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Updates from February, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• InI 13:38 on February 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: free trade ( 9 ), Keynes ( 24 ), overproduction ( 5 )   

  Harry Shutt, "Redistribution and Stability: Beyond the Keynesian/Neo-liberal Impasse" 

  As the financial crisis that erupted in 2007 unfolds in an economic cataclysm which, it is now clear, is unprecedented in the history of capitalism, world leaders without exception reveal themselves as politically and ideologically bankrupt in their efforts to bring it under control.  This is most obviously demonstrated by their insistence on the need for individuals and enterprises to boost their levels of consumption and fixed investment — with the aid of new loans from the financial sector — even though it is obvious that the immediate cause of the crisis has been the creation of excessive credit leading people (and businesses) to spend well beyond their means.
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• InI 11:43 on February 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Bushehr ( 4 ), energy ( 17 ), NATO ( 873 )   

  Andrei ARESHEV: New Round of US-Iran talks crucial for Russia 

  Iran’s Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar visited Moscow on 15-17 February to start implementation of Tehran’s new foreign policy. Also in February German ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder arrived in Iran to discuss not only economic and energy issues but a general strategy of cooperation between Berlin, Brussels and Tehran. A delegation from Iran, headed by a vice president, visited Kabul occupied by NATO forces. Iranian Foreign Minister came to Baku to discuss cooperation between Tehran and Yerevan on a whole range of political and economic issues. Apart from this, Kazakhstan opened its consulate in northern Iran…
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• InI 11:36 on February 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Barack Obama ( 138 ), Brzezinski ( 8 ), Eurasia ( 8 ), George Soros ( 6 ), Latvia ( 17 ), Lithuania ( 5 ), NATO ( 873 ), Poland ( 34 ), Ukraine ( 39 )   

  Viktor PIROZHENKO: Soros as the Mirror of the US Politics in the Post-Soviet Space 

  27 February, 2009

  US Vice President Joe Biden’s speech at the Munich Security Conference and a number of less notable statements made by US officials revived the discussions of the US strategy in the post-Soviet space. Recently the notorious financial megaspeculator George Soros contributed to the discourse with his articles in the Russian Vedomosti (the Russian partner of The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal) entitled ‘Global Anticrisis Policy: Create New Money’ (February 10), ‘An Alternative to Geopolitics: the Russian Problem’ (February 12), and ‘A Crisis Landscape: the Geopolitics of Cheap Oil’ (February 16).

  Soros has always been a supporter of the US Democratic Party and a critic of G. Bush’s politics. His ideas may be regarded as an expression of the foreign politics objectives of B. Obama’s administration and the methods it is going to employ to pursue them. Soros suggests to Europe a dual strategy – the defense against the newly assertive and aggressive Russia and the encouragement of the strivings for democracy, open society, and international cooperation to prevail over geopolitics.
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• InI 10:11 on February 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Barack Obama ( 138 )   

  Asymmetrical class warfare by Jamison Foser 

  The media are outraged at the “class warfare” supposedly present in President Obama’s budget plans. In the past few days alone, Michelle Bernard said Barack Obama “was almost declaring class warfare” in his speech to Congress; CNBC’s Carlos Quintanilla said, “I don’t want to call it class warfare, although that’s what it may end up being in the end, this debate over wealth redistribution”; the AP’s Jennifer Loven asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, “Are you all worried at all that that kind of argument, that ‘class warfare’ argument could sink the ability to get some of these big priorities through?” Politico ran a Jeanne Cummings article headlined “Class warfare returns to D.C.” And this afternoon, MSNBC joined the pile-on, with a segment asking: “Is there a war against the wealthy? Do we have a class war developing?”

  

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• InI 09:22 on February 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Federal Reserve ( 29 ), financial crisis ( 8 ), karl marx ( 13 ), Keynes ( 24 ), United States ( 168 )   

  The “Great Financial Crisis”: A whole new kind of struggle is emerging by Mike Whitney 

  26 February, 2009 – Global Research

  Interview with John Bellamy Foster

  MW: The financial crisis is quickly turning into a political crisis. Already governments in Iceland and Latvia have collapsed and the global slump is just beginning to accelerate. Riots and street violence have broken out in Greece, Latvia and Lithuania and worker-led protests have become commonplace throughout the EU. As unemployment skyrockets and economic activity stalls, countries are likely to experience greater social instability. How does one take deep-seated discontent and rage and shape it into a political movement for structural change?

