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The Karnataka police have arrested BP Mahesh Chandra Guru, a professor in the journalism department of Mysore University and a well-known Phule-Ambedkarite writer. Professor Guru had made some sharp comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union HRD minister Smriti Irani at a function organized in the university recently to pay tributes to Rohit Vemula. He had also allegedly insulted Lord Ram

Worsening Climate Emergency And Record CO2 Emissions Demand
Vegetarian Diet For All To Help Save Planet

By Dr Gideon Polya

Decent people must demand cessation of meat eating – in the absence of requisite abolition of about 32 Gt CO2 annually of industrial pollution (from carbon fuel burning and cement manufacture), a vegetarian or vegan diet for all Humanity is urgently required now to help save the Planet. And it must be done urgently, NOW, because a predicted release of an estimated 50 Gt methane (50 x 105 = 5,250 Gt CO2-e) from the steadily warming East Siberian Arctic Shelf in coming decades would mean doom for Humanity and the Biosphere [23-25]. Decent people must (a) inform everyone they can about the worsening climate emergency, (b) urge a vegetarian diet for all Humanity, and (c) urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against all people, politicians, parties, companies, corporations and countries disproportionately involved in the greenhouse gas pollution that so acutely threatens Humanity and the Biosphere

Dreams About Terrorists: Wolves, Wolf Packs And Resources
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

With the Orlando killings, another spike in speculative assessment was bound to take place, charging the strategic boardrooms and think tank workshops with the next model, framework and means of assessment. What matters in such workings is that they are sold as scientific, positivist formulae, methods that clarify a murky, sodden world of incalculable variables

9/11 - The Biggest Conspiracy Against The American People And The Whole World
By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

It's very honorable that the four "Jersey Widows" are pushing the Obama administration to release the 28 secret pages of the 9/11 Commission Report in order to find out who else was involved in masterminding this vile crime against the American people besides presumably the Bush /Cheney administration. If Hillary Clinton becomes the next U. S. President, the cover-up and the distortion of truth will continue. She is the voice of the military-industrial-financial-intelligence-congressional-media complex that is the main beneficiary of this criminal engineering

NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg Toes The Line On Power And Politics
By Jim Miles

Scary stuff, but it is the U.S. and its drive towards controlling Europe through the creation of NATO and the EU (encompassing military, financial, and political control through selected non-elected elites), of dominating Eurasia for its resources, and above all, controlling the financial markets for the fiat petrodollar supremacy based on Saudi oil sales using the US$

Crimeans Recount Their Experiences When The West Took Ukraine
By Eric Zuesse

An organization “Ukraine Human Rights” created and posted to the internet, on 14 August 2014, a 25-minute video, with English subtitles, telling these people's stories. It's titled “The Pogrom of Korsun”, and it reports, with testimony and some of the videos from survivors, the attacks against those buses when a gang of Ukraine's Right Sector members caught up with those escaping Crimeans, near the Ukrainian town of Korsun

America Never Says Sorry
By Chandra Muzaffar

A hegemonic power never says sorry. Three recent episodes underscore this truism

Girls Should Have Equal Access To Education For Making An Egalitarian Society
By Shah Alam

Although the government, at times attempts to improve the education of women by taking initiatives such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mahila Samakhya Programme, National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level, Saakshar Bharat Mission for Female Literacy, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidayalyas etc. At the same time, the discriminatory practices and beliefs still prevalent in the society restrict women and girl children from enjoying the same comforts as boys do

The Rich In Their Posh Clubs Are Having Fun At Our Expense
By Vidyadhar Date

The 140-year-old Bombay Gymkhana asserted its elite and exclusive character earlier this month. It voted after much debate not to admit senior government officers as members. But then how come this class, so keen to preserve its privilege , has for years so openly intruded upon public space just outside its premises for almost 20 years ?

19 June , 2016

Iran Regime Sentences Three Ahwazi Young Men To Public Execution
By Rahim Hamid

A senior Iranian regime judiciary official has issued the final confirmation of the death penalty for three Ahwazi rights activists, with another four sentenced to between 25 and 35 years in prison, as well as exile

Competitive Football Violence At Euro 2016
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

It had gone into something of a hibernating state, but it is clear that the European Football Championship in France is being made an example of by that scourge of sport, the football hooligan. The modus operandi of such a figure is simple enough; organised, directed and coordinated, they strike at venues, agitate spectators and rile the authorities. They form a fifth column of violence and engagement, finding the activities on the pitch less relevant than what happens off it. Crowds provide the honey pots for their beelike activity. Codes of violent engagement are applied

Letter To Justin Trudeau On Canada Re-joining UNCCD
By CBD Alliance

We, the CBD Alliance, the global platform of civil society and academic organisations working on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), congratulate your government for the decision to re-join the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The three Rio conventions including the UNCCD are of great importance to developing countries and Indigenous Peoples. The Rio Declaration that is incorporated in the UNCCD gives States the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. The same responsibility is contained in Article 3 and Article 14 (d) of the Convention on Biological Diversity

Neoliberalism: Its Reality Exposed
By S.G.Vombatkere

The present commentary is written in the hope that governments, economists, teachers and proponents of the neoliberal free-market economy, and the politician-corporate nexus which drives the neoliberal agenda, will begin to understand that the growth-at-any-cost ideology cannot be sustained from the points of view of democracy, social justice, economic inequality, environment (as a source of material resources and a sink for wastes), ecology and climate change. They also need to understand that continuing in the current direction is self-defeating

Kashmir's Exile Poetry: An Aesthetic of Loss
By Basharat Shameem

Having been in exile for more than two decades now, many Pandits are taking to poetry and other forms of art to express their profound angst on their life as migrants and a gradual loss of their communitarian identity. In their new found voices, they can be seen yearning for their loss home or paradise while also lamenting on the suffering that the differential experience of exodus brought for their lives. In their poetry, the Pandit poets engage with the multitude of experiences which emanated from their exodus and the subsequent life of being migrants

Social Facts In An ‘Off-Day Game”
By K.M. Seethi

Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s ‘Ozhivu Divasathe Kali’(An Off-Day Game) is surely a departure in cinematic representation from the point of view of engaging with a foreground ‘political game.’ It sets a real-time political space for a social representation - a rendezvous for the day of ‘judgement’ with the social class representation, caste hierarchy with the division of labour, social identity with middleclass hangovers, besides patriarchal mindsets, and eventually, the politics of exclusion, all coalesce in a single frame, and the ‘visual art’ moves in till the final act of an unrecognised ‘elimination.’ An unusual experience with a film which is cinematically scripted by the real-time characters !

18 June , 2016

NATO Threatens Europe With Annihilation
By John Scales Avery

Do the people of Europe really want to participate in the madness of aggression against Russia? Of course not! What about European leaders? Why don’t they follow the will of the people and free Europe from bondage to the United States? Have our leaders been bribed? Or have they been blackmailed through personal secrets, discovered by the long arm of NSA spying? To save itself from the danger of nuclear annihilation, Europe must declare its independence from America, just as the United States once declared its independence from Britain

Obama Ignores Russia’s Valid National Security Worries
By Eric Zuesse

We have blatant NATO propaganda spread on German public television, asking “Is NATO expansion to blame for Crimean crisis?” and answering: not only no, but "just change NATO's name” and we all should ignore Russia’s worries about the hostile U.S. military alliance that has spread right up to Russia’s borders and that’s intent upon posting nuclear missiles minutes from Moscow. Do Western leaders really think that Western publics are stupid and callous enough to believe that? Is the leaders’ presumption, about this, correct? Is this the reason why nuclear war is getting perilously close while Western publics are worried about it little if at all?

Financing For Indigenous People, Land Reforms And Protection Of
Forests And Other Natural Ecosystems in India - Part II

By Anandi Sharan

India cannot afford to wait till the US Empire and western civilisation collapses before picking itself up and going it alone. Too many are starving. The time to chuck out the upper castes and make India fit for purpose is now

Bengaluru’s Erasure: One Exhibition At A Time
By Rashmi Munikempanna

The exhibition which happened over a weekend in June, at Venkatappa Art Gallery in Bengaluru, responded to an archive of photographs of Stephen (Simon) Simmons, a British military man stationed in Bengaluru during the 1930s, about the Bangalore hunt. This exhibition is an important marker within the larger framework of the battle over Venkatappa Art Gallery

17 June , 2016

Chhattisgarh Is Burning: Where's The Outrage?
By Surabhi Singh

I woke up the next morning to the atrocious news of gangrape and murder of Madkam Hidme, an Adivasi girl in Sukma district’s village Gumpad. She was picked up from home, gangraped and then shot in cold blood by a gang of bloodthirsty, estrogen shooting men, dressed in an attire given by government that miraculously shields them against all legal shenanigans. Two days before this, a 12 year old child was similarly raped by a policeman in the same district. This is happening everyday in these villages. Every single day

Soni Sori Not Allowed Into Village: Still On Fast
Press Release

Soni Sori is now in Konta, still on hunger strike, still not being allowed to go the village, and vows to not break her fast till she enters the village of Gompad where Madkam Hidme, was allegedly raped and killed by security forces

Modi Government's Witch Hunt Of Teesta Setalvad Enters New Phase:
Sabrang Trust's Registration Cancelled

By Countercurrents.org

The Narendra Modi led Indian government cancelled on Thursday the registration of Sabrang Trust run by social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand. Teesta and her NGOs are on the forefront of civil society campaign against the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, in which over 1000 muslims were massacred. She was active in bringing to justice many Sangh Parivar activists who were involved in the massacre

The Difficulties With Lone Wolves: Terror In Orlando, Birstall And Sydney
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Much of Britain is recoiling in the wake of the death of Labour MP Jo Cox, who was shot and stabbed on Thursday in broad daylight outside the public library in Birstall to the shouts of “Britain first!” It was the first killing of a serving MP since Ian Gow, whose life was taken by Irish Republicans in 1990

Why Go To Russia?
By Kathy Kelly

My friend Brad Lyttle, a lead organizer of and participant in the “San Francisco to Moscow Walk” (1960 -1961) recently wrote to President Obama that there is no reason why the U.S. and Russia should continue to jeopardize the very existence of the human species with their huge nuclear arsenals. “Work with President Putin to reduce and eliminate these,” wrote Brad. “Emphasize a trustful and positive approach. Don't assume that the future needs always to be as bad as much of the past.”

