Tunisians are concerned that the uprising that overthrew the Ben Ali dictatorship has failed to bear any meaningful result. The ruling coalition is only interested in its own survival and national institutions are very weak More
Un-Natural Disasters, Visionless Planning
Un-Natural Disasters, Recursive Resilience, Unjust Compensation, Visionless Planning Peter Marcuse 19 June 2013
Summary: The “disasters” we care about are not “natural,” but social, and they are different from the disasters of previous eras. “Resilience planning” recursively accepts their recurrence, and often uses them to further already desired urban restructuring rather than preventing them. Vulnerability to the damages and compensation for the suffering such “disasters” cause are both unjustly distributed. No vision informs disaster planning policy, and participatory planning to deal with them is badly under-developed. Good, democratic, equity-oriented planning is badly needed. [1] More
Defending The Global Commons
We Must Defend The Global Commons Against Commercialization, Environmental Catastrophe, And Autocratic Rule Noam Chomsky 18 June 2013
Keynote speaker Noam Chomsky to the AUB Class of 2013: We must defend the global commons against commercialization, environmental catastrophe, and autocratic rule I’ve visited Lebanon several times, moments of great hope, and also of despair, tinged with remarkable determination to overcome and to move forward. The first time I visited – if that’s the right word – was exactly 60 years ago, almost to the day. My wife and I were hiking in Israel’s northern Galilee one evening, when a jeep drove by on a road near us and someone called out that we should turn back: we’re in the wrong country. We had, inadvertently, crossed the border, then unmarked, now I suppose bristling with lethal armaments. More
Brazil feels the weight of the crisis as mass struggles resurface
Mass demonstrations against the increase of bus fares in all major cities André Ferrari LSR (CWI in Brazil) 17 June 2013
In São Paulo, on the night of 13 June, the military police cowardly attacked a peaceful demonstration of about 15 thousand people in the city centre. Police arrested in a totally arbitrary way 235 people, many just for being near the site of the demonstration. Some were arrested just for appearing to be a student or for carrying vinegar in their backpacks to mitigate the effects of tear gas. Riot police fired rubber bullets and bombs indiscriminately. In addition to protesters, many journalists, photographers and cameramen were injured. Even those who tried to medically assist the injured were arrested and their first aid kits were confiscated. More
Public TV Gets Hammered
When The Public Is In Trouble, Public TV Gets Hammered Danny Schechter 14 June 2013
It’s hard for me to feel sorry about the travails of the PBS News Hour where bland has been beautiful for years, and an obsessive loyalty to mechanistic balance — always veering right — has been in command for decades. More
USA: Austerity and Public Education
Sebastian Greenholtz 14 June 2013
State-funded schooling is seen as a pillar of so-called Western Democracy, educating all children regardless of race or income to create a smarter and stronger society. However, under capitalism, genuine equality in education is impossible, so long as a small minority can accumulate private property while others have to work just to survive. The Founding Fathers envisioned a system of common schooling where all students would learn the same core of reading and writing, as well as how to be good citizens. But the logic of private capital accumulation will never allow this. More
Corporate Carve-Up
George Monbiot 13 June 2013
One of the stated purposes of the Conference of Berlin in 1884 was to save Africans from the slave trade. To discharge this grave responsibility, Europe's powers discovered, to their undoubted distress, that they would have to extend their control and ownership of large parts of Africa. More
Science for Need not Greed Venezuela’s Telescope Plant
Tamara Pearson 13 June 2013
“Science and technology, in revolutionary society, should be at the service of permanent liberation, of humanisation”- Paulo Freire
The list of abuses and illogical uses of science today is a long one; there’s the global market for privately collected fossils which are inaccessible to the rest of humanity, pharmaceutical companies which prioritise developing drugs that need repeat prescriptions over complete cures for diseases like AIDS because they are more profitable, Monsanto developing infertile seeds so that farmers depend on re-buying them, car production and road construction prioritised over solar power, not to mention the role big oil companies, car manufacturers, and the US government had in sabotaging their own research into electric cars because they would have been easier to maintain and less profitable... and so on. More
Israel has More Poverty than Any Developed Country
The OECD, like Israeli protestors, turns a blind eye to the occupation, which has become the greatest drain on Israel's welfare system More
Supporting Edward Snowden
Historic Challenge to Support the Moral Actions of Edward Snowden Norman Solomon 11 June 2013
In Washington, where the state of war and the surveillance state are one and the same, top officials have begun to call for Edward Snowden’s head. His moral action of whistleblowing -- a clarion call for democracy -- now awaits our responses. More
From Savannah to South Africa, Opposition to Massive Port Expansions
Sometimes we get so sick of the phrase 'history in the making' that the brain tends to switch off. What is it this time?, we sigh. A new high-tech piece of military technology that will boost US killing power? A big jump in a newspaper's online advertising revenue? The world's best footballer, Lionel Messi, joining 'an exclusive list of adidas athletes to have their own signature product'? Sometimes the 'history' in question only stretches back a few years, maybe a century or two. Only very occasionally, if the claim is truly deserved, does it strech back to the earliest era of written records. More
Turkey: mass movement against government
Jorge Martín 4 June 2013
What started as a small scale protest against the destruction of Gezi Park that stands next to Taksim Square in Istanbul has now developed into a nationwide movement demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Erdogan, of the AK Party. More
Extreme Capitalism Of The Muslim Brothers
Gilbert Achcar 3 June 2013
The Muslim Brothers’ economic credo of free enterprise unhampered by state interference is more closely consonant with neoliberal doctrine than was the form of capitalism dominant under Mubarak. This holds in particular for the version of that credo articulated by Khairat al-Shatir, the Brotherhood’s very capitalist number two after the murshid (guide), and a representative of its most conservative wing, or by Hassan Malek, an extremely wealthy, eminent member of the Brotherhood, who, after making his debut in the business world in a partnership with Al-Shatir, today manages, with his son, a constellation of enterprises in textiles, furniture and trade, employing more than 400 people. More
The Stockholm Uprising and the Myth of Swedish Social Democracy
Catharina Thörn 31 May 2013
“Even in Sweden”. The title of geographer Allan Pred’s book, published in 2000, pops up in my head while reading international reports on the uprisings in Stockholm. In a Europe in the midst of economic, social and democratic crisis, urban uprisings were likely to erupt again (following disturbances in urban France, Greece, England, and Spain) sooner or later. The question was when and where next? When the poor suburb of Husby lit up, the surprise in the newspapers was palpable: even in Stockholm! More
Brazil’s forests: Profits from destruction
Ben Robinson, Socialist Party (CWI England and Wales) 30 May 2013
The murder in 2011 of José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo hit international headlines. Both were environmental activists in the northern Brazilian state of Pará. Their deaths drew comparisons with other prominent campaigners who were killed in the Amazon basin, including Dorothy Stagg in 2005 and Brazilian trade unionist and environmental campaigner Chico Mendes (Francisco Alves Mendes Filho) in 1988. More
Sri Lanka: Working class beginning to move forward
The one day protest general strike held on 21 May was a significant step forward for the working class in Sri Lanka. Srinath Perera, United Socialist Party (USP – CWI, Sri Lanka) 28 May 2013
This extremely significant national strike - in Sri Lanka referred to as a "token strike" - was called by the Coordinating Committee of the Trade Union Alliance as a warning shot against the huge hike in electricity tariffs by President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government. More
Tapping The Resistance In Greece
Hilary Wainwright 22 May 2013
Privatisation and the nature of the state is moving to the centre of the struggle against austerity in Greece. The troika of the three key lenders to Greece – the European Commission, IMF and European Central Bank – is trying to speed up the sell-off of the country’s public goods and resources by putting them in one holding company to be auctioned off in quick succession. The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED), as this company is pompously named, might as well be an auction house advertising an ‘everything must go’ clear out: ‘Greece for sale. Real estate bargains, profitable companies going cheap.’ More
The Globalization of Hypocrisy
Paul Buchheit 21 May 2013
The damage caused by the relentless corporate drive for profits has become more clear in recent years. In the most important areas of American life, devastating changes have occurred: More
Dale McKinley on SA's wage and employment crisis
Capital's insatiable drive for profits at the heart of South Africa's wage and employment crisis Dale T. McKinley 21 May 2013
If capital is to be believed, it is the worker who is the main source of South Africa’s contemporary social and economic problems.
