contributions

Euro centrism as a fig-leaf, and the art of conjuring in politics Tahrir square in Europe by Marieme Helie Lucas
Source: siawi.org English version on 14 January 2016, (version française Jan 5, 2016, Updated Jan 12: http://www.siawi.org/article10591.html)
Facts:
On New Year’s Eve 2015, simultaneous coordinated sexual attacks took place against women in public space in about 10 cities, mostly in Germany, but also in Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland… Several hundred women, to (…)

That Italy has sunk in a deep economic and political crisis since the spreading of the global recession is by no means a new story.
Nor are the effects of the profound reforms of the labor market that have been pushed forward to cut the cost of labor and re-boost economic growth: the precariazation of the labor force through a rise of its flexibility (via a multitude of short-term contracts and the chipping away of the instruments of social protection) is not an Italian story, but a global (…)

Sabato 09 Gennaio 2016
Today in Licata (Agrigento province, Sicily) a march participated by over 1000 people crossed the city centre, in order to say no to oil concessions for drillings in the Sicilian Channel.
The demonstration was called by the local NoTriv* committee that, for a lot of months now, has been carrying on its territorial struggle against the provisions in the Sblocca Italia decree** that will allow drillings a few kilometres off the Licatan coast.
The demonstration, (…)

he “War On Terror” and “The War On Drugs” are both fraudulent, and they are both related. In a classic example of “reverse projection”, ”the War on Terror” is literally a “War for Terror”, and the “War on Drugs” is literally a “War for Drugs”.
Terror, coupled with the illegal trade in narcotics, particularly heroin, is enabling the orchestration, and funding, of illegal warfare which serves the interests of an international oligarch class as it destroys humanity.
The barbarity of the (…)

Brian Ashley is the editor of Amandla! [1] and a leading activist of the Democratic Left Front [2]. Interview conducted on Wednesday 23rd December 2015 over the telephone by François Favre et Marc Ducassé. First of all let’s go over some recent events: was the sacking of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Musa Nene due to his opposition to the Airbus deal wanted by SAA [3] and his chairwoman, Dudu Myeni, alleged President Jacob Zuma’s mistress or his opposition to the nuclear programme wanted by (…)

Daniel Patrick Welch interview on the news item that lunatic Republicans are planning to do something even more lunatic-y with respect to the Iran deal. In my analysis I stress that, while we have a duty to expose the GOP’s lunaticity, we have no less a duty to point out that this is more show than showdown, and that neither wing of the war party is interested in peace. Period.
I also coin a brand new term for "democratic" government under empire. When Oligarchic Paternalism goes viral, I (…)

OBAMA’S TEARS
“Even those tears, I me mine “I me mine, I me mine” – the Beatles
John Chuckman
Had I seen the image of Obama, weeping over American gun deaths, seven years ago, I know I would have been deeply moved. It would have reinforced my view of him then as an empathetic, bright, and progressive politician. And I did then, and do now, find America’s violence – all of it, not just the small fraction of it seen in street killings - an appalling assault on the human spirit.
But the (…)

One of the most common ways people develop perceptions and/or form judgments about certain events, people, and/or occupations is by how they are portrayed in the corporate-controlled media. Unfortunately, these media are usually more preoccupied with entertainment value than truth and accuracy; therefore, the perceptions they create are often erroneous and/or incomplete. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fictitious depictions of America’s criminal justice system that inundate both (…)

It comes in waves, the despair, the sheer, impotent rage. And sometimes we need to believe we can sleep in, as it were, to take a day off from worrying about the very real possibility of the police targeting and killing our families, our children. Wouldn’t Christmas weekend be a good time? And then reality hits. No, of course not. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/protesters-keep-vigil-for-activist-accidentally-shot-by-chicago-police/2015/12/27/4f60c3b8-acef-11e5-9ab0-884d1cc4b33e_story.h

The legal troubles of controversial art transporter Yves Bouvier were even greater in 2015, and were fought on even more fronts than had previously been known. Already facing two separate criminal cases in France and Monaco, and connected to a number of other fraud allegations, it emerged on Friday December 18th that Bouvier was also under investigation by the Lichtenstein authorities on suspicion of money laundering. The news, first broken by Swiss outlet La Tribune de Genève, was a (…)