Climate Criminal Coalition Government Lying Endangers Australia & Planet –
Australians Must Vote 1 Green And Put The Coalition Last

By Dr Gideon Polya

The world will soon respond to continuing disproportionate greenhouse gas pollution and climate change inaction by Australia and similarly climate criminal countries with Green Tariffs, International Criminal Court prosecutions, International Court of Justice litigations and Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). On 2 July 2016 (Election Day in Australia), decent , science-informed Australians who care for the environment, children and future generations will utterly reject the climate criminal, pro-coal Coalition (aka the COALition or KOALition), vote 1 Green and put the Coalition last

Pathways Of Transition To Agroecological Food Systems
By Adam Parsons

A new report by leading sustainability experts has reaffirmed the case for a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems – fundamental to which is a call for redistributing power back into the hands of those who feed the world

Conquest And Tyranny vs Peace And Justice
By William A. Cook

The UN and France must stipulate that these negotiations be equal, must begin negotiations with maps that show the UN recognition of what it determined as the Partition Plan of 1947, must give equal authority to Palestine as Israel, and must have an international system of control in place that will guarantee open and honest and just discussions thereby forcing Israel to confront what it has determined to be its rights, as noted above in the passage quoted from The Plight of the Palestinians. The UN must take responsibility for what it created in November of 1947 and “force” the Zionist controlled government of Israel to accept justice in a world that determines what justice is peacefully yet determinedly

A View From Iceland: An Interview With Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl
By Linh Dinh

With six books of poems, five novels, two collections of essays and even a cook book with short, meditative essays on food, Norðdahl is in fact one of Iceland’s brightest literary stars. His 2012 novel, Illska, was awarded The Icelandic Literary Prize and The Book Merchant’s Prize, and its French version shortlisted for the Prix Médicis Étranger and the Prix Meilleur Livre Étranger. Norðdahl’s translation credits include a selection of Allen Ginsberg’s poetry, Michael Moore, crime fiction and Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn. As an organizer of the Reykjavik International Literary Festival, Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl brought me to Iceland in 2007, and we’ve stayed in touch over the years. This interview was conducted via email over eight days

The Quest For Human Rights Was The Essence Of Dr Ambedkar’s Life
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

A presentation made at London School of Economics

Nainital Lake Faces An Evironmental Calamity
By Noman Siddiqui

The sea green lake, the gentle morning sunshine, chirping birds, Nainital lake still remains one of the most popular tourist destinations, it also gives drinking water to thousands living near the lake and it needs our prayers and also the locals should realise that today is the time to act, tomorrow maybe late

Foreign Ship Owners And Ship Breakers Outwitting UN’s Basel Convention,
Threaten India’s Maritime Security

By Toxics Watch Alliance

Toxics Watch Alliance (TWA) disapproves of efforts by foreign Shipowners and Shipbreakers to outwit UN’s Basel Convention on transboundary movement of hazardous end-of-life ships, threatening India’s maritime security and environmental and occupational health of workers in the ship breaking facilities in Indian waters. These ship owners have been lobbying with the Ministry of Shipping to amend the Shipbreaking Code 2013 that was created in compliance with Supreme Court’s order. These foreign interests have also been lobbying with Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry to establish a regime wherein free trade in hazardous waste is legalized using new Hazardous waste management handling rules under the Environment Protection Act, 1986

Release Kashmiri Political Prisoners Languishing In Jails
By Dr. P.S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal

Masarat Alam has spent more years in jail than Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did individually during the freedom struggle. The British dealt with these establishment freedom fighters as befits their status and role as freedom fighters. The Indian state treats the frontline leaders struggling for right to self-determination of Kashmiri people with utter contempt. Recently the Prime Minister of India referred to overcoming the “hesitations of history” while delivering his speech at the joint session of U.S. congress on 8 June, 2016. Could he extend this doctrine in relation to Kashmir and resolve the long standing issues? As a first step he could instruct the Bharatiya Janata Party in J & K – a coalition partner with the Peoples Democratic Party– to ensure that Kashmiri political prisoners are released

The Misplaced Fear Of Arabised Islam
By Suraj Kumar Thube

As the holy month of fasting has returned , so have certain controversies regarding the same. To call it a controversy would itself be like legitimising the debate that has been going since quite a few years now. The idea that "RamaZan" has been taken over by a more puritanical sounding "RamaDan" is something that seems to be worrying some people of late

16 June , 2016

Rape And Murder In Sukma: Soni Sori On Indefinite Fast
Press Release

Soni Sori and other members of AAP party are right sitting on Dharna outside the Sukma Collectorate of Chhattisgarh state, India against the recent incident of Rape and Fake Encounter of Madkam Hidme, a young girl from Gompad village. Additionally, Soni Sori has decided to go on Indefinite Fast. On 13th June, the Sukma police announced a successful encounter where a woman Maoist, Madkam Hidme, was killed in an encounter close to village Gompad, Konta Tehsil, Sukma district. Villagers called up yesterday to say that this was incorrect and that Madkam Hidme was not a Naxalite, but a villager, picked up from her home, gang raped by the police and then killed, and body returned to the villagers

Rapes, Arbitrary Arrests And Fake Surrenders Rampant In Bastar
All India People’s Forum’s Fact-Finding Team Visit To Bastar

An 8-member fact-finding team of All India People’s Forum visited four districts of Bastar, Chhattisgarh between 8-11 June 2016. The fact-finding team found several incidents of communal violence against Christians; as well as fake encounters; rapes; fake cases and arbitrary arrests; and fake surrenders

Why Global Capital Fears ‘Brexit’
By Helena Norberg-Hodge, Rupert Read & Thomas Wallgren

There are some who would believe that collaboration at the pan-European level could facilitate a path to genuine economic decentralization. Others are convinced that those steps to localize can best be taken by first leaving the EU. Still others don’t favor either of these paths. We are not trying to tell UK readers how (or even whether) to vote; we are asking you to help us shed light on and bring sanity to this volatile situation. Whichever way you vote, please reject the glaringly stupid rhetoric in the media. Speak out, let your voice be heard for ecological and economic sanity, for a fundamental turnaround

The London Bubble, Brexit And Smug Incompetence
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

London is snared by the Brexit debate, with posters and placards festooning the city speaking to the benefits and catastrophes of remaining in the European Union. But for all that, such activity is taking place in the beast of Britain’s political and financial establishment. For all that, it remains a supremely padded cacoon, a vast bubble of protection against so much about what the rest of Britain is saying

GMOs, “Biggest Fraud In The History Of Science” –
Some 'Questions And Answers' For The UK's Royal Society

By Colin Todhunter

The decision on whether to renew EU approval for the herbicide glyphosate is to go to an appeals panel on 23 June after a last ditch attempt to get a temporary re-authorisation failed on 6 June (for some background information, see this). It is unclear if the meeting will produce the majority vote needed to pass the authorisation. The current licence for glyphosate in the EU expires on 30 June

Financing For Indigenous People, Land Reforms And Protection Of
Forests And Other Natural Ecosystems

By Anandi Sharan

Sadly the educated castes in India do not care to take up such work in rural areas, preferring to go where they get the recognition of the global economy. One may say that the criminal killing of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe people in India would be less if educated people of upper castes took up the opportunities in rural areas along with their brethren from SC ST families, instead of pursuing the dead-end of city life. Not only the political system, but our entire education and culture is ill-suited to ecological reality

Tiptoeing Through The Renewable Energy Minefield
By Richard Heinberg

It is no exaggeration to say that the transition from climate-damaging and depleting fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is the central cause of our times. And it will demand action from each and every one of us

NATO Says It Might Now Have Grounds To Attack Russia
By Eric Zuesse

On Tuesday, June 14th, NATO announced that if a NATO member country becomes the victim of a cyber attack by persons in a non-NATO country such as Russia or China, then NATO’s Article V “collective defense” provision requires each NATO member country to join that NATO member country if it decides to strike back against the attacking country

Corporate Media Backing Clinton Exploits Orlando Shooting
For Passive Holocaust Denial

By Robert Barsocchini

Within hours of the mass shooting in Orlando, the corporate media backing neoconservative favorite Hillary Clinton began, almost unanimously, to exploit the opportunity to passively promote holocaust and genocide denial

Gaza: Resistance Through Poetry
By Ramzy Baroud

True, the wars have devastated Gaza and the siege is severely diminishing its ability to develop the massive and promising human capital it has. But it has not disfigured its essence, or lessened its humanity. Gaza remains a place of poets, artists, dabka dancers and untamable spirits of utterly resilient and refreshingly stubborn people

Ahwazi Municipality Workers Jailed For Protesting Over
Six Months Of Unpaid Salaries

By Rahim Hamid

Twenty-four Ahwazi Arab municipality workers in the regional capital were arrested by Iranian regime security personnel on Monday, June 13 for participating in a peaceful sit-in demonstration in front of the local municipality building to protest against non-payment of their salaries for six months. Seventy staff members at the municipality headquarters in District 4 of the capital, Ahwaz, took part in the demonstration after months of complaints over non-payment of their wages failed to elicit any response from the management

Fact-Finding Report On The Alleged Exodus Of Hindus From Kairana
Press Release

After this “Hindu list of exodus”, local Muslims too have issued a list of Muslims who left the town showing that the migration was mainly for earning a better livelihood outside. The ruling classes in Delhi and Lucknow are not listening to such voices. They didn’t pay attention for the uplift of the town and now they are playing the polarisation game. They promise development but deliver hate and fear instead trying to divide society which easily gets influenced due to illiteracy and lack of trust manfucatured by the right-wing extremist groups which spread rumours to garner votes and grasp power. Uttar Pradesh Police is yet to file even an FIR against the BJP MP who made such ruckus without any logic and proof

BJP Two Year Rule: Economic Slowdown, Social Divide And Institutional Erosion
By Pushkar Raj

The BJP has completed two years in office recently showcasing its achievements with public money followed by the national executive meeting of the party. The prime minister has congratulated his government for its achievements of ‘development’ of the country. In reality, however, while the Indian economy has underperformed in the last two years as compared to a recent past, socially and institutionally too the country’s performance tumbled downwards which is a matter of concern not a celebration

Kashmir: Self-Rule To Self-Reliance!
By Mohammad Ashraf

Mehbooba Mufti’s assertion that Horticulture and Handicrafts have more potential than Tourism is a very bold statement based on reality which,if followed up honestly could make Kashmir’s economy self-reliant

Separate Settlements: A Divisive Politics
By Ghulam Mohammad Khan

With the present political brouhaha going on the return of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) in mind, I believe that instead of further deracinating the already deracinated community by setting up separate settlements, government should put in all possible efforts to revive the lost social and cultural connections, or the earlier community kindredship between the two estranged communities

