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30 November, 2011

Police In LA, Philly Raid Occupy Camps
By Christina Hoag & Kathy Matheson

Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia stormed Occupy Wall Street encampments under darkness Wednesday to arrest or drive out some of the longest-lasting protesters since crackdowns ended similar occupations across the country

Good News For Mother Earth And You:
When Our Division Is Over

By Jan Lundberg

Our division has been not only social, preventing unity among the whole population. We can and must heal our planetary home as well as ourselves individually

The IEA’s Warning: Our Last Chance?
By Tom Whipple

Another five years of building cars and CO2-belching power plants will put us over the tipping point and from there on it is all downhill. Now there is a warning for the ages - it could be the last one we receive while there is still time to react

Why Energy Use And CO2 Emissions
Are Rising As Fast As GDP

By Gail E. Tverberg

In a recent post, I discovered something rather alarming–the fact that in the last decade (2000 to 2010) both world energy consumption and the CO2 emissions from this energy consumption were rising as fast as GDP for the world as a whole

Allowing Retail FDI In India:
Lies, Lies And Damn Lies

By Devinder Sharma

At a time when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is refusing to rollback the decision to open the retail sector to foreign direct investment saying it will benefit our country, the American President Obama thinks otherwise. In a tweet on Saturday (Nov 26), President Obama wrote: “support small businesses in your community by shopping at your favourite local store.” While President Obama is talking of what is good for America, Manmohan Singh too is adamant on protecting American interests

O Captain My Captain: America's Aid For
Israel 's Political ‘Continuum'

By Clive Hambidge

A ‘moral articulation' by successive American administrations as to the primary reason for their unilateral support of 0.001% of the world's population, namely Israel , is not standing up to international law or American scrutiny

On The 64th Anniversary Of UN Resolution 181
Lebanon’s Palestinians Continue Their Descent

By Franklin Lamb

UN General Assembly resolution 181, adopted on November 29, 1947, purported to divide Palestine between the indigenous inhabitants and European colonists who arrived seeking to occupy and exploit Palestine and create an exclusive Jewish homeland

‘Finish Capitalism' Movement In The United States
By Badruddin Umar

The ‘Finish capitalism' slogan has only one meaning: victory for socialism. The ‘Occupy Wall Street' movement has now inaugurated an anti-capitalist movement which will inevitably lead to its historical alternative

Don't Forget About Us
By Tim Gatto

For all of you oligarch’s out there with your billions of dollars, fine automobiles and trophy wives, don’t think for a minute that this thing is over. Slap each other on the back and get back to business as usual. Just remember what went on this autumn. Spring is right around the corner. Enjoy your winter, but don’t forget about us. We make up 99% of the nation you live in, and we’re really pissed off

Occupy Movement: Next Step Convergence
By Joel S. Hirschhorn

Occupy movement success is not inevitable. The movement must better define what success means and how it can be achieved if it is to attract and keep the support of many millions of Americans. It needs specificity for its solutions that ordinary Americans can relate to

On Freedom And Imperialism:
Arab Spring And The Intellectual Divide

By Ramzy Baroud

The so-called ‘Arab Spring’ is creating an intellectual divide that threatens any sensible understanding of the turmoil engulfing several Arab countries

The Real Truth Behind The Murder Sr. Valsa John

Statements condemning the murder of Sr. Valsa John by the mining mafia

On Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project :
Questions, Questions, No Answers

By S. P. Udayakumar

The government does not have satisfactory answers to the questions that people's movement raise on Koodankulam nuclear power project

28 November, 2011

US-Led NATO Attack On Pakistan Worsens Islamabad-Washington Ties
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Saturday’s US-led NATO attack on the two Pakistani checkposts, killing 25 soldiers, has rallied the nation around the army and further weakened the Zardari regime which tried to control the powerful army through American backing as the confidential memo envisaged

November 19th
By Sarah Carr

A brief review of the events of the past week in Egypt

A Mindful Path To A Steady State Economy
By Rick Heller

If all the Occupy movement does is to restore middle-class demand for large homes and late-model automobiles, it will have been a failure

No To Co-Option: MoveOn Is The Opposite Of
The Occupy Movement

By Kevin Zeese

MoveOn's History of Undermining Progressive Causes in Support of the Corporate-Dominated Democratic Party

Occupy Congress: Norman Solomon
Sees A Role For Progressive Legislators

By Robert Jensen

A prominent writer and leader in left movements for decades, Norman Solomon is running for Congress in the hopes of being practical and remaining principled

War Will Hurt The Genuine
Social Movement Of The Iranian people

A Statement By A Group Of Activists From Inside Iran

Those who have signed this statement believe that starting a war on the part of the World Capitalist System, led by the U.S and its internal allies, only hurt the genuine social movement of the Iranian people. War and the critical situation resulted from it not only do not undermine the bases of the dictatorships and are the best excuses for suppressing the social movements and their activists

Oregon Governor Rightly Suspends Death penalty
By Mary Shaw

Kudos to Governor Kitzhaber for instead moving his own state forward towards a more civilized approach to criminal justice

U.S. And French Air Strikes Raise
Human Toll In Somalia

By Abayomi Azikiwe

The human toll from yet another imperialist-sponsored war in Africa grows daily, reports Abayomi Azikiwe. The Somali conflict is part of ongoing campaigns by the Pentagon and NATO to secure large sections of Africa that have strategic value to the US and Europe

Mainstream Media Lying: Australia ABC Ignores
6 Million US-Complicit Muslim Infant Deaths

By Dr Gideon Polya

The most appalling Awful Truth that the ABC refuses to report is horrendous global infant mortality and in particular infant mortality in countries subject to invasion and occupation by the US Alliance

NAC Opposed Cash Transfer Replacing PDS
By Pradeep Baisakh & Aruna Roy

Aruna Roy shares her observation on POSCO issue, on Land Acquisition Bill, on National Food security Bill and on the performance of MGNREGA in Odisha

Comments On The ‘Tamil Sovereignty
Cognition’ Declaration

By Karthick RM

The ‘Tamil Sovereignty Cognition’ declaration that was released today (Nov 27, 2011), on the momentous occasion of Heroes Day, appears as a significant step in building a political consensus among the Tamils, especially the Eelam Tamil diaspora, in order to pave a path for future politico-legal action that would ensure justice for the Eelam Tamils

Racial Discrimination Against Migrants From
North East India

By Madhu Chandra

The North East political leaders and state governments need to address the issues of racial discrimination and sexual violence immediately. With ever-increasing crimes against North Easterners, the challenge is huge

26 November, 2011

The Scandal Of Global Hunger
By War On Want

The scandal of global hunger stands as a rebuke to humanity. The fact that record numbers of people are classified as hungry, at a time when there is unprecedented wealth in the world, challenges the very concept of human progress. Moreover, there is a growing consensus that the crisis in the global food system results from deliberate political choices that favour corporate interests while they condemn hundreds of millions to despair. That system is bankrupt, and must be changed. Here is War on Want's Food Sovereignty Report (PDF)

Saving And Sharing Food
By Devinder Sharma

World produces enough food for the year 2050. The problem is access and distribution

Millions Demand Downfall Of
US-Backed Egyptian Junta

By Johannes Stern

On Friday millions of workers and youth protested against military rule in Egypt and demanded the downfall of the US-backed Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) junta. In Cairo hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered on Tahrir Square

Anti-POSCO Struggle Leader
Abhaya Sahoo Arrested

By POSCO Pratirodha Sangram Saminit

The POSCO Pratirodha Sangram Saminit (PPSS) leader Mr. Abhaya Sahoo was arrested by police yesterday at He has been now kept in Jagatpur Police station

Occupy Australia : 2,500 US Marines
For Permanent Darwin Base

By Dr Gideon Polya

While Sydney and Melbourne police were violently arresting and dispersing Occupy Sydney and Occupy Melbourne off-shoots of the 99% versus 1% Occupy Wall Street Movement, the cowardly Labor Government was announcing an Occupy Australia movement whereby 2,500 child-killing US Marines will be indefinitely based in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, and that there will be increased use of Australia by the US Navy and the US Air Force

