the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Keir Starmer’s baseless decision to suspend former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is a transparent attack on the Left. Labour members must fight it, or everything Corbyn stood for will depart with him.   by Ronan Burtenshaw   Yesterday, the EHRC report into Labour’s antisemitism controversy was released. Contrary to the doomsday predictions on both sides — that it would label the party institutionally antisemitic or personally indict Jeremy Corbyn and his team — it was a sober and earnest document that focused on procedural issues. By lunchtime, it seemed likely it would be broadly accepted across the Labour Party. The report found that Labour’s processes for handling antisemitism complaints were lacking. Its structures were too weak, they were subject to political pressures, under-resourced, and lacked proper guidance. Its staff had not had access to appropriate training. The most damning finding — of harassment — related to two cases where representatives of the part...

Moderate Rebels   Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton report from La Paz, Bolivia, where they observed the historic landslide victory of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party of former President Evo Morales.  They speak with human rights lawyer Thomas Becker about the horrific crimes and repression of the coup regime that has ruled Bolivia since the military overthrew Evo in November 2019. They also discuss the deep colonial racism of the Bolivian right-wing, and the power of social movements and indigenous resistance against authoritarianism and imperialism.

by Gabriel Rockhill    “The U.S. has established itself as the mortal enemy of all people’s government, all scientific-socialist mobilization of consciousness everywhere on the globe, all anti-imperialist activity on earth.” – George Jackson Part 3 - Fascism Goes Global under Liberal Cover   The American imperium has thus played a central role in the construction of a fascist international by protecting right-wing militants and enlisting them in the Third World War against ‘communism,’ an elastic label extended to any political orientation that entered into conflict with the interests of the capitalist ruling class. This international expansion of fascist modes of governance has led to a proliferation of concentration camps, terrorist and torture campaigns, dirty wars, dictatorial regimes, vigilante groups and organized crime networks around the world. The examples could be enumerated ad nauseum, but I will curtail them in the interests of space and simply invoke the test...

The Ecuadorian diplomat who gave Julian Assange political asylum reports from the extradition hearing against the WikiLeaks journalist, and explains why it is “the most important case against the freedom of expression in an entire generation.”   by Fidel Narváez, (translated by Ben Norton)   Part 4 - WikiLeaks’ publications are truthful information that is historically relevant.   The British-American lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, the founder of the human rights organization Reprieve, testified that WikiLeaks shined a light on torture of detainees in Guantánamo, and revealed that many were not terrorists, but rather had been arrested in Afghanistan in a bounty system. The worst accusations had been “staged” against prisoners, who were sometimes forced to admit to them under torture. Stafford Smith explained that it was thanks to WikiLeaks that the use of these torture techniques are known, such as the pulley, or hanging someone by their wrists until their shoulders are dis...

Luis Arce’s election win is a huge victory for Bolivian social movements. All eyes are now on MAS’s political project.  by Nicole Fabricant   Part 1 Last Sunday, 11 months after the right-wing coup against Bolivian president Evo Morales, his MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo) party won a landslide victory with 55 percent of the vote. MAS presidential candidate Luis Arce needed at least 40 percent of the vote and a 10-point lead over his nearest rival to win outright. He cleared that bar in a crowded field, surpassing Carlos Mesa—a right-leaning historian who served as president from 2003 to 2005 after Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada resigned following the massacre of Indigenous protestors—by more than 20 points. The credit for MAS’s resounding victory must go to Bolivia’s social movements, historically some of the strongest in Latin America. They faced down the coup-makers and voted the MAS back into office. As Arce proclaimed in his first speech following the election, “ We have recove...

 by Alex Harman Part 9 - Amazon’s Third-Party Sellers Are Engaged in Price Gouging   In addition to Amazon’s direct price gouging, third-party sellers continue to engage in price gouging behavior on the site. Because of its financial relationship with third-party sellers, Amazon also benefited from these increased prices across its platform. Third-Party Sellers Account for 25% of Amazon Online Retail Revenue In 2019, Amazon reported that the company’s annual share of revenue generated by third-party sellers was $42.75 billion. The latest Amazon earnings report from the second quarter of 2020 showed an increase of 53% to $18.2 billion for just that quarter. This was not gross revenue. This is just the cut that Amazon kept in fees that average around 15%. Some recent estimates have put that percentage much higher as a result of the advertising fees Amazon charges sellers outside of the list and fulfilment fees. This is compared to the annual gross revenue for the Amazon retail...

Across the spectrum, corporate media has endorsed last year’s rightwing takeover of Bolivia, refusing to label it as a coup. Coverage of Sunday’s historical elections hasn’t been much better.   by Alan Macleod    Part 2 - Media disappointment at return of democracy Across the spectrum, corporate media endorsed the events of November, refusing to label them a coup. The New York Times editorial board claimed that the “ increasingly autocratic ” tyrant Morales had actually “ resigned, ” after “ protests ” over a “ highly fishy vote. ”  The Washington Post did the same. “ There can be little doubt who was responsible for the chaos: newly resigned president Evo Morales, ” their editorial board wrote, as they expressed their relief that Bolivia was finally in the hands of “ more responsible leaders ” like Añez, (who, at the time, was giving security forces orders to shoot her opponents in the streets).    Despite this, The Wall Street Journal ’s board decided t...