Kashmir: Towards A Literature Of Our Own
By Basharat Shameem

With the emergence of many indigenous voices now, particularly in the literary realm, we are witnessing fresh perspectives as these voices aim to portray their lived experiences of the conflict, and hence offer a break from the previous narratives. Among the various narratives published in the recent years, many important novels which have caught readers’ attention worldwide are Mirza Waheed’s The Collaborator and The Book of Gold Leaves, Shahnaz Bashir’s The Half Mother and The Scattered Souls, Siddhartha Gigoo’s The Garden of Solitude, to mention a few. Basharat Peer’s memoir The Curfewed Night is another literary feat. Besides these writers, many others are taking to different artistic expression like poetry, music, painting and graphic arts to express their profound angst at the existing conditions of the conflict

15 June , 2016

NATO Orders Four Additional Battalions To Russian Border
By Thomas Gaist

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is sending 4,000 additional troops to Eastern Europe in the name of reassuring Poland and the Baltic states, the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed on Monday. “We will agree to deploy by rotation four robust multi-national battalions in the Baltic states and Poland,” Stoltenberg told NATO officials

Climate, Consciousness And Social Change
By Asoka Bandarage

Activists are confident that just as the struggle against the tobacco industry, which hid the connection between smoking and health from the public, was won, the people’s struggle against the fossil fuel industry can also be victorious. We must believe that the larger goals of environmental sustainability and social justice can be achieved and that ‘Another World is Possible’ if we work together to ‘Change the System, not the Climate’

Biodiversity And Land Reforms: Still A Neglected Linkage At The CBD
By Anandi Sharan

Practically all the forested lands of India are presently wrongfully occupiedin some way or the other at present, to the extent that rights are not being recognised and Gram Sabhas not being given their responsibilities. But once these rights are recognised, biodiversity will get a huge fillip; - no thanks to the CBD or the FAO

The Orlando Massacre: Time For Pondering And Not Populism
By M. Adil Khan

in order to stop repeat of all forms of killings, mass or targeted that are perpetrated by both non-state and state actors we must look at the issue more holistically and not confine ourselves to one particular country or a group. Instead we need to go beyond the superficial and start looking at causes that connect the “dots between terrorism and mass killings” that on the one hand manipulate the system to kill to keep its control on wealth accumulation and on the other and as result, create the conditions for desperate acts such as witnessed in Orlando lately. If we keep on going the way we are going and not reflect, no one will be safe. Time for pondering, not populism

A Critique of Human Society Since The Neolithic Revolution
By Robert J. Burrowes

My central questions are these? Is there a point at which a human activity ceases to be volitional – 'functional, meaningful and enjoyable' – and becomes something that is socially controlled, what we might now call 'work'? And what are the implications of this transition?

Peasants Battle Cry For Land In Punjab
By Janhastakshep

An Investigation into Police and Land-lord Repression on Land Struggle of Dalit Peasants in Villages of Sangrur District of Indian Punjab

Muzaffarnagar +Dadri + Kairana=Love Jihad+Beef+"Hindu" Exodus=
Hard Communalism=Votes

By Ram Puniyani

Just before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections Muzaffarnagar erupted in violence in which nearly 80 Muslims died, and thousands fled their villages. Now with the 2017 Assembly elections due in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP seems to have activated its machinery yet again

US-Modi Bonhomie
By Abdul Majid Zargar

If it is presumed that USA has forgiven Modi, then we can only mourn the sad demise of core values from American hearts. Slobodan Milosevic must be wondering in his grave for the differential treatment he got at the hands of those whose priorities are guided more by revenue & market valuations. Whatever be the case, a caveat is in order. America by its odious behavior has undermined & debased the structure of democracy, it so enthusiastically promotes in rest of the world

Demand The Intervention Of Telangana Chief Minister In Resolving HCU Crisis
By Justice for HCU

Please sign this petition, and share with colleagues and allies. We are trying to strengthen efforts to push the Telangana Government to put an end to the escalating repression of Dalit students and faculty in HCU

14 June , 2016

Carbon Dioxide Levels Are Set To Pass 400ppm—Permanently
By Nadia Prupis

Record carbon dioxide levels are set to surpass the symbolic threshold of 400 parts per million (PPM) this year and will likely never fall below that line again in our lifetimes, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. Scientists at the UK Met Office used emissions data, sea surface temperature figures, and a climate model from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii to track the trajectory of CO2 levels and found that carbon dioxide "will for the first time remain above 400 ppm all year and hence for our lifetimes."

Our Crooked, Violent Future
By Linh Dinh

A lot can happen between now and November, and we’re merely spectators to our rulers’ machinations, but Hustling Trump seems a better tool than Crooked Hillary. Our rulers need a polarizing figure so we can tear into each other as they go on with their crimes. Besides being a boost for gun control, hatred of Muslims and sympathy for gays, the Orlando massacre tale is the deep state giving Trump a push

We Must Understand Corporate Power To Fight It
By Chris Hedges

We have little time left. Climate change, even if we halt all carbon emissions today, will still bring rising temperatures, havoc, instability and systems collapse to much of the planet. Let us hope we never have to make the stark choice, as most of the ghetto fighters did, about how we will die. If we fail to act, however, this choice will one day define our future, as it defined theirs

PA Fiddles While Palestine Dwindles
By Vacy Vlazna

In April, President Abbas, true to form, buckled under international pressure to sacrifice the integrity of the land of Palestine on the altar of another bogus ‘peace’ initiative by friends of Israel. The Palestinian Authority (PA) had been circulating to UN Security Council members a draft resolution condemning Israeli settlements when the French government effortlessly convinced Abbas to cease and desist the demand to protect diminishing Palestinian land being razed for settlement expansion until after France held its Paris talkfest. Well, the Paris shindig, attended by foreign ministers from Europe, Arab States and the US has come and gone with notable diplomatic irrelevance. It ended, heedless of the French request for urgent deadlines, with no set timetable for yet another pointless peace stunt later in the year

Activists Complete 150-Mile Walk To Thomson Prison
By Buddy Bell

In late May and early June, Chicago group Voices for Creative Nonviolence held a 150-mile walk against indefinite detention, solitary confinement, and the racist U.S. prison system. For two weeks, a group of 20 justice seekers walked across the state of Illinois from east to west, interacting with hundreds of passers-by, carrying placards to give a momentary reminder to thousands of motorists, and holding public face-to-face discussions at churches and libraries. They began on May 28 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago and then walked through Chicago’s west side, the western suburbs, on to DeKalb and the rural northwest part of the state

British Troops Enter Syria And Libya To Ensure That War Outlives ISIS
By Dan Glazebrook

Over the past three weeks, it has emerged that British special forces are now in direct combat roles in Libya and Syria. Ostensibly there to fight ISIS, the real goal is to prevent the Syrian and Libyan armies defeating ISIS themselves

The Next U.S Foreign/Military Policy
By Jack A. Smith

President Obama's recent journey to Japan and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, beyond visiting Hiroshima and being welcomed by crowds in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, was primarily aimed at strengthening his administration's most important foreign policy objective — the political, commercial and military encirclement of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Now that Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, Obama may rest assured that if she defeats Republican Donald Trump in November, as expected, his "rebalance" to Asia will continue apace. Indeed, a Clinton administration may move faster and more decisively

Russia And China Have To Step Up Ideological War
By Andre Vltchek

The war against imperialism should be fought not only on the battlefields; it shouldbe fought on the airwaves, at the printing presses, in the concert halls and theatres. Kindness, humanism, internationalism and knowledge can often serve as weapons much more powerful than missiles, strategic bombers and submarines

Clipping Academic Freedom: Australian University Management
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

The modern university needs to be reformed. Not least of all, a return to basic roots, the true radical sense that it be an educational, not a business institution. The corporates have the upper hand at the moment. The first step in making sure that management’s hand, with its cold grip, is lessened by letting academics, at least the good lot of them, speak out. Some of their ideas will be on the daft side, but the only market place permitted should be one stocked with the currency of ideas

Why Was Muhammad Ali Greater Than His Legend?
By Taj Hashmi

He was the butterfly people loved and admired; he was the power, power-drunk bully feared most. No wonder, both Democrats and Republicans honoured him with medals of freedom. They knew Ali wasn’t the “house negro”. No wonder, within days after his death, the New York City administration renamed Manhattan Street as Muhammad Ali Way. His influence is so overpowering that even those who hate him and his ideas most – viz. Donald Trump and his racist supporters – don’t dare to denigrate him publicly

Dream Phantasy Tribute To Rosa Luxemburg, Sigmund Freud And Carl E Schorske:
Debate On 'Revolutionary Dream', 'Dream of Revolution' And Hermeneutics of “Mediality”

By Anil Pundlik Gokhale

Tribute to Rosa on her Birthday- 5th March 1871, Sigmund Freud on his Birthday, 6th May 1856 and Carl Schorske 15th March 1915

Eastern India In A Make-or-Break Battle Against Hunger
Press Release

Eastern India, the world capital of malnutrition, has reached a make-or-break point in the battle against hunger. For the first time, the National Food Security Act (NFSA) makes it possible to ensure that no-one sleeps on an empty stomach. Many people, however, are still struggling to secure their entitlements under the Act. By way of reality check, a careful survey of NFSA was recently completed by student volunteers in six of India’s poorest states. The survey is due to conclude on 13-14 June with a series of public hearings, where the people concerned will have a chance to speak for themselves

Amulet: A Political- Fantasy Novel by RobertoBolaño
Book Review By Gaither Stewart

As read and admired by political novelist Gaither Stewart

13 June , 2016

Another American Tragedy In Orlando
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

Worst fears have come true for America and human civilization as about fifty people have been killed and fifty three are injured. The number is likely to increase as time passes by. Pulse nightclub, Orlando, Florida was attacked allegedly by Omar Mateen, from Port St Lucie, Florida, who has been named in media as lone gunman

The Orlando shooting, Omar Mateen, Terrorism And Islamophobia
By Binu Mathew

The Orlando shooting which left 50 dead and 53 injured is an American tragedy of momentous proportions. America with its gun culture and the dominant, vociferous and influential gun rights advocates, Orlando was a tragedy waiting to happen. Let’s mourn the victims. More than that let’s take it as a moment to make sure that no such tragedy happens in the future. Is that what’s happening right now? I doubt. The CNN headline screams “Orlando shooting: 50 killed, shooter pledged ISIS allegiance”. Within hours of the tragedy President Obama addresses the nation and says "We know enough to say this was an act of terror and act of hate"

