Articles by The Guardian
We found 934 results.
Chávez’s Economics Lesson for Europe
Richard Gott – The Guardian,
21 May 2012
Chávez and his co-religionaries in the new “Bolivarian revolution” have called for “21st-century socialism”, not a return to Soviet-style economics or the continuation of the mundane social democratic adaptation of capitalism, but, as the Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa has described it, the re-establishment of national planning by the state “for the development of the majority of the people”.
→ read full articleMore Palestinian Prisoners Join Hunger Strike
Harriet Sherwood, Ramallah – The Guardian,
30 Apr 2012
26 Apr 2012 – The number of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails has grown to 2,000, with more preparing to join the protest next week, according to human rights groups in the West Bank. The Israeli prison service is taking punitive measures against hunger strikers, including solitary confinement, the confiscation of personal belongings, transfers and denial of family visits, say Palestinian organisations.
→ read full articleBritain Destroyed Records of Colonial Crimes
Ian Cobain, Owen Bowcott and Richard Norton-Taylor - The Guardian,
23 Apr 2012
Review finds thousands of papers detailing shameful acts were culled, while others were kept secret illegally.
→ read full articleCISPA Will Give the US Unprecedented Access, Internet Privacy Advocates Warn
Dominic Rushe – The Guardian,
23 Apr 2012
Washington looks set to wave through new cybersecurity legislation next week [23 Apr 2012] that opponents fear will wipe out decades of privacy protections at a stroke. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa) will be discussed in the House of Representatives next week and already has the support of 100 House members.
→ read full articleAfghan War Whistleblower Daniel Davis: ‘I Had To Speak Out – Lives Are At Stake’
Paul Harris – The Guardian,
16 Apr 2012
The career soldier is now a black sheep at the giant defence department building where he still works. The reason was his extraordinarily brave decision to accuse America’s military top brass of lying about the war in Afghanistan. When he went public in the New York Times, he was acclaimed as a hero for speaking out about a war that many Americans feel has gone horribly awry.
→ read full article‘New’ Burma Has Winners and Losers
Esmer Golluoglu in Rangoon – The Guardian,
16 Apr 2012
As business opportunities explode after the relaxing of domestic and international restrictions, many doubt whether Burma’s poor will benefit. Zayar Thaw, one of Burma’s best-known rappers, who spent three years as a political prisoner and has just been elected to parliament, says only time will tell what lies ahead: “Burma is changing, and it’s changing very fast. I am very surprised and a little bit nervous, to be honest.”
→ read full articleJournalist Seeking Truth about Khmer Rouge ‘Fears for His Life’
Kate Hodal in Phnom Penh – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
Award-winning film-maker Thet Sambath says he has been followed, harassed and chased during his research.
→ read full articleUS Anti-Terrorism Law Curbs Free Speech and Activist Work, Court Told
Paul Harris – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
A group political activists and journalists has launched a legal challenge to stop an American law they say allows the US military to arrest civilians anywhere in the world and detain them without trial as accused supporters of terrorism. The seven figures, who include ex-New York Times reporter Chris Hedges, professor Noam Chomsky and Icelandic politician and WikiLeaks campaigner Birgitta Jonsdottir, testified to a Manhattan judge that the law – dubbed the NDAA or Homeland Battlefield Bill – would cripple free speech around the world.
→ read full articleThe Reason I’m Helping Chris Hedges’ Lawsuit against the NDAA
Naomi Wolf – The Guardian,
2 Apr 2012
By placing journalists in jeopardy for reporting on ‘terrorists’, the Homeland Battlefield Bill has had a chilling effect on media work and upon my ability to investigate and document matters of national controversy that would ordinarily be subject to my professional inquiry. It has therefore prevented my readers from receiving the full spectrum of truthful reporting which, in a functioning democracy, they have a right to expect.
→ read full articleU.S. Government Still Not Ready for Democracy in Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
26 Mar 2012
Haitians were ready again in 2000 when they elected Aristide a second time with 90 percent of the vote. But Washington would not accept the results of that election either, so it organized a cut-off of international aid to the government and poured millions into the opposition. As Paul Farmer (Bill Clinton’s Deputy Special Envoy of the UN to Haiti) testified to the U.S. Congress in 2010: “Choking off assistance for development and for the provision of basic services also choked off oxygen to the government, which was the intention all along: to dislodge the Aristide administration.”
→ read full articleBolivia Has Transformed Itself by Ignoring the Washington Consensus
Luis Hernández Navarro – The Guardian,
26 Mar 2012
In the past six years, Bolivia has become one of the Latin American countries most successful at improving its citizens’ standard of living. Economic indicators such as low unemployment and decreased poverty, as well as better public healthcare and education, are outstanding.
