1 August 2013 — The Real News Network
Michael Ratner: Bradley Manning’s conviction demonstrates Obama administration’s ‘War on Whistleblowers’ in full effect
Tag: Columbia
Video: Justice Department Redefines Terrorism by Putting Assata Shakur on FBI List
10 May 2013 — The Real News Network
Michael Ratner: Upping the reward and renewing interest in Assata Shakur, is aimed at labeling any use of violence with a political character as terrorism – even if the target is not a civilian.
Video: Wikileaks Releases Kissinger Cables and Two Decisions in Manning Trial
12 April 2013 — The Real News Network
Michael Ratner: Kissinger files show important role Wikileaks continues to play revealing real history of US foreign policy; Judge makes one decision favorable to Manning, one not Continue reading
A Return to Marx’s Ecological Critique By Simon Butler
9 April 2013 — Green Left Weekly
Do oil spills make good economic sense? A witness called by Canadian firm Enbridge Inc. – which wants approval to build a $6.5-billion pipeline linking Alberta’s tar sands with the Pacific coast – told a recent hearing in British Columbia (BC) that the answer is yes. He said oil spills could benefit the economy, giving business new opportunities to make money cleaning it up. He told Fishers Union representatives that an oil spill in BC might indeed kill the local fishing industry, but their lost income would be replaced by compensation payouts and new career prospects, such as working for oil cleanup crews.
Video: Bradley Manning Tells Court Public Have the Right to Know About US War Crimes
1 March, 2013 — The Real Network
American Attorney for Julian Assange, Michael Ratner, reports he was in the courtroom and witnessed Manning speak with confidence and intelligence as he detailed the outrages that drove him to upload the documents to Wikileaks
Media Lens: Death Of A Hero By David Cromwell
14 January 2013 — Media Lens
The General, The Media Adulation And The Forgotten Victims
One measure of a society’s honesty is what it says about its political and military leaders when they die. Are the deceased leader’s perceived virtues exalted, while any blemishes are airbrushed out of the picture? Recent media coverage following the death of General Norman “Stormin’ ”Schwarzkopf, the Allied military commander during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, is a case in point.
Video: The Agueros Archive: Preserving New York's Latino Heritage
23 August 2012 — Columbia University New York Stories
Jack Agüeros is a poet, playwright, short story writer, translator and author of five books. He was an activist in New York’s Latino community in the 1960s and ’70s and director of El Museo del Barrio for close to a decade. Agüeros, who turns 78 on Sept. 2 and suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, can no longer write. But he will continue to inspire students, writers and literary scholars through the collection of papers, videos and photographs he and his three children, Kadi, Marcel and Natalia, are donating to the Columbia Libraries. Continue reading
Columbia’s Quest for Peace & Justice: The International & National Contexts By Professor James Petras
29 February 2012 — Boiling Frogs
A Step toward Greater Independence
Introduction: Between April 21-23, thousands of activists from most of the major urban and rural social movements and trade unions, human rights groups and indigenous, afro-Colombian movements will meet to unify forces and launch, what promises to be the most significant new political movement in recent history.
Imperialism, despotism, and democracy in Syria By Joseph Massad
6 February 2012 — MCW
In the context of the US invasion of the Gulf in 1991, British academic Fred Halliday announced his new right-wing affiliations in the British newspaper the New Statesman by declaring: “If I have to choose between imperialism and fascism, I choose imperialism.” It never occurred to Halliday that he could have opposed both and supported home-grown democratic struggles instead.
#OWS and the Young Trade Unionists by Mark Nowak
22 November 2011 — MRZine
 Cory McCray, Founder of the Young Trade Unionists, and George Hendricks, Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU) Rep and Vice President of the Young Trade Unionists (YTU) |
If you head down to the IBEW Local 24 Union Hall Auditorium on W. Patapsco Avenue in Baltimore on the first Tuesday of any month, you’ll encounter a meeting of an energetic group of young union members from the Metro Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. The Young Trade Unionists (YTU) was founded in November 2009 by Cory McCray, a graduate of both the Baltimore City Public School System and the five-year apprenticeship program of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Participants in the YTU include young workers from the IBEW, UFCW, teachers’ unions, building trades, public employees’ and other sectors.
