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US Elections: A day of victory for the politics of fear, loathing and division

By Yanis Varoufakis. Donald Trump’s victory marks the end of an era when a self-confident Establishment preached the end of history, the end of passion and the supremacy of a technocracy working on behalf of the 1%. But the era…

Now We Can Finally Get to Work

Dear Democrats, Are you finding yourselves suddenly a bit doubtful of the wisdom of drone wars? Presidential wars without Congress? Massive investment in new, smaller, “more usable” nuclear weapons? The expansion of bases across Africa and Asia? Are you disturbed…

The United Nations votes to start negotiations to ban the bomb

One hundred and twenty-three nations voted to move forward with negotiations to prohibit nuclear weapons—just as the world has already done for biological and chemical weapons. In a historic vote on October 27 at the United Nations Committee for Disarmament,…

Viggo Mortensen: Why I am voting for Jill Stein

I’ve been scolded by friends and strangers, sometimes mildly and sometimes with disdain, for supporting Jill Stein in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Some of the attacks I’ve received publicly and privately have been surprisingly angry and patronizing. I’ve been…

Inequality as Policy

Globalisation and technology are usually presented as natural and inevitable. In fact their course, insofar as they have led to greater inequality, this has been the result of conscious policy choices. It is much easier to have an economic system that produces more…

Without the power of kindness, our society will fall apart

When we are vulnerable and estranged from each other we can be easily manipulated by demagogues, as can be seen in the US and Europe. By George Monbiot for The Guardian If there is an irrepressible human trait it’s the…

Venezuela, the place where death is not a Halloween costume…

…but something that can be found everywhere – in an unnatural way – all year around. By Irene Halford In the usual narrative of a horror movie: you are not safe anywhere as sooner or later Death will find you,…

USA: What Are We to Think?

Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century A cascade of developments should make us afraid of what seems to be emerging politically in the United States at this time. Although politicians keep telling us how great we were…

Gorbachev Appeals for Sanity

John Scales Avery, Pugwash Nobel Peace Laureate President Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the Soviet Union and recipient of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, has appealed to world leaders to reduce the dangerous the tensions which today threaten to plunge…

Historic vote at the UN means nuclear weapons will be illegal in 2017

Last week something historic happened at the United Nations. Despite enormous pressure from the United States, 123 nations, all with equal standing at the UN General Assembly, voted to start a process in 2017 to negotiate a ban on nuclear…

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