→ read full articleGreece on the Breadline: HIV and Malaria Make a Comeback
Jon Henley in Athens – The Guardian,
19 Mar 2012
The savage cuts to Greece’s health service budget have led to a sharp rise in HIV/Aids and malaria in the beleaguered nation, said the head of Médecins sans Frontières Greece on Thursday [15 Mar 2012]. The incidence of HIV/Aids among intravenous drug users in central Athens soared by 1,250% in the first 10 months of 2011 compared with the same period the previous year while malaria is becoming endemic in the south for the first time since the rule of the colonels, which ended in the 1970s.
→ read full articleOur Duty to Sri Lanka, And Human Rights
Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson – The Guardian,
27 Feb 2012
This week the UN Human Rights Council has an opportunity and a duty to help Sri Lanka advance its own efforts on accountability and reconciliation. Both are essential if a lasting peace is to be achieved. In doing so, the council will not only be serving Sri Lanka, but those worldwide who believe there are universal rights and international legal obligations we all share.
→ read full articleCould Ecuador Be the Most Radical and Exciting Place On Earth?
Jayati Ghosh – The Guardian,
23 Jan 2012
Ecuador must be one of the most exciting places on Earth right now, in terms of working towards a new development paradigm. It shows how much can be achieved with political will, even in uncertain economic times. Just 10 years ago, Ecuador was more or less a basket case, a quintessential “banana republic” (it happens to be the world’s largest exporter of bananas), characterised by political instability, inequality, a poorly-performing economy, and the ever-looming impact of the US on its domestic politics.
→ read full articleCoca-Cola Accused of Propping Up Notorious Swaziland Dictator
David Smith in Johannesburg – The Guardian,
9 Jan 2012
The king has travelled to Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta in the US, much to the disgust of Swazi political activists. Mswati III has 13 wives and hosts an annual dance where he can choose a new bride from tens of thousands of bare-breasted virgins. With a fortune of about $100m, he presides over one of the worst-off countries in the world, with most people living in absolute poverty. Political parties are banned and activists are regularly arrested, imprisoned and tortured.
→ read full articleBrazil Overtakes UK as Sixth-Largest Economy
Phillip Inman – The Guardian,
2 Jan 2012
Brazil has overtaken the UK to become the world’s sixth-largest economy, according to a team of economists. The banking crash of 2008 and the subsequent recession has relegated the UK to seventh place in 2011, behind South America’s largest economy, which has boomed on the back of exports to China and the far east.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Deserves a Medal
Glenn Greenwald – The Guardian,
19 Dec 2011
The prosecution of the whistleblower and alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning is an exercise in intimidation, not justice. After 17 months of pre-trial imprisonment, Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old US army private and accused WikiLeaks source, is finally going to see the inside of a courtroom. This Friday [16 Dec 2011], on an army base in Maryland, the preliminary stage of his military trial will start.
→ read full articleThe New Cyber-Industrial Complex Spying On Us
Pratap Chatterjee – The Guardian,
12 Dec 2011
WikiLeaks has just released the Spy Files – a trove of almost 300 documents from the companies that shine a light into this industry. At the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, where I work, we trawled through these documents, and tracked down yet more material, which our research team – Matthew Wrigley, David Pegg, Christian Jensen and Jamie Thunder – used to create an online database that will soon cover over 160 companies in some 25 countries.
→ read full articleDurban Climate Deal Struck After Tense All-Night Session
John Vidal and Fiona Harvey in Durban – The Guardian,
12 Dec 2011
Talks came close to collapse when India insisted on concessions for developing countries, forcing 3am ‘huddle to save the planet’. A new global climate deal has been struck after being brought back from the brink of disaster by three powerful women politicians in a 20-minute “huddle to save the planet”.
→ read full articleFrank Miller and the Rise of Cryptofascist Hollywood
Rick Moody – The Guardian,
5 Dec 2011
Fans were shocked when Batman writer Frank Miller furiously attacked the Occupy Movement. They shouldn’t have been; he was just voicing Hollywood’s unspoken values. American movies, in the main, often agree with Frank Miller, that endless war against a ruthless enemy is good, and military service is good, that killing makes you a man, that capitalism must prevail, that if you would just get a job (preferably a corporate job, for all honest work is corporate) you would quit complaining. And we might repay the favor by avoiding purchase of tickets to Miller’s films.
→ read full articleArundhati Roy: ‘The people who created the crisis will not be the ones that come up with a solution.’
Arun Gupta – The Guardian,
5 Dec 2011
The prize-winning author of The God of Small Things talks about why she is drawn to the Occupy movement and the need to reclaim language and meaning.