Orlando Shooting Means Trump For President
By Linh Dinh

Waking up to news of the Orlando shooting, I thought of the possibility that a Muslim shooter would be identified, in which case a Trump presidency would be nearly guaranteed. As with 9/11, the 2015 Paris massacre and the San Bernardino shooting, Islamic terror is immediately fingered, with the purported killer already dead. What lightning fast police work, eh? With so many corpses to sort out, the name and origin of the perpetrator are immediately available. Omar Mateen is 29-years-old, of Afghan descent and is a registered Democrat to boot

The Doomsday Clock: Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change,
And The Prospects For Survival

By Noam Chomsky

In January 2015, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced its famous Doomsday Clock to three minutes before midnight, a threat level that had not been reached for 30 years. The Bulletin’s statement explaining this advance toward catastrophe invoked the two major threats to survival: nuclear weapons and “unchecked climate change.” The call condemned world leaders, who “have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe,” endangering “every person on Earth [by] failing to perform their most important duty -- ensuring and preserving the health and vitality of human civilization.” Since then, there has been good reason to consider moving the hands even closer to doomsday

Genetically MODIfied Babies In Gujarat?
By Shobha Aggarwal & Dr. P.S. Sahni

Genetically modified babies in Gujarat? That’s a bombshell! There has been neither any national debate on the issue; nor any consultation with stake-holders; Parliament is being by-passed as no corresponding law on the subject has been enacted;the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is taken by surprise;so too, the Indian Medical Association of allopathic doctors. No scientific-ethical studies have been undertaken before going ahead with genetically modified babies. With just one country (U.K.) in the whole world having legislated on this issue in 2015, is India being projected as the second country to start genetic modification of babies. Is this part of Make in India policy? There is deathly silence of the so called national press on the issue; there are no op-ed articles or editorials in major national English language dailies

How Corrupt America Is
By Eric Zuesse

So: how corrupt is America? It’s become corrupt enough to threaten to take over the entire world. And, perhaps soon after the NATO Summit on 8-9 July, we’ll know whether or not the national aristocracies that are subordinate to the U.S. aristocracy, are, indeed, willing to join the American aristocracy’s willingness to use nuclear weapons to achieve the objective

The Politics of Boxing: Muhammad Ali And Ring Activism
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Since the beginning of time, imperial powers have used physical, gladiatorial combat as spectacle, and distraction. Athletes sweating and bleeding before skilfully directed blows provided the twentieth century’s version of the Imperial Colosseum. The Rumble in the Jungle in October 1974 was as much a political triumph for its main backer, Zaire’s ruthless Mobutu Sese Seko, as it was for a triumphant Ali. The same theme was followed by the Thrilla in Manila in 1975. The Marcos dictatorship needed justifications and props to show that military rule against communists cut the mustard

Gutting The Scientific Establishment: Australia’s Business Model
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Australia’s scientific management (these comprise scientists who attempt to straddle the world of practice and business, and petty bureaucrats) have not taken kindly to the field of pure scientific endeavour. The Turnbull government has continued what the previous government did: savage the fund lines, turning off the taps. Australia’s core scientific institution risks becoming a rump, while other countries pour money into theirs with intoxicating enthusiasm

Photo-Voltaics Is Not An Energy Sink In Switzerland
By Luis De Souza

Energy Policy recently published a study conducted on the EROEI of Photo-Voltaics (PV) technologies installed in Switzerland. The end result is a remarkably low figure of 0.8:1, well below any EROEI assessments ever conducted on this energy technology. Such a figure naturally made the delight of those campaigning against renewable energy, who take at face value any hints of negative performance. However, from this study a number immediately stands out: average lifetime energy yield of 106 kWh/m2/a. As it turns out, a closer look at this single figure is enough to disprove the hypothesis of PV being an energy sink in Switzerland

Save Judith D’Souza: Open Letter To The President of Afghanistan
By William Gomes

I urge the authorities in Afghanistan to immediately take all necessary measures to locate human rights defender Judith D’Souza and to ensure his physical and psychological integrity and security. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the abduction of Judith D’Souza, with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards

Visioning Bahujan Rashtra Against Hindu Rashtra: BSS vs RSS
By Lata Pratibha Madhukar

This is a monograph of an organization which is involved in reclaiming the Bahujan’s historical legacy of resistance and struggle for right to dignity for all Bahujans and creating knowledge, based on Buddha, Charvak, Kabeer, Basavanna, Phule-Ambedkar, Shahu and Periyar’s ideology. Predominantly it is talking about Bahujan Rashtra and countering the concept of Hindu Rashtra. The organization consistently following the agenda of Bahujan Rashtra, a struggle of BSS (Bahujan Sangharsh Samiti) against RSS

India’s New-Aligned Movement
By Imran Khan

We are witness to the fact that unresolved conflicts, strategic lobbyism and ego of the Pakistan and India has only been profiting to arms market. NAM initiative taken by India was there for a reason, it was a very noble initiative. Instead of a policy shift India should resolve it’s disputes with neighbouring countries peacefully using dialogue. If peace, conflict resolution, prosperity and development are important priorities for India then it must be understood that Non Aligned Moment is relevant even today as much as it was some 60 years before. And on the other hand the new policy of alliance with certain nations can only be understood as “axing your own feet”

Kashmir: Four Killer Policies Of Identity Mutilation
By Sheikh Javiad Ayub

Kashmir’s peculiar identity has influenced its politics, both mainstream and separatists in past as well as in present. Identities are crucial for determining the future course of political process. Slogans like freedom, self rule and autonomy share one thing in common, all want to preserve the Kashmiri Identity. People feel alienated when governments try to mutilate their identities

11 June , 2016

Warming World: Can India Cope With Drought?
By Swati Agarwal

Rural communities across the country face the wrath of drought leading to distressed selling of lands, movable assets, and migration. This is aggravating poverty of the people affecting their nutritional standards rendering them more vulnerable to disease and ill-health and loss of productivity

Severe Environmental Impacts, Massive Sea Water Ingress,
Till 40 Kms In Bharuch, Gujarat

By National Alliance of People’s Movements

Several Newspapers in Gujarat have reported about the Arabian Sea ingress up to 40 Kms and depleting width of the river Narmada near Bharuch city, exposing the severe environmental impacts of a series of dams built upstream. This clearly indicates the serious impact of Sardar Sarovar in Gujarat on to agricultural land, famers, fish workers as well as the industries in the Dahej coastal areas

People For A Shared Program: YES, There Is An Alternative!
By Michael Albert

Do you want bottom up solidarity? Do you want participation? Do you want coherent agenda? Do you want activists and organizations to maintain focus but also support one another in growing unity? Of course you do. Pursue it. It won’t come to pass unless we make it happen

Clinton And Trump Represent The Same Entity: Conspiracy Theories And Beyond
By Taj Hashmi

The Democratic and Republican parties have made presumptive nominations of their Presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Both are among the least popular candidates in the history of US Presidential elections. While many Americans think Clinton is least trustworthy, and a hawkish representative of Washington and the Wall Street, they think Trump is a bully, racist, inexperienced, unpredictable, and least Presidential. Then again, thanks to multiple conspiracy theories about the two candidates, their mutual relationship, and about the nomination and election process, Americans and people across the world are sceptical, puzzled, worried, and uncertain about the next Presidential election and its short- and long-term effects on global peace and order

Italian Lessons
By Linh Dinh

A broken economy destroys communities. War, too, obviously. This world will be increasingly immersed in both

Michael's Motion To God For Habeas Corpus
By Mary Hamer

I present to the world Michael’s letter to me of 6/5/16 regarding his: Wrongful conviction of murder, wrongful sentence to death & 18 years of wrongful incarceration in Florida’s highly flawed criminal justice system on Florida’s Death Row. Note: On 6/7/16 Michael was admitted to the Prison Medical ward due to severe health issues

The Beleaguered Identity
By Sheikh Javaid Ayub

The Western identity, its culture and civilization, its democratic ethos is projected as a beleaguered one, besieged by an alien force – Islam. Islam is thus projected in such a way one gets the notion that it is invariably found in a confrontational relationship with whatever is Western. Islam becomes the most dangerous civilization for the West – thus an inevitable clash of civilizations. Islam has bloody borders, a barbarian spirit, genetically angry at modernity, a static religion with a myopic vision of humanity and development. This is how fear replaces knowledge about Islam. Islam, thus, is compared with everything the West dislikes regardless of accuracy and authenticity

Foreign Policy As ‘Performing Art’ And ‘Deals As Indispensable Liabilities’
By K.M. Seethi

In the course of his speech, Modi said that the US is “an indispensable partner.” Nobody denies that the US is an important factor to be reckoned with in global politics. In that case, can Obama or the new incumbent in the White House next year say that India is an ‘indispensable partner’ for the US? If India cannot ‘assume’ that role, obviously the role that is reserved for India is a ‘junior partner.’ Junior partners’ will always be at the receiving end—serving the cause of the senior partner, on the one hand, and shouldering the liabilities of the ‘cause’ without any payoff for the latter

Normalisation Of Rape Culture In India: Eroticised Regressive Nationalism
By Parul Verma

What I am going to focus in the article is the how Rape gets trivialized in the form of most mundane rules and regulation , that Indians follow , thinking of these rules as a Prevention strategy rather than passive Normalisation. Before we critically drown into How And Why we are unconsciously promoting the idea that Rape is unavoidable , we need to put forth the basic questions. Why the collective cultural psyche of the Indian, view a Rape as inherent unavoidable sexualized event? How each one of us (yes, you the Feminist as well) are indulging in the trivialisation of rape in India that has categorised it as Normal? How the mundane usual laws like that of a segregation and assinging a different coach in the public transport for females, is a form of normalisation of a Rape Culture?

A Love Letter To FTII...
By Shini J.K

Cutting the cake to celebrate the b'day of strike may look like an absurd idea. But, everything was absurd for us during the strike and even post-strike. This day and our gathering should bring back the normalcy in the campus, in every means, despite we all facing problems at multiple levels as individuals and as a community

Dalit Assertion – Strategic Considerations
By Jai Birdi

Dalit Assertion means the right to influence, assert, demand, express frustration, offer alternatives, and strategically align actions to achieve the overall objective of creating an inclusive society where caste is not a barrier or a discriminatory factor for the development of the self, the community, or the nation

10 June , 2016

10 Questions To Kerala CM On Vizhinjam Harbour Project
By K.P Sasi

It was a historic start for the communist movement in India to come to power in Kerala with the election promises of `Development without destroying the environment’, `Development without harming people’ and `A corruption free Kerala’. Since Vizhinjam Transit Harbour is a clear violation of all these three principles, how will LDF fulfil its election promises?

