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Is France having a Bernie Sanders moment?
EuropeLike Sanders, Mélenchon’s campaign focuses on class inequality and speaks to a groundswell of anger against the super-rich and the political establishment. Also like Sanders, Mélenchon combines strident calls for social justice with a sharp critique of the fossil fuel industry, calling for a rapid transition to renewable energies. And like Sanders, Mélenchon and his ideas are experiencing a sudden and unexpected resurgence.
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The Beneficiaries of Conflict With Russia
EuropeThe US arms and intelligence industries are the main beneficiaries of confrontation with Russia, closely followed by the hierarchy of the defunct US-NATO military alliance who have been desperately seeking justification for its existence for many years. For so long as the military-industrial complex holds sway in Washington, there will continue to be sabre-rattling and mindless military posturing.
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Nazis, NATO, and Canada’s Latvian Love-in
Canadian PoliticsThe official spin on NATO deploying some 4,000 troops — including an estimated 450 Canadians — into the Baltic States is that this will be a tangible deterrent to the evil Russians. Such a bold troop deployment right on the Russian border could also be viewed as an unnecessary provocation towards the Kremlin.
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French Socialists choose leftwing rebel Benoît Hamon for Élysée fight
EuropeHamon secured a clear win of more than 58% over the centrist former prime minister Manuel Valls on around 42%, according to the first partial results. It was a victory for the party’s leftwing rebels against the pro-market, centre-left policies of François Hollande – a damning verdict by voters against what many on the left consider as the failed presidency of an unpopular leader.
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Protesting the Capitalist University
EuropeYet as I walk the line in the bitter cold talking with chemists, social workers, sociologists, accounting professors it occurs to me that we are in the end the university and that management is in the end the product of an ongoing usurpation of both labour and knowledge. Next week I will lecture on this in an improvised teach-in on the picket line. Learning must go on.
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Who Profited From the $440 Billion Greek Bailout? Not Greeks
Economic CrisisOne might think that US$440 billion in loans would have helped Greece recover from the global recession of 2008-09 and the Europe-wide chronic, stagnant economic growth ever since. But no, the US$440 billion in debt the Troika piled on Greece has actually impoverished Greece even further, condemning it to eight years of economic depression with no end in sight.
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Iceland: Exemplary Nation in a Troubled World
EuropeIn my book, America’s Oldest Professions: Warring and Spying I coined the term “sadtistics” as a summary for America’s mostly negative standings on those dimensions. For this article I am coining another term, “gladtistics,” as a summary of Iceland’s positive standings. What follows is a very brief side by side summary of the two nations’ standings.
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Jeremy Corbyn: Labour’s Unelectable Leader
EuropeBut what is even more worrying from their point of view is that when this aging, non-egotistical and upright politician speaks, he makes every individual in the huge crowds that he attracts feel and look big. And every day there are more people joining the crowd. Labour now has well over half a million members, more than all the other UK parties combined.
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A Question of Leadership
EuropeTimes are so interesting and moving so fast that it is easy to become part of a Corbyn focused spectator support. What is needed however is practical support, especially initiatives through Constituency Labour Parties and also Momentum which in many areas and nationally is open to being a platform for a wide range of creative actions.
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Western Propaganda for a New Cold War
EuropeIt is alarming to see the constant drumbeat in Western media that Russia is “aggressive,” that Russia “invaded” Crimea, Russia is “a threat.” Hardly a day goes by that The New York Times does not have an editorial or news story with the assertion or insinuation that Russia is “aggressive”.
