World

Why Is the U.S. Fueling the November 15 Cuba Protests?

On September 20, letters began to arrive at eight Cuban municipal or provincial government headquarters announcing the holding of “peaceful” marches on November 15 by a group called Archipiélago. The motivation for these marches was a call for change. The letter was not a formal request to occupy the busiest streets of some cities in Cuba, but rather a notification by the group[Read More...]

Germany’s Neo-Nazi Death Squad: NSU and NSU 2.0

by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young Ten years ago, one of Germany’s most violent post-war Neo-Nazi killing squad, the so-called National-Socialist Underground or NSU-network came to light when their caravan exploded and their Neo-Nazi hideout was set on fire to eliminate all evidence. This occurred in the former East-German city of Zwickau. Recently, a secret government file on the NSU was leaked. The 150 page report talks about Neo-Nazis engaging in military-style war[Read More...]

Defying Empire: Cuba’s Contributions to the Fight Against Racism and White Supremacy

  The white capitalist cannibal has always fed on the world’s black peoples. White capitalist imperialist society is profoundly and unmistakably racist. Walter Rodney White supremacy and racism cannot be dissociated from capitalism. It was racism and white supremacy that provided the cultural justifications for slavery and the concomitant slave trade, for European colonial expansion and imperialism, without which capitalism[Read More...]

Ning-Nong Diplomacy, China and Paul Keating

Former Australian prime ministers tend to be less conspicuous in public life than their counterparts in other countries.  Occasionally, they make an appearance at political functions and events to remind us that they are still alive, their estate still breathing, their lawyers still working.  For the most part, the pronouncements are less than profound, let alone relevant.  But there are[Read More...]

Meta Isn’t Just About Rebranding Facebook—Could It Bring a Dystopian Future?

Facebook’s announcement has implications about digital life and work—provided it can attract younger users and gamer skeptics and overcome the hate speech and disinformation problems that could still plague Zuckerberg’s vision. On October 28, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched a new company brand, Meta, at the annual Facebook Connect event. According to Facebook, “Meta… brings together our apps and technologies under one[Read More...]

US recognition of Taliban Government will be a game changer

The stunning disclosure late Tuesday in Brussels that the US is working on a “road map” for according recognition to the Taliban Government will take a lot of people by surprise but it could have been expected sooner rather than later.  The US has a consistent record of rethinking its strategies once it realises that the policy has landed in[Read More...]

Reining in the Pentagon

by Mandy Smithberger and William D. Hartung Even as Congress moves to increase the Pentagon budget well beyond the astronomical levels proposed by the Biden administration, a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has outlined three different ways to cut $1 trillion in Department of Defense spending over the next decade.  A rational defense policy could yield far more in[Read More...]