Politics

George Monbiot for The Guardian, Wednesday 13 May 2015 Think the left has it hard in Britain? Latin Americans faced torture yet built inspirational movements Leadership comes from below: that’s what most successful progressive parties have in common. Leftwing parties…

By Danny Katch – May 12, 2015 NEW YORK City Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to announce a set of national policy proposals on Tuesday, May 12–including a $15 an hour minimum wage and universal pre-K–that he is calling…

On May 9th, Victory Day in the world war against fascism, at the invitation of Russia´s President Vladimir Putin, I will visit Russia and take part in the celebrations in Moscow devoted to the 70th anniversary of Victory in the…

South Africa’s largest official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has elected a black man originally from Dobsonville for the first time in its history . He is young and gifted and it did not come as a shock as…

Sweden’s Supreme Court said Monday it had rejected an appeal by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange against his arrest warrant for alleged rape and sexual assault. Sweden issued the arrest warrant in 2010 following allegations from two Swedish women, one who…

Precarious Europe 9 May 2015, OpenDemocracy: Our Kingdom The Conservatives have won. Now Britain’s own union and its EU membership are under question The Conservatives have unexpectedly formed a majority government, with Prime Minister David Cameron declaring it “the sweetest victory…

A federal appeals court has ruled the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records is illegal. The program was exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden; the ACLU filed its lawsuit based largely on Snowden’s revelations. In…

Two Quakers have been elected as members of parliament in the UK Government general election. Nineteen Quakers had stood as candidates. Catherine West took the seat of Hornsey & Wood Green while Ruth Cadbury (pictured) took Brentford & Isleworth [both…

There are many forms of violence: physical, economic, religious, racial, psychological, ecological, moral…etc, etc. What do we call it when there is an illusion of Democracy but the system is firmly in the hands of an economic elite that controls…

It has been almost six years since a chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) journeyed to Beijing to meet the secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), now President Xi Jinping. This recent meeting in Beijing with Chu…