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international / miscellaneous Sunday August 25, 2013 - 00:01 by xxx
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Few industrial accidents can match the severity of the Seveso disaster of 1976. Despite the resulting long-term health problems and environmental risks, however, the accidental release of gases including TCDD -- a form of cancer-causing dioxin -- into a residential area of Italy had some positive legacies, including the creation of tighter environmental regulations and health protections throughout Europe. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Wednesday August 21, 2013 - 12:54 by Turing
 2 comments (last - wednesday september 04, 2013 - 21:28)
Several hundred Iranian political and human rights activists, academics, and students inside and outside Iran wrote a letter this week to US President Barack Obama asking him to engage with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to “work towards the elimination of sanctions and the lowering of tensions between Iran and the United States.” The letter also expresses support for the 55 Iranian political prisoners who wrote a separate letter to President Obama about the impact of sanctions on Iranians. “Economic sanctions, particularly those imposed unilaterally by the United States, have taken a terrible toll on the Iranian people’s standard of living,” the group writes. They add, “We are concerned that the constant pressure applied by Congress to encourage a policy of confrontation will have negative repercussions on the nuclear negotiations.” These letters join many others that have support from civil society both within and outside Iran, including from journalists, activists, and intellectuals well known for criticizing the Iranian government, urging the removal of crippling sanctions. The full text of the letter is below. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / anti-capitalism Monday August 19, 2013 - 23:04 by Turing
6 comments (last - friday august 23, 2013 - 10:25) 1 image  1 video file  1 audio file
This article by the Revolutionary Socialists of Egypt is directed to their supporters, explaining in detail the principled stance they have taken. No to the Military Junta and No to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Full text at link. Terrible massacres and violent repression, a huge escalation in attacks on Egyptian Christians and churches, the consolidation of the repressive military state continues apace. These are the momentous political developments we have experienced during the last few weeks. They pose enormous challenges to the revolution, but they also contain opportunities toprepare for the coming waves of the revolution, which the Revolutionary Socialists can use effectively to build the movement, provided that we develop tactics capable of dealing with changing circumstances. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Sunday August 18, 2013 - 01:38 by Turing
2 comments (last - monday august 26, 2013 - 12:19)
Franklin Lamb gives an eyewitness report on the immediate aftermath of the bombing. Full text at link. I stood for more than an hour just inside a women’s shoe store sometimes moving along the sidewalk, which front had been blown off and wanting to stay out of the way, just watching and grimacing as emergency vehicles began to arrive and thousands, not hundreds, of Hezbollah security and supporters, many armed, arrived and directed the fire trucks and ambulance, helped wounded neighbors among much shouting and emotion. Grown men crying, women praying, and before long a group of young men beating their chests in defiance, chanting “Haidar, Haidar, Haidar’ and Shia ritual meant to identify with the events of Karba in 680 when Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) sacrificed himself in defense of Islam. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday August 16, 2013 - 02:26 by Turing
The despotic House of Saud scatters its money around, causing mayhem throughout the Arab World. Money that is stolen from ordinary Saudis by the parasitic royal family. Finian Cunningham explains what is really going on. Full text at link. If Saudi rulers had more brains, they might be formidably dangerous. Even with lackluster intelligence assets, they are already causing enough havoc and bloodshed across the Middle East and North Africa regions, pouring millions-of-dollars-worth of weaponry into Al Qaeda and other Takfiri networks that are destroying once proud civilizations in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Libya through nihilistic sectarianism. And if the Saudi paymasters of terrorism could have it all their way, they would salivate at the chance of extending this destruction to Iran - the Shia power that they fear as their nemesis. Fortunately, the Saudi rulers’ agenda of covert terrorism - an agenda that serves its Western masters - is not well concealed. This is because “Saudi state intelligence” is something of an oxymoron and leaves a trail of self-incriminating clues wherever it goes ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Thursday August 15, 2013 - 13:18 by Turing
