No Picture

The Untold Story of My Lai

Gareth Porter March 19, 2018 Gareth Porter

Source: The Nation

Fifty years ago this month, on March 16, 1968, two companies of US Army troops belonging to the Americal Division entered the My Lai and My Khe hamlets of Son My village, in Quang Ngai province, and killed 504 Vietnamese civilians—overwhelmingly women, children, and old men—in cold blood. The national press and political elites have long learned to treat the massacre as a tragedy that did not reflect official US policy. And ever since the Peers Commission report on My Lai was finally released to the public in November 1974 (the completed report had been transmitted to the Army chief of staff in March 1970), the press and public have believed that the commission, led by Lieut. Gen. William Peers, not only revealed the extent of the massacre but exposed the cover-up, implicating officers all the way up to the commander of the Americal Division, Gen. Samuel Koster. read more

Zapatista women and thousands of women from around the world listen to the opening address kicking off the first International Political, Artistic, Sporting, and Cultural Gathering of Women who Struggle in the Zapatista Caracol in the Tzots Choj region, Chiapas, Mexico, March 8, 2018. Photo by Heather Gies

“Don’t Surrender, Don’t Sell Out:” The Zapatistas’ First International Gathering of Women Who Struggle

Heather Gies March 19, 2018 Heather Gies

Women insurgents wearing the Zapatista’s iconic black balaclavas greeted thousands of women from over four dozen countries at the entrance to the Zapatista Caracol in the highlands of Chiapas under a vibrant banner reading “Welcome women of the world.” Kicking off the first International Political, Artistic, Sporting, and Cultural Gathering of Women Who Struggle surrounded by murals celebrating women’s resistance, Zapatista compañeras invited women from around the globe to commit to organizing to rise up and fight capitalism and patriarchy.

Photo by Cpl. Jacob A. Farbo

Merchants of Death Are the Ultimate Winners in World’s Escalating Military Conflicts

Thalif Deen March 19, 2018 Thalif Deen

In most military conflicts worldwide, the ultimate winners are not one of the warring parties– but the world’s prolific arms traders, described by peace activists as “merchants of death.” According to a new study, the world’s five top arms suppliers are the US, Russia, France, China, and Germany. Together, these five biggest exporters have accounted for about 74 per cent of all arms exports during 2013–17.

The far-right Five Star Movement political leader Luigi Di Maio (R) and party founder Beppe Grillo (L) attend a rally ahead of the March 4 Parliamentary Elections in Italy

Europe’s Far-Right Wave: Xenophobic Parties Win Italian Parliamentary Election

Rene Wadlow March 12, 2018 Rene Wadlow

Steve Bannon is currently in Europe to advise far-right movements. He first went to Italy, where xenophobes recently won the parliamentary elections, and then visited the National Front in France. In fact, the European far-right does not need Bannon's advice. They are able to push racist and xenophobic slogans all by themselves, as was evident in the recent elections for Parliament in Italy.

Sahawari women call for independence at protest on Feb. 26. (WNV/Matt Meyer)

Western Sahara Calls for Independence in Historic Symbolic Referendum

Matt Meyer March 12, 2018 Matt Meyer
Sahawari women call for independence at protest on Feb. 26. (WNV/Matt Meyer)
Sahawari women call for independence at protest on Feb. 26. (WNV/Matt Meyer)

Source: Waging Nonviolence

Early mornings in the desert are usually dry, dusty and warm — in the summer, sometimes excruciatingly hot. There was a bit of a wind on the morning of Feb. 26, one that carried a certain sense of foreboding: a nasty sirocco, or sandstorm, was apparently on its way. Still, there was also an anxious anticipation, as an historic resistance action was about to take place.

On the eve of the 42nd declaration of a still-unrecognized Sahwari Arab Democratic Republic, and after 136 years of Spanish colonialism and Moroccan occupation, people from all walks and areas of Western Saharan life were about to assert themselves as a united people by voting in a symbolic but highly representative referendum for full independence as a nation. The people of Western Sahara were not waiting for colonialists, neo-colonists, or an unresponsive global community to grant them what they are in the business of building for themselves. read more