GPJA #440 (Part 2): International news & Analysis – 6/9/12
September 6, 2012 Leave a comment
FEATURES
Where the Mob Keeps Its Money http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opinion/sunday/where-the-mob-keeps-its-money.html
More than a cyclist – There’s more to Lance Armstrong’s popularity than his performance on a bicycle. http://socialistworker.org/2012/08/27/more-than-a-cyclist
After capitalism: ‘We deserve a political and economic system that redistributes both wealth and the decisions about how it is used’ – videoGuardian columnist George Monbiot argues that a world after capitalism is not a communist state but an advanced form of social democracy where the distribution of wealth is more stringently regulated. Animation by Yann Ponns, Alban Connell, Moet Suzuki and Mohamed Ali http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2012/aug/23/after-capitalism-george-monbiot-advanced-social-democracy-video
Collateral Damage of a Drug War http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/collateral-damage-of-a-drug-war
U.S.’s Prison Imperialism In The Outskirts of the Empire by Nasim Chatha http://afgj.org/u-s-%E2%80%99s-prison-imperialism-in-the-outskirts-of-the-empire
ASSANGE
End the WikiLeaks Witch Hunt: Julian Assange’s Full Address from the Ecuadorean Embassy http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/20/end_the_wikileaks_witch_hunt_julian
Tariq Ali: Why Latin America backs WikiLeaks http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/52024
For Julian Assange, Justice Foreclosed http://www.thenation.com/article/169632/julian-assange-justice-foreclosed
Sweden’s Other Rape Suspects http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sweden-s-other-rape-suspects-by-naomi-wolf
LAND, LABOUR AND THE ENVIRONMENT
We’re still on the slippery slope to peak oil http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528786.300-were-still-on-the-slippery-slope-to-peak-oil.html?full=true
World Bank policies help drive global hunger http://www.aworldtowin.net/blog/world-bank-policies-help-drive-global.html
Food price spikes hit world’s poor, including in MidEast http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/food-price-spikes-hit-worlds-poor-including-in-mideast/
Arctic melt shows serious crisis, challenge http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/51990
WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS
Paul Krugman: Slump And Circumstance http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/16/slump-and-circumstance/
Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone? http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/where-have-all-the-good-jobs-gone
Trade deal to curb generic-drug use – Tighter patent rules could raise drug costs in poor countries. http://www.nature.com/news/trade-deal-to-curb-generic-drug-use-1.11345
CULTURAL DISSENT
A painter of working-class life: An exhibit of the work of visual artist George Bellows illuminates Bellows’ concern with the intricacies of ordinary people’s lives, writes Andrea Hektor. http://socialistworker.org/2012/08/15/painter-of-working-class-life
REBEL MUSIC #18 – MIRIAM MAKEBA: Haben Habteslasie on singer and anti-apartheid activist Miriam Makeba… http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/blog_comments/rebel_music_18_miriam_makeba
Protest poet: Ahmed Negin, voice of Egypt’s revolution http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/protest-poet-ahmed-negin-voice-of-egypts-revolution/
AFGHANISTAN
Local revolts in Afghanistan repel Taliban and reject state http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/local-revolts-in-afghanistan-repel-taliban-and-reject-state/
Nato’s Afghan exit strategy in crisis as ‘green-on-blue’ attacks rise http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/articles/159-stop-the-war/16011-natos-afghan-exit-strategy-in-crisis-as-green-on-blue-attacks-rise
Real lives: imperial fictions and Afghan facts – Mitra Qayoom travelled back to her home country to reveal the lives of Afghans struggling against war and poverty http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/articles/international/15977-real-lives-imperial-fictions-and-afghan-facts
ANGOLA
Change Unlikely From Angolan Election, but Discontent Simmers http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/world/africa/change-unlikely-from-angola-election-but-discontent-simmers.html
AUSTRALIA
Grocon dispute: Workers stand up to police aggression http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/52123
Grocon ‘enlisted Hells Angel’ to frighten strikers http://www.theage.com.au/national/grocon-enlisted-hells-angel-to-frighten-strikers-20120904-25coz.html
Police, builders clash on CBD picket line http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/police-builders-clash-on-cbd-picket-line-20120828-24x5z.html
Rough footage from #Grocon picket just as the police were forced to retreat. http://yfrog.com/7gl8evoxelaarntrknirxtioz#yPGpQcgtsoPgy1ER.99
Cfmeu here to stay.
