27 April, 2010 — The Real News Network
Epstein: None of the measures being considered will end “too big to fail”
Bio
Gerald Epstein is Co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) and Professor of Economics.He received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University. He has published widely on a variety of progressive economic policy issues, especially in the areas of central banking and international finance, and is the editor or co-editor of six volumes.
27 April, 2010 — Palestine Center Brief No. 198
This brief below orginially appeared in The Guardian today.
Among those involved in the Middle East peace process industry there is much talk about “time running out” for a two-state solution.
Recently, the same sentiments were echoed by the US state department, reflecting a shift in the way the Obama administration is publicly talking about the conflict.
On more than one occasion, the state department and other Obama administration figures have said that “the status quo is unsustainable”. Notice again the element of time.
Time has been running out for a two-state solution since the beginning of Israel’s colonial enterprise in occupied Palestinian territory in 1967. Yet despite this reality, analyses of the situation continue to repeat this now-meaningless cliche year after year, decade after decade. It seems that, to many, time in the Middle East can be magically be suspended. Gravity, in this war-torn region, ceases to affect the inverted hourglass.
26 April 2010 — The Real News Network
Schell: Summit’s objective was to isolate Iran, not clear how real a non nuclear world objective is
Bio
Based in New York City, USA, Jonathan Schell is a renowned anti-nuclear activist, prolific journalist, lecturer and best-selling author. He is a frequent contributor to The Nation, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine and Atlantic Monthly. He is also the author of The Fate of the Earth, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Schell is a board member of IWT – The Real News.
26 April, 2010 — The Real News Network
Government struggles with tension between extraction-based economy and global environmental leadership
Historic summit closes in Bolivia, while government grapples with it’s global leadership on environmental issues. Bolivia’s social spending is largely due to destructive exploitation projects. A problem faced by many countries, Bolivia has an answer, it’s called climate debt.
Produced by Jesse Freeston
Transcript
26 April, 2010 — The Real News Network
Government struggles with tension between extraction-based economy and global environmental leadership
Historic summit closes in Bolivia, while government grapples with it’s global leadership on environmental issues. Bolivia’s social spending is largely due to destructive exploitation projects. A problem faced by many countries, Bolivia has an answer, it’s called climate debt.
Produced by Jesse Freeston
Transcript
26 April, 2010 — venezuelanalysis.com
During the recently concluded five-month extraordinary congress of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Kiraz Janicke & Federico Fuentes had the opportunity to discuss President Hugo Chavez’s proposal to form a Fifth Socialist International, with Julio Chavez, a delegate to the PSUV congress and a member of the congress’s international committee, which is charged with drafting a specific plan of action to form a new socialist international.
The proposal that President Hugo Chavez made regarding the formation of a Fifth Socialist International has attracted a lot of attention at a global level. I’m interested in your point of view, as a delegate and member of the International Committee of the Congress of the PSUV, why propose a 5th International and what is the importance of this proposal?
I believe that the proposal launched by the President Hugo Chávez, to raise at this time a global debate on historical relevance of the need to call on all parties, movements and leftist and anti-imperialist currents of the world to have a full discussion, is based on the characterization and in-depth analysis of the crisis of global capitalism. This leads unquestionably to the conclusion that the only way to overcome the cyclical crisis of world capitalism is, in fact, by proposing a model or a path that is completely different from the neo-liberal model, the predatory model, of capitalism. There is no other alternative than the path of transition to socialism.
27 April, 2010 — The Only Democracy?
Emily gives a summary of Bil’in’s legal actions under a poster of Bassem Abu Rahma, killed at a demo one year ago, April 17.
Some of us have become so used to West Bank demonstrations meaning major Israeli army presence, and, typically, the use of weapons, that we have forgotten what demonstrations in a democracy look like. We’ve forgotten that a protest against oppressive working conditions in downtown New York City, or against oppressive abortion policies in Fredericton, Canada, or against wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in cities including London, Sydney, Paris, San Francisco and Toronto — means police presence only when the protests become so large that they overcrowd public spaces and need direction, when they damage city property, or (get this) when the protesters themselves might be at risk from onlookers with opposing views.
And so we attend demonstration after demonstration — from Bil’in to Al-Ma’asara to Hebron to Nabi Salah, and more — and we are enraged time and time again by the unjustified, disproportionate, immoral response of the army and border police.
But we hardly ever ask ourselves: why are they even here?
The New Dark Age 