The last significant wave of uprisings in Iran took place a bit more than a year and a half ago. Like all waves of protest in recent years, it was brutally crushed. But in the country of the mullahs, social protests are the order of the day - despite bans and repression. … [Read more...]
Instead of obediently waiting for the magic hand of the market to remedy its inability to produce and distribute vaccines, we need to stand up to Big Pharma and seize the vaccines as a public common good. Enough of putting profit before lives, we need to massively produce the vaccine, regardless of copyrights. … [Read more...]
Looking at pro-Trump far-right supporters breaking in the Capitol, many mainstream opinion-makers shake their heads over the dangers of polarisation and extremism, providing the (far-) right with a convenient discourse about “both sides” and advocating a return to a status quo that brought us where we are. But in times of rising fascism and increasing inequalities, polarization is a necessity. A commentary by Jan Fürth Avoid polarisation at … [Read more...]
On Saturday evening, a young Black man named Ibrahima B. was arrested by the Brussels police and died in custody under unclear circumstances, allegedly from a heart attack. Available information point out that he was arrested for... filming a police intervention! This was an illegal arrest and the police has blood on its hands, regardless of the actual cause of death. … [Read more...]
Notis Mitarakis, the Greek Minister of Migration and Beate Gminder, Head of the European Taskforce for Lesbos and acting head of the EU task force on Lesbos visited Moria 21 on the island of Lesbos end of November. by dunya collective from Lesbos (Greece) It had the looks of a well-rehearsed show. Business as usual: In his speech Mitarakis emphasized that the camp was clean, save and orderly. He spoke of a “structure that has no traces of … [Read more...]
The is a translation with some modifications of a text by Cerveaux Non Disponibles. The ban on broadcasting police actions centralizes all fears, but legalizing drones and surveillance technology is just as damaging to freedoms and democracy. Drones, facial recognition and permanent identification of individuals It is a subject that is little discussed and yet concerns us all. The text provides in these gaps to legalize facial recognition in … [Read more...]
With the second anniversary of the gilets jaunes (GJ) uprising approaching, I virtually sat down with some participants to look back at a revolution that could have happened, the violent response of the police and the increasing restriction of civil liberties in France. I virtually sat down to talk to a group of young activists from Montreuil (Paris suburb) who joined in the early hours of the movement, witnessing the moment when the regime … [Read more...]
A political commentary. 2020 has hit us hard. At the beginning of the year the world was not in order, but hardly anybody expected a worldwide pandemic and in the consequence an economic-political crisis. There can be no "back to normality". How could there be? Fast-moving capitalism is constantly reinventing itself, even or especially during the pandemic. At a very high price: the profound splits at the national and global level have come to an … [Read more...]
A Beyond Europe call to keep up the pressure and fight for solidarity. … [Read more...]
"Marx said that revolutions are the locomotive of world history. But perhaps things are very different. It may be that revolutions are the act by which the human race traveling in the train applies the emergency brake." (Walter Benjamin) The world is in flames and they continue to play with fire. Every day they dig up coal and burn it in their power plants, even though they know that this is the biggest source of CO2. Even though they know … [Read more...]