The late political philosopher Isaiah Berlin coined the term ''secular priesthood'' to describe Russian commissars who were apologists for Stalin's crimes. Later, MIT Professor Noam Chomsky adapted the term to characterize their counterpart in contemporary societies, namely the higher level media, commentators and academic types who learn which side of their crusty French bread has the foie gras.
Source: Green Left Weekly
On October 31, Morocco’s allies on the United Nations Security Council – including France, the United States and Britain – blocked a motion to condemn human rights abuses against the people of occupied Western Sahara. Despite reports of Morocco’s escalating repression of the Saharawi independence movement, the resolution passed by the Security Council merely extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), a 15-year-old "peacekeeping" mission that has failed to facilitate a referendum on self determination.
The presidential victory for the United States' Cold War Sandinista foe, Daniel Ortega, is certain. With 91.6% of polling stations reporting, the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) candidate Ortega is in first place with 38.07% of the vote. In second place is Alianza Liberal Nicaraguense (ALN) candidate Eduardo Montealegre with 29%, followed by Partido Liberal Constitucional candidate José Rizo with 26.21%. In fourth place is Movimiento Renovador Sandinista (MRS) candidate Edmundo Jarquín with 6.44%, and coming in last is Alianza para el Cambio (AC) candidate Edén Pastora with 0.27% of the vote. Montealegre officially conceded the victory to Ortega on November 7th.
"God is greater than Israel and America," was the echoing cry of tens of thousands of Palestinians, who descended into the graveyard in grief stricken Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip. They congregated in yet another familiar scene to bury their loved ones, killed by Israel's brutal war against the Palestinians.
"Nothing that has ever happened should be regarded as lost for history. To be sure, only a redeemed mankind receives the fullness of its past-which is to say, only for a redeemed mankind has its past become citable in all its moments"-Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History30 Yrs After Argentine Coup*
Recent events in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico have overturned the political climate in the country. More than 70 years of single party politics has finally changed at the national level. However, these winds of change never arrived in Oaxaca, where we have a dictatorial system of government that allows for killers of protesters - such as the case of Indymedia reporter Brad Will - to walk freely. Never before in the recent history of the state of Oaxaca have we seen such a degree of popular mobilizations for political purposes. Hundreds of thousands of people have shown up to peacefully demonstrate their support for the dismissal of the state governor, Ulises Ernesto Ruiz Ortiz.
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