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THE VELVET REVOLUTION
James Petras
Speaking of democratic revolutions... Play dedicated in memoriam of "Grovel" Havel for services to the Empire beyond the call of duty.
Act 1, Scene 1
(A cafe in upper west side of Manhattan not far from Columbia University. Grovel Havel sits with an editor of N.Y. Review of Books and a professor sympathetic to the New Left... drinking coffee... a cigarette hangs from his lip in the style of Jean Belmondo. He is wearing casual clothes.)
GH: Nothing works under Communism but everybody does his job. The workers pretend to work and the regime pretends to pay them. It is a form of resistance... Czech style.
NYRofB Editor: It must be terribly difficult to work under a Stalinist regime.
GH: They control everything: radio, television, book publishing; they have a small group of mediocrities who run the Writers’ Unions and the major journals. We survive, thanks to Western solidarity.
Prof: Doesn’t the financial speculator Soros fund many of the Czech dissidents?
Arab Spring Moves From Streets to Ballot Box - OWS Take Note
By Allen L Roland
The Arab spring has become a fall parliamentary election and yet another step toward a true Egyptian Democracy. There are still stumbling blocks ahead but they will most likely be turned into stepping stones by an empowered people who are more than willing to take to the streets in demanding true change ~ Occupy Wall Street take note: Allen L Roland
The Occupy Movement started in Egypt last spring but that wave of revolt has now become a tsunami of occupy movements throughout the world ~ for each success of the people asserting their power against the military or financial elite inspires countless others to flex their muscles and take action.
We Are All Palestinians
By Gilad Atzmon
Most solidarity activists in this country would agree that the PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign) is potentially an invaluable institution. Yet, the National Office, under its current leadership, has made some serious mistakes.
The PSC’s task is not easy. We all operate in a Zionised environment and we’re subject to constant pressure and abuse. Moreover, it’s not always clear what we should do for Palestine. It is obvious that Palestinian resistance is more than just single political perception or a vision of conflict resolution. Palestine is basically a dynamic discourse of negation with Palestinians themselves divided on different issues to do with their struggle and their fate. Consequently, Palestinian solidarity is also far from being a rigid or monolithic discourse. Furthermore, the enemy also is far from being any obviously singular identity or monolithic political discourse. The Jewish national project is a varied discourse, driven by many conflicting thoughts such as Zionism, Israeli patriotism, Israeli escapism, Jewishness, Jewish messianic militancy, pseudo-peaceful propaganda, pre-traumatic stress and so on. So it makes sense that Palestinian solidarity must encompass many voices reflecting the immense complexity of the conflict and its possible resolution.
Spoiling for a Fight
By Stuart Littlewood
The gung-ho leadership of the British government, fresh from their heroic "liberation" of Libya (and never mind the mega-deaths and wholesale destruction), are now itching for a fight with Iran, it seems. Of course they won't be spilling any blood or guts of their own. They'll watch from a safe distance and make Churchillian speeches.
The temperature is rising nicely. After the storming of the British embassy in Tehran, foreign secretary William Hague declared: "These events are a grave violation of the Vienna Convention... This is a breach of international responsibilities of which any nation should be ashamed."
He added: "We have been foremost among those nations arguing for peaceful legitimate pressure to be intensified on Iran in the light of the IAEA’s 'deep and increasing concern' about the Iranian nuclear program, including its 'possible military dimensions'.”
Something’s Rotten in the Heart of Western Governments
By Stuart Littlewood
When Marcellus, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, famously says, "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark", he means that the body politic is rotting from the top down and the corruption stinks to high heaven.
410 years later the Bard's words are especially applicable to the so-called political élite of the Western world. The stench of their corruption is assailing the nostrils of more and more people and causing mass nausea.
