Asylum policy: how to create a permanent crisis (tags)
The principle of repression instead of adapting the asylum system to changing circumstances had long been established by this time. The discourse is being whipped up from the right. In its dispatch, the (German) Federal Council justifies its repressive package of measures with the dissatisfied mood among the population towards "delinquent asylum seekers."
Lockdown light - Corona crisis and capitalism (tags)
The pandemic and countermeasures have effects shaped by the neoliberal form of capitalism[ that has dominated since the 1980s. 1.the independence of the financial sphere ,2.the fragmentation of the labor markets, and 3.the weakening of social systems.
Civic democracy has become as threadbare as a worn-out shirt.. While the Corona measures condemn us all to an existence as individuals, each in his cell, alienating us from each other with masks, making any experience of collectivity impossible,
Children suffer strongly from homeschooling in Lockdown (tags)
The situation, which UNICEF described as a "catastrophic education crisis" at the beginning of March, continues. In addition, errors, stereotypes, misjudgements and trivialization prevail in the discussion about children, Corona and digital distance learning.
Liberty restrictions such as lockdowns, contact restrictions, or mandatory masks are authoritarian by their very nature. Authoritarian action, however, does not correspond to a liberal state, but to a state of authority, as it was realized in the GDR (East Germany).
The war on the virus is a crucial backdrop for destabilization and fear, before which vast amounts of public funds are siphoned off in the name of saving lives, saving the environment, and saving people's livelihoods - all of which are attacked by the arbitrariness of this very capitalist rule.
Power excess without end: Politics suffers from "long covid" (tags)
"Whoever should once play with the state of emergency to restrict freedom will find my friends and me on the barricades in defense of democracy, and this is meant quite literally," Willi Brandt once said. And what are the citizen sheep of today doing? They are lining up for their second vaccination injection.
The Viral Death of School (tags)
A real improvement in the school system could only come from a change in the underlying conception of man. Children must be treated as human beings with their own dignity and rights - not as stuffed geese that can be filled with knowledge of the state at will.
The 2nd of Many Documents That Prove Covid-19 is a Crime Against Humanity (tags)
In the ONTARIO SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE -
The 1st of Many Documents That Prove Covid-19 is a Crime Against Humanity (tags)
S.F. STILL PROMOTING GENOCIDE (tags)
San Francisco still refusing to tell the truth about any of this. Still promoting genocide and crimes against humanity.
Time to end the panic mode (tags)
Tyrannies reverse the rule of law. They turn law into an instrument of injustice. They cloak their crimes in false legality. They use the outward decorum of courts and trials to disguise their criminality.
The continued false alarm (tags)
In the past, a pandemic could only be declared if a new pathogen caused many deaths worldwide. In 2009, the WHO changed the definition in time for the swine flu fake pandemic so that the criteria of "new" and "worldwide spread" were sufficient.
Covid protests and Weimar Family Court (tags)
Democracy lives from criticism and protest. The Weimar Family Court has banned two schools from requiring students to wear masks and take Corona tests - because the children would be harmed "physically, psychologically, pedagogically and in their psychosocial development."
What kind of conditioning will we be subjected to after being stripped of our natural relationships? I want to live a life that breaks the invisible cage and firmly reaches out to nature and humanity.
Release the vaccines and put an end to the lockdown (tags)
If we were to discard the rigid vaccination plan, which is divided into priority groups, and simply release the vaccines to all interested parties, this would be a golden way out of the whole nightmare.
Corona: When will we ever understand? (tags)
The Corona measures of those currently in power are intended to prevent great calamity. They are used to justify the most severe restrictions on constitutional rights, the likes of which have not been seen since the end of World War II.
Corona and state. The winner is the one who defeats the pandemic (tags)
Societies in Europe have accumulated enormous wealth, but a few wealthy people have appropriated it. With this wealth, the comprehensive work break and all solidarity measures can be financed without any problems. That is why we demand the introduction of a Europe-wide Covid solidarity levy on high wealth.
Does Corona policy threaten our fundamental rights? Scientist warns of "creeping process" (tags)
The state is allowed to restrict citizens in a pandemic so as not to endanger public health. But the state doesn't have the right to harm citizens. It does not get to decide which life is worth protecting and which is not. This article was published in German on 2/22/2021.
