The Flame, August 2010 -- Green Left Weekly's Arabic-language supplement
Thailand: Freedom of speech is a severe danger to the ruling class
By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
August 10, 2010 -- Tantawut Taweewarodomkun, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) USA's web designer, known as “Red Eagle”, who was arrested on April 1, 2010, on “computer crimes” and lese majeste charges, has been remanded in custody until February 2011, when the court has set a date to interrogate prosecution and defence witnesses. That means that Red Eagle will be detained in prison for at least 10 months BEFORE being tried in court. He has only just had access to his lawyer. Red Eagle has not been charged with any crime of violence or charged with committing any physical act. He is accused of looking after a website that has comments that the royalist elites do not like (see www.norporchorusa.com and www.norporchorusa2.com).
Philippines: Extrajudicial killings and the struggle for land reform under ‘Noynoy’ Aquino
Satur Ocampo.
Satur Ocampo, Bayan Muna president, interviewed by Reihana Mohideen
August 11, 2010 -- Some 1205 extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings, largely political activists and journalists, took place under the government of former Philippines president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, according to the human rights organisation Karapatan. In the few weeks since the June 30 inauguration of the new president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, six extrajudicial killings have taken place, three being members of organisations aligned with the Bayan Muna (Country First) party.
Bayan Muna is an electoral formation and Satur Ocampo is its president. Ocampo is a former member of the Philippines Congress representing Bayan Muna, when Bayan Muna topped the 2001 and 2004 party list elections (the system of proportional representation for the marginalised sectors). Ocampo headed the peace negotiations panel of the National Democratic Front, allied with the Communist Party of the Philippines–New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), after the collapse of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986.
Bolivia's UN ambassador: Despite extreme weather, rich countries fail to cut greenhouse gases
August 10, 2010 -- Democracy Now! -- Even as the world faces a series of extreme
weather events that scientists warn is related to global warming,
international climate negotiations are moving at a glacial pace. The
latest round of climate talks in Bonn, Germany, ended last week, and
diplomats have just one more short meeting in China in the coming months
to hash out their differences before the critical high-level climate
conference in Cancún, Mexico, at the end of the year.
At the meetings in Bonn, the negotiating text got a lot bigger,
and a number of proposals from developing countries were added into the
controversial agreement that came out of the divisive Copenhagen summit
last year. Some fear the new text could slow down talks in Cancún, but
others say the concerns of the majority of the world’s countries are
finally represented in the text.
The dissemination and reception of the `Grundrisse' -- a contribution to the history of Marxism
[The following article is a chapter from Karl Marx’s Grundrisse: Foundations of the critique of political economy 150 years later, edited by Marcello Musto. Published by Routledge, the paperback edition is just out. It is posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with the author's permission. Marcello Musto teaches at the Department of Political Science at York University, Toronto Canada. Fpr more details about the book and how to order, click HERE.
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By Marcello Musto[1]
Pakistan: Labour Relief Campaign launches appeal for millions affected by floods
Appeal from the Labour Relief Campaign, Pakistan
August 7, 2010 -- More than 12 million people are suffering from floods in Pakistan. Please donate to the Labour Relief Campaign to help people of Pakistan facing the worst-ever floods in its history. Torrential rains have unleashed flash floods in different parts of the country in the last three weeks. Levies have broken, leaving the people exposed to flood water.
More than 650,000 houses have collapsed, mainly in villages. Thousands of hectares of crops have been destroyed due to flood water. Livestock, household goods, clothes, shoes and other items have been destroyed. Residents of villages are without drinkable water, food, shelter and in need of clothes.
Zimbabwe: Liberation nationalism, old and born again
Australian socialists: `Vote Socialist & Greens, put Abbott's conservatives last'
Sam Watson, Socialist Alliance Senate candidate for Queensland. Longstanding leader of the Aboriginal community of Brisbane, campaigner against Black deaths in custody and for Indigenous rights.
On July 24, 2010, Australia's leading socialist newspaper Green Left Weekly spoke to Peter Boyle, national convener of the Socialist Alliance, about the political climate of the 2010 federal election, to be held on August 21.
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Many progressive people are feeling depressed about the federal election. How do you see it?
The Australian Labor Party and the conservative Liberal Party-National Party Coalition are in a “race to the bottom”, as Socialist Alliance lead Queensland Senate candidate and Murri [Indigenous] community leader Sam Watson aptly put it.
Why the left should support the boycott of Israel -- a reply to the US Socialist Workers Party
By Art Young