  JBF: The first thing to recognize is that we are suddenly in a different historical period. One of my favorite quotes comes from Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1969 film Burn!, where the main character, William Walker (played by Marlon Brando) states: ‘Very often between one historical period and another, ten years suddenly might be enough to reveal the contradictions of an entire century.’ We are living in such a period; not only because of the Great Financial Crisis and what the IMF is now calling a depression in the advanced capitalist economies, but also because of the global ecological crisis that during the last decade has accelerated out of control under business as usual, and due to the reappearance of ‘naked imperialism.’ What made sense ten years ago is nonsense now. New dangers and new possibilities are opening up. A whole different kind of struggle is emerging.
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• InI 22:22 on February 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Obama ( 440 ), Part Two ( 3 ), Real News ( 30 ), Real News Network ( 30 )   

  The Real News Network – Will Obama's stimulus solve the crisis? Pt.1 

  Wolff: Stimulus won’t succeed if the structural changes that lowered wages are not addressed

  
  

  Part Two

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• InI 21:03 on February 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: credit cards ( 2 ), debt ( 42 ), Video ( 305 )   

  The Real News Network – A house of credit cards Pt2 

  27 February, 2009

  Wolff: Low wages, weak unions and consumer culture led to an economy built on a house of credit cards.

  Part One

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• InI 12:48 on February 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Barack Obama ( 138 ), empire ( 24 ), Video ( 305 )   

  Video: Empire – Obama's Middle East challenge – Pt 2 

  As conflict continues in the Middle East, the world faces an uncertain economic future and a new US president is sworn in, Al Jazeera launches a new series that will question global powers and their agendas.

  Be they state, corporate, military or economic the Empire team, headed by Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, will analyse these giants and how they strive to dominate everything from international security and finance to communications and the news itself.

  Part One

  
  

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• InI 12:32 on February 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Belarus ( 7 ), NATO ( 873 ), Turkey ( 81 )   

  The Geopolitical Great Game: Turkey and Russia Moving Closer By F. William Engdahl 

  26 February, 2009 – Global Research

  Despite the problems of the ruble and the weak oil price in recent months for the Russian economy, the Russian Government is pursuing a very active foreign policy strategy. Its elements focus on countering the continuing NATO encirclement policy of Washington, with often clever diplomatic initiatives on its Eurasian periphery. Taking advantage of the cool relations between Washington and longtime NATO ally, Turkey, Moscow has now invited Turkish President Abdullah Gul to a four day state visit to discuss a wide array of economic and political cooperation issues.

  In addition to opening to Turkey, a vital transit route for natural gas to western Europe, Russia is also working to firm an economic space with Belarus and other former Soviet republics to firm its alliances. Moscow delivered a major blow to the US military encirclement strategy in Central Asia when it succeeded earlier this month in convincing Kyrgystan, with the help of major financial aid, to cancel US military airbase rights at Manas, a major blow to US escalation plans in Afghanistan.

  In short, Moscow is demonstrating it is far from out of the new Great Game for influence over Eurasia.
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• InI 11:00 on February 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Gaza Strip ( 274 ), Israel ( 1,983 ), Operation Cast Lead ( 370 ), war crime ( 106 )   

  PCHR 26 February, 2009: The Fact-Finding Mission Mandated by the League of Arab Nations to Investigate Israeli War Crimes Concludes Its Works in Gaza on Friday 

  Palestinian Centre for Human Rights LTD (non profit)
  Press Release

  Ref: 31/2009
  Date: 26 February 2009
  Time: 18:00 GMT

  The fact-finding mission of the League of Arab Nations mandated by the League of Arab Nations to investigate war crimes committed by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) during the latest offensive on the Gaza Strip is going to finish its works in the Gaza Strip on Friday, 27 February 2009, with a tour in Rafah to watch the destruction caused by IOF to the town. The mission has sought to gather evidence and eyewitnesses’ testimonies, and to watch the destruction cause by IOF during the latest offensive on the Gaza Strip to prepare a neutral and objective report to be submitted to the League of Arab Nations.
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• InI 18:49 on February 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Cuba ( 81 )   

  The green revolution in Cuba 

  21 February, 2009

  From December 2008 to January 2009, activists travelled to Cuba for the Southern Cross Solidarity Brigade from Australia and New Zealand, organised by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society. Resistance member Ash Pemberton was in Cuba for the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the revolution. He spoke to Green Left Weekly’s Jay Fletcher.

