IV475 - August 2014

IV 475 August 2014 PDF now available for download

After more than 7 weeks of a murderous and destructive campaign of bombings and ground operations against the Gaza Strip the Israeli state has been forced to accept a ceasefire agreement accompanied by various intended measures to diminish the fatal and illegal blockade which has touched the small coastal strip for more than 7 years.

Éric Toussaint was interviewed by Benito Perez for the Swiss newspaper Le Courrier from Geneva on 22 August. The interview was translated by Suchandra De Sarkar in collaboration with Christine Pagnoulle and Eric Toussaint and published by CADTM.

In recent weeks, the German and British authorities have publicly expressed an inconvenient truth – without realizing it: Ebola would be not a major problem for them (and other rich industrialized countries) but it is completely different in the (presently) affected countries of Western Africa – for numerous reasons…

The revolutionary insurrection which shook Tunisia towards the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 allowed the popular classes and youth to drive out Ben Ali and to break his regime. But to get rid of the dictator is one thing. To cut down the economic and social system that sustained him is another.

10 - 28 November 2014

• Running for 18 days

• Travelling through three countries; Bangladesh, India and Nepal

In his Age of Extremes, the great Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm marked the start of World War I in August, 1914 as the beginning of the “short twentieth century.”
In Hobsbawm’s account, that short century ended with the reunification of Germany and the breakup of the Soviet “East Bloc” in 1989-90. The “Great War” of 1914-1918, he argued, was the defining event of the century.
With the dismemberment of Yugoslavia underway in the early 1990s as he wrote, Hobsbawm observed that the (…)

It’s good news that in a number of cities people "are meeting together in growing numbers to explore what it means - and doesn’t mean - to stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples within Canada," as journalist Meg Mittelstedt wrote recently.

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination.” — Justice Sonia Sotomayor, from her dissenting opinion after the Supreme Court majority ruled April 22 that states can ban affirmative action in college admissions. Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican descent and the first Latino to serve on the Supreme Court. She was born and grew up in the South Bronx, New York.

Let’s begin with Prime Minister 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.