Every time the annual season of wage negotiations is about to begin, as it is now, representatives of capital unleash a tsunami of propaganda about workers’ ‘high and unaffordable’ wage demands. Dire warnings of destructive social unrest/conflict, high inflation rates, poor competitiveness and generalised economic devastation roll off their silver-lined tongues. The underlying message is neither subtle nor sanguine; the wage demands of workers are to blame for just about everything bad that is happening in our society. More
Hospitals Should be Care Providers Not Loan Sharks
Deborah Burger 19 May 2013
If there is one problem that symbolizes the ongoing national healthcare emergency, it is the rampant price gouging in the healthcare industry that continues to price too many Americans out of access to care and into financial ruin. Not only is the problem not solved by the Affordable Care Act, but it is a likely reason many will continue to demand more effective reform, as in expanding and extending Medicare to cover everyone. More
Brazil, The Biggest Extractivist In South America
Eduardo Gudynas 18 May 2013
Extractivism is the appropriation of huge volumes of natural resources or their intensive exploitation, most of them exported as raw materials to global markets. It seems to have gone unnoticed that by this definition the major extractivist in South America is Brazil. More
Syrian masses pay the price for imperialist meddling and sectarian deadlock
Reza Mohammadi 16 May 2013
As the Syrian revolution remains locked in civil war for a third year, regional powers have begun to use the conflict as an opportunity to advance their own imperialist agendas. Syria has become a battleground for a proxy war between Iran, Israel, and the Arab states of the Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar. More
Why Europe Can’t Just “Fix” Youth Unemployment
Jérôme E. Roos 15 May 2013
For years already, the youth of Europe’s heavily indebted periphery has been facing mass unemployment. In Greece and Spain, a respective 59 and 56 percent of young people are now out of work, while youth unemployment in the EU as a whole currently stands at a troubling 24 percent, up from 22.5 percent last year. The “lucky” ones are those waiting tables with PhD degrees in their back pockets. Those who were forced to leave their families and friends behind to join the generational exodus to Germany or Angola don’t even show up in the statistics. More
South Africa’s sub-imperial seductions
Patrick Bond First Published in Pambazuka 14 May 2013
South Africa is this week hosting yet another major conference, the World Economic Forum for Africa, amidst increasing evidence that the nation is fast growing as a sub-imperialist power More
China in revolt
Eli Friedman on some of the recent strikes in China. Eli Friedman 13 May 2012
The Chinese working class plays a Janus-like role in the political imaginary of neoliberalism. On the one hand, it’s imagined as the competitive victor of capitalist globalization, the conquering juggernaut whose rise spells defeat for the working classes of the rich world. What hope is there for the struggles of workers in Detroit or Rennes when the Sichuanese migrant is happy to work for a fraction of the price? More
Bangladeshi Textile Factory Collapse
Horace Campbell 10 May 2013
INTRODUCTION With the death toll now over 900 in the wake of the collapse of the textile factory in Bangladesh, there are newspapers and financial newssheets all over the world decrying this event as a ‘disaster’ and the ‘deadliest industrial accidents ever.’ However, the sweatshop conditions for billions of workers around the world along with the absence of occupational safety beg the question: Was this building collapse an ‘accident?’ Why are there no rules relating to the inspection of buildings and building codes in the countries such as China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Tanzania and South Africa? How was it possible for the owners of this ‘establishment’ to continue operations when the safety and structural conditions of the building had been called into question? It is the contention here that this was no accident but the logic of a form of accumulating wealth that placed a premium on profits over human lives. Some have determined that this period is like a second slavery. More
Tunisia: The calm before the storm
CWI reporter in Tunis 9 May 2013
Four students killed in a traffic accident on their way to school, crammed as they were at the back of an old pick-up truck driving on a dirt road in a terrible state: a tragic and almost anecdotal story, passing almost unnoticed, yet illustrating the bitter reality that many Tunisians continue to face after the revolution. The investments in road maintenance, in public transport and other basic infrastructure have been neglected for many years, especially in the marginalized regions of the interior of the country. Added to this is the common practice of corrupt officials pocketing some of the scarce public funds allocated to regional development. More
Pakistan: General elections held amid political turmoil
Big landlords, capitalists and influential families are calling the shots Khalid Bhatti, SMP (CWI Pakistan), Lahore 8 May 2013
In the electoral politics of Pakistan, the political parties, ideology and programme matters little in the final outcome of the elections. In the big cities, the political parties enjoy some clout and their vote plays a decisive role but in the small cities, towns and rural areas the feudal lords, rich individuals and influential families call the shots. The constituency based politics centers around 300 big influential families plus another 1000 families allied to them. There are around 5 to 10 influential families which decide the fate of the constituency. They have no permanent ideology or political affiliations. They change their loyalty according to the situation. They have a history to change loyalties overnight. They have only one aim and that is to protect their own interests and maintain control in their respective areas. In many areas, the different members of the same family contest elections against each other under the banner of different political parties. More
The French, the UN and the Ivory Coast
Gary K Busch First Published in Pambazuka 7 May 2013
With the violent overthrow of democratically elected President Gbagbo, Ivory Coast has reverted to its old status of a French colony in fact. The hands of French, Western and UN officials drip with the blood of Ivorians President Ouattara has been forced by the need to hold some form of plebiscite to demonstrate that his French-imposed presidency of the country has some legitimacy in the Ivory Coast. He has just held municipal and local elections throughout the country which pitted his coalition (RDR and the PDCI) against nobody, as the FPI (the ex-Gbagbo party) opposition has boycotted this sham of an election. With a turnout of below 30 percent the unopposed candidates won. Ouattara and his French puppet-masters call this a victory. To the rest of the world this pathetic effort at political tumescence is the failure and disappointment that everyone expected and awaited. More
Worker Cooperatives: Retooling the Solidarity Economy
Sebastian A.B. 6 May 2013
Building A Solidarity Economy Under the cooperative model, workers own the business, reducing injustice because they have a stake in the community and because an individual will find it hard to exploit oneself. Workers often buy into their jobs (upfront or amortized), vote on major decisions in general assemblies or committees, and even voluntarily donate to the co-op for re-investment. Known as “workplace democracy,” this model of authentic self-determination renders state action superfluous. More
The War on Wages and The Road to Bangladesh
In the name of competitiveness, the criminal conditions that led to the deaths and injuries of thousands of workers in Bangladesh, are being created around the world in a race to lower wages and working conditions Bill Black interviewed by Jessica Desvarieux from the Real News Network 3 May 2013 More
Will climate finance underdevelop Africa?
