Why bad movies keep coming out and what to do about it By John Pilger

17 October 2013 — John Pilger

As an inveterate film fan, I turn to the listings every week and try not to lose hope. I search the guff that often passes for previews, and I queue for a ticket with that flicker of excitement reminiscent of matinees in art deco splendour. Once inside, lights down, beer in hand, hope recedes as the minutes pass. How many times have I done a runner? There is a cinema I go to that refunds your money if you’re out the door within 20 minutes of the opening titles. The people there have knowing looks. My personal best is less than five minutes of the awful Moulin Rouge. 

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The Class Struggle Platform

3 August, 2013 — Left Unity

[See Socialist Platform Statement of Aims and Principles and The Left Party Platform, the two other ‘platforms’ proposed by ‘factions’ within Left Unity.

CStruggleIntroducing – the Class Struggle Platform

We have drafted a third ‘platform’ to extend the debate within Left Unity. Having read the two platforms currently circulating – the Left Party Platform and the Socialist Platform – we were struck by an obvious similarity between them. Neither address the immediate issues confronting the working class in Britain today, which are not run of the mill concerns, but critical to all our futures.

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Mass Hunger Strike by Californian Prisoners Protesting Torture: Dangers of Starvation-related Deaths By Dylan Murphy

16 July 2013 — Global Research

“We are certain that we will prevail . . . the only questions being: How many will die starvation-related deaths before state officials sign the agreement? The world is watching!” — Statement by California Hunger Strikers

On Monday 8 July over 30,000 prisoners in 24 of California’s jails started an indefinite hunger strike and work stoppage. This historic struggle is the third hunger strike by prisoners in three years. The prisoners are protesting against indefinite solitary confinement in Security Housing Units (SHU’s). An additional 2,300 prisoners refused to work or attend classes.

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Greek Lessons From Below By Sofiane Ait Chalalet and Chris Jones

4 June 2013 — The Bullet • Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 833

Axmed, a Somalian refugee, has been stuck in Athens for over six years. This is common for most of his friends, as without papers they are stuck. Getting out by themselves requires money for false papers and travel that is beyond them. Axmed told us that he had a brother in Italy waiting for him. Most of his friends had families and friends waiting for them. But not in Greece. They were stuck.

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HAITI: Massive March Signals Resurrection of Aristide’s Lavalas Movement By Kim Ives

15 May 2013 — Haïti Liberté

Aristide March

Image: Wendell Polynice/Haïti Liberté

Well over 15,000 people poured out from all corners of Haiti’s capital to march alongside the cortege of cars that carried former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide back to his home in Tabarre from the Port-au-Prince courthouse he visited on May 8.

Thousands more massed along sidewalks and on rooftops to cheer the procession on, waving flags and wearing small photos of Aristide in their hair, pinned to their clothing, or stuck in their hats.

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WikiLeaks is a rare truth-teller. Smearing Julian Assange is shameful By John Pilger

14 February 2013 — John Pilger

Last December, I stood with supporters of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in the bitter cold outside the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Candles were lit; the faces were young and old and from all over the world. They were there to demonstrate their human solidarity with someone whose guts they admired. They were in no doubt about the importance of what Assange had revealed and achieved, and the grave dangers he now faced. Absent entirely were the lies, spite, jealousy, opportunism and pathetic animus of a few who claim the right to guard the limits of informed public debate. 
 
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Non-market socialism: Life Without Money – An Interview with Anitra Nelson

30 December 2012 — 

Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies (Pluto Press, London, 2011) that Anitra Nelson and Frans Timmerman have edited is a remarkable collection on the praxis of non-market socialism. For the contributors of the volume, socialism/communism is not just a state or goal which we have to achieve in some distant future; rather, it is built through immediate practices that reject capitalism and its key institutions – market and money. Continue reading

U.S. intelligence agencies are preparing for the developing crisis in Venezuela By Nil NIKANDROV

15 January 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

chavez-fidel.jpgTelesur, the news channel for Latin American countries, established with enthusiastic support from Hugo Chavez, reported live and non-stop from the streets of the Venezuelan capital. Tens of thousands of supporters of the Bolivarian leader, who is undergoing treatment in Cuba, gathered around the Miraflores presidential palace to express their support for Chavez. The President’s persistent struggle against his illness has, without exaggeration, become a rallying point for all people of free will.

