鈥淲e Tamils, inside and outside the island of Sri Lanka, still want an independent state,鈥 Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, prime minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), told me recently in New York.
鈥淎nd because the war crimes and severe brutality of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government against our people have become well known, our cause is being spoken about all over the world.鈥
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There is a sharp reality disconnect in the Black community.
On the one hand, the Black population continues to support the first African American president, Barack Obama, by more than 90%.
Yet the plight of the Black communities is at its worst condition in three decades. Official unemployment is over 16% 鈥 twice that of whites and iabout 30% for young African Americans.
Black household income is in decline and the lowest of the five major ethnic groups. Poverty is at the highest levels in 30 years.
There鈥檚 no doubt that the explosion of social media, mobile technology and online-organising capabilities have dramatically altered the battle terrain of class struggles today in ways good, bad and ugly.
From the Arab Spring to New York鈥檚 ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, social media and online organising are clearly transforming the way that small, isolated campaigns develop into mass movements in the streets. But how do we separate the genuinely useful aspects of social media from the 鈥渄ata smog鈥 of media hype?
The Woman Who Shot Mussolini
By Frances Stonor Saunders
Faber and Faber, 2010
375 pages, $32.99 (pb)
The Honourable Violet Gibson was not like the other women of the Anglo-Irish elite when it came to Benito Mussolini, the leader of Italy's fascists.
While Lady Asquith (wife of the former prime minister) was delighted by Mussolini, and Clementine Churchill (wife of the future prime minister) was awestruck by 鈥渙ne of the most wonderful men of our times鈥, Violet Gibson aimed a revolver at the fascist dictator in Italy in April 1926 and shot him in the nose.
Entering the darkened space of the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation that held Vietnamese artist Dinh Q Le鈥檚 latest installation, Erasure, which finished on September 10, I imagined myself to be stepping into the psychological space of a disturbed memory.
The brooding political and cultural climate surrounding the issue of refugees in Australia has involved politicians exploiting the sensitive subject in a game of political football.
Natacha Atlas, the award-winning electronic-worldbeat artist, has her upcoming show in Israel and will be boycotting the state until the apartheid regime is dismantled.
A sent from the US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 1996, released by WikiLeaks, provides an in-depth account of the processes of wealth distribution and waste within the ruling House of Saud.
The cable noted: 鈥淩oyals still seem more adept at squandering than accumulating wealth.鈥 It said corruption abounded largely unchecked.
It was the view of the US embassy in Saudi Arabia that getting a grip on royal family excess was at the top of pressing concerns for the oil-rich US ally.
Hazara asylum seekers inside Darwin detention centre released the statement below to explain the aims of their recent protest.
* * *
We the Hazara Afghan asylum seekers held a peaceful protest in Darwin detention centre with number of 100 asylum seekers on September 24.
We strongly condemn the act of target killings of Hazaras in Pakistan and Afghanistan and we pass our condolences to those grieved families.
More than 29 Hazaras traveling on a bus near Quetta, Pakistan, were separated from other passengers and executed by Islamic fundamentalists on September 20. This was the third time Hazaras have been attacked in a month.
After hearing the news, more than 400 Hazara asylum seekers in Curtin detention centre protested the killings near the centre鈥檚 administration building on September 21. The protest was to alert the immigration department of the situation Hazaras face in Pakistan.
The Europe Against Austerity conference held in London on October 1 was attended by 681 people, including 150 from outside Britain. This happened the same weekend that two big demonstrations took place.
In Glasgow, a 鈥淧eople First鈥 demonstration of 15,000 called by the Scottish TUC took place on October 1.
The next day, 35,000 joined a demonstration in Manchester outside the governing Conservative Party conference, which was called by the Trades Union Congress and backed by the Coalition of Resistance and the Right to Work Campaign.
Members of the Philippines Air Lines Employees Association (PALEA) have been engaged in three weeks of pickets at the Philippines Airlines (PAL) terminal at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.
About 2600 ground crew have fought against forced contractualisation 鈥 the replacement of permanent, secure jobs with contract labour.
PALEA president Gerry Rivera told 91自拍论坛 Weekly the dispute had its origins in 2009 when PAL management declared their intention to outsource the roles of the 2600 ground crew.
Pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain have gone on the offensive in the face of government repression and harsh sentences for activists arrested in the first wave of protests in February and March.
Large protests began on September 23 against sham by-elections for Bahrain鈥檚 toothless parliament. Most people heeded the democracy movement鈥檚 call for a boycott 鈥 only about 17% turned out to vote, FT.com said on September 25.
Police blocked attempts by protesters to reach the previous epicentre of the protests 鈥 the now-demolished Pearl Roundabout, known as Martyr鈥檚 Square by protesters.
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