The Troubling Case of Saif Gadhafi
By Franklin Lamb

Despite the claims of the National Transitional Council of Libya (NTC) that Saif al Islam Gadhafi, the apprehended subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant that ordered his transport to The Hague, is in a secure hidden location near Zintan, Libya, a town approximately 85 miles southwest of Tripoli, this is not the case

Democratic Struggle And The Struggle For
The Environment Are Tied Together

By Fred Magdoff & Farooque Chowdhury

Climate changes provide another argument against the capitalist system and provides more urgency to seek systemic changes. If the environmental issues are brought front and center within the people's struggles it might even result in more support for change

Why Is Economic Growth So Popular?
By Ugo Bardi

When the new Italian Prime Minister, Mr. Mario Monti, gave his acceptance speech to the Senate, a few days ago, he used 28 times the term "growth" and not even once terms such as "natural resources" or "energy". He is not alone in neglecting the physical basis of the world's economy: the chorus of economic pundits everywhere in the world is all revolving around this magic world, "growth". But why? What is that makes this single parameter so special and so beloved?

25 November, 2011

Kishanji's Murder: Judicial Enquiry Demanded
By B D Sharma & G N Saibaba

The fake encounter killing of Kishanji should be investigated by a Judicial Enquiry Committee of a sitting or retired judge of Supreme Court

Kishenji: An Indian Patriot And Hero For All Times
By Trevor Selvam

From organizing the Lalgarh movement alongside his comrades in various mass movements and developing a tremendous savvy with the media, Kishenji was a stalwart Indian revolutionary, who dedicated his entire life to “serving the people.” He was responsible with his comrades, to set up the rudiments of peoples’ court, rural schooling systems, irrigation ditches, mobile hospitals and dispensaries

Austerity And Fascism In Greece:
The Real 1% Doctrine

By Mark Ames

With all the propaganda we’ve been fed about Greece’s new “austerity” government being staffed by non-ideological “technocrats,” it may come as a surprise that fascists are now considered “technocrats” to the mainstream media and Western banking interests. Greece's new Minister of Infrastructure Makis Voridis has a fascist past but he is termed a "technocrat"

Yemeni President Signs Deal To Step Down
By Peter Symonds

The GCC agreement is a cynical arrangement patched together by the government and the opposition parties under Washington’s tutelage in a bid to end protests demanding an end to the pro-US regime

The Arab Spring : Hello or Goodbye To Democracy?
By Alan Hart

Tantawi’s departure would indicate that it is – the prospects for a real hello to democracy in Egypt are improving. And if something approaching real democracy can take root and grow in Egypt, the days of Arab autocrats and despots almost everywhere (probably not Saudi Arabia) may well be numbered

‘Zero-Problems’ Foreign Policy No More:
Turkey And The Syrian ‘Abyss’

By Ramzy Baroud

With regional and international players already vying for the opportunity to exploit Syria’s internal woes, Turkey’s own internal problems could soon be exploited for the benefit of outside forces. Thus, the new Turkish foreign policy appears to be centered on ensuring a position of leadership for Ankara in any future scenario faced by Syria

Is Britain Plotting With Israel To Attack Iran?
By Jonathan Cook

The Guardian revealed this month that the defense ministry under Fox had drawn up detailed plans for British assistance in the event of a US military strike on Iran, including allowing the Americans to use Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian ocean, as a base from which to launch an attack

Saboteur
By William T. Hathaway

An interview with a domestic insurgent From the book RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War

End of An American Dream
By Richard William Posner

As I enter “the autumn of my madness”, I am overcome with sorrow. Every time I look at my grandson or hear his innocent laughter, tears fill my eyes. My heart is crushed at the thought of the future I am leaving him

Busy Bees And Biofuels
By Phil Hart

Consider the similarities between honey and harvesting corn and other crops to produce biofuels

Minor Technical Hitches To Re-Conversion –
Not Insurmountable

By Dr. Sylvia Karpagam

A satire on the drive towards a Hindu nation

24 November, 2011

Arctic Sea Ice Shrinking At 'Unprecedented' Levels
By Emily Chung

The recent loss of sea ice in the Arctic is greater than any natural variation in the past 1½ millennia, a Canadian study shows. What we are experiencing at the moment seems to be very exceptional…. This means that we are entering into the world which has no equivalent in the past

Mass Protests Intensify Against Egyptian Junta
By Alex Lantier

Clashes continued yesterday in cities across Egypt, on the fifth day of mass protests demanding the overthrow of the US-backed Egyptian military junta. The protests started Saturday, when police used live ammunition and rubber bullets against a sit-in by a few hundred protesters in Tahrir Square, in Cairo

Trends And Tipping Point In The Climate System:
Portents For The 21st Century

By Andrew Glikson

This paper examines deep-time perspectives of 20th to early 21st centuries trends in the atmosphere-ocean system with reference to future climate change projections

Resistance Up Against Nationwide Attacks
By Andy Zee

The national Occupy movement, with a concentrated expression at Occupy Wall Street in NYC, is at a crossroads that will require determination and creative strategies to build on and broaden while deepening the movement’s stand against the whole way that capitalism is destroying people and the planet

Bringing It Down To Earth
By John Michael Greer

No amount of protesting is going to refill the once vast and now mostly depleted reserves of cheap oil and other resources that gave America its age of extravagance, nor is protest going to do anything to stop the decline of America as a world power or the rise of competing powers

As Euro Crisis Worsens, New Signs Of
World Downturn

By Andre Damon

Yields on government debt in Europe soared Wednesday after a failed auction of German bonds. The German government managed to sell less than two thirds of the bonds it had put up for auction Wednesday—the worst such sale since the creation of the euro in 1999—as investors weighed the consequences of a potential breakup of the Euro

Requiem For The Palestinian Authority
By Yacov Ben Efrat

The Israeli government decided in mid-November 2011 to continue delaying the transfer of $100 million in tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The pleas of Defense Minister Ehud Barak and senior IDF officers didn’t help, even though they explained that the money was needed to pay the wages of the policemen responsible for security in the West Bank

War On Iran Has Started
By Hands Off the People of Iran

Hands Off the People of Iran unequivocally condemns the ratcheting up of sanctions on Iran in the aftermath of the much-heralded report of the International Atomic Energy Agency on that country’s nuclear capability on November 8

The All-Out Hypocrisy Of Arab League
And The West

By Kourosh Ziabari

All that can be said is that the performance of the Arab League in neglecting the situation in Yemen and Bahrain and exaggerating the unrest in Syria which is mainly caused by the foreign intervention and the West's indifference toward the plight of the suppressed nations in Yemen and Bahrain is an all-out hypocrisy and a clear, undeniable exercise of double standards. Who can really devise a clear-cut solution for this unsolvable dilemma?

Shame On G.K. Pillai: Women Demand
An Apology For His Sexist Comments

By Concerned Citizens

Stung by the SIT report which concluded that Ishrat was executed in cold blood, former Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai—hard-pressed to defend his affidavit to the Supreme Court that Ishrat was a Lashkar operative—has stooped to now slandering the girl’s personal life suggesting that her checking into different hotels with “another man” was definitely suspicious

Opposing ASEAN Chair To Burma
By Nava Thakuria

Burma’s elevation as the ‘would be chair’ of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has irked many, primarily the pro-democracy Burmese and their sympathizers in Asia

23 November, 2011

Symbolic Trial Finds Bush, Blair
Guilty Of War Crimes

By Press TV

A symbolic trial conducted by a Malaysian tribunal has found former US President George W Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair guilty of committing crimes against humanity during the Iraq war

Millions Protest To Demand Overthrow Of
US-Backed Egyptian Junta

By Johannes Stern

On Tuesday, millions of workers and youth staged protests and strikes all over Egypt, demanding the downfall of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and the US-backed Egyptian junta

Van Jones And Democratic Party Operatives:
You Do Not Represent The Occupy Movement

By Kevin Zeese

The corporate media is anointing a false leader of the Occupy Movement in Van Jones of Rebuild the Dream. The former Obama administration official is doing what Democrats always do—see the energy of an independent movement, race to the front, then lead it down a dead end and essentially destroy it

How Occupy Is Transforming
Our National Conversation

By Robin Broad & John Cavanagh

In just two months, the Occupy movement has begun to unseat an economic narrative that held sway for thirty years

“The Degree To Which You Resist Is
The Degree To Which You Are Free”

By Phil Rockstroh

the walls of the neoliberal prison are cracking…We are no longer isolated, enclosed in our alienation, imprisoned by a concretized sense of powerlessness; daylight is beginning to pierce the darkness of our desolate cells

Will The UN insist On Fair Trials For
Ex-Regime Loyalists In Libya?