→ read full articleBradley Manning Hearing Date Set As Court Martial Process Finally Begins
Ed Pilkington in New York – The Guardian,
28 Nov 2011
Manning, accused of leaking secrets to WikiLeaks, to go to pre-trial – known as Article 32 hearing – in Maryland next month. Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower behind the Pentagon Papers, said: “The charges against Bradley Manning are an indictment of our government’s obsession with secrecy. Manning is accused of revealing illegal activities by our government and its corporate partners that must be brought to the attention of the American people.”
→ read full articleUK Urged to Prevent Vulture Funds Preying on World’s Poorest Countries
Greg Palast, Maggie O'Kane and Chavala Madlena – The Guardian,
28 Nov 2011
Britain is being urged to help close down a legal loophole that lets financiers known as “vulture funds” use courts in Jersey to claim hundreds of millions of pounds from the world’s poorest countries. The call came from international poverty campaigners as one of the vulture funds was poised to be awarded a $100m (£62m) debt payout against the Democratic Republic of the Congo after taking action in the Jersey courts.
→ read full articleMoney Has Been Privatised By Stealth
Ben Dyson – The Guardian,
21 Nov 2011
Here’s how it works. When you ask the bank for the money to buy a one-bedroom box in London, the money that appears in your account isn’t borrowed from some prudent grandmother’s life savings. In fact, the bank simply types those numbers into your account, creating brand new money that you can now spend. As other banks do exactly the same, the amount of money in the economy grows and grows.
→ read full articleLessons from Iceland: The People Can Have the Power
Birgitta Jónsdóttir – The Guardian,
21 Nov 2011
As early progress in Iceland shows since the banking collapse, the 21st century will be the century of the common people, of us.
→ read full articleHere’s the Risk: Occupy Ends Up Doing the Bidding of the Global Elite
Patrick Henningsen – The Guardian,
21 Nov 2011
History shows us it is easy for ‘grassroots’ campaigns to become co-opted by the very interests they are fighting against.
→ read full articleThe 99%: A Community of Resistance
Angela Davis – The Guardian,
21 Nov 2011
In the past, most movements have appealed to specific communities – workers, students, black people, Latinas/Latinos, women, LGBT communities, indigenous people – or they have crystallised around specific issues like war, the environment, food, water, Palestine, the prison industrial complex. In a strikingly different configuration, this new Occupy Movement imagines itself from the beginning as the broadest possible community of resistance – the 99%, as against the 1%.
→ read full articleThe CIA’s Unaccountable Drone War Claims another Casualty
Pratap Chatterjee – The Guardian,
14 Nov 2011
Last Friday [4 Nov 2011], I met a boy, just before he was assassinated by the CIA. Tariq Aziz was 16, a quiet young man from North Waziristan, who, like most teenagers, enjoyed soccer. Seventy-two hours later, a Hellfire missile is believed to have killed him as he was travelling in a car to meet his aunt in Miran Shah, to take her home after her wedding. Killed with him was his 12-year-old cousin, Waheed Khan.
→ read full articleFormer US Chief Prosecutor Condemns ‘Law-Free Zone’ Of Guantánamo
Ed Vulliamy in New York – The Guardian,
7 Nov 2011
The former chief prosecutor for the US government at Guantánamo Bay has accused the administration he served of operating a “law-free zone” there, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the order to establish the detention camp on Cuba. Retired air force colonel Morris Davis resigned in October 2007 in protest against interrogation methods at Guantánamo, and has made his remarks in the lead-up to 13 November, the anniversary of President George W Bush’s executive order setting up military commissions to try terrorist suspects.
→ read full articleOccupy first. Demands come later.
Slavoj Žižek – The Guardian,
7 Nov 2011
Carnivals come cheap – the true test of their worth is what remains the day after, how our normal daily life will be changed. The protesters should fall in love with hard and patient work – they are the beginning, not the end. Their basic message is: the taboo is broken; we do not live in the best possible world; we are allowed, obliged even, to think about alternatives.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Suspends Publishing to Fight Financial Blockade
Esther Addley and Jason Deans – The Guardian,
31 Oct 2011
Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks, has announced that the whistleblowing website is suspending publishing operations in order to focus on fighting a financial blockade and raise new funds. Assange, speaking at a press conference in London on Monday [24 Oct 2011], said a banking blockade had destroyed 95% of WikiLeaks’ revenues.
→ read full articleGM Crops Promote Superweeds, Food Insecurity and Pesticides, Say NGOs
John Vidal, environment editor – The Guardian,
24 Oct 2011
Genetic engineering has failed to increase the yield of any food crop but has vastly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of “superweeds”, according to a report by 20 Indian, south-east Asian, African and Latin American food and conservation groups representing millions of people.