Never waste a good crisis (tags)
The negotiation of society after Corona is now beginning, and it is now important to strengthen positive tendencies such as the expansion of the public health system, a more planned economy and social solidarity. But these appeals only cover up their own helplessness and lack of advice. .
Corona in global retreat (tags)
The number of reported cases in the US has fallen massively since the beginning of January-by around 60 percent. Experts consider the Corona measures in the US to be less stringent than in many European countries.
"We must look at the side-effects" (tags)
"Restricting basic rights is no small matter, and it is the duty of politics to restore their exercise as soon as the infection situation permits." (Lockdown consequences: daycare centers and schools to open) German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier
A better future after COVID-19 (tags)
People must decide how they want to live and what they want to produce in a fair ecological exchange that respects the interests of all people. This would also reverse the logic of competition between countries which is based on lowering labor costs, and promote ecological goals.
The real plague is the pandemic spread of shareholder value to institutions of general interest such as hospitals, nursing homes, old-age care and education. The dogma of "private before state" has become deeply ingrained in official thinking.
Strengthening the welfare state (tags)
Trump's smear campaigns, scapegoating, fear mongering, $8-trillion tax heists, corporate welfare, attacking the poor, minorities, seniors, disabled, children and students have left democracy in intensive care. Helicopter money, a Marshall Plan for journalism and ending wars could revive the debate culture.
Corona Measures: When children are the ones who suffer (I and II) (tags)
The government seems to be abdicating its responsibility by 1) not supplying the population with masks, 2) not compensating people so they can stay away from workplaces, 3) eliminating school meals for hundreds of millions of children and 5) not including children in decision-making.
Invitation to New Thinking (tags)
The pandemic has made the risk of our extensive lifestyle tangible. For this global crisis is not an exogenous shock. Rather, crass, profit-oriented globalization has fueled its spread.
Corona contsainment could cause more suffering than it prevents (tags)
UNICEF calculated that an additional 150 million children were pushed into poverty as a result of the economic collapse provoked by the quasi-global lockdown in spring. Already in July, experts from the World Food Program (WFP) warned that the Corona crisis could threaten an additional 130 million people
Lockdown and curfews, state of emergency and tracing apps, compulsory testing and quarantines, serial stops, compulsory masks, short-time work and mass unemployment, waves of bankruptcies and extended poverty traps: the COVID-19 disaster has escalated the chronic crisis of capital utilization with falling profits.
New corona measures. We need "Sweden light," instead of "lockdown light" (tags)
COVID-19 is currently responsible for 1,2% of deaths in Sweden, but probably gets 99% of the attention. We need to maintain some perspective. Sebastian Rushworth, MD
Corona vaccine development - they prefer not to ask about risks and side effects (tags)
Thousands or even millions could be vaccinated on the basis of "emergency approval." We will probably have to live with the virus. The current strategy of damaging measures until a vaccine is available is a bumpy path with incalculable risks, side effects and visible collateral damage.
Behavior and body in the sights of capital (tags)
The proclamation of states of emergency in the spring of 2020, even if not in all countries, helped to consolidate a state crisis management system that overturned constitutions and now completely bypassed democratic decision-making processes.
The Great Barrington Declaration (tags)
The ship was saved but all the passengers drowned - a Reaganomics cartoon
The future of humanity and the earth require a break from the rule of capital and the security state.... The political public is now at least beginning to discuss again how to deal with the constitution and fundamental rights. It remains to be seen what will become of them.
Job guarantee for COVID-pandemic victims (tags)
A job guarantee for the long-term unemployed is needed. A sufficient number of jobs must be created. This is where politics is needed. The quality and range of public services can be improved. Long-term unemployment is a market failure.People who want to work cannot find a job.
Advice on Corona and Budget 2020 (tags)
Emancipatory politics is characterized by the fact that interests are negotiated. The post-Corona phase will show what can be learned about the relation between politics and capital. Civil society should be engaged and resistant to ruling politics
The contagion of revolt spreads…Revolts everywhere! (tags)
Corona epidemic and Yemen (tags)
Authorities first wanted to calm down and played down the pandemic. Afterward, they had to convince the population to keep unusual physical distance, to wash their hands well at all times, and to refrain from major events. Finally, they wanted the population to accept the lockdown.