By Franklin Lamb

The UN Security Council must support the ICC and assure that Libyan show trials for former regime loyalist that have been indicted are avoided by conducting their trials in The Hague

Kazakhstan Now World's Largest Uranium Miner
By John C.K. Daly

Kazakhstan produces 33 percent of world's mined uranium, followed by Canada at 18 percent and Australia, with 11 percent of global output. Kazakhstan contains the world's second-largest uranium reserves, estimated at 1.5 million tons. Until two years ago Kazakhstan was the world's No. 3 uranium miner, following Australia and Canada

A Solar-Powered Car?
By Tom Murphy

So solar powered cars fall solidly on the reality side of the reality-fantasy continuum. That said, pure solar transport (on board generation) will suffer serious limitations. More reliable transport comes with nuances that may be irritating to the purist. You can apply a bumper sticker that says SOLAR POWERED CAR, but in most cases, you will need to put an asterisk at the end with a lengthy footnote to explain exactly how you have realized that goal

Is It Really Possible To Decouple GDP Growth
From Energy Growth?

By Gail Tverberg

In recent years, we have heard statements indicating that it is possible to decouple GDP growth from energy growth. I have been looking at the relationship between world GDP and world energy use and am becoming increasingly skeptical that such a decoupling is really possible

Fracking Gas = Climate Crash
By Alex Smith

Escaped methane from gas fracking threaten to tip us into catastrophic climate change. The total impact of the shale gas industry may be worse than coal

Shale Gas And Climate Change:
The Other Burning Issue

By Dr. Peter Custers

If we are to avoid runaway climate change, - we need a combination of stringent prohibitions on the most destructive forms of extraction, and global policies to limit energy use. Why not buttress the demand for a ban on all drilling for tar sands oil and shale gas? Why not add the demand for a global and equitable regime of energy rationing?

Support Today’s Freedom Riders
By Ending U.S. Support For Israeli Apartheid

By Josh Ruebner

If Rep. Lewis helped end the immorality of segregation in the United States, then half a century later he can also contribute to ending discrimination in Israel/Palestine by stopping U.S. weapons transfers that sustain Israeli apartheid toward Palestinians

Foreign Faculty, For What?
By Rajesh Kumar Sharma

Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia stated that the Indian universities must have an international flavour, adding that "this would not happen unless the government removes the restriction on employment of international faculty". Do we really need them?

Total Muslim Reservation: A Lesson To learn
For SP, BSP & Congress

By Ashok Yadav

Equipped with Bihar experience the Pasmanda may spring surprise in the coming UP elections. Beware, SP, BSP and Congress!

Marriages Of Lust And Greed !
By Asif Iqbal

A bench of Justices Dalip Singh and Sajjan Singh Kothari in High Court of Rajasthan has stated that the marriages based on right to choose or generally known as love marriages are examples of “lust and greed”! The remark was one of few abhorrent statements made by the Bench on 21nd October 2011 during their ruling on hearing of a Habeas Corpus petition filed by a 34-year-old man

Dividing Uttar-Pradesh: The Opening Of
A Pandora's Box

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

It is good that Ms Mayawati has given it a serious thought but it is equally important that the issue be debated widely and should not be resolved without a State Reorganisation Commission as the stake holders are not just in Uttar-Pradesh but also in other states

22 November, 2011

Earth's Biggest Doomsday Event: Death By CO2
By Sarah Simpson

For the first time, paleontologists have pinned down exactly when and how fast the granddaddy of all mass extinctions took place, and their findings leave the finger of blame pointing squarely at a colossal and long-lived injection of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Sound familiar? That ancient carbon dioxide came not from cars and factories, of course, but from massive volcanic eruptions, brush fires, and possibly even the combustion of coal seams ignited by hot lava

Obama Must Condemn Egyptian Military
By Medea Benjamin & Jodie Evans

As we watch the Egyptian police and military viciously attack democracy activists on the streets of Cairo, using U.S. weapons, it is outrageous that the Obama Administration has failed to issue a strong condemnation of this latest attempt to crush a revolution that has inspired people around the world, including millions of Americans

America Is Not Broke
By Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh. Contributors include Phyllis Bennis, Chuck Collins, John Feffer, Miriam Pemberton, Daphne Wysham

How to pay for the crisis while making the country more equitable, green, and secure

Islands In An Expanding Sea
By Richard Heinberg

Smaller nations may find that this period of global financial turmoil presents an opening to seize greater self-determination and economic self-sufficiency. This would be advisable from several standpoints

The Peak Oil Crisis: A Report To Remember
By Tom Whipple

This year’s World Energy Outlook issues a number of dire warnings, some of which imply that human life on this earth might just be in its last century or so

Occupy Wall St. Increasingly Locked Into
American Exceptionalism

By Jay Janson

Occupation Wall Street is intensely targeting solely US stateside economic injustice and ignoring the issue of its cause, imperial wars

Civil Society At Ground Zero
By Rebecca Solnit

A year ago, no one imagined an Arab Spring, and no one imagined this American Fall -- even the people who began planning for it this summer. We don’t know what’s coming next, and that’s the good news. My advice is just of the most general sort: Dream big. Occupy your hopes. Talk to strangers. Live in public. Don’t stop now

Non-Violence Does Not Have To Be Passive
By Jim Miles

Non-violent protest can lead to very violent counter-actions. If that happens to the Occupy movement, it will be seen around the world, and the world, once again, will see that what the U.S. claims about freedom and human rights is simply rhetorical fodder to cover up their real interests in power and control of people and resources

Occupy Revolution
By Joel S. Hirschhorn

The Occupy movement in the US offers the possibility of being seen, eventually, as the seed of a successful Second American Revolution, which I and many others believe is desperately needed to fix our corrupt, dysfunctional and unfair government, political and economic system

Should India Establish A Sovereign Wealth Fund?
By Kavaljit Singh

Given the widespread poverty coupled with lack of adequate investments in physical and social infrastructure, New Delhi should innovatively use a portion of the country's forex reserves to meet these development challenges, rather than financing the acquisition of projects and companies linked to natural resources or strategic assets abroad

21 November, 2011

Egyptian Military Junta Carries Out Deadly Crackdown On Protesters
By Johannes Stern

The US-backed military junta in Egypt carried out a violent crackdown on protesters over the weekend, killing several and injuring over 700. The repression was in advance of the November 28 parliamentary elections

Rich Nations 'Give Up' On New Climate Treaty
Until 2020

By Fiona Harvey

Ahead of critical talks and despite pledge for new treaty by 2012, biggest economies privately admit likelihood of long delay

Article 32 Hearing Of Bradley Manning
To Begin on December 16

By David E. Coombs

The Article 32 hearing for PFC Bradley Manning will begin on December 16, 2011 at Fort Meade, Maryland. The hearing is expected to last approximately five days