Thankfully some small but effective relief is available in the United States courtesy of the Council for the National Interest Foundation (CNIF), an independent non-profit concern that provides information and analysis on the Middle East and its relationship to the United States. The CNIF has been doing an excellent demolition job on US foreign policy and exposing how it is dangerously at odds with American values and national interests. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/11/23/the-cost-of-israel-to-americans/
S 1867: Killing The Bill of Rights and Declaring War on Americans
By Tim Gatto
This is an article that I MUST write about. If I don’t write this article than I have no right to ever write another. The reason is because the most despicable and damaging piece of legislation ever passed was passed in the Senate late last night without hardly a whimper in the morning from the American mainstream press. Under the cover of darkness, the United States Senate virtually declared war on the people of this nation by passing the darkest piece of legislation ever passed in America.
When will Pakistan’s spring arrive?
By Eric Walberg
US friendly fire knows no bounds. The deaths of Pakistan soldiers and civilians is just the tip of the iceberg, which will only disappear in the heat of a national uprising.
It's hard to imagine a greater provocation than your bosom buddy killing 28 of your own soldiers. NATO helicopters violated the airspace of Pakistan from Afghanistan on Friday and opened unprovoked fire on a check post in Mohmand, northwest Pakistan at midnight. Presumably the pilots got the wrong coordinates from MacDill Air Force Central Command in Florida or took too many army-prescribed uppers. The attack continued even after Pakistani commanders pleaded with coalition forces to stop.
As a show of anger, Pakistan ordered the CIA to vacate drone operations at Shamsi Air Base in southwestern Baluchistan and closed both the Khyber and Baluchistan supply routes into Afghanistan, cutting off 70 per cent of NATO's supplies. It was the worst such incident since 9/11.
Israeli-Style Justice
By Stephen Lendman
Accused Israelis face charges in civil courts. Military tribunals try Palestinians. Virtually everyone is guilty by accusation. A new study says so. More on that below.
In April 2008, the Addamer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association published a report titled "Defending Palestinian Prisoners: A Report on the Status of Defense Lawyers in Israeli Courts."
It explained obstacles lawyers representing Palestinians face in court. They're hampered by military orders, Israeli laws, and prison procedures that prevent them from adequately helping clients. They're hamstrung from time of arrests through detentions, interrogations, trials, imprisonments, appeals, and other constraints against justice.
Yet international law is clear and unequivocal. Article 2, section 3(b)(c) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states:
....(P)ersons "shall have (the) right (to effective remedy through a) competent judicial, administrative or legislative (authority), or by any other competent authority provided for the legal system of the State (to) ensure that the competent authorities shall enforce (judicial) remed(ies)."
CELAC: A Washington-Controlled OAS Alternative
By Stephen Lendman
On February 23, 2010, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States was established at the Rio Group-Caribbean Community Unity Summit in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
CELAC comprises 33 regional countries. America and Canada are excluded. In July 2010, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Chile's Sebastian Pinera were chosen co-chairs to help draft organizational statutes.
CELAC calls itself "a nonprofit institution, established for critical analysis, design and management of the structural, political, cultural, economic and social factors that affect the various Latin American countries and Caribbean, as well as to their impact on the respective national societies, as in the hemispheric or universal joint."
"Its focus is on finding the best solution in the framework of respect for human rights, the democratic exercise, the overall progress, peace and peaceful coexistence and international levels."
America's Weak Jobs Report
By Stephen Lendman
ABC News quoted an unnamed White House spokesperson, saying the November jobs report provides "further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal."
Obama's Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Alan Krueger hyped the 0.4% unemployment rate drop to 8.6%, "the lowest (figure) since March 2009." He didn't explain why. More on that below, including the real unreported employment rate.
The New York Times tried having it both ways. On December 2, Catherine Rampell's article headlined, "Jobless Rate Dips to Lowest Level in More Than 2 Years," saying:
"Somehow the American economy appears to be getting better, even as the rest of the world is looking worse."
She called it "good news for President Obama as he heads into the 2012 presidential election - especially since just a few months ago the picture looked bleak."
For America's 26 million unemployed, it never looked bleaker. It's reflected in what Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures and major media scoundrels don't report - the nation's near-23% unemployment rate (including millions wanting work but dropped out for lack of jobs), its highest since the Great Depression.
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