Even For A Democrat, Clinton Stands Out As Violent, Aggressive
By Robert Barsocchini

As we can see, it is nothing new or different for the Democrats to be a party of expansionist gangsters. What is remarkable of Clinton, then, is that even against this gory and tyrannical backdrop, she stands out as especially evil, corrupt, and extremist in her US religio-national supremacism. As Professor Johan Galtung notes, two countries today (and occasionally their proxies) continue to wage aggressive war, thanks to their belief that they have been anointed by their gods: the US and Israel. And Hillary Clinton is as fundamentalist as they come

Another Stolen Election?
By John Scales Avery

Many people throughout the world view recent political developments in the United States with alarm. Is the US drifting towards fascism? If so, is there a danger that the world will be plunged into an all-destroying thermonuclear war? Will political irresponsibility in the United States result in climate change denial? Will all hope of avoiding catastrophic climate change then be lost?

Is The “Official 9/11 Story” Coming Apart At The Seams?
By Eresh Omar Jamal

It seems that Washington is clearly setting the Saudis up to take the fall should the 9/11 cover-up start to unravel even further, as evident from the New York Times’ “new narrative” (which had already been popularised by the alternate media). The Saudis, it seems, can already see the guns being pointed at its direction. That is why the Saudi press had published that piece in the first place. All of this has the potential to finally bring an end to the strategic alliance between Washington and Saudi Arabia which has brought so much death and destruction to the world and, with it, bring the official 9/11 story come crashing down on its head. So, is the “official 9/11 story” coming apart at the seams? Given the amount of suffering that has been brought to so many innocent people around the world based on that false story by its authors, one can only hope so

Saudi Arabia, UN Black Lists And Manipulating Human Rights
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

In an expansive document spanning several countries and regions, it was found that the Saudi-led coalition had been implicated in the deaths of some 60 per cent of the 1,953 child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year. A policy of systematic targeting of hospitals and schools was also noted. In Aden alone, six facilities were attacked 10 times. On Monday, the UN announced that the Saudi-led coalition had been removed from the child’s rights blacklist. This sent a flurry through various diplomatic channels. The Secretary-General found himself red faced and crestfallen. According to Ban’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric, “Pending the conclusions of the joint review, the secretary-general removes the listing of the coalition in the report’s annex.”

What Four Syrian Refugee Children Have Achieved For Humanity In Lebanon
By Franklin Lamb

Given the unanticipated intense interest in the subject of my article, which resulted in the receipt of more than 1000 emails, approximately 130 being requests or inquiries about adopting the children an update about the four beauties is warranted. Unwittingly, the four beauties achieved much for humanity, as suddenly many in Lebanon engaged publicly with the subject of abused Syrian refugee children

A Response To The Students Of Dhaka University
By Hassanal Noor Rashid

This article is to address the response made by the Students of Dhaka University on the 30th May 2016 towards Dr Chandra Muzaffar’s response to their inquiries ( 19 May 2016) pertaining to the article “The Hanging of Nizami and the Grip on Political Power” (12 May 2016)

America’s War For The Greater Middle East - A Military History
Book Review By Jim Miles

Andrew Bacevich has written a series of books on the topic of U.S. imperialism and U.S. military power. His latest work, America’s War for the Greater Middle East [the GME War] is the latest in this series and as with the previous works is clearly written and logically presented. It covers more narrowly than the previous works the military aspects of U.S. military endeavours in the Middle East (greater - as in including East Africa and Afghanistan et al). Generally he succeeds well and this work is a good ‘primer’ for anyone interested in a quick historical overview of U.S. military actions in the region

The New Manufacturing Policy: Another Hot Air Balloon
By Vijaya Kumar Marla

The world’s economies are facing a glut and there is excess manufacturing capacity, amounting to almost 30%, and China is no less a culprit with almost 40% overcapacity. The “Johnny-Come-Lately”, India is going to face a stone wall with its efforts to build a huge manufacturing capacity to take on China at this stage. And the trillions of dollars of investment required are supposed to be met through FDI inflows. The first question that stares us in the face is, “who in his right mind will be willing to invest in new manufacturing capacity, when there is so much over capacity coupled with slackening demand?”

The Independence And Gandhi : In The Clutches Of Neo-liberalism
By Prem Singh

The question as to how the RSS-BJP combine, despite being against the Independence and Gandhi, could form a majority government, raises an accusing finger elsewhere too; at all the historic lapses, blunders and the blinking of eyes on the part of the secularists. Despite their reluctance to face a bitter reality, the secularists owe the people of the country their democratic right to know the truth; a certain transparency regarding political/economic positions taken by the secular camp. In other words, the question is likely to singe the ones who are raising it. But for the sake of democracy and the cause of the common people there should be no harm and no fear in such singeing and self-assessment even if it is injurious to one’s own image

09 June , 2016

Oceans Are Dying
By Deirdre Fulton

Threatened by climate change, pollution, overfishing, and oil spills, the world's oceans are suffering, scientists warned on Wednesday—the day designated by the United Nations as one to honor the deep blue sea. From widespread coral bleaching to floundering fish species to garbage stretching across the water's surface and hundreds of feet down, it's clear that human activity is taking its toll on the world's oceans, which cover more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface

Modi In America
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

He made good in the end – at least from the US perspective. Showing how political landscapes can transform as regularly as inclement weather, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi impressed his US hosts with promises – and more promises. The pitch was that of a grand salesman, generously spiced with a range of exotica

The Paris Peace Gambit
By Ramzy Baroud

In their defense, the Israelis seem to have figured out the whole thing and opted out. But the hapless Palestinian leadership, along with their Arab League partners, joined by the French, EU and UN representatives, and even US Secretary of State, John Kerry, decided to play along. However, the French peace initiative-turned-conference in Paris on June 3 is nothing but a charade, and they all know it, Palestinians included. So, why the colossal waste of time?

South Korean Man Questions Anti-Communist Dogma
By Andre Vltchek

In Conversation with Mr. Kim Dol. I am dedicating this interview to those citizens of South Korea (ROK) who are, like Mr. Kim, brave enough to question and challenge the official propaganda, and who are searching together with us – their comrades in Latin America, Russia, China, the DPRK, South Africa and elsewhere – for much better and kinder world, based on internationalism, solidarity, decency, humanism and equality

De-Incarceration, A Different Drum So Needed
By Kathy Kelly

Becoming a prisoner on purpose is one way of getting to know more about who goes to prison and why, and I highly recommend this way. Correspondence with prisoners, becoming part of a prison visiting program, and teaching a course inside a prison are other fine ways of becoming connected. We can also contact elected representatives to demand de-incarceration and an end to the U.S. status as the country with more prisoners, per capita, than any other country in the world

A Canadian-American's Take On Australia In A Fast-Changing World
By Jerome Irwin

Towards which direction will voters in Western countries swing in future state and federal elections? Will the direction taken, point towards a future of Democratic Republicanism or State Fascism? Governments “By & For The People” or “By & For The Corporations”?

Censor The Censor Board!
By Suraj Kumar Thube

With the filmmakers of "Udta Punjab" now told to make 89 cuts, the levels of imbecility have reached unfathomable proportions. The Central Board for Film Certification has one again meddled with the creativity of a filmmaker by asking them to pull down all scenes that use the word "Punjab" as it denigrates the image of the state in general!

Islamic Banking In India: For Financial Inclusion Of Muslims
Or To Squeeze Them Further?

By Subhash Gatade

Faith based banking in a country which has secularism enshrined in its constitution ! Does not it sound anachronous ? Well, as far as the present dispensation at the centre led by BJP is concerned – which has an altogether different take on secularism – it does not seem to think so. And that’s why it has gladly accepted the proposal by the Saudi Arabia based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) – an international investment organisation – to start its operations here. In fact this proposal is considered a positive outcome of PM Modi’s visit to Saudi Arabia sometime back

The South Asian Armageddon
By Mohammad Ashraf

Forget the Richter Scale 8 Earthquake; concentrate on avoiding a South Asian Armageddon!

08 June , 2016

Sham Declarations: The Media And Hillary Clinton’s “Presumptive” Presidency
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

The Associated Press release came before the primary verdicts in six states, including California, were in. No one cast a vote on Monday. This, however, has been the pattern in the Sanders-Clinton tussle. From the moment he won New Hampshire, the senator has faced a media barrage of inflated leads in the superdelegate stakes. With each victory in the popular vote, the rebuff from Clinton was that he could not shake the aptly antidemocratic core, despite doing very nicely with pledged delegates. What transpired was that some plain badgering on the part of AP reporter Stephen Ohlemacher of various superdelegate worthies yielded material suitable for publication. Hitherto untapped views streamed forth, to be caught by AP reporters. These worthies remain, as such, nameless

NATO Launches Largest Anti-Russian War Game Since Cold War
By Alex Lantier

Military tensions surged in Europe as NATO launched Operation Anaconda, the largest NATO military exercise in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War a quarter century ago, when the Stalinist bureaucracy dissolved the Soviet Union in 1991. Some 31,000 troops, 3,000 vehicles, 105 aircraft, and 12 warships are participating in war games based on a scenario that war erupts between NATO and Russia, a nuclear-armed power

PM 2.5 And O3 Exposure Is Killing India
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

According to a recent report `Premature Mortalities due to PM 2.5 (finer particulate matter) and Ozone Exposure in India' prepared by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), the life expectancy in the country is severely affected by the PM 2.5 and O3 exposure. There is huge fall in the life expectancy as the deaths due to these air pollutants have affected most the Uttar Pradesh, population wise the largest state in the country, also a dirty state because dirt is a common phenomenon with unrestricted roaming of pigs and other animals in several areas, the maximum people i.e. about 15% die premature, followed by Maharashtra where 10% people die every year out of country's deaths because of pollution. West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu , Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh , Orissa and Rajasthan are also adversely affected

The Case For The Green State
By William Hawes

If there are to be nation-states that persist long into the 21st century and beyond, they will be green states, ecologically minded states. There is no complex argument needed, as it is a matter of survival: we can collectively form nations based on sustainable development, zero-growth, run with renewable energy, with abundant food, health care, housing, and basic incomes for all, or our societies will perish, and international relations will devolve into a Hobbesian nightmare

False Promises, Smears And Golden Rice: Is This The Solution
For Disease, Poverty And Malnutrition?

