By Peter Schwarz, political analyst with WSWS.ORG, a socialist organization where this article appeared.|
Thank you, WSWS.ORG
The austerity measures demanded by the troika (the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank) are driving Greece toward revolution. The protest by 100,000 people in front of the Greek parliament Sunday evening and the rioting that broke out after the police violently attacked the demonstration marked a sharp turn in the mood of the Greek population.
Hardly anyone believes that the austerity measures will lead Greece out of the crisis. The government’s repeated claim that the only alternative to brutal cuts is state bankruptcy and economic disaster no longer has any impact because the current austerity measures are already producing a catastrophe. Read more…
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By Hiram Lee , an art & culture critic for WSWS.ORG, a socialist organization where this piece originally appeared.
Thank you, WSWS.ORG.
One receives the news of Whitney Houston’s death at the age of 48 with genuine sadness. Houston was a tremendous singer, whose best performances contained a vibrancy and larger-than-life quality, which endeared her to millions of listeners. Her death at a young age is a tragedy.
Houston’s body was discovered in the bathroom of her Beverly Hilton Hotel room in Los Angeles on Saturday, February 11. The cause of death has yet to be determined, but drugs or alcohol are suspected to have played a role. Houston had been struggling with addiction for years and there were reports that the singer was behaving erratically in the days leading up to Sunday’s Grammy Awards ceremony. She was clearly a troubled individual in need of serious help. Read more…
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A Black Agenda Report Radio commentary by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
Listen to the audio—press tab on left side below
At the same time that the Grammy Awards honored Etta James and Whitney Houston, it did away with most of their award categories, 31 in all. Most of the stricken awards were for Latin jazz and other Latin music, four R&B categories, zydeco, Hawaiian and Native American music. A large group of artists protested outside the award ceremony last weekend, and pledge to continue fighting for the restoration of recognition to to their music, to our music. When we surrender this power to greedy corporations, we are complicit in cultural genocide.
“Most of the musical categories eliminated by the Grammies this year were Latin, black and nonwhite…” Read more…
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By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
BillMoyers.com
Even establishment liberals like Moyers are now despairing of “American democracy”.
Doesn’t that tell us something?
Steve Forbes, one of the members of the plutocratic problem (and unapologetic about it.) "When you got it, flaunt it, baby."
Watching what’s happening to our democracy is like watching the cruise ship Costa Concordia founder and sink slowly into the sea off the coast of Italy, as the passengers, shorn of life vests, scramble for safety as best they can, while the captain trips and falls conveniently into a waiting life boat.
We are drowning here, with gaping holes torn into the hull of the ship of state from charges detonated by the owners and manipulators of capital. Their wealth has become a demonic force in politics. Nothing can stop them. Not the law, which has been written to accommodate them. Not scrutiny — they have no shame. Not a decent respect for the welfare of others — the people without means, their safety net shredded, left helpless before events beyond their control. Read more…
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TGP’s Editor’s Note: We wish to thank our comrades at the Socialist Project for this excellent report.
Greece: From Despair to Resistance
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Panagiotis Sotiris
On Sunday 12 February 2012 the people of Greece, in demonstrations and street fights all over the country expressed in a massive, collective and heroic way their anger against the terms of the new loan agreement dictated by the EU-ECB-IMF ‘troika’ (Eurpoean Union, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund). Workers, youth, students filled the streets with rage, defying the extreme aggression by police forces, setting another example of struggle and solidarity.
Greece is becoming the test site for an extreme case of neoliberal social engineering. The terms of the new bailout package from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the so-called ‘troika’, equal a carpet bombing of whatever is left of collective social rights and represent an extreme attempt to bring wage levels and workplace situation back to the 1960s. Read more…
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This article was first posted on what’s left, a fraternal site directed by Stephen Gowans.
Pro Assad demonstration. Many independent sources agree that the regime still enjoys substantive support among the population.
Since the beginning of the unrest in Syria, “the government has said that while some protesters have legitimate grievances, the uprising is driven by militant Islamists with foreign backing.” [1] This hardly squares with the view of Western state officials and media commentators who say that an authoritarian regime is killing its people and violently suppressing a largely peaceful movement for democracy.
Who’s right? Read more…
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