Mastodon

Nonviolence Charter: progress report 13 (October 2018)

This is the latest six-monthly report on progress in relation to ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World’ together with a sample of news about Charter signatories and organizations. Our collective effort to build a worldwide consensus against the…

The Psychology of Fascism

The continuing rise of fascism around the world is drawing increasing attention particularly as it takes firmer grip within national societies long seen to have rejected it. Some recent studies have reminded us of the characteristics of fascist movements and…

Kazakh President Urges Religious Leaders to Help Resolve ‘Civilizational’ Problems

Viewpoint by Nursultan Nazarbayev The author is the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Following are extensive excerpts from his opening address to the two-day Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions on October 10, 2018 in Astana,…

France: Aid Worker Convicted for Tweet

A humanitarian worker’s defamation conviction on September 25, 2018, for an ironic tweet represents a dangerous escalation in official harassment of groups providing crucial aid to migrants, Human Rights Watch said today. It is the first conviction of its kind…

“Return the Occupied Territories!” Tomas Hirsch on the Israel-Palestine conflict

We interviewed the humanist Deputy [to the Chilean National Congress] of the Frente Amplio [Broad Front], Tomás Hirsch, given his recent visit to Israel and Palestine, asking him first of all in what context and why this trip to the…

Reasons for disarmament? All of them!

Weapons never served to truly advance the human being. They were always used for the benefit of the few at the cost of the life, pain and suffering of the great majority, even though the latter was used and continues…

Tropical Storm Florence inundates toxic manure ponds, coal ash dumps in the Carolinas

By Ed Hightower In the several days since hurricane Florence made landfall near the border between North and South Carolina, the storm’s floodwaters have set one record after another. The storm’s official death toll now stands at 32 and is…

Facebook Condemned for Empowering Right-Wing Magazine to “Drive Liberal News Outlets Into the Ground

What do you achieve when you let the Weekly Standard operate as a fact-checker for one of the internet’s most powerful platforms? “You achieve bullshit.” by Jake Johnson, staff writer For Common Dreams When Facebook selected the right-wing, Iraq War-boosting magazine…

Central Banks Have Gone Rogue, Putting Us All at Risk

by Ellen Brown, originally posted on Truthdig, Sept. 13, 2018   Excluding institutions such as Blackrock and Vanguard, which are composed of multiple investors, the largest single players in global equity markets are now thought to be central banks themselves. An…

Platform parties vs plutocrat PR: welcome to the future of UK politics

By ADAM RAMSAY 10 September 2018 for openDemocracy Deserted by members, right-wing parties serve the rich, while people have flocked to centre and left alternatives, only to be smeared as “dogs” and “Trots”. The SNP has more members than the Conservatives.…