August 6, 2020
-
Do Not Reach for the Sky Just to Surrender: The Thirty-Second Newsletter (2020)
6 August 2020 — Tricontinental Greta Acosta Reyes (Cuba), Neoliberalism, 2020. Dear Friends, Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Beirut, mon amour. Those shattered mirrors once were The smiling eyes of children, Now are star-lit. This city’s nights are bright. and luminous is Lebanon. Beirut, ornament of our world. Faces decorated with Continue reading
-
Books: A Fifty-Year journey for truth and justice
Diana Johnstone’s fiercely courageous and independent reporting, historical analysis, and activism have stayed the course while managing to chalk up a veritable army of opponents: establishment Democrats, infantile 1960s New Leftists, would-be French student revolutionaries, identity politics adherents, influential U.S. and French intellectuals, Serbian-hating neoliberals promoting Responsibility to Protect (R2P) wars, NATO, and the U.S.… Continue reading
-
Beirut Blast Wrap-up
Yesterday 2.750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, exploded. The blast killed more than 100 people and wounded more than 4,000. Many buildings in Beirut were severely damaged. The pressure wave broke windows as far 10 miles away. Beirut’s port is mostly destroyed. Lebanon’s national grain reserve,… Continue reading
-
Hiroshima ─ 75 years on
Today ─ 6th August ─ marks the 75th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of the city of Hiroshima, in 1945. It is estimated that the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the ensuing radioactive fallout claimed the lives of up to a quarter of a million Japanese people ─ to this day they provide a… Continue reading
-
UK: ‘A Perpetual Motion Machine Of Killing’
On August 1, a rare in-depth investigative piece appeared on the BBC News website based on credible and serious allegations that UK Special Forces had executed unarmed civilians in Afghanistan. The BBC article was produced in tandem with a report, ‘”Rogue SAS Afghanistan execution squad” exposed by email trail’, published by the Sunday Times. Continue reading
-
‘The Politic of Blood’: Political Repression in South Africa
In his famous speech from the dock in April 1964, Nelson Mandela spoke of ‘revolutionary democracy’ rooted in precolonial forms of collective deliberation and decision making. In a speech given in April 1982, Joe Foster, then General Secretary of the Federation of South African Trade Unions (Fosatu), stressed the need for workers ‘to build their… Continue reading
-
The PPE that can’t be used by the NHS that cost £250 Million
The Government awarded a PPE contract worth £252 million to Ayanda Capital Limited, a ‘family office’ owned through a tax haven in Mauritius, with connections to Liz Truss. It is the largest PPE contract we have seen to date. Continue reading
-
Something Rotten at The Heart of UK Government
As George Washington put it,“a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils”. He warned that sympathy for the favourite nation encourages the illusion of common interest where none really exists, risks participation in its quarrels and wars, and involves“concessions to the favourite nation of privileges denied to others which is… Continue reading
-
Stinking Tory Corruption
I wrote a furious article about the £250 million PPE contract inexplicably awarded to the “family office” Ayanda Capital, an investment house for private wealth tax avoidance. We now learn £150 million of face masks delivered are unusable as they do not meet the required standards. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 