contributions

by Howard Zinn
I am calling it "our" war on terrorism because I want to distinguish it from Bush’s war on terrorism, and from Sharon’s, and from Putin’s. What their wars have in common is that they are based on an enormous deception: persuading the people of their countries that you can deal with terrorism by war. These rulers say you can end our fear of terrorism—of sudden, deadly, vicious attacks, a fear new to Americans—by drawing an enormous circle around an area of the world where (…)

by Susan George
It’s time that the global social justice movement moved beyond its “another world is possible” mantra towards a political strategy. In the week of the 2004 European Social Forum, veteran French-American global justice campaigner Susan George tells Caspar Henderson of openDemocracy that Europeans need to focus, organise - and lead.
openDemocracy: Why are you coming to the European Social Forum (ESF) in London?
Susan George: Social forums always energise. They’re great (…)

Police in riot gear fired paintballs filled with cayenne pepper Thursday night to disperse a crowd of protesters assembled in this historic gold mining town where President Bush was spending the night after a campaign appearance.
Witnesses said Bush supporters were on one side of California Street chanting "Four more years," and supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry were on the other chanting "Three more weeks." Police began moving the crowd away from the (…)

By Neil A. Lewis
Washington - Many detainees at Guantánamo Bay were regularly subjected to harsh and coercive treatment, several people who worked in the prison said in recent interviews, despite longstanding assertions by military officials that such treatment had not occurred except in some isolated cases.
The people, military guards, intelligence agents and others, described in interviews with The New York Times a range of procedures that included treatment they said was highly (…)

The President’s apparent mental fragility should give US voters pause for thought at the ballot box
by Andrew Stephen
It will, we are confidently told, be the most important American election for generations. In the words last week of Dick Cheney, the voice of what passes for gravitas in the Bush Administration, Americans will have to make ’about as serious a decision as anybody is ever asked to make’ when they go to the polls in 17 days’ time.
The prophets of doom, whom Cheney (…)

“September 11, 2001, Independence Day for all Oppressed Peoples” — Anonymous Graffiti sprayed on wall in Plaza Real, Barcelona, Spain, 2003
by Manuel Valenzuela
To understand the above mentioned quote in the context of the so-called “war on terror” one must rise above the incessant government/corporate media haze of all-encompassing propaganda that has permeated our society, causing us to become confused energies lost in the consuming darkness of ignorance.
If one truly wishes to (…)

by Chris McGreal at Jabaliya refugee camp
The Israeli general who commanded the destruction of the only Jewish settlement in the Sinai before it was returned to Egypt recently offered Ariel Sharon advice on how to carry out his pledge to remove settlers from the Gaza strip.
"Evicting someone from the home they’ve lived in for 20 years isn’t a simple matter," wrote Brigadier General Obed Tira. "To remove a family from its home is embarrassing and difficult, and that is why the removal (…)

by JOHN P. McALPIN
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP, N.J. - When President Bush and the first lady come looking for votes in New Jersey, Sue Niederer vows to be nowhere near them. She doesn’t want to risk finding herself in handcuffs again.
Last month, police escorted Niederer from a rally after she demanded to know why her son, Army 1st Lt. Seth Dvorin, was killed in Iraq. Dvorin died in February while trying to disarm a bomb.
Video footage of Niederer holding a sign with the words "President Bush (…)

We European citizens (Italians, French, Germans and Britons) want to talk to all American citizens. On 2 November 2004 you will face a choice between two candidates and two parties, but more than that. You have a chance to take a giant stride forward for the good of all humanity. You can choose between the future and the past, between reason and ignorance between true compassion and mere ideology. This is your moment you must not falter. We love your country; we love the American people and (…)

The Foreign Ministry has confirmed Australia has rejected suggestions it send more troops to Iraq to help protect the United Nations mission there.
The Government says it has been informally approached to help with security for the UN assistance mission in Iraq.
But a spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Australian Government has already made a substantial commitment to Iraq and it will not be sending more troops.
The Federal Opposition’s foreign affairs spokesman, (…)