Ten Things You Should Know About
Friday’s UC Davis Police Violence

By Angus Johnston

The most widely distributed video of the incident begins just moments before Lt. Pike begain spraying, but another video, which starts a few minutes earlier, shows Pike chatting amiably with one activist, even patting him casually on the back. The pat on the back occurs just two minutes and nineteen seconds before Pike pepper sprayed the student he had just been chatting with and all of his friends

How The 99% Won In The Fight For Worker Rights
By Andy Kroll

Occupy Wall Street has already won its first victory its own way -- in Ohio, when voters repealed Republican governor John Kasich's law to slash bargaining rights for 350,000 public workers and gut what remained of organized labor's political power

Occupy With A Vengeance! Change
Is A Messy Affair,But It Has To Be Done

By Vincent L. Guarisco

Spread the word, our numbers are our strength. Tell others to join us! Stand proud. Have no fear. Stay the course. Because if we keep pounding them hard like we did at Oakland's port, and if we keep dissolving our bank accounts -- we can level the playing field for our salvation. Failure is not an option for those who cherish freedom

The Downside Of The Resilience Discourse
By Dr Chris James

Resilience has strong connections with positive psychology and behavioural modification. In this respect resilience is being offered as an alternative to resistance . Resilience places the responsibility for a sick world onto the individual. Once resilient behaviour is learned it is not always easy to ‘bounce back'. Does this mean we must accept poverty, exploitation, violence, slavery, war and the rest?

All Those Republican Candidates:
Can They Be Taken Seriously?

By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Funny that these warmongers and morally bankrupt politicians talk about American exceptionalism! Is water-boarding a symbol of American exceptionalism and is it going to raise our moral standing in the world? Is it a value that we can all cherish and export?

The Politics Of Gas Pipelines In Asia
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

On November 14, Pakistan and Turkmenistan signed an agreement to build the $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project under which Pakistan will get 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of gas. The agreement was signed during a visit by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan to Islamabad

Bolivia: Rumble Over Jungle Far From Over
By Federico Fuentes

Despite the government reaching an agreement with indigenous protesters on all 16 demands raised on their 10-week march onto the capital, La Paz, the underlying differences are far from resolved

14,231 Persons Died In police And Judicial Custody
In India From 2001 To 2010

By Suhas Chakma

"Torture in India 2011" states that a total of 14,231 persons i.e. more than four persons per day died in police and judicial custody in India from 2001 to 2010. This includes 1,504 deaths in police custody and 12,727 deaths in judicial custody from 2001-2002 to 2009-2010 as per the cases submitted to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)

20 November, 2011

This Struggle Has Re-awakened Our Imagination
By Arundhati Roy

Text of a speech given by Arundhati Roy at the People's University in Washington Square, NYC on November

Open Letter To Mayor Sam Adams
From Occupy Portland Liason Team

Introduction by Mark Vorpahl

Despite acting in the interests of corporate elites, you, Sam Adams, are also part of the 99 percent. There will always be a place for you in our movement, should you honestly choose to join us

Iran And The I.A.E.A.
By Seymour M. Hersh

The new report, therefore, leaves us where we’ve been since 2002, when George Bush declared Iran to be a member of the Axis of Evil—with lots of belligerent talk but no definitive evidence of a nuclear-weapons program

Economist Mahima Khanna, Cambridge
Stevenson Prize And Dire Indian Poverty

By Dr Gideon Polya

Brilliant economics student Mahima Khanna from Kolkata has been awarded the prestigious Stevenson Prize by the University of Cambridge for her outstanding economics research work

Ecology Economics And Objectivism
By Chris James

Ecology economics is different from neo-classical economics because the economic system becomes embedded within an environmental system. Ecological economists argue that neo-classical economics has ignored the environment and this has contributed to environmental degradation, pollution and climate change. Ecology economics preferences natural capital over labour capital, but it does not eliminate the capitalist paradigm; it simply makes the worker invisible. The invisible body has been the Objectivists dream

Message For International Donors To India
By Dr. Sylvia Karpagam

They should insist on leadership from the marginalized, even if their quality, education and language skills are not “up to the mark” (as defined by the upper caste). They should insist on nurturing and supporting leadership and capacity building of those who need this support the most. They should insist on representation by a dalit on their project management committees

The Communal Violence Bill :
Countering Right Wing Propaganda

By Siddharthya Swapan Roy

Given the violent and repressive history of Hindutva politics, its necessary that those at the receiving end of the violence come together and ensure safe passage for the Bill. While our lands have seen much more bloodshed than desirable in the name of identity, it is a historic truth that our diverse peoples have spent far more time time living together in peace. A tradition worth fighting for

Judiciary Should Be In
Lokpal Ambit: Prasant Bhusan

By Nava Thakuria

The Lokpal should cover the highest office in governments and also the judiciary of India, such that the institution can deliver its duty and responsibility to meet the expectation of huge populace of the country, argues Prasant Bhusan, an eminent lawyer in Supreme Court of India

Nuclear Madness At Delhi’s Doorsteps
By Soumya Dutta

The proposed nuclear plant in Haryana is facing protests by villagers who are unwilling to part with their farm land for an unsafe future

19 November, 2011

Police Repression Escalates
Against Occupy Protests

By Kate Randall

An estimated 400 people were arrested, the majority of them in New York, as protesters took to the streets in cities across the US to show their solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement and the fight against social inequality

Occupy’s 2nd Anniversary Celebrated
In Small Town Sebastopol

By Shepherd Bliss

We celebrated Occupy Wall Street’s (OWS) second monthly anniversary in small town Sebastopol, with its less than 8000 residents, in Northern California on November 17. We packed a City Council meeting where over two-dozen people spoke in favor of Occupy Sebastopol (OS) and the five-member Council supported it

Extreme Weather Set To Worsen
With Climate Change: IPCC

By Elias Biryabarema

An increase in heat waves is almost certain, while heavier rainfall, more floods, stronger cyclones, landslides and more intense droughts are likely across the globe this century as the Earth's climate warms, U.N. scientists said on Friday

What We Are For
By Richard Heinberg

Energy is arguably the most decisive factor in both ecosystems and human economies. It is the fulcrum of history, the enabler of all that we do. Yet few people have more than the sketchiest understanding of how energy makes the world go ’round

Bad Moon Rising Over Great Sirte Bay
By Franklin Lamb

Some candid views from Sirte, Libya

Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA)
And Irom Sharmila's Struggle For Justice

By Asit Das

The existence of extremely draconian acts like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act , National Security Act, and various provisions in the penal code like ‘sedition' make a mockery of the claims of liberal democratic character of the Indian state

18 November, 2011

Massive Police Mobilization
Against #OWS Protesters

By Sandy English

Occupy protests on Thursday were met by a heavy police response nationwide. More than three hundred people were arrested, most of them in New York City, where protesters marked two months since the beginning of the occupation of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan

This Changes Everything: How The 99% Woke Up
By Sarah van Gelder

Introducing the movement that’s shifting our vision of what kind of world is possible—from the new book, "This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement."

