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NATO’s Humanitarian Response
NATO: “Bah! It’s just African immigrants dying of hunger.” 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. Barbara Lewis, “U.N. Says 10 Percent Fatality for Libya Sea Migrants” (Reuters, 13 May 2011). var idcomments_acct = […]
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Maseerat al ‘Awda, the Return to Palestine March
Following a general meeting that brought together representatives from various Palestinian and Lebanese civil society organizations as well as individual activists, the Organizing Committee of Maseerat al ‘Awda, the Return to Palestine March, has announced the launch of its preparatory activities. The “Return to Palestine March” will take participants to the border with Occupied […]
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The War in Libya: Race, “Humanitarianism,” and the Media
Firing for Media Effect: Setting the “African” Agenda “We left behind our friends from Chad. We left behind their bodies. We had 70 or 80 people from Chad working for our company. They cut them dead with pruning shears and axes, attacking them, saying you’re providing troops for Gadhafi. The Sudanese, the Chadians were […]
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Why the Bombing of Libya Cannot Herald a Return to the 1990s Era of Humanitarian Intervention
On 4 April 2011, when David Chandler’s essay below was first published in e-IR, French and UN forces intervened in Ivory Coast on behalf of Alassane Ouattara and his forces, eventually deposing President Laurent Gbagbo on 11 April 2011. Humanitarian pretexts were offered for that intervention, but rather perfunctorily, almost as an afterthought to […]
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Washington, DC: Rally against Human Rights Abuses in Bahrain
“Demand an end to the intimidation, torture and killing of peaceful protesters, human rights activists, and health and medical personnel in Bahrain at the hands of the Bahraini military and security forces provided by Saudi Arabia and other states.” — American Council for Freedom in Bahrain Washington, DC, 15 April 2011 For more information about […]
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Stay Human: Freedom Flotilla Renames Voyage in Honor of Vittorio Arrigoni
The murder of human rights activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, is a tragedy for his family, for those of us who knew him, and for the Palestinians who loved and admired him. The Steering Committee of Freedom Flotilla 2 condemns this senseless murder and the people who are behind it. They took the life of one […]
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“Artists in Exile: Forgotten Iraqi Refugees in Syria”: Interview with Mel Lehman of Common Humanity
“Syria hosts the largest number of Iraqi refugees who have fled their home since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Estimates as to how many refugees are huddled in Syria vary, but most organizations estimate that roughly 1.2-1.5 million Iraqis have staked a temporary claim on neighboring soil. ‘Temporary,’ however, is a relative time-frame for the […]
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Sectarian Slogans in Syria
There are some sectarian slogans being chanted by SOME (not all) protesters in Syria (they refer to the need for “Sunnis who fear God”). It is an opportunity to make this point: if one supports protests and revolutions against all Arab regimes (and Iran), it does not follow that one should endorse all strands […]
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Gilbert Achcar’s Defense of Humanitarian Intervention
Gilbert Achcar defends the recently “UN-authorized” imperialist intervention in Libya on the ground that general principles may require exceptions in concrete cases. “Every general rule admits of exceptions. This includes the general rule that UN-authorized military interventions by imperialist powers are purely reactionary ones, and can never achieve a humanitarian or positive purpose.”1 This kind […]
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Ivory Coast: Humanitarian Intervention or Debt Collection?
This just in from Bloomberg: The West African nation’s 2032 bonds issued a year ago jumped 7.7 percent to 55.438 cents on the dollar, the highest since Dec. 2, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The debt has rallied 14 percent in the past two days after Gbagbo troops surrendered. . . . The country’s […]
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The Occupation Cookbook or the Model of the Occupation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb
Excerpt from Marc Bousquet, “Introduction”: The Occupation Cookbook is a “manual” that describes the organization of the student occupation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences that took place in the spring of 2009 and lasted for 35 days. It was written for two reasons: to record what happened, and to present the particular […]
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Solidarity with Choi Daniel, aka Black Comet, a Zainichi Fighter against Racism in Japan
We, the Black Comet Defense Committee, appeal to all fighters against discrimination in the world: We would like to let you know what happened on a street near the Shibuya station, Tokyo, on December 4, 2010. Choi Daniel (崔檀悦), also known as Black Comet, a young Zainichi Korean sociologist born in Japan, protested, alone, […]
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Grave Human Rights Violations Continue in Honduras
Tegucigalpa, 19 January 2011 The National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) denounced today that, in Honduras, grave human rights violations persist under the Porfirio Lobo Sosa administration. According to Berta Oliva, Coordinator of the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), her organization documented 1,071 human rights violations in just […]
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State of the Dream 2011: Austerity for Whom?
The attack on the public sector through pay freezes, furloughs, layoffs, and proposed cuts is also an attack on Black and Latino workers. Cuts to social safety nets hit Blacks and Latinos hardest. Video by United for a Fair Economy. Read United for a Fair Economy, “State of the Dream 2011: Austerity for Whom?,” […]
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Support Grows for Hunger Strike by Lucasville Uprising Prisoners on Death Row Protesting Their Harsh and Inhumane Treatment
Monday, January 3, three inmates on death row at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) started a hunger strike to protest the conditions of their confinement. Keith LaMar, Siddique Abdullah Hasan (Carlos Sanders), and Jason Robb received death sentences following the rebellion in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, OH. They have been held at […]
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Afghanistan and Iran: War, Human Rights, and Socioeconomic Development
Listen to the interview with Jerica Arents and Mary Dean: Jerica Arents: What’s interesting, we heard many people who are in higher echelons of society [in Bamiyan Province in Afghanistan] say that “US forces need to stay, they are protecting us,” but ordinary people, ordinary Afghans, whom we talked to said, “We want the […]
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Arresting Latinos for Marijuana in California: Possession Arrests in 33 Cities, 2006-08
Highlights: In the last twenty years, California made 850,000 arrests for possessing small amounts of marijuana, and half a million arrests in the last ten years, disproportionately of young Latinos and blacks. U.S. government surveys consistently find that young Latinos use marijuana at lower rates than young whites. Yet from 2006 through 2008, major […]
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For Colored Boys Who Speak Softly
For colored boys I will crucify myself like Christ let my blood purify and sanctify these words create a doctrine and go knocking door to door letting the people know that messiahs are here that we are messengers even though we embody the word queer that we are a reminder of how colonization has […]
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Racism: A Passion from Above
I’d like to add some reflections on the notion of “state racism” to our meeting’s agenda. These reflections run against a widespread interpretation of measures that our government has recently taken, from the law on the veil to the expulsions of the Roma. This interpretation detects an opportunism that is exploiting racism and xenophobia […]
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Paris, October 1961
Leïla Sebbar, The Seine Was Red. Paris, October 1961: A Novel (translated by Mildred Mortimer). Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2008. xxiv + 116pp. $17.95 U.S. (pb). ISBN 10-0253-2202-38. The official French obfuscation of the police violence against Algerians in Paris in October 1961 has inspired long-term personal and collective memory retrieval that […]