Archive | News

  • NATO Continues Its Air Strikes in Libya

      “Chart with NATO sorties in #Libya shows that strikes continue with same ferocity as before the declared victory in Aug.” — Daniel Nouri Related: here is a map of sixteen cities that NATO attacked between Aug 22 and Sep 16: Daniel Nouri is a Python and JavaScript enthusiast with nine years of professional Python […]

  • The Euro at the End of the Tunnel

    “Look, the light at the end of the tunnel!” 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 14 September 2011.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  Cf. “Merkel […]

  • Protests Are Not Enough to Change the Rules of the Game

    The Arab uprising goes from strength to strength.  When the Egyptian protestors stormed the Israeli Embassy in Cairo last week, they showed that the power of protest can prevail over docile diplomacy.  Across the Arab World, protest power has shown its effectiveness.  The achievements are incontestable.  Yet, in the world of the excluded, the Arab […]

  • Fall Delegation to Bolivia: Food Sovereignty and Indigenous Resistance

    Spend Thanksgiving celebrating indigenous resistance and exploring food sovereignty issues in Bolivia, the first country in the hemisphere to be governed by an indigenous president.  Learn about indigenous struggles for sovereignty over food, land, and water.  Meet with farmers, community leaders, government leaders, and others.  Experience the rich culture of the Andes and soak in […]

  • Víctor Jara

    “In this beautiful garden, to ‘dinosaurs’ and ‘reactionaries,’ the revolutionary youth said: Enough already.” — Víctor Jara 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. Víctor Jara, “Móvil Oil Special” (1969). var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; […]

  • The New Scramble for Africa

      Is current U.S. foreign policy in Africa following a blueprint drawn up almost eight years ago by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, one of the most conservative think tanks in the world?  Although it seems odd that a Democratic administration would have anything in common with the extremists at Heritage, the convergence in policy and […]

  • Egypt: SCAF Reactivates Emergency Law

    Yara Kassem is a cartoonist in Cairo, Egypt.  This cartoon was circulated via her Twitter account on 15 September 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  Cf. “In the new, revolutionary state, instead of revoking emergency law as promised, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has announced its reactivation, in particular, […]

  • CPI Rises 0.4 Percent in August

    The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent in August and at a 2.6 percent annualized rate over the last three months.  By contrast, the CPI rose at a 4.6 percent rate from February to May and at a 5.6 percent rate the three months before that. Food and energy prices continue to push up overall […]

  • Reading Wikileaked Cables about Qatar and Al Jazeera

    Maximilian C. Forte is an associate professor in anthropology at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.  His website is at www.openanthropology.org.  Cf. Maximilian Forte, “The War in Libya: Race, ‘Humanitarianism,’ and the Media” (MRZine, 20 April 2011); Maximilian Forte, “Libya — Lather, Rinse, Repeat — Syria: Liberal Imperialism and the Refusal to Learn” (MRZine, 10 August […]

  • Salvaging September: An ICAHD Statement regarding the Palestinian Statehood Initiative at the UN

    The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) has been one of the leading critical Israeli peace and human rights organizations struggling for Palestinian rights during its more than 14 years of existence. ICAHD activists resist the demolition of Palestinian homes, both inside Israel and in the Occupied Territory, and together with our Palestinian and International […]

  • Brazil’s “Independent” Central Bank: Independent from Whom?

    In recent days the press has reported that President Dilma Rouseff has denied having tried to influence the Brazilian central bank to lower short-term interest rates, as the bank did on August 31 from 12.5 to 12.0 percent.  The fact that she would feel obligated to make such a statement shows that there is a […]

  • On the Regime and the Opposition in Syria

      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 […]

  • New Census Numbers Make It Official: 2000-2010 Was a Lost Economic Decade

    This morning the Census Bureau released its annual report on income — including median income, inequality, and income poverty — and health insurance coverage in the previous year.  As expected given continued high unemployment, the report shows a substantial deterioration in Americans’ economic security between 2009 and 2010, including substantial income losses for middle- and […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]