→ read full articleThe Fight against Climate Change Is Down To Us – The 99%
Naomi Klein – The Guardian,
17 Oct 2011
If there is one thing I know, it’s that the 1% loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatising education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.
→ read full articleThe Dead Begin to Speak Up In India
Arundhati Roy – The Guardian,
3 Oct 2011
So somebody who wants to invest in a dam, or build a steel plant or a buy a bauxite mine is not considered a security hazard, whereas a scholar who might wish to participate in a seminar about, say, displacement or communalism or rising malnutrition in a globalised economy, is. Terrorists with bad intentions have probably guessed that they are better off wearing Prada suits and pretending they want to buy a mine than admitting that they want to attend a seminar.
→ read full articleThe Call to Occupy Wall Street Resonates Around the World
Micah White and Kalle Lasn – The Guardian,
26 Sep 2011
On Saturday 17 September, many of us watched in awe as 5,000 Americans descended on to the financial district of lower Manhattan, waved signs, unfurled banners, beat drums, chanted slogans. #OCCUPYWALLSTREET was inspired by the people’s assemblies of Spain. Emboldened by an outpouring of international solidarity, these American indignados said they’d be there to greet the bankers when the stock market opened on Monday.
→ read full articlePope Accused of Crimes against Humanity by Victims of Sex Abuse
Karen McVeigh – The Guardian,
19 Sep 2011
Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have accused the pope, the Vatican secretary of state and two other high-ranking Holy See officials of crimes against humanity, in a formal complaint to the international criminal court (ICC). The submission, lodged at The Hague on Tuesday [13 Sep 2011], accuses the four men not only of failing to prevent or punish perpetrators of rape and sexual violence but also of engaging in the “systematic and widespread” practice of concealing sexual crimes around the world.
→ read full articleCompanies Ejected From London Arms Fair for ‘Promoting Cluster Bombs’
Nick Hopkins – The Guardian,
19 Sep 2011
Violation of Oslo accord discovered by MP who calls for action to investigate ‘what other breaches are occurring’ at the fair. The action was taken after Caroline Lucas, the Green party leader, discovered that Pakistani arms manufacturers were actively promoting “banned cluster bombs” at their pavilions. Details of the munitions were in brochures readily available to potential customers. The episode is an embarrassment to the fair, which has had 1,300 firms from more than 40 countries seeking orders for weapons.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Selective Vigilantism Will Make as Many Enemies as Friends
Tariq Ali - The Guardian,
12 Sep 2011
A decade after the attentats of 9/11, the US and its European allies are trapped in a quagmire. The events of that year were simply used as a pretext to remake the world and to punish those states that did not comply. And today while the majority of Euro-American citizens flounder in a moral desert, now unhappy with the wars, now resigned, now propagandised into differentiating what is, in effect, an overarching imperial strategy into good/bad wars.
→ read full articleThe Race Is On For Libya’s Oil, With Britain and France Both Staking A Claim
Julian Borger and Terry Macalister – The Guardian,
5 Sep 2011
The starting pistol has been fired on bids by Britain and other western powers to secure a slice of the oil prize in Libya when France said it was “fair and logical” for its companies to benefit. Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, planted his flag in the sand as the Guardian was told that BP was already holding private talks with members of Libya’s interim government.
→ read full articleArab Spring Has Created ‘Intelligence Disaster’, Warns Former CIA Boss
Charlotte Higgins – The Guardian,
29 Aug 2011
Michael Scheuer says rendition should be brought back as lack of intelligence has left UK and US unable to monitor militants. The Arab spring has “delighted al-Qaida” and caused “an intelligence disaster” for the US and Britain, the former head of the CIA unit in charge of pursuing Osama bin Laden has warned.
→ read full articleGreece Begins €50bn Privatisation Drive
Helena Smith in Athens – The Guardian,
15 Aug 2011
Greek officials begin appointing advisers for fire-sale of state assets intended to raise €50bn by 2015. The starting gun for one of the biggest fire-sales in western history was fired as Greek officials began appointing advisers for the country’s ambitious privatisation drive.
→ read full articleShell Accepts Liability for Two Oil Spills in Nigeria
John Vidal – The Guardian,
8 Aug 2011
Shell faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars after accepting full liability for two massive oil spills that devastated a Nigerian community of 69,000 people and may take at least 20 years to clean up. Experts who studied video footage of the spills at Bodo in Ogoniland say they could together be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, when 10m gallons of oil destroyed the remote coastline.
→ read full articleDefaulting Rescued Argentina. It Could Work for Athens Too
Heather Stewart – The Guardian,
11 Jul 2011
Struggling under an impossible burden after its IMF bailouts, Buenos Aires knew its one hope was to stop paying its debts and become a pariah – and so it proved.