Climate funds - First Come, Least Served Khadija Sharife 2 May 2013
As the debate on climate change continues, the impacts of pollution on vulnerable continents, have been brought to the fore. The most pressing case is Africa, a continent located on the frontline of climate devastation. More
May Day - a history of working class struggles
Rob Sewell 2 May 2013
As millions of workers and youth take to the streets world-wide to celebrate May Day as a day of international working class solidarity, we need to reassess our common objectives in the light of a growing world crisis of capitalism. Originally written in 2001. More
EU austerity budget – cuts, cuts, cuts
Irish Presidency brought unprecedented levels of cuts to the EU budget. Paul Murphy MEP and Kevin Henry, Socialist Party (CWI Ireland), first published in the Irish Left Review 30 April 2013
The Irish government has made much of the fact that it now holds the EU Presidency, chairing meetings of the European Council. It has been proudly proclaiming success in negotiating a new EU budget for 2014 to 2020 (the so-called Multiannual Financial Framework – MFF). What they don’t say, however, that in the position of Presidency, they are pursuing the same austerity policies that they implement in Ireland – imposing unprecedented levels of cuts to the EU budget. More
The State of the Trade Union Movement in South Africa
Benjamin Fogel on the attempt by the South African Communist Party to take over the trade union movement in South Africa. Benjamin Fogel 29 April 2013
COSATU is in the midst of the biggest crisis in its 27-year history. This crisis has arisen from an SACP-driven attempt to oust democratically elected COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, under the guise of corruption charges. The conflict’s roots are in longstanding political contradictions and ideological tensions between COSATU and its Alliance partners – the ANC and the SACP. At stake is not only the leadership of COSATU, but its political and moral direction. More
Saudi Arabia: A concentration camp for immigrant workers
Yasir Irshad 26 April 2013
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of the foremost allies of the USA in the Middle East, brutally exploits its migrant workers. The visa regime keeps the workers in a state of permanent dependency on their employers and abuses are common. At the other end of the spectrum members of the royal family, including the king himself, are among the richest people in the world with billions of dollars in wealth. This contradiction has revolutionary implications. More
The War Against Online Piracy
Part 1: The full force of the law Niklas Albin Svensson 25 April 2013
The cat-and-mouse game between piracy supporters on the one hand and state authorities and major multinational companies on the other is heating up. Over the past few years there has been a marked increase in the persecution of websites and individuals involved in piracy. Democratic rights are being thrown overboard and the full force of the state applied in the media industry’s ruthless pursuit of profits. More
Privatizing Europe
Nick Buxton interviewed by Paul jay on The Real News Network 25 April 2012 More
Central African Republic: the hidden hands behind ‘yet another good coup’
Antoine Roger Lokongo First Published in Pambazuka 23 April 2013
An analysis of the factors that produced the recent coup d’etat in the Central African Republic reveals the interests of France, the US and neo-colonial African forces Is the coup d’état which ushered President Francois Bozizé of Central African Republic’s overthrow yet another Libya or Ivory Coast? All signs point to a ‘Yes’ answer to this question. More
European Carbon Markets Fail - It's Time for Regulation
Patrick Bond Interviewed by Jessica Desvarieux on the Real News Network 20 April 2013 More
Slovenia: The Government Falls. Mass Protests Continue
Emanuel Tomaselli 19 April 2013
The former model country among the successor states of the former Yugoslavia now finds itself in a deep social crisis. For months the country has been shaken by a protest movement, which has oriented itself “against the system”. The following article by Goran Musiæ and Emanuel Tomaselli gives an insight into the background and perspectives of this movement.
Australian perspectives Preparing for stormy periods
Socialist Party statement on the Australian political situation Socialist Party (CWI Australia) 19 April 2013
This document was discussed and agreed upon at the 2013 Socialist Party National Conference held in Melbourne on April 12, 13 & 14. It builds upon the perspectives outlined by previous SP National Conferences and should be read in conjunction with the world perspectives document agreed at the most recent meeting of the International Executive Committee (IEC) of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI).
Introduction The entire world is reeling from the effects of the global economic crisis. There is practically no country that is not affected in some way. This is not only an economic crisis but it is also a political and a social crisis. Flowing from this almost every government in the world is unstable.
The severity of the political crisis is such that in some cases even liberal democracy has been pushed aside. In countries like Greece and Italy, the legitimacy of the capitalist parties has been undermined so much that so-called ‘technocratic’ governments have been installed. Even in the US, Detroit is under ‘emergency financial management’ in an attempt to stave off bankruptcy. More
Why did Rwandan War Lord Accused of Crimes in Congo, Give Himself Up to the ICC?
Maurice Carney interviewed by Paul Jay from The Real News Network 18 April 2013
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay.