The war metaphor in the Corona crisis (tags)
Instead of a positive elimination of conditions, a social regression could also occur: intensified competition in the fight for market share, "exclusive solidarity" (Klaus Dörre) in the fight for jobs and welfare benefits. Will governments master the crisis?
What was thought to be temporary has remained until today. Snowden warns of a similar process in the context of a real crisis. Surveillance is accepted The virus is dangerous. But the destruction of our rights is fatal because it is permanent, Snowden believes.
How do you prepare for the time when the affluent society crumbles? French intellectuals have even declared a new science - "collapsology." Solidarity is the humane and enlightened answer, not the assault rifle. Rep. Omar proposes a rent and mortgage moratorium.
Thoughts and Theses on the Corona Exceptional State (tags)
The state of emergency threatens to become the normal state - Maximum vigilance is now required to ensure that the new state of emergency does not gradually normalize and that the authoritarian turnaround does not become entrenched.
against the pandemic of capital, social revolution! (tags)
The state measures justified by the coronavirus are a qualitative leap, decisive and homogeneous, in the global counter–insurrection and in the bourgeois intentions to attempt to initiate a new cycle of the accumulation of capital. And in the face of this war the proletariat only has two paths: to sacrifice their lives in it or to oppose themselves to it in order to defend their human needs.
Freedom of Asembly is Sick (tags)
The denial of these problems and the refusal to deal with the destructive effects of capitalism are the reason why the USA is particularly ill-equipped to face future challenges.
Is Capitalism Out of Order? (tags)
Growing debt is actually not a big problem in a growing economy as long as it does not grow faster than the gross domestic product (GDP). The debt mountain of the capitalist world system is growing much faster than the world economic output.
How Singapore has taken control of the virus and avoided panic (tags)
The city-state has learned a lot from the sars crisis and is not letting the coronavirus get it down. Not all recipes are transferable to other countries, but some are. And unusual measures are taken to ensure the cohesion of society.
Sanctions Are Like Bombs (tags)
Venezuela is one of 41 states that depend on external food assistance to avert a humanitarian crisis. The US government is copying its blockade policy against Cuba. There is hardly any criticism of US sanctions. Six million, 60% of the population, are sustained by the food program.
The (Temporary) End of Globalization (tags)
Protectionist measures could lead to losses of prosperity and increase the pressure to introduce more measures. Before the 2008 crisis, world trade grew over 6% per year (now 2%). Why must US consumers pay more for imports from the EU? Why are European consumers punished?
Austerity Policy as Momentous Mistake (tags)
The IMF's austerity policy of the last years was misguided. That austerity policy led to intensified growth declines and increasing unemployment and did not reach its goal of permanently calming the financial markets. Public investments could raise economic growth.
Trade War and Zero Deficit Myth (tags)
State debts are often necessary and are not automatically bad economically. Investments are prerequisites of future prosperity. When private parties spend too little, the state must step into the breach.
There is outrage over the nationalist economic policy of "America First." The parallels to the 1929 system crisis are obvious. The unstable house of cards could now finally collapse. Credit-financed demand is created for a goods-producing system that suffocates in its own productivity.
Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) (tags)
Closing tax havens, ending tax competition, and prohibiting profit-shifting are necessary for a fair tax system. The richest 1% in Pennsylvania could receive another $3 billion from Trump’s tax scam! Democracy is different than plutocracy. Problems do not disappear when they are ignored.
The Fairy-tale of the End of the Financial Crisis (tags)
Between 2008 and 2010, the EU Commission approved state aid of 4.3 trillion euros. The potential crisis of the global economy has grown and not declined. A system crash was prevented by the actions of central banks and states.
PHILIPPINES: Sending 9-year-olds to jail is height of cruelty to poor (tags)
Members of Akbayan party-list together with child rights advocates today trooped to the House of Representatives to call on legislators to abandon plans to pass a proposed measure that would lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from the current 15 to 9 years old.
