Day: March 4, 2021

From the Murder of Berta Cáceres to Dam Disaster in Uttarakhand

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5 March 2021 — The New Dark Age

By Don Fitz

Berta Cáceres outside the US military base of Palmerola in Honduras, where she spoke against the US-backed coup regime in Honduras and against the US military presence in her country. July 4, 2011 photo by Roger D. Harris

March 2, 2021 was the five year anniversary of the murder of Berta Cáceres, who opposed the Agua Zarca dam in Honduras. That date was less than one month after the deaths of dozens of people from Tehri Dam disaster in Uttarakhand, India. The two stories together tell us far more about consequences of the insatiable greed of capitalism for more energy than either narrative does by itself.

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UK Gangster Capitalism: They want to silence criticism

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4 March 2021 — Good Law Project

The law of libel has been reformed to make it harder for those who say they have been defamed to win in court. But the world the law envisages is not always the real world.

In the real world, the costs of defending libel proceedings are prohibitive for all except the wealthy. And the financial stress of defending a claim can be unbearable. The consequence is that the threat of defamation proceedings can be used to harass those who seek to speak truth to wealth and power. And they can be, and are, used to force the withdrawal – and sometimes the humiliating withdrawal – of statements which are true or at the very least a reasonable opinion.

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The Right to Live in Peace: The Ninth Newsletter (2021)

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4 March 2021 — Tricontinental

20210301 Victor Jara3

Dear friends,

Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

On a warm late February day in Santiago, I went to the grave of Victor Jara to pay homage to the man who was brutally killed on 16 September 1973. A theatre director, songwriter, and communist, Jara was arrested after the coup d’état against the socialist government of Salvador Allende. He was tortured and then murdered. At the rear of the Cementerio General in Recoleta, Jara was buried with other victims of the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. In 2009, Jara’s body was exhumed as part of the investigation into this murder and he was reburied a short distance away. On the original tomb in simple paint are the words el derecho de vivir en paz (‘the right to live in peace’).

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