Subcomandante Marcos: Mexico’s Zapatista Resistance Leader

by Ramiro S. Fúnez

teleSUR | June 19, 2017

January 1, 1994 is undoubtedly one of the most monumental dates in Mexico’s history.

It was the day that the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, came into effect. Establishing trilateral trade between Mexico, the United States and Canada. The agreement’s implementation greased the wheels for neoliberalism’s overrunning of the region’s poor.

It was also the day that the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, also referred to as the Zapatistas, declared war against the pro-NAFTA Mexican government. Guided by anti-neoliberal, anarcho-communist and Indigenous thought, the Zapatistas reignited the fight against global capitalism at a time when it was deemed to be “the best of all possible systems.”

Cuba Defends Puerto Rico’s Right to Independence

teleSUR | June 20, 2017

Che Guevara and Don Pedro Albizu Campos are shown along with the Cuban and Puerto Rican flags in this Spanish Harlem mural titled, “Dos Alas,” or “Two Wings.” | Photo: Reuters

Cuba’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ana Silva Rodriguez echoed her government’s support for the full decolonization of Puerto Rico, the Caribbean nation that has faced five centuries of colonial rule by Spain and now by the United States.

“The Puerto Rican people will invariably count on our solidarity. Cuba will continue to defend its legitimate right to self-determination and independence,” she said during the Special Committee on Decolonization in New York.

The draft resolution was initially presented by Rodriguez and then adopted by consensus in the Special Committee, a body created in 1961 to promote an end to the scourge of colonialism on the planet which now has 29 member states.

Simon Bolivar’s Life to Be Depicted in an Animated Short

teleSUR | June 20, 2017

The animated Venezuelan film, “Pequeños Heroes,” or “Small Heroes,” portraying the life of Latin America’s liberator, Simon Bolivar, is set for release at the 2017 Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France.

Daring to Dream in the Age of Trump

Resistance is necessary, but it’s not enough to win the world we need.

 by Naomi Klein

 

The Nation | June 13, 2017

Healthcare advocates protest outside Trump Tower. (Sipa USA via AP)

The hour calls for optimism; we’ll save pessimism for better times.
—Jean-Claude Servais

A great many people, myself included, have understandably used the word “shock” to describe Donald Trump’s election and the first months of his presidency. Though he breaks the mold in some ways, Trump’s tactics do follow a script, one familiar from other countries that have had rapid changes imposed under the cover of crisis. In his first week in office, for example, Trump signed a tsunami of executive orders that had people reeling, madly trying to keep up. Since then, he’s never allowed the atmosphere of chaos and crisis to let up.

The End of Being: Abrupt Climate Change One of Many Ecological Crises Threatening to Collapse the Biosphere

by DR. GLEN BARRY

EcoInternet | June 18, 2017

At least 10 planetary boundaries exist that threaten to make the biosphere uninhabitable

Human industrial growth is systematically dismantling the natural ecosystems which constitute our life support system. Rightly so, there has been an enormous amount of attention given to climate change (though action to rapidly reduce emissions still lags far beyond what is required). Climate change  is becoming abrupt and runaway; and threatens just by itself to collapse societies, economies, and ultimately the biosphere.

Yet climate change is only one of at least ten global ecological catastrophes which threaten to destroy the global ecological system and portend an end to human beings, and perhaps all life. Ranging from nitrogen deposition to ocean acidification, and including such basics as soil, water, and air; virtually every ecological system upon which life depends is failing. Gaia is dying.

We’ve got a pain problem

John’s Hopkins University | June 17, 2017

So, this happened.

Ohio wants its money back — all $175 million. The state is suing five big pharma companies to get it, saying the companies committed fraud by flooding the market with addictive opioid painkillers, and in part, causing a state and nationwide drug epidemic.

The state claims the drug companies ran a marketing scheme that persuaded doctors to give opioids to uninformed patients and “illegally promoted the widespread use of opioids for chronic pain,” while falsely denying the powerful drugs’ risks. Ohio spent $175 million between 2006 and 2016 on the pills themselves through Medicaid and other health care programs, and millions more on addiction, health and foster care services.