VIDEO: Melbourne building workers converge on Grocon picket line after police attack http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/52038
Art show exposes Agent Orange disaster http://directaction.org.au/art_show_exposes_agent_orange_disaster
The Ultimate Visualization Of Australia’s Housing Bubble http://www.zerohedge.com/news/ultimate-visualization-australias-housing-bubble
Smoke signals: moves of Big Tobacco plain to see http://tinyurl.com/9pgvk6e
Aussie union boss floors Paul Henry with Kiwi, small audience jibes http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/aussie-union-boss-floors-paul-henry-kiwi-small-audience-jibes-ck-127629
World’s richest woman says poor should have less fun, work harder http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-richest-woman-20120830,0,3323996.story
Gina Rinehart calls for Australian wage cut http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19487985
BAHRAIN
Tens of thousands march for democracy in Bahrain http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/tens-of-thousands-march-for-democracy-in-bahrain/
BANGLADESH
Export Powerhouse Feels Pangs of Labor Strife http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/world/asia/as-bangladesh-becomes-export-powerhouse-labor-strife-erupts.html
Bangladesh: Floods + capitalism = starving children http://climateandcapitalism.com/2012/08/28/bangladesh-floods-capitalism-starvingchildren/
BOLIVIA
Bolivia wants greater role in key mining sector http://boliviarising.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/bolivia-wants-greater-role-in-key.html
BURMA
Burmese Union Leader Maung Maung returning from Exile http://www.ituc-csi.org/burmese-union-leader-maung-maung.html?lang=en
CANADA
Interview: A left-wing challenge in Québec’s election – Interview with Quebec solidaire activists Jessica Squires and Benoit Renaud, http://socialistworker.org/2012/08/30/left-wing-challenge-in-quebec
Québec solidaire platform in the current Quebec election (September 4) English translation: http://www.quebecsolidaire.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/QS-Plateforme-2012-anglais-.pdf
Tens of thousands march for social justice, against capitalism, in Montreal http://www.rogerannis.com/tens-of-thousands-march-for-social-justice-against-capitalism-in-montreal/
Flanagan National Petroleum Ownership Act: Stop Big Oil Land Grab http://www.indigenousnationhood.blogspot.ca/2012/08/flanagan-national-petroleum-ownership.html
Missing and murdered women in British Columbia http://www.rogerannis.com/missing-and-murdered-women-in-british-columbia/
CHILE
Determined Chilean Students Try New Approach in Protests http://ilovechile.cl/2012/08/23/determined-chilean-students-try-new-approach-in-protests/65900
CHINA
CLB urges the Chinese government to further restrict the use employment agency labour http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/110113
COLOMBIA
Peace Talks Announced http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/news/article/1300/peace-talks-announced
US Must support Peace in Colombia http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/news/article/1301/us-must-support-peace-in-colombia
Colombian GM Workers on Hunger Strike Until Death Sew Their Mouths Shut
From Beyond the Walls: A Visit with the Women of Buen Pastor, Patio Six – Beyond the Walls is a play based on testimonies, poetry, and collective statements from the political prisoners of the Buen Pastor´s Women´s Penitenciary in Bogota, Colombia and from the letters of political prisoner Liliany Obando.
