contributions

The wealthiest nation on earth is not actually obliged to starve our senior citizens. We don’t need a military 670% more expensive than the next largest one on earth. We don’t need to fund health insurance corporations instead of healthcare. And we don’t need tax breaks for billionaires. In fact, we don’t need billionaires. That’s the message RootsAction is taking to Congress.
Forbes magazine has been listing the 400 wealthiest Americans every year since 1982. Thirteen billionaires (…)

The Australian Mainstream media, and especially the warmongering, genocide-complicit , genocide-ignoring and climate denialist Murdoch media, deserve critical exposure over outrageous, genocide-ignoring non-reportage and mis-reportage on matters linked to mass human mortality notably war, war deaths (12 million US war-related deaths so far in Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan alone) and climate change (10 billion predicted to die this century due top unaddressed, man-made climate change; (…)

Ten years ago Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by police at the G8 protests in Genoa, Italy. His death marked the escalation of a transnational struggle against capitalist globalization. Yesterday, anti-capitalists in Berlin remembered the tragic loss of the young militants life and vented their anger against a murderous system.
In the last weeks numerous stencils and posters announced a demonstration in remembrance of Carlo Giuliani. The posters stated explicitly that the demonstration would (…)

There is nothing easier than getting preeschoolers to parrot an anthem and getting them excited by chauvinistic and religious ceremonies.
The Ministry of Education gave preschool supervisors and teachers a packet for planning and preparation for the coming school year. The first chapter is on "education to Zionist, Jewish, democratic and social values," much like the educational goals for elementary and secondary schools. After perusing it, it is hard to decide whether to laugh or cry: The (…)

I am writing this exactly twelve hours after I was attacked by an Israeli warship, off the Gaza coast.
As a member of the Civil Peace Service, I board the Oliva boat around twice a week to monitor Gazan fishermen’s human rights. But today, it wasn’t just the fishermen who were targeted.
We approached a cluster of hasaka fishing boats that were being attacked with water cannons at midday on July 13. As we got closer all I could focus on was the officer manning the machine gun, covered (…)

SOMEWHERE IN THE EAST MEDITERRANEAN – On Saturday evening a Gaza-bound boat left Greek territorial waters. Its 10 participants regard themselves as representatives of the entire abortive flotilla to Gaza, and are determined to exhaust all possibilities in order to reach their destination, or at least carry out the symbolic act of protesting the blockade. They are well aware of the Lilliputian dimensions of their venture, compared with the massive impact organizers had initially planned to (…)

Hundreds of thousands of people fled Libya since the crisis began in February 2011. As of June 14, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), one million refugees had left the country ; more than 500,000 heading off to Tunisia, more than 300,000 to Egypt and 70,000 to Niger.
Every day, refugees arrive in Tunisia to stay in already overpopulated camps [1]. The majority are nationals from Sub-Saharan African countries themselves in conflict like Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea (…)

Rational risk management vital for the safety of society successively involves (a) accurate information, (b) scientific analysis (this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses) and (c) informed systemic change to minimize risk. However this is typically perverted by (a) lies, non-reportage and censorship, (b) anti-science spin involving the selective use of asserted facts to support a partisan position and (c) blame and shame, with the ultimate obscenity being (…)

The Australian Gillard Labor Government has proposed a Carbon Tax-Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)-Ignore Agriculture (CTETSIA) that has produced considerable public debate. Careful analysis of this Carbon Price plan reveals that, contrary to Labor Government propaganda, it will only reduce Australia’s disproportionately huge annual Domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution rate by 8.5% by 2020 and by 53.2% by 2050. Labor’s plan must be exposed as deceitfully entrenching climate change (…)

Afghan officials say NATO raid killed 6 civilians Men in the crowd carried the bodies of the dead on their shoulders
By Amir Shah - Associated Press,Heidi Vogt
Government officials in eastern Afghanistan accused NATO troops on Thursday of killing six civilians in an overnight raid, and more than 1,000 people poured into the streets in anger.
The military alliance said the joint patrol with Afghan forces in Khost province killed six fighters from a militant group allied with the Taliban (…)