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VSC SPECIAL UPDATE, JANUARY 11, 2012: Venezuelan Supreme Court Rules Chavez Can Be Sworn in Later, Packed Solidarity Event & Messages of Support for Hugo Chavez

11 January 2013 — VSC

  1. VSC FACT SHEET: VENEZUELAN SUPREME COURT RULES CHAVEZ CAN BE SWORN IN LATER AND THAT NEW TERM OF OFFICE STARTS TODAY
  2. Packed Emergency Meeting Stands in Solidarity with Venezuela
  3. Statements of support from Britain for Hugo Chavez on the day his new term of office begins

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Mleeta, Khiam, Sabra, Shatila and Resistance In General By Gilad Atzmon

8 January 2013 — Gilad Atzmon

Lebanon is incredible – an intoxicating blend of natural beauty, rebellious spirit, pious clarity, tolerance, wild night life and unbelievable hummus. I landed in Beirut four days ago. The purpose of my visit wasn’t all that clear. I knew that a talk and a musical performance were scheduled by Almayadeen TV, but I never expected such a spiritually transforming experience.

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WHY HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTIONISM IS A DEAD END By Jean Bricmont

27 December 2012 — Voltaire Network

Beware the Anti-Anti-War Left

Unable to find a new ideological identity after the demise of its big Soviet brother, the European left has engulfed itself in societal issues at home and humanitarian interventionism abroad. In an inconsistent stance, it calls for the protection of peoples by U.S. imperialism. But how can it wish to protect anyone when it has given up its own freedom?

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The Greek Left and the Rise of the Neo-Fascist Golden Dawn By Panagiotis Sotiris

17 November 2012The Bullet • Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 731

For the past months there has been an intense debate both in Greece but also in international media regarding the rise of the neo-fascist Golden Dawn in Greece. The reason is obvious: for the first time in a European Union (EU) country a political party that in contrast to most of the varieties of the European far Right does little to hide its openly neo-nazi ideology and the culture of the nazi street gang that has been its trademark since the 1990s, has been one of the rising political forces. Continue reading

Joining Forces for Another Europe By Tommaso Fattori

6 October 2012 — The Bullet • Socialist E-Project e-bulletin No. 707

In Europe we are living in particularly dramatic times. Democracy is in death-agony and we are witnessing post-democratic processes taking over at the national and supranational level. EU leaders have further concentrated decision-making power on public and fiscal policies in the hands of an oligarchy of governments, technocrats and the European Central Bank (ECB), which are subject to the dictates of the financial markets. Neoliberalism, the real cause of the crisis, not only is not dead, but it appears to be in perfect health: it uses the crisis to destroy social rights and workers’ rights and to privatize commons, public goods and public services. Continue reading

The Marikana Massacre and the South African State's Low Intensity War Against the People By Vishwas Satgar

5 September 2012 — The   B u l l e t • Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 693

The <strong class=’StrictlyAutoTagBold’>massacre of the <strong class=’StrictlyAutoTagBold’>Marikana/<strong class=’StrictlyAutoTagBold’>Lonmin workers has inserted itself within <strong class=’StrictlyAutoTagBold’>South <strong class=’StrictlyAutoTagBold’>Africa’s national consciousness, not so much through the analysis, commentary and reporting in its wake. Instead, it has been the power of the visual images of <strong class=’StrictlyAutoTagBold’>police armed with awesome fire power gunning down these workers, together with images of bodies lying defeated and lifeless, that has aroused a national outcry and wave of condemnation. Continue reading

Democratic Left Front: Justice now for the Marikana workers and community!

23 August, 2012 Democratic Left Front statement on the Marikana massacre

On August 16, 2012, post-apartheid democracy lurched into a horror. It was estimated 34 mineworkers at the Lonmin mine in the North West province were brutally gunned down by police, and in total over 70 workers have been injured. The death toll at this stage is still not completely verified, with the community still reporting loved ones missing and not accounted for in official body counts.

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