Causes of Great Problems Faded Out in Elections (tags)
Elections today have one thing in common: they don't change anything. Pseudo-battles dominate in which the actors are intensely focused on evading the burning questions and diverting the electorate from the real causes of problems..
Why Philippine President Duterte is not a socialist (tags)
As new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte prepares to assume office, a growing number of Filipinos seem to – or want to – believe his surprising claim that he will be the country’s first “socialist” President.
The Works Progress Administration created 651K miles of highway, 124K bridges, 8K parks and 125K public buildings including 41K schools. In the US of Amnesia, corporate subsidies are called public necessities and public welfare unnecessary Orwell warned us of this inversion of language.
Israel
At the end of yet another «historic» marathon session Brussels negotiations between the Greek government and its creditors, a «definitive» agreement has yet again been found to «resolve" the Greek crisis: Greek Prime Minister Tsipras and his team have come to accept as a condition for new loans to the virtually bankrupt Greek government, a plan of austerity measures significantly harsher than he had rejected a week earlier and against which he had, supposedly, held a referendum! The only point where he apparently got something concrete, is that of the reduction in military spending: the creditors have accepted that it is weaker than what they asked for...
Tsipras Surrenders to Troika Demands (tags)
Greece
Israel's Response to Everything: Collective Punishment (tags)
Israel
February 2015 Honduras coup update (tags)
Another February in Honduras: two killings of journalists, more persecution, evictions, threats... and the militarisation with something like Plan Colombia that may soon be funded by the US congress, and more
Austerity Policy as Momentous Mistake (tags)
The IMF's austerity policy of the last years was misguided. That austerity policy led to intensified growth declines and increasing unemployment... Public investments could raise economic growth both in the short- and long-term.
Anti-Russan Sanctions Wars Continue (tags)
Russia
Video: Moral Mondays Are Back in Business (tags)
The first Moral Monday since court struck down the North Carolina General Assembly's new rules — interpreted by many as measures designed to silence the Moral Monday Forward Together movement — singing, praying, chanting, and civil disobedience arrests looked a lot like what we saw from Moral Monday in 2013.
More NATO Forces for Eastern Europe (tags)
Ukraine
There are voices beyond the monotone, nuances from the side of writers, scholars and economic experts.. Every war and conflict needs a narrative that defines good and evil, that classifies, simplifies and serves interests.
Cold War Politics in Sochi (tags)
imperialism
New EU Guidelines on Israel (tags)
Israel
Portland's Austerity Resistance Movement Sparks Changes to City (tags)
On June 20, Oregon’s Portland City Council unanimously voted to approve a budget that had been one of the most grassroots-contested examples of austerity in recent memory.
Quantitative Crisis: Bernanke’s “Stimulus” For The 1% (tags)
When I heard that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress last week that it was too soon for the Fed to end its extraordinary stimulus programs, I did a double take.
Marathon Terror: Homegrown or State-Sponsored? (tags)
false flag
Child Poverty Massively Increases through EU Austerity Programs (tags)
Caritas warns "lost generations" are growing up in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland. The Cairitas study blames the austerity programs for the impoverishment of children. A new prioritization and an even distribution of the burdens of the debt crisis are demanded.
Syria
Workers and Immigrants of All Nationalities, Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win (tags)
May Day in LA was another success! Again, 10,000 workers and immigrants of all nationalities led by the May Day Coalition in Los Angeles marched along the downtown LA in unity against oppressive capital and the 1% that kept them exploited and oppressed through the years. Despite the troubled winds, besides all the other marches, the workers movement remained united. This is the second year that the workers marched under one banner. All despite the machinations of other groups to divide and disperse the movement.
Security Council Authorizes 300 Syrian Monitors (tags)
Syria
Financial Oligarch Power Raping Greece (tags)
class war
Criminalizing Dissent in America (tags)
tyranny
BTL:European Economic Crisis, Austerity Measures, Resistance Portend Future of U.S. Econom (tags)
Interview with Richard Wolff, economics professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, now visiting professor at the New School University's graduate program in international affairs, conducted by Scott Harris
Criminalizing OWS Protesters (tags)
class war
Israeli/Palestinian Prisoner Swap (tags)
Palestine
Politics in the Crisis Trap (tags)
A discontinuance of debt-financed economic programs leads to an economic slack period resulting in stagnation and recession. Crisis policy finds itself in a philosophical paradox. The political class can only choose between more indebtedness up to state bankruptcy (with hyper-inflation) or harsh austerity programs.