→ read full articleWorld’s Wealthiest People Now Richer Than Before the Credit Crunch
Jill Treanor – The Guardian,
4 Jul 2011
We are not all in this together. The UK economy is flat, the US is weak and the Greek debt crisis, according to some commentators, is threatening another Lehman Brothers-style meltdown. But a new report shows the world’s wealthiest people are getting more prosperous – and more numerous – by the day.
→ read full articleOur Battle to End Hunger
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – The Guardian,
20 Jun 2011
No country can achieve sustainable development without improving the living conditions of its people; and the Brazilian experience shows that overcoming hunger requires co-ordinated actions, political will and the participation of all society.
→ read full articleLifting the Lid on Sri Lanka’s War Crimes
Callum Macrae – The Guardian,
20 Jun 2011
My film Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields exposes atrocities committed against civilian Tamils that the UN must not ignore. If the UN fails yet again, the message to every tyrant and repressive government will be clear: if you want to kill your own people with impunity, you will probably get away with it. (Watch a 2-min video clip in SHORT VIDEOS and the full documentary in IN-DEPTH VIDEOS).
→ read full articleBankers and Politicians Have Turned Food into a Betting Game
Aditya Chakrabortty – The Guardian,
13 Jun 2011
The Result Is Soaring Prices and Starving Children
→ read full articleJulian Assange Wins Martha Gellhorn Journalism Prize
Jason Deans – The Guardian,
6 Jun 2011
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has won the 2011 Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism. The annual prize is awarded to a journalist “whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth that exposes establishment propaganda, or ‘official drivel’, as Martha Gellhorn called it”.
→ read full articleBilderberg 2011: All Aboard the Bilderbus
Charlie Skelton – The Guardian,
6 Jun 2011
As Europe groans, and austerity bites, as defaulting looms, and once proud nations fall to their knees in debt, there’s only one annual conference of bankers and industrialists that can step in and save us all… Bilderberg! Next week, in Switzerland, Henry Kissinger and his brave band of corporate CEOs, high-wealth individuals and heavyweight thinktankers will lock arms with Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and David Rockefeller, and stand their ground against the economic contagion. The last thing a bunch of bank bosses and multinational executives wants is for the nation-states of Europe to collapse, allowing their assets to be bought up on the cheap. Right?
→ read full articleManuel Zelaya Pushes for Peace on Return to Honduras
Associated Press-AP – The Guardian,
30 May 2011
Former president Manuel Zelaya’s return to Honduras almost two years after being forced into exile by a military coup has ended a crippling political crisis and paved the way for the impoverished nation’s reintegration into the international community. The Organisation of American States (OAS), which expelled Honduras following the June 2009 coup, is expected to bring the Central American nation back into the fold this week.
→ read full articleForty-Eight Women Raped Every Hour in Congo, Study Finds
Jo Adetunji – The Guardian,
16 May 2011
Research shows 12% of the country’s women have been raped at least once, and the problem is not confined to conflict areas.
→ read full articleIsrael Stripped 140,000 Palestinians of Residency Rights, Document Reveals
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem – The Guardian,
16 May 2011
Israel stripped thousands of Palestinians of their right to live in the West Bank over a 27-year period, forcing most of them into permanent exile abroad, a document obtained under freedom of information laws has disclosed.
→ read full articleJulian Assange Awarded Australian Peace Prize
Reuters – The Guardian,
16 May 2011
WikiLeaks’ Australian founder Julian Assange, who enraged Washington by publishing thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, has been given a peace award for “exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights”. Assange was awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation’s gold medal on Tuesday [10 May 2011] at the Frontline Club in London, only the fourth such award to be handed out in its 14-year history. The not-for-profit organisation is associated with the University of Sydney and supported by the City of Sydney.
→ read full articleFukushima Nuclear Power Plant Update [6 May 2011]: Get All the Data
Ami Sedghi - The Guardian,
9 May 2011
Japan is racing to gain control of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Where does the most detailed data come from?
• Get the data
Who Will Reshape the Arab World: Its People, or the US?
