O’Keefe: In London, the world gathers against war16 Dec 2007Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend a remarkable gathering of the global peace movement in London. The World Against War conference, held December 1-2 in the British capital, brought together over 1200 delegates from almost 30 countries to discuss Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, the threat of an attack against Iran, and much more.
Grosso: New York’s Gilded Age: Past and Present16 Dec 2007The New York Times Magazine recently joined the chorus of celebrities, tabloid boosters, and mainstream politicians by declaring New York City to be the center of the “Second Gilded Age”. Equipped with a two term billionaire mayor, an ex-mayor currently a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination (largely under the banner of being “America’s Mayor”), as well as the reputation for being “restored” to greatness by a mix of conservative politics and militant law and order tactics, the city is proclaimed the perfect, and original neoliberal fit.
Edwards: The Faceless And The Dead – The Guardian And Iraq’s Refugees16 Dec 2007“See The World Through Their Eyes”(December 6, 2007)For several months now, non-UK visitors accessing the Guardian website have been shown an endlessly revolving animation in three segments that would not look out of place on FAIR, ZNet, or indeed Media Lens.The first segment depicts a blue-eyed man wearing glasses with images of anti-war demonstrators reflected in the glasses.
Gould-Wartofsky: Farmworkers and Students Take On the King16 Dec 2007It’s tomato season in Immokalee, Florida. Today, like every other day, the tomato pickers will emerge from their trailers in the dark before dawn, and twelve hours later, they will return in the dark of the Florida night.
Street: Note to Liberals: The Right Does Not Hate “Government”15 Dec 2007“PROGRESSIVE VICTORY” Maybe it’s some sort of “progressive victory” that “Daily Kos” publisher Markos Moulitsas is a contributing columnist at the longstanding “mainstream” (corporate) media outlet Newsweek magazine. That’s what a liberal I know tells me.
Christoff: The debate is a farce14 Dec 2007Muslim community leaders decry fallout from increasingly divisive reasonable accommodation dialogue Islamic identity in Quebec rests at the centre of the current storm of debate surrounding reasonable accommodation as the rights of Muslim minorities in the province to publicly practise religious customs are under attack in a state-sponsored commission. Startling many Canadians is the overt racism towards non-dominant cultures in Quebec, expressed repeatedly in hearings initiated by the Liberal minority government of Jean Charest on the eve of the last provincial elections.
Barghouti: No State Has the Right to Exist as a Racist State14 Dec 2007Omar Barghouti belongs to a new generation of Palestinians who never adhered to the solution of « Two States, Two peoples ». They are advocating, instead, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) of Israel as well as a «secular, democratic state» solution, where Palestinians and Israelis would share equal rights, after historic injustices are redressed and the refugees are allowed to return.
Barker: Reporters Without Democracy14 Dec 2007The first two parts of this article firstly investigated Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ‘democratic’ funding ties, and then went on to look at the ‘democratic’ credentials of some of their current and former staff. The third installment of this article extended this investigation and examined the ‘democratic’ ties of some of the earlier recipients of RSF’s annual Fondation de France Prize, and this concluding part of the article will now continue in this vein and examine the ‘democratic’ ties of some of RSF’s more recent prize winners.
Mian: How Not to Handle Nuclear Security14 Dec 2007The United States recently admitted that since the attacks of September 11, 2001, it has been helping Pakistan secure its nuclear weapons and the materials used to make them. Pakistan has welcomed this assistance.
Gordon: Privatising Zionism14 Dec 2007For less than four dollars an hour, the Jewish teenagers removed furniture, clothes, kitchenware and toys from the homes and loaded them on to trucks. As they worked diligently alongside the many policemen who had come to secure the destruction of 30 houses in two unrecognised Bedouin villages, Bedouin teenagers stood by watching their homes being emptied.
Hallward: Did He Jump or Was He Pushed?14 Dec 2007This article first appeared in the newspaper Haiti Liberté, in nine instalments, October-November 2007.[1] Peter Hallward is the author of a new book, Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment, which will be released by VERSO in April 2008.
Monbiot: Stop taking it out of the ground14 Dec 2007About ten thousand delegates from more than 180 nations are meeting in Bali to attempt to extend the Kyoto Protocol Global Warming Pact beyond 2012. Opposition from the United States, Canada, and Japan is likely to stand in the way of any attempts to include emission reduction targets in a “road map” for future global warming talks.
Arreola: Cuba Regrets ‘Past Error’ of Homophobia14 Dec 2007Cuba considers the official homophobia of the past decades “an error” but this period still needs discussing: ”what happened has to be analysed,” says sexologist Mariela Castro Espín. The director of the National Centre of Sex Education (Cenesex) announced at the start of last year a legal initiative to recognise the rights of the transsexuals to identity and to clinical attention, a proposal that has been reformulated through discussion.
Mayes: Blocking the Strykers:14 Dec 2007The US military will have to think twice before it ever again tries to use Olympia, WA as a launching point for war.For 13 unforgettable days in November, people in this small community engaged in a courageous and spirited campaign of resistance to the war in Iraq.
Baroud: On Romney, Mormonism and Islam14 Dec 2007Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s speech on December 6th – in which he tried to ‘explain’ his Mormon faith – was met with a mostly sympathetic reception at George Bush Library in Texas.The speech has been long anticipated, not so much for its relevance to the pressing debate on the defining role of religion in American politics, and how this undermines the very meaning of secular democracy.
Baroud: On Romney, Mormonism and Islam14 Dec 2007Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s speech on December 6th – in which he tried to ‘explain’ his Mormon faith – was met with a mostly sympathetic reception at George Bush Library in Texas.The speech has been long anticipated, not so much for its relevance to the pressing debate on the defining role of religion in American politics, and how this undermines the very meaning of secular democracy.
Wainwright: Democracy diary13 Dec 2007Democracy diary Hilary Wainwright reports from Caracas on Venezuela’s referendum – and the next steps towards reform p
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