Time for Obama To Earn His Nobel Prize – Peace Talks Begin in Colombia http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/28/peace-talks-begin-in-colombia/
ECUADOR
Correa pushes free speech, challenges ‘media dictatorship’ http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/52127
HAITI
Crisis Group report on MINUSTAH is a whitewash of Haiti’s ills, not a remedy http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/roger-annis/2012/08/crisis-group-report-minustah-whitewash-haiti%E2%80%99s-ills-not-remedy
Haiti and the shock doctrine http://www.opendemocracy.net/matt-kennard/haiti-and-shock-doctrine
INDIA
How Did Coal-Rich India End Up With Power Blackouts? http://www.thenation.com/article/169505/how-did-coal-rich-india-end-power-blackouts
The London Review of Books has just completed the publication of a three-part essay series by Perry Anderson on the modern history of India. Part 1: Ghandi Centre Stage http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n13/perry-anderson/gandhi-centre-stage Part 2: Why Partition? http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n14/perry-anderson/why-partition Part 3. After Nehru http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n15/perry-anderson/after-nehru
INDONESIA
The truth about 1965 – The unofficial TAPOL translation of the report’s Executive summary http://www.tapol.org/reports/Komnas_HAM1965_TAPOL_translation.pdf
IRAQ
Putting Out The Fire? Iraqi Labor Unions Throttled, During and After Occupation by Steve Early http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/early220812.html
Iraq: Mission accomplished for Big Oil? How the American disaster in Iraq paved the way for Big Oil’s rise — and now for its possible fall. http://climateandcapitalism.com/2012/08/23/iraq-mission-accomplished-for-big-oil/
IRELAND
Progress? Yes. Change? – Bernadette Devlin McAliskey http://www.midulstermail.co.uk/news/local/progress-yes-change-bernadette-devlin-mcaliskey-1-4177025
LIBYA
A rebirth of Berber culture in post-Gadhafi Libya http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/03/world/meast/libya-berber-amazigh-renaissance/
LITHUANIA
A road between misery and austerity http://www.marxist.com/lithuania-between-misery-and-austerity.htm
MEXICO
No Silver Medal: Mexican Farmers Battle Canadian Mine for Control of Their Land http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/688.php
NETHERLANDS
Rise and rise of the Dutch Socialist Party: new perspectives for socialism or naïve, hip, left parliamentarism? http://links.org.au/node/3010
Cartoon of Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer that appeared in Quote, a Dutch business magazine. Caption reads: “If Roemer becomes prime minister, we’ll all move to Switzerland.”
PACIFIC
We know we will die – West Papua under attack http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/we-know-we-will-die-west-papua-under.html
Pacific leaders ignore Papuan rights abuses, call for observer status http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2012/09/pacific-leaders-ignore-papuan-rights-abuses-call-for-observer-status/
West Papua Report August 2012 http://www.etan.org/issues/wpapua/2012/1208wpap.htm
Letter to Secretary of State Clinton on West Papua Concerns http://etan.org/news/2012/08wpat.htm
PAKISTAN
Civilian deaths from US drone strikes way up on reports http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/civilian-deaths-from-us-drone-strikes-way-up-on-reports/
CIA escalates ‘illegal’ drone attacks in Pakistan http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/cia-escalates-illegal-drone-attacks-in-pakistan/
PALESTINE
The Forgotten Palestinians – On May 15, the New York Times published an article by Aaron David Miller entitled “Preserving Israel’s Uncertain Status Quo.” Miller’s picture of Israel as a struggling democratic state facing external threats presents the usual bland confection http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/189-israel-palestine/51844-the-forgotten-palestinians.html
Israeli police repeatedly taser handcuffed Palestinian http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/israeli-police-repeatedly-taser-handcuffed-palestinian/
Israeli settlers lured by state subsidies to West Bank http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/israeli-settlers-lured-by-state-subsidies-to-west-bank/
Discussing life ‘after zionism’ in Israel/Palestine by Antony Loewenstein http://mondoweiss.net/2012/08/discussing-life-after-zionism-in-israelpalestine.html
UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza
Rachel and Anne: A Legacy of Two Martyrs http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=19531