Based on a handful of think tank reports and witness testimonies, Western governments have levied false allegations of genocide and slavery in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. A closer look makes clear that the politicization of China’s anti-terrorism policies in Xinjiang is another front of the U.S.-led hybrid war on China. This resource compilation provides a starting point for critical inquiry into the historical context and international response to China’s policies in Xinjiang, providing a counter-perspective to misinformation that abounds in mainstream coverage of the autonomous region.   by Qiao Collective   Part 4 - Chinese Anti-Terrorism Policy and International Context (2012-2016)   2012 October 30  – Chinese officials announce that since May 2012, ETIM/TIP has been participating in the Syrian Civil War, which had started in early 2011. (Later Anadolu Agency report from 2014).   2014 May 25 – The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region issues a notification...

by Jonathan Cook   Part 5 - Our mental black boxes   The third chapter gets to the nub of the problem without indicating exactly what that nub is. That is because The Social Dilemma cannot properly draw from its already faulty premises the necessary conclusion to indict a system in which the Netflix corporation that funded the documentary and is televising it is so deeply embedded itself. For all its heart-on-its-sleeve anxieties about the “existential threat” we face as a species, The Social Dilemma is strangely quiet about what needs to change – aside from limiting our kids’ exposure to Youtube and Facebook. It is a deflating ending to the rollercoaster ride that preceded it. Here I want to backtrack a little. The film’s first chapter makes it sound as though social media’s rewiring of our brains to sell us advertising is something entirely new. The second chapter treats our society’s growing loss of empathy, and the rapid rise in an individualistic narcissism, as something ...

Democracy At Work  Learn more about Prof Wolff's new book, The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself . Available now!

The Grayzone   Anya Parampil speaks with journalist Ollie Vargas in La Paz, Bolivia about the historic victory of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party in the October 18 elections. They discuss the role of Bolivia's social movements in overturning the coup regime that came to power in 2019, as well as the expectations of average people as the new government of Luis Arce takes power. 

Progressive International   Former President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, gives a powerful speech in support of Julian Assange — and condemns all those who failed to come to his defence.  Convened by the Progressive International, The Belmarsh Tribunal investigated and evaluated US war crimes in the 21st century — and defended Julian Assange's right to reveal them.  

by Gabriel Rockhill    “The U.S. has established itself as the mortal enemy of all people’s government, all scientific-socialist mobilization of consciousness everywhere on the globe, all anti-imperialist activity on earth.” – George Jackson Part 2 - The Architects of the Fascist International   When the United States entered WWII, the future head of the CIA, Allen Dulles, bemoaned that his country was fighting the wrong enemy. The Nazis, as he explained, were pro-capitalist Aryan Christians, whereas the true enemy was godless communism and its resolute anti-capitalism. After all, the U.S. had, only some 20 years prior, been part of a massive military intervention in the U.S.S.R., when fourteen capitalist countries sought—in the words of Winston Churchill—to “ strangle the Bolshevik baby in its crib. ” Dulles understood, like many of his colleagues in the U.S. government, that what would later become known as the Cold War was actually the old war, as Michael Parenti has c...

The Ecuadorian diplomat who gave Julian Assange political asylum reports from the extradition hearing against the WikiLeaks journalist, and explains why it is “the most important case against the freedom of expression in an entire generation.”   by Fidel Narváez, (translated by Ben Norton)   Part 3 - There was never a reckless disclosure of names. No one has been hurt due to WikiLeaks publications.   The legendary leaker of the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, told that court that he “ totally disagrees with the ‘good Ellsberg / bad Assange’ theory. ” He said Julian did “ everything possible ” to redact and withhold damaging information, working with media outlets in the redaction process. The Pentagon Papers were top secret, but WikiLeaks’ documents were not classified as restricted and hence, by definition, there should be nothing that is truly sensitive. Ellsberg said that Assange withheld 15,000 files from the Afghan War Diary to protect names, and also requested hel...

A Washington, DC-based PR firm linked to the US government and Democratic Party, CLS Strategies, ran a fake news network on Facebook and Instagram, spreading propaganda for Bolivia’s coup regime and the right-wing opposition in Venezuela and Mexico. by Ben Norton Part 10 - CLS Strategies and neoconservative Democratic Party operatives   Given CLS Strategies’ extensive work with right-wing Latin American leaders, it might seem as though the influential PR firm would be affiliated with the Republican Party, a traditional bastion of antipathy toward socialist governments across the Global South. But in reality it emerged from the heart of the Democratic Party. Like Mark Feierstein and Peter Schechter, fellow CLS Strategies co-founder Robert “Bob” Chlopak has deep ties to the Democratic Party. Before creating the PR firm in the 1990s, Chlopak served as the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the deputy director of the Democratic Congressional...