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
9 May 2011
Phase one of the Arab spring is over. Phase two – the attempt to crush or contain genuine popular movements – has begun. Here one has to say that whatever the final outcome, the Libyan people have lost. The country will either be partitioned into a Gaddafi state and a squalid pro-west protectorate led by selected businessmen, or the west will take out Gaddafi and control the whole of Libya and its huge oil reserves. This display of affection for “democracy” does not extend elsewhere in the region. In Bahrain,
→ read full articleThe Guantánamo Files: Leaks Lift Lid on World’s Most Controversial Prison
David Leigh, James Ball, Ian Cobain and Jason Burke - The Guardian,
2 May 2011
• Innocent people interrogated for years on slimmest pretexts
• Children, elderly and mentally ill among those wrongfully held
• 172 prisoners remain, some with no prospect of trial or release
• Interactive guide to all 779 detainees
Israel and Palestine Don’t Need More Friends – But the Peace Process Does
Jonathan Freedland – The Guardian,
25 Apr 2011
Roleplaying PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat made me see how easily one slips from problem-solving to point-scoring.
→ read full articleActivists Occupy Oil Rig in Fight to Prevent Arctic Drilling
John Vidal in Sarkoy, Turkey – The Guardian,
25 Apr 2011
The fight to stop the global oil industry exploring the pristine deep waters of the Arctic has been dubbed the new cold war, and early on Friday [22 Apr 2011] it escalated as environmental activists from 12 countries occupied the world’s second largest rig on its way from Turkey to Greenland to drill among the icebergs.
→ read full articleUK: The Endgames of Our Empire Never Quite Finished – Just Look At Bahrain
Madeleine Bunting – The Guardian,
25 Apr 2011
It has all the ingredients of a John le Carré novel. For decades there are allegations of terrible abuse during the Mau Mau rebellion; historians are baffled by missing documentation. A court case finally prompts the Foreign Office to discover hundreds of boxes of previously hidden papers stored in a house, Hanslope Park, in Buckinghamshire. They reveal not just the brutality – which historians had already unearthed – but official recognition of the illegal violence and dogged determination to cover it up.
→ read full articleHow Nuclear Apologists Mislead the World over Radiation
Helen Caldicott – The Guardian,
18 Apr 2011
George Monbiot and others at best misinform and at worst distort evidence of the dangers of atomic energy.
→ read full articleBradley Manning: Top US Legal Scholars Voice Outrage At ‘Torture’
Ed Pilkington in New York - The Guardian,
18 Apr 2011
More than 250 of America’s most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his “degrading and inhumane conditions” are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture. The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America’s foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.
→ read full articleBolivia Enshrines Natural World’s Rights with Equal Status for Mother Earth
John Vidal in La Paz – The Guardian,
18 Apr 2011
Bolivia is set to pass the world’s first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country’s rich mineral deposits as “blessings” and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.
→ read full articleLatin America Shakes Off the US Yoke
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
11 Apr 2011
The current spat with Ecuador is symptomatic of Washington’s failure to grasp that it no longer exercises regional hegemony.
→ read full articleLibya is another Case of Selective Vigilantism by the West
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
4 Apr 2011
The US-Nato intervention in Libya, with United Nations security council cover, is part of an orchestrated response to show support for the movement against one dictator in particular and by so doing to bring the Arab rebellions to an end by asserting western control, confiscating their impetus and spontaneity and trying to restore the status quo ante.
→ read full articleThe Ransoming of Raymond Davis
Pratap Chatterjee – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
What does the United States’ record on justice and human rights look like after it has paid to get its alleged CIA killer out of jail?
→ read full articleBradley Manning’s Military Doctors Accused Over Treatment
Ed Pilkington in New York – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
A leading group of doctors in the US concerned with the ethical treatment of patients has questioned the role of military psychiatrists in Quantico, Virginia, where the suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning is being subjected to harsh treatment that some call torture. The advocacy body Physicians for Human Rights has sounded the alarm over the role of psychiatrists at the brig in the marine base where Manning has been in custody since last July.
→ read full articleAnonymous Hackers Release Bank of America Emails
Dominic Rushe in New York – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
The hacker group Anonymous has released a cache of emails obtained from someone said to be a former Bank of America employee.
→ read full articleJulian Assange Tells Students That the Web Is the Greatest Spying Machine Ever
Patrick Kingsley – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
“While the Internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing, and to let us co-operate with each other to hold repressive governments and repressive corporations to account, it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen,” he told students at Cambridge University. Hundreds queued for hours to attend.
→ read full articleThis Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning
Daniel Ellsberg – The Guardian,
14 Mar 2011
The WikiLeaks suspect’s mistreatment amounts to torture. Either President Obama knows this or he should make it his business.
→ read full articleThis Is an Arab 1848. But US Hegemony Is Only Dented
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
28 Feb 2011
With western-backed despots being turfed out politics has changed forever. So just how far can the revolution spread?
→ read full articleMass Tree Deaths Prompt Fears of Amazon ‘Climate Tipping Point’
Damian Carrington – The Guardian,
14 Feb 2011
Scientists fear billions of tree deaths caused by 2010 drought could see vast forest turn from carbon sink to carbon source.
