Ian Buist: Ian Buist, CB, colonial officer, overseas aid administrator and champion of human and gay rights, was born on May 30, 1930. He died on October 19, 2012, aged 82, remembered by Richard Kirker.... [read more]
Richard Kirker remembers Ian Buist: the quintessential Civil Service mandarin, but also a doughty proponent of social progress. He had a fearless determination to champion the rights of the victims of injustice, minorities and the marginalised.... [read more]
A one-sided justice sees weaker states punished as rich nations and giant corporations project their power across the world, says George Monbiot.... [read more]
The death of twenty people on April 1 between Indian security forces and armed Hizbul Mujahedin militants in Anantnag district in Indian-controlled South Kashmir is a stark reminder of a criminal legacy of the anti-colonial religious-nationalism that has its modern roots in the Afghan jihad... [read more]
John Green writes about the life and work of one of America’s greatest singers who was ‘disappeared’ from public life and airbrushed out of the history books... [read more]
It is as if Africa’s proud history of liberation has been consigned to oblivion by a new master’s black colonial elite, writes John Pilger.... [read more]
Europe is different, as we are often reminded. The general wisdom is unlike the US’ unconditional support for Israel. European countries tend to be more balanced in their approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
Socialist Appeal's Terry McPartlan on how the present economic crisis could enhance class consciousnous and provide the impetus for far-reaching social change.... [read more]
There were two Donald Trumps this week. One of them was touring the Middle East, being feted everywhere. The second was in Washington, where he was battered from all sides... [read more]
In a few weeks, Israel will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War. Millions of words, most of them hollow, will be poured out. As usual.... [read more]
The global resurgence of violent Islamic fundamentalism can only be circumvented with a full comprehension and acknowledgment of what has historically gone wrong... [read more]
The Palestinians of Gaza consider themselves to be living within “occupied territory”, a fact recognised by the United Nations Human Rights Council and Human Rights Watch due to the fact that Israel maintains control of Gaza’s airspace, waters and borders... [read more]
One side's terrorists are the other side’s freedom fighters. That is not simply a matter of terminology. It is a difference of perception, which has far-reaching practical consequences... [read more]
If there is a God, he surely has a sense of humor. The career of Shimon Peres, who is about to finish his term as President of Israel, is clear evidence... [read more]
Dr Faysal Mikdadi publishes an excellent account of Palestine's history, focusing on how the economic, racist, religious, nationalistic, commercial and orientalist attitudes of Britain shaped the land and its people (Part 1 of 2)... [read more]
Apparently, ‘popular resistance’ has suddenly elevated to become a clash of visions or strategies between the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and its rivals in Gaza, underscoring an existing and deepening rift between various factions and leaderships, writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
At the root of Israeli state violence is a total refusal to recognise the Palestinians as a people, let alone a nation, writes Ahmed Amr.... [read more]
A new BBC season of programmes concerns ‘the novels that shaped our world.’ The perspective is the novel as a social agent, articulating experience to give it public voice.... [read more]
The situation in the Gaza Strip is as close to hell as one can get. Food at subsistence level, electricity for two to four hours a day, the water is polluted. Work is extremely scarce. Only the most severely ill are let out.... [read more]
In years gone by it never bothered me too much who was leading what country or international organisations because there were so many good leaders about who knew how the world worked... [read more]
It was in May, 1939. The British rulers of Palestine had just published a White Paper, putting the dampers on our Zionist vision. The world war was drawing close, and the British Empire needed the support of the Arab world.... [read more]
Ehud Barak has "broken the silence". He has published an article in The New York Times attacking our prime minister in the most abrasive terms... [read more]
Nobody will start peace negotiations if they believe that peace is impossible. The belief in peace will not make peace certain. But at least it will make peace possible.... [read more]
Trumpism is not a uniquely American phenomena. It is the local variant of an ultra-right anti-establishment ideology that has a worldwide manifestation... [read more]
Over forty years ago, a number of Irish professors visiting the University of Tehran disseminated their research findings that there is a firm anthropological connection between Iran and Ireland from the distant past... [read more]
A group of soldiers, supported by a major part of the political scene, has mutinied against their commanders. This is a major menace to the structure of the state, a challenge to what remains of our democracy.... [read more]
It is not very pleasant when serious people around the world – historians, psychiatrists, diplomats – ask themselves if my prime minister is completely sane... [read more]
Forty five years ago Gamal Abd-al-Nasser died at the early age of 52. It continues to have a huge influence on the present, and probably will on the future... [read more]
Let's put it bluntly: to try to stop IS means supporting the Assad regime. Bashar al-Assad is an abominable fellow, but he has kept Syria together, protected its many minorities and kept the Israeli border quiet... [read more]
