Global News and Analysis

Source: Alternet

‘The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters’, Antonio Gramsci.

Donald J. Trump, the outsider billionaire, defeated Hillary R. Clinton, the insider politician, in a stunning upset for the US presidency. All polls and all pundits assumed that Clinton would win in a landslide. Confidence ran so high that Clinton’s people in the Democratic Party felt that she might even win traditionally Republican states – even Texas, the bastion of American conservatism. It was suggested that Clinton could win the battleground states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, denying Trump any path to victory. As it turned out, Trump won each of these states, comfortable in his victory. read more

Source: Pacific Standard

Prayer circles, rubber bullets, and a buffalo stampede at the major protest in rural North Dakota.

Front Line Camp, Highway 1806, Outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota, October 27, 2016

A woman’s voice cries out: “We cannot let them cross! For our children and our grandchildren!”

“Stand in prayer!” a man warns, as a call and response rings out: “Black Snake Killers! Black Snake Killers!”

“We are going to stop this pipeline!” a youth boldly declares.

A female elder proclaims firmly in Lakota: “Mni Wiconi!” Water is life.

The voices of hundreds of Native Americans and their allies, punctuated by the high pitched “lilili” ululations of women and the deeper whoops of men, echo out across Highway 1806 and the adjacent field that they have dubbed “Front Line Camp.” read more

Source: The Nation

The left is profoundly divided over the conflict, but we should at least agree on a set of principles to end it.

We need a powerful movement demanding an end to the war in Syria. The United States and to some extent the global antiwar movements remain largely paralyzed. There are some campaigns responding to specific congressional and other war moves, with some particularly good work against US support for Saudi Arabia. But as a movement, we seem unable to sort through the complexity of the multi-layered wars raging across Syria, and unable to respond to our internal divisions to create the kind of powerful movement we need to challenge the escalating conflict. read more

Source: Pambazuka

Britain’s Labour leader has challenged the neoliberal dogma that has ruled the world ever since Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979 and Ronald Reagan in America in 1981.  This has been disastrous for Africa, where it has come in the form of the so-called “Economic Structural Adjustment Programs”  aimed at restructuring African economies to conform to the demands of the imperialist countries, and not the development needs of Africa.

My last blog was on the US elections where I argued that although neither Clinton nor Trump is my hero, Trump is a better bet from an African perspective. In this piece I argue that in the political contest for state power in the United Kingdom Jeremy Corbyn is definitely my favorite. read more

Source: Truthout

With the recent insertion of Russian military power into Syria and the continued use of American air power in the region, the situation in Syria has gotten tenser than ever, especially since the allegedly accidental September 17, 2016, attack on a Syrian military position that killed dozens, followed by the dismissive comments about the incident that US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power made at a UN press conference on September 17. Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell recently said, “The Russians and Iranians need to pay a little price for their actions in support of Assad.” read more

Source: The Nation

Leer, South Sudan—There it is again. That sickening smell. I’m standing on the threshold of a ghost of a home. Its footprint is all that’s left. In the ruins sits a bulbous little silver teakettle—metal, softly rounded, charred but otherwise perfect, save for two punctures. Something tore through it and ruined it, just as something tore through this home and ruined it, just as something tore through this town and left it a dusty, wasted ruin.

This, truth be told, is no longer a town, not even a razed one. It’s a killing field, a place where human remains lie unburied, whose residents have long since fled, while its few remaining inhabitants are mostly refugees from similarly ravaged villages. read more