August 2009
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What happened to Ezra Nawi?
Join Naomi Klein, Neve Gordon, Noam Chomsky and thousands of others and tell Israel not to jail Ezra Nawi, one of Israel’s most courageous human rights activists. His crime? He tried to stop a military bulldozer from destroying the homes of Palestinian Bedouins in the South Hebron region. Nawi, a Jewish Israeli of Iraqi descent,… Continue reading
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Is the Western Left afraid of revolution? By William Bowles
Heretical no doubt but the history of the Left in the allegedly developed world is not exactly littered with success stories, worse still is our relationship with the developing world as the confusion surrounding who to support (or not to) in Iran most clearly reveals. And this is not a new phenomenon as the ideological… Continue reading
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Israel targets human rights groups
In a bid to staunch the flow of damaging evidence of war crimes committed during Israel’s winter assault on Gaza, the Israeli government has launched a campaign to clamp down on human rights groups, both in Israel and abroad. It has begun by targeting one of the world’s leading rights organisations, the US-based Human Rights… Continue reading
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Iran: Reply to the Campaign for Peace and Democracy By Edward S. Herman and David Peterson
The Campaign for Peace and Democracy has chosen to interpret our “Riding the ‘Green Wave'” article as a “vitriolic and dishonest attack” on its authors, and an “offensive impugning of [their] integrity.” In fact, it is nothing of the sort. Instead, it is concerned with issues of central importance to the left in the United… Continue reading
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Femicides of Juárez: Violence Against Women in Mexico
Juárez is nicknamed ‘the capital of murdered women.’ The border city of 1.5 million inhabitants draws tens of thousands of young women from small, poor towns with $55-a-week jobs in maquiladoras operated by such wealthy major corporations as General Electric, Alcoa, and DuPont. According to Amnesty International, more than 800 bodies had been found as… Continue reading
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Colombian Trade Unions: A Target for Intimidation and Assassination
For most of its modern existence, Colombia has struggled with internal violence, most recently in the form of human rights abuses and brutality against organized trade union groups carried out by paramilitary and insurgent armies. This group in particular has been subjected to a disproportionate amount of violence. In the past twenty years, over 2,000… Continue reading
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CNN’s Lou Dobbs Problem
This week, we are launching the television ad below against CNN and Lou Dobbs. We purchased airtime on Dobbs’ show as well as on Fox News and MSNBC. It will air starting on Tuesday, and we need your help to run it as many times as possible. Continue reading
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Michael O'McCarthy interviews Costa Rican Presidential Candidate Ottón Solís
With a constitution lending itself to the development of a complete social democracy and with its notable lack of a standing military force, Costa Rica is unique among Latin American nations. After a very narrow victory over Ottón Solís in 2006, the country has been governed by Óscar Árias of the social-democratic Partido de Liberación… Continue reading
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The Coup in Honduras: A Set Back for both Democracy and U.S.-Latin American Unity
31 July, 2009 — Council on Hemispheric Affairs Over a month has passed since the Honduran Congress ordered the military ousting of the country’s legitimate Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, sparking hemispheric-wide unrest and nasty flashbacks to a recent history of military coups, which many had hoped were no longer part of the landscape. Last month’s Continue reading
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Nicaragua Under Daniel Ortega's Second Presidency: Daniel-Style Politics as Usual?
Daniel Ortega, popular from his days as the leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), has twice served as President of Nicaragua. First known as a fiery revolutionary during his initial term in office, Ortega now presents himself as a mature politician devoted to enacting social change at the service of his beloved country… Continue reading
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Water in Latin America: The Importance of Gender Relations
As caretakers and homemakers, women are usually responsible for finding water according to its accessibility, availability, quality, and use. Despite their prominent role in the use and management of water, women are generally not consulted on matters of water infrastructure or policy, even though United Nations researchers suggest that the perspectives of women need to… Continue reading
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China’s Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean
The release of the paper deliberately coincided with the unfolding of the current financial crisis; this congruence of events has allowed China to expand its influence in this somewhat neglected region without attracting any lasting venom from the U.S. China’s policy paper formally evidences the importance of Latin America and the Caribbean as part of… Continue reading
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Joe Bageant: A Yard Sale in Chernoybl
‘It’s only a system,’ she said, as we floated through the sprawling supermarket’s gleaming commodity lined indoor streets. ‘THE HELL IT IS! It’s a goddamned air conditioned zombie hell of waste and gluttony,’ I thought to myself, before the usual vertigo completely enveloped me. Just back from Central America’s simple, comprehensible mercados, bodegas and street… Continue reading
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The Real News Network – Is there a Chinese "miracle"?
http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/Groupvideo.3100257 more about “The Real News Network – Is there a Ch…“, posted with vodpod Continue reading
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The Biden and Clinton Mutinies By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
At the superficial level Obama is presiding over an undisciplined administration; on a more realistic and sinister construction, he is facing mutiny, publicly conducted by two people who only a year ago were claiming that their qualifications to be in the Oval Office were far superior to those of the junior senator from Illinois. Continue reading
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South Africa: A Nation in Protest, a Moment of Hope By Jennifer Dohrn
I am here continuing the project to build nurse capacity out of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health ICAP. I flew straight to East London, got unpacked into my continually welcoming home in Gonubie, and took off to rural Eastern Cape province immediately, to begin a whirlwind ten days of developing a concrete proposal… Continue reading
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Community Media: The Thriving Voice of the Venezuelan People By Liz Migliorelli and Caitlin McNulty
In Venezuela today a grass-roots movement of community and alternative media is challenging the domination of private commercial media. Community oriented, non profit, non commercial, citizen and volunteer run media outlets are a crucial part of the democratic transformation of society that is occurring throughout Venezuela. Part of this transformation is the understanding of freedom… Continue reading
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G8 Failure to Launch on Climate Change – Analysis By Stephen Leahy
The G8’s failure to make meaningful commitments on climate last week pushes the world ever closer to global climate catastrophe, experts warn. Without commitments to take action, there is little comfort in G8 countries’ agreement to keep overall global warming below 2.0 degrees Celsius. Continue reading
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H1N1 Pandemic: Pentagon Planning Deployment of Troops in Support of Nationwide Vaccination By Michel Chossudovsky
According to CNN, the Pentagon is “to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials.” Continue reading
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Obama – Bush Lite or just Dark? By William Bowles
The question of why, large swathes of the US ‘left’ supported Obama is not difficult figure out, after eight years of Bush Jnr., anybody was preferable well almost and a Black man, well whaddya know. Furthermore (tho’ I am sure it would be denied) such is the poisonous effect of racism on public discourse, that… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 