On March 18, Bosco Ntaganda, accused of being a war criminal for his activities in the Congo--he's a warlord and, as we understand it, working mostly with Rwanda. He's of Rwandan descent. Any rate, he walks into a U.S. embassy in Rwanda and gives himself up. He's then flown to the Netherlands. And he's going to face charges for war crimes before the International Criminal Court. More
National Development Plan: The devil is in the economic detail
Neil Coleman 16 April 2013
It’s the Economy Stupid!” was President Bill Clinton’s campaign mantra, underlining that the core of all politics is in fact economics. This is true too for the National Development Plan (NDP) ¬– the failure to get the economics right will condemn the plan to obscurity. So, much as there may be commendable elements of the plan, its fundamentals rest on its economic strategy, the basic flaws of which are fatal to its prospects of success. At the very least, the economic parts of the document need to be redrafted. More
Behind the stock market surge
In the first week of March share prices surged on the New York Stock Exchange followed by other major exchanges. Does this signify a revival of the global capitalist economy? Lynn Walsh, editor of Socialism Today, magazine of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) 16 April 2013 More
The Iron Lady Is Dead But Thatcherism Lives On
Gary Younge 15 April 2013
In 1966, a little more than a year after Martin Luther King won the Nobel peace prize, only 33% of Americans had a favourable view of him, as opposed to 63% who viewed him unfavourably. It's not difficult to see why. He was a civil rights leader in a country where 85% of whites thought blacks were "moving too fast for racial equality". He had also become a vocal opponent of the Vietnam war. Just six days after King's death in April 1968, the Virginia congressman William Tuck blamed King for his own murder, telling the House of Representatives that King "fomented discord and strife between the races ... He who sows the seed of sin shall reap and harvest a whirlwind of evil." More
Corporate Money Has No Nationality
They Just Run India’ Arundhati Roy 14 April 2013
Author and activist Arundhati Roy sent some “cryptic” answers to an e-mail questionnaire sent by Outlook. Excerpts: More
The Kremlin's Ostrich Economists
Boris Kagarlitsky 11 April 2013
Every so often, government officials come up with new terms to avoid alarming the public. Despite a decline in industrial production, massive capital flight, a weakened ruble and growing pessimism on the stock exchange, they stubbornly refuse to use such words as "downturn," "crisis" or "recession." Instead, they have enriched the Russian language with a new expression: "a pause in growth." Several months ago, as Western Europe was plunging into crisis, Russian officials boasted that the domestic economy was showing positive growth rates. Now, when the situation is deteriorating before our eyes, they pretend nothing is happening. More
CAR South Africa’s rulers have blood on their hands
Shawn Hattingh 11 April 2013
Introduction Many people in South Africa were shocked by the death of at least 13 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) troops when rebels overran their base in the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR). Amongst the public and within the media questions soon started arising around the possible reasons why troops were in CAR to begin with. When it emerged that troops were possibly partly deployed to protect businesses in CAR linked to top African National Congress (ANC) officials, there was widespread outrage. The fact that South African troops were involved in protecting the political and economic interests of wealthy people linked to the South African state in CAR, and other African countries, should perhaps, however, not come as a surprise. Throughout its history, whether during apartheid or post apartheid, the South African state – which is controlled by the ruling class and headed up by members of this class - has been most willing to deploy troops in parts of Africa to protect the political, economic and strategic interests of the South African ruling class. More
HIV clinics battle with overcrowding and shortages
Faith Ka-Manzi, Eye on Civil Society (The Mercury) 10 April 2013
I BELIEVE that I am a law-abiding citizen, but I hate bureaucracy. I dislike political parties because of their rigidity, yet I’m a permanent activist.
I’m still furious about access to Aids medication. Our city has the greatest number of people in the world who are HIV positive. But last year, along with cuts in South Africa’s own national and provincial financing, the US government announced plans to slash funding for its main programme, the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief. More
Thatcher’s bitter legacy
Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) general secretary 9 April 2013
On the day of her death, we republish this article from Socialism Today, May 2009. It graphically illustrates the primitive, brutal, class warfare against the rights and conditions of the working class that Margaret Thatcher waged. More
Britain: A further round of savage austerity
Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) general secretary 9 April 2013
The axe is about to be wielded again and this time it is a huge one. ’Black April’ will see a further round of government-imposed savage austerity, which will alter the very fabric of life in Britain:
"Cuts as far as the eye can see," is how the Guardian put it. We are assailed by a blizzard of horror stories of the effects of the cuts that have already taken place, or of the ferocity to come. Not since the 1930s has the cold cruelty of the British ruling class been so much on display. More
Israel: “There is a future” – of cuts, racism and resistance
Weak Israeli government will try to implement austerity budget, and would try to maintain the occupation, possibly under a new cover of "negotiations" with Palestinians. Resistance likely on all fronts. Socialist Struggle Movement (CWI Israel/Palestine) 8 April 2013
Seven weeks after the 22 January election, Israel has a new government. Benjamin Netanyahu continues as prime minister.
Under pressure from the ruling class with their capitalist system now more affected by crisis, the result of which has seen a slow down of growth over the course of 2012 (average 3.1%), the weak incoming government has to implement a tough austerity budget.
Part 1 of a two-part series on the TRADOC worker cooperative in Mexico. Jane Slaughter (Labor Notes) 8 April 2013
“If the owners don’t want it, let’s run it ourselves.” When a factory closes, the idea of turning it into a worker-owned co-operative sometimes comes up—and usually dies.
The hurdles to buying a plant, even a failing plant, are huge, and once in business, the new worker-owners face all the pressures that helped the company go bankrupt in the first place. Most worker-owned co-ops are small, such as a taxi collective in Madison or a bakery in San Francisco. More
Sen. Warren and End of the Minimum Wage Debate
Jeannette Wicks-Lim: Research shows that a rise in the minimum wage does not cause job loss; Sen. Elizabeth Warren questions food industry reps who claim it does 13 April 2013 More
The Great Afghan Corruption Scam
How Operation Enduring Freedom Mutated into Operation Enduring Corruption Dilip Hiro 3 April 2013
Washington has vociferously denounced Afghan corruption as a major obstacle to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. This has been widely reported. Only one crucial element is missing from this routine censure: a credible explanation of why American nation-building failed there. No wonder. To do so, the U.S. would have to denounce itself. More
African fascism rising; opposition without an ideology
Andre Vltchek 2 April 2013
In the three Western outposts of the eastern part of Africa – Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya – the opposition had either been totally smashed or is rotting in jail. Alternatively, it has ‘ceased to exist’.
In East Africa, those who are in power and those who want to be never challenge the supreme wisdom of market-fundamentalism.
