Politics Archives - Page 132 of 243

11Dec

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Politics

Phyllis Bennis: From Zionist to Anti-Zionist Activist

NOVANEWS The situation in the Middle East is getting tenser. At the same time, it looks like there might be some breakthroughs and resolution on things--the negotiations with Iran, the situation in Syria. But of course there are many forces at play here that might blow all of this up in the air. Joining Real News to talk about all of this is Phyllis Bennis. Phyllis is the director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. She's been a writer and analyst and activist on the Middle East and UN issues for many years. Two thousand and one, she helped found the U.S. campaign to end the Israeli occupation. She cochairs the UN-based International Coordinating Network on Palestine. She continues to serve as an adviser to several top UN officials on the Middle East....

9Dec

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Politics, World

Welcome to the World Revolution in the Global Age of Rage

NOVANEWS Welcome to the World Revolution in the Global Age of Rage By: Andrew Gavin Marshall MASS PROTEST IN SPAIN I am currently writing a book on the global economic crisis and the global resistance, rebellious and revolutionary movements that have emerged in reaction to this crisis. Our world is in the midst of the greatest economic, social, and political crisis that humanity has ever collectively entered into. The scope is truly global in its context, and the effects are felt in every locality. The course of the global economic crisis is the direct and deliberate result of class warfare, waged by the political and economic elites against the people of the world. The objective is simple: all for them and none for you. At the moment, the crisis is particularly acute in Europe, a...

7Dec

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Africa, Human Rights, Politics

Mandela, the story of a great revolutionary

NOVANEWS Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid fighter, has died at the age of 95, 5.12.13, a date we shall all remember with sorrow. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician. He was a main figure in the 1948-1994 struggle against the racist apartheid government run by President FW de Klerk. He paid a long sentence for speaking out against racism when he was arrested in 1964 and let out 27 years later. After 3 years of being released years he ran for election, the first election where black people were allowed to vote, and he won the election. He served 5 years as president from 1994 to 1999. Since apartheid, Mandela has received the Nobel Peace Prize, Lenin Peace Prize, Time's Person of the year and so on. Long Live the South African ap...

5Dec

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Campaigns, Politics, USA

Don’t take my pension!: The looming public worker nightmare

NOVANEWS What happens to a municipal worker's pension when a city goes bankrupt? Unlike banks, they won't get bailed out ADAM J. LEVITIN Dan McNamara, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association, speaks to firefighters (Credit: AP/Paul Sancya) We are now on the cutting edge of a wave of municipal bankruptcies fueled by pension obligations that cities cannot afford. Cities made workers promises in good times based on optimistic assumptions that did not always hold true. Yet it is far from clear that bankruptcy provides any solution to municipal pension problems. No city has ever reduced its pension obligations in bankruptcy without pensioner consent. While municipal bankruptcy has been around since the 1930s, pension-driven bankruptcies are a new phenomenon. Few of the local gover...

5Dec

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Campaigns, Politics

Socialism is not a political party; it is the first stage of communization

NOVANEWS Part of the genius of the Decolonize/ Occupy movement was our instinctual sense that the state can’t really control the capitalist market. In fact, the state helped create this market by colonial force and it has now been devoured up by the forces it unleashed. Instead of appealing to politicians to reel in capitalism and make it work for us, we tried to attack capital directly – we occupied Wall St. and ”Wall St. on the Waterfront”. As we said during the Dec. 12th, 2011 port shutdown, the Wisconsin-style attempts to occupy capitol buildings had failed to stop the politicians from passing austerity measures. So why not start occupying the capital of the corporations that buy the politicians in those capitols? Why not disrupt their ports, factories, etc.? This could be the ...

5Dec

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Politics, ZIO-NAZI

Breaking the System’s Shock Absorbers

NOVANEWS However, I think we can also learn from the autonomist Marxists’ recognition that the current capitalist state is not monolithic or static. The state is the product of contradictory class forces, and since classes are constantly being composed and recomposed, the state can change and adapt, especially in response to pressures from below – from people like us. Capitalism and the state are currently in a moment of crisis and transition. They are having trouble governing. This does not automatically mean that revolution is around the corner, and even if revolution happens this does not automatically mean the outcome will be anarchistic communization. But we need to recognize that the current state has its own set of problems, and that our enemies are not always united in some g...

5Dec

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Campaigns, Politics

Intro: the shifting political terrain

NOVANEWS The years since the financial crisis have not been boring, especially here on the West Coast. Through strikes, occupations, demonstrations, and blockades, tens of thousands of us have created social possibilities with few precedents in recent history. However, all of these developments are fragile; we will forget what we’ve learned unless we keep putting it into practice. We need to stay dynamic, dodging the new obstacles that the system will encourage us to put in our own way. An increasingly hollowed out state apparatus is having a harder time coopting street-level turbulence using the old carrots and sticks. The capitalist ruling class is finding itself unable to forge a consensus among its own members about how to stablize the system. This is both a cause, and an effect, ...

5Dec

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Campaigns, Politics

Economic Pain Inflicted, Austerity-Pushers Now Targeting Human Rights

NOVANEWS European watchdog shows that attack on social protections has followed top-down drive to impose economic cuts - Jon Queally The political drive to enact economic austerity across Europe is not only harming the financial position of millions upon millions of people, it is also undermining human rights protections across the continent and beyond. A protestor wears a mask with black tape over the mouth during a demonstration against government austerity measures and the passing of a new law by the cabinet which toughens penalties on protesters. (Credit: REUTERS/Eloy Alonso)That is the message from the Council of Europeans on Wednesday, backed up by a new report (pdf) highlighting how the misguided policies implemented by governments in the name of fighting back against the finan...

5Dec

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Campaigns, Politics

Facebook isn’t Your Friend

NOVANEWS by DAVID CRONIN A few days ago, I was told by the organisers of a “social media” festival that the hashtag was my “new best friend“. As I’ve never hugged a hashtag or cried on the shoulders of one, I felt it was important to question this “wisdom”. Like millions of others, I’m addicted to Facebook and, to a lesser degree, Twitter. I check these websites so frequently that I often forget they are owned by vast corporations. Some of these firms’ activities are inherently anti-democratic. Facebook’s Brussels office is headed by Erika Mann, a former German member of the European Parliament. She has long fought to enable the interests of big business triumph over those of ordinary people. During her 15 years as an MEP, Mann continuously advocated that the European Union should liberal...

3Dec

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Politics, World

Tailored for Sharks

NOVANEWS Tailored for sharks (pdf, 560KB) How rules are tailored and public interest surrendered to suit corporate interests in the WTO, FTAs and BITs trade and investment regime The discourse of rules and fairness usually brings up ideas of equality, justice and upholding of rights. Therefore, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) describes itself as a “rules-based” system that treats all member countries fairly based on the principle of “non-discrimination”, it could be concluded that the WTO multilateral trading system is just and equitable.But if the WTO system were indeed equitable, then why has global trade become concentrated in the hands of a few corporations, indicating that only a few big corporate players benefit from the global trading system. Why is it that 80% of US e...