Auteur/autrice : Heidi Barathieu-Brun

… for more than the billions they send home, says Amnesty – Published on Countercurrents, by Amnesty International, July 7, 2014 (download full report in pdf, 83 pages).

The lack of effective regulation of visa brokers and rogue recruiting agents makes Indian migrant workers vulnerable to serious human rights abuses, said Amnesty International India today in a new report focusing on migrants from the Indian state of Kerala working in Saudi Arabia .

The report, Exploited Dreams: Dispatches from Indian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, highlights cases of migrant workers from Kerala who were deceived about their jobs, wages and working conditions by Indian visa brokers and rogue recruiting agents. Many workers went on to face a range of abuses in Saudi Arabia , which at their worst included forced labor … // Continuer la lecture de « India government must value migrant workers »

as the FED runs out of bullets, local governments are stepping in – Published on Global Research.ca (first on Web of Dept), by Ellen Brown, July 6, 2014.

… The Fed’s massive quantitative easing program was ostensibly designed to lower mortgage interest rates, stimulating the economy. And rates have indeed been lowered – for banks. But the form of QE the Fed has engaged in – creating money on a computer screen and trading it for assets on bank balance sheets – has not delivered money where it needs to go: into the pockets of consumers, who create the demand that drives productivity.   Continuer la lecture de « Mortgage Debt and the Looming Foreclosure Crisis »

Published on Zcommentary (first on teleSUR English), by Marina Sitrin, July 6, 2014.

It doesn’t often occur to me to identify as a Jew, and when it does it is usually because of outside circumstances. These past few days have provided those circumstances. Here, in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, today’s refugees are yesterday’s Jews.

I currently live in Berlin, in one of the most radical neighborhoods in Germany, and perhaps this part of Europe. There are dozens of buildings that used to be squats that are still collectively run. There is active defense against gentrification and regular occupations of buildings, parks and squares. People fight to maintain public space in a myriad of ways, from protests that take over and keep streets open, to hundreds barbequing in parks when it is declared forbidden.   Continuer la lecture de « Today’s ‘Righteous’ Defenders of Refugees in Germany »

Published on The Project – a socialist journal, by Don Miligan, July 3, 2014.

… I make no apology for deploying this well-known quotation from the Communist Manifesto because I think that it does no harm to remind ourselves that the working class is the creation of capital, not of its own consciousness, nor of its myriad forms of cultural expression, nor of its transient sociological forms. Whether the working class can be the gravedigger of the relations and forces, which perpetually bring it into existence remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that defensive attempts to fix or freeze the working class at some specific point, or in a given historical moment, are doomed to failure.   Continuer la lecture de « Working Class? … what working class? »

The “Battle for Europe” is Raging: How America Undermines Franco-Russian Relations – US Blackmailed France using the Banque Nationale de Paris as Hostage – Published on Global Research.ca, by Umberto Pascali, July 2, 2014:

On July 1st, during a meeting with all Russian ambassadors and permanent representatives, President Vladimir Putin revealed the details of a blatant blackmail against France. The US Administration used its unilateral (and de facto illegal) sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan to punish France and in particular the Banque Nationale de Paris – Paribas. The Bank was blackmailed in to paying $8.97 billion for not submitting to the malicious diktat of the power-drunk but weakening hegemon, even though the sanctions are not a decision agreed to by France.   Continuer la lecture de « US-Europe-Russia: Gas, Banks, NSA … »