Mike Marqusee has just returned from a visit with trade unionists and democracy activists in Swaziland. This article will appear in The Hindu Sunday Magazine on 29 August. Swaziland is a small country with a big problem. The 1.3 million inhabitants of the land-locked southern African kingdom live under the thumb of one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, a venal and repressive regime whose plunder of the country is systematic and comprehensive. ... read full story / add a comment

Identity politics, born out primarily by the group APOC (Anarchist People of Color, Illvox) to discuss race within the context of the anarchist movement, has been a major part of anarchist discourse since around 2002 when the APOC network was formed.

Beyond this narrow understanding of identity in terms of the language of “political correctness” is an effective strategy. The strategy one should aim for is past identity politics altogether in a land where comrades seek to empower all members of the anarchist community and have respect for their comrades and themselves.

link to original article http://utopiaorbust.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/the-anti-p...tics/ ... read full story / add a comment

“Venezuela, more deadly than Iraq” read a headline in the New York Times on Aug. 23 – a headline of such shock value that it can only mean one thing: it’s election time in Venezuela. Inside Venezuela, similar headlines are printed almost daily in corporate media with the upcoming September 26 national assembly elections. Coincidentally, the Venezuelan corporate media and their allies among the Western press continually draw on the same crime statistics “leaked” from unidentified government sources or compiled by rightwing NGO’s. ... read full story / add a comment

Todas las perversiones del capitalismo más cruento que se aplicaron durante los 20 años de Concertación, ahora implementadas por Piñera se vuelven horrores apocalípticos ... read full story / add a comment

At least six people have been shot dead in Mozambique's capital during clashes between police and demonstrators protesting against rising food and fuel prices. Police opened fire on protesters throwing stones and setting fire to tyres and barriers, but it was not immediately clear whether their bullets were responsible for the deaths. According to the AFP news agency, one boy was shot in the head and left dead in the street, while a police spokesman told Reuters two children were killed in the violence. Red Cross rescue teams in the impoverished southern African country said demonstrators were killed during separate protests in Maputo on Wednesday. "We have had 42 cases at the hospital. Twenty-three were wounded by gunshots. Two are being operated on at the moment. Nineteen have wounds from physical attacks. One died," Antonio Assis da Costa, director of emergency services at the Red Cross, told AFP. ... read full story / add a comment

“Así estamos.
Consternados. Rabiosos.
Aunque esta muerte sea uno de los absurdos previsibles”. ... read full story / add a comment

Tout sosyete ki avanse toujou gen pou bousol, lwa peyi yo e constitusyon peyi yo, ki se sèl limyè pou yo, e yo goumen pou fè respektel.

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Sometimes public policy disputes become transformed into symbolic conflicts that go to the heart of national identity. The "mosque controversy" was initially a mere zoning question. It is now a symbolic conflict over the place of Muslims in our national life.

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On March 13, 2008, Canada's Parliament voted to extend the country's military “mission” in Afghanistan to July 2011. The motion by the minority Conservative government was supported by the opposition Liberals. The warmakers correctly estimated that fixing an exit date would deflect mounting opposition to the war among the Canadian public and buy time for Canada's continued participation. Since then, the political and military situation in Afghanistan has continued to deteriorate for the occupying forces, and leading politicians are now floating proposals to extend Canada's claimed exit date for a military mission that already constitutes a gross violation of the national sovereignty and human rights of the Afghan people.

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Aunque el gobierno de Colombia mantiene cerrada la puerta del diálogo con la insurgencia acicateado por el espejismo de una victoria militar y la injerencia de Washington, queremos reiterar a la Unión de Naciones del Sur, UNASUR, nuestra irreductible voluntad de buscar una salida política al conflicto.

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Wyclef Jean de A à Z

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En tant que membres du Collectif de recherche sur l'autonomie collective (CRAC), nous joignons notre voix à celles des nombreux groupes et individus qui ont vigoureusement dénoncé la violence étatique et la répression policière sans précédent auxquelles nous avons assisté lors du Sommet du G20 à Toronto. Ces violences ont affecté nos amis et amies, nos collègues, nos camarades, nos partenaires, nos communautés.

[English] ... read full story / add a comment

As members of the Research Group on Collective Autonomy, we join our voices to those who are speaking out against unprecedented State violence and police repression in the wake of the G20 Summit held in Toronto in June. This violence has affected our friends, our colleagues, our comrades, our partners, our communities. In the same vein, we wish to denounce the misinformed and sensationalist discourses that have been emerging in the media.

[Français] ... read full story / add a comment

J’ai une vague intuition que les Haïtiens en général (toutes classes sociales confondues) se fichent de la question des langues et particulièrement de la question de la langue créole en Haïti. Les débats incessants et chargés d’émotion qui surgissent régulièrement à propos de l’opposition traditionnelle français vs créole peuvent faire illusion mais je les considère comme l’arbre qui cache la forêt. Pour les locuteurs haïtiens en général, la langue créole demeure le cadet de leurs soucis. Ils se contentent de s’en servir pour régler leurs innombrables taches quotidiennes mais ne se privent pas de la vilipender quand l’occasion se présente. Certaines personnes pourraient me rétorquer qu’il en est ainsi chez la majorité des locuteurs du monde, qui prennent leur langue maternelle pour un fait acquis et parlent comme ils marchent ou comme ils respirent, par exemple. C’est vrai, sauf que la majorité des locuteurs du monde ne vilipendent pas à tout bout de champ la langue qu’ils utilisent quotidiennement. Pour d’autres locuteurs, vaguement conscients de l’importance de leur langue native, on entend parfois des réflexions du genre « Ala yon bèl lang se kreyòl ! Mwen fè sa m vle ak li » (Quelle belle langue, le créole ! J’en fais ce que je veux) sans se rendre compte qu’une telle position est loin d’être absolue, que tout le monde peut dire autant de sa langue maternelle.

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Los últimos ocho años del gobierno Uribe en Colombia significaron para la conciencia de la sociedad el consentimiento de prácticas que contradicen los principios éticos que fundamentan los derechos humanos. Los medios masivos de información han dado cuenta de algunas de estas prácticas, más en su afán noticioso, no pasan de ser calificados como escándalos, que como todos, tienen su clímax y pasan.

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Continuando con el petitorio manifestado en las últimas semanas y en contra de las últimas declaraciones del alcalde de Santiago y el Ministro de Educación, estudiantes de colegios emblemáticos de Santiago realizaron tomas de establecimientos, en lo que se anuncia como una nueva semana de movilizaciones de los secundarios.

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Una treintena de deudores habitacionales de la agrupación “Andha Chile a Luchar Democrático” se tomó el Ministerio de Hacienda, la mañana del lunes, en protesta por la filtración de un documento oficial que da cuenta de medidas gubernamentales que perjudican a sus intereses; luego fueron detenidos por fuerzas policiales.

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Du 13 au 15 août, la conférence de l'AIT (Association internationale des travailleurs) intitulée "Travail précaire, autogestion et coopératives" a été tenue dans la commune de La Vecilla, dans la province de León, en Espagne. ... read full story / add a comment

La presidenta del comité de familiares de detenidos y desaparecidos de Honduras, denunció que ha sido descubierta una fosa común que contiene los cadáveres de más de 100 personas asesinadas en los últimos tres meses. ... read full story / add a comment

Un verdadero proceso de paz encuentra siempre muchas talanqueras y esta vez, una nueva, la coloca el gobierno colombiano pretendiendo ejercer el control de los esfuerzos, como si la paz fuera un asunto del establecimiento.
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