There is no ideology here. Elections are fights between gladiators (Kenya) or of one gladiator against unarmed infants (Rwanda). More
The True Cost of Industrialized Food
Tory Field and Beverly Bell 1 April 2013
"We are the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe. And reclaiming the democratic control over our food and water and our ecological survival is the necessary project for our freedom." -- Vandana Shiva, physicist and activist More
Review: Offshore banking business
"Treasure Islands: tax havens and the men who stole the world" by Nicholas Shaxson Reviewed by Jo Murphy, first published in Socialism Today, magazine of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) 1 April 2013
The premise of Treasure Islands is that to understand how there has been a significant transfer of wealth from the 99% to the 1% we need to study the central role played by tax havens. Nicholas Shaxson defines a tax haven as a “place that seeks to attract business by offering politically stable facilities to help people or entities get around the rules, laws and regulations of jurisdictions elsewhere”. More
The Brics’ Dangerous Endorsement Of ‘Financial Inclusion’
Susanne Soederberg 28 March 2013
Coinciding with the 5th Annual Meeting of the Brics in South Africa in March 2013, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released their flagship Human Development Report, The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. The latter is a celebration of the Brics and their ‘striking transformation into dynamic major economies with growing political influence.’ The Report emphasizes how this change is having a ‘significant impact’ on ‘human development progress’, as measured by the Human Development Index.[1] More
Brics Lessons from Mozambique
Bobby Peek 28 March 2013
Just across the border in Mozambique there is neo-colonial exploitation underway. It is not Europe or the United States that are dominating, but rather countries which are often looked up to as challengers, such as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This is a dangerous statement to make but let us consider the facts. More
From Bangui To BRICS
If You Carve Africa, Africa May Carve You Too Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife 27 March 2013
DURBAN - The reach of the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) leaders far up the African continent was palpable this week, not just here in Durban where they are gathering to plan investments and infrastructure, but everywhere up continent where extraction does extreme damage. More
BRICS as potential radical shift or just mere relocation of power?
Fatima Shabodien First Published in Pambazuka 26 March 2013
Although at this early stage the BRICS partnership raises more questions than answers, engaged citizens should help shape its agenda. The bloc may well turn out to be one of the single biggest developments of our era More
Slovenia Rises In Artful ‘Protestivals’
Marjeta Novak 24 March 2013
While protesters marched through Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, earlier this month, a new government was being formed only a few streets away. More
Introducing Brics From Above, And Brics-From-Below
Patrick Bond 23 March 2013
In Durban, South Africa, five heads of state meet on March 26-27 2013 at the International Convention Centre, to assure the rest of Africa that their countries’ corporations are better investors in infrastructure, mining, oil and agriculture than the traditional European and US multinationals. The Brazil-Russia-India-China-SA (Brics) summit also makes space for 16 heads of state from Africa, including notorious tyrants. A new $50 billion ‘Brics Bank’ will probably be launched. There will be more talk about monetary alternatives to the US dollar. More
Cyprus: Refuse to pay the ‘debt’!
Mass demos demand to end the government’s link to the Troika and to refuse to follow its dictats. Interview with Athina Kariati, New Internationalist Left (CWI in Cyprus) 20 March 2013
After months of ‘calm’ the capitalist debt crisis has resurfaced over the banking meltdown in Cyprus, sending financial markets into a spin. EU ministers and the newly elected right-wing Greek Cypriot president have demanded that small savers, ie Cypriot workers, pay €billions for a banking bailout. More
Land For Those Who Work It
Esther Vivas 17 March 2013
The land is a source of wealth for a few, here and on the other side of the planet. In the Spanish State, the housing boom has left a legacy of ruinous urban development, airports (almost) without airplanes, ghost towns, huge, obsolete infrastructure projects… And in the global South, the desire to profit from the land has driven off peasants and indigenous peoples, and imposed monocultures for export, large infrastructures for the exclusive benefit of capital and the plundering of their natural resources. More
US-Style School Reform Goes South
David Bacon 18 March 2013
Just weeks after taking office, Mexico’s new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, ordered the arrest of the country’s most powerful union leader, Elba Esther Gordillo. The move garnered international headlines and was widely cast as a sign that the government was serious about cracking down on corruption. But virtually no one in Mexico believes that was the real reason for her arrest. More
Electoral fraud and democratic struggles in Kenya
Lessons from 2013 electoral process Horace Campbell First Published in Pambazuka 15 March 2013
Unlike the elections of 2007, the recent elections in Kenya avoided massive bloodshed and gave victory to the Jubilee Coalition. An analysis of the significance of the elections is given and it is argued that political power cannot be monopolized by one section of the capitalist class More
Tibetans in revolt: What is the way forward?
Chinese regime’s repression responsible for Tibetan self-immolations chinaworker.info reporters 14 March 2013
March 14 is the fifth anniversary of the protests across Tibetan-populated regions against suffocating political and religious repression by the Communist Party (CCP) regime. This also coincides with the anniversary, on March 10, of the crushing of the Tibetan revolt of 1959. Up to 200 people lost their lives in the countdown to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, in the most serious upheavals in Tibet since 1989. The protests began peacefully, until repression by the state triggered riots and serious inter-ethnic clashes between Tibetans and Han Chinese, and led many in China to support the subsequent crackdown. More
Struggle is the answer to women’s oppression
Ruling establishments have long tried to ‘domesticate’ international women’s day – to shed crocodile tears for the victims of gender oppression Liv Shange, Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI South Africa) 13 march 2013
Women are at the forefront of the rising struggles which are bound to challenge capitalism, and all the oppressions which may, as in the case of gender oppression, have originated in earlier social systems. In South Africa, women have defied the narrow space set out for them by brutal oppression, and played a key role in the workers’ and working class community struggles which have shaken the country in the last year. More
South Africa Is Angry And Frustrated
Danny Schechter 11 March 2013
Durban, South Africa: These are not the best of times in South Africa. It seems clear that there is fear and loathing everywhere as the press is packed with fresh allegations of corruption, and a restive mood spreads even as the country prepares to host the economic Summit of the BRICS countries it is part of---Brazil, Russia, India, and China which is facing a growth in joblessness and economic/political malaise. More
Do we know what we eat?