PHILIPPINES
Anti-mining indigenous leader ambushed http://www.rappler.com/business/special-report/whymining/whymining-latest-stories/11744-anti-mining-indigenous-leader-ambushed,-11-year-old-son-killed
SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi Arabia is restless, but (mostly) not yet rebellious http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/saudi-arabia-is-restless-but-mostly-not-yet-rebellious/
SOUTH AFRICA
Terry Bell: A wake-up call SA will ignore at its peril http://terrybellwrites.com/2012/09/05/a-wake-up-call-sa-will-ignore-at-its-peril/
Rage by Miners Points to Shift in South Africa http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/world/africa/south-africa-leaders-on-other-side-of-rich-poor-divide.html
Terry Bell: Sorting fact from fiction at Marikana http://terrybellwrites.com/2012/08/23/sorting-fact-from-fiction-at-marikana/
Terry Bell: Lonmin: the need for a comprehensive, transparent inquiry http://terrybellwrites.com/2012/08/22/lonmin-the-need-for-a-comprehensive-transparent-inquiry/
Terry Bell: A background to Marikana http://terrybellwrites.com/2012/08/23/a-background-to-marikana/
The Massacre of Our Illusions … And the Seeds of Something New by Leonard Gentle http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/686.php
Union key to a truly democratic future http://terrybellwrites.com/2012/09/02/union-key-to-a-truly-democratic-future/
The Marikana Massacre and the South African State’s Low Intensity War Against the People by Vishwas Satgar http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/693.php
SYRIA
Syrian rebels fight on for Aleppo despite local wariness http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/syrian-rebels-fight-on-for-aleppo-despite-local-wariness/
Syria’s economy very near ‘total collapse’: expert http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/syrias-economy-very-near-total-collapse-expert/
Robert Fisk: ‘Rebel army? They’re a gang of foreigners’ http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-rebel-army-theyre-a-gang-of-foreigners-8073717.html
TUNISIA
Tunisia to Reject Odious Debt
UK
I Agree With Nick: The Case for an Emergency Wealth Tax is Irresistible http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mehdi-hasan/clegg-emergency-wealth-tax-_b_1838584.html
USA
America Has Now Become An Aristocracy Of Elites: Chris Hayes http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/america-now-become-aristocracy-elites-chris-hayes-133824134.html
Prisons, Profit and Immigrants in Arizona
Former Spy Challenges Bloggers: “War is A Racket. The American public is lethargic. Blog that.” http://www.filmsforaction.org/Watch/Former_Spy_Tells_All_Calls_on_Citizen_Journalists_to_Keep_Blogging_and_Exposing_Corruption_Truth/
Robert reich: Labor Day 2012 and the Election of 2012: It’s Inequality, Stupid http://www.social-europe.eu/2012/08/labor-day-2012-and-the-election-of-2012-its-inequality-stupid/
Rep. John Lewis, Civil Rights Icon, on the Struggle to Win–and Now Protect–Voting Rights in U.S. http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/3/rep_john_lewis_civil_rights_icon
Right-Wing Populism and the Republican Party – A Conversation with Ingar Solty and Max Bohnel on the Republican National Convention http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/692.php
Minimum Wage Raise is the Least We Can Do to Civilize America http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/minimum-wage-raise-is-the-least-we-can-do-to-civilize-america
Chicago Teachers Draw a Line by Lee Sustar http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/690.php
Poverty: The New Growth Industry in America http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/poverty-the-new-growth-in_b_1833158.html
60 Years of American Economic History, Told in 1 Graph http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/60-years-of-american-economic-history-told-in-1-graph/261503/
Majority of New Jobs Pay Low Wages, Study Finds http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/business/majority-of-new-jobs-pay-low-wages-study-finds.html
Matt Taibbi: The Secret to Mitt Romney’s Fortune? Greed, Debt and Forcing Others to Foot the Bill http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/30/matt_taibbi_the_secret_to_mitt
VENEZUELA
“Open Horizons”: An interview with Roland Denis http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/687.php
VIETNAM
In Vietnam, Message of Equality Is Challenged by Widening Wealth Gap http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/world/asia/in-vietnam-message-of-equality-challenged-by-wealth-gap.html