Historically labour has always found itself at the unfortunate end of the table, denied the fruits of its labour. Organised labour has, therefore, always tried to alter the balance of power in society. Sometimes unions have attempting to align with state power, to try push it towards the side of the workers. Sometimes unions have instead developed organisational strategies that look beyond state power. In India, as elsewhere, “political unionism” – where unions support a political party aiming at state power – has been very common. This short article will critically discuss the history of “political unionism” in India. It will argue the need for a change in the strategic outlook of unions, towards working outside the state, building movements that refuse to participate in the state but aim instead to pressure it for reform where possible, through bottom-up mobilisation. ... read full story / add a comment

Exploiting the latest spillover from the two previous interventions in Libya and Mali, which are a product of AFRICOM intelligence and military assistance, they are making rapid gains in their North Africa advance. For what? One begins to ask, before continuing understanding how profitable chaos is, is crucial to answering the question. The ensuing chaos within Mali, expanding to Algeria and set to encompass North Africa leaves scope for a state of permanent low level war. This low level war is nothing new, it’s taking place as you read this over nearly all of the globalised world claiming millions of lives: described by John Pilger as the Third World War. This expanding theatre of the ‘war on terror’, which I will later explore, provides ample opportunity within its vast marketplace for hordes of corporations to destroy, ravage, rebuild and beautify entire nations. ... read full story / add a comment

[Resulta oportuno escribir estas líneas desde Beirut, donde se da una profunda polarización entre quienes morirían por el régimen sirio y quienes querrían que desapareciese a toda costa. Los que no soportan ninguna de esas dos posturas son tachados, por ambas partes, de cobardes y oportunistas; también por quienes integran el campo pro saudí. Fuera del contexto árabe, a los comentaristas pro-Israel no les va a gustar la posición que aquí matizo porque Israel y EEUU aparecen con una luz no precisamente favorable. Tan buena compañía como son... El autor NO postula que esta sea la mejor interpretación acerca de una posición matizada: tan solo es una de las que cabría hacer.] ... read full story / add a comment

Magia con INTERPOL: Joaquín Pérez Becerra, sobreviviente a un genocidio y periodista entregado a sus verdugos VS Directora del DAS, parte de un ente de persecución política, protegida ... read full story / add a comment

Since yesterday, and actually earlier, middle-class activists have been urging Egyptians to suspend the protests and return to work, in the name of patriotism, singing some of the most ridiculous lullabies about "let's build new Egypt," "let's work harder than even before," etc. In case you didn't know, actually Egyptians are among the hardest working people in the globe already. Those activists want us to trust Mubarak's generals with the transition to democracy -- the same junta that has provided the backbone of his dictatorship over the past 30 years. And while I believe the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who receive $1.3 billion annually from the US, will eventually engineer the transition to a "civilian" government, I have no doubt it will be a government that will guarantee the continuation of a system that will never touch the army's privileges, keep the armed forces as the institution that will have the final say in politics (as for example in Turkey), guarantee Egypt will continue to follow the US foreign policy, whether it's the undesired peace with the Apartheid State of Israel, safe passage for the US Navy in the Suez Canal, the continuation of the Gaza siege, or exports of natural gas to Israel at subsidized rates. A civilian government is not about cabinet members who do not wear military uniforms. A civilian government means a government that fully represents the Egyptian people's demands and desires without any intervention from the brass. And I see this as hard to be allowed, let alone accomplished, by the junta. ... read full story / add a comment

Hace ocho días pregunté en esta columna cuánto sabía el presidente Álvaro Uribe sobre Salvador Arana, condenado a 40 años de prisión por asesinato y concierto para promover grupos armados, cuando lo envió a la embajada de Colombia en Chile.

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Varias organizaciones sociales de la ciudad y del país lanzaron públicamente un conjunto de eventos programados dentro del marco de la campaña “Frente BID.50, cincuenta años generando desigualdad”, en ocasión del 50 aniversario del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) que se llevara a cabo en la Asamblea de Gobernadores del Banco la próxima semana en la ciudad de Medellín.