This won't please the US, they will now have to find some other ruse to didrupt the UN process. Full text at link. The Syrian government has accepted the ‘essential modalities’ under which the UN was ready to investigate whether chemical weapons had been used in the country, the body has announced, signalling that experts will shortly be travelling to Syria. "The departure of the team is now imminent," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. “As agreed with the Government of Syria, the team will remain in the country to conduct its activities, including on-site visits, for a period of up to 14 days, extendable upon mutual consent.” The Secretary-General has expressed his appreciation to the Syrian government for accepting “the modalities essential for cooperation to ensure the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the Mission.” The statement also reminded that the use of chemical weapons “by any side under any circumstances” would constitute an “outrageous crime. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / anti-capitalism Monday August 12, 2013 - 13:45 by Turing
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Critique started in May 1973. It was announced at the first national conference at Imperial College, a conference addressed among others by Ernest Mandel, Ralph Miliband and Hillel Ticktin. Some 500 people attended. The first issue had a print run of 2500 which quickly sold out. The issues of the 70s used to sell around 4-5000 copies very largely in bookshops in the UK, the Continent of Europe and the USA. As the USSR began to mutate the focus of the journal changed to a critique of capitalism. Throughout its focus remained on political economy and the need to reinvigorate Marxism given its Stalinist degradation. As the first Virtual Special Issue of Critique, we have selected articles which have either formed the basis of the work of the journal or which complement it. In the first instance Critique sought to develop a more credible modern Marxist theory of the USSR and of the Cold War. With that it needed to update the theory of a socialist/Communist society. In turn, the journal turned to a critique of existing Marxist theory of capitalism and so to the question of decline and to finance capitalism. ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Monday August 05, 2013 - 18:06 by Mattie Lennon
The story of an attempted frame-up. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Monday August 05, 2013 - 13:42 by BoS
Sanctions grow more severe, even publication in academic journals isout for Iranians. Yassamine Mather discusses the limitations of Hassan Rowhani. Iran’s new president, Hassan Rowhani, will take office on August 3. He faces major internal as well as international problems. It will be interesting to see how a man who describes himself as a ‘centrist’ will try to reconcile the warring factions of the Islamic Republic, but also the increasing divide between ordinary Iranians - victims of sanctions, poor economic management, as well political repression - with an increasingly paranoid religious dictatorship. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / rights, freedoms and repression Wednesday July 31, 2013 - 14:00 by Turing
1 comment (last - wednesday july 31, 2013 - 18:13) 1 image
What is Obama going to do about this? RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The editor of a Saudi Arabian social website has been sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for founding an Internet forum that violates Islamic values and propagates liberal thought, Saudi media reported on Tuesday. Raif Badawi, who started the "Free Saudi Liberals" website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, has been held since June 2012 on charges of cyber crime and disobeying his father - a crime in the conservative kingdom and top U.S. ally. Al-Watan newspaper said the judge had also ordered the closure of the website. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-capitalism Monday July 22, 2013 - 21:35 by T
This interesting article from the WSM was sparked by the recent protest against the G8 in June in Fermanagh but makes a broad analysis of the anti-globalisation / anti-captialism movement of the past 15 years from Seattle where Indymedia was born up to the present day and an analysis of the Arab Spring and the protest in places like Spain, Greece and Turkey. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / anti-capitalism Sunday July 21, 2013 - 00:51 by John Cornford
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The latest edition of the Weekly Worker is now available on the CPGB website at www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/971 In this week's issue: SWP: HOW DID THIS BLOODY MESS COME TO PASS? Marxism, the annual school of the SWP, saw a revamped opposition, reports Mark Fischer DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM: THE GENIE AND THE BOTTLE If you can loosen SWP restrictions on free debate on one occasion, asks Peter Manson, why not do so permanently? ... read full story / add a comment 
international / anti-war / imperialism Saturday July 20, 2013 - 10:33 by fred
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Bradley Manning has deservedly been awarded the Sean McBride peace prize. He has also been nominated for the Nobel peace prize this year and the petition to award him the prize currently stands at 88,000 signatures ... read full story / add a comment