End The Fed? David Korten Responds
By David Korten

There's lots of anger against the Federal Reserve from the left and the right. David Korten argues that what it needs is some major restructuring

Welcome To Happy Valley: Occupy Penn State
By Carolyn Baker

The Occupy Movement will not and cannot prevent that collapse, but it can put new structures of education in place which can be implemented when it becomes indisputable that the educational system is incapable of functioning

Is Israel Preparing An Assault Against Iran?
By Neve Gordon

Regardless of whether Netanyahu and Barak are already set on launching an assault, the media hype and the portrayal of Iran as constituting an existential threat to Israel surely help to produce the necessary conditions for a military campaign

Apology For Assassination, Execution
And Murder Of Arabic People

By Mary Hamer

The purpose of this essay is to Apologize to the Arabic people for the internationally publicized & sensationalized Assassinations, Executions & Murder of several Arabic: heads of state, political leaders, military commanders or "terrorists" here in the early 21 st Century

The Plight Of Manipur
By Diana Ningthoujam

There are crises and there will always be crises and this economic blockade will settle into place, alongside massive under development, rampant corruption, drug use, ethnic divides, frequent strikes and social upheaval

UID And NPR Are Worse Than
Prisoner Identification

By Gopal Krishna

Planning Commission's UID & Home Ministry’s NPR worse than Prisoner Identification, both precede Privacy Bill

17 November, 2011

#OWS: Arrests Continue In Major Cities
By Andre Damon

As cities throughout the United States step up the police crackdown on the Occupy Wall Street movement, evidence has emerged of a conspiracy between city officials—possibly coordinated with federal intelligence agencies—to shut down the occupy encampments on the basis trumped-up charges of sanitation and public safety

This Is What Revolution Looks Like
By Chris Hedges

The resignations of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s deputy, Sharon Cornu, and the mayor’s legal adviser and longtime friend, Dan Siegel, in protest over the clearing of the Oakland encampment are some of the first cracks in the edifice. “Support Occupy Oakland, not the 1% and its government facilitators,” Siegel tweeted after his resignation

Bloomberg Personifies What
The Occupation Opposes

By Glen Ford

Mayor Bloomberg, like all the rich man’s mayors in all the U.S. cities that are determined to end their local Occupations, pays his hypocritical respects to democracy and reason, when in fact his authority is nothing but an extension of the rule of capital

After The Eviction: What's Next For
Occupy Wall Street?

By Nathan Schneider

For those in it and those trying to understand it from the outside, the Occupy movement has never been easy to predict. As it enters this next phase, I’d bet we should be prepared to be surprised again

Desktop “Militants” And Public Intellectuals
By James Petras

To address an active assembled public meeting, to formulate ideas, programs and propose programs and strategies through political action defines the role of the public intellectual. To sit at a desk in an office, in splendid isolation, sending out five manifestos per minute defines a “desktop militant”. It is a form pseudo-militancy that isolates the word from the deed. Desktop “militancy” is an act of verbal inaction, of inconsequential “activism”, a make-believe revolution of the mind

Syria On The Brink: Uprising Victim
To Regional, International Power Play

By Ramzy Baroud

If Syria doesn’t wrestle its fate from the hands of these self-serving forces, the Syrian uprising and Syria as a whole will continue to be marred by uncertainties and foreboding possibilities

Mic Tells Tale Of Growing US-Israel Gap
By Kourosh Ziabari

Despite pretentiously showing gestures of friendship and cordiality, the ideological gap between the U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is getting wider increasingly

Kargil: An Enduring Conflict
By Javed Naqi

It is hoped the work on Zojila tunnel is taken up very seriously so that the people of Kargil no longer continue to be a second citizen of the globalized world

16 November, 2011

New York City Police Raid
Occupy Wall Street Camp

By Jerry White

In a predawn raid Tuesday, hundreds of riot-equipped police descended on Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, the birthplace of the Occupy Wall Street movement, forcibly expelling protesters and tearing down their tents. At least 142 demonstrators in the park were arrested, along with another 50 outside

Police Crackdowns On OWS Coordinated
Among Mayors, FBI, DHS

By Juan Cole

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan let slip in an interview with the BBC that she had been on a conference call with the mayors of 18 cities about how to deal with the Occupy Wall Street movement. That is, municipal authorities appear to have been conspiring to deprive Americans of their first amendment rights to freedom of assembly and freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances

Think The Occupy Movement Is Dead? Think Again
By Timothy V. Gatto

We are the ones we have been waiting for. No knight in shining armor is coming from either corporate party to save us. We must save ourselves. This is our destiny and just simple common sense. George Carlin said that there is a reason that they call it the “American Dream”… you have to be asleep to believe it

The Occupy Wall Street Uprising
And The U.S. Labor Movement

By Farooque Chowdhury and Michael D. Yates

An Interview with Steve Early, Jon Flanders, Stephanie Luce, and Jim Straub

Mother Nature Reveals Her
Energy Descent Action Plan

By Tim Murray

It seems that we are under the impression that Mother Nature will award us points for effort. But the truth is, this lady is not for turning. She is one 'hard-ass', a referee that cannot be swayed by our histrionics or our pleading. We have got to understand that she has her own schedule, and will not hold up the train for us

Palestine – What Next?
By Alan Hart

If diaspora Palestinians do not now make the effort and put their act together, I think it’s possible, even probable, that future Palestinian historians will conclude that they betrayed their occupied and oppressed brothers and sisters as much as the regimes of an impotent, corrupt and repressive Arab Order did

One Veteran's Rough Path From Killing
And Torturing To Peace

By David Swanson

Not yet 30, Evan Knappenberger has already lived several lives. His story destroys the U.S. government's case against whistleblower Bradley Manning, exposes the toxic mix of fraud and incompetence that creates U.S. war policies, and highlights the damage so often done to soldiers who come home without visible injuries

Few Guantanamo Prisoners
Ever Get Their Day In Court

By Sherwood Ross

Far from issuing the executive order he promised to shut down the prison at Guantanamo, President Obama is keeping virtually all of its prisoners confined in limbo without trials

15 November, 2011

Police Evict Occupy Oakland Demonstrators
By Jack Hood

Hundreds of armed police officers in riot gear descended on Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland, California at approximately 5:00 am Monday morning to evict dozens of peaceful protesters. The show of force was consistent with similar crackdowns on Occupy Wall Street encampments nationwide, including last week in nearby Berkeley

The Police State Makes Its Move: Retaining
One's Humanity In The Face Of Tyranny

By Phil Rockstroh

A heavy police presence has ringed Zuccotti Park from the get-go, and whose ranks have now staged a military style raid upon it, a defacto search and destroy mission--because the ruling elite want to suppress the very impulse of freedom

Occupy Your Life
By Joanne Poyourow

It's time to figuratively "sew seeds into the hems of our dresses." Time to gather up the attributes of what is precious about life, to capture that vast diversity, and carry it with you as we journey to new frontiers -- as our society moves into a new era

Mic Check: Now We Are The People!
By Gari Corseri

“Mic Check” is one of the many wholesome developments of the Occupy Movement. A single speaker's words are echoed by a spontaneous “chorus” of listeners. The benefits are twofold: the original words are repeated, magnified and enhanced by the additional listeners-speakers; and the words are imprinted on the minds and hearts of those who speak and hear

Wealth, Illth, And Net Welfare
By Herman Daly

Wellbeing should be counted in net terms — that is to say we should consider not only the accumulated stock of wealth but also that of “illth;” and not only the annual flow of goods but also that of “bads.”

Puncturing The Pipeline
By Bill McKibben

Conventional wisdom has it that the next election will be fought exclusively on the topic of jobs. But President Obama’s announcement last week that he would postpone a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the 2012 election, which may effectively kill the project, makes it clear that other issues will weigh in -- and that, oddly enough, one of them might even be climate change

Using Courts To Harass Ecuador's Dissidents
By Manuela Picq

Former cabinet minister and last indigenous government member Monica Chuji is facing trial for defamation

Dr. Do Little: Rahul Gandhi As Placebo
By Farzana Versey

“How long will you beg in Maharashtra (for work)? How long will you work as a labourer in Punjab? It will take only five years and the change will come.”- Rahul Gandhi

Sri Lankan Yellow Journalism And Its Slander Of
Tamil Women

By Janani Paramsothy

This attempt to shout down Tamil women by attacking their sexuality first and foremost, needs to be thwarted. There were many instances of this during the global protests against Sri Lanka in 2009, especially over the internet. Women with a higher public profile face even more brutal attacks

14 November, 2011

Arab League Suspension Of Syria Brings
Military Intervention Closer

By Chris Marsden

The suspension recalls the February 23 decision to suspend Libya from membership of the Arab League that facilitated NATO’s backing of an insurgency aimed at regime change

The Battles Of Occupy Portland
By Shamus Cooke

For those who were there, November 13th will be a day long remembered in Portland, Oregon. Occupy Portland again proved why it remains the 2nd strongest Occupy movement in the U.S. when it mobilized against police eviction. Instead of the Occupiers being evicted it was the police who were sent home demoralized