Esther Vivas 9 March 2013
Knowing what we eat has become something which is every day more difficult. The recent food scandal where horse meat was detected in beef highlights this clearly. Cannelloni from La Cocinera, burgers from Eroski, ravioli and tortellini from Buitoni, and Ikea meatballs are some of the products that have been withdrawn from the market. It is clear that we don’t have any idea of what we are putting in our mouths. More
The ‘Bolivarian Revolution’ and its prospects after Chavez
More than ever, the struggle for socialism is necessary! Johan Rivas, Socialismo Revolucionario (CWI Venezuela) 9 March 2013
On Tuesday 5 March, the Venezuelan Vice-President, Nicolás Maduro, announced that President Hugo Chavez, leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, had died. The news brought with it an outpouring of grief and shock, with thousands rushing to Caracas’s main square, the Plaza Bolivar, to lament the loss. Many Venezuelans, until that day, still held hopes that Chavez would ‘recover’ and return to take up the presidency as he had done three previous occasions. More
March 8th The day of international working women’s solidarity
Beware the anger of women against the bosses’ system! Committee for a Workers' International 8 march 2013
For over a hundred years, March 8th has been the day on which to commemorate the great struggles of working women for a better deal at work and in society. It is also the day to celebrate the contribution of women – some famous, many unknown - in the fight against oppression and for socialism. More
On the Legacy of Hugo Chávez
Greg Grandin 6 March 2013
I first met Hugo Chávez in New York City in September 2006, just after his infamous appearance on the floor of the UN General Assembly, where he called George W. Bush the devil. “Yesterday, the devil came here,” he said, “Right here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of.” He then made the sign of the cross, kissed his hand, winked at his audience and looked to the sky. It was vintage Chávez, an outrageous remark leavened with just the right touch of detail (the lingering sulfur!) to make it something more than bombast, cutting through soporific nostrums of diplomatese and drawing fire away from Iran, which was in the cross hairs at that meeting. More
South Africa’s New Apartheid
Sabine Cessou 8 March 2013
A group of building workers relaxed on the pavement in central Cape Town, enjoying their lunch break. Every minute was precious; nobody was in a hurry to get back to work. “They pay us peanuts,” said a bricklayer with a gold tooth. On the equivalent of $1,470 a month, he is not too badly off; in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup, the builders’ unions secured pay increases of 13-16% by threatening not to complete work in time. They are the exception. More
“Another fine mess” Budget Crisis in the United States
Rob Sewell 5 March 2013
Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad, goes the saying. It is an apt description of the warring factions of the US political establishment, especially the Republicans, who are engaged in a ferocious battle over the government budget, and to hell with the consequences. More
Portugal: New explosion against austerity and the government
“Screw the Troika – the people are the best rulers” socialistworld.net 3 march 2013
Yesterday, on 2 March, over 1.5 million people reclaimed Portugal’s streets, in what even the media has speculated may have been the country’s biggest ever demonstrations. With 800,000 in Lisbon, 400,000 in Porto, and tens of thousands more in over 30 cities, nationwide, the masses poured onto the streets, under the slogan “Screw the Troika – the people are the best rulers”. The marches gave an expression to the seething anger an ferment at the death spiral which the Troika’s puppet centre-right coalition government, led by Passos Coelho (conservative, PSD party), has imposed on the country through its vicious austerity policies. More
Egyptian Debt Threatens Tahrir Square's Promise of Freedom
As the U.S and the IMF apply pressure to the Egyptian government to cut public spending and pay a high interest rate on debts incurred during the previous regime, the Egyptian government targets international NGOs with repressive policies Shir Hever on the Real News Network 4 March 2012 More
The Afghan People Are Fed Up
An Interview with Malalai Joya Malalai Joya and Elsa Rassbach 2 March 2013
Malalai Joya, 34, first gained international attention in 2003 when she spoke out publicly against the domination of warlords. She was at that time serving as an elected delegate to the Loya Jirga that was convened to ratify the Constitution of Afghanistan; in 2005 she became one of 68 women elected to the 249-seat National Assembly, or Wolesi Jirga, and was the youngest member of the Afghan parliament. More
Open the Doors of Learning
The Case for Open Access Academic Publication Glenn Ashton 27 February 2013
A metamorphosis is underway in making knowledge from institutions of higher learning accessible to all. This change is the open access (OA) revolution. More
The Pope’s abdication highlights the crisis of Roman Catholicism
Mauro Vanetti 28 February 2013
In a period of crisis and decline of capitalism, to many people religion is the one certainty to cling on to. But if the Pope himself is no longer convinced he can keep his position until his death, this illusion of solidity begins to break down. The effect of the surprise announcement of his retirement by Pope Benedict XVI on the consciousness of over a billion Roman Catholics is going to be that of a spiritual earthquake, and it is surely going to have political consequences too. More
Italy: Voters reject austerity in ‘tsunami’ election
Political instability, crisis and new opportunities ahead Chris Thomas, Controcorrente (CWI in Italy) 27 February 2012
The “Tsunami tour” was the name comedian Beppe Grillo gave to his election meetings which filled piazzas throughout the country with tens of thousands of ‘spectators’. Now an electoral tsunami has well and truly rocked the Italian political system with Grillo’s 5 Star Movement, which did not exist at the last election, becoming the biggest single party in the lower house with more than 25% of the vote. Another 25% of the electorate stayed at home, the highest ever post-war abstention rate. More
Bulgarian Government resigns amid Mass Protests
Francesco Merli 25 February 2013
Austerity policies imposed by governments throughout Eastern Europe are provoking social convulsions in one country after another. In a short span of time we have seen mass opposition arising in Hungary, Slovenia (where a public sector general strike paralysed the country on January 23), Croatia, the Czech Republic, Romania and elsewhere. Mass protests have erupted also in Bulgaria. On Tuesday, February 19, a demonstration in Sofia against austerity measures and high energy prices escalated in clashes after harsh police intervention, resulting in 25 people injured. More
Spain:Corruption scandal leaves government on the brink
What strategy to do away with rotten government and system? Danny Byrne, CWI 25 February 2013
Imagine a Western European country in which 56% of young people are unemployed; where over 6 million are out of work; where 400,000 families have been evicted from their homes in the last 4 years; where almost one third of children are in poverty. Its political rulers have, in the last years, implemented one of the biggest austerity programmes in history, sentencing millions more to poverty and destitution, with more, even more brutal anti-social policies to come. Now imagine that these same rulers – many of them millionaires – including the President, are found to have been milking millions in corrupt payments, from both private donations and public money over the last decade. However, as with many previously “unthinkable” positions thrown up by the current capitalist crisis and chaos, this “imaginary” situation is a reality, now being played out in Spain. More
Will a Higher Minimum Wage Cost Jobs?
