The detention of migrants is a multi-billion dollar industry, one in which immigrants are traded like products. They are for sale to the highest bidder. Who benefits and who profits? Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, the GEO Group, and Management and Training Corporation combined own over 200 facilities in the nation, with over 150,000 […]
Archive | News
News updates or analysis.
The Return to Palestine Project
Jamaa Al-Yad, an artists’ collective located in Beirut, in coordination with representatives from various Palestinian and Lebanese civil society organizations, is providing a collection of materials (posters, flyers, handouts, stickers, stencils, etc.) to be used to publicize “The Return to Palestine March” and related activities scheduled for May 15 throughout the world. These materials are […]
Rejecting Refugees from Africa
Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print
Nuclear Power: The Safety of Generation IV Designs
In addition to the Generation III+ designs of commercial reactor vendors, the DOE is sponsoring R&D on advanced reactor systems at national laboratories and universities (see Box 8, p. 59). Two are thermal reactors and three are fast reactors that would use plutonium-based fuels. One goal of these designs — known as Generation IV — […]
Puerto Rico: ACLU Delegation Criticizes Abuses
Following up on earlier efforts to highlight human rights abuses in Puerto Rico, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hosted a high-publicity fact-finding delegation in San Juan on May 2 and 3. The group, which included ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero, political scientist Angelo Falcón, actress/choreographer Rosie Perez, and recently retired baseball player […]
Terminate the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement
Excerpt: On January 11, 2006, the United States signed into law the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which entered into force between the United States and Bahrain on August 1, 2006. In light of the ongoing brutal repression of peaceful protest carried out by the police and armed forces of Bahrain and the Gulf […]
Intervention in the Name of Stability
Intervention in the Name of Stability Professor Noam Chomsky recently delivered an important address in Amsterdam entitled “Contours of the World Order.”1 A large part of the speech was devoted to the role of the United States in defending its area of absolute hegemony. According to Chomsky’s excellent analysis, the US relates to all countries […]
Renewable Energy Likely to Become Dominant Climate Change Solution by 2050, U.N. Study Concludes
But Support for Renewable Energy Policies Remains Key to Reaching Goals Renewable energy is likely to become the world’s dominant climate change solution by the middle of the century, according to a new study by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It has the potential to be more competitive than nuclear power, […]
Haiti: UN Panel Links Cholera to MINUSTAH Base; MINUSTAH Continues to Shift Blame
The UN “independent panel” released their long awaited report (PDF) on the origin of cholera in Haiti. Although the ultimate conclusion of the panel was that “the Haiti cholera outbreak was caused by the confluence of circumstances . . . and was not the fault of, or deliberate action of, a group or individual,” the […]
The Threats of Business and the Business of Threats
More and more we hear that nothing can be done to tax major corporations because of the threat of how they would respond. Likewise, we cannot stop their price gouging or even the government subsidies and tax loopholes they enjoy. For example, as the oil majors reap stunning profits from high oil and gas prices, […]
Ten Reasons Why Protecting Unions Is a Life and Death Issue
In Wisconsin, tens of thousands of public sector workers were going to work every day, helping the people in the DMV, hospitals, health care centers, public transportation, teachers, fire fighters, and clerical workers. Then, on February 11, 2011 Republican Governor Scott Walker introduced a bill, with a Republican majority in the legislature, that would virtually […]
Egypt’s Christians Blame Army after Sectarian Violence
Coptic anger turns on the army after bloody sectarian violence gripped Cairo. The clashes between Muslims and Christians in Imbaba left at least 12 dead. Two churches were torched. It’s the latest in a string of sectarian incidents since Egypt’s revolution, which left the army in interim charge of the country. Now the Coptic community […]
Nuclear Power: Not the Solution to Climate Change
If carbon emissions from energy production are the problem, is nuclear power the solution? After all, nuclear reactors split uranium atoms to generate heat; no fossil fuels are used on site, and no CO2 is released into the air from the power plant itself. Plenty of voices can be now heard advocating construction of nuclear […]
The Left’s Failure to Supersede the Democratic Party’s Hegemony over Social Movements
What Michael T. Heaney and Fabio Rojas’ “The Partisan Dynamics of Contention: Demobilization of the Antiwar Movement in the United States, 2007-2009” (Mobilization 16.1; now linked to MRZine) shows is that, in the United States, the anti-war/peace movement is much narrower and more shallow than many believe. Whereas there remains an enduring core of genuinely […]
Syria: To Amend Article 8 of the Constitution, But Not to Allow the Establishment of Religious Parties
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Bana’a reports that, according to sources close to the decision-making circles in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad will soon announce the amendment of Article 8 of the Constitution, which limits the country’s leadership to the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, so as to include all parties affiliated with the Progressive National Front in […]
Lèse Majesté, the Monarchy, and the Military in Thailand
Excerpt: Despite the fact that millions of Thais believe that the centre of power among the conservative elites today is the Monarchy or the Privy Council, the real centre of power, lurking behind the Throne, is the Military. . . . The power of the Military is not unlimited and it relies on the ideology […]
Devastating Logic
We have to massacre them all to prevent them from killing people with impunity. Juan Kalvellido is a Spanish cartoonist. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print
Labour Market Flexibility
One of the most persistent demands of the advocates of neo-liberalism in India has been for the introduction of “labour market flexibility”, by which they mean the absolute right of employers to hire and fire workers as and when they please, without any let or hindrance. The absence of such flexibility, they claim, has been […]
Turkey: Freedom of opPRESSion?
On December 24th, 2010, a publishing house in Turkey was raided by the police. Without any prior warning, its office’s electricity was cut off, and special operations teams surrounded its building. Walls were rammed, doors were torn apart, and people working for Ozan Publishing were arrested and tortured. Not satisfied with that, the police […]
South Sudan: Rethinking Citizenship, Sovereignty and Self-Determination
Whatever your point of view, it would be difficult to deny that the referendum on South Sudan — unity or independence — was a historic moment. Self‐determination marks the founding of a new political order. Nationalists may try to convince us that the outcome of the referendum, independence, is the natural destiny of the […]