Recycling Earth
By Abdul Basit

How can we save the humanity and this earth from the greed and consumerism and ensure a balanced, sustainable and eco-friendly economic growth. This thought hounded me and resulted in the development of a new concept, ‘Recycling Earth'

Obama Ignores Global Warming
By Jack A. Smith

Given its disinclination to interfere in the workings of America's neoliberal capitalist economy, even to protect all life on Earth — Washington's continuing unipolar leadership is guiding the world toward irreversible climate change

Democracy Is Not A Panacea
By Tim Murray

Egalitarianism does not suffice to save us. If there is enough to go around now, there soon won't be. We can and should "tax the rich", reform the currency, dump the banking system, ration oil and all those good things. But it won't be enough. Not by a long shot. We have already passed several tipping points, with climate change, as lethal and real as it is, in my view, the least consequential of all of them. Our ship has already hit the iceberg. It's called "Peak Everything"

The Biofuel Grind
By Tom Murphy

What about biofuels? To what extent can they solve our problem? We’ll dip our toes into the math and see where a first-cut analysis leaves us

Imagining The Post-Industrial Economy
By Sharon Astyk

Having some kind of realistic picture of an emergent economy on an energy downslope, of the cusp of a crisis is really important. We have the bad habit of imagining large chunks of the economy out of existence to suit our own needs – but we are best informed by as clear a picture as possible

Debt-Ridden Kingfisher Airlines
To Get A Bailout Package;
Indebted Farmers Are Left To Die

By Devinder Sharma

In the past one month more than a hundred farmers have committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh, Vidharba and Kerala. All these farmers took the fatal route to escape the humiliation that comes along with mounting indebtedness. According to the National Crime Records Bureau 15,964 farmers committed suicide in 2010 alone. Put together, more than 250,000 farmers have taken their own lives during the past 15 years

Food Inflation: Groping In The Dark
By Devinder Sharma

Although Prime Minister Manmohan Singh considers rising food inflation to be a sign of growing prosperity, the reality is very harsh and painful. Rising food inflation, which continues for the 4th successive year now, has hit the aam aadmi like never before. Adding fuel to fire is the frequent raise in petrol prices

Reject Land Acquisition And Resettlement
And Rehabilitation Bill 2011:
Not A Just, Democratic And Effective Framework

By Concerned Citizens

This statement sets out a critique of the current situation and the Bill below, followed by a set of principles that should form the basis of any solution to this issue

Two Books On Hindutva Politics And Terror
By Mahtab Alam

A must read for all kinds of activists, human rights and social justice campaigners, students of social sciences, especially those of sociology and political sciences. Those working on Communalism, Terrorism and Caste issues can hardly afford to miss these

13 November, 2011

The World Is Locking Itself Into
An Unsustainable Energy Future

By Marianne de Nazareth

The world is locking itself into an unsustainable energy future which would have far-reaching consequences, warns the International Energy Association (IEA) in its latest World Energy Outlook report released in London

Throwing Out The Master’s Tools
And Building A Better House

By Rebecca Solnit

The powers that be are already scared of the Occupy movement and not because of tiny acts of violence. They are scared because right now we speak pretty well for the 99%. And because we set out to change the world and it’s working

Ten Ways The Occupy Movement
Changes Everything

By Sarah van Gelder, David Korten & Steve Piersanti

Like all human endeavors, Occupy Wall Street and its thousands of variations and spin-offs will be imperfect. There have already been setbacks and divisions, hardships and injury. But as our world faces extraordinary challenges—from climate change to soaring inequality—our best hope is the ordinary people, gathered in imperfect democracies, who are finding ways to fix a broken world

Terror And Revenge Engulfs NATO’s Libya
By Franklin Lamb

The “new Libya” has entered its own “Terror” which is spreading inexorably, aided by NATO member states including American, French and British SAS units known locally as “disappearance squads”. This is one of the rapidly developing consequences of the UN’s rush to “protect Libya’s civilian population” last spring

Europe’s Lost Decade!
By Farooque Chowdhury

The world is going to have a lost decade. The IMF chief has made the warning on November 8. George Soros warned a few days back: Europe may experience a lost decade

Israel's War Threats: Sheer Hollow Propaganda
By Kourosh Ziabari

It's crystal clear that Israel is not in a position to threaten Iran against a military strike over its nuclear program. Israel even does not have the credibility of asking Iran to halt its nuclear program while it possesses 300 atomic warheads

Gaza Boats Seized, But ‘Freedom Waves’
Will Continue

By Ramzy Baroud

Now that Shalit is free, Israel is clearly uninterested in ending its ‘collective punishment’ of Gaza. The latest act of piracy is the latest indication that the blockade will remain in place, under an array of pretexts and justifications

At 11.11.11 On 11.11.11 Remember
Huge Civilian Deaths In US Wars

By Dr Gideon Polya

This singularity should provide impetus for the World to recognize the continuing, genocidal carnage in the post-1990 US Alliance War on Muslims that has so far been associated with about 12 million war-related deaths, a Muslim Holocaust and a Muslim Genocide that is resolutely ignored by the Mainstream media, academics and politicians of the Western Murdochracies

Tar Wars
By Rand Clifford

On November 11, the President delayed permitting of the Keystone XL pipeline, sending the issue back to the State Department for a thorough re-review. Many analysts say this victory for life on Earth will effectively kill the Keystone XL project. Good news has become so rare that Obama's decision today is a glaring, majestic affirmation of hope greater than at first it might seem

Ruining Innocent Lives: Guilt of
Investigation Agencies

By Ram Puniyani

A suitable rehabilitation program, scholarship, assistance to rebuild the life has to be the responsibility of the state in these matters. State must come forward to undo the severe harm it has inflicted on these innocent youth

Social Politics vs Party Politics
By Ashok Yadav

The crisis of sub-altern politics and their politicians (Laloo, Mulayam, Mayawati, Karunanidhi, Sharad Yadav, Nitish etc) lies is this dichotomy of social politics and party politics. The party politicians have simply refused to acknowledge that political energy is generated by social movements by tapping which they can sustain their politics on a long term basis that will benefit both, the people and the politics

09 November, 2011

IEA Confirms The End Of Cheap Oil
By Countercurrents.org

IEA's World Energy Outlook 2011 confirms the end of cheap oil. In its executive summary, under the sub-heading "Rising transport demand and upstream costs reconfirm the end of cheap oil", the report says "We assume that the average IEA crude oil import price remains high, approaching $120/barrel (in year-2010 dollars) in 2035 (over $210/barrel in nominal terms) in the New Policies Scenario although, in practice, price volatility is likely to remain"

The New Common Sense: A Declaration Of Interdependence
By The 99%

A Declaration of Interdependence born of necessity, from and for the collective conscience of the "99%" to and for the oligarchic "1%" of the United States of America

Defend The Biosphere And Stop
Punishing The Innocent

By Susan George

The most serious crisis is the one we talk the least about—this is global warming and climate change. The climate crisis will have the deepest effects on civilisation itself and will make our financial worries look trivial in comparison

Peak Oil: The Five Most Common Misconceptions
By Robert Rapier

Robert Rapier clarifies on some of the misconceptions on peak oil

08 November, 2011

Euro Crisis Deepens After Failure Of G20 Meeting
By Nick Beams

The shock waves from the collapse of the G20 meeting last week are starting to spread through the global financial system as the implications of the failure to develop a rescue package for the eurozone become clear

The Most Positive Possible Outcome Of
The Current Financial Crisis In Europe

By Charles Hugh Smith

The collapse of the current financial system of central banks, pathological Wall Street and insolvent banks would be the greatest possible good and the greatest possible positive for the global economy and its participants

A Tittering Europe Asks Bond Of Submission
From Greece And Italy

By Farooque Chowdhury

A crisis charged Europe is tittering with bankers’ political intrigues for regime change in Greece and Italy, mounting pressure on Germans, and austerity measures announced in France

