Fisk: Holocaust Denial in The White House13 Nov 2007How are the mighty fallen! President George Bush, the crusader king who would draw the sword against the forces of Darkness and Evil, he who said there was only “them or us”, who would carry on, he claimed, an eternal conflict against “world terror” on our behalf; he turns out, well, to be a wimp. A clutch of Turkish generals and a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign on behalf of Turkish Holocaust deniers have transformed the lion into a lamb.
Flaherty: Education Versus Incarceration13 Nov 2007Tallulah is a small town in Northeastern Louisiana, one of the poorest regions in the US. It is about 90 miles from the now-legendary town of Jena, and like Jena it is a town with a large youth prison that was closed after allegations of abuse and brutality.
Ali: Pakistan’s Travails12 Nov 2007TWO days after General Pervez Musharraf promulgated the emergency, rumours of a coup were rife across Pakistan. At least one observer saw the irony of it all.
Johnstone: Sarko and the ghosts of May ’68:12 Nov 2007In the last major speech of his successful presidential campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy launched into a bizarre attack on May 1968. “May 1968 imposed intellectual and moral relativism on us all,” he declared.
Darcy: “War of Position”: Anti-Capitalist Attrition as a Revolutionary Strategy for Non-Revolutionary Times12 Nov 2007Introduction In non-revolutionary times, a revolutionary strategy has to acknowledge the distance that separates the preparatory phase from the crisis phase of anti-capitalist struggle. In a preparatory period, that is, when revolution is not yet a foreseeable prospect, the crucial tasks are to weaken the position of our adversaries (employers and the capitalist state) and to strengthen the position of our own side (the combined anti-capitalist forces).
Ciccariello-Maher: Dual Power in the Venezuelan Revolution11 Nov 2007Too often, the Bolivarian Revolution currently underway in Venezuela is dismissed by its critics—on the right and left—as a fundamentally statist enterprise. We are told it is, at best, a continuation of the corrupt, bureaucratic status quo or, at worst, a personalistic consolidation of state power in the hands of a single individual at the expense of those “checks and balances” traditionally associated with western liberal democracies.
Baker: Homeownership: The Fast Path to Poverty11 Nov 2007The Commerce Department reported last month that homeownership among African Americans had dropped to 46.7 percent in the third quarter, three full percentage points below its peak level in 2004.
Joya: Malalai Joya: “truth has a very strong voice”11 Nov 2007Stephen Harper’s government has not seen fit to comment on the case of Malalai Joya, the suspended Afghan parliamentarian who has become known around the world because of her courage in denouncing the warlords and war criminals who have been empowered by NATO and foreign interests in Afghanistan. While Ottawa has thus far kept silent on the issue, we have the story covered.
Seekins: The Geopolitics and Economics of Burma’s Military Regime, 1962-200711 Nov 2007Is anything new under the sun in military-ruled Burma? On August 15, 2007, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military junta ordered a cut in subsidies for gasoline products, resulting in a 100 percent price increase for diesel oil and as much as 500 percent for compressed natural gas. The decree was unexpected, and imposed great hardship on people whose standard of living was already precarious.
Hass: The god of big things11 Nov 2007A month ago, as she faced a roomful of journalists in Italy, writer Arundhati Roy was asked what it is like to be an icon of peace-seekers around the world. “First of all,” she advised her audience, “always be suspicious of icons.
Miles: Lords of the Land11 Nov 2007Lords of the Land – The War Over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007. Akiva Eldar and Idith Zertal.
Weisbrot: Who’s Afraid of a Falling Dollar?11 Nov 2007What do policy-makers in China, Japan, Argentina, Malaysia, Indonesia, the European Union and many other countries understand that ours don’t? It seems they know that if the value of their currencies rises too much, it can hurt their economy. But for a number of reasons it hasn’t quite sunk in here.
Sainath: 1.5 lakh farm suicides in 1997-200511 Nov 2007Close to 150,000 Indian farmers committed suicide in nine years from 1997 to 2005, official data show. While farm suicides have occurred in many States, nearly two thirds of these deaths are concentrated in five States where just a third of the country’s population lives.
Karkar: Don’t forget Palestine Arafat never did, and he never let others forget.11 Nov 2007For fifty years, Yasser Arafat – or Abu Ammar as he is more familiarly known – made the Palestinian cause his life’s journey, and along the way, be became the undisputed leader of the Palestinian people. His passion spilled over into three words “Don’t forget Palestine” – words he wrote to Egypt’s first President in 1953 when he was still a student, and words which remained his mantra to the end.
Levy: Good news from Gaza10 Nov 2007The group of reservist paratroopers returned all astir: Hamas fought like an army. The comrades of Sergeant-Major (Res.
Mian: Rule of Force vs. Rule of Law in Pakistan10 Nov 2007In a desperate bid to stay in power, General Pervez Musharraf has staged a coup against the rule of law in Pakistan. His declaration of martial law, suspension of the constitution and basic rights was aimed at overthrowing Pakistan’s Supreme Court, which was expected to rule next week that Musharraf could not continue as both president and chief of the army.
Wallerstein: Last Call for a Two State Solution10 Nov 2007The prevailing worldwide view of how to resolve politically the conflict of two nationalisms in Israel/Palestine is the so-called two-state solution – that is, the creation of two states, Israel and Palestine, within the boundaries of the onetime British Mandate of Palestine. Actually, this position is not at all new.
Fernandes: What is at Stake in Venezuela’s Reform Referendum?10 Nov 2007On Sunday December 2, Venezuelans will return to the voting booths to ratify or reject two slates of constitutional reforms, 33 of which have been proposed by President Hugo Chávez and 36 additional reforms made by the National Assembly. Included in the proposed reforms to Venezuela’s 1999 constitution are an increase in the presidential term from six to seven years and a removal of the two-term limit, a shortening of the work week to 36 hours, the suppression of the right to information during national emergencies, the elimination of the autonomy of the central bank, increased funding for communal councils, the creation of new forms of collective property, the requirement of gender parity in positions of public office, and the recognition of Afro-Venezuelan groups, in addition to indigenous groups included in the previous reforms.
Barker: Media Watchdog as Democracy Manipulator10 Nov 2007Most people agree that a democratic public sphere is an essential part of any nominally democratic society, however, what many disagree over are the exact ingredients of such an environment. In large part these disagreements are caused by different conceptions of what democracy actually means.
Bidwai: Unfinished Agenda10 Nov 2007An undercover investigation has revealed that the massacre of 800 muslims in 2002 during riots in Gujarat was systematically planned and covered up by leading right-wing BJP politicians. p class=”MsoNormal” style=”margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: au.
George: Reflections on Transnational Activism10 Nov 2007In a wide-ranging interview, Susan George reflects on TNI, the potential of scholarly activism and the global justice movement to challenge well-financed neoliberal cultural hegemony, and why she remains optimistic on most global justice issues except whether we have enough time to save the planet. Kees Biekart:span style=”font-size: 10pt; font-family.
Ramonet: Private equity is on the prowl10 Nov 2007While critics of the economic horrors of globalisation argue, a new and even more brutal form of capitalism is in action. The new vultures are private equity companies, predatory investment funds with vast amounts of capital at their disposal and an enormous appetite for more (1).
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