Global Economic Crisis Deepening (tags)
Depression
The Philippine Government Has Failed to Address Poverty in its First Year in Office (tags)
The latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey showing an increase in hunger is a major concern that must be taken seriously and not brushed off in a squabble over statistics. According to the March 4-7 poll 20.5% of respondents -- or an estimated 4.1 million families -- have gone hungry at least once in the past three months. This is up from the estimated 3.4 million families recorded in November 2010, i.e., almost one million extra families are going hungry today due to poverty. Along with the other examples of poverty and marginalization – such as the shocking deaths of up to 30 people in Palawan, including children, due to easily preventable ailments such as diarrhea – this demonstrates that the situation of the masses is deteriorating.
Waging War on Chicago Workers (tags)
labor struggles
Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (tags)
The Commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress has been created at the beginning of 2008 on French government's initiative.
Obama Cutting Social Security Funds in Deal to Extend Tax Cuts (tags)
To provide political cover for this giveaway to the rich, the plan includes an extension of federal long-term unemployment benefits for 13 months and a one-year reduction in the Social Security payroll tax from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. While this would temporarily increase paychecks for tens of millions, it would also deprive Social Security of $120 billion in funding. The White House said this shortfall would be made up through general revenue sources, but these have not been specified. [And probably do not exist.]
What’s Going On In Europe? (tags)
"The attack on education is an international phenomenon. In the UK on Wednesday, tens of thousands of students walked out of classes over tripled tuition fees. Thousands participated in a demonstration in London, where more than 1,000 were penned in and contained by police for hours. Police used batons to beat back students attempting to reach parliament. The demonstrations in Britain came two weeks after more than 55,000 took to the streets throughout the UK. A crackdown by the government has included the arrest of dozens of students. In the US, there have been mass protests and, in some cases, occupations in the state of California against tuition fee increases of more than 30 per cent. The education cuts in Italy and the UK are part of a wave of austerity measures throughout Europe aimed at forcing workers and young people to pay for an ongoing economic crisis."
Destructive Neoliberal Austerity (tags)
austerity, not stimulus coming
The IMF Dictates More Than Ever (tags)
"Many developing countries that were independent in food production at the start of the 1980s import food necessary for their populations today. The subsidized agriculture of western countries has flooded the cou9ntries of the South. Haiti imports the rice that it once cultivated.."
Franklin Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights (tags)
his economic bill of rights
BRAZILIAN DIPLOMACY ISOLATED THE USA (tags)
Lift his pants Uncle San.
CHINESE, EUROPEANS AND AMERICAN LEAD THE LISTA OF THE MORE PROTECTIONISTS (tags)
The "open economy" of the richest is closed.
"We are in the Greatrest Financial Bubble of all Time" (tags)
"An old world perishes as a new world arises-pictorially comparable to a caterpillar that dies because the butterfly comes to life. What is called financial crisis is only a superficial symptom.. One of the main causes of the debacle is the Americanized corporate governance." (F.Malik)
Taxing the Rich Wins in Oregon (tags)
Victory! Thousands of Oregon workers fought valiantly over the past weeks to ensure that corporations and the rich will see their taxes raised, so that social services, health care, and education could be saved. Massive phone banking operations, door-to-door canvassing, and rallies were used by union and community members to educate the public about a progressive tax measure used to offset the state’s dire budget situation.
Building community centers could be a way to learn from O Canada and break from the false religion of the market and profit. When the market and competition are made absolute, they become idols. CEOs are called job creators and workers "cost-factors."
The First Shots of the Trade War (tags)
With the G-20 summit approaching, cheerful talk of “international cooperation” fills the White House press-room. These comments carry with them the implication that “free trade” is integral to “cooperation,” a fact made explicit in the last meeting of the G-20. There, in the name of “united action,” world leaders agreed not to install any new protectionist measures. Since then, protectionist measures have flourished. Instead of global cooperation we have its opposite: international tensions are on the rise as trade disputes sharpen.
AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR COMMUNITY: SUPPORT THE LONG BEACH HILTON BOYCOTT! (tags)
The Echo Park Community Coalition based in central Los Angeles , community alliance of veterans, youth, students and community organizations and activist expresses our unequivocal support to the announced boycott being called by the workers of Hilton Long Beach starting September 3, 2009. Exactly one year ago, we warned the management of Hilton Long Beach that the Filipino American community of Long Beach will not tolerate discrimination of any kind or form most so of Filipino workers inside the hotel. Instead the situation turned from bad to worst. We are appalled at the intransigence of the management that does not only exploits the workers of all nationalities but oppresses them by practicing the most anti-labor measures such as dismissal of worker organizers, checking the workers lockers, preventing them from organizing and other anti-workers measures.
Hilton Hotel Workers in Long Beach Calls for a Boycott (tags)
On behalf of the Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV) a national alliance of veterans, youth, students and community organizations and activist for veterans rights based in Los Angeles, California, we express our unequivocal support to the announced boycott being called by the workers of Hilton Long Beach starting September 3, 2009. Exactly one year ago, we warned the management of Hilton Long Beach that the Filipino American community of Long Beach will not tolerate discrimination of any kind or form most so of Filipino workers inside the hotel. Instead the situation turned from bad to worst. We are appalled at the intransigence of the management that does not only exploits the workers of all nationalities but oppresses them by practicing the most anti-labor measures such as dismissal of worker organizers, checking the workers lockers, preventing them from organizing and other anti-workers measures.
Though a lot of so-called “progressives” voted no on the ballot measures on California’s May 19 special election ballot, the overwhelming defeat of these legislative compromises aimed at a short-term solution to California's budget problems has been a boon for the radical Right. For 43 years, ever since they elected Ronald Reagan as governor in 1966 and passed Proposition 13 in 1978, a cadre of radical-Right Republicans have been seeking to destroy the financial basis of California's government and thereby force the elimination of virtually all social welfare programs as well as scorched-earth cuts in education and health care. Now they’ve got their wish: after the budget dust settles, California will now no longer be in the business of helping working-class and lower-income people, and will instead be a low-tax,corporate-privilege Libertarian haven.
EPCC COMMENDS CALIFORNIA VOTERS FOR REJECTING ANTI-PEOPLE BUDGET MEASUREs (tags)
The Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC) highly commends and congratulates the California voters for rejecting a package of budget-balancing measures that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said were needed to keep a $15 billion deficit from widening to $21 billion. Only the proposal to limit lawmaker pay passed. Five of the propositions failed with 64 percent of the votes counted, according to California’s elections office. Despite threats from lawmakers and fear mongering that the crisis would aggravate because of the a record $42 billion budget gap, the people voted against the measures. The losing proposals would have capped spending and
Prop 98 can provoke a city-wide rent strike in San Francisco, LA, and elsewhere.. (tags)
Housing activists have absolutely no plan to effectively confront the passage of Proposition 98, which will abolish rent control statewide.
The Downhill Plunge Speeds Up (tags)
The state has a social nature and cannot only be power and security state. In crisis, we are all Keynesians. Taboo for a long time, the New Deal program slowly sounds promising again. The 1933 "Home Owners Loan Act" was created in the first 100 days of Roosevelt's presidency.
RP human rights measures 'window-dressing'--HRW (tags)
Measures introduced by the Philippine government to curb human rights abuses are mere "window-dressing," an official from Human Rights Watch said Thursday. "The list of actions touted by the Philippine government as progress unfortunately seem little more than window-dressing," said Elaine Pearson, Asia deputy director for the New York-based rights group.