The Devil In The Tar Sands
By Desmond Tutu & Jody Williams

Should the Keystone XL pipeline project go ahead, Obama will have made one of the single most disastrous decisions of his presidency concerning climate change and the very future of our planet

A World United For Human Rights
By William A. Cook

This spring of human depression and desperation has given way to a fall harvest of hope and expectation as the citizens of the world unite to cast aside those who have commandeered their rights to a government of the people, by the people and for the people

Occupy Fort Benning: Shut Down
The School Of The Americas

By SOA Watch

November 18-20, 2011: Thousands of social justice activists from across the Americas will occupy the main gates of Fort Benning, Georgia to call for an end to U.S. militarization and for the closure of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly the School of Americas

The Fire Next Time Is Now:
Environmental Historian Angus Wright's
Call For A Planetary Patriotism

By Robert Jensen

An interview with Angus Wright

10 Million American Families Sliding
Toward Foreclosure

By Sherwood Ross

Of the 55-million families with mortgages, 10.4-million of them “are sliding toward failure and foreclosure”---a tragedy that will depress the U.S. housing market for years to come, a result of too many houses for sale and too few buyers

An Appeal: Urgent Need For Left Unity
And Coordinated Progressive Action

By Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere (Retd)

This Appeal for Left Unity and Coordinated Progressive Action is made to All, because the Left forces are fractured and divided, and are today very weak

Why The Armed Forces Special Powers Act
Should Be Lifted From India’s Northeastern Region

By Madhu Chandra

AFSPA is a xenophobic law because it is selectively imposed upon seven North East Indian states - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura and extended to Jammu and Kashmir, but does not apply to the rest of the country

07 November, 2011

Israeli Leaders Press For
Attack On Iran

By Peter Symonds

Over the past week, evidence has been mounting of an intense debate in Israeli ruling circles over the launching of air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the not too distant future. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barack have reportedly been campaigning inside the cabinet and seeking to overcome resistance within sections of the country’s military and intelligence establishment to a war with Iran

Finding Freedom In Handcuffs
By Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges wrote this article after he was released from custody following his arrest last Thursday. He and about 15 other participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement were detained as they protested outside the global headquarters of Goldman Sachs in lower Manhattan

The Occupy Movement Needs A Good Fight
By Shamus Cooke

The Occupy movement should also reach out to organized labor, which has already been raising the key demands around creating jobs and opposing cuts. Uniting the 99% in concrete struggle is the issue of the day, but time is short. The Occupy Movement has the nation's attention now, but working people's attention is conditional; they will stay focused on Occupy if Occupy is focused on them

Capitalism And Environmental Catastrophe
By John Bellamy Foster

This is a reconstruction from notes of a talk delivered at a teach-in on "The Capitalist Crisis and the Environment" organized by the Education and Empowerment Working Group, Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park (Liberty Plaza), New York, October 23, 2011

Transforming Easy Cynicism (And Other Forms Of Conformity) Into Deep Resistance
By Phil Rockstroh

In my opinion, when people opine that the OWS movement is about--or should be about--the airing of this particular grievance or that it must bandy this or that particular demand--they have missed the point. Of course, collectively, OWS evinces a force of resistance against corporate greed and a critique of the failings of the present political system…Yet, as is the case with any living thing, to reduce its essential nature to facile descriptions diminishes it

The War Against The Poor
By Frances Fox Piven

Occupy Wall Street and the Politics of Financial Morality

Dance: Language Of Protest
By Farooque Chowdhury

Protest has its own language. And, protest has its many languages. Silence sometimes speaks as protest. Dance also. In countries, protesters, in group or individually, have danced as protest

My Dear Daughter
By Aparajita Sengupta

Hope Without Wisdom: A letter to my daughter on her future in a mad planet

Jobless And Clueless
By Joel S. Hirschhorn

The US two-party plutocracy has allowed the rich and powerful to buy the political system. Except for the rich, the results are dreadful. This is why 89 percent do not trust that government will do the right thing. The best solution is what you find at the getmoneyout.com website, a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics

Joint Statement With Anti-Posco Struggle Odisha
By Concerned Citizens

News reports say that the Orissa government is once again planning an assault on the proposed POSCO project area. Apparently at least 14 platoons of police will attempt to attack the coastal side of the villages. This comes after the people of Dhinkia and Gobindpur heroically resisted police attacks for more than two months in the heat of summer, drawing the attention of the entire country

On The Ramayanas Affair
By Mukul Dube

It is clear that the dispute is between those who respect facts and those who are guided by the unquestioning and unreasoning phenomenon called faith

Green Economy And Poverty Alleviation
By Marianne de Nazareth

Over the years, forestry has become a critical part of the climate change agenda. Therefore ICIMOD's role – ‘to enable and facilitate the equitable and sustainable well-being of the people of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas, by supporting sustainable mountain development through active regional cooperation' is crucial and should be supported by all governments in this region

06 November, 2011

Stay United! -A Letter To OWS Movement
In NYC From A Supporter

By Dr.C.

The real task in front of OWS in NYC is to construct a fair, truthful, honest compromise between General Assembly and Spokes Council in order to increase the efficiency of the OWS movement in the context of its direct democracy

Frederick Engels And The Theoretical
Development Of Modern Socialism

By Thomas Riggins

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, I hope we have made that step on September 17, 2011 a few blocks from Wall Street in Liberty Square. But even if we haven't and Engels was at heart an utopian and his vision of the future a dream, still a dream, if that is all it is, can, as Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us, inspire people to fight for a better world

Libya’s Liberation Front Organizing In The Sahel
By Franklin Lamb

Sahel is providing protection, weapons gathering and storage facilities, sites for training camps, and hideouts as well as a generally formidable base for those working to organize the growing Libyan Liberation Front (LLF). The aim of the LLF is to liberate Libya from what it considers NATO installed colonial puppets

A Drama In Disarray: G20 Summit In Cannes
By Farooque Chowdhury

The G20 summit in Cannes has concluded in disarray and without details in “agreements”. Leaders were unable to agree upon financing the IMF to help advanced capitalist countries in distress. No G20 state is willing to participate in the euro zone bailout fund

What Is The Real Goal Of The Anna Movement?
By Rohini Hensman

All the evidence suggests that the real goal of these members of Team Anna is regime change, and that, too, not in the weak sense of a change of government, but in the much stronger sense of constitutional change

04 November, 2011

A Chill Descends On Occupy Wall Street
By Fritz Tucker

The inclusive spirit and the democratic, participative structure driving the Occupy Wall Street movement is on the point of being frozen out. Where will it lead the occupy movement?

Arrests Follow Occupy Oakland Demonstrations
By David Brown

A one-day protest in Oakland, California on Wednesday that involved more than ten thousand people was followed by police action in the early morning hours of Thursday, including the use of tear gas and rubber bullets, followed by dozens of arrests

Chicago 1968, Seattle l999, And Now Occupy 2011
By Shepherd Bliss

The miraculous and magical rise of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) tidal wave has suspended us in a threshold between a no-longer and a not-yet. The call for justice initiated by American youth echoes around the globe. Ours is a time of transition; exploring similar transitional moments in history could be instructive

Greenhouse Gases Rise By Record Amount
By Associated Press

The world pumped about 564m more tons (512m metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009, an increase of 6%. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries, China, the US and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases

Kim Kardashian Publicizes Armenian Genocide
But Turkey , US, Zionists, Apartheid Israel
And Pro-Zionists Deny Or Ignore

By Dr Gideon Polya

While Armenian American celebrity Kim Kardashian has demanded recognition of the 1.5 million-victim Armenian Genocide, arguing that genocide ignored will yield more genocide, even the most progressive of Australia 's major newspapers evidently does not want its readers to read, know or think about this

