(33:15) question #12 Changing the political system from within the system.

La revolución no será calco ni copia, sino creación heroica (The revolution will not be traceable or a copy, but a heroic creation).

— Jose Carlos Mariategui (1894–1930)

By Oliver Villar and Drew Cottle

FARC guerillas.

November 3, 2011 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — Colombia is the first Latin American country to become subjected to the theatre of United States anti-guerrilla warfare. Colombia has also one of the richest histories of revolutionary politics on the continent extending well over half a century. It is throughout this time, that Colombia has been the battleground of an undeclared civil war.

Two mutually complementary causes are traceable. First, Colombia’s compradores, the national business and landlord classes have waged a life and death battle against the landless poor. Second, a policy of repression and repossession has been pursued by the Colombian ruling class with the financial and military support of the USA.

The aim of the US counterinsurgency has been to defeat the long and enduring struggle for national liberation by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army, FARC-EP), Latin America’s oldest and most powerful Marxist insurgency. Longer than Vietnam, it has been America’s longest and toughest counterinsurgency war (Leech 2011). No other Latin American country has experienced so long a period of almost undisrupted violence from the mid-twentieth century as Colombia.

Click here to continue reading “From La Violencia to the War on Terror: A re-examination of Colombia’s FARC-EP inside Bolivar’s ‘Gran Colombia” by Oliver Villar and Drew Cottle.

David Cronin, The Electronic Intifada, 4 November 2011

It is unusual for politicians to namedrop journalists. And so it should be; our job as reporters and commentators is to expose the harm done by the powerful, not to curry favor with them. One exception I recall was during a 2003 press briefing given by James Wolfensohn, then the World Bank’s president, most of which he spent listing his influential acquaintances. Among them was Thomas Friedman, who, Wolfensohn reminded his listeners, “belongs to your profession.”

After reading The Imperial Messenger by Belén Fernández, the thought of sharing a profession with Friedman revolts me. Fernández demonstrates meticulously how The New York Times columnist seeks to make racism respectable.

Click here to continue reading “Book review: Fernández skewers empire’s messenger Tom Friedman” by David Cronin.

Freedom Waves to Gaza
Palestine Office @PALWaves
7 November 2011

UPDATE ON FREEDOM WAVES POLITICAL PRISONERS

[RAMALLAH] Of the 27 human rights defenders captured during Israel’s illegal takeover of the Freedom Waves to Gaza vessels on Friday, 4 November, 20 remain in Givon prison and the whereabouts of one is unknown.

Israeli officials have been claiming that all 27 people aboard the MV Tahrir and MV Saoirse have been released or are awaiting deportation. This is not true. Freedom Waves can confirm that six people have been released or deported. These are Majd Kayyal (Palestinian from Haifa), Lina Attalah (Journalist from Egypt), Casey James (Journalist from the US), Aimane Zoubir (Journalist from Morocco), Captain George Klontzas (Greece) and Captain Zacharias Stylianakis.

The whereabouts of British journalist, Hassan Ghani of PressTV is unknown. On Saturday prison authorities told lawyers that Hassan was not at the prison, yet we know that he has not yet been released. Freedom Waves organizers demand that the Israeli authorities reveal where Hassan Ghani is being held and that he be allowed access to a lawyer.

Continue reading →

Uploaded to YouTube.com by whereisthejustice1 on Jul 27, 2011

Director: Vibeke Løkkeberg

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1699705/