Blog Archives

By Prof. James Petras and Prof. Henry Veltmeyer Global Research An analysis of the dynamics of capitalist development over the last two decades has been overshadowed by an all too prevalent “globalization” discourse. It appears that much of the Left has bought into this discourse, tacitly accepting globalization as an irresistible fact and that in many ways it is progressive, needing only for the corporate agenda to be derailed and an abandonment of neoliberalism. This is certainly the case in Latin America where the Left has focused its concern almost exclusively on the bankruptcy of “neoliberalism”, with reference to the agenda pursued and package of policy reforms implemented by virtually every government in the region by the dint of ideology if not the demands of the global capital or political opportunism. In this concern, imperialism and capitalism per se, as opposed to neoliberalism, have been pushed off the agenda,...

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A government-appointed commission of inquiry has found the top leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) allies and mentors bear responsibility for the 1992 razing of the Babri Masjid, a 14th century mosque, in Ayodhya, which BJP claimed stood at the place where Lord Ram was born long long years ago. On Dec. 6, 1992 right wing Hindu activists mobilized by the BJP, the Shiv Sena (a Maharashtra-based right wing Hindu party), the RSS and allied Hindutvaite organizations stormed the 450-year-old mosque and demolished it using pick axes and other hand implements. In the preceding two years, the then BJP head and the party’s current parliamentary leader L.K. Advani had spearheaded an all-India agitation targeting the Babri Masjid. In the name of securing the “nation’s honour,” the “Ram Janmabhoomi” (Birthplace of Ram) movement demanded the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the erection...

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New Delhi: The Obama –Hu Jintao speak on India-Pakistan ties, particularly vocal support to ‘the improvement and growth of relations’ between India and Pakistan has not gone down well with Delhi. While Indian spokesman Vishnu Prakash has curtly stated ‘A third country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary’ in resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan, noted American experts like Ashley Tellis termed the Obama – Hu Jintao remarks as ‘most unhelpful and counterproductive’. There is a general agreement in diplomatic circles that the new stand of US would cast a shadow over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington from Nov 21. Vishnu Prakash statement reiterated India’s commitment “to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through a peaceful bilateral dialogue in accordance with the Simla Agreement”. He also made it clear that a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan can take place ‘only in an environment free from terror...

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Colombo: Sri Lanka’s forthcoming Presidential election has become a two-leg race with decks formally cleared for Gen Sarath Fonseka to enter the race and challenge President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is seeking to cash in on ‘war euphoria’ for a second term. Gen Fonseka’s resignation was accepted on Friday, though he had sought to retire from December 1. The Government offered no reasons for relieving him so early. Secretary to the President Lalith Weerathunga merely said: ‘General Sarath Fonseka has been granted permission to retire with immediate effect’. Fonseka, who led the army to victory in the Wanni War against the Tamil Tigers was ‘kicked up’ after the war and was made Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), a ceremonial post created exclusively for him. And now, he accuses the President of shifting him out of chief of army staff post ‘fearing that he could lead a coup’ and requesting India...

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Washington: China provided Pakistan with 50kgs of enriched uranium and a bomb design in the late seventies after India tested its first nuke, according to the disgraced Pakistan scientist A Q Khan, who is hailed at home as Father of the Pakistan bomb. This Washington Post report based on a hitherto unpublished AQ Khan notes was promptly disputed by Pakistan government. ‘The report is not correct’, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said in Islamabad. The American daily obtained Khan’s notes Simon Henderson, a former Financial Times journalist who is presently with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It also carried out its own reality check. According to the notes, Chinese leader Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had struck a secret nuclear deal in 1976. As a part of the deal, 50 kg weapon-grade enriched uranium in five stainless-steel boxes was gifted to Pakistan along with...

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By Jose Galang MANILA, Nov 6:—Manila, Nov 7: Hounded by declining circulation and rising costs, Philippine media entities are turning to the Internet for new sources of growth in revenue and readership. “We’re reaching a wider audience now that we’re on the Web and we operate on less funds,” says Marites Dañguilan Vitug, editor-in-chief of ‘Newsbreak’, which in February 2007 dropped its hard-copy fortnightly magazine format it had been putting out for the previous six years and transformed itself into a mainly online news and current affairs publication (Newsbreak.com.ph). A community newspaper, ‘Sunday Punch’, published out of Dagupan City in the country’s northern province of Pangasinan, is counting on its website, www.punch.dagupan.com, for more meaningful growth that will complement its print version. Ermin F. Garcia Jr., the weekly’s publisher-editor, says that most of the ‘Punch’s’ online readers are Pangasinan folks who live overseas, who also encourage their relatives back...

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Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in visiting Thimpu at the invitation of her Bhutneese counterpart JIgme Y Thinley. She is accompanied by a 48-member delegation of ministers, senior officers and business persons. The visit will mark the two countries signing a trade deal. At present bilateral trade is heavily tilted in favour of Bangladesh, which exports mostly garments and finished manufactured products and imports Bhutanese apples and oranges. During her stay in Thimphu, Hasina will have discussions with King Jigme Khesar Namgyal and delegation level talks with the Prime Minister. Bangladesh Prime Minister is also slated to visit India later this month.

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By Peter Symonds wsws.org An international agreement on the export and processing of Iran’s low-enriched uranium is yet to be finalised after sharp opposition emerged this week within the political establishment in Tehran. An initial Iranian response handed yesterday to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reportedly contains caveats that are unlikely to be accepted by the US and its European allies. Under the arrangement, three quarters of Iran’s stockpile of 1.5 tonnes of low-enriched uranium would be shipped to Russia and France for further enrichment and manufacture into fuel rods for Iran’s research reactor in Tehran. The deal was foreshadowed in talks in Geneva on October 1 between Iran and the so-called P5+1—the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany—and concretised in negotiations involving the US, Russia, France and Iran last week in Vienna. The US, Russia and France signed off on the agreement last Friday, but Iran,...

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