Will the Israeli Left Finally Stir?
by Jonathan Cook / May 10th, 2012
Israelis barely had time to absorb the news that they were heading into a summer election when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu yesterday pulled the rug from underneath the charade. Rancourous early electioneering had provided cover for a secret agreement between Netanyahu and the main opposition party, Kadima, to form a new, expanded coalition government.
Rather than facing the electorate in September, Netanyahu and his hardline right-wing government are expected to comfortably see out the remaining 18 months of his term of office. Not only that, but he will now have the backing of more than three-quarters of the 120-seat Israeli parliament, …
The Ruse of "Creative Capitalism"
by Max Haiven / May 9th, 2012
1. The new hype about creativity
Who can hate creativity? Who would want less of it? No one, obviously.
But something profound has happened to the idea of creative expression in the past 20-30 years that should give us pause. For one, it’s become big business: as the globalized economy becomes more and more competitive, corporations are increasingly desperate to have their workers “create” new and different things to sell. As advertising media accelerate and slowly fill up public space, marketers are frantic to “creatively” (the people who come up with advertising ideas are actually called “creatives”) develop new ways of pitching …
by Thomas Riggins / May 9th, 2012
In the last chapter of his book Anti-Dühring, Engels treats of the state, family, education and sex by critiquing the views of the German “socialist” and professor Eugen Dühring’s on these subjects. Dühring had created, on paper, a complete system of socialist governing through means of collectives which, Engels has pointed out in his analysis in earlier parts of this book, is completely unworkable and perpetuates the capitalist relations of production and distribution which socialism is supposed to abolish.
Having set up his system Dühring undertakes to discuss the nature of the “state of the future.” His ideas are, Engels maintains, …
by Jonik / May 9th, 2012
What does corporate duopoly politics look like in the absence of a “third” party alternative?
by Ko Tha Dja / May 9th, 2012
Reading the news about the United States from afar — in Myanmar — I can’t help but wonder why my country is seen as the torchbearer for Democracy and Human Rights. Living in a military dictatorship while (carefully) teaching Myanmar university students western values and traditions regarding democratic dogma, elections, journalism and civil society, wasn’t always easy. Not only was it dangerous for the students, it was also dangerous for their families, who would have suffered had any one of the students been picked up, detained and imprisoned. As for me, I would have been deported so I didn’t consider …
First Madeleine Albright, Now Price Harry
by Felicity Arbuthnot / May 8th, 2012
You fasten the triggers for others to fire,
Then you sit back and watch,
When the death count gets higher.
You hide in your mansion
As young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in mud.
— “Masters of War”, Bob Dylan, 1941- present
Humanitarian Awards are surely taking on a whole new meaning. The end of April brought the obscenity of the announcement that Madeleine Albright, a woman prepared to sacrifice children by proxy was to be awarded America’s highest honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for her role as a long time champion of democracy and human rights all over the world.
In the …
by Burkely Hermann / May 8th, 2012
On a few traffic poles near where I live I keep seeing Kony2012 posters. My dad, a teacher in public schools, tells me that Invisible Children is sending posters to schools to promote the Kony2012 effort, saying people should watch their film. With the power of the Occupy Movement, it is paramount that a peaceful solution be promoted to bring the Kurtz-like war criminal, Joseph Kony, to justice.
Occupy Wall Street has been a force against war as part of its message. There is an Antiwar Working Group on the New York General Assembly’s website that “uses nonviolent direct action …
by Martha Rosenberg / May 8th, 2012
Just like ALEC, Big Pharma is doing the job of elected officials by writing legislation-ready bills for no charge, says the New York Times. The new bills seek to prevent health insurers from raising co-pay amounts to a price where patients are unable or unwilling to buy them, especially with expensive drugs. When co-pays rise too high, many people engage in what Pharma calls “prescription abandonment” — leaving the prescription at the pharmacy “altar” or not refilling future prescriptions.
Pharma is losing so much money from rising co-pays and prescription abandonment, it has launched cagey, public service announcement-sounding campaigns about …
by Dan Freeman-Maloy / May 8th, 2012
David Cronin is one of the leading public critics of European policies on Palestine. He has written for a variety of publications across Europe, has served as European correspondent for the Sunday Tribune (Dublin) and as Brussels correspondent for the Inter Press Service news agency, and is the author of Europe’s Alliance with Israel: Aiding the Occupation (Pluto Press, 2011). His book is described by Ken Loach as “essential reading for all who care about justice and the rule of law.”
Dan Freeman-Maloy: In your book, you describe the determination of Israeli planners …
by Jonik / May 8th, 2012
A look at what an American politician’s pledge really means.
by Gary Corseri / May 8th, 2012
They told us it would be over soon;
They told us it would save our lives.
But our children’s eyes hardened like peach pits.
More years passed than our youth.
They told us we needed more and more—
More cars, more “house,” more lovers, more money.
And we followed like rats on a treadmill
Cascading through a labyrinth.
We could not remember the unpronounceable names
Of battlefields, special ops, psy ops—the droned lands.
They told us we killed far more of their fathers.
And we rubbed that balm like salt in our wounds.
They cloaked themselves in our gory flag.
They went to our games, ate hot dogs… cheered!
Our warriors …
by Firmin DeBrabander / May 7th, 2012
The surveillance state expands. Since 9-11, our phones are subject to warrantless wiretaps. Our email and internet transactions leave a trail for some to follow. The police can access our GPS location data through our smart phones, also without a warrant. Retailers record our purchasing habits with painstaking detail. Apparently, Target studies those purchases to determine when customers are pregnant—in the second trimester no less—for specialized marketing purposes.
And now, there will be surveillance drones. Congress recently passed a bill that opens the gates to widespread use of surveillance drones on US soil. There has been relatively little coverage of this …
In protest of Sandy Weill's honorary degree - May 12, 2012
by Day of Shame Organizing Coalition / May 7th, 2012
A recently organized coalition of Sonoma State faculty, students and local Occupy activists is calling for a public demonstration of outrage in response to the announcement that former Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill will receive an honorary degree at SSU’s graduation ceremony this year. People all over the country are invited to the Sonoma State campus for a Day of Shame on Sonoma State University. The protest begins at noon on Saturday, May 12, and does not intend in any way to disrupt graduation proceedings. On the contrary, this is an urgent call to defend the integrity of the ceremony …
by Binoy Kampmark / May 7th, 2012
The answer, even though they see over and over again that austerity leads to collapse of the economy, the answer over and over [from politicians] is more austerity.
— Joseph Stiglitz, Asian Financial Forum, January 17, 2012
It has been a busy weekend. France finds itself with a new president, its first socialist leader since François Mitterand left office in 1995. Greek voters flocked to the parties of the anti-bailout movement with indignant enthusiasm. The liberals seem to be holding on, narrowly, in Serbia.
The true effigy in burning after the elections is austerity itself, a doctrine that has assumed the form of …
by Ron Jacobs / May 7th, 2012
I remember the very first time I saw the Wikileaks-released video filmed from a US gunship showing the murder of a dozen unarmed civilians including two journalists. The video proved the true brutality of the US occupation of Iraq and the distressing disregard for human life common among US soldiers. Sadly, I wasn’t shocked or surprised at what I saw. Even after having heard about such incidents in conversations with returning veterans, the visual evidence was still quite disturbing to watch.
That video was the first time most Americans had heard about Wikileaks. Not long after, the …
The Legacy of a Truth Teller
by Nozomi Hayase / May 7th, 2012
George Carlin was one of America's most beloved standup comedians. Even after his death, his great performances have lived on in the memories of many. There is now a whole new generation discovering his work on the cyber-stage. Some recorded performances have become hits on YouTube with waves of laughter going viral on Social Media.
George Carlin had a way of revealing the truth. With his gift of irreverent satire, he softened the truth of his biting social commentary with a unique humor. He could for a short time cut through America's collective consciousness and belief systems. His performances gave the …
New book on news history explores why we have a non-democratic and exclusionary Press
by Paul Haeder / May 5th, 2012
The foundational question all journalists – all Americans, for that matter – should be asking is: How news and information should flow through American democracy, and who can access that media? Believe it or not, the founders of the United States, through huge fits, spasms and debates, created the US Postal Office (1774) to move newspapers throughout the land, for hardly anything or nothing at all.
How times have changed since then with media monopolies lobotomizing news, the centralizing of newspaper and broadcast reporting which has created a corporate-protectorate, the looming death of independent publishers and book sellers, thanks partly to …
by John A. Gronbeck-Tedesco / May 5th, 2012
In the early fall of 1937, African-American poet, Langston Hughes, arrived in Barcelona in the aftermath of an air raid that killed several dozen people. That summer, Hughes had joined a bevy of writers and artists from around the world who had convened in Spain to take part in the Second International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture. Like his fellow literati, Hughes was entranced by the civil war taking place in Spain, distraught over its broader implications for the slow withering of democracy and deepening racial injustice around the world.
In addition to reporting on the International Brigades …
by William Manson / May 5th, 2012
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
— William Butler Yeats (1919)
In the past decade or so, millions of people endured shockingly brutal, lawless war-making and state terror on the part of Bush and his accomplices. While millions were caught up in the whirlwind of destruction released by Bush et al., others back in the Homeland shook their heads in …
by Binoy Kampmark / May 5th, 2012
A familiar battle is unfolding between sports and politics, with various countries taking a stance on Ukraine’s treatment of ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko. The choice of battleground is the Euro 2012 championships which are being co-hosted by the Ukraine this year, along with Poland.
Various members of the EU have already taken steps to boycott the state, heeding the position of Eugenia Tymoshenko, daughter of the imprisoned opposition leader. “European leaders can’t be seen to support this repression by standing next to President (Viktor) Yanukovych”.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has added her voice to the chorus about the plight of the former …