Venezuela: The economic tug of war between revolution and counter-revolution (tags)
A recent report from Datanalisis (1) [the Venezuelan statistical service] revealed what already many people knew and suffered from. Scarcity of basic foodstuff is becoming intolerable. This study established that milk, beef and sugar have become very difficult to find. Other products like chicken, cooking oil, cheese, sardines and black beans are also very scarce. The analysts who compiled the report interviewed 800 people in some 60 different shops, supermarkets and markets, both in the private sector and the public distribution network, Mercal. 73,3% of the places visited had no milk powder for sale. 51,7% no longer had refined sugar, 40% had no cooking oil, and 26,7% no black beans, a basic staple in Venezuela. Two thirds of the shoppers declared that they experienced food scarcity to one degree or another in the shops where they usually buy. Queues of a few hours, sometimes up to four hours, to buy some milk are no longer the exception. This is reminiscent of the situation in Chile when wholesale economic sabotage was used against the left-wing Popular Unity government of the 1970s. Without giving in to the panic stories and exaggerated reports of the right-wing media, we must understand that this is a serious situation. The bosses have even threatened to extend this situation into the first quarter of 2008, especially because of the uncertainties related to the questions of private property included in the new constitutional reform. They are grabbing the revolution by its throat.
THE RECENT JUDGMENT OF EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE: A BIG BLOW TO THE CAUSE OF PEACE (tags)
The Alliance for the Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP)-USA vehemently condemn the recent judgment by the European Court of Justice that dismissed the appeal of Prof. Jose Maria Sison for access to the secret documents used by the Council of the European Union. By putting Prof. Sison in the so-called terrorist list and imposing on him punitive sanctions, the European Court dealt the peace process in the Philippines, a very heavy blow
(2) Boycott Bulgarian Officials Making Worse Animal Protection Legislation (tags)
Few weeks before Bulgarian accession to EU we are still witness to worsening the animal protection legislation taken by the Government.
Top 10 Corporate Spenders On 2006 Initiatives Give $134 Mil. (tags)
Corporations Give 61% of Total Initiative Funding, Outspend Unions 12 To 1 Prop. 89 Will Level the Playing Field
Alan Dershowitz's Sinister Scheme: Paradigm? What Paradigm? (tags)
Dershowitz's claim that civil liberties require new government powers is eye-catching and remarkable for its initial appearance of absurdity. But tiresomely enough, he never resolves the apparent absurdity. There is no reconciliation of civil liberties with the kind of measures Dershowitz proposes. We can accept Dershowitz's defence of freedom, or his advocacy of new and rather sinister government powers. But we cannot accept both. One of these angles is there for appearance, one for content. It does not take much analysis to work out which is which.
Congress' fluffy measures keep constituents happy (tags)
Isn't unneeded, unnessary government great at wasting our money to get people re-elected?
Occupation is unilateral (tags)
From the early 1990s, the Israeli occupation has had but one goal: the complete destruction of the Palestinian national cause, writes Gabriela Becker*
French government withdraws “First Job Contract,” enlists unions in assault on job securit (tags)
President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced yesterday that new legislation will be drawn up to replace the “First Job Contract” (CPE), which sparked a massive wave of protests and strikes in recent weeks. Leaders of the trade unions, some student unions and “left” political parties immediately declared the shift marked a decisive victory for the anti-CPE movement and signalled their intention to halt further mass mobilisations against the government.
WHILE ROME BURNS, NOT NERO, BUT CALIGULA'S HORSE...
"Redistribution to poorer groups can increase growth..The public debate about the economy and economic policy is dominated by the practical necessity logic. Desires, interests and goals of social groups play no role in the discussion of economic reforms."
US Restrictions Affect Sales to Cuba (tags)
US Restrictions Affect Sales to Cuba
The fairy tale of the Dutch tolerant society and the humane asylum-policy (tags)
In contrarily with the general allegations in American and Western newsmedia, not only the Netherlands is no open society for minorities, moreover the Dutch asylum-policy is violating gravely international humanitarian principles.
CALIFORNIA PARENTS GAIN RIGHT TO KNOW ABOUT PESTICIDES USED IN K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOLS (tags)
EMBRACING THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE & RIGHT TO KNOW
Californians Support Sustainable Agriculture! (tags)
On March 6, 2004 residents of Mendocino county passed a measure banning the cultivation of Genetically Engineered (GE) crops -- also known as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) -- within their county. Mendocino county’s Measure H is being used as a model for at least seven other counties in California where local residents are well on their way to passing similar measures. Californians feel that local measures seeking to ban the cultivation of GE crops are critical steps to take in the promotion of economically and ecologically sustainable agriculture.
