→ read full article(SPANISH) AL ASALTO DE BURKINA FASO
Françoise Gérard,
17 Jul 2009
La crisis alimentaria de 2008 relanzó el debate sobre las biotecnologías que supuestamente deberían incrementar la productividad de la agricultura africana. Los campesinos del continente negro desconfían de las consecuencias sanitarias y sociales de los organismos genéticamente modificados. Por esa razón, Monsanto decidió emplear grandes medios para imponerse, con la ayuda del presidente burkinés Blaise […]
→ read full articleTHE LAUNCHING OF U.S. CYBER COMMAND (CYBERCOM)
Tom Burghard,
3 Jul 2009
Offensive Operations in Cyberspace U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed a memorandum on June 23 that announced the launch of U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM). A scheme by securocrats in the works for several years, the order specifies that the new office will be a "subordinate unified command" under U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM). According to the […]
→ read full articleHELP ADDICTS, BUT LOCK UP THE CASUAL USERS OF COCAINE
George Monbiot - Published in the Guardian 30th June 2009,
30 Jun 2009
The UN’s Proposal for Decriminalisation is Senseless and DestructiveIt looked like the first drop of rain in the desert of drugs policy. Last week Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said what millions of liberal-minded people have been waiting to hear. “Law enforcement should shift its focus from […]
→ read full article(NORWEGIAN) DROMMEN OM ÉN VERDEN
Kjartan Almenning Leder i Én Verden,
30 Jun 2009
En permanent parlamentarikerforsamling i FN kan være et viktig skritt på veien mot et verdensdemokrati. De av oss som arbeider for globale demokratiske institusjoner blir ofte sett på som drømmere. Og drømmere får sjelden politisk gjennomslagskraft. Da gjelder det å konseptualisere drømmen til noe som folk kan kjenne seg igjen i. Ny Tid har den […]
→ read full articleHIGH-TECH BARBARISM: LOOK! UP IN THE SKY! IT’S A BIRD… IT’S A PLANE… IT’S A RAYTHEON SPY BLIMP!
Tom Burghardt,
27 Jun 2009
As the American republic’s long death-spiral continues apace, newer and ever more insidious technologies usher us towards an age of high-tech barbarism"At first glance" Newsweek reveals, "there was nothing special about the blimp floating high above the cars and crowd at this year’s Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend." "Nothing special" that is, until you […]
→ read full articleBLINDED BY THE HYPOCRISY
Bruce K. Gagnon, Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space,
22 Jun 2009
We lecture and threaten Iran and North Korea about the evils of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). But the US routinely tests our own WMD’s from Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California. And there will soon be another "test firing" of a Minuteman III nuclear missile from that base. A protest is planned at the […]
→ read full articleSPAIN SIGNALS END TO WAR CRIMES, GENOCIDE HUNTING
Ben Harding,
21 May 2009
MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish judges who tried to extradite ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and investigate Bush administration officials over Guantanamo will likely be barred from doing so again after a parliamentary vote on Tuesday. Under pressure from foreign governments, members of Spain’s congress almost unanimously passed a resolution which, if translated into law, would end […]
→ read full articleCITIES CAN SAVE THE EARTH
Richard Register,
13 May 2009
The climate crisis won’t be solved by changing light bulbs and inflating your tires more, planting a tree and driving a little less. It’s going to require a truly fundamental shift in how we build our cities and live in them. The key to changing our cities involves the car. Cars dominate cities in […]
→ read full article(PORTUGUESE) Petição Força Parlamento a Discutir Proibição dos Animais nos Circos
Esquerda.net,
12 May 2009
A Assembleia da República (AR) discute hoje a proibição do uso de animais nos circos. Enquanto no exterior, defensores dos animais e alguns artistas circenses unidos pela associação Acção Animal vão manifestar-se, ao início da tarde, "por um circo sem crueldade", no hemiciclo os deputados votam um projecto-lei do PCP e outro dos Verdes e […]
→ read full articleBAGHDAD: CITY OF WALLS part 2
The Guardian,
20 Apr 2009
PART 2 – CROSSING THE WALL Eight new ghettos divide Baghdad’s Shia and Sunni neighbourhoods. The Real News Network12:08-Min. VideoCLICK TO VIEW
→ read full articleBAGHDAD: CITY OF WALLS
The Guardian,
19 Apr 2009
PART 1 – SCARS OF WAR Baghdad wears its scars as a series of giant walls dividing its neighbourhoods. The Real News Network12:19-Min. VideoCLICK TO VIEW
→ read full articleFILLING THE SKIES WITH ASSASSINS – TERMINATOR PLANET: LAUNCHING THE DRONE WARS
Tom Engelhardt,
12 Apr 2009
In 1984, Skynet, the supercomputer that rules a future Earth, sent a cyborg assassin, a "terminator," back to our time. His job was to liquidate the woman who would give birth to John Connor, the leader of the underground human resistance of Skynet’s time. You with me so far? That, of course, was the plot […]
→ read full articleAN OPEN LETTER TO BAN KI-MOON
Richard Morse,
2 Apr 2009
Why Haiti Can’t Forget Its Past Dear Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, Thank you for the attention you have brought to the country of Haiti. In response to your New York Times Op Ed piece I wanted to widen your perspective a bit. I don’t pretend to represent anyone. I’ve been living in Haiti since 1985. I […]
→ read full articleSEX TRAFFICKING: THE ABOLITIONIST FALLACY
Ann Jordan,
27 Mar 2009
Economic hardship, discrimination, and violence have driven millions of women to work in the sex sector around the world, and their numbers will increase as a result of the current global economic crisis. Unless the underlying factors pushing women to opt for selling sex to support themselves and their families are remedied, many women will […]
→ read full articleHUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN PALESTINE AND OTHER OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES
Richard Falk – Member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace and Development,
25 Mar 2009
United Nations General Assembly – Human Rights Council 18 February 2009 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.PLEASE CONTINUE READING IN THE ORIGINAL
→ read full articleYOU ARE NOT YOUR BRAIN
Gordy Slack,
25 Mar 2009
We have become too reductive in understanding ourselves, argues philosopher Alva Noe. Our thoughts and desires are shaped by more than neurons firing inside our heads. For a decade or so, brain studies have seemed on the brink of answering questions about the nature of consciousness, the self, thought and experience. But they never do, […]
→ read full articleCOLERIDGE AT THE G20
Richard Bronk,
22 Mar 2009
The Romantics have much to teach today’s leaders about the limits of rationalist economics Among the briefing notes being prepared for G20 world leaders, I suspect very few are drawing attention to the lessons taught by Romantic poets and philosophers. This is a pity. For they have much to tell us about the limits of […]
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