By Colin Todhunter

Many critics regard Golden Rice as an over-hyped Trojan horse that biotechnology corporations and their allies hope will pave the way for the global approval of other more profitable GMO crops. The Rockefeller Foundation might be regarded as a ‘charitable’ entity but its track record indicates it has been very much part of an agenda which facilitates commercial and geopolitical interests to the detriment of indigenous agriculture and local and national economies

Hunting Sharks: Unnatural Justice And Human Revenge
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Every so often, when a human wades in absurd company with a majestic shark, a predictable spectacle unfolds. The shark, interest piqued, attacks human. The human can be fatally wounded, though not always. Shark is thereby hunted – this, deemed the automatic reaction of the outraged and incensed. The shark is but one animal, incapable of understanding the false notion of a social contract it is meant to abide it. Similarly, humans assume that notions of revenge and deterrence have some role to play. You killed one of our species, and must account

Disseminating Zionist Fascism By Libelling Art
By Vacy Vlazna

Palestinian-Australian Samah Sawabi’s finely crafted lyrical play, Tales of a City by the Sea, continues to be under fire from B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission Chair, Dvir Abramovich since the play was added to the Victorian curriculum

Why Is The UK Government Scared Of An Online Petition?
By Kieran Kelly

I started a conspiracy to harm Her Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (HMGUKGB&NI). I wanted to deal as much damage to them as possible so I conspired with a poet to plant an explosive and incendiary petition right in the heart of their own website. It was a petition to make the UK Government respond or debate the question of appearing before the International Court of Justice and allowing it to rule on the case of the Chagos Archipelago

The Outcome of Iran’s Parliamentary Elections
By Akbar E. Torbat

The results of Iran’s parliamentary elections held on February 26, 2016 were finalized in mid May. The elections were for the tenth parliament and the fifth Assembly of Experts (a clerical body) after the 1979 Iranian insurrection. As it appears, there is no hope that the elections’ outcome obliges the ruling clergy to make any changes to secularize the Islamic regime in Iran

Iranian Regime Denies Ahwazi Children Access To Water And Educational Supplies
By Rahim Hamid

In Bohor village, girls are deprived of education due to the lack of schools. The largest village in Soveyseh District has only one elementary school named Shaheed Hakim, where 380 girls and boys are enrolled. Adel Nasseri, the principal of the school, has said that the school built in 1993 has improper facilities for its students. He claims that the water in the school, like in other parts of Karun city, is completely undrinkable. For this reason, school officials have to buy filtered drinking water from outside which has the effect of increasing the overall expenses of a school which is already underfunded

When Malcolm X Met Cassius Clay
By Thomas C. Mountain

Malcolm X seems to have disappeared from anything to do with Muhammed Ali, at least from what has been running on the western media. Revolutionary black nationalism is not something Pax Americana and its lackeys in the west are about to promote in any way

Did Devout Muslim Muhammad Ali Ever Speak
About US NATO Genocide in the Muslim Middle East?

By Jay Janson

Ali declared “murder and burn another poor nation [Vietnam] simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. ... such evils must come to an end" For lack of world public interest in prosecuting obvious US genocidal crimes against humanity and peace, "such evils" have remained profitable. As a devout Muslim, how did Ali feel as he watched the murder and burning of millions of Muslim children

Should George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Others Be Jailed?
By Rebecca Gordon

We're unlikely to see justice in the “war on terror” until that cruel and self-defeating exercise is well and truly over and the country has officially acknowledged and accounted for its crimes. Let's hope it doesn't take another 40 years

The Contempt Of Courts Law Unleashes Terror, Suppresses Freedom Of Expression
And Shields Corrupt And Inefficient Judges

By Dr. P.S Sahni

The Indian constitution embodies upon every citizen the duty to develop a spirit of enquiry and reform. Moreover as members of PIL Watch Group – a non-funded, non-party organization – we are mandated to keep a check on the accountability and transparency of the judiciary. Outlined below are two cases of complaints against two sitting judges of the Delhi High Court and the response of the establishment to these complaints

Examination, Prohibition, And Puritanism:
Politics Of Inquisition In The Republic of Bihar

By Mithilesh Kumar

What emerged from the recent controversy regarding the alleged cheating of Bihar School Examination Control Board (BSECB) examination toppers marks a definite shift in the politics of education. The socialist shenanigan of linguistic pride has given way to chauvinist belief in neoliberal conservative “merit.” In all this storm and stress what is being not discussed is the legality of the whole thing and the gross violation of rights of children

‘Gujarat Files‘ By Rana Ayyub
Book Review By P Victor Vijay Kumar

Rana Ayyub, being a woman , that too from Muslim section, is being targeted with character assassination from the majoritarian fundamentalists. We need a diverse voice , we need a bold voice, we need an offbeat tone of issues, we need blatant lash against ghostly attitude of state which is steering genocides for the political survival. While that remains as the best reason why one should read this book, the other reason being not part of the dominant skewed collective conscience of India

'Thithi' : The Reality As It Is
By Suraj Kumar Thube

When you have an old, wizened man sitting in an everyday place of his village, slurring people around him, you get a sense of getting introduced to a quintessential Indian village. The new Kannada film called 'Thithi' gives us the real, earthy village everyday life that we haven't seen in a long time. With a modest plot of depicting what transpires between the death of a famed centurion and to the day of his thithi, the director captures the remarkable ordinariness of the rural like a seasoned anthropologist

06 June , 2016

Brazil: Police Have Killed Over 2,500 People
In Rio Since Rio 2016 Was Announced

By Amnesty International

Brazil is on a fast-track course to repeat the deadly mistakes it has been making around policing for decades, made even more evident during the 2014 World Cup, which left a long trail of suffering, Amnesty International said today in a briefing two months ahead of the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony. “When Rio was awarded the 2016 Olympic Games in 2009, authorities promised to improve security for all. Instead, we have seen 2,500 people killed by police since then in the city and very little justice,” said Atila Roque, Director at Amnesty International Brazil

Hundreds More Refugees Die In The Mediterranean
By Martin Kreikenbaum

Hundreds of refugees have died in two more cases of boat sinkings. Within eight days, many more than 1,200 refugees have drowned during their voyage to Europe. A refugee boat had an emergency around 75 nautical miles south of Crete on Thursday. An Italian trading vessel sailing past informed the coastguard, which sent patrol boats and other commercial ships to the area. When the first ships arrived on Friday morning, the completely overcrowded wooden fishing cutter had already capsized. Hundreds of refugees were floating helplessly in the sea. A total of 342 refugees were rescued, and nine bodies were recovered. But the scale of the sinking initially remained unclear

A Moral Revolution? Reflections On President Obama’s Visit To Hiroshima
By Richard Falk

If more than rhetoric is attached to the call for a ‘moral revolution,’ then the place to start would be to question, prior to abandoning, the mentality that is comfortable with double standards when it come to war making and criminal accountability. The whole idea of impunity for the victors and capital punishment for the losers is morally regressive. Both the Obama visit to Hiroshima, as significant as it was, and the Kerrey relationship to the Fulbright Vietnam University, show that American society, even at its best, is far from prepared to take part in the necessary moral revolution

The Champ Lands His Second Anchor Punch And In Death Trumps Trump
By Dr. Shaik Ubaid

Trump would ask where American Muslim heroes are and Ali was saying, “Hey Trump you got any hero greater than me?” Trump had been saying that Muslims don’t belong in the US, they are all foreigners and Ali’s response: “you are dumber than you look.” Trump had been spewing hate as the way to greatness and the news channels were showing Ali’s 1975 speech on love and selflessness at Harvard. Liston did not see the “anchor punch” that hit him from nowhere in his second bout. Ali’s most iconic picture is standing by the downed “Big Ugly Bear”. Ali had again delivered his anchor punch, the second time to knock Trump, “the ugly White Monster” out cold. Trump, the rectal thermometer, that was showing the rising temperature of hate so accurately will reflect the fall in hate temperature for the next 72 hours at the least, I said to myself

Muhammad Ali : The Man Who Shook The World
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Where is the option for political power of the blacks and other racial minorities in America in this heavily expansive electoral system there? The electoral system have undone many things which Muhammad Ali and other radicals of the black movement achieved so powerfully by converting America into almost bipolarity and the danger is that the same kind of capitalists are trying to influence Indian polity in the same way between two brahmanical capitalist political parties. Fortunately, Ambedkar’s socio-political legacy in India is much more powerful than Ali’s in America and hence chances of resistance in India are much bigger than in the United States where Malcolm X's black power movement has relegated into history and Christian rightwing has won over the Black identity issue

Israel Wants A Peace Process – But Only If It's Doomed To Fail
By Jonathan Cook

In a familiar muddying of the waters, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spent the past week talking up peace while fiercely criticising Friday’s summit in France – the only diplomatic initiative on the horizon. As foreign ministers from 29 nations arrived for a one-day meeting in Paris, Netanyahu dusted off the tired argument that any sign of diplomatic support for Palestinians would encourage from them “extreme demands”. France hopes the meeting will serve as a prelude to launching a peace process later in the year

La Trobe University Versus Dr Roz Ward, Racist Australian Flag
And Academic Free Speech Threatened In Australian Universities

By Dr Gideon Polya

Academic freedom of speech is a cornerstone of university life but is under threat in neoliberal-dominated Australia not just from right-wing governments and corporate Mainstream media but also from within universities. The most recent example is the suspension (now lifted after public outcry) of La Trobe University academic Dr Roz Ward for correctly calling the Australian flag racist for containing the British Union Jack

Obama Slams Door In Putin’s Face
By Eric Zuesse

Actions speak louder than mere words, and U.S. President Barack Obama has now acted, not only spoken. His action is to refuse to discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia's biggest worry about recent changes in America’s nuclear strategy — particularly a stunning change that is terrifying Putin

A View From Japan: An Interview With Motoyuki Shibata
By Linh Dinh

In Japan, even a serious writer may be seen on mass advertising, and a translator can become a star. One of Japan’s most famous intellectuals, Motoyuki Shibata is a specialist on American literature. He has translated books by Thomas Pynchon, Paul Auster, Steven Millhauser and Stuart Dybek, among others. Shibata is also the editor of two popular literary journals, the Japanese-language Monkey and the English-language Monkey Business. His book of essays, The American Narcissus, won the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities in 2005. Among the pieces are “Wonder If I’m Dead,” “The Half-Baked Scholar” and “Cambridge Circus.”

Human Rights Abuses: A Recurring Alarm On Modi's Travels Abroad!
By George Abraham

It is time for the Prime Minister to be more assertive in addressing these concerns at home and abroad and speak out forcefully when human rights violations occur in India. Unless he can align the actions of the radical elements of his party in line with his lofty pronouncements abroad, the human rights issue will continue to cast a shadow on his trips abroad, especially to U.S. Alfred Whitney Griswold who once said the following: "Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor, and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas". Let freedom reign!

