Auteur/autrice : Heidi Barathieu-Brun

Published on Dissident Voice, by Medea Benjamin, March 13, 2014.

When I boarded the plane to Cairo, Egypt, to make sure everything was in place for the women’s delegation headed to Gaza, I had no reason to think I’d end up in a jail cell at the Cairo airport and then violently deported.

The trip was in response to a call from women in Gaza to CODEPINK and other groups asking us to bring 100 women from around the world to Gaza for March 8, International Women’s Day. They wanted us to see, first-hand, how the seven-year Israeli blockade had made their situation intolerable.  Continuer la lecture de « Why I Didn’t Make it to Gaza for International Women’s Day »

Published on The Bullet, Socialist Projtect’s E-Bulletin no 948, by David Mandel, March 12, 2014.

Let’s begin with Prime Minister (Canada) Stephen Harper’s version. One can think what one likes about deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, but his election in 2012 was recognized as legitimate by international observers and, after a certain hesitation, by the defeated candidate, Yulia Timoshenko. In fact, relatively honest elections were just about the only positive outcome for ordinary people of the last big mobilization on Maidan Square, the ‘Orange Revolution’ of December 2004 … // Continuer la lecture de « Ukraine Between ‘Popular Uprising for Democracy’ (Canadian Government) and ‘Fascist Putsch’ (Russian Government) »

Published on The People’s Voice.org, by Stephen Lendman, March 11, 2014.

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland calls him Yats. He’s coming to Washington. He’ll arrive/arrived on Wednesday. He’ll meet/had met his new boss. He’ll do so at the White House. He’ll get marching orders. He’ll learn more about Obama’s plans for Ukraine. More on his visit below. He’s Ukraine’s illegitimate prime minister. He serves its xenophobic, ultranationalist, neo-Nazi, hate-mongering, anti-Semitic, coup d’etat regime. A rogue’s gallery of societal misfits runs it. He’s a natural. He’s super-rich. He’s a former central banker/economy/foreign minister and parliament (Verkhovna Rada) speaker. He betrayed his people. He sold out for greater wealth and power. He’s a Batkivshchya/All-Ukrainian Union (Fatherland) leader. Continuer la lecture de « Yatsenyuk Comes to Washington »

Published on english.Xinhuanet, March 11, 2014.

BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) — China is very likely to ease its grip on bank deposit rates within one or two years, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Tuesday. Zhou made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature. As part of the financial reform, the country has taken incremental steps toward interest rate liberalization, including a move in July to scrap the floor limit for bank lending rates, and a guideline in December for piloting negotiable deposit certificates on the interbank market. Zhou’s comments came after a government work report said last week that the country is to establish a deposit insurance system this year, the last and most important step of interest rate liberalization.  Continuer la lecture de « China: Press conference on financial reform held for 2nd session of 12th NPC »

Published on Global Research.ca, by James Corbett, Prof Michel Chossudovsky, F. William Engdahl, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, March 4, 2014.

Watch this video, 12.35 min:

In late 2004, protests erupted after Viktor Yanukovych won the 2004 Ukrainian Presidential election, with protestors claiming that the vote had been rigged. The protests forced a revote, in which Yanukovych’s rival, Viktor Yuschenko, was elected president. This movement, dubbed the Orange Revolution for the orange ribbons and clothing sported by its members, was one of a series of so-called colour revolutions which swept the former Soviet Republics in the last decade … // Continuer la lecture de « Target Ukraine: How Foreign Intervention is Tearing the Country Apart »

Published on People’s World, by Mark Gruenberg, March 7, 2014.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (PAI) — When Pilar Molina comes home from work at night, often after toiling for 10-12 hours at the family’s tortilla bakery and store, her elder daughter, 9-year-old Caitlin, frequently has a question for her. « Why isn’t my Daddy home? »

The answer to that question, that Daddy has been in detention since the night he closed the store in Norristown, Pa., on Jan. 27 and was grabbed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, has driven his wife, Pilar, into activism.  Continuer la lecture de « "Fed up" day laborers launch anti-deportation drive »

Publié dans Institut pour la Protection de la Santé Naturelle IPSN.eu, le 18 février 2014.
Le jugement a été (re-)fixé au 7 avril 2014 – la mobilisation continue: écoutez l’audio par Emmanuel Giboulot … Signez ici la petition.

… Emmanuel Giboulot, viticulteur bio dans le département de la Côte-d’Or, exploite depuis plus de quarante ans 10 hectares de vignes en agriculture biologique. Le 24 février 2014, il (passera / avait passé) devant le tribunal correctionnel pour avoir refusé de déverser un dangereux pesticide sur sa vigne. Il encourt jusqu’à 6 mois d’emprisonnement et 30 000 euros d’amende. Par solidarité avec lui, je vous demande de signer la déclaration de soutien dont le lien est située en haut. Continuer la lecture de « En prison pour avoir refusé de polluer »

Published on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Faiza Rady, March 6, 2014.

