Demonstrations Against Police Violence Occupy Streets in US and UK

by Nika Knight, staff writer

Common Dreams | 10 July, 2016

“The United States is far from recognizing the same rights for all its citizens.”—Ricardo A. Sunga III, United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images)

From Phoenix, Arizona, to London, UK, the cry was the same: “Black lives matter!”

Massive demonstrations responding to the recent fatal police shootings of Alton Sterlingand Philando Castile took place in Phoenix, New York City, Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, and Rochester late Saturday evening.

Democrats Must Fight To Defeat The Trans-Pacific Partnership

by Bernie Sanders

This corporate-friendly deal known as TPP is is not “free trade,” declares Sanders. “This is the race to the bottom.” (Photo: Win McNamee, Getty Images)

The Democratic National Committee is meeting this weekend in Orlando to mark up a platform laying out the views and aspirations of the party. Up to this point, we have made good progress in helping to create the most progressive Democratic Party platform ever. But more needs to be done.

One of the major amendments that will be debated during this meeting is to make it clear that the Democratic Party is against the Trans-Pacific Partnership and will oppose it coming to the floor of Congress during a lame-duck session. In my view, the trade deal would result in job losses in the United States, make the global race to the bottom even worse, harm the environment, undermine democracy and increase the price of prescription drugs for some of the poorest people in the world.

Time to Talk in Syria

by Stephen Kinzer

The Boston Globe | 10 July, 2016

A fighter from Syria’s Manbij military council on June 15. (Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images)

As the horrific carnage in Syria continues, a depressingly familiar chorus is rising from Washington. The new consensus is the same as it was in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan: Bombing isn’t working, so let’s bomb more. A familiar coalition — generals, defense contractors, and politicians, along with think tanks and much of the press — is demanding escalation of our military campaign in Syria. There may be a limit to how many unwinnable wars the United States wants to wage in the Middle East, but it evidently has not yet been reached.

Is this the end of Europe as we know it?

by Abayomi Azikiwe

Pambazuka | 07 July, 2016

The potential for other states within the EU to withdraw from the bloc is a major worry for the imperialist states. The priority for African and other developing countries should be removing their vulnerabilities from the international capitalist system in order to achieve sustainable growth and development based on the interests of the majority of the world’s population.

Since the June 23 vote on whether the United Kingdom (UK) would “Leave” or “Remain” within the 28-member-state European Union (EU), uncertainty has accelerated not just in London but throughout the international community. The vote to Leave the EU by 52-48 percent of the electorate in England signaled the worsening of the already existing political crisis in relations between the UK and states on the European continent.

Is the Fragile States Index ‘fatally flawed’?

by Henning Melber

Pamabzuka | 07 July, 2016

While at best of dubious value – if not outright dangerous for the consequences in policy spheres – the Failed States Index should be no substitute for common sense. It reinforces stereotypical Eurocentric perceptions and is at best another sign of patronising and paternalist worldviews.

On June 27, 2016 the eleventh edition of the Fragile States Index was published by the Fund for Peace. It came with the usual alarming findings from the developing world and brought back into memory the criticism that such surveys tend to be “fatally flawed” in their approaches.

40 years after: Understanding the Soweto Uprising

by Motsoko Pheko

Pambazuka | 30 June, 2016

The Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976 did not just drop from the sky. The Black students of South Africa did not wake up one day and begin resisting Bantu Education. The uprising was carefully organized and led secretly by leaders of the underground political movement, most of them militants of the banned Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC).

One of the students that the apartheid colonialist police shot dead on 16 June 1976 was Hector Pieterson. According to the late Rev. Benjamin Rajuili who was a minister of religion in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a teacher at a high school in Soweto, the first student who was shot was his student named Mahabane.

Venezuela Suspends Electricity Rationing as Historic Drought Comes to Close

by LUCAS KOERNER

venezuelanalysis.com | 5 July, 2016

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Monday his decision to suspend the South American country’s electricity rationing plan amid the arrival of rainy season.

“Beginning this Monday, the electricity administration plan will no longer be in effect, such that normal electricity services will operate 24 hours a day; it’s a victory for the people,” the head of state declared via state television.

Assassin of Victor Jara convicted, denying repressive forces impunity

by  Miguel Fernández Martínez

Granma | 8 July, 2016

Víctor Jara was murdered at 41 years of age, following the military coup which overthrew President Salvador Allende in 1973. Photo: Archives

The U.S. verdict convicting former Chilean army officer, Pedro Barrientos, accused of the murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara, has opened the way to continue investigations into the events which occurred during the country’s 1973 military coup.

Fidel and the ballet

by  Alicia Alonso

Granma | 5 July, 2016

In 2000, Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz presented Alicia Alonso with the José Martí Order, the highest distinction awarded by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba. Photo: Courtesy of the National Ballet of Cuba.

Prima Ballerina Assoluta and director general of the National Ballet of Cuba, Alicia Alonso, has wanted to express her gratitude to the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, on the occasion of his 90th birthday in a message reproduced below: