We, the undersigned, who are part of an international civil society increasingly worried about the awful bloodshed of the Syrian people, are supporting a political initiative based on the results of a fact-finding mission which some of our colleagues undertook to Beirut and Damascus in September 2012. This initiative consists in calling for a delegation […]
Subjects Archives: Democracy
The Prisoners of Democracy AKP Style in Turkey
“The remains of the human beings, each weighing 70, 80, 90 kg when alive, fit into just five 20-kg plastic bags. I mean, even their bones had burned down. I am a lawyer and I have seen many autopsies after murders and accidents, but I have never seen anything like this. Even their teeth […]
Syria’s Ali Haidar: Both Sides Have Extremists
Syrian National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar is optimistic, but still thinks that “Syria is on top of a volcano.” Haidar, who is also the President of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), maintains that he “joined a project and not a ministry,” revealing that contacts with the armed opposition are underway.
Paraguay: For the Restoration of Democracy and Popular Sovereignty
The Guasú Front, which was the driving force behind the 2008 electoral triumph of President Fernando Lugo, and a broad spectrum of other social and political movements agreed to form the Front for Defense of Democracy (FDD), which “rejects and condemns the putschist government of Federico Franco” and calls upon people “to defend the […]
Euro Exit? Interview with Economist Alberto Montero Soler
Alberto Montero Soler: First of all, I have to say that those effects would only manifest themselves in the medium term. To propose an exit from the euro as an immediate solution to the deterioration of living conditions of people would mean to deceive them. We are at a crossroads where peripheral economies can only […]
Democracy Imperiled: The Greek Political Crisis
Recent developments in Greece provide an acute illustration of the long-standing contradiction between capitalism and democracy. This contradiction has also been felt in Greece in the past, including in the history of military coups aimed at the repression of popular movements and at ensuring the country’s subordination to the wishes of the United States during […]
U.S. Hands Off Mali! An Analysis of the Recent Events in the Republic of Mali
Recent developments in the West African Republic of Mali are raising serious concerns about the possibility of yet another U.S. intervention. On March 22, one month before a scheduled presidential election, a military coup toppled the government of President Amadou Toumani Touré. Quickly taking sides, the regional 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) […]
Democracy Instead of the Fiscal Treaty! We Need a Different Approach to Tackle the Crisis, and a Different Europe
Spring 2012. Merkel and Sarkozy rush from summit meeting to summit meeting, in order to save the euro. The yellow press smears the people of Greece. The struggle over a solution to the crisis is intensifying dramatically: by early 2013, an authoritarian-neoliberal alliance of business lobby groups, the financial industry, the EU Commission, the […]
Social Democracy’s Great Error: Similarities Between the Schröder and Zapatero Administrations
In circles close to the former Zapatero administration, attempts have been made to represent former Prime Minister Zapatero as the politician who “sacrificed himself to save Spain,” comparing him to former German Chancellor Schröder who, though aware that he would antagonize his electoral base with his clearly neoliberal policies, went ahead with them, for he […]
Democracy Ennahdha Style
Tunisian Prime Minister (and Ennahdha Secretary General) Hamadi Jebali: “Democracy is just a question of organization.” On the prime minister’s well-organized desk: “Discourse for ‘My Base’”; “Discourse for the ‘Others’*“; “Disclaimers for the Press” * I.e. Dirty bastards of miscreants. Nadia Khiari, aka Willis from Tunis, is a Tunisian painter and cartoonist. Translation by […]
Egypt’s Nour Party Leader: Onward to Salafi Pragmatism, Keeping Good Relations with US and Peace Treaty with Israel
Cairo — Emad Abdel Ghafour, the head of the Nour Party representing the Salafi school of Islamic fundamentalism, which is expected to make a great leap forward in Egypt’s first parliamentary elections since the collapse of the Mubarak regime, made the party’s foreign policy public, in an exclusive interview with Jiji Press. “We’ll strive […]
Indian ‘Republic Killing Its Own Children’ — Kishenji Fought for a Better World
India’s Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, West Bengal Chief Minister (also in charge of the province’s home affairs) Mamata Banerjee, Union Home Secretary R K Singh, and the top bosses of the security forces involved in the operation have all been bent on establishing one point: that the alleged encounter in the Burishol forest […]
The People’s Democratic Struggle and the Struggle for the Environment: An Interview with Fred Magdoff
“The people’ democratic struggle and the struggle for the environment should be intimately tied together.” — Fred Magdoff Fred Magdoff is professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and adjunct professor of crop and soil science at Cornell University. He is a co-author of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know […]
Rape, Drug Overdoses, and Suicide in Occupy Movement — What Does Democracy Look Like?
A series of crimes and tragedies in the Occupy movement — a rape in Philadelphia, drug overdoses in Portland and Vancouver, a suicide in Burlington — have led the media to scrutinize our movement more closely and have led the authorities in several cities to use such developments as an attempt to shut it down. […]
Ennahdha-Qatar-United States: Dangerous Liaisons
For his first post-election trip, Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Ennahdha party, visited the Emir of Qatar. No surprise — he has to thank his sponsors and reassure them on their investments. This visit is worrisome, since Ennahdha is now the leading political force in Tunisia. It is clear that the party is […]
Liberate Oakland, Shut Down the 1%: General Strike and Mass Day of Action, November 2
Below is the proposal passed by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly on Wednesday October 26, 2011 in reclaimed Oscar Grant Plaza. 1607 people voted. 1484 voted in favor of the resolution, 77 abstained and 46 voted against it, passing the proposal at 96.9%. The General Assembly operates on a modified consensus process that passes […]
Letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, regarding the US Allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful No. 1110 11 October 2011 H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon Secretary General United Nations, New York Excellency, I am writing to you to express our outrage regarding the allegations leveled by the United States officials against the Islamic Republic of Iran on the involvement of my country […]
MINUSTAH: Keeping the Peace, or Conspiring against It?
Nou dwe sèl mèt bout tè sa a: We should be the only owners of this land. From an anti-MINUSTAH protest last month. Photo by Ansel Herz. This was Haitian protesters’ message at a demonstration last month against the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH. October marks an upswing […]
Bahrain’s al-Wefaq, Pressured by Regional Players to Compromise
Bahrain’s largest opposition group is resisting grassroots demands for renewed full-scale street protests amid regional pressure to strike a compromise solution with the regime. Al-Wefaq and other Bahraini opposition groups boycotted the country’s parliamentary by-elections last Saturday. But al-Wefaq did not support the latest calls for demonstrations at Pearl Square and may be pushing […]
Elections in Bahrain: The Latest Ruse to Feign Democratic Change and Cover Up Continuing Repression
Elections held in Bahrain over the weekend are the latest ruse by the regime to feign democratic change. While the charade of ballot box rituals is taking place, the trial of health workers expected to appear in court this week is a fresh reminder that repression in the kingdom is far from over. It […]
