Despite my very negative position on the regime for private and public reasons, the truth is that the regime is very strong, and neither the outside nor the inside were able to make it change its usual stances. This strength does not come from a vacuum. The regime has a broad popular base that […]
Archive | September, 2011
Afterword on a Movement
“Combating corruption”, like “promoting peace”, can mean anything to anyone; and precisely because of this “fuzziness” it appeals to everyone. Some join the anti-corruption movement because they are against “corporate loot”; others join because they are against the Nehru-Gandhi “dynasty”; and still others join because they oppose the “corrupt practice of job reservation”. The movement […]
9.11 with Samir Amin
“Libya is something very different from what happened in Egypt and Tunisia. It was not a pacific demonstration of people. It was, from the very start, armed groups against other armed groups, the regime. I’m not at all defending Gaddafi, but what is very specific of the case of Libya is that the so-called […]
Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill: Interview with Arundhati Roy
“These NGOs funded by the World Bank, Ford, and so on — why are they participating, mediating what public policy should be? . . . The World Bank runs 600 anti-corruption programs just in places like Sub-Saharan Africa. Why is the World Bank that interested in anti-corruption? I looked at five of the major […]
Special Declaration of the ALBA-TCP Foreign Ministers on the Situation of Libya and Syria
The Foreign Ministers of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, meeting in Caracas, Venezuela on 9 September 2011, recalling the Special Communiqué of the Political Council on 4 March 2011 and the Special Communiqué of the Ministerial Social Council on 19 March 2011, condemns the NATO intervention in Libya and its illegal […]
NATO’s Democracy
Kritikal Point, a collective of artists, may be contacted at <kritikalpoint@yahoo.com>. En español. Cf. “How dare Egyptian rebels attack Israeli embassy instead of asking for foreign troops to destroy their museums and libraries? #Egypt #Jan25” (Mazen Shaer, 9 September 2011); “Egyptian revos storm #IsraeliEmbassy while Syrian self-proclaimed so-called revolution icons are promising Israel an […]
Outcome of the Visit to Syria by a Mission of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
In August a UN OCHA Mission visited Syria to assess humanitarian needs in the country stemming from the ongoing crisis there. The Mission included staff from several UN institutions and humanitarian agencies (UNHCR, UNICEF, WHO, WFP, IOM, etc.). The Syrian authorities provided the Mission unimpeded access to all objects of interest. The UN officials […]
On the Scales of Syria
Ali Farzat, born in Hama, is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon was published on his Web site on 24 August 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. Cf. “Syrian Local Coordinating Committees on Taking Up Arms and Foreign Intervention” (Jadaliyya, 31 August 2011); As’ad AbuKhalil, “Not Mightier Than Ali Farzat’s Pen” (Al-Akhbar, 2 […]
Work Sharing Should Be Part of the President’s Job Program
It is encouraging that President Obama recognizes his obligation to take steps to restore the economy to full employment. The government alone has the power to lift the economy out of this downturn. Eventually, the private sector will be able to absorb the unemployed, but there are no remotely plausible projections that show private sector […]
Syria: What Kind of Revolution?
The Syrian uprising which erupted nearly six months ago seems to be settling into a dangerous deadlock with neither side — the regime or the opposition — willing to budge from its stated position. The daily toll of deaths and injuries climb ever higher with no resolution in sight. The regime seems insistent on […]
Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa
Excerpt: As envisioned by the Department of Defense (DOD), AFRICOM aims to promote U.S. strategic objectives and protect U.S. interests in the region by working with African states and regional organizations to help strengthen their defense capabilities so that they are better able to contribute to regional stability and security. AFRICOM also has a […]
The Shape of Things to Come in Libya: Interview with Michael Parenti
Michael Parenti: Expect the same thing as you saw happened in Yugoslavia and in Eastern Europe. There will be a massive privatization taking place. The public economy that the Gaddafi government had built over 40 years, which included public subsidies for housing, for education, for healthcare — all those things will be privatized. The […]
Modern-Day Cowboy
Riding “Breaking News” to lasso a new cash cow . . . Hamid Karout is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon was first published in Tishreen on 17 July 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. See, also, Syrian Electronic Army, “Blood Channels” (MRZine, 14 July 2011); Hamid Karout, “Still Trying to Detonate a […]
Syria: Testing Time
Syria remains relatively calm as efforts to destabilise its government through orchestrated attacks by rebels fail. Life in the Syrian capital, Damascus, seems to be continuing as normal. The streets and the mosques are crowded after the devout break their Ramazan fast in the evening. The security presence is minimal. In fact, there are […]
United Nations — Empire’s Lapdog
Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela. His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites. Cf. “Libya, Africa, and the New World Order: An Open Letter to the Peoples of Africa and the World from Concerned Africans” (MRZine, 27 August 2011). var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print
The Neocolonization of Libya: Interview with Aijaz Ahmad
Aijaz Ahmad: . . . Europeans, and Italians in particular, are celebrating the 100th anniversary of their first aerial bombing ever done in the world. The Italians bombed in Libya in 1911. Now, of course, with 100 years of development of the technology, there have been 20,000 aerial attacks on Libya. . . . They […]
Gene Bruskin of USLAW, Live Radio Interview on Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 6-8 PM Central Time
Folks, As many of you know, I’m a veteran of the US Marine Corps, who turned around while on active duty (1969-73). I work with some Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at our university, Purdue University North Central in Westville, IN, in the northwest part of Indiana, just below Lake Michigan. One of the young vets […]
US Postal Service Crisis? Two Postal Workers Speak Out
An interview with postal workers Jim Kaufman and Jeff Levitt from Albany, New York, about the alleged financial crisis of the Postal Service Jeff Levitt: It is an artificially created crisis. It’s created by the Congress. . . . In 2006, the Postal Service became an institution that is required to pre-fund future retiree health […]
NATO Divides the Libyan Cake
Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. The cartoon above was first published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 5 September 2011. Cf. Vittorio de Filippis, “Pétrole : l’accord secret entre le CNT et la France” (Libération, 1 September 2011). | Print
Report on the August 28 Chicago Meeting to Organize the NATO/G8 Protests
On Sunday, August 28, 163 people came together at the Kent College of Law in downtown Chicago to organize protests at the May 2012 NATO and G8 meetings in Chicago. The 163 people represented 73 organizations. Around 60 of those present came from outside of Chicago, mainly from nearby states but including people from as […]
