World Social Struggles Newswire Archive

"A judge should not get a cosier cell just because of her socio-economic class."
"In his April 3rd article for the New York Times, Romero manipulated and distorted the facts about Afiuni’s case to fit the Times’s agenda of impeding honest news and discussion about Venezuela, driving forward the informational sabotage against the Chavez government that is widespread in the mainstream international media.

Romero asserted that Judge Afiuni and Eligio Cedeño were political prisoners. This is clearly inaccurate, especially since no evidence was presented that they were politically active. His piece also implied, by omission of sufficient context, that the Chavez government is the primary cause of the problems in the judicial system. This is also inaccurate and disingenuous. Romero even went so far as to implicitly compare Afiuni to the Dalai Lama at the end of his article, confirming the Times’s lack of seriousness when addressing these issues.

Romero’s article is an insult to the real political prisoners of Latin America – past and present – who have been tortured, murdered, and disappeared by dictators and neo-liberal regimes that used the justice system as a repressive tool to eliminate opponents. And, Romero’s article distracts his international audience from any constructive discourse about the problems in Venezuela’s justice system and how to overcome them, in the context of this gruesome history."

"In the same month, the highest-ranking general in the United States, “Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ranks the financial crisis as a higher priority and greater risk to security than current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” He explained, “It's a global crisis. And as that impacts security issues, or feeds greater instability, I think it will impact on our national security in ways that we quite haven't figured out yet.”[22] Rest assured, they’ve figured it out, but they don’t want to tell you."

"The notion that there is a flood of asylum seekers into richer countries is a myth, despite what some populists claim, our data shows that the numbers have remained stable." UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed five years after and in the same manner as he came to power, in a bloody uprising.

Elected president two months after the so-called Tulip Revolution of 2005 he helped engineer, he was since then head of state of the main transit nation for the U.S. and NATO war in Afghanistan.

Which direction the next Kyrgyz government takes will have repercussions on the U.S. and NATO plans for the largest military offensive of the Afghan war scheduled to begin in two months in Kandahar province.

The Iraqi government is also going to be ending the ration system to millions of people to be inline with reforms to accomodate their loan aggreements.

occupied london is carrying updates

Security goons attack students and Cambridge people protesting the IMF!

Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKnmVJaUefQ

"Iran’s nuclear power capability is used to keep us frightened beyond all reason. That nation’s domestic turmoil wrought by last year’s disputed presidential election has also been used as proof that Iran is a terrorist state, or a “state sponsor of terror” or whatever new terms can be invented to make Americans believe that war is a necessity."

An opportunity to forge new links between critical theory and contemporary activism...tune in to a live broadcast of the panel discussion happening from 6pm to 10pm - available for download after...

An alternative proposal to Chavez's "5th international"

As we head towards what is likely to be one of the most overly hyped general elections in recent history (voter confidence is down don't you know!) we felt the need to express a different opinion. An opinion that we have had enough of this sham democracy (in fact some of us have little faith in democracy altogether), that not only do these politicians not represent us but that any system of government is incapable representing us.

We have put together an (anti)election poster. We hope that whilst we have put this out in the lead up to the 2010 general elections it remains relevant until we have rid our lives of this filthy charade.

You can download the poster or order some from us for £1 per 10 posters or £5 solidarity price (the solidarity price will help us put out more of this sort of thing in the future). All orders from our shop will include a copy. Order from  http://www.lasthours.org.uk/products-page/?category=13. Download a hi-res version from  http://www.lasthours.org.uk/articles/the-politics-of-life/

We hope to see these posters up in workplaces, homes, social centres etc in the coming weeks.

See below for poster text and images

On International Worker's Day, Saturday 1st May 2010, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will take to the streets again at the head of four Mayday Carnival Parades.

MANILA, Philippines – Activists who were detained during martial law condemned the attempt of the Marcos family to return to power through the May elections.

ANGRY revolutionary crowds in two Asian states have demonstrated how people power can prevail against riot cops - even armed ones.

Everyday animal rights activism still going strong..

In light of the appeal on April 28th 2010, we call out for actions of solidarity everywhere.

From  http://www.directaction.info/prisoners.htm

GFEST – an unrivalled platform – will perform well for its sponsors – A ‘uksponsorship.com’ news update in 2009.

GFEST – Gaywise FESTival in London has put up the sponsorship package on the website:  http://www.gaywisefestival.org.uk/sponsors

An overwhelming 96% of audiences recommended that funders should continue to sponsor GFEST.

"Referring in his remarks to the conference to a social and human tragedy with few parallels in modern history—to which he greatly contributed during his two terms as president—Clinton spoke as if he were discussing a corporate merger or the setting up of a new hedge fund. “My job in the next 18 months,” he said, “is going to be to try to connect the inside and outside forces in a way that maximizes the input and the impact of all the players, and minimizes the frictions and transaction costs.”

Aside from setting up more garment sweatshops, the main component of the “reconstruction” plan submitted by Haitian President Préval with the blessing of Washington appears to center on relocating impoverished workers from Port-au-Prince to more rural areas. This would serve the two-fold function of permitting a gentrification of the capital, making it more attractive to foreign investors, and disaggregating the working class in the hope of dissipating its potential social and political power."

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” warned Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous speech at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967, 43 years ago this Easter Sunday.

The speech was titled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” It was delivered exactly one year to the day before his 1968 assassination in Memphis.

The people who heard that speech recognized it as one of the most powerful speeches ever given articulating the immorality of the Vietnam War and its destructive impact on social progress in the United States.