Robert Pollin interviewed by Paul Jay from the Real News Network 22 February 2013 More
Pakistan: Economic Salvation - Privatisation or Expropriation
Lal Khan 22 February 2013
There has been an aggressive campaign in the media that the recipe for growth and the solution to the economic crisis is privatisation and not the nationalisation of industry, agriculture, finance capital and the economy. Nationalisation has been dubbed as a failure and an economic disaster. More
ALEC's Plan to Kill Union Jobs Everywhere
Dave Saldana 21 February 2013
It’s an anniversary London, Ontario, did not celebrate. It’s been a year, and the shock has yet to wear off in the Canadian city just an hour’s drive east of Detroit. All that remains is the hardship of carrying on through mass joblessness, and its hand-in-hand partners, surges in poverty, mental health crises and addiction. More
Support the Two day Indian General Strike!!!
Major Singh 21 February 2013
Today marks the beginning of a two- day general strike in which the working class of the whole of India will rise with one voice to declare their dissatisfaction at the horrible conditions being imposed upon them by the crisis of capitalism. This unprecedented action should not be seen as a one off event or as simply a demonstration. Rather, it is indicative of the pressure that has been building up within Indian society over the last period and is symptomatic of the on-going fight within the trade unions to force the leadership to come up with a fighting solution to the problems which are faced by the workers on a day to day basis. More
Crushing Russia's Labor Leaders
Boris Kagarlitsky 19 February 2013
While the public's attention is focused on the 20 suspects arrested in connection with the May 6 protests, we should not forget other political prisoners who fell under the boot of the repressive regime even sooner. More
Workfare: A Policy On The Brink
Warren Clark 18 February 2013
'Three people start today on this “work experience”. They are to help us for up to 30 hours a week for eight weeks over the Christmas period. I am terrified by the idea that head office think they don’t need to pay their staff. I myself am on part-time minimum wage and if they can have workers for free now, what is to stop them making my position redundant and using job centre people to run the store at no cost to themselves?’ – Shoezone employee, November 2012. More
South Africa and the Resource Curse
Patrick Bond interviewed by Paul Jay from the Real News Network 15 February 2013 More
The Courage Of The Vigilante Feminists Is Contagious
Laurie Penny 14 February 2013
'I'm sick of being ashamed. Three days ago, an anti-harassment activist said those words to me in a flat above Cairo's Tahrir square, as she pulled on her makeshift uniform ready to protect women on the protest lines from being raped in the street. Only days before, I'd heard exactly the same words from pro-choice organisers in Dublin, where I travelled to report on the feminist fight to legalise abortion in Ireland. I had thought that I was covering two separate stories – so why were two women from different countries and backgrounds repeating the same mantra against fear, and against shame? More
Optimism at Davos based on reality?
IMF and World Bank reduce growth predictions Editorial in this week’s Offensiv, paper of Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (CWI Sweden) 13 February 2013
After this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, with 2,500 politicians and capitalists from around the world, the media reported an, increasing optimism about the world economy. But this in no way means the crisis is over.
The main reason for the optimism is a strong rise on many stock markets and larger dividends for shareholders. The world’s 100 richest people increased their wealth by $241 billion, to $1,900 billion in 2012. More
For workers, a thinner slice of pie
Farooque Chowdhury First Published in Pambazuka 12 February 2013
In a global examination of the survival of capitalism in crisis, the recent International Labour Organisation report shows that workers globally continue to be extremely exploited and capital continues to exact greater profits for the minority whilst finding new ways to justify this heinous system More
Tunisia: towards a second revolution?
Jorge Martin 7 February 2013
On the morning of February 6th, the prominent left wing leader Chokri Belaïd was assassinated in front of his house in Tunis. Thousands have taken to the streets, attacked offices of the ruling Ennahda party, which they consider responsible for the assassination, and a general strike has been called for tomorrow, February 8th. This could be the incident that sparks a much needed second revolution, two years after the overthrow the hated Ben Alí regime. More
The big business of corruption
Nickolaus Bauer (Mail & Guardian) 7 February 2013
Corruption seems to have become the norm and if big business can't keep its hands off public funds, can South Africans expect government to do so? More
How Washington helped foster the Islamist uprising in Mali
Jeremy Keenan First Published in Pambazuka 6 February 2013
As the French-led military operation continues, Jeremy Keenan reveals how the US and Algeria have been sponsoring terror in the Sahara.
On 12 October 2012, the UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of a French-drafted resolution asking Mali’s government to draw up plans for a military mission to re-establish control over the northern part of Mali, an area of the Sahara bigger than France. Known as Azawad by local Tuareg people, northern Mali has been under the control of Islamist extremists following a Tuareg rebellion at the beginning of the year. For several months, the international media have been referring to northern Mali as ‘Africa’s Afghanistan’, with calls for international military intervention becoming inexorable. More
USA: Is College Worth It?
Jack Oliver 5 February 2013
The answer to this question once seemed like a no-brainer. During the years of the postwar boom, college was sold as a kind of normal stage of life for young Americans, and attaining a degree from a public university was a sure way toward a higher salary. It was often quite affordable as well, thanks to things like Pell Grants and a greater amount of public funding. Those days seem far away now. More
Spain is in the hands of thieves
Esther Vivas 4 February 2013
No doubt. We are in the hands of thieves. The Barcenas, Pallerols, Crespo, Nóos and Mercurio cases, added to the Gürtel case, Millet, Champion, Pretoria and many others, show that those who have been giving us lessons of austerity have been benefitting: not only the bankers and businessmen but also, when the cameras have not focussed on them, the politicians, who have filled their pockets in order to live in opulence and extravagance. And at our expense. More
Britain: the lull before the storm
Extracts from a statement on Britain agreed at the Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales)National Committee on 19 January.
AS 2013 BEGINS many commentators have suggested that 2012 was a ‘groundhog year’. British politics has got a bit stuck, declared Andrew Rawnsley (Observer, 30 December). While this was true on the surface, in reality society, and particularly the working class, underwent profound changes which will accelerate in the coming year. In 2012 the majority of the working class, and wide sections of the middle class, suffered a battering. An avalanche landed on our heads, including benefit cuts, dramatic cuts in local services, hospital closures, the attack on pensions, the headlong rush to turn schools into academies. This is, however, only about 20% of the government’s planned cuts. More
Belgium: Expropriation and nationalisation!