Heroes and Ghosts (The Reagan Years) (tags)
This Article examines the historical character of Ronald Reagan verses his recent posthumous herofication
Russian Organizations Criticize US Measures against Cuba (tags)
Moscow.-
Neoliberalism: Definitional Problems (tags)
"Neoliberalism starts from a negative.. assumption that every person prefers him- or herself or circle. Therefore corruption is inevi-table. This development can only be prevented by reduction of the public sector and the absolute self-control of the market."
Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, payed an official visit to Palestine in July 2003. This the first time a UN Rapporteur was allowed to investigate the situation in the occupied territories.
The history of Runsfeld and Reagan's alliance with Saddam. (tags)
The U.S., having decided that an Iranian victory would not serve its interests, began supporting Iraq: measures already underway to upgrade U.S.-Iraq relations were accelerated, high-level officials exchanged visits, and in February 1982 the State Department removed Iraq from its list of states supporting international terrorism.
umsfeld could have stopped the shambles easily by ordering adoption of normal measures that would have been used by Iraqi authorities - a perfectly legal order by the occupying power. Iraqi police would have shot looters, quite legally
BTL:Dissent is Essential when Governments Engage in Illegal Conflict and... (tags)
...Impose Repressive Measures. Interview with Joy Gordon, Fairfield University philosophy professor conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Are You Scared Stupid? Do Tell (tags)
Shuck your shoes and socks at the airport as your luggage is blithely loaded onto the plane without a scan. Wait in line for the cursory backpack and bag search before entering a public building. We endure the inconveniences forced upon us in the name of national security by chanting the mantra "It's okay if it keeps us safe."
URIBE TAKES FIRST STEPS TOWARDS OPEN DICTATORSHIP (tags)
Less than a week after being inaugurated as Colombia’s new president, extremist Alvaro Uribe Velez, has enacted a law that vastly curtails the rights of Colombian citizens and appears to legalise certain tactics used by paramilitary death squads. Civil society is bracing itself for the worst and already parts of the union movement are making plans to start operating in secret.
Continuing Curfew Creates Humanitarian Disaster (tags)
Israel's WAR CRIMES
Scientists Warn Of Serious Global Cooling.
Translation of Argentina Rebellion (tags)
* Translation of the situation and events in Argentina. * The unequal redistribution of money in favour of the banks. * People protests in different provinces including the capital city in where the police is taking an active and authoritary action.
RESIST THE "NEW NORMALCY"! FORUM , DEC . 1st at Loyola Law University (tags)
RESIST THE "NEW NORMALCY"! Refuse & Resist! and the National Lawyers Guild Present a Forum on the New Police State Measures
TRIPS: will the majority prevail? (tags)
NGO Statement on Ministerial Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. From Act-Up Paris, Consumer Project on Technology, Consumers International, Health GAP Coalition, Médecins sans Fronteires, Oxfam, Tebtebba Foundation, Third World Network
Dam Security Measures Flawed; Public Kept in Dark Over Risk (tags)
Dam Security Measures Flawed; Public Kept in Dark Over Risk Colorado River dams, including Hoover and Glen Canyon are at risk of catastrophic release, either from terrorist attack or from major flooding. Government officials are resisting releasing maps of areas subject to inundation in such an event.
While it is hoped that our national leaders and security personnel do the right thing as they search for the perpetrators of this most recent act of terrorism, many Americans are wondering what they can do during this perilous time.
Salk Institute on HIGH SERCURITY ALERT for BioDev/Bio2001 (tags)
Increased Institute Security June 24-27 Must have Salk ID at all times to enter re: Security measures planned at the Institute during the Bio 2001 Conference
Good news re Inauguration protests! (tags)
Federal judge rules on suit to bar extreme security measures
Britain: Fuel Tax Protest fades away (tags)
Self employed farmers and hauliers can only come to a radical perspective if thay are able to see that their concerns are being addressed by the left. It hasnt happened in this case.
Riordan...a "damn lie?" The truth? (tags)