Social Justice

The JIM’ll Fix It: UN Joint investigative Mechanism (JIM) ‘Fixes’ Syria Evidence

Earlier this month, the Joint Investigatory Mechanism (hereafter the JIM), a panel of ‘independent’ individuals set up by the UN to assign blame for reported chemical weapons incidents in the ongoing war in Syria produced its 7th report. In this report they concluded “the Leadership Panel is confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin […]

“The West, EU, US aggravate Syrian people’s suffering by sanctions”

The Irish politician Clare Daly, who recently visited Syria along with European delegation, has affirmed that the West and the European Union are aggravating the Syrian people’s suffering by sanctions and the U.S. support for Saudi Arabia and Israel in the region. “It is not up to anybody other than the Syrian people to decide their representation”

Universal Credit: 42 Days – A Hunger Strike

On November 1st 2017 Chris Young began a 42 day hunger strike. Here he explains why: I’d really rather not be doing this, but it’s my aim over those 6 weeks to help me focus on the plight of the hundreds of thousands of people who will be claiming Universal Credit. This system that we’re told is being established to […]

Syria’s Moderate Opposition: beyond the doublethink

Moderate political opposition does not involve or support taking up arms against the government, let alone against unarmed fellow citizens. This proposition would be treated as self-evident in our own country, so why are people seemingly ready to discard it when talking about Syria? Some who do so aim thereby to claim legitimacy for wishing ‘regime change’ upon that country, […]

How to Wipe Out Puerto Rico’s Debt Without Hurting Bondholders

Italy’s non-performing loans (NPLs) then stood at €210bn, at a time when the ECB was buying €120bn per year of outstanding Italian government bonds as part of its QE program. The July 2016 Financial Times quoted Goldman’s Francesco Garzarelli, who said, “by the time QE is over – not sooner than end 2017, on our baseline scenario – around a fifth of Italy’s public debt will be sitting on the Bank of Italy’s balance sheet.”

Catalonia and the rest of us

This article follows a heartfelt email message regarding the political developments in Catalonia, which I sent both the Saker and Ramin Mazaheri, the only “sakerista” I had the pleasure of meeting with in person. Needless to say I get both a pleasant “break” from the feeling of political solitude and a powerful intellectual “kick” out of reading both gentlemen, and […]

Clinton, Assange and The War On Truth

Wading through the Clinton book, What Happened, is an unpleasant experience, like a stomach upset. Smears and tears. Threats and enemies. “They” (voters) were brainwashed and herded against her by the odious Donald Trump in cahoots with sinister Slavs sent from the great darkness known as Russia, assisted by an Australian “nihilist”, Julian Assange

Who’s Afraid of Conspiracy Theory?

‘Conspiracy theory’ is frequently used as a derogatory term, a term of disdain and implicit criticism. An effect of this is to discourage certain kinds of legitimate critical inquiry. But surely, in a world where conspiracies happen, we need good theories of what exactly is happening. The only people who really have anything to worry about from conspiracy theories are […]

Carles Puigdemont Turns the Tables on Rajoy

Before his speech on Independence to the Catalan parliament, Carles Puigdemont seemed to be in an impossible position. Declare Independence and he would be immediately arrested and direct rule imposed from Madrid. Rajoy appeared to have all the angles covered; the EU had already specifically greenlighted the use of armed force in Commissioner Timmermans’ disgraceful address to the EU Parliament. […]