Lying in the South China Sea between Indochina and the Philippines is a collection of 700 or so small islands collectively known as the Spratly Islands... [read more]
There is a need for both Israelis and Palestinians to change their discourse which is based on a mixture of rewriting history, expansionist aims, victimhood and endless conspiracy theories where none exist... [read more]
Allegations of a cover-up at Scotland Yard show that the British are as prone to malfeasance as any other nation, writes George Monbiot.... [read more]
For those of us who study Israel and Zionism from the vantage point of Britain, there are some things we are able to predict with unerring accuracy... [read more]
The Shas party has split into two. Opinion polls show that both parts are hovering around the 3.12% threshold which is now necessary for entering the Knesset, after the minimum was raised by the last Knesset... [read more]
The first part of an 'Introduction' to an illustrated book of poetry by Dr Faysal Mikdadi. The collection, Painted into a Corner, appeared in the summer of 2014... [read more]
Edward Gough Whitlam (”Gough Whitlam”), a former Labour prime minister of Australia, passed away on 21st October, 2014 at 98 years of age ... [read more]
Over the last decades and not least through the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, health initiatives have received unprecedented attention and funding... [read more]
For six decades my friends and I have warned our people: if we don't make peace with the nationalist Arab forces, we shall be faced with Islamic Arab forces
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After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the capitalist counter-revolution in China, an immense political vacuum opened up in ideology and politics on a world scale. Article by Dr Lal Khan... [read more]
The Yinon plan is an Israeli strategic plan to ensure Israeli regional superiority. It insists and stipulates that Israel must reconfigure its geo-political environment through the balkanization of the surrounding Arab states into smaller and weaker states... [read more]
The claim by Binyamin Netanyahu that he has a right to pick and choose the Palestinian government is rather astonishing, writes Uri Avnery
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In the "The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell" volume in the Library of Living Philosophers (1944) VJ McGill (1897-1977) published a detailed critique of Russell's political and economic philosophy... [read more]
When U.S. marines carried out the savage and systematic execution of Iraqi families and small children in Haditha [in November 2004], it was initially reported as a “battle” with “insurgent casualties.”... [read more]
Richard Becker, author of "Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire" describes the true legacy of the virulently anti-Arab racist and former Israeli prime minister... [read more]
Dr Faysal Mikdadi publishes an excellent account of Palestine's history, focusing on how the economic, racist, religious, nationalistic, commercial and orientalist attitudes of Britain shaped the land and its people (Part 2 of 2)... [read more]
In the late 1960s, I was given an usual assignment by the London Daily Mirror's editor in chief, Hugh Cudlipp. I was to return to my homeland, Australia, and "discover what lies behind the sunny face", writes John Pilger.... [read more]
This is a reply to Slavoj Zizek's article "Mandela's Socialist Failure" published online in The Stone (a New York Times maintained philosophy blog) on December 6, 2013... [read more]
Francis is the poster pope for progressives. But canonising a genocidal missionary like Junípero Serra epitomises the Catholic history problem, writes George Monbiot.... [read more]
For 67 years the US has pursued its own interests at the expense of global justice – no wonder people are sceptical now, writes George Monbiot.... [read more]
For 67 years the US has pursued its own interests at the expense of global justice – no wonder people are sceptical now, writes George Monbiot.... [read more]
The problem with media-run "conversations" on gender is not merely the almost total absence of male participants, but the suppression of class, writes John Pilger.... [read more]
The other day, I stood outside the strangely silent building where I began life as a journalist. It is no longer the human warren that was Consolidated Press in Sydney. It seems in Australia, hard-won rights are being buried beneath corporate might, writes John Pilger.... [read more]
Susan Walpole argues that the problems facing Christians, Muslims, Jews and other religions today appear to be firmly rooted in their ideologies of identity... [read more]
Faisal Mikdadi discusses the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and presents a road map for achieving peace between all peoples and factions that reside in these lands (Part 1)... [read more]
Ironically Capitialism's well founded fear of unfettered public access to matters of vital importance stems from the advent of the internet, writes Jim Handley... [read more]
The Guardian's description of Australia's opposition leader Tony Abbott as "neanderthal" is not unreasonable. Misogyny is an Australian blight and a craven reality in political life. But for so many commentators around the world to describe Julia Gillard's attack on Abbott as a "turning point for Australian women" is absurd, writes John Pilger.... [read more]
The condemnation of past behaviours has become fashionable. It is partly motivated by hindsight. It is also partly motivated by sheer outrage, as any decent and humane person cannot help but be outraged by man's often barbaric treatment of other human beings, writes Elizabeth Ellis.... [read more]
