International Politics and Economy

( Otherwords.org) – More communities are standing up to pipelines. The fossil fuel industry wants to make that a felony. By Basav Sen | December 2, 2020 A few years ago, massive protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock changed the popular narrative about what climate activism looked like. The protests made clear […]

Democracy

Biden vows Turkey’s Autocrat Erdogan must “Pay a Price” for attacks on Critics, Syrian Kurds

Middle East Monitor

By Ahmet Alioglu | – ( Middle East Monitor) – One of the leading assistants of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, and a founder of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), resigned last week from the government’s high advisory council citing disagreements and discontent over judicial practices. Bulent Arinc called for a comprehensive reassessment […]

Bill of Rights

How did Conservatives successfully smear “Liberal” (Respect for Liberty and Rights of Others) as Mule Word?

Bahman Fozouni

Sacramento (Special to Informed Comment) – The 2020 elections are over, but once again it proved that Liberal-bashing remains a favorite pastime of the Republican party and conservative politicians. Verbal assault on “liberal” politicians and the media, “liberalism,” and the root-word “liberal” by the political right (and occasionally by the hard left) has remained a […]

Domestic Terrorism

Greece had a neo-Nazi Problem, too; here’s how Athens dealt with it

The Conversation

By Georgios Samaras | – When a wave of right-wing extremism hit Greece in 2012, few would have predicted that Golden Dawn, one of the groups involved, would grow to become the third largest party in the Greek parliament. This was the beginning of a long period of turmoil in Greek politics that saw a […]

African-Americans

What President-Elect Biden and all Americans owe the Black Voters who Saved our Democracy

OtherWords

By Tracey L. Rogers | – ( Otherwoods.org) – Black voters waited in 10-hour lines to show up for Joe Biden. Now Biden needs to return the favor. During a pandemic that has killed Black people at disproportionate rates, we still managed to save our democracy by getting out the vote in what may have […]

Corruption

What Trump’s claim of a ‘stolen election’ means for activists today

Waging Nonviolence

By George Lakey | – ( Waging Nonviolence ) – I’m encountering a great deal of alarm among progressive activists regarding continued Republican claims of a stolen election. Do these anti-democratic efforts mean a coup attempt is under way? Despite being among the first to write about the possibilities of a coup, I have to […]

Democracy

America’s not-so-Model Elections: So much for Exceptionalism

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Following weeks of speculation and worry about the possibility of violence and/or crasing technical systems the United States executed a largely flawless presidential election. At least that was how the major media portrayed the events of early November. Once again American exceptionalism provided the opportunity to sing […]

Arms Sales

Merchants of Arms: Who wants a Conflict with China?

Tomdispatch

By Cassandra Stimpson and Holly Zhang | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – War: what is it good for? Apparently, in Washington’s world of think tanks, the answer is: the bottom line. In fact, as the Biden presidency approaches, an era of great-power competition between the United States and China is already taken for granted inside […]

Banking

How the concentration of property rights within corporations has led to a rejection of democracy and a rise in inequality

British Policy and Politics

By Jean-Philippe Robé | – Jean-Philippe Robé discusses how multinational enterprises morphed into political organisations with global reach and power, but without the corresponding responsibilities. He argues that the concentration of property rights within corporations has led to the rejection of democracy as an ineffective system of government and to the rise in inequality. ( […]