Anxiously waiting outside the court of the chief judicial magistrate Mohan Tiwari in Bhopal on 7 June, 36-yearold Raghu Jaidev and many other victims of the Bhopal catastrophe were crestfallen, some of them, outraged, upon hearing the verdict of the trial that had lasted 23 long years. “Rich people always get away”, said Jaidev, […]
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Monthly Review Magazine
Greece: Explosive Debt
A time bomb of interests on the debt, threatening to explode the edifice of Greek economy propped up by an IMF package. Gervasio Umpiérrez is a cartoonist based in Montevideo, Uruguay. This cartoon was featured on the home page of Rebelión on 16 June 2010. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | […]
Peter Erlinder to be Released
Peter Erlinder received “unconditional medical release” from the Rwandan court. Thursday, June 17, 2010 (Washington, DC) — Peter Erlinder, Professor of Law at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, MN and Lead Defense Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was arrested in Kigali, Rwanda on May 28, 2010. On […]
Iran: Ahmadinejad Says No One Has Any Right to Bother Women about Hijab or Couples about Their Relationship
[Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad said in a June 12 television interview that the government has “no role” in the fight against “bad veiling” and social behaviors that are considered un-Islamic and immoral. “The government has nothing to do with it and doesn’t interfere in it. We consider it insulting when a man and a […]
“Collecting Data and Information on the Processes of Radicalisation in the EU”
* * * Excerpt from Tony Bunyan, “Intensive Surveillance of ‘Violent Radicalisation’ Extended to Embrace Suspected ‘Radicals’ from across the Political Spectrum; Targets Include: ‘Extreme Right/Left, Islamist, Nationalist, Anti-Globalisation Etc’,” Statewatch: The document which the Council Conclusions are based is entitled: “Instrument for compiling data and information on violent radicalisation processes” (EU doc no: […]
Arab Queers Say NO to Pinkwashing at the USSF
We, the undersigned queer Arab organizations, are appalled by the US Social Forum’s decision to allow Stand with Us to utilize the event as a platform to pinkwash Israel’s crimes in the region. Stand with Us is cynically manipulating the struggle of queer people in the Middle East through its workshop entitled “LGBTQI Liberation in […]
Offside
Obama the “Referee” calls a Brazilian-Iranian-Turkish goal (i.e. the nuclear swap agreement) against the pro-war team: “Offside!” Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. This cartoon was first published in the May/June 2010 issue of Idéias em Revista. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print
Does the Cato Institute Understand How Government Debt Works?
Sunday, the Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner wrote, “[T]he Trust Fund contains no actual assets. The government bonds it holds are simply a form of IOU, a measure of how much money the government owes the system. It says nothing about where the government will get the money to pay back those IOUs.” This is no […]
The Federal Deficit: The Real Issues
. . . But are the high interest rates that impose such a heavy burden on the budget inevitable? What happened during the Second World War proves beyond a shadow of doubt that they are not. In the war years from 1942 to 1945, the average annual deficit was 23 percent of Gross National Product, […]
Don’t Let Enemies of Freedom Suppress the Truth about Israel’s Attack on a Humanitarian Aid Ship!
Don’t Let Enemies of Freedom Suppress the Truth about Israel’s Attack on a Humanitarian Aid Ship! All Out to the House of the Lord Church, 415 Atlantic Ave. Thursday June 17, 7 pm MAVI MARMARA SURVIVORS HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HEARD! Two weeks ago Israeli naval commandos stormed a Turkish ship loaded with humanitarian […]
Regarding the Investigation Commission of Israeli Raid against the Freedom Flotilla
Israel’s declaration that it will establish a commission, composed of Israeli citizens and two foreign observers, in order to investigate the Israeli raid against the Freedom Flotilla does not in any way meet Turkey’s clear demand or international community’s expectations, which were expressed in the Presidential Statement of the United Nations Security Council. Israel does […]
Rail Workers Nationwide to Hold Railroad Workers Memorial Day
Despite far fewer trains moving with fewer employees, the number of rail worker on-the-job fatalities has dramatically increased since the onset of the recession. High profile fatalities — such as passenger train accident victims or soldiers killed in war — make headline news, while on-the-job deaths of working people usually go unnoticed. Railroad Workers United […]
Two, Three, Many 1960s
The global Sixties began in Tokyo on June 15, 1960, with the death of Michiko Kanba, an undergraduate at Tokyo University. On the night of her death she had joined a group of fellow university students at the front of a massive demonstration — 100,000 people deep — facing off against the National Diet Building. […]
A Plume by Any Other Name. . .
“What is a plume?” Shakespeare may have asked rhetorically if he were writing the tragedy that is currently unfolding in the Gulf. BP, it appears, will not definitively say. The BP execs are too savvy to allow themselves to be pinned down to any one definition, especially since they know that we love a […]
Position Statement of Old Revolutionaries on the Present Upsurge of Worker Action in China
Translator’s note: “Regarding the present upsurge of worker action in China, liberals have used their discursive power in the overseas media to frame the strike wave as a tale of workers’ struggle for ‘independent unions,’ as if this were a repetition of Solidarnosc. What do Chinese workers want? What is the direction of the […]
US-China Investment Treaty: A Threat to Stability and Growth in China
Under the radar screen at the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SE&D) last month, the US and China continued to discuss a bi-lateral investment treaty (BIT). If the final negotiated text looks like the majority of US BITs it could threaten financial stability and economic growth in China. The US and China began negotiations toward […]
No Nukes, No Empire: The Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Requires the End of the U.S. Empire
A version of this essay was delivered to the “Think outside the Bomb” event in Austin, TX, on June 14, 2010. If we are serious about the abolition of nuclear weapons, we have to place the abolition of the U.S. empire at the center of our politics. That means working toward a world free of […]
The Other Fateful Triangle: Israel, Iran, and Turkey
The thunderous events set in motion by Israel’s storming of the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the peace flotilla challenging the blockade of Gaza, have thrown important light on the overall situation in the Middle East. Turkey has emerged as the major protagonist among the forces that support the Palestinian cause. This is extremely […]
Fun with Money
The deficit hawks have been working themselves into a frenzy in recent weeks over the prospect that the country will come out of the recession with a huge debt. They have convinced much of the policy elite (admittedly, a very gullible crew) that the United States is on the edge of becoming Greece, unable to […]
Don’t Let Deficit Demagogues Scare You into Accepting Austerity
The U.S. and European Union together make up about half of the global economy, and recovery is quite uncertain in both of these big economies. Contrary to a lot of folk wisdom and political posturing, the problem is not irresponsible government spending in either case, but a lack of commitment by the authorities in both […]