Recent demonstrations in protest of the rising cost of living have swept across the West Bank. While they are not indicative of a Palestinian version of the ‘Arab Spring’, they are still an important first step, writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
On the 7th of June 2012, Melinda Taylor and three other ICC delegates were arrested in the city of Zintan in Libya by Zintani militia. How should the Australian media handle the story? Finn Bowen takes a look.... [read more]
Northern Mali promises to be the graveyard of scores of innocent people if African countries don’t collectively challenge Western influence in the region, writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
In 1947, Nehru spoke about a tryst with destiny. Free from the shackles of British colonialism, India was on course for a bright new future. Fast forward and witness the not so glittering outcome that Nehru didn’t have in mind, writes Colin Todhunter.... [read more]
The widespread killings of Rohingya Muslims in Burma – or Myanmar - have received only passing and dispassionate coverage in most media. What they actually warrant is widespread outrage, says Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
As is my wont, I found plenty to occupy me over the extended half-week holiday and never felt sufficiently at a loose end to find myself tuning in to any of the blowsy and noisy shenanigans somebody thought might be welcome to Her Majesty the Queen to mark the 60th anniversary of her accession, writes W Stephen Gilbert.... [read more]
Yemeni forces continue to push against fighters affiliated with al-Qaeda. Their major victories come on the heels of the inauguration of Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi, who is now entrusted with the task of leading the country through a peaceful transition writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
Chavs by Owen Jones has rightly been lauded as an overdue rejoinder to the steady and near unstoppable denigration of the working class in Britain over the past three decades of unbroken Thatcherism, under both the Tories and New Labour, reviews John Wight.... [read more]
You always know when a high-ranking US politician is in India. Much of the media turns sycophant. It happened when Obama visited in 2010, and it occurred again as Hillary Clinton recently touched down in Kolkata but despite the media spin, India is not engaged in any form of bilateralism with the US, says Colin Todhunter. ... [read more]
Shortly after progressive Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba was overthrown by a Western backed coup in 1960, the former UN secretary general, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in mysterious circumstances. John Green asks if the two events were in any way connected.... [read more]
Israel’s colonization policies are entering an alarming new phase, comparable in historic magnitude to the original plans to colonize Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem following the war of 1967, writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
Britain’s history of war and imperialism, and its current role as junior partner in service to US hegemony, has had a deleterious impact on British society at home, writes John Wight.... [read more]
The recent University of Pennsylvania BDS conference, organized by student group, PennBDS, was the latest example to illustrate both the effectiveness of the global movement and also of the real worry felt by supporters of Israel in the US, writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
From the Chagos islands to Libya, a ruthless system has been at work, often resorting to violence whilst trying to maintain the illusion of democracy... [read more]
Amid the avalanche of articles and obituaries written in tribute to Christopher Hitchens in the wake of his recent passing, we have been reacquainted with the essential condition of western liberalism - moral depravity, says John Wight.
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Sarah Carlson looks at the growing social protest movement in Israel and discusses the need for the Israeli working class to combat not only the economic policies of their government but also its colonialist policies.... [read more]
As Colonel Gaddafi’s regime enters its final days, Brian Becker looks at NATOs involvement in bolstering the rebel movement and the truth behind the so called campaign of ‘humanitarian intervention’ ... [read more]
Michael Prysner, reveals how the newly appointed American Secretary of Defence, Leon Panetta, is bringing back Bush-era rhetoric and pushing to extend the occupation of Iraq.... [read more]
Catherine Wilson on the continued disparity of wealth between the indigenous Australians and the rest of society and empty attempts by the government to change this.... [read more]
The tensions on the Korean border are unlikely to die down so long as the US maintains its intransigent stance towards North Korea, says Kevin Gray.... [read more]
Khaled Taja, 70 years old and the iconic figure of Arabic drama, is planning to play the leading role in a movie about the tunnels of Gaza, writes Iqbal Tamimi.... [read more]
Delivering the 2009 Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell hailed the ongoing defiance of the world's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the face of deeply-entrenched homophobic prejudice.... [read more]
Addressing a Lenasia rally in solidarity with the people of Gaza on 14th January, Zwelinzima Vavi characterised the Israeli government as a racist regime comparable to Apartheid South Africa. ... [read more]
Ahead of next week's big vote in the United States, Jon Peter Daly reviews the valiant efforts of a minority party - the Party for Socialism and Liberation - to mount a progressive challenge to the mainstream parties.... [read more]
Washington sabre-rattling suggests the US will press ahead with its aggressive designs on Iran, regardless of the truth about the alleged threat posed by Iran, and regardless of the consequences. ... [read more]