• Amazon ‘could shrink by 85% due to climate change’
• Rate of tree deaths in western US ‘rising due to climate change’
Egypt’s Joy as Mubarak Quits
Tariq Ali – The Guardian,
14 Feb 2011
With Hosni Mubarak’s departure, the age of political reason is returning to Egypt and the wider Arab world. A joyous night in Cairo. What bliss to be alive, to be an Egyptian and an Arab. In Tahrir Square they’re chanting, “Egypt is free” and “We won!”
→ read full articleThe Carbon Market – Gone in a Puff of Smoke?
Sabina Manea – The Guardian,
7 Feb 2011
The entire EU trading system was shut down last Wednesday [23 Jan 2011], with credits worth €28m missing following a series of highly effective cyber attacks that have plunged the still emerging carbon market into chaos. To make matters worse, the EU’s ETS is a serial victim; eco-activist hackers shut down the EU carbon exchange website only six months ago. The European Commission’s decision to suspend trading was taken in the wake of break-ins into online accounts in a number of European countries, with the Czech Republic being the latest casualty. The chances of recovering the stolen credits are slim, even more so once the criminals have sold them on. Unlike the money paid for indulgences, carbon credits are nothing more than records in an online account.
→ read full articleDavos: An Unrealistic View from the Mountain
Larry Elliott – The Guardian,
7 Feb 2011
For those at the Davos World Economic Forum the future looks bright – but the truth may be bleaker for the rest of us. The theme of Davos this year was “shared norms for the new reality”, one of those phrases where the words can be rearranged in any order and remain utterly vacuous. Business leaders, policy leaders and the world’s smartest academics had five days in the high Alps to work out what this actually meant. Despite much head scratching not one of them could.
→ read full articlePeru Recognises Palestinian State
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent – The Guardian,
31 Jan 2011
Peru last night [24 Jan 2011] announced it recognises Palestine as a state, becoming the seventh South American country to do so in a rapid diplomatic domino effect which has alarmed Israel.
→ read full articleFood Speculation: ‘People Die From Hunger While Banks Make a Killing on Food’
The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2011
It’s not just bad harvests and climate change – it’s also speculators that are behind record prices. And it’s the planet’s poorest who pay.
→ read full articleSecret Papers Reveal Slow Death of Middle East Peace Process
Seumas Milne and Ian Black, Middle East editor – The Guardian,
24 Jan 2011
The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the Middle East conflict has revealed that Palestinian negotiators secretly agreed to accept Israel’s annexation of all but one of the settlements built illegally in occupied East Jerusalem. This unprecedented proposal was one of a string of concessions that will cause shockwaves among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world.
→ read full articleHaiti’s Election: a Travesty of Democracy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
24 Jan 2011
The OAS’s attempt to rehabilitate a fatally flawed process would be laughable if it were not a tragic injustice for Haitians.
→ read full articleExposing the Real Tunisia
Soumaya Ghannoushi – The Guardian,
17 Jan 2011
A recent wave of unrest belies the myth of a Tunisian miracle, and offers a stark warning.
→ read full articleHaiti One Year On: Suffering, Lost Opportunities and Political Paralysis
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent – The Guardian,
10 Jan 2011
1 million people still live in makeshift accommodation and only 5% of rubble left by earthquake cleared, Oxfam report says. Government dithering and lack of coordination between aid agencies and donors have crippled rebuilding efforts in Haiti, leaving the country in ruins almost a year after the earthquake, a report says today [6 Jan 2011].
→ read full articleHaiti: Where Aid Failed
Unni Karunakara – The Guardian,
3 Jan 2011
Why have at least 2,500 people died of cholera when there are about 12,000 NGOs in the country?
→ read full articleIndonesia’s ‘Slow Motion Genocide’
Jay Griffiths – The Guardian,
3 Jan 2011
By ignoring Indonesian army killings in West Papua, the western press is tacitly colluding in mass murder
→ read full articleThe Arrogance of Cancún
Gustavo Esteva – The Guardian,
27 Dec 2010
The lesson of this feeble climate deal? Governments have played God and failed. It is up to the activists now.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks’ Lesson on Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
20 Dec 2010
What the US embassy cables reveal about Washington’s malign influence should make Latin American nations quit the UN force…. This logic is why they got rid of Aristide – who was much to the left of Preval – and won’t let him back in the country. This is why Washington funded the recent “elections” that excluded Haiti’s largest political party, the equivalent of shutting out the Democrats and Republicans in the United States. And this is why Minustah is still occupying the country, more than six years after the coup, without any apparent mission other than replacing the hated Haitian army – which Aristide had abolished – as a repressive force.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks Backlash: The First Global Cyber War Has Begun, Claim Hackers
Mark Townsend, Paul Harris in New York, Alex Duval Smith in Johannesburg, Dan Sabbagh, Josh Halliday – The Guardian,
13 Dec 2010
As Julian Assange is held in solitary confinement at Wandsworth prison, the anonymous community of hacktivists takes to the cyber battlefields.