Exit Hindutva Terrorists, Enter Lashkar Bombers –
Towards Clean Chit To Samjhauta Bombers?

By Subhash Gatade

Whether Indian Intelligence Agencies have decided to function as new ‘post offices’ of US intel agencies ? Put it other ways whether US intel inputs have started overriding the meticulous investigations done by Indian intelligence agencies? There are enough indications which seem to corroborate this observation

Electorally Holy Cow
By Afroz Alam

For many of us, beef has become ‘news’ of unpleasant sort. There is now a forensic report after eight month from a lab in Mathura which claims that the meat found inside the lynched man, Mohammad Akhlaq’s home at Dadri “belonged to beef or a cow progeny”. It is in contrast with an earlier report by the Greater Noida Veterinary Officer which declared that the meat was mutton. Be it beef or mutton, no respectability is shown to the right to food, the notion of privacy and right to life of the citizens of India. On the contrary, the present forensic report is now widely circulated with right-wing bias. There is now a cynical-switch to ramp up communal narratives. The hype around this report is just an attempt to keep the electoral theology in circulation well in advance in the election bound Uttar Pradesh. In other words, beef is back to deliver for the Brahminical right-wing in the cow-belt region of India as a part of the ‘Mission 2017’

Childhood And The Colourless Rainbow
By Zohra Batul

I always hear people saying that childhood is the finest phase of life, but not for all. For some even the Colourful rainbow has no Colours

05 June , 2016

The Sheer Terror Of Looming Biosphere Collapse
By Dr. Glen Barry

The global ecological system is collapsing and dying as humanity overruns natural ecosystems and the climate. We are entering an age of unrelenting violence and suffering, prior to biosphere collapse and the end of being, unless dramatic social change based upon a global ecology ethic arises quickly

On World Environment Day, Profiting From
Death, Devastation And Destruction Is The Norm

By Colin Todhunter

Without addressing the impacts and nature of corporate greed and a wholly corrupt neoliberal capitalism that privileges corporations and profit ahead of people and conservation, regardless of any success in the area of the trafficking of wild animals or plants, much of the world’s wildlife and biodiversity will remain under serious threat. They will increasingly find themselves hemmed into smaller and fewer reserves surrounded by commodity plantations, industries, urban sprawl and barren, degraded landscapes

No Recognition Of ‘One Humanity’ At The World Humanitarian Forum
By Rajesh Makwana

In light of the overwhelming moral imperative to share planetary resources more equitably and protect the lives of those facing humanitarian emergencies, the World Humanitarian Summit is yet another reminder of the huge gulf between government priorities and the desperate reality of the world situation

Demand Destruction And Peak Oil
By Roger Baker

We are fully under the influence of petroleum demand destruction. The global oil market can't function without real oil production price discovery, which doesn't exist in the currently deflationary global economy, which forces indebted producers to sell far below cost

Obama Tries To Ram His TTIP Down Europeans’ Throats
By Eric Zuesse

Like the foie gras producer ramming food down ducks’ throats in order to create diseased super-fatty livers that some humans find acceptable to eat, Barack Obama (via his friend and trade-negotiator Michael Froman) is trying to ram dictatorship down Europeans’ throats, for the benefit of billionaires. And, like the sweet words of the foie-grass lobbyists who say it’s all just the ‘free market’ at work, Obama’s commercial-treaties salesman is saying it’s all being done in order to support ‘free trade’

Defiance Of Law And Impunity In Bangladesh
By Taj Hashmi

It would be sheer recklessness to assume that since Bangladeshis have tolerated all the excesses by members of the ruling elites during the last four decades, they would remain compliant and complacent for an indefinite period. Corruption, impunity, and unaccountability never saved any regime in the past. As the social media indicates, people want justice, not impunity for a select few. It’s time the superordinates read the writings on the wall. It’s a sacred obligation to the nation, not a favour to anybody. What Abraham Lincoln has said in this regard is very relevant to Bangladesh today: “You can’t fool all the people all the time”

A Birthday Note From A FTII student:
"Pet Lovers, Cosmetic Liberals, Vulgar Evolutionists And Countrymen"

By Shini J K

FTII is going through its worst ever times. But there is scope and possibilities still left for us. The best thing with us is that we have the possibilities to address multiple identities including class as film makers and film students. We also have the scope to materialize our ideas through films even after talking about it in public

04 June , 2016

Muhammad Ali: The Black Superman Who Became The ‘Greatest’
By Sazzad Hussain

Muhammad Ali, the boxer who took the sport beyond the ring for his own conviction of dignity, equality and human rights is no more. The legend who earned the nickname of Black Superman and icon of the deprived over the privileged fought like a true fighter throughout his life elevate human dignity from the clutches of racism and deprivation to live with heads held high was a personality that dominated the world arena for good reasons

The Greatest
By Professor Francis A. Boyle

We all knew Ali was a great fighter
That made him a great man
The Greatest

But if You Don't Vote For Hillary, Then What . . . . ?
By Paul Haeder

and the beat goes on as young and not-so-young women expect a vote for Hillary from spouses, significant others, brothers, you name us, we must vote for the stinky one

A Dozen Dead, Tens Of Thousands Displaced As Floods Hit Germany And France
By World Socialist Website

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by flooding that is hitting southeastern and northwestern Germany and central France, claiming between 12 and 18 lives, according to reports. It is feared that the death toll could climb higher. With the Seine River having risen nearly 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in Paris, officials are projecting that the river will crest this weekend, which would avert broader flooding of the city. Rain is forecast to continue through to the end of next week in central France, however

The Devil's Century
By Vincent Di Stefano

Nuclear Reactors are an insult to all of life. They were born of the will to create weapons of immense destructive power three generations ago. The invisible storm of radioactive atoms now dispersed through land, water and air has grievously poisoned the earth, her creatures and an increasingly ailing humanity. And yet this insane method of boiling water continues to be championed by those in high places

In Uruguay The March Of Silence: For South America's Martyrs And Revolutions
By Andre Vltchek

They were marching shoulder-to-shoulder, young and old, in absolute silence. Some were carrying small placards with names and photos of their loved ones, who disappeared four decades ago, during the pro-Western dictatorship here in Uruguay. The entire center of Montevideo came to a standstill. Blocks and blocks of this marvelous city were literally inundated by the river consisting of human bodies

Climate Change Censorship: Australia And UNESCO
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Censoring climate change and its reporting is a big business, notably among fossil fuel obsessives and those in denial. It continues to fulfil a role in the policies of Australia’s Turnbull government. Even after the demise of Tony Abbott last year, his successor continues to scrub his own environmental credentials from his profile. As he does so, an assortment of weasel words have found their way into the political argot: “innovation”, “growth” and a host of other empty treats

Russian-Americans Warn Nuclear War Will Leave Millions Of Americans Dead:
Which Candidate Most Likely To Deescalate?

By Robert Barsocchini

A group of Russian-American political analysts have issued a detailed warning to US citizens. They note that allowing the regime in Washington to attack or provoke Russia might leave the US in ruins and tens or hundreds of millions of Americans dead. This could happen after a US attack on Russia, a provocation interpreted as an attack, or even simply a mistake, as has nearly happened numerous times in the past

Murder Of A Congolese Youth In Delhi: Racial Prejudices Deep Inside Our Heart
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The brutal killing of a Congolese national by the goons in Delhi brought shock waves among all the right thinking people in general and African community in particular who have been witnessing increasing racial slur against them in India in the past two years. Unfortunately two important ministers in the Central Cabinet felt that it was a minor incident. General V K Singh who is habitual of putting foot in his mouth said that this was a ‘minor’ incident blown out of proportion by the media. Sushma Swaraj too said that India can’t be racist

Re-Reading Dr BR Ambedkar’s Earliest Paper On Caste 100 Years Later
By Dr K S Sharma

It is hundred years since Dr B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) wrote, CASTES IN INDIA: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development, a Paper he presented on 9th May 1916 at an Anthropology Seminar at Columbia University. That was one of his earliest significant works, a scholarly work ; written by the scholar when he was 25, much before he became a politician. In fact , he was totally reluctant to be a politician at the time despite pleadings by some leaders of the freedom movement. This was regarded as an important, thorough though brief Thesis of 47 paras. Some of the most quoted, cited even in recent past, ideas and lines of Ambedkar are from this thesis

The Politics Around Kashmiri Pandit Rehabilitation
By Faiza Nasir

Let the Kashmiri Pandits depose their confidence in their Muslim counterparts in the valley, and let the Kashmiri Muslims on their part see this as an opportunity to revive their age old culture of harmony and diversity back. And let some sense prevail in the current government which instead of implementing the polarising agendas of right wing group and proposing ghettoisation in the name of rehabilitation should do something substantial and genuine for the Kashmiri migrants and help them rehabilitate in the valley

Power Projects: The Pride Of Possession
By Abdul Majid Zargar

There should be no surprise in hearing opposing voices to demands from Kashmir Civil Society & general public for return of Hydro power projects particularly after Mehbooba Mufti was made to assume reins of power by New-Delhi empty handed. Though the return of two power projects was listed on the original ‘agenda of Alliance’ between PDP-BJP, yet the Union Power Minster had the gumption to renege on the commitment lock, stock & barrel. On the fore-front of these opposants or thwarters are the people whose links with the establishment are too obvious to be ignored

Stop Persecuting Lawyers Collective!
By People's Union For Civil Liberties

PUCL strongly condemns the continued persecution of Senior Advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover and the `Lawyers Collective’ organisation run by them, by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) using the coercive provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 in an arbitrary, biased and politically motivated manner

03 June , 2016

Mathura Violence: Jungle-Raj Raises Its Ugly Head Again In India
By Samar

Mathura, a city in Uttar Pradesh, witnessed a sensational encounter between the police and a semi-religious cult that left at least 21 dead, 2 senior cops among them, yesterday. The police had reportedly gone there to evict members of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi who have been illegally occupying Jawahar Bagh for years on Thursday on the directions of the Allahabad high court. Still fuzzy reports coming out in the media hint that the group was armed to teeth to resist the move and it attacked the police party. The encounter, expectedly, made the parties in opposition blame the incumbent government for a ‘total collapse of law and order’ in the state and the return of jungle-raj

It's Time To Ditch Industrial Agriculture
By Andrea Germanos

If you can count as successes increased greenhouse gases, ecosystem degradation, rises in hunger and obesity, and unbalanced power in food systems, then industrial agriculture has done one heck of a job. That's according to a panel of experts, whose new report, "From Uniformity to Diversity: A paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems", calls for breaking the chains that lock monocultures and industrial-scale feedlots to the dominant farming systems in order to unleash truly sustainable approaches—ones that use holistic strategies, eschew chemical inputs, foster biodiversity, and ensure farmer livelihoods.

