To: Mr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India; Mr. Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa; Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests; Ms. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of the National Advisory Council We write to express our concern at several violations of legal process in the approval of the POSCO […]
Subjects Archives: Movements
About South of the Border
Listen to Amy Goodman’s interview with Oliver Stone and Tariq Ali: Oliver Stone: So, Chávez was sort of a natural [as a subject for his work] because he is such a demonized, polarizing figure, but when I met him, it was not at all what I thought, you know, what we made him out […]
Protesters Block Israeli Cargo Ship in Oakland, California
In Oakland, California, an Israeli ship was blocked by protesters for the first time in history. 700-1,000 protesters blocked three different gates at 5:30 A.M. keeping dockworkers from unloading the Israeli cargo. ILWU members refused to cross picketline — citing “health & safety” provisions of their contract. Management demanded “instant arbitration.” The arbitrator took […]
Regarding New York Times Labor Coverage
To: Business Editor The New York Times I appreciate your detailed reporting on Chinese unions and workers vs. Japanese employers, but I write to ask whether that use of your resources is the cause of your ignoring similar union stories here at home. For example, I can find no coverage in the Times of the […]
Puerto Rico: Student Victory Batters Government’s Credibility
The government’s credibility and strategy were battered by the overwhelming victory of the student strike which had paralyzed the entire University of Puerto Rico system and surprised everyone with its legal and technological mastery, its willingness to resist the police, and its model of direct democracy which made the national political institution look bad. […]
Brazil’s Presidential Election: Opposition Tries “Republican Strategy” on Foreign Policy
Four years ago, when the government of Evo Morales re-nationalized its hydrocarbon industry, the Brazilian media was spoiling for a fight. After all, Petrobras, the Brazilian oil and gas company, had major interests there. But President Lula Da Silva was calm. “I haven’t had a fight with George W. Bush,” he told the press. “Why […]
On the Death of José Saramago
The death of José Saramago represents an irreparable loss for Portugal, for the Portuguese people, for Portuguese culture. José Saramago’s intellectual, artistic, human, and civic stature makes him a major figure in our history. His vast, remarkable, and unique literary work — which was recognized through the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998 — […]
‘Rich People Always Get Away’: Bhopal — Chronic Denial of Justice
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, […]
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 […]
Iran’s Authorities Say Greens Feared Low Turnout and Cancelled Demonstrations
. . . Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, de facto leaders of the Green Movement, had issued a statement on June 10 asking their supporters to stay home. According to Fars, a semi-official news agency with intimate ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Moussavi and Karroubi were afraid of low turnouts and […]
A Jewish Ship to Gaza
We are a group of German Jews who want to send a ship with not only daily necessities but also musical instruments to Gaza. We are acquiring a ship, loading it up in Germany, and then picking up passengers (Jewish and non-Jewish, German and non-German) at a Mediterranean port. Among the goods to be […]
The Limits of Citizenship in Twentieth-Century Brazil
Brodwyn M. Fischer. A Poverty of Rights: Citizenship and Inequality in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008. xx + 464 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8047-5290-9. From the 1920s to the 1950s, largely under the impetus of reforms associated with Getúlio Vargas (president, 1930-45, 1951-54), the Brazilian state expanded significantly and extended […]
Israeli Knesset Committee Recommends Revoking Privileges of MK Zoabi After Her Participation in Freedom Flotilla
The Israeli Knesset’s House Committee met Monday (7 June) to recommend revoking the privileges of MK Hanin Zoabi. The revocation would serve as punishment for Zoabi’s participation in last week’s Freedom Flotilla aid mission to Gaza, an act some in the Knesset are calling treason. Zoabi made history in February 2009, becoming the first […]
Turkey: Anger on the Streets
Tens of thousands again come together to protest. The captured and the dead (from the recent raid by Israeli commandos on an aid flotilla) have been returned (to Turkey), but the Turkish people are intent on continuing to make their voices heard. And fuelling the fury is the news of the preliminary autopsy reports, […]
Turkish Gaza Aid Ship Survivors Speak
Anita McNaught, Diler Furkan, Harriet Sherwood, Ismail Yeşildağ, Justin Vela, Muharrem Güneş, Mustafa Beterhan, Sadettin Furkan, and Suat Coşmaz
Anita McNaught: The last passengers from the Mavi Marmara arrive at a hospital in Turkey — two men, up to now too badly injured to fly out of Israel, their lives still hanging in the balance. . . . Of the 24 injured brought to Ankara’s Ataturk Hospital, five remain in a critical condition. […]
Egyptians Protest Israeli Raid
Ian Lee: Demonstrators demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Egypt. Today’s protest also landed on the same day as the Shoura Council election. Protesters and the political opposition were eager to tie the two events together.
Colonizers’ Hutzpah
I am grateful to MRZine for inviting me to comment on “Israel in the current conjuncture, in the wake of the attack on the Freedom Flotilla and international reaction to it”. But in truth I have very little to add to the excellent comments and analyses that have been presented in various left-wing publications, […]
The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and International Law
Excerpt: Did the human rights activists on board the ship have the right to repel the Israeli commanders on the basis of self-defence? Since the initial boarding of the ship was likely illegal, the civilian passengers did have the right to act in self-defence against the invading soldiers. However, lawful self-defence on the part […]
Norman G. Finkelstein: “Israel Is Now a Lunatic State”
Norman G. Finkelstein: What happened with the Gaza flotilla was not an accident. You have to remember that the Israeli cabinet met for fully a week. All the cabinet ministers discussed and deliberated how they would handle the flotilla. There were numerous reports in the Israeli press, numerous suggestions, numerous recommendations about what to […]
India and Pakistan: Labor, Democratization, and Development
Christopher Candland. Labor, Democratization and Development in India and Pakistan. London: Routledge, 2007. 216 pages. This book, by Christopher Candland, sets out to provide a documented analytical and empirical study of the linkages between organized labor, development, and democratization in India and Pakistan from the colonial period till date. It attempts to explain why […]
