Granovsky-Larsen: Four More Violent Years:13 Sep 2007The most important phase of the Guatemalan elections has come and gone, but the campaign period and first round of voting have only left a dark cloud hanging over the prospects for the next four years. While a second round of voting on November 4 will decide between presidential frontrunners Alvaro Colom and General Otto Perez Molina, the political and fi.
Trigona: Workers’ Power in Argentina13 Sep 2007Nearly six years since Argentina’s worst economic crisis in 2001, both the level of popular participation in struggles and the breadth of the political spectrum have been radically transformed. There has been a resurgence of struggle inside the workplace and Argentina’s working class has turned to its historical tools for liberation: direct democracy, the strike, sabotage, and the factory takeover.
Bennis: After Petraeus: Congress Bedazzled, The People Betrayed12 Sep 2007“You can’t kill everyone out there” —General David Petraeus, 13 Sept. 2007, NPR Explaining why Iraq needs to be a “thinking man’s war” **********For those who didn’t hear it already, two of the seven young soldiers on active duty in st1:country-region w:st=”o.
Ireland: Uganda’s Anti-Gay Witch Hunt Continues12 Sep 2007A new chapter opened this week in a vicious, media-led witchhunt that is outing gays in Uganda, when a daily newspaper unveiled the latest installment of what it bills as its “Weird Sex Investigation,” publishing the names and detailed descriptions of 40 men it claimed are gay. Under the shock headline “HOMO TERROR! We Name and Shame Top Gays in the City,” Red Pepper’s Sunday, September 9 issue provided details so precise—physical descriptions, residences, places of employment, and the kind of cars they drive—that those targeted, almost all from the capital city of Kampala or its environs, were easily identifi.
Engelhardt: Imperial Autism12 Sep 2007The former Cockney flower-girl turned elegant-English-speaker Eliza Doolittle caught something of our moment in these lyrics from My Fair Lady: “Oh, words, words, words, I’m so sick of words. Is that all you blighters can do?” Of course, all she had to do was be Galatea to a self-involved language teacher/Pygmalion.
Jacobs: Questions That Might Determine History:12 Sep 2007In recent days, the US public has been satiated with a variety of press reports about numerous “new” plans aimed at addressing the US occupation and war in Iraq. Some of these plans are rumored to include recommendations for an eventual withdrawal of all US forces from that country while some urge the Pentagon and Washington to stay the course.
O’Keefe: Salud! tells the story of Cuba’s medical internationalism12 Sep 2007Michael Moore’s Sicko, an incendiary expose of the for-profit health care system in the United States, generated some predictable backlash from right-wing pundits. More than anything else in the film, what tended to get them especially enraged was the role of Cuba in the documentary.
Chomsky: Harry Potter and immigration12 Sep 2007HARRY POTTER as a parable of immigrants’ rights? Both my kids thought I was crazy when I first suggested this notion, half-way through the book on a recent Saturday afternoon. The more I read, though, the more sense the idea made.
Kozol: Why I am Fasting12 Sep 2007This morning, I am entering the 67th day of a partial fast that I began early in the summer as my personal act of protest at the vicious damage being done to inner-city children by the federal education law No Child Left Behind, a racially punitive piece of legislation that Congress will either renew, abolish, or, as thousands of teachers pray, radically revise in the weeks immediately ahead. The poisonous essence of this law lies in the mania of obsessive testing it has forced upon our nation’s schools and, in the case of underfunded, overcrowded inner.
Cromwell: Loaded Words: ‘Surge’, ‘Reconstruction’ And ‘Withdrawal’12 Sep 2007News media this week are devoting huge swathes of coverage to the report by General David Petraeus, the top US military commander in Iraq, on the impact of the so-called ‘surge’ of US troops. The surge boosted the number of US troops in Iraq earlier this year by 30,000 to 168,000.
Goodman: Tear Down that Wall12 Sep 2007I sat down with former President Jimmy Carter last week at the Carter Center in Atlanta. The Center was hosting a conference of human-rights defenders, people at the front lines confronting repressive regimes around the globe.
Varadarajan: US Imperialism, South Asia and lessons from Latin America12 Sep 2007During a recent trip back home to India, I managed to catch up with Siddharth Varadarajan, Associate Editor of The Hindu – a national newspaper in India – at his office located at the Indian Newspaper Society, in Rafi Marg, New Delhi. The date is July 6, 2007 and outside it’s a hot late afternoon in Delhi… o:p.
Naiman: It Only Takes 51 Senators to End This War11 Sep 2007Regardless of the spin and counter-spin around the various Iraq reports, a key domestic political fact – perhaps the most fundamental fact – is once again being buried in the debate. It only takes 51 Senators to end the Iraq war, regardless of how many are prepared to cut off funding.
Klein: The Age of Disaster Capitalism11 Sep 2007The following is excerpted from Naomi Klein’s recently published book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism: As George Bush and his cabinet took up their posts in January 2001, the need for new sources of growth for US corporations was an urgent matter. With the tech .
UFPJ: Iraq: The People’s Report11 Sep 2007For Immediate Release: September 10th, 2007 Contact: Sue Udry: 301-325-1201; Leslie Cagan: 212-868-5545; Erik Leaver: 202-787-5240 p class=”MsoNormal” style=
Wendland: Petraeus and Crocker: Hope as Military Strategy11 Sep 2007Originally billed as an independent report on the situation in Iraq, Petraeus’ testimony to Congress has been long-awaited. Many moderate Republicans who claim to be uncomfortable with President Bush’s ongoing Iraq war policy insisted on waiting for Petraeus’ recommendations before making rash decisions about troop withdrawal.
Blum: The world is very weary of all this and wants to laugh again11 Sep 2007Okay, Bush ain’t gonna get out of Iraq no matter what anyone says or does short of a) impeachment, b) a lobotomy, or c) one of his daughters setting herself afire in the Oval Office as a war protest. A few days ago, upon arriving in Australia, “in a chipper mood”, he was asked by the Deputy Prime Minister about his stopover in Iraq.
Hijab: The Fall Meeting & the Trend to Focus on Aid Rather than Rights11 Sep 2007The timing and substance of the international meeting called by US President George Bush in his 16 July 2007 speech on the Middle East may end up focusing on aid at the expense of a political solution. This moves further away from the 1991 Madrid international conference and the bilateral Oslo 1993-2000 negotiations and reinforces the trend that was so visible at the 2005 London meeting.
Jacobs: Spinning A War Crime10 Sep 2007The sheer criminality of the entire project was plain for all to see. Sunday night the CBS television show 60 Minutes re-broadcast an interview with Staff Sgt.
Tarbush: Architects protest Brown’s JNF patronship10 Sep 2007When Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP) sent a letter to the new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown two weeks ago describing as “disturbing” his decision to become a patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), this was another example of the active campaigning of this international pressure group. The letter says: “Your becoming a patron of JNF-UK can be seen as a tacit acceptance of an unacceptable status quo, and also places you in the position of not being an unbiased mediator in the peace process.
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