Magistrate Vanessa Bararitser walked into Westminster Magistrates Court No.1 at 10.12am this morning with the sunniest smile and most carefree disposition I have ever seen her adopt. Her shoulders appeared visibly lifted. She positively beamed at Clair Dobbin, counsel for the US government, as she invited her to put the case for the prosecution as to why Julian Assange should […]
Mexico
Anarchism Without the Name: Lessons from the Town of Cherán
IN A SMALL MEXICAN TOWN, LOCAL INDIGENOUS RESIDENTS HAVE CREATED A NEW, DEMOCRATIC, AND LARGELY PEACEFUL COMMUNITY. THE QUESTION, WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS? Murray Bookchin, in his seminal work in the field of social ecology, The Ecology of Freedom, criticised the tendency of history to focus upon the ‘achievement of power’, the empires with their ‘temples, mortuaries and palaces’ […]
The Big Split
Trump is not the answer, of course. He is the symptom. He is the symptom of the virus of neo liberal Capitalism. I never thought Trump would win because I didn’t think he wanted to win. And maybe, maybe he didn’t. None of that mattered, as it turned out. The liberals will blame racists and NASCAR rednecks, and more, they will blame leftists. And, they will blame Putin and Russia.
Cancun’s Mangrove Swamp Destroyed in One Day For Tourist Complex
The swamps have just been destroyed, in just one day, in order to clear the way to building a tourist complex, as people protest to attempt to save the wildlife. Crocodiles were buried alive, along with numerous others animal species which inhabit Cancun’s mangrove swamp, after excavators destroyed it last Saturday. Grassroots organisation Save The Mangrove, which had set up […]
The Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History
These three agreements solidify the creeping corporate coup d’état along with the final evisceration of national sovereignty. Citizens will be forced to give up control of their destiny and will be stripped of the ability to protect themselves from corporate predators, safeguard the ecosystem and find redress and justice in our now anemic and often dysfunctional democratic institutions.
The Final Leaked TPP Text is All That We Feared
If you look for provisions in the TPP that actually afford new benefits to users, rather than to large, rights-holding corporations, you will look in vain. The TPP is the archetype of an agreement that exists only for the benefit of the entitled, politically powerfully lobbyists who have pushed it through to completion over the last eight years.
Beyond Resistence: Everything
20 years ago, the day after the infamous NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) was signed, the EZLN, The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, emerged from the jungles of Chiapas, Mexico and inspired the world-wide anti-globalisation movement.
An Olympic Story Worth Celebrating: Can I Get a Raised Fist?
The furore over Russia’s outrageous anti-gay law and Putins offensive remarks on the subject has meant LBGT campaigners have been torn, between a stance on boycotting the Sochi Winter Olympics and supporting participation. There have been calls, too, for Olympic sponsors like McDonalds and Coca Cola (still beggars belief) to speak out about the issue (fat chance! Profit is the bottom line – Coke has even had people murdered to protect it). So what’s to be done?
Fresh Leak on US Spying: NSA Accessed Mexican President’s Email
The National Security Agency (NSA) has a division for particularly difficult missions. Called “Tailored Access Operations” (TAO), this department devises special methods for special targets.
That category includes surveillance of neighbouring Mexico, and in May 2010, the division reported its mission accomplished. A report classified as “top secret” said: “TAO successfully exploited a key mail server in the Mexican Presidencia domain within the Mexican Presidential network to gain first-ever access to President Felipe Calderon’s public email account.”
At the Escuelita Zapatista, Students Learn Community Organizing and Civil Resistance as a Way of Life
From August 11-17, the Zapatistas brought more than 1,500 people into their communities to attend the Escuelita Zapatista, the Little Zapatista School. According to a February comunicado by the EZLN, in a class entitled Liberty According to the Zapatistas: Autonomous Government I, “our compas from the Zapatista bases of support are going to share the little we have learned about the struggle for freedom, and the [the students] can see what is useful or not for their own struggles.”