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Sami Abu Shehadeh and Fadi Shbaytah are residents of Jaffa, and members of the Jaffa Popular Committee for the Defense of Land and Housing Rights. This article was translated from Arabic by Hazem Jamjoum, and was originally published in the upcoming (Autumn 2008/Winter 2009) issue of al-Majdal, the quarterly magazine of the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (http://www.badil.org/).
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Sami Halabi is a freelance journalist and political commentator based in Beirut who covers a variety of economic and political issues relating to the Middle East and in particular the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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El matadero que el ejército israelí está creando en la Franja de Gaza es parte de una guerra colonial. El racismo y la violencia son factores intrínsecos. Principalmente, este racismo israelí se expresa como una distinción entre el valor de la vida (y la muerte) de una persona judía israelí y la de un palestino. La vida de éste es concebida, para la mayoría de israelíes, como barata y a partir de aquí se hacen posibles las maneras con las que el ejército israelí los trata. Ningún balbuceo autosuficiente sobre el valor de la vida humana y la abstención de herir a civiles no puede ocultar este hecho. Este racismo es expresado más profundamente en la fantasía israelí de que esto puede coronarlos como reyes y forzar las disposiciones beligerantes en Oriente Medio sobre "las carreras inferiores". El fracaso completo en el logro de este objetivo con su primera y segunda guerra contra el Líbano no impide que Israel lo intente de nuevo en Palestina.
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The Electronic Intifada interviewed Sami Mushasha, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) following Israel's bombing of its quarters today.
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Como no aguanto tanta presión de grupo, he decidido volverme uribista.

De modo que de ahora en adelante botaré mis libros de filosofía y mi filósofo de cabecera será José Obdulio Gaviria.

Creeré que la meritocracia para ser nombrado en una embajada consiste en ser hijo de un político uribista, ojalá costeño y ojalá corrupto.

Creeré que los paras eran un mal menor, necesario para acabar con la guerrilla.

Me parecerá que los crímenes de los paras no eran tan graves. ... read full story / add a comment

Sam Bahour is a business consultant and may be reached at sbahour@palnet.com. ... read full story / add a comment

Osamah Khalil is a Palestinian-American doctoral candidate in US and Middle East History at the University of California at Berkeley, focusing on US foreign policy in the Middle East ... read full story / add a comment

Sami Hermez is a doctoral student of anthropology at Princeton University researching violence and armed resistance in Lebanon and has been active in relief and redevelopment projects in the south of Lebanon. ... read full story / add a comment

About the author: Sami Hermez is a doctoral student of anthropology at Princeton University researching violence and armed resistance in Lebanon and has been active in relief and redevelopment projects in the south of Lebanon. ... read full story / add a comment

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, General Secretary of Hizballah, is the leader of a movement claiming to fight for the right of self-determination, in the same way that Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were leaders of movements that claimed similar ends. However, Nasrallah will likely not be elevated to the status of a Gandhi, Mandela or other leaders of resistance movements of our time, nor will he be given the same revere and respect. Rather, he will be remembered as a violent man, a terrorist, appearing angry in pictures rather than with his innocent, almost childlike smile. ... read full story / add a comment

Karl Marx used to say that England was the country where class struggle will travel to its end. Can we say that Lebanon is the country where class struggle goes to its sectarian end? When observing the political spin of March 14th leaders and their media outlets in Lebanon it becomes clear that such fraudulent ideas are being directed toward the open sit-in in downtown Beirut. ... read full story / add a comment

On January 23, 2007, the Lebanese opposition shut down the entire country, pummeling heavy black smoke over its skies and sending the entire country into an economic standstill. It was and is a top-down "democratic" movement, nonviolent in its intent, but with empty demands; this primarily because of a fundamental flaw in the system that requires any opposition to build coalitions of national unity, thus forced to share power with former and current thieves and murderers, and making higher demands a form of political suicide. The day's event leaves one with a feeling of the surreal and a sense of absurdity. And how does one begin to recount the surreal, the absurd? ... read full story / add a comment

"We want to live!" This is what president Siniora says, repeating the slogans posted on bulletin boards across the capital these days. We, of course, want to live like Siniora wants. But, "free and dignified" living has to include everyone: our captives in the jails of occupation that have sacrificed for us, our people in the South dwelling amid daily Israeli violations and in the danger that one of the one million two hundred thousand cluster bomblets dropped by Israel during the last hours before the cease-fire could explode in the face of their sons and daughters. Free and dignified living should include the poor and dispossessed, low-income employees and the victims of Hariri’s "reconstruction"— most people neither benefited from his upscale Solidère or from his luxurious airport. "We want to live" should include, as well, the more than three hundred thousand Palestinians who, in the camps of misery, are simply not "living". ... read full story / add a comment