  Few first World — let alone Third World — countries can match the legislative, planning and educational efforts that Cuba is applying in its commitment to environmental sustainability.
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• InI 18:03 on February 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Keynes ( 24 ), recession ( 9 )   

  Will Keynesianism Be Enough to Halt the Investment Decline? 

  The 4th quarter US GDP figures confirm that the economic downturn, in its domestic aspect, is taking the classic form of an investment-led decline.

  As seen in Figure 1 US fixed investment already started to fall from the 1st quarter of 2006 onwards — US consumer expenditure and GDP, in contrast, continued to rise until the 2nd quarter of 2008.  Government consumption is still rising.
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• InI 17:35 on February 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Gaza Strip ( 274 ), Israel ( 1,983 ), Operation Cast Lead ( 370 ), war crime ( 106 ), Zionism ( 366 )   

  GAZA CHRONOLOGY June 19 – Dec. 27, 2008 

  19th June:
  Ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas government comes into force for six months. Israel insisted on a verbal agreement. It stated: cessation of all military hostilities on both sides, opening of Gaza’s borders after 72 hours for 30% more trade, unrestricted trade after ten days. Egypt supports the extension of the agreement to the West Bank. (source: International Crisis Group: Ending the War in Gaza. Middle East Briefing No. 26, 5.1.2009, p. 3)

  19th June
  Israeli warships fire four rockets at Palestinian fishermen in Palestinian waters. On the same day aircraft circling over Gaza City break the sound barrier near the ground and trigger a panic among the people. In the area of Khan Yunis Israeli patrols shoot over the border fence at farmers who work on their fields on the other side of the border. (source: Ma’an, 26.06.2008). This scenario is repeated almost daily.
  24th June:
  Two young officials of Jihad are murdered in their homes in Nablus by units of the IDF (Israeli Defence Force). On the same day al-Quds Brigades fire three rockets at Sderot in retaliation. (source: Ma’an 24.06.2008) The Israeli side uses the action of Jihad as an excuse to close the border crossings again.

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• InI 16:58 on February 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Haiti ( 182 ), Jean-Bertrand Aristide ( 9 ), lavalas ( 5 ), U.S. Marines ( 8 )   

  Ortega murdered by US Marines in Haiti: A Reporter's Notes By Kevin Pina 

  The family of slain Spanish journalist Ricardo Ortega recently held a press conference in Madrid, Spain where they presented evidence that he was killed by U.S. Marines in Haiti and not by gunmen associated with ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The organization Reporters without Borders (RSF) immediately seized upon the opportunity to release the following statement, “The investigation at first focused on armed supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide but in addition to the autopsy carried out in Spain, witness accounts gathered by a journalist colleague on Antena 3, Jesus Martin, who was sent to Haiti six months later, confirmed the thesis that the shooting had come from US troops…”

  I found this utterly disingenuous and contemptible given that RSF had been the main proponent of the theory that gunmen associated with ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide were responsible for Ortega’s killing. RSF’s assertion would be uncritically repeated ad nauseum in the international press, and ultimately used by the U.S.-installed government that replaced Aristide, to justify a wholesale campaign of slaughter and mass arrests against his supporters in the following months and years.
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• InI 16:49 on February 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Gaza ( 834 ), Israel ( 1,983 ), Operation Cast Lead ( 370 ), war crimes ( 101 )   

  Video: Gaza – Erased, Wiped of the Map 

  This is a trailer from a production that Alberto Arce has filmed and directed. He was on the last voyage of the DIGNITY that got into Gaza, and he was there during Israel’s murderous assault on a civilian population. Although much is in Spanish and Arabic, it makes no difference. It is the language of a people being wiped out in front of the eyes of the world with American money and American support.

