You may be thinking ‘but this disaster befell that poor African country more than thirty years ago, surely things must be better today’. Well sadly, no, things are not any better. In fact the systemic failures which precipitated the local food shortages and amplified the effects of the drought have never been fixed and are in fact worse today than they were back then.
Social Justice
How A Bankrupt Germany Solved Its Infrastructure Problems
“We were not foolish enough to try to make a currency [backed by] gold of which we had none, but for every mark that was issued we required the equivalent of a mark’s worth of work done or goods produced. . . .we laugh at the time our national financiers held the view that the value of a currency is regulated by the gold and securities lying in the vaults of a state bank.”
Anti-Semitism Allegations and the Sound of Silence
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake” – Napoleon Bonaparte Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone has been suspended from the UK’s Labour Party for ‘bringing the party into disrepute’ after making comments deemed by observers to be anti-Semitic. Livingstone has denied that he or his comments were anti-Semitic, alleging instead that there is a concerted smear campaign […]
Stop this cynical attack: Corbyn, anti-semitism and the right
We repost the Jewish Socialists’ Group’s response to claims that Jeremy Corbyn is tolerating a growth of antisemitism in the Labour Party. Antisemitism exists and must be exposed and fought against in the same way as other forms of racism by all who are concerned with combating racism and fascism. Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are not the same. Zionism is a […]
They Never Walked Alone
Intro by BSNews: Let us not forget that the corruption displayed by South Yorkshire Police in lying about the events at Hillsborough is not isolated degeneracy: In 2010 The Metropolitan Police immediately fed lies to the media when Ian Tomlinson died in the street after being forcefully pushed over by one of their officers. News sources were quickly told that […]
This victory shows we can, and must, shut down the DSEI arms fair for good
Faced with a strong and compelling defence, and a weak Crown case, the campaigners were acquitted of all charges. In summarising, the Judge couldn’t be clearer. As well as pointing out that the police had ignored claims of illegality on the part of the organisers, his verdict referenced “Clear, credible and largely unchallenged evidence from the expert witnesses of wrongdoing at DSEI and compelling evidence that it took place in 2015.”
It’s the Interest, Stupid! Why Bankers Rule the World
People generally assume that if they pay their bills on time, they aren’t paying compound interest; but again, this isn’t true. Compound interest is baked into the formula for most mortgages, which compose 80% of U.S. loans. And if credit cards aren’t paid within the one-month grace period, interest charges are compounded daily.
The Police Are Still Out of Control I should know. By FRANK SERPICO
In the opening scene of the 1973 movie “Serpico,” I am shot in the face—or to be more accurate, the character of Frank Serpico, played by Al Pacino, is shot in the face. Even today it’s very difficult for me to watch those scenes, which depict in a very realistic and terrifying way what actually happened to me on Feb. […]
The War on Savings: The Panama Papers, Bail-Ins, and the Push to Go Cashless
What we may be witnessing here is the 1% going after the 10% of people who, according to German researcher Margrit Kennedy, do not need to borrow but are “net savers.” Today the remaining 90% are “all borrowed up.” Either they are unwilling to borrow more or the banks are unwilling to lend to them, since they are poor credit risks. Who, then, is left to feed the machine that feeds the 1%, and more specifically the 0.001%?
Topshop protests over Living Wage and suspensions
Cleaners at Topshop are sub-contracted to a company, Britannia Services Group, that made £1.34m profit after tax. Philip Green, worth nearly £5bn, runs the Arcadia Group that owns Topshop. Arcadia made more than £250m profit last year, but it is registered to Philip Green’s wife, who lives in the Monaco tax haven. Mr. Green recently bought a £100m yacht. The […]
Revolution Is in the Air
WASHINGTON, D.C—The sustained, daily civil disobedience at the Capitol by demonstrators denouncing the capture of our political system by corporate money is part of one of the largest and most important movements for social justice since the Occupy uprising. Join it. Six hundred of the protesters have been arrested, and I was among 100 arrested Friday. The protesters, organized by […]
Welcome to ‘Walking Dead Europe’
What lies ahead is not pretty. There is an element of The Sleepwalkers – Christopher Clark’s masterful account of how Europe marched to war in 1914. But mostly, a low-budget American show gave away the game. This is Walking Dead Europe.








