On July 1 more than 100 protestors gathered in the town of Murrieta to stop buses bearing refugee children from being transferred from Texas to California. Waving American flags and carrying signs saying “Stop Illegal Immigration,” the protestors said that they wanted to stop the entry of the undocumented children who they claimed were, “criminal” and “diseased” and would become a burden to the taxpayers.
Ferguson (USA): Police killing of young black man leads to national protests
21 August 2014, byOn August 9 a white police officer in the town of Ferguson, Missouri in the middle of the United States shot and killed Michael Brown a young black man. Such incidents are not uncommon in America, one could even say that they occur frequently, and, as in this case, sometimes lead to protests, vandalism and looting. What has made this case different than others and has brought national attention to the events taking place in Ferguson is the unprecedented level of military-style police repression in a small American town. The people of the United States like to think that our country is different than Syria, Egypt, the Ukraine, or Palestine where we have recently seen the police and military crush peaceful protestors. Ferguson has forced Americans to ask: Are we really any different?
Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Ferguson on Center Stage
20 August 2014, byTwo Americas. Two realities. Race matters. Us against them.
Living under occupation in Ferguson
20 August 2014, byNicole Colson reports on the uprising against police murder in a Missouri city—and the response of political and law enforcement authorities to double down on violence.
Peace-Fighters: The Need for a New Democratic Opposition
20 August 2014, byThe need for a “third way,” one that is different from the rabid support for one of the sides in the Ukrainian crisis, a way about which several of have written in the last few months, is especially evident today, because it is the only chance to reconstitute the almost completely broken democratic opposition in Russia.
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and role of Russia
20 August 2014, byThe end of July saw a flaring up of the simmering conflict around the unrecognized Nagono Karabakh republic. The confrontation between the Nagorno-Karabakh, that is, Armenian, and Azeri militaries in the course of which both sides sustained serious losses (at least 20 reported dead), marked a new level of escalation.
A Missouri city erupts against police murder
19 August 2014, byNicole Colson looks at why the police killing of an unarmed teen in a small Missouri city is having reverberations around the country.
A humanitarian intervention?
19 August 2014, byThe intervention of American forces in Iraq has been presented in the Western media as an intervention to protect religious and ethnic minorities from the advance of ultra-reactionary jihadist group Islamic State (IS), formerly Islamic State in Iran and the Levant (ISIS). This propaganda hides the imperialist political interests of the US in their military intervention, which has in fact nothing to do with humanitarian objectives.
Gaza: "Better to be dead than go back to the way we were"
18 August 2014, byNearly 2,000 dead, more than 10,000 wounded, over 400,000 displaced, tens of thousands of buildings damaged or destroyed... The consequences of the Israeli aggression against Gaza are mounting, despite the succession of "truces" and other "ceasefires". It is simply, in terms of the human and material cost, the most violent Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territories since the 1967 war.