→ read full article[WikiLeaks] US Embassy Cables Leak Sparks Global Diplomacy Crisis
David Leigh – The Guardian,
29 Nov 2010
• More than 250,000 dispatches reveal US foreign strategies
• Diplomats ordered to spy on allies as well as enemies
• Hillary Clinton leads frantic ‘damage limitation’
The United States was catapulted into a worldwide diplomatic crisis today [28 Nov 2010], with the leaking to the Guardian and other international media of more than 250,000 classified cables from its embassies, many sent as recently as February this year.
Haiti: One More Shameful UN Betrayal
Peter Hallward – The Guardian,
29 Nov 2010
Cholera is just the latest disaster to be linked to the UN in Haiti – and the election won’t change the nature of the mission.
→ read full articleWhy Desperate Haitians Want to Kick Out UN Troops
Isabeau Doucet – The Guardian,
22 Nov 2010
It’s a familiar pattern – in the 1980s, when Aids first came to the world’s attention, Haitians were stigmatised as one of the four Hs – homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitian – having brought the disease to the US. But, like cholera, Aids was not indigenous to Haiti and is only now ravaging the country because somebody else brought it in. And, while Haitians face stigmatisation from their neighbours once again, the world must take its share of the blame. The real question is: why? Why is there crippling poverty? Why no water, sanitation or medical infrastructure?
→ read full articleIsrael’s Loyalty Oath: Discriminatory by Design
The Guardian, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Oct 2010
New pledge requires future citizens declare their loyalty to an ideology, one intended to exclude Palestinians.
→ read full articleChilean Miners Rescue: This is a Rare Moment of Global Joy
Michael White – The Guardian,
18 Oct 2010
When was the last time this happened? I’ve been racking my brains. I can think of a few happy ones. Unfortunately most such unifying experiences seen around the planet are negative.
→ read full articleEcuador’s Correa Haunted by Honduras
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
4 Oct 2010
This was a coup attempt – encouraged by Washington’s shameful support for the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya last year. In June of last year, when the Honduran military overthrew the social-democratic government of Manuel Zelaya, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador took it personally. “We have intelligence reports that say that after Zelaya, I’m next,” said Correa.
→ read full articleThe Transformation of Latin America is a Global Advance
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
23 Aug 2010
The radical tide is about to be put to the test in Brazil and Venezuela. If support holds, it will have lessons for all of us.
→ read full articleFrance Urged to Repay Haiti Billions Paid For Its Independence
Kim Willsher in Paris – The Guardian,
23 Aug 2010
A group of international academics and authors has written to Nicolas Sarkozy calling on France to reimburse the crushing “independence debt” it imposed on Haiti nearly 200 years ago.
→ read full articleFrance’s Debt of Dishonour to Haiti
Isabel Macdonald – The Guardian,
23 Aug 2010
After Haiti won independence, France extorted compensation for its slave-owning colonists. Now Nicolas Sarkozy must repay it.
→ read full articleWorld Feeling the Heat as 17 Countries Experience Record Temperatures
John Vidal, environment editor – The Guardian,
16 Aug 2010
2010 sees record highs in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine but also many African, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries.
→ read full articleAfghanistan: The War Logs
Simon Rogers – The Guardian,
2 Aug 2010
Key incidents from the Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs selected by Guardian writers. As a spreadsheet, with co-ordinates.
→ read full articleMarxism 2010: Fixing a Broken System
Alex Callinicos – The Guardian,
5 Jul 2010
In the wake of the financial crisis Marxist thought is thriving, and in London leading names are discussing turning ideas into action.
→ read full articleGulf Oil Spill: A Hole in the World
Naomi Klein – The Guardian,
28 Jun 2010
“Obama cannot order pelicans not to die (no matter whose ass he kicks). And no amount of money – not BP’s $20 billion, not $100 billion – can replace a culture that’s lost its roots.”
→ read full articleHail to the Whistleblowers
James Denselow – The Guardian,
28 Jun 2010
Whistleblowers like those at WikiLeaks make huge sacrifices and are a vital last resort to check the powers of government.
→ read full articleBilderberg 2010: The Security Lockdown Begins
Charlie Skelton – The Guardian,
7 Jun 2010
It’s midday at the Bilderberg conference hotel – and that means helicopters, riot police and angry staff.
→ read full article