World Analysis Newswire Archive

As criticisms of President Obama’s war and economic policies mount, the group that first questioned his intentions regarding the concerns of the black community is holding a national Congress to define a black agenda to serve the interests of black people.

On June 9 Senator Benigno Aquino III (“Noynoy” Aquino) of the Liberal Party, the son of former President Cory Aqunio, was proclaimed president by the Philippines Congress. Noynoy was a former senator “with little legislative record to speak of”, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper, which nevertheless campaigned hard for Noynoy Aquino’s presidency, soon after Cory Aquino’s death in August 2009.

MANILA, Philippines — Akbayan party-list Representative Walden Bello on Tuesday dared President-elect Benigno Aquino III to reverse his mother’s neo-liberal policies that he said have killed Philippine agriculture and industry.

After Lula: New cannidate of the left in Brazil takes lead

"Rousseff has the support of 40 percent of those surveyed during the past three days, compared with 35 percent for the opposition candidate Serra, Veja reported on its website."

The ongoing political competition in the Islamic Republic between reformists and conservatives is more complicated than most Western analysts and commentators recognize. The Green movement is not the future of Iranian politics; in fact, it’s not even the future of what at least used to be called the “reform movement”.

"If elected, Dilma would likely carry on many of the same policies that Lula has advanced. This means a strong role in the economy for state companies and the continued development of Brazil’s social programs. Dilma would also be likely to maintain Lula’s foreign policy strategy of creating alliances with other developing nations, especially China, India, and Russia, as well as the friendly outreach to bordering countries that has made Brazil the leading nation in South America. Dilma, like Lula, would probably be generally friendly towards the US and the rest of the first world, but she would probably also be unafraid to take an independent stance on many key issues. Brazil’s continued opposition to US plans for renewed sanctions against Iran is an example of the type of independent stance that Dilma would likely continue. She is also likely to continue Brazil’s push for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council."

5th June, Bonn, Germany

So many Black American entertainers and luminaries flocked to the World Cup opening ceremonies in South Africa, one veteran activist was prompted to remark that "these folks are crossing the picket line." It is a line that separates South Africa's poor Black majority from the real beneficiaries of the "gold" - "the soccer elites of FIFA, the elites of domestic and international corporate capital and the political elites who are making billions and who will be benefiting at the expense of the poor."

"Towards an Economy of Plunder

The US media, in chorus, has upheld the "recent discovery" of Afghanistan's mineral wealth as "a solution" to the development of the country's war torn economy as well as a means to eliminating poverty. The 2001 US-NATO invasion and occupation has set the stage for their appropriation by Western mining and energy conglomerates.

The war on Afghanistan is a profit driven "resource war."

Amusing footage emerges online of the small number of EDL supporters at last Monday's Anglian Regiment March.

The 2001 bombing and invasion of Afghanistan has been presented to World public opinion as a "Just War", a war directed against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, a war to eliminate "Islamic terrorism" and instate Western style democracy. The economic dimensions of the "Global War on Terrorism" are rarely mentioned.

Although the United Nations Security Council, which some politicians believe is one of the most undemocratic organizations in the world, voted in favor of a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its uranium enrichment program, global public opinion is well aware of the fact that 15 countries, 5 of which are entitled to remain in an unquestionable monopoly and dominance, cannot in reality represent the interests of the international community.

In 1989 Catherine Austin Fitts became Assistant Secretary for Housing in Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She began to notice money was not properly tracked as it moved between different HUD departments and there was a lack of proper accounting mechanisms to deal with discrepancies in revenue indicated fraud at an alarming level. [28] She attempted to put in place some credible financial tracking mechanisms to identify where the money was going and to identify the responsible individuals and HUD departments, but after 18 months on the job she was suddenly fired by the Bush administration. Fitts was told the day after she left that her financial reforms through ‘place-based financial accounting and statements’ would also be terminated. [29]

The militant Partido ng Manggagawa (Workers Party - PM) slammed the wage hike of P22 for Metro Manila workers as “loose change” and called for the abolition of the regional wage boards for “betraying the working class.” Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson, declared that “P22 is not even enough for workers to buy a kilo of commercial rice or even the cheapest NFA rice worth P25. Since the last wage hike was in June 2008, the wage hike is effectively P11 per year over two years. Na-onse na naman ang mga manggagawa."

The UN Security Council resolution grants a de facto "green light"; to wage a pre-emptive war against Iran, which has been on the Pentagon's drawing board since 2004. It prevents Russia and China to sell both strategic and conventional weapons and military technology to their de facto ally: Iran. At the same time, by barring Iran from purchasing conventional military equipment, the resolution prevents Iran from defending itself from a US-NATO-Israel attack.

We see with deep regret the rating of terrorist circulates abundantly by the Brazilian Internet, targeting the 44 million voters-users of the network. The term, associated with economist Dilma Vana Rousseff is, at worst, a historical injustice.

Attached is a recording of Stoneleigh from The Automatic Earth,  http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/ speaking at the Transition Network Conference on 12th June 2010.

The Obama Administration has already “checked the box” to show that engaging Iran doesn’t work. Now it has started the process of “checking the box” to show that the “broadest and toughest” sanctions ever imposed on the Islamic Republic don’t work. And that will leave the Obama Administration with no other options except formal adoption of regime change as the explicit goal of its Iran policy—and/or military strikes against the Islamic Republic.

Today, the UNSC is scheduled to vote on Iran sanctions and they will probably pass. There is a lot of debate on the importance of sanctions and what it all means etc. But instead of concentrating so much on the latest news, we have to step back and observe the overall-pattern which is emerging to see what's really going on.

The following is the statement by Brazil, a UN Security Council member, read to the council yesterday, strongly opposing the new sanctions resolution against Iran. The resolution was adopted today under the pressure of the US, UK and France. Turkey and Brazil voted against and Lebanon abstained.