Struggle at Arcelor Mittal Liège against redundancies Eric Byl, LSP/PSL (CWI in Belgium) 30 January 2013
Since Arcelor Mittal announced yet another social bloodbath at an extraordinary works’ council on 24 January, the future of steel production in Liège has been at the centre of Belgian public attention. On the following morning, a high profile meeting was organised in Brussels, involving both the federal and the Walloon regional governments. Then, early that Friday afternoon they received the union representatives. They did not come alone, but were accompanied by up to 500 angry and combative workers, which in reality meant an assembly in front of the prime minister’s residence. A delegation from the Left Socialist Party (LSP/PSL, the CWI in Belgium) was also present in solidarity. More
Israeli elections reveal growing class divide
Hamid Alizadeh 28 January 2013
Less than a year ago, “King Bibi”, as the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had become known, had an almost absolute majority in the polls and all other parties, one after another, were entering into crisis. The recent elections show a very different picture: polarisation to the right and the left. More
Visit the Tiny Town Where Big Coal Will Meet Its Fate
Tim McDonell 27 January 2013
Last week Beijing saw its infamous smog thicken to unprecedented levels, driven largely by emissions from coal-fired power plants across China. In recent years coal from US mines has stoked more and more of these plants, in effect offshoring the health impacts of burning coal. This year, much of the US coal industry's focus will be on pushing an unfolding campaign that seeks to dramatically ramp up the amount of coal we ship overseas. More
The Kurdish Rebellion in Syria
Toward Irreversible Liberation Rozh Ahmad 25 January 2013
The Kurds in Syria, the country's largest ethnic minority, number an estimated three million. Despite having stayed neutral amid the civil war, they now control most of Syria's Kurdish north they claim they have liberated from the Ba'athist regime and self-govern independently of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA). Although many Kurds still fear re-occupation of their liberated areas by the Syrian army as the army maintains presence in some of them, Syrian Kurdish leaders are confident that their recent political achievement is now irreversible. More
AngloPlat: The Economic Propaganda War and the Battle for Democracy
Leonard Gentle (International Labour Research and Information Group) 23 January 2012
How soon we forget…When the striking workers were killed by the police at Marikana there was a universal sense of shock and horror. How could it have come to this? Just 18 years after apartheid and here we go again - the police mowing down demonstrators. Now AngloPlat has announced that it will retrench 14 000 workers and the mood amongst the commentariat is, “Well, what did they expect?” More
DRC: M23, imperialist looting and barbarism
Gavin Jackson 21 January 2013
Once again the Democratic Republic of Congo has been through months of turmoil, soldiers defecting en masse from the Congolese Army (FARDC) followed by fighting between government forces and militia in the Kivu regions. But why is all this happening and what interests lie behind these events? Gavin Jackson looks at the different forces on the ground and outlines the looting on the part of the various imperialist powers that is the real reason behind the barbarism. More
Mali: French army intervention will amplify the chaos
For a mass struggle of workers and poor to defeat imperialism and fundamentalist reaction Leila Messaoudi, Gauche Révolutionnaire (CWI in France) 19 January 2012
The sudden decision for a direct French military intervention in Northern Mali has not come from nowhere. Preparations for this have been underway for a number of weeks. French President, Francois Hollande, and Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, had announced they intended to intervene soon in one form or another in Mali supposedly “to help the Malian president to counter the offensive of the Islamists” who took control of two thirds of the Northern part of the country. The predictable collapse of the Malian army and state has accelerated things. More
South Africa: Harvesting discontent
Farmworkers rebel; Stop rural slavery! Respect the farmworkers! Mercia Andrews 18 January 2013
January 13, 2013 -- International Viewpoint -- The protests and mobilisation that started in the small town of De Doorns on November 6, 2012, galvanised the anger of farm dwellers against decades of discontent at extreme exploitation and oppression that persist on farms, in rural towns and South Africa's agricultural sector. More
Britain: Triple-A Gloom
Socialist Appeal (Britain) 14 January 2013
The New Year will be ringing in not joy but woe for working class people. It is the year that the cuts really begin to bite. It is the year that many people lose their jobs. It is the year that, in the words of Nick Clegg, “painful” Universal Benefits are introduced. It is the year that many lose their housing benefit and become homeless. It is the year the capitalist crisis deepens in Europe, with Spain, Italy and France following in the footsteps of Greece. Britain, however, is not far behind. More
Haiti: the earthquake, cholera and Hurricane Sandy
Empty promises of the West and designs of capitalist plunder Ama Biney First Published in Pambazuka 14 January 2012
Following the 7.0 earthquake that annihilated Port-au-Prince and killed thousands of Haitians in January 2010, Ama Biney reviews socio-economic and political developments in the country and argues that the radical Fanmi Lavalas party still resonates with the Haitian majority More
What’s at stake in the Central African Republic?
Neo-Colonial intrigue, minerals, militarism and the struggle for sovereignty and unity Abayomi Azikiwe First Published in Pambazuka 10 January 2013
African states must resolve the conflict inside the Central African Republic in order to avoid further French and US military involvement argues Abayomi Azikiwe More
Guatemalans Resist Invasion of North American Mines
Helen Jaccard and Gerry Condon 9 January 2013
In November we traveled to Guatemala to study Spanish and learn about the lives of the indigenous Maya people. Guatemala is an amazingly beautiful country, with countless mountains and valleys, and 22 volcanoes, the most in Central America. The people are very friendly and good humored. Traditional Mayan culture, mostly observed in the colorful dress of the Mayan women, lives side by side with modernity. Picture a traditionally dressed indigenous peasant woman tending her cattle and sheep on a hillside pasture. Now watch her pull a cell phone out of her skirt to call her children. More
Neoliberalizing Nature and Privatizing the Air
Patrick Bond interviewed by Paul Jay 8 January 2013 More
Growing Poverty in Germany “Politically Desired”
Dietmar Henning 7 January 2013
Austerity measures dictated by the German government are plunging the peoples of Europe into a social catastrophe. Before Christmas, the National Conference on Poverty (NAK), an amalgamation of charities, churches and the German Trade Union Federation (DGB), presented its “Shadow Report”, which concludes that the growth and consolidation of poverty is “politically desired”. More
Highway Robbery
Darwin Bond Graham 2 January 2013
In 1995, California granted a private company the right to construct express toll lanes along the State Route 91 freeway in Orange County, a region inhabited by millions, with some of the heaviest traffic flows in the nation. This was the first modern privatized highway in the United States. The California Private Transportation Company (CPTC), a partnership of three corporations—Level 3 Communications, Granite Construction, Inc., and the French toll operator Cofiroute SA—completed the project with $130 million in mostly privately sourced money. To recoup this expense, and to make a profit, CPTC was given a 35-year concession to operate the toll route. State leaders promised that the private company would provide greater efficiency and savings, and that the public would benefit from clear and safe roads, even during a time of government budget constraints. More
