Fifty-four years ago, standing at the pulpit of Riverside Church in New York City, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his now-famous “Beyond Vietnam” sermon. For the first time in public, he expressed in vehement terms his opposition to the American war in Vietnam. He saw clearly that a foreign policy defined by aggression hurt the poor and dispossessed across the[Read More…]
In June 1990, future South African President Nelson Mandela addressed a joint session of Congress only months after being released from 27 years in a South African apartheid prison. He reminded the political leadership of the United States that “to deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity. To impose on them a wretched life of hunger and deprivation[Read More…]
2020 will go down as the deadliest year in American history, significantly due to the devastation delivered by the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, count in nearly two trillion dollars in damage from climate events (many caused by, or heightened by, intensifying global warming), a surge of incidents of police violence inflicted on Black and Native peoples, and millions more Americans joining the ranks of the poor even as[Read More…]
Martin Luther King, Jr., offered this all-too-relevant comment on his moment in his 1967 speech “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”: “The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to[Read More…]
The New Politics of the Poor in Joe Biden’s (and Mitch McConnell’s) USA In the two weeks since Election 2020, the country has oscillated between joy and anger, hope and dread in an era of polarization sharpened by the forces of racism, nativism, and hate. Still, truth be told, though the divisive tone of this moment may only be sharpening,[Read More…]
On August 26th, during the Republican National Convention, Vice President Mike Pence closed out his acceptance speech with a biblical sleight of hand. Speaking before a crowd at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, he exclaimed, “Let’s fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents. Let’s fix our eyes on this land of heroes and let their courage inspire.”[Read More…]
In the summer of 1995, when I was 18, I started visiting Tent City, a temporary encampment in an abandoned lot in northeast Philadelphia. About 40 families had taken up residence in tents, shacks, and other makeshift structures. Among them were people of various races, ages, and sexual orientations, all homeless and fighting for the right to live. Tent City was set up[Read More…]
My mom contracted polio when she was 14. She survived and learned to walk again, but my life was deeply affected by that virus. Today, as our larger society attempts to self-distance and self-isolate, my family has texted about the polio quarantine my mom was put under: how my grandma fearfully checked my aunt’s temperature every night because she shared[Read More…]
An Urgent Call for Action by Nobel Laureates 
The surge and the Oxygen- Winners and the Losers 
Pandemic: Implications of RSS statement 
Mohinder Amarnath was the epitome of cricketing determination, mental resilience and selflessness resembling a soldier 
The Decadence of Regional Politics in Assam 
CM Of Karnataka, Act Now Against Communalisation Of The Covid Crisis 
Clampdown on social media is contempt of court 
Integrated View of All Dam and Hydro Projects in Himalayan Region is Needed 
The Arctic’s greening won’t save us 
Israel An Apartheid State 
Breach of Fundamental Duties – Spread of Virus 
Hindutva Fascism, Modi and Lies 
Electoral Reverses Should Convince Union Government For Being More Responsive to Real Needs and Feelings of People 
The True Meaning of the Afghan “Withdrawal” 
People’s Vaccine Alliance lauds US decision to break open Covid-19 monopolies and urges others to follow 
Boris Johnson walks away laughing with India’s Serum Institute in tow 
‘Fractured freedom’ of Kobad Ghandy is a classic in it’s own right but with aberrations 
Climate change will be disastrous even after latest world pledges, says report 
In Responding To COVID Crisis, Prioritise Human And Environmental Health, Learning Lessons From The First Wave 
Comprehensive Health Reform Program Will Benefit All Developing Countries 
The Second Wave of Covid: The role of the political leaders – Has self-interest superseded people’s welfare? 
Spending More On Nukes: STRATCOM’s Nuclear Death Wish 
Guru Tegh Bahadur, Sikhism and Mughals 
India and the Second Wave of COVID-19: How the Modi Government Complacency Caused the Horror 
Palestine’s Moment of Reckoning: On Abbas’ Dangerous Decision to ‘Postpone’ Elections 
Hartosh Singh Bal to be given the first Mooknayak journalism award 
Marx in this pandemic point 
BJP Suffers Defeat in Strongholds Varanasi, Ayodhya and Mathura in Panchayat Elections 
Torch of farmers agitation in Delhi border continues to shimmer like a Prairie fire Migrant Workers Stranded Yet Again 
Critical Comments on the Principal Scientific Advisor’s Interview 
COVID Disaster Is Transforming How India Handles Its Dead 
Going to Court: The EU Sues AstraZeneca 
U.S.’s new normal: hotter, wetter, shorter, heavier, drier and more extreme weather 
Decimation of an Empire: Understanding the Left Front’s Debacle in West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021 The Hindutva Cow Urine Cultural Nationalism And The Corona Crisis 
Despite Giving Good Results, Cess-Based Welfare of Workers Faces Uncertain Future 
Tackling Corona: Think Local, Act Local 
Can Guantánamo Ever Be Shut Down? 
Wage Stagnation in the Global North 
When I founded Countercurrents.org in 2002, Disha Ravi who was arrested for sedition yesterday was a two-year-old toddler. In 2002, the CO2 level in the atmosphere was 370 ppm. Now it is 415 ppm. In just 19 years CO2 levels increased by just over 2ppm/year. The level of cumulative greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, including Methane, Nitrous Oxide etc is[Read More…]
