Information and Analysis: Towards a world for people not profit
21st Century Socialism
Tuesday, 13th May 2008
In Depth
Televised debate. Participants: Calvin Tucker (co-editor of 21st Century Socialism), Cristina Palomares (FAES Foundation, Madrid), Francisco Dominguez (Director, Centre for Latin American Studies, Middlesex University). Presented by Alan Mendoza of the Henry Jackson Society. More ...
What lessons can be drawn from China's spectacular and sustained economic growth? More ...
The way that Russia marked the 15th Anniversary of the end of the USSR, the final events of which took place between the 8th and 31st of December 1991, has caused consternation in the Western media. More ...
The Ma’an News service is a valuable resource. While its TV stations inform and entertain the locals, its news agency (MNA) sends the world 24-hour news from beleaguered Palestine. Viewers of its well-designed website receive minute-by-minute information in Arabic, Hebrew and English, with local news from ten districts in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, accompanied by high quality, and often shocking, photographs. More ...
The greatest successes in industrial development and prosperity of the last fifty years have been produced by state ownership and investment, central planning and regulated monopoly rather than by the 'free market'. More ...
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Current Affairs
by Noah Tucker
We have been here, or somewhere quite like it, before. Britain's modernising Labour government presiding over a financial crisis; people's incomes squeezed by a rise in the cost of living; the government afflicted by its close links to an American administration fighting an unpopular foreign war; and many people worried about the effects of immigration. The voters used the opportunity of the local government elections to humiliate the national government. Labour even lost its London stronghold. This would be the precursor to a Conservative victory in the next general election. More ...
by Hilary Keenan
The mob rampaged through the city, smashing up and burning down hundreds of buildings including the mosque; mercilessly beating, stabbing and even burning alive people belonging to other ethnic groups. Unable to contain the situation, the police were forced to retreat; returning several hours later with reinforcements. But instead of condemning the murders and destruction of property, Western politicians and media outlets took up the cause espoused by the rioters, and denounced as a 'violent crackdown' the efforts of the authorities to restore order. More ...
International
It is taken for granted that political representatives often find it their duty to take actions with which the people who elected them disagree. As the Czech Republic's Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra put it in an interview for the BBC World Service: "Well, there are the moments in history where you have to be against your people." More ...
International
After two decades of 'free market' globalisation: rising hunger, and no solution in sight. More ...
International
The virtual possibilities opened up by the internet appear to be endless. One can create for oneself a new name, a younger age, a more exciting personal appearance, and make friends with other such 'avatars' who live in parallel worlds. The more ambitious can construct great empires out of code and pixel, and make war with the empires of their rival gamers. Now we have a new development; affluent Westerners can travel by broadband to electronic versions of the capital cities of poorer countries, in order to wave virtual placards demanding that the governments of these Third World nations change their policies. More ...
Headlines
The UK government has announced that 2.5 million sick and disabled people must undergo more rigorous 'work capability' tests, through which they risk losing their state benefits. But in the UK labour market, able bodied and fully fit workers get jobs ahead of those who are disabled and not fully fit. More ...
People & Culture
The young Irish fighters played cards with their two British captives, discussed politics and religion, and soon they developed bonds of friendship. But there was no way out- they had to kill them. More ...
Headlines
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says Tehran is prepared to join the intergovernmental Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). More ...
Opinions
Michael Reid's book 'Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul' is a well-crafted and eloquent whitewash of capitalism in Latin America. More ...
International
On Saturday 1st March, the Colombian Armed Forces violated the territory of Ecuador. The immediate aim was to kill the second in commmand of the FARC guerrillas; a second aim probably was to provoke division and disputes between the nations of Latin America. Instead, a Latin American summit meeting left President Uribe of Colombia isolated and almost humiliated, and the feeling for Latin American integration strengthened. More ...