Sunday, April 1, 2018
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Restore Julian Assange’s access to visitors and the outside world!
Brian Eno and Yanis Varoufakis
It is with great concern that
we heard that Julian Assange has lost access to the internet and the right to
receive visitors at the Ecuadorian London Embassy. Only extraordinary pressure
from the US and the Spanish governments can explain why Ecuador’s authorities
should have taken such appalling steps in isolating Julian.
Only recently the government
of Ecuador granted Julian citizenship and a diplomatic passport, in a bid to
allow him safe passage from London. The UK government, under heavy pressure
from the US government, refused to exploit this opportunity to end Julian’s
detention – even after the Swedish authorities announced that no charges were,
or would be, laid against him.
Now, it seems
that the Ecuadorian government that has been ‘leaned’ on mercilessly not
only to stop attempting to provide Julian with a diplomatic route to safety but
to drive him out of their London Embassy as well. In addition to US pressure,
the Spanish government is also using its leverage over Ecuador to silence
Julian’s criticisms of Madrid’s imprisonment of Catalan politicians and, in
particular, of the arrest of Catalonia’s former premier in Germany.
Clearly, Ecuador’s government
has been subjected to bullying over its decision to grant Julian asylum,
support and, ultimately, diplomatic status. Naturally, Quito cannot admit that
it is buckling under that pressure and it argues, in public, that Julian’s
tweets over Catalonia are responsible for the decision to isolate him. Of
course this is utterly unbelievable. Julian is now a citizen of Ecuador and as
such enjoys the full protection of his freedom of expression guaranteed by the
Constitution of Ecuador. Additionally, the only reason Julian is holed up in
Ecuador’s London Embassy – and why Ecuador gave him asylum in the first place –
is precisely because he empowered whistleblowers’ freedom of expression and
defended our right to know the truth about practices of the US and other
Western powers that the latter found ‘inconvenient’ once exposed to the light
of day.
A world in which
whistleblowers are hounded, small countries are forced to violate their
cherished principles, and politicians are jailed for pursuing peacefully their
political agenda is a deeply troubled world – a world at odds with the one the
liberal establishment in Europe and the United States proclaimed as its
artifact since the end of the Cold War.
With these thoughts in mind we
call upon all citizens of good conscience to send a message to the Ecuadorian
authorities asking that Julian’s access to the outside world be restored and
another, more pertinent one, to the British authorities to end Julian’s
detention.
The real reason why American progressives are so ineffective
Nation states alone cannot do
the job—only a new political international has a chance of bridling global
capital. –Slavoj Žižek
BE REALISTIC; DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE!
Progressives of the world,
unite!
Because of the “success” of
the Bernie Sanders’ campaign last election cycle, organizations like
the ones listed below now ask for small donations as well as other forms of
assistance:
Brand New Congress,
Our Revolution,
Democratic Socialists of
America,
Democracy for America,
Progressive Democrats of
America,
#AllofUs,
Labor for Our Revolution,
People for Bernie,
Justice Dems,
Food and Water Action Fund,
National Nurses United,
Young Progressives Demanding
Action,
Single Payer Coalition,
Common Defense PAC/Vets
Against Hate,
Working Families Party,
Millennials for Revolution,
Women's March,
Good Jobs Nation,
#Fightfor15,
Healthcare Now,
Represent.Us,
MoveOn.org,
etc.
Represent.Us,
MoveOn.org,
etc.
What's wrong with this
picture?
Here are some of the issues/goals that these organizations want to work on:
Here are some of the issues/goals that these organizations want to work on:
Medicare for All,
Free College Tuition,
$15 Minimum Wage,
Women's rights,
Voting rights,
Climate Change,
Criminal Justice reform,
Immigrant rights,
taxes on Wall Street
speculation,
etc., etc., etc.
But corporate democrats are
worse than useless. Phony progressives like Kamala Harris and Cory Booker
are just like Hillary Clinton. And Hillary is even more odious than Trump
(https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/19/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-unpopular-polling).
Americans cannot accept the “c” word (communism). We need another name for the party that could wrestle power away from the billionaires in 2020, after Trump drives the USA into the ground. Progressives in the USA need various forms of interventions from progressives worldwide.
We need one movement, one
party: a New Left International.
(What follows is an excerpt from:
“We Must Rise from the Ashes
of Liberal Democracy,” by Slavoj Žižek)
The only way to defeat Trump—
and to redeem what is worth saving in liberal democracy—is to detach ourselves
from liberal democracy’s corpse and establish a new Left.
Elements of the program for
this new Left are easy to imagine.
Trump promises the
cancellation of the big free trade agreements supported by Clinton, and the
left alternative to both should be a project of new and different international
agreements.
Such agreements would
establish public control of the banks, ecological standards, workers rights,
universal healthcare, protections of sexual and ethnic minorities, etc.
The big lesson of global
capitalism is that nation states alone cannot do the job—only a new political
international has a chance of bridling global capital.
http://inthesetimes.com/article/19918/slavoj-zizek-from-the-ashes-of-liberal-democracy
Friday, March 30, 2018
Lula Leads in Polls as Court Upholds Conviction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=52&v=17NgsfvkMCw
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Progressives of the world, unite!
"Everybody in the World
Except US Citizens Should Be Allowed to Vote and Elect the American
Government"
--Slavoj Žižek
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)