  
  

  
  

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• InI 16:40 on February 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: cbs ( 5 ), Hollywood ( 7 ), Movies ( 5 ), News Corporation ( 2 ), Rupert Murdoch ( 20 )   

  The Deep Politics of Hollywood In the Parents’ Best Interests By Matthew Alford and Robbie Graham 

  26 February, 2009 – Global Research

  Tom Cruise – “the world’s most powerful celebrity” according to Forbes Magazine – was unceremoniously sacked in 2006. His dismissal was particularly shocking for the fact that it was carried out not by his immediate employer, Paramount Studios, but rather by Paramount’s parent company, Viacom. Viacom’s notoriously irascible CEO Sumner Redstone – who owns a long list of media companies including CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV, and VH1 – said that Cruise had committed “creative suicide” following a spate of manic public activity. It was a sacking worthy of an episode of The Apprentice.[i]

  The Cruise case points to the overlooked notion that the internal mechanisms of Hollywood are not determined entirely by audience desires, as one might expect, nor are they geared to respond solely to the decisions of studio creatives, or even those of the studio heads themselves. In 2000, The Hollywood Reporter released a top 100 list of the most powerful figures in the industry over the past 70 years. Rupert Murdoch, chief of News Corporation, which owns Twentieth Century Fox, was the most powerful living figure. With the exception of director Steven Spielberg (no. 3), no artists appeared in the top 10.
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• InI 11:29 on February 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Gaza Strip ( 274 ), Israel ( 1,983 ), theatre ( 4 )   

  Theatre – London: Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea 

  Until the 14 March 2009

  Passion Pit Theatre & Zeitgeist Theatre Present

  7pm Mon – Sat

  written & directed by Justin Butcher & Ahmed Masoud
  designed & co-devised by Jane Frere / film design by Zia Trench / sound design by Sebastian Frost

  A vibrant and haunting theatre piece, Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea promises to transport the audience directly to Gaza to experience what happened during the recent Israeli military assault. It seeks to create a highly atmospheric fusion of moving personal testimonies with searing film images and soundscape bearing witness to the dignity, courage and suffering of the people of Gaza.

  Supported by Amos Trust, Interpal, Jews for Justice for Palestinians and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

  20% minimum of box-office revenue will go to the Al Ahli hospital, Gaza.

  Theatro Technis, 26 Crowndale Road, London NW1 1TT

  Ticket Price: £12.50/£10 concessions

  Online Bookings: http://www.stargreen.com/ Tel: 0207 734 8932

  More info at: http://www.gotogaza.wordpress.com

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• InI 11:22 on February 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: conference ( 12 ), Gaza ( 834 ), London ( 105 )   

  Conference: The Israel – Gaza Conflict: Where Do The Legalities Lie? 

  The Association of the Palestinian Community in the UK; The Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law and The Sir Joseph Hotung Programme in Law, Human Rights and Peace-Building in the Middle East

  Sunday 1 March 2009

  10.00am – 5.00pm
  Brunei Gallery, SOAS

  This one day conference will address the international legal issues raised by this conflict, including the way they have been reported in the media. Panels will examine the laws relating to the use of force, the conduct of hostilities and post-conflict matters. A full list of speakers will be announced in due course at http://www.soas.ac.uk/lawpeacemideast

  All Welcome – For further information please contact Sarah Hibbin at sh84@soas.ac.uk or Victor Kattan at vk1@soas.ac.uk

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• InI 11:07 on February 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Spain ( 22 )   

  Movies: Madrid Before Hanita & The Guernica Children 

  Two interesting and I think timely movies to see if you are in London. (The Guernica Children is directed by a cousin of mine Steve Bowles and was originally aired on BBC4 in the UK) on Sunday, 8 March, 2009 at 10:30 am at the Renoir Cinema, Brunswick Square. Nearest Tube, Russell Square (Piccadilly Line). There will a discussion after the movies.

  

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• InI 09:47 on February 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: empire ( 24 ), Israel ( 1,983 ), United States ( 168 )   

  Empire – Obama's Middle East Challenge – Pt 1 

  29 January, 2009

  In this episode of Empire, Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, and his guests zero in on the special relationship between the US and Israel.

  From its beginning, when it took the US only 11 minutes to recognise Israel, through its difficult early years, to the blossoming bond when the alliance grew based on shared values and strategic goals.

  This relationship has provided Israel with over $150bn in aid and military assistance, and in the process changed the nature of Israeli society.

  However, despite the obligatory expressions of support by politicians playing to their constituencies, the recent elections in both countries have them seemingly heading in opposite directions.

  This second episode of Empire will explore who benefits from the special relationship and whether the status quo will prevail.

  Source: Al Jazeera

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