“We came to this labour meeting to talk about what is happening to our jobs and our factory but you won’t listen. Even among our fellow workers we are marginalised. All you want to talk about is the minimum wage but our situation is worse. Since our factory was declared bankrupt we have been paid just 30 per cent of our salaries. Over and above legitimate minimum wage considerations you should listen to us because we are waging a struggle to survive,” said Nabila Abbas Al-Saidi from the Wabriyat textile and garment mill in the Delta town of Samanud.   Continuer la lecture de « Egypt: we want to work, they won’t let us »

Published on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-Bulletin No. 946, by NUMSA, March 6, 2014.

A. The world we live in today and our 20 years of “Democracy”:

It is impossible to deny that the world has seen the most severe crisis of the global capitalist system. And, there is no end in sight, to this crisis.   Continuer la lecture de « The State of Class Struggle in South Africa »

Published on Intrepid Report, by Ellen Brown, J.D., March 6, 2014.

In a nearly $13 billion settlement with the US Justice Department in November 2013, JPMorgan Chase admitted that it, along with every other large US bank, had engaged in mortgage fraud as a routine business practice, sowing the seeds of the mortgage meltdown. JPMorgan and other megabanks have now been caught in over a dozen major frauds, including LIBOR-rigging and bid-rigging; yet no prominent banker has gone to jail. Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of all mortgages nationally remain underwater (meaning the balance owed exceeds the current value of the home), sapping homeowners’ budgets, the housing market and the economy. Since the banks, the courts and the federal government have failed to give adequate relief to homeowners, some cities are taking matters into their own hands.   Continuer la lecture de « The stone that brings down Goliath? »

Interview with Alexander Marin, published on Socialist Worker.org, by Eva Maria, March 4, 2014.

… Alexander Marín is a student organizer and member of Marea Socialista (Socialist Tide), a group working within the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), founded in 2007 by supporters of the late Hugo Chávez. Marín talked to Eva María about the nature of the protests rocking Venezuela, where they are headed and the state of the revolution today … //

… WHAT WOULD you say is the social character of the protests since mid-February? What motive or motives have pushed the people to go out to the streets?   Continuer la lecture de « How can the right be defeated in Venezuela? »

Live Updates:

• on Mirror: Live updates after Russian soldier fires first shots in Crimea as surrender deadline passes, March 5, 2014;
• on Russia Today RT: Ukraine turmoil, March 4-5, 2014;    Continuer la lecture de « Crimea: LIVE UPDATES and press »

How international financial elites change governments to implement austerity – Published on Intrepid Report, by Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, March 4, 2014.

… Despite their many differences, these social turbulences share two common features. The first is that they are largely induced, nurtured and orchestrated from outside, that is, by the United States and its allies—of course, in collaboration with their class allies from inside. And the second is that, contrary to the long-established historical pattern of social revolutions, where the desperate and disenfranchised masses rebelled against the ruling elites, in most of the recent struggles it is the elites that have instigated insurgencies and civil wars against the masses. The two features are, of course, integrally intertwined: essentially reflecting the shared interests and collaborative schemes of the international plutocracies against the global 99%.  Continuer la lecture de « Global war on the 99% »

Published on TomDispatch, by Tom Engelhardt, March 2, 2014.

There is, it seems, something new under the sun.

Geopolitically speaking, when it comes to war and the imperial principle, we may be in uncharted territory.  Take a look around and you’ll see a world at the boiling point.  From Ukraine to Syria, South Sudan to Thailand, Libya to Bosnia, Turkey to Venezuela, citizen protest (left and right) is sparking not just disorganization, but what looks like, to coin a word, de-organization at a global level.  Increasingly, the unitary status of states, large and small, old and new, is being called into question.  Civil war, violence, and internecine struggles of various sorts are visibly on the rise. In many cases, outside countries are involved and yet in each instance state power seems to be draining away to no other state’s gain.  So here’s one question: Where exactly is power located on this planet of ours right now?   Continuer la lecture de « A New World Order? Missing in Action, What Happened to War and the Imperial Drive to Organize the Planet? »

Published on Real-World Economics Review Blog, by Peter Radford, March 1, 2014.

I am preparing a talk on inequality here in America, and so have been re-reading the Piketty and Saez work. Amongst the more eye-opening facts I have come across is the assertion, by Saez, that the surge in the top 1% incomes is so large that the growth of the bottom 99% amounts to only half the average [mean].

Think about that for a moment. Continuer la lecture de « Inequality »