Our Renewable Future
By Richard Heinberg & David Fridley

This is the introduction to Richard Heinberg's and David Fridley's new book, Our Renewable Future, now available from Island Press. The goal of this book is to help readers think more clearly and intelligently about our renewable future. An all-renewable world will present opportunities as well as challenges. And building that world will entail more than just the construction of enormous numbers of solar panels and wind turbines. Along the way, we will learn that how we use energy is as important as how we get it. Indeed, unless we adapt our energy usage patterns with the same vigor as is devoted to changing energy sources, the transition could result in a substantial reduction of economic functionality for society as a whole

Countering Pro-GMO Deceptions In The British Press
By Colin Todhunter

In his recent piece for The Times newspaper in the UK, Viscount Matt Ridley argues that a new report from the American National Academies of Sciences (NAS) leaves no room for doubt that genetically engineered crops are as safe or safer, and are certainly better for the environment, than conventionally bred crops

Strikes In France Elicit Support From German Workers
By Verena Nees

The strikes against the reactionary labour law of the Socialist Party government of President Hollande have triggered two very different reactions in Germany: on the one hand, support and sympathy among workers and youth; on the other, horror, anger, anti-communist attacks and anti-French tirades by the mainstream media. For weeks, the major media outlets, television and radio stations have tried to avoid covering the events in France or have dismissed them merely as a youth revolt and a few skirmishes by the CGT union with the police

Trump University And Selling Images
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Trump University served one essential purpose: churning out genetic copies of its founder by selling false idols. It sold deceptions and productive lies. It was a perfect symptom of the ultimate financial disease, engendering misguided attitudes that came unstuck in the Great Financial Crisis. Rather than seeing it as an exceptional manifestation, one can only understand that failed tertiary enterprise as a broader academic and institutional one, typical of what modern university life has become

Economic Conflicts Threaten Global Trade War
By Nick Beams

The ongoing stagnation in the global economy, marked by falling investment and the emergence of overproduction in key basic industries, is fuelling the rise of trade war protectionist measures by the major powers, above all the United States. Last week, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) launched an investigation into Chinese steel mills which have been accused by the United States Steel Corp of stealing secrets and conspiring to fix prices

It Is Expensive To Be Poor
By Vidyadhar Date

It is expensive to be poor as the famous American novelist James Baldwin and researcher Barbara Ehrenreich have pointed out. I know of a domestic help who pays Rs. 3000 per month for a shelter in a slum while an extremely rich man enjoying the protection of the old Rent Act may be living in a sprawling house in a posh area in Mumbai paying much less than that

Freedom From Fear
By Sheikh Javaid Ayub

Politics – both international and domestic is shaped by fear. The anarchical world order can create fear among the nation state so do the US hegemony. Fear of losing statehood put the nation states on the path of armamentation. From conventional arms to nuclear bombs, fear has largely been a motive in this mad race of arms. The idea of the military utility has been a key driver for the pursuit of nuclear weapons

Cooperative Federalism Losing Steam
By Suraj Kumar Thube

The Nehruvian idea of being in a cooperative relationship even with states ruled by their own party seems to be a thing of the past. The centre today has maximum governance problems to deal with in states ruled by its own party, classic examples being Haryana and Gujarat which have witnessed massive breakdown of law and order by protests seeking reservations for certain communities. Also, the open confrontation with its principal ally in Maharashtra over an allegation of a new corruption scam and a tenuous coalition with the assertive Akalis are all cases which beg answers from a centre's new found admiration for 'cooperative federalism'

02 June , 2016

More Than 2,500 Refugees Drowned In Mediterranean So Far This Year
By Martin Kreickenbaum

The mass deaths of refugees in the Mediterranean Sea has reached a new, grim record over the first five months of 2016. According to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR), at least 2,510 refugees drowned between January and May during their attempts to cross to Europe. The European governments and European Union bear full responsibility for turning the Mediterranean into a mass graveyard for refugees

Dreams Of Control: Israel, Global Censorship, And The Internet
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Israel’s military censor, Col. Ariella Ben Avraham, who is part of the IDF’s Directorate of Military Intelligence, gave a good example of this in February by insisting that social media activists and bloggers submit material relevant to security matters for approval prior to posting. The move also revealed an increasing interest to police the digital realm, previously considered an anarchic jungle incapable of effective policing

Fossil Fuel Energy Gave Us Power And The Illusion Of Security, So Far
By Lionel Anet

Oil has soar civilisation to an incredible wealthy state and managed to feed the ever increasing population to a standard for many of the world people that would be unimaginable a century ago. Yet it’s hardly acknowledged the role oil plays in bolstering our lifestyle. The impossible has become the norm for road transport, shipping, air transport, agriculture, mining including coal, and most important for capitalism, all aspect of warfare. Without oil, capitalism is kaput, but with it people are finished. Our ultimate choice is to abandon both, although late, if we had used our foresight we would have phased out oil and capitalism by the end of last century and be living simple worthwhile life

Veterans For Peace Calls for Nuclear Disarmament in Our Lifetime
By Veterans For Peace

U.S. presidents may never apologize for what our country did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But we do. Veterans For Peace expresses our deepest condolences to all those who were killed and maimed, and to their families. We apologize to the Hibakusha, the survivors of the nuclear bombings, and we thank them for their courageous, continuing witness. We apologize to all the Japanese people and to all the people of the world. This hugely atrocious crime against humanity should never have happened. As military veterans who have come to see the tragic futility of war, we promise that we will continue working for peace and disarmament. We want to see nuclear disarmament inourlifetime

What We Can Learn From Leaked Terrorist Torture Videos
By Mickey Z.

Trigger warning: graphic descriptions of extreme terrorist torture techniques

Harassment And Intimidation Of Rights Delgation In Bastar:
Sitaram Yechury's Letter To Chattisgarh CM

By Sitaram Yechury

All political parties must be allowed to conduct their legitimate political activities in the Bastar region without any fear and journalists must be allowed to report truthfully the ground realities. Can I hope that you will instruct the Bastar police and administration not to harass and falsely implicate activists of opposition parties, journalists and others

Two Years Of Modi Sarkar- Broken Promises: Sectarian Agenda
By Ram Puniyani

Two years down the line Modi, the RSS prachrak, is on the job of pushing the country towards Hindu nation and undermining Indian nationalism. Indian nationalism has liberal space and place for diversity built into it. As such communal politics resorts to emotive issues and that’s visible in propping issues like beef, nationalism and Bharat Mata ki jai. While three more years are to go for this government the divisive agenda and policies which are detrimental to the welfare of average people is on the display. India needs to march on the path of inclusive growth and amity among the people that seems to be missing at the moment

Waiting For Hakeem Suyya!
By Mohammad Ashraf

Jammu &Kashmir Government seems to be still waiting for someone like Hakeem Suyya of Avanti Varman’s time to expedite measures for prevention of future floods!

01 June , 2016

The Boiling Pot
By Richard Heinberg

On the surface, things appear normal. The status quo of life in America circa 2016 isn’t to everyone’s liking, but at least the system is still working after a fashion. So far, 2016 is the hottest year in history. And not by just a smidgen: every single month so far has set a record. This handy little animation has been making the rounds of environmental websites in the last couple of weeks; it shows a climate system that is shooting off the rails. Slow, linear change is giving way to self-reinforcing feedbacks and non-linear lurches

US-Backed Offensive Against Fallujah Threatens “Human Catastrophe”
By Bill Van Auken

The besieged civilian population of Fallujah is confronting a “human catastrophe” as a US-backed offensive to retake the Iraqi city from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) intensifies, a human rights group warned Tuesday. While forces backing the Iraqi government, including troops of the elite Counter Terrorism Service, Iraqi Army soldiers, police and Shia militiamen of the Popular Mobilization Units, have moved to the outskirts of the city, stiff ISIS resistance Tuesday prevented them from advancing into its center. At least 50,000 civilians are believed to be trapped in Fallujah

Is Obama’s Entire Foreign Policy Going Down In Flames?
By Eric Zuesse

Is Obama’s entire foreign policy going down in flames? Or will the entire world? The NATO summit on July 8-9 this year will probably provide the best advance indication of which of those two will be the outcome from all this. To a large extent, the answer will depend upon which of those two outcomes will be preferred by Barack Obama. Much of the world has been following his lead for nearly eight years now. Perhaps he’ll reverse direction at that Summit; but, perhaps not; and, if the latter turns out to be the case, then the question will be whether or not the Western world will abandon his leadership at that time. It’s already clear that the top leadership of NATO intends to stay with the plan

Colluding In Lies: The Brexit Debate
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Rather than drawing constructive arguments from each side, the descent to a bottom in the maelstrom of illogical fear has been undertaken. Between the dogmatic Brexiteers and the warning stayers, there is much more nonsense to be had before the referendum

Israel’s Future Is Terrifying: Moshe Ya’alon And Israel’s Disconcerting ‘Morality’
By Ramzy Baroud

When the likes of Ya’alon, a man with a blood-stained record becomes the face of morality in Israel, once can understand why the future of that country brings little hope, especially now that Lieberman has brought his Israel Our Home Party to Netanyahu’s terrifying nest of political parties

Islamophobia: Why Are So Many People So Frightened?
By Robert J. Burrowes

Islamophobia has become a significant factor driving politics in many western countries. Islamophobia – fear of Muslims – is now highly visible among European populations concerned about terrorist responses from Islamic groups claiming Jihadi links. However, it is also evident among those same populations in relation to the refugee flow from the Middle East. In addition, Islamophobia is highly evident among sectors of the US population during the presidential race. It is a significant issue in Australia. Outside the West, even the (Muslim) Rohingya in Burma are feared by Buddhist monks and others

Sri Lanka: A Comment On The Proposed Office Of Missing Persons
By Basil Fernando

If the government wants to strengthen the CID, it could pass the law it promised to pass to criminalize enforced disappearances. Such a promise was made to the United Nation’s Human Rights Council by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister in June 2015. Not even a draft of the law has been presented to the parliament or is available anywhere. Together with such a law, if a Special Unit (SU) of the CID is the given task of investigating into the alleged cases of enforced disappearances and given adequate personnel and resources, many mysteries hidden for many years will be resolved within a reasonable timeframe

 

 

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