Chris Floyd

Afghan funeral.

All who draw the sword will die by the sword. ~Yeshua Ha-Notsri, Palestinian dissident, c. 33 CE.

I.
As we all know – or rather, as everyone but those who climb and claw their way to the top of power's greasy pole knows – the effects of war are vast, unforeseeable, long-lasting -- and uncontrollable. The far-reaching ripples of the turbulence will churn against distant shores and hidden corners, then roil back upon you in ways you could never imagine, for generations, even centuries.

Nor is "victory" in war proof against these deleterious effects. For the brutalization, moral coarsening, corruption and concentration of elite power that attend every war do not simply disappear from a society when the fighting stops. They persist, like microbes, in myriad forms, working with slow, corrosive force to degrade and deform the victors. Indeed, victory in battle often leads a society to enshrine war's most pernicious attributes: violence is ennobled, and becomes entrenched as an ever-ready instrument of national policy. Militarism is exalted, the way of peace dishonored: cries of "Appeasers! Cowards! Traitors!" greet every approach that fails to brandish the threat of extreme violence, that fails to "keep all options on the table."

The apparent "lesson" of victory – that there can be no right without armed might to win and safeguard it – quickly degenerates into the belief that armed might is right. (William Astore has an excellent article here on how the collision with Nazi Germany infected America's military with a continuing admiration for the German war machine.) Military power becomes equated with moral worth, and the ability to wreak savage, unimaginable destruction through armed violence -- via thoughtless obedience to the orders of "superiors" – becomes a cherished attribute of society.

More »

Diana Johnstone

A man walks by a graffiti reading 'eat the rich', sprayed on the wall of a bank
office in central Athens (Photo: EPA)

For Europe’s poorest countries, European Union membership has long held out the promise of tranquil prosperity. The current Greek financial crisis ought to dispel some of their illusions.

There are two strikingly significant levels to the current crisis. While primarily economic, the European Economic Community also claims to be a community, based on solidarity -- the sisterhood of nations and brotherhood of peoples. However, the economic deficit is nothing compared to the human deficit it exposes.

To put it simply, the Greek crisis shows what happens when a weak member of this Union is in trouble. It is the same as what happens on the world scale, where there is no such morally pretentious union perpetually congratulating itself on its devotion to human rights. The economically strong protect their own interests at the expense of the economically weak.

More »

Rifat Kassis

A Palestinian woman stands by as Israeli army bulldozers uproot olive
trees belonging to families in Beit Jala, occupied West Bank, 3 March
2010. (Anne Paq/ActiveStills)

Words always matter, and names always have a life of their own. But perhaps Palestine and Israel form a context in which words become positions more dramatically than in many others. The authors of the "Moment of Truth" Kairos document, which is the Christian Palestinians' statement to the world about the occupation of Palestine and a call for support in opposing it, have repeatedly been asked about the use of the word "boycott." What exactly does this mean? How far exactly does it go? And what exactly does it call for?

The document calls for a complete system of sanctions of Israel. Not simply a boycott of products generated by settlements or of products in general, or of institutions and organizations that are unabashedly complicit in the occupation, but a total boycott. Our occupation is not selective, and so our opposition must not be.

The injustices perpetrated by the State of Israel affect our economy, our education, our health and our mobility; they inhibit our most quotidian and our most far-reaching freedoms; they stigmatize our language and confine our travel; they stifle what we do and buy and make. The occupation is not a random onslaught of power, and it isn't conducted on some remote soil: it is a complete matrix of control, a strategic, consistent, deliberate, historically constructed, externally condoned and internally sustained attempt to separate Palestinian and Israel rights and lives in the very place where we make and have always made our home. Boycotting Israel signifies boycotting this entire range of injustice.

More »

Comité por una Internacional de Trabajadores, CIT.

El terremoto del día sábado 27 de febrero, deja al desnudo la ineficiencia he incapacidad del Estado chileno, que al parecer ni siquiera contaba con un sistema de comunicaciones alternativo, a través de sistemas de telefonía satelital o radio por ejemplo, y demuestra que toda la arrogancia de la elite dominante sobre la superioridad del sistema neoliberal imperante en el país no tiene ninguna base en la realidad.

La respuesta para solucionar o paliar en parte los problemas más urgentes de amplios sectores de la población ha sido extremadamente lenta e ineficaz. Los sectores más pobres hoy no tienen alimentos, a diferencia de los sectores más adinerados que tienen despensas o bodegas con alimentos en sus casas. La mayoría de los sectores populares viven el día a día, contando con alimentos para uno o dos días.

Lo que no es sino otro ejemplo de la mala distribución del ingreso en este país, donde muy pocos nadan en la abundancia y la gran mayoría en la mas absoluta miseria y gran endeudamiento.

La falta de agua y luz contribuye a demostrar la ineficiencia del sistema, dado que los empresarios del agua no hacen nada por distribuir este vital elemento (en camiones aljibes), debido a que su distribución no pasaría por sus medidores y no podrían luego cobrársela a la gente a pesar de su lamentable situación.

La falta de alimentos y de agua ha llevado a la gente a una situación desesperada, nadie quiere ver a sus hijos llorando de hambre o de sed, esta situación es lo que ha llevado a la gente a entrar por la fuerza a los supermercados a sacar alimentos vitales para su subsistencia y sus familias.

More »