A Gazan’s wishes for 2015

A taboo on telling the truth about Palestine

By James M. Wall, Wallwritings
Wallwritings
Sunday, Dec 28, 2014

A taboo on telling the truth about Palestine

By James M. Wall, Wallwritings
Wallwritings
Sunday, Dec 28, 2014

Italy rescues at least 1,400 migrants in 2 days

By Staff Writers, teleSUR
teleSUR
Friday, Jan 2, 2015


About 160,000 migrants landed in Italy in November, and 40,000 in Greece, while thousands more died during their attempt. | Photo: Reuters

In both cases, the boats had been previously abandoned by the crew before heading dangerously to the Italian coast.

A second abandoned ship with some 400 migrants on board was rescued on Italian coasts on Thursday, bringing the total number of migrants rescued to at least 1,400 in two days.

The boat, which was flying a Sierra Leone flag was found without crew as it headed toward Puglia in the south-east of Italy.

On Wednesday, another abandoned boat with almost 1,000 migrants – mostly Syrian refugees – arrived in the southern port of Gallipoli, Italy.

A ship carrying over 450 migrants, most believed to be Syrian refugees, was rescued by Italian vessels from the Mediterranean Sea on Friday after it was abandoned by its crew in rough waters, set on a collision course for the Italian coast.

The incident marks the second time in just four days that a vessel loaded with migrants and refugees has been ditched by its crew in the Mediterranean—a body of water that has become a "graveyard" for those seeking refuge as European countries heighten restrictions while cutting relief for refugees amid skyrocketing displacement.

The International Organization for Migration announced that 2014 was the most deadly year for migrants on record, with nearly 5,000 worldwide losing their lives "at sea or in remote deserts or mountains." This heavy toll was driven by death in the Mediterranean, where over 3,000 people drowned.

However, a September report by the organization notes that such data may be incomplete, as "no organization at the global level is currently responsible for systematically monitoring the number of deaths that occur."

The Pillaging of Paraguay

By Orin Langelle and Dr Miguel Lovera
Popular Resistance

Thursday, Jan 1, 2015


“All signs show that Paraguay, both its territory and its population, are under attack by conquerors, but conquerors of a new sort. These new ‘conquistadors’ are racing to seize all available arable land and, in the process, are destroying peoples’ cultures and the country’s biodiversity — just as they are in many other parts of the planet, even in those areas that fall within the jurisdiction of ‘democratic’ and ‘developed’ countries. Every single foot of land is in their crosshairs. Powerful elites do not recognize rural populations as having any right to land at all.” – Dr. Miguel Lovera

[Photographs by Orin Langelle. Analysis at the end of the essay by Dr. Miguel Lovera from the case study: The Environmental and Social Impacts of Unsustainable Livestock Farming and Soybean Production in Paraguay. Dr. Lovera was the President of SENAVE, the National Plant Protection Agency, during the government of Fernando Lugo.]


"The major injustices toward the land and the people in Paraguay are large-scale genetically modified (GM) soy production by multinational corporations and deforestation due to unsustainable livestock production.

The expansion of soybeans and cattle in Paraguay is based on the theft of peasant and aboriginal communities’ land holdings and ancestral lands.

The key common characteristic underlying all large-scale rural production in Paraguay is that it is based on massive illegal land grabbing."




http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_68788.shtml

The Ayoreo Indigenous People of the Chaco have been in the way of development and many have been captured and confined to to “concentration camp” settlements.

In Greece, as the state collapses, the neighborhoods organize

By Alias Recluse
Source: Libcom.org
December 27, 2014



An interview with a participant the Greek assembly movement first published in 2013, providing details concerning the methods employed by the movement and the obstacles that it has encountered since its rise in 2008.

In Greece, as the State Collapses, the Neighborhoods Organize – An Interview with a Member of the Assembly Movement

Introductory note added by the editors of Argelaga: An interview conducted for issue no. 7 [2013] of the French journal, Z, which perfectly illustrates the process of autonomous organization of the population in the face of the decomposition and collapse of the State apparatus. The example is valid for any other European country; the difference is only one of degree. Let us recapitulate some of the difficulties that stand in the way of autonomy: the inertia of a life subject to the commodity, the habit of appealing to the State for help, egoism, the rise of fascism, police repression, weariness in the face of constant sacrifices, etc. A life of freedom is not an easy road, but a life of slavery is not easy, either.]

We are involved in two types of action: on the one hand, we are defending ourselves against the attacks of the system and, on the other hand, we are elaborating projects and ways of life that seem desirable to us. For example, in 2010 there was an initial attempt to coordinate with other assemblies and libertarian collectives that participated in the struggles in their neighborhoods against the fare increases in public transport. We arranged for each assembly to simultaneously organize demonstrations in the subway and bus stations. Pamphlets were distributed, the ticket machines were vandalized, and we proposed self-reductions in order to question the discourse of the authorities, which consisted in saying that public transport was just another commodity that had to be profitable. We made an attempt to link up with the workers in public transport, but this was difficult. The people from Golden Dawn—the Greek neo-Nazi party—have a lot of influence among the bus drivers trade union. Later, we participated in all the general strikes since 2010, which were severely repressed. During the course of one of these strikes, the pigs attacked the march of the neighborhood assemblies, sending one person to the hospital in a coma, who almost died, and others were seriously injured. These experiences brought us together and strengthened our determination. We blockaded the supermarkets and shopping centers of the neighborhood in order to turn the strike into a real strike, so that no one would be able to consume. We also attempted to encircle the Greek Parliament when the deputies were voting on the second round of austerity measures. The neighborhood assemblies played an important role in this demonstration. We also tried to maintain a permanent presence in the neighborhood, organizing demonstrations and a collective kitchen and cultivating an occupied garden for the purpose of attaining food self-sufficiency. We also hold a barter market once a month in different squares. We also have a meeting hall with a library that is open to the neighborhood, in which we organize various activities, debates and talks.

All these actions are undertaken for the purpose of breaking with the individualism and the pessimism that have seized Greece with the onset of the crisis, to fight against the social cannibalism that the State is indirectly promoting as a solution to the crisis. By way of these practices, we are attempting to encourage the development of relations based on equality and solidarity. The neighborhood is a very fertile space for this, all the more so insofar as in Athens the city districts are still socially quite mixed, which allows us to establish unexpected relations.

Peace Activist Kathy Kelly Heads to Prison for Protesting U.S. Drone War

By Kathy Kelly and Amy Goodman
Source: Democracy Now
January 1, 2015

Toward a Multi-polar World

Socialism Will Continue in Cuba

Statement at the closing ceremony of the fourth session of the eighth legislature of the National People's Power Assembly
by Raúl Castro / December 27th, 2014

"Comrades all:" ...........