Pressenza IPA

The massive campaign of intimidation against WikiLeaks is sending a chill through free press advocates everywhere.

Legal experts say WikiLeaks has likely broken no laws. Yet top US politicians have called it a terrorist group and commentators have urged assassination of its staff. Avaaz is organizing a massive campaign to defend Wikileaks.

The initiative that demanded the “deportation of foreign criminals” was approved in a national popular referendum this Sunday, 28th of November, with 52.9% of the votes (participation in the referendum was 53.05%). According to the new constitutional article, foreigners who are “criminals” have to be deported and are banned from entering Switzerland for 5 – 15 years.

Today we are Nayem Elgarhi, we are the mother weeping for her son. Today we are each of the dead, each person battered in the camp of Gdeim Izik. Today we are each of the missing, each of the violated, each of those persecuted for speaking out. Today we are one of the forgotten. Today we also belong to the Saharawi people.

The recent U.S. mid-term elections followed a familiar mechanic; deep discontent driven by real problems like unemployment drove a voter “revolt” against incumbents (mostly Democratic) handing control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans. This type of voter sentiment is often summed up in the phrase “throw the bums out.”

Exclusive Interview with Clara Charf, president of Women for Peace and organizer of the Brazilian selection of 52 women chosen for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. She talks about the advances of Resolution 1325 in Brazil and the “historic” moment that the country is going through with the election of the first female president.

Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos, Silo, died in Mendoza, Argentina on the 16th of September 2010 but none of the big European newspapers (nor the television channels) reported this fact. They therefore silenced the great initiatives and humanist proposals which came from the other side of the Atlantic and which are still there, constructing *“life to come”*.

Silo’s spiritual dimension is inexhaustible and his death leaves us with a teaching whose scope, both unpredictable and vast, is difficult to measure. This phrase, uttered in these very complex and clichéd times, seems to speak of someone with an opinion on anything and everything; but Silo did not have anything to do with what is in the media, nor was he a stage act.

*“It is good you make this appeal – your countrymen are in dire need. However, you have to understand that our way is not humanitarian it is new humanist – we address the individual to change in a radical yet non-violent way his or her attitude to others and to our self – that’s our main aim.” Tony Henderson, chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong.*

Alicia, Pasqual and Albert were kidnapped by Al Qaeda in Southern Mauritania on the 29th of November 2009. They were travelling in the Solidarity Caravan, organised by the Barcelona Solidarity Action association, transporting support material for projects which are being carried out by 36 Catalan associations in Morocco, Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal. They were freed today.

On 19th August, the last US army combat brigade left Iraq. It was 1:30 on Thursday when soldiers from the Fourth Stryker Brigade of the Second Infantry Division crossed the border with Kuwait. There were 56 thousand soldiers still on Iraqi territory for “stabilisation” tasks, such as training Iraqi armed forces and police.