Fidel: History Will Absolve Me

A Journal of People report

Note: Today is 26th July. History Will Absolve Me (Spanish: La historia me absolverá) is the title of a four-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on October 16, 1953. It is one of the most famous speeches in history. The eloquent speech was not vague in any terms. The speech stood as a political document with analysis and direction of work. The words – History will absolve me – are the concluding announcement in Fidel’s statement to the court.

Fidel Castro, a lawyer and a politician, made the speech in court against the charges brought against him after he led an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. Though no record of Fidel’s words was kept, he reconstructed them later for publication. It became the manifesto of his July 26th Movement that successfully overthrew the Fulgencio Batista government, and began a new epoch in the history of Cuba after taking power, on behalf of the Cuban people, in 1959.

‘We Made History’: Watch as Sanders Addresses His 1900 Delegates

by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

Common Dreams | 25 July, 2016

(Photo: EPA)

“Make no mistake about it—we have made history,” a hoarse Bernie Sanders told a room full of adoring delegates on the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia on Monday.

“We have shown the entire world that our ideas are not some crazy, wild, utopian fantasies,” he said, “they are ideas supported by working people from one end of this country to the other.”

DNC Leak Reveals Party Insiders Promised Access to Obama in Exchange for Cash

by Nika Knight, staff writer

Common Dreams | 25 July, 2016

Dinner with President Barack Obama was offered to donors who could afford $10,000 seats. (Photo: The White House/flickr/cc)

Wealthy potential donors to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) were courted with promises of access to the president, a Washington Post analysis of internal DNC emailsreleased by WikiLeaks has found. The party insiders’ pitches appear to be in violation of White House policy, the newspaper notes.

Resignation Not Enough, Wasserman Schultz Forced to Drop the Gavel, Too

by Jon Queally, staff writer

Common Dreams | 25 July, 2016

DNC Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz speaks during a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the Florida State Fairgrounds Entertainment Hall, Friday, July 22, in Tampa, Fla. (Photo: AP Photo)

One day after she announced her resignation in the wake of the #DNCLeak scandal and just hours after being booed by angry party delegates earlier in the day, news broke early Monday afternoon that Debbie Wasserman Schultz will not gavel into session this year’s Democratic Party Convention.

Despite saying earlier she would relinquish her post only after presiding over the convention, Wasserman Schultz spoke with the Sun Sentinel from her home state of Florida and said: “I have decided that in the interest of making sure that we can start the Democratic convention on a high note that I am not going to gavel in the convention.”

Amid ‘Chilling’ Evidence of Torture, Post-Coup Purge Continues in Turkey

by Nika Knight, staff writer

Common Dreams | 25 July, 2016

Supporters of the ruling party rallied in Istanbul’s Taksim Party over the weekend. (Photo: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Image)

Human rights advocates are sounding the alarm about Turkey’s crackdown on supposed dissidents, alleging widespread torture of detainees, while the government continues with its post-coup purges of private and public institutions.

UNHCR Refutes AFP Venezuela Coverage

by JEANETTE CHARLES

venezuelanalysis.com | 25 July, 2016

Tegucigalpa, July 25th 2016 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released an official communique this week denouncing the French international press agency, AFP, for misrepresenting the human rights situation along the Venezuelan-Colombian border and citing misleading statements from its Colombia representative.

In “Venezuelans Fleeing Crisis Flood into Colombia: UN”, an article published July 22, 2016, AFP allegedly cites UNHCR representative in Colombia, Martin Gottwald. The article came after President Nicolas Maduro’s decision to open the Venezuelan-Colombian border allowing thousands to cross over into Colombia to purchase goods. Maduro officially closed the border in August 2015 as part of a national strategy to prevent the contraband of state subsidized goods and cross-border crime.

‘‘Neo-liberalism Oversold’’?

by S G Vombatkere

Frontier | Vol. 49, No.2, Jul 17 – 23, 2016

This agenda of economic growth has become the focus of economic thinking and is institutionalized in countries across the globe with impetus imparted by the economic clout of IMF-WB-WTO. The reason that this was accepted by countries across the globe is that it admirably suited the elite politician-corporate nexus which governs all countries, including democracies.

Neoliberalism is personal (corporations are legal persons) profit-at-any-cost from capital-intensive economic growth, reckoned using economic parameters like GDP growth and per capita consumption. This model of economic development promotes debt, global trade and consumerism, subordinating or negating democracy, equity, social justice and freedom. Indeed, Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, speaking at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002), said: “Let us face an uncomfortable truth. The model of development that we are accustomed to has been fruitful for a few and flawed for many. A path to prosperity that ravages the environment and leaves a majority of humankind behind in squalor will  soon prove to be a dead-end road for everyone”.

Water, Forests, Land, Minerals, and to Protect Democracy : National Conference of People’s Struggles – Report from the National Convention of the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan [‘Land Rights Movement’], in India

Frontier | 19 July, 2016

जल, जंगल, ज़मीन, खनीज़ और जनतं% क” र”ा क”िलए जनसंघष’ का रा#$ीय स”मेलन Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad, July 16-17-18, 2016

Three day long national convention of the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan was held in the wake of the increased attack of the global capital unleashed by brazen corporatisation and unbridled FDI in key sectors resulting into high price rise, inflation, and naked loot of the natural resources by corporates, all facilitated by the policies of the Union government and certain state governments. The convention was attended by more than 500 activists of 15 states who dwelled on the on-going struggles in their regions; ground situation of the alliance building processes; centre and state governments attempt at subverting democratic processes by changing laws and issuing notifications and obsession of the political elite with the current GDP based growth model.