Archive | June, 2011

Seeing a wind farm in Paraguaná, the Right says . . .“Look at how Chávez has camouflaged Iranian missiles.” Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  See, also, Eva Golinger, “Washington Plans Further Actions against […]

  The Irish-owned ship, the MV Saoirse, that was meant to take part in Freedom Flotilla 2 has been sabotaged in a dangerous manner in the Turkish coastal town of Göcek, where it had been at berth for the past few weeks.  Visual evidence of the undership sabotage, which was carried out by divers, will […]

  “Making Memories!” 80 percent of domestic workers are not allowed to leave the house. “Shopping Paradise!” 85 percent of domestic workers are not allowed a regular day off. “Sea & Sun!” 56 percent of private beaches limit access for migrant workers. Directed by Jowe Harfouche.  Actresses: Rahel Abebe, Priya Subedi, Michelle Cafarelle, Lioba Hirsch, […]

The German left-wing party Die Linke issued a shocking statement on 7 June 2011, stating that “We will not participate in initiatives on the Middle East conflict which call for a one-state solution for Palestine and Israel, or for boycotts against Israeli products, or even in this year’s Gaza Flotilla trip.” This position is particularly […]

Among the empire’s suckerfish in Venezuela are Democratic Action (AD), the Independent Electoral Political Organization Committee (COPEI), For Social Democracy (PODEMOS), Justice First (Primero Justicia), Fatherland for All (PPT), and NGOs. . . . Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites. var idcomments_acct = […]

Today, thousands of Ohioans marched in downtown Columbus to the Ohio Secretary of State office to deliver 1,298,301 signatures to repeal Senate Bill 5, the vicious attack on workers’ rights.  1,298,301 is more than five times the number required to put the citizens’ veto on the November referendum. The People’s Parade Rally against SB5 Delivering […]

The US government has been increasing aggressive actions against the Chavez administration in an attempt to isolate the major petroleum-producing nation and aid in ousting the Venezuelan President. During a hearing last Friday, June 24, in the Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives regarding “Sanctionable Activities in Venezuela,” Democrats and Republicans requested the […]

The failure of the Indian state more than six decades after Independence to provide universal access to quality schooling and to ensure equal access to higher education among all socio-economic groups and across gender and region must surely rank among the more dismal and significant failures of the development project in the country.  It is […]

  NATO — Burying the Libyan People in a Coffin Labeled “Democracy” Gervasio Umpiérrez is a cartoonist based in Montevideo, Uruguay.  This cartoon was published on his blog on 16 June 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  Cf. Peter Hart, “Libya’s Lousy PR” […]

  27 June 2011 Luay Hussein: This is the first time we meet in front of our people so we have huge responsibilities. Luay Hussein: Those meeting here are not advocates of violence. Fadi Salem: Media was allowed in the first session and Syrian local Radio Cham is broadcasting live. Munther Khaddam: Who would have […]

Brazil’s first quarter GDP shows continued expansion, driven by manufacturing and private consumption.  The economy grew at an annualized rate of 5.4 percent in the first quarter, and over the last four quarters it has grown 4.2 percent.  The two sectors that have had the strongest recovery since the recession, minerals extraction and finance, both […]

  Prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (California) are going on an indefinite hunger strike as of July 1, 2011 to protest the cruel, inhumane, and torturous conditions of their imprisonment.  The hunger strike has been organized by prisoners in an inspiring show of unity across racial and geographic […]

The disaster at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in Japan prompted some people to contend that since U.S. reactors have Severe Accident Management Guidelines (SAMGs) they are less susceptible to disaster. A recent NRC audit of SAMGs at the nation’s nuclear power plants, however, suggests otherwise.  One of the lessons from the 1979 Three Mile […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Cf. Mohannad Sabry, “New Egypt?  7,000 Civilians Jailed since Mubarak Fell” (McClatchy Newspapers, 13 June 2011); “In the first three weeks of June, at least 22 workers and farmers have been interrogated by the military prosecutor and/or referred to military courts, according to the Awlad el-Ard NGO. . . […]

“The Peoples Have the Power and Never Surrender.  Organize, Counterattack!” was the slogan written in Greek and in English on the banner that the All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME) hung from the Acropolis on 27 June, on the eve of the 48-hour strike against the barbaric anti-people measures of the social-democratic government, the EU, and […]

Many analysts seem to have missed the fact that the plunge in house prices has sharply reduced homeowners’ equity.  According to data from the Federal Reserve Board, the ratio of homeowners’ equity to value at the end of the first quarter was just 38.0 percent at the end of the first quarter, the lowest on […]

I was rather skeptical, if not outright opposed, about the Syrian opposition conference in Semiramis Hotel in Damascus.  I thought that the event would be used by the regime to attain legitimacy and that the very convening of the conference would be exploited to prove the democratic impulse of the lousy regime. But I must […]

Old slogan of the Venezuelan opposition: “Chávez, go back to Cuba!” New slogan of the Venezuelan opposition: “Chávez, come back from Cuba!” Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  Cf. Judith León, “La oposición enloquece: […]

  Default is not the dirty word that nobody wants to say.  Almost everybody now accepts that Greece will default.  Several people will prefer to use the euphemism of “re-profiling debts,” but we all know what it means.  The interesting thing is that at least some authors, like Martin Wolf in a recent Financial Times […]

Advocates of nuclear power are promoting a “nuclear renaissance” based on claims that a new generation of reactors will produce relatively cheap electricity while solving the threat posed by global climate change.  U.S. power producers have proposed building more than 30 new nuclear reactors — and some proponents have called for building as many as […]