national / rights, freedoms and repression Wednesday July 17, 2013 - 19:59 by ciara
9 comments (last - thursday july 18, 2013 - 15:52)
The Irish Independent reports today:
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Every household in the country will be hit with a new Public Service Broadcasting Charge to replace the television licence fee next year. Nobody will be able to refuse to pay the charge because it will apply regardless of whether you have a television, computer or any other device that can pick up public information. The new universal charge will be collected in a way that tackles the current very high evasion rates of the TV licence fee - suggesting the payment mechanism could be modelled on the new property tax. Currently nearly one in five households does not pay the TV licence fee and this is costing the government €30m a year in lost revenue. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Monday July 15, 2013 - 08:11 by Solidarity
5 comments (last - tuesday july 23, 2013 - 07:48)
ABC Brisbane radio interview Vince Emanuele: veterans and PTSD http://tinyurl.com/o969n9x ... read full story / add a comment 
national / environment Tuesday July 02, 2013 - 23:16 by T
1 comment (last - wednesday july 03, 2013 - 07:01) 1 image
VOICE has just published its latest newsletter. In it we have outlined the government’s new Household Food Waste Regulations, our recent policy submissions, our new food waste challenge and more. Click Summer 2013 to read what’s happening at VOICE! ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Thursday June 27, 2013 - 08:17 by Ciaron
VID (26 mins) East Timor/ Seeds of Hope Ploughshares documentary, 1996 http://tinyurl.com/og2nou9 ... read full story / add a comment
international / gender and sexuality Sunday June 23, 2013 - 19:47 by TDoT
3 comments (last - tuesday july 16, 2013 - 16:55)
Cai Wilkinson on recent LGBTQ developments in Russia. Her geographic focus is on the former Soviet Union, and she is currently working on projects about LGBT rights and human rights norms in Kyrgyzstan and Russia. __________________________________________________________ The issue of LGBT rights in Russia first properly came to mainstream international attention in March 2012, when the St Petersburg Duma passed a law prohibiting “public acts aimed at the propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism amongst minors“. The law provoked an international outcry, including calls for tourists to boycott St Petersburg, sister-cities to consider cut off ties with Russia’s “window on Europe”, and condemnation from the EU, with the European Parliament passing a resolution noting that it was “gravely concerned by developments which restrict freedom of expression and assembly on the basis of misconceptions about homosexuality and transgenderism” and calling on Russia and other countries considering the adoption of similar legislation to “demonstrate, and ensure respect for, the principle of non-discrimination”. ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Sunday June 23, 2013 - 12:39 by Turing
Prisoner rights campaigner, Pauline Mellon with a piece on the imprisonment of Michael Campbell in Lithuania. It was written on 21st of June 2013 within hours of the writer attending a meeting meeting concerning Michael Campbell's case. Full text at link. I would like to draw your attention to the very disturbing case of Irish citizen Michael Campbell. Michael is currently serving a twelve year prison sentence in Lithuania in what has been described as in inhumane and degrading conditions. Michael has been imprisoned since January 2008. I met briefly today in Derry with a member of Michaels family, a fellow campaigner, a member of the European Parliament and a member of the Stormont Justice committee. The purpose of the meeting was to enlist support to add to the growing call to have Michael repatriated. Michael is being held in Lukiškės Prison in the Lithuania town of Vilnius. A 2008 judgement of the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) declared conditions at Lukiskes Remand Prison and the Rasu Prison to be violations of the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment as defined by European Convention on Human Rights. ... read full story / add a comment
international / politics / elections Thursday June 20, 2013 - 23:59 by Barry O'Sullivan
A massive protest vote elected a centrist candidate with over 50% of the vote, crushing the conservatives. But will he be able to create a more open Iran? Yassamine Mather examines this question. Full text at link. On Friday June 14, Iranians voted in large numbers for ayatollah Hassan Rowhani, a regime insider who was elected as Iran’s president with 50.71% of the vote. A centrist, not a ‘reformist’, he became the candidate of an unofficial coalition between ‘reformists’ and ‘centrists’ forged three days before the vote, after green leader and former president Mohammad Khatami asked the ‘reformist’ candidate, Mohammad Reza Aref, to withdraw from the elections. ... read full story / add a comment |
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