Podur: The Academic Boycott Debate27 Nov 2007On Wednesday November 28, 2007 I was in the audience for a debate on the question of whether Israel should be subjected to an academic boycott. In the midst of the farce of the Annapolis talks, it was refreshing that the terms of debate at least seemed to have some semblance of sanity.
Fox: U.S. Companies Behind Anti-Reform Propaganda in Venezuela27 Nov 2007“I voted for Chavez for President, but not now. Because they told me that if the reform passes, they’re going to take my son, because he will belong to the state,” said Gladys Castro last week, a Colombian immigrant who has lived in Venezuela for 16 years, and cleans houses for a living.
Brecher: Labor Goes to Bali27 Nov 2007This week trade unionists from around the world will travel to Bali for the December 3rd launch of negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse gasses. It will include delegates from such U.
Cendrars: Glassing The Country26 Nov 2007Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize winning writer (recent guest on Oprah, and author of the book on which the latest major Coen Brothers release is based), is fond of having characters glass areas: “When it was light enough to use the binoculars he glassed the valley below.” That line from his The Road, “the most important environmental book ever written,” (1) leads the reader into a realm which is “paling away into the murk.
Barsamian: Targeting Iran26 Nov 2007While on his Northern California book tour, David Barsamian spoke to Foaad Khosmood about his 2007 trip to Iran and his latest book Targeting Iran. The book features discussions with Noam Chomsky, Ervand Abrahamian and Nahid Mozaffari.
Zunes: Broken Peace Process26 Nov 2007There’s little reason to hope for a breakthrough at the Middle East peace summit in Annapolis, unless there is a fundamental shift in U.S.
Gordon: Why I Didn’t Buy A Dell, Dude:26 Nov 2007To: Michael Dell From: Gregg Gordon Subject: Why I Did Not Buy A Dell Computer Dear Mr. Dell: span style=”font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana.
Blecher: In Annapolis, Conflict by Other Means26 Nov 2007At an intersection in front of Nablus city hall, a pair of women threaded a knot of waiting pedestrians, glanced left, then dashed across the street. “What’s this?” an onlooker chastised them.
Taamallah: Palestinians’ Right to the Land Must be Restored26 Nov 2007This week in Annapolis, Maryland the United States government will host a conference between Palestinian and Israeli leaders to launch peace talks on a permanent agreement. A vital component of the peace proposals to be discussed involves exchanges of territory that would allow Israel to keep its West Bank “settlement blocs” while compensating Palestinians with land inside Israel.
Khatib: Separate but Unequal in Palestine: The Road to Apartheid26 Nov 2007On the eve of the meeting intended to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians at Annapolis, Maryland, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Israel will build no new West Bank settlements, but will not “strangle” existing Israel settlements. This means that construction in the 149 existing Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank that are strangling Palestinians, including the settlements on our village’s land, will continue unchecked.
Street: Democrats See Progress in Iraq: Reflections on Moral Failure and Progressive Naiveté26 Nov 2007Recently I was speaking to a liberal Iowan peace and justice advocate who told me she was “disappointed” and “surprised” by the leading Democratic presidential candidates. The source of her dismay was a front-page New York Times article showing that the Democrats are toning down their criticism of the Iraq war because of reports that violence has abated somewhat in Baghdad (see Patrick Healy, “As Democrats See Iraq Gains, A Shift in Tone,” New York Times, 25 November 2007, p.
Cruz: Venezuela’s Bad Example26 Nov 2007The Venezuelan political process, that people there describe as Bolivarian, is systematically demonized not just by the bourgeois media but also by some supposed progressives. They tend to focus more on the figure of Chavez than on what that deepening social change means for the great mass of people marginalised and oppressed since independence from the Spanish colonial centre so as to exalt the political, economic – and white – elite.
Barker: The United Nations and Polyarchy25 Nov 2007Having introduced the ‘democratic’ credentials of the new head of the UN Democracy Fund, Roland Rich, in part 1 of this article, this section of the article will now provide a critical examination of the ‘democratic’ background of a key former UN staffer, Mark Malloch Brown. “Charm, toughness, sophistication, experience, vision.
Taamallah: Palestinians’ Right to the Land Must be Restored25 Nov 2007This week in Annapolis, Maryland the United States government will host a conference between Palestinian and Israeli leaders to launch peace talks on a permanent agreement. A vital component of the peace proposals to be discussed involves exchanges of territory that would allow Israel to keep its West Bank “settlement blocs” while compensating Palestinians with land inside Israel.
Khatib: Separate but unequal in Palestine25 Nov 2007On the eve of the meeting intended to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians at Annapolis, Maryland, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Israel will build no new West Bank settlements, but will not “strangle” existing Israel settlements. This means that construction in the 149 existing Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank that are strangling Palestinians, including the settlements on our village’s land, will continue unchecked.
Weisbrot: Venezuela’s Still a Democracy25 Nov 2007On 2 December Venezuelans will vote on a number of amendments to their constitution. Generally speaking the proposals have been portrayed in the media as the next step on the road to dictatorship.
AIN: Bolivia: Four Dead in Capital Conflict25 Nov 2007The chaotic conflict over the seat of the capital escalated over the past three days, leaving four people dead and 200 wounded. The constitutional assembly’s refusal to reopen discussion about the capital issue sparked the protests.
Herd: The End of Race-Based Politics in Australia?25 Nov 2007At first sight, the recent defeat of the Howard Government in Australia looks like a repudiation of the race-based politics that Howard has championed in his thirty-three years in politics. From his statement in 1988 that ‘If (the level of Asian migration) is in the eyes of some of the community too great, it would be in our immediate term interests and supportive of social cohesion if it were slowed down a little so that the capacity of the community to absorb were greater’ (1) to his refusal to apologise to the Indigenous population for the wrongs inflicted on their population since 1788, race has always been just under the surface in many of Howard’s statements.
Lendman: Tragedy and Travesty at Annapolis25 Nov 2007November 27 at Annapolis kicks off the latest Israeli-Palestinian Middle East peace process round that may be an historic first. It’s the first time in memory the legitimate government of one side is excluded, and that alone dooms it.
Hroub: Annapolis, or the absurdity of postmodern politics25 Nov 2007The middle-east conference in the United States is a charade without political substance which Palestinians can and should expose, says Khaled Hroub. It is not really difficult to discern what the United States hopes to achieve by hosting the conference in Annapolis, Maryland, now scheduled (after much uncertainty over the date) for 27 November 2007.
Cohn: Preventing the Impending War on Iran25 Nov 2007Rhetoric flowing out of the White House indicates the Bush administration is planning a military attack on Iran. Officials in Saudi Arabia, a close Bush ally, think the handwriting is on the wall.
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