How Has Murdoch Improved With Age? By Russ Baker
15 July 2011 — WhoWhatWhy – From the Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 1998
ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Here’s an old article that WhoWhatWhy editor Russ Baker wrote about Rupert Murdoch, the media titan whose News Corp is currently the focus of so much controversy. This ran in the Columbia Journalism Review in 1998. But it is useful for comparing the company’s (non-hacking) practices, then and now.
Bageant’s Frustration: Extreme Isolation By Morris Berman
21 May 2011 — Joe Bageant – Morris Berman
Given how much we had in common, it’s perhaps a bit odd that Joe Bageant (1946-2011) and I never met (although I think we did correspond at one point). He even wound up living in Mexico a good part of the time. But the real connection between us is the congruence of perception regarding the United States. Joe came from unlikely roots to have formulated the political viewpoint that he did: working-class, right-wing, anti-intellectual, flag-waving, small-town Virginia. A “leftneck,” someone dubbed him; it’s not a bad description.
Pax Americana
8 February, 2011 — Al Jazeera
Empire looks at the dramatic changes taking place in the Arab world and their strategic implications.
With all its allies crumbling one after another, what will the US do to maintain its influence in the region? And what can be expected of Israel, the country’s closest ally in the region?
Will the spread of democracy lead to a peaceful end to decades of autocratic rule in the Middle East or will the fear of Islamist extremism galvinise Washington’s resolve to reinforce Pax Americana?
Our guests today are: Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University; Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning author; and Thomas Pickering, the former US under secretary of state.
Our interviewees are: Clovis Maksoud, the director of the Center for the Global South; and Rob Malley, the Middle East director of International Crisis Group.
This special episode of Empire aired from Monday, February 7, 2011.
The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development
17 October, 2010 — Left Streamed
http://vimeo.com/hubnut/?user_id=leftstreamed&color=ff9933&background=000000&fullscreen=1&slideshow=1&stream=album&id=1488961&server=vimeo.com
View on Vimeo website
Prof. Michael Lebowitz discussing aspects of his book The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development, at the Maritime Labour Center in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The video is in two parts – click on “Pause” to switch between part 1 and part 2.
Resources:
- Michael Lebowitz: “The Spectre of Barbarism and its Alternative”, September 10, 2010, The Bullet No. 414.
- Michael Lebowitz: “Socialism: the Goal, the Paths and the Compass”, February 20, 2010, The Bullet No. 315.
- Marta Harnecker: Ideas For The Struggle, August, 2010.
The US is Synchronously Preparing to Launch Aggressions Against Iran and Venezuela
29 July, 2010 — Strategic Culture Foundation
The Columbian government voiced a new round of allegations that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is secretly supporting the FARC and ELN guerrilla movements in Columbia and giving shelter to their leaders. Venezuela reacted harshly – Chavez severed the diplomatic ties with Columbia, and the Organization of American States had to hold an urgent meeting on July 22 on Columbia’s request. This was the third time this year that the administration of Alvaro Uribe leveled such charges at Caracas and claimed to possess solid evidence that leftist groups are operating from the territory of Venezuela.
Venezuela rejects the allegations that it supplies weapons and money to FARC and ELN, trains their guerrillas, or allows them to use its territory. The border between Venezuela and Columbia is 2,000 km long and lies in the area which abounds with mountains and rainforests. It is also crossed by countless rivers. As a result, the border is practically impossible to seal off and – long before the advent of Chavez – the terrain became homeland to various smugglers, drug dealers, seekers of gold and diamonds, and all brands of adventurous people. Secretary General of the Organization of American States Jose Miguel Insulza agreed that Columbia’s charges are groundless, citing the fact that the terrain where the guerrillas come and go is too difficult to be controlled by any single country. He noted that while Uribe is lambasting Venezuela for not arresting the guerrillas Columbia is just as unable to get a hold of them.
Media Lens: ‘Living Our Values’: Guardian News & Media And The Climate – Part 1
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
November 25, 2008
PART 1 – IN THEORY
Last week, Guardian News & Media (GNM) published ‘Living Our Values’, an independently audited account of the company’s annual performance on sustainability issues. GNM, which encompasses the Guardian, the Observer and guardian.co.uk, claims to have strong environmental ambitions. Its ongoing mission: to seek out and “explore subjects like climate change, environmental degradation and social inequality” in ever greater depth.
The Guardian’s ultimate aim is to be nothing less than “the world’s leading liberal voice”. (Siobhain Butterworth, ‘Open door. The readers’ editor on… the Guardian’s green and global mission,’ November 17, 2008)
The New Dark Age 