“In these new times, in spite of the dangers, the most brutal force, the most fearful night, we are engaged in the fight to survive.” No Novo Tempo-Ivan Lins, Vitor Martins
“The British media have long since largely abandoned any attempt at impartiality in its reporting of Zimbabwe, the common assumption being that Mugabe is a murderous dictator at the head of a uniquely wicked regime.”
Almost a lone voice in Briish journalism, Seumas Milne cuts through some of the lies about Zimbabwe and exposes the ”transparently racist agenda’ being conducted by the senile Brits of both left and right.He shows that he has clearly grasped that collective punishment will be inflicted on the Zimbabweans if they vote Mugabe back into power.
If a government wants to abuse human rights and rig elections, it needs to have the support of – or be – the western powers
Seumas Milne
Guardian (UK), April 17, 2008
There is no question that the struggle over land and power in Zimbabwe has brought the country to a grim pass. Nearly a decade after the takeover of white-owned farms and the rupture with the west, economic breakdown, hyperinflation, sanctions and Aids have taken a heavy toll. With the expectation now that a second round of elections, mired in claims of fraud, may after all keep President Mugabe in power, the prospect must be of continued economic punishment and crisis.
A fine article, marred only by the questionable reference to “ two retaliations on their home soil.” Our information points to provocations rather than retaliations.
John Pilger
26/06/08 “ICH” — – The British lawyer Gareth Pierce, celebrated for her defense of miscarriage of justice victims, wrote recently: “Over the years of the conflict, every lawless action on the part of the British state provoked a similar reaction: internment, ‘shoot to kill’, the use of torture, brutally obtained false confessions and fabricated evidence. This was registered by the community most affected, but the British public, in whose name the actions were taken, remained ignorant.” Referring to the conflict in Northern Ireland, she was drawing a comparison with “our new suspect community,” people of Muslim faith, against whom a vicious, sectarian and mostly unreported war is well under way.
The SWP has adopted openly pro-imperialist politics over Zimbabwe. Under the veneer of supporting worker’s power they are helping to hand Zimbabwe back to the imperialist in London and Washington. Our message on this issue is simple;
Hands off Zimbabwe! Defend Zimbabwe’s sovereignty!
(Posted with our own commentaries)
Ken Olende looks at the current crisis and what the opposition can do
The situation in Zimbabwe continued to deteriorate as Socialist Worker went to press.
[Support for the opposition is assumed both by the author and in the reader. The situation in the world is deteriorating; is it all Mugabe's fault?]
“Those who govern Iraq at the present time, although they have lost sovereignty, still most of them are members of Islamic parties, and it is incumbent on them to follow the Islamic word, particularly since it is now clear to them what was the game of the occupation or the waging of war against Iraq under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, or the toppling of the former regime, which did not do one-hundredth of what the occupation has done to the people of Iraq”.
Which means that the position of the Sunni religious authorities, both AMSI and the “mainstream” is essentially the same as that of the Sadr trend, namely that no agreement is permissible until the foreign forces withdraw from Iraq completely, and full sovereignty is restored to the country.
NATO forces and the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai were compelled to launch a major operation last week to dislodge hundreds of anti-occupation fighters who had seized control of villages in the Arghandab valley, just 16 kilometres to the northwest of Kandahar city. Some of the 1,000-plus prisoners who were freed during the assault on the Sarposa prison in Kandahar on June 13 may have been involved. They reportedly linked up with insurgents who had recently crossed into Afghanistan from safe-havens inside Pakistan.
The minutea of the diplomatic manouvering outlined below are well worth following: at some point, these processes will crystalise in a shift away from NATO influence and towards a greater role for regional powers in stabilising the Afghan situation.
Moscow is staging an extraordinary comeback on the Afghan chessboard after a gap of two decades following the Soviet Union’s nine-year adventure that ended in the withdrawal of its last troops from Afghanistan 1989. In a curious reversal of history, this is possible only with the acquiescence of the United States. Moscow is taking advantage of the deterioration of the war in Afghanistan and the implications for regional security could be far-reaching.
In the study’s abstract, the conclusions read: “War causes more deaths than previously estimated, and there is no evidence to support a recent decline in war deaths.” Read the rest of this entry »
This film was produced in the year 2000, and is still in high demand worldwide. Public Exposure was the first film to explore the potential health risks and social concerns triggered by the proliferation of transmitting antennas and rapid consumer adaptation to wireless communications technology. The film evaluates the state of the science and the public policies from an international citizen’s rights and consumer advocacy perspective.
In January of 2002, the Washington Post ran a story detailing a CIA plan put forward to President Bush shortly after 9/11 by CIA Director George Tenet titled, “Worldwide Attack Matrix,” which was “outlining a clandestine anti-terror campaign in 80 countries around the world. Read the rest of this entry »
This is a war between revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries; between nationalists and quislings; between Zimbabwean patriots and the US and Britain.
Should an election be carried out when a country is under sanctions and it is has been made clear to the electorate that the sanctions will be lifted only if the opposition party is elected? Should a political party which is the creation of, and is funded by, hostile foreign forces, and whose program is to unlatch the door from within to provide free entry to foreign powers to establish a neo-colonial rule, be allowed to freely operate? Should the leaders of an opposition movement that takes money from hostile foreign powers and who have made plain their intention to unseat the government by any means available, be charged with treason? These are the questions that now face (have long faced) the embattled government of Zimbabwe, and which it has answered in its own way, and which other governments, at other times, and have answered in theirs.