India Declared MNF—A Dream Come True
By Riaz Ali Toori

An historical move was made when on October 2nd in the meeting of Federal Cabinet of Pakistan, it was decided that “India is the Most Favored Nation (MNF) of Pakistan for Trade”. The decision has come at a time when terrorism in the region has strengthened its hold and the religious fundamentalists love to hate India

Irom Sharmila Solidarity Campaign
Growing In India

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

Irom Sharmila has been on hunger strike since November 2, 2000 demanding that the Indian government repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 (AFSPA). She has refused food and water for more than 500 weeks, making her the longest hunger striker in the world

Lord Ram’s Story: Many Tellings
By Ram Puniyani

There are different interpretations of the prevalent Valmiki Ramayana, many of which are not to the liking of those who are indulging in politics in the name of their faith. Surprisingly all this intolerance is shown by those who assert that Hinduism is tolerant and other religions are intolerant

POSCO Project Is Not More Important
Than Public Opinion

By Asian Human Rights Commission

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the Chief Minister of Orissa

The NBA Lockout: The Least Important Thing
In The World

By Sean Dinces

There is a reasonable option for people on the left other than siding with the players: we can stop paying attention to the lockout altogether. It will save us all a lot of time and mental energy debating the virtues of solidarity with a labor struggle in which the 99%—not counting those who depend on income from concessions jobs in NBA arenas—has little, if any, material stake

03 November, 2011

House Committee Okays Sweeping Sanctions
On Iran

By Jim Lobe

Amid growing tensions in the Middle East, including speculation about a possible Israeli attack on Iran, a key U.S. Congressional committee Wednesday approved two bills that would impose sweeping new economic and diplomatic sanctions against Tehran

Europe On The Brink As Greece Staggers
Towards Default

By Chris Marsden

Tuesday saw massive losses on global stock markets, after Prime Minister George Papandreou’s surprise decision to call a referendum on the eurozone rescue plan agreed last week. Yesterday’s limited recovery did little to assuage growing concerns of a possible Greek default spreading contagion to Italy and throughout Europe

British High Court Dismisses Appeal
By WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Against Extradition

By Robert Stevens

Assange rightly fears that, once in Sweden, Washington will move for his extradition to the US. A secret grand jury has reportedly been convened in Alexandria, Virginia, to this end. Once in the US, Assange could be charged under the Espionage Act and face a possible death sentence

Thousands March In Oakland To Defend
Occupy Movement

By Jerry White

Thousands of protesters participated in a day of marches and demonstrations in Oakland, California Wednesday. The actions were held eight days after a violent attack by police on the Occupy Oakland movement resulted in more than 100 arrests and the near-fatal wounding of a young Iraq War veteran, Scott Olsen

If We Want A Chance At A Decent Future,
The Movement Here And Around
The World Must Grow

By Noam Chomsky

In a speech to Occupy Boston, the linguist and icon hailed the "unprecedented" first weeks of OWS. He cautioned protesters to build and educate first, strike later

Occupy Wall Street: New Wave Of
Globalized Resistance

By Peter Custers

A View From Europe

Keystone XL: Game Over?
By Real Climate

If the Keystone XL pipeline is built, it surely smooths the way for further expansions of the market for oil sands crude. Turning down XL, in contrast, draws a line in the oil sands, and affirms the principle that this carbon shall not pass into the atmosphere

The Zionist Lobby’s First Lady In US Congress
By Alan Hart

After UNESCO voted to give the Palestinians full membership, the words of State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland contained a hint that the Obama administration at the highest levels is quite seriously concerned about the possible consequences for America of cutting off funds to the UN agency as required by Zionist lobby driven law enacted by Congress

Peace
By Michael Boldin

And sooner or later those who love war both overseas and here at home will crumble under the weight of a great people who decide to throw away the chains of fear, and hate, and war – and decide that a society of liberty and peace is far better – and easily achieved

‘Islamists’ On Probation: Western Reaction To
Tunisian Elections

By Ramzy Baroud

Following Tunisia’s first fair and free elections on October 27, the Western media responded with a characteristic sense of fear and alarm. For many, it seemed that the ghost of the Islamic menace was back to haunt ‘Western values’ throughout the Arab world

Comrades In Arms
By William T. Hathaway

"Comrades in Arms" is a chapter from RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War, which presents the experiences of war resisters, deserters, and peace activists in the USA, Europe, Iraq, and Afghanistan

02 November, 2011

Oakland Prepares To Be
Occupy Movement Epicenter

By Lisa Leff

Oakland prepared Wednesday to again become the epicenter of Occupy Wall Street movement as local organizers aided by labor unions and advocacy groups finalized plans for a broad-based call to action that was expected to include marches, pickets outside banks, school shutdowns and an attempt to close the nation's fifth-busiest port

Are Corporations And Banks Corrupting
The System, Or Is The Problem
The System Of Capitalism?

By Raymond Lotta

This is a transcript of a recent talk given by Raymond Lotta at Occupy Wall Street, New York City

Occupy Wall Street – A Perspective
By James Rothenberg

In a figurative sense, the state has turned against its own people. Not that it hasn’t happened before, but there is a uniqueness about the combination of elements in the OWS movement that speaks for its latent power

The Logical Outcome Of The Occupy Movement
By Timothy V. Gatto

Hopefully many of you are realizing exactly what options remain. If we can’t change American politics through the ballot box, what alternative is left?

Welcoming Palestine To UNESCO
By Richard Falk

With Palestine getting full membership to the UNESCO, it also serves as a political reminder of its bid for statehood

Syria, The Arab Yugoslavia Of Middle East
By Nicola Nasser

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad stands as the Yugoslavia of the Middle East, that has to join the expansion southward of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as well as the “new world order” engineered by the U.S. unipolar power, kicked out as the odd regional number, or join Iraq and Libya in being bombed down to the medieval ages

DURBAN - Conference Of The Polluters
By Alex Smith

Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock interviews Professor Patrick Bond from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. Patrick Bond predicts failure at COP-17, and explains why in the interview

GetUp Time Capsule Letter To My
Great Great Grandchildren
About Australia And Climate Genocide

By Dr Gideon Polya

Gideon Polya's letter to his great grandchildren about Australia and climate change

Arab Sting: The West Is Bitten And Sly
By Farzana Versey

A French magazine brings out an issue with a satirical picture of the Prophet on it's cover. Farzana Versey asks what's the motive behind it?

01November, 2011

ILO Report Warns Of Sharp Employment Downturn, Social Unrest
By Joseph Kishore

The International Labour Organization, an agency of the United Nations, released a report Monday pointing to a disastrous global jobs situation and a “vicious cycle” sending the world economy into a new downturn. “The next few months will be crucial for avoiding a dramatic downturn in employment and a further significant aggravation of social unrest,” warns the opening editorial to the World of Work report, released ahead of a G20 meeting later this week

The Way Forward For Occupy Portland
By Shamus Cooke

In Portland, Oregon, all the promise and pitfalls of the Occupy Movement are on public display.The vast amounts of public support in Portland, earned through large demonstrations and strategic outreach, can be frittered away by the internal contradictions of the movement

Why The Movement To Occupy Wall Street?
By Ron Forthofer

Those involved in OWS are driven by the desire to change this corrupt and disastrous situation, not by envy of the 1% as some have falsely claimed

Ever Suffering Dalits
By Rahul Kumar Balley

No doubt ,India is making progress by leaps and bounds in every sector but the condition of the Dalits in India is deteriorating day by day in the society

Striking On Stroke: Mission Ahead For Mankind
By Nava Thakuria

As the name suggests, the stroke or acute brain disorder occurs all of a sudden irrespective of the age and gender of an individual. The most horrible statistics are that one in six persons in the world will face the stroke in their lifetime. More to it, one person dies from stroke in every six seconds in the globe

7 Billion Mutinies Now: The Fight For Women
By Farzana Versey

We have gone much beyond the seven billionth figure and if a girl has survived in some backward village, her fate is sealed – sold and delivered. It could be to a client or it could be one husband too many

 

 

 



 


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