Ikaria: a reply to Anthony on the 'secret of longevity'
Ikaria is everything that our society, our obsessive consumerism, our corporate madness, our worship of technology, the IMF, the Eurosceptics, the EU, Angela Merkel and the rest...
View ArticlePopulism: a European warning shot and what to do about it
This sudden emergence of populism was in fact a true sign of modernity. This is what you might describe as a warning shot – and when you see it happen, you have to realize that something is very wrong...
View ArticleIs Bangladesh spiralling out of control?
The massacre of Hefazat protesters in Dhaka by Bangladeshi security forces, followed by the government’s initial denial and subsequent justification of casualties, raises serious questions about the...
View ArticleThe Battle for Taksim Square and the Gezi Park Commune
A report from Istanbul on the historic explosion of opposition to Turkey's leader11 June: When I finally got through to my Turkish friends on Tuesday 4 June the worst of the fighting was over. They...
View ArticleLetter from Tirana: Who is a guest in Europe’s house?
The political establishment has a decisive role in determining the place of hatreds in society; with adequate rules, laws and institutions it can marginalise and neutralise or, on the contrary,...
View ArticleThe closure of ERT: public service broadcasting and austerity politics in Greece
On Tuesday, the Greek government announced the immediate closure of their public broadcaster, ERT. This simple piece of news from Greece came as a shock to the world. Yet this event is symptomatic of...
View ArticleEurope’s twin sisters
Russia and Turkey are both former imperial powers with one foot in Europe and one in Asia. Igor Torbakov argues that imperialism is still alive and well in both countries; even as they talk about...
View ArticleOccupy Runnymede: Six reasons why the British Establishment hates the Magna...
On Magna Carta day, 798 years after the Magna Carta was signed by King John, what is there to celebrate?If you go to the long meadow of Runnymede beside the Thames where the Magna Carta was sealed in...
View ArticleIn short: Dr Meziane Saidi, historian of Algerian War, on Pontecorvo’s The...
The film shows a popular revolution above all else.The film The Battle of Algiers represents a very significant part of the history of the Algerian Revolution. The film of Pontecorvo in itself...
View ArticleIstanbul in lockdown
Another sleepless night in Istanbul as thousands of people take to the streets to oppose Erdogan's increasingly brutal regime.Protestors took to the streets against the government after police forcibly...
View ArticleWe take back what's ours!
We are the resistance. We are not victims. We are citizens with a duty to defend our commons, and we will not bargain.SideboxesRelated stories: Today we are all someone new!Turkish hopes for a new...
View ArticleDaring to speak: militarism and women’s human rights in Burma
‘How can we get peace and democracy when we still have domestic wars and when everyday people are dying?’ Jessica Nhkum spoke to Jennifer Allsopp at the Nobel Women's Initiative conference in Belfast...
View ArticleAre global vaccination programmes helping the most needy?
As the politics of aid to lower income countries comes under greater scrutiny are the needs of the poor in middle income countries being missed? And as 'big Pharma' flexes its muscles is enough being...
View ArticleLibyans say no to militias
Protests were motivated by what has become a two-year-long struggle to force Libya's powerful militias to hand over the reins of military power to the state security forces. Thirty-one people died on...
View ArticleWestern Sahara: the inconvenient uprising nobody wants to talk (or hear) about
While many praise the remarkable determination of Sahrawi activists to maintain the peaceful character of their struggle, others signal this as a key factor behind their failure to secure a just...
View ArticleSocial movements and unrest in Mauritania since the Arab Uprisings
During those rare moments when western media attention is turned to the country, it is usually with a focus on these security issues rather than on the democratic struggles of Mauritanian citizens....
View ArticleWhat Rouhani may mean for Iranians
Rouhani’s positive reputation among western powers when he led Iran’s nuclear negotiations provides Khamenei, if he wants, with the pretext for greater flexibility at this critical point.On 15 June...
View ArticleBrokeback in Belarus
Valery Sidorenko and Sergei Ostapchuk, both tractor drivers, live together happily in a remote village in the Grodinsky region of Belarus. Alyona Soiko travelled there to meet them and hear their...
View ArticleGreece deprived of its public broadcasting service: More than a bad soap opera
Flawed it may have been, but ERT, Greece's public broadcaster, was one of the few things holding the country together during these difficult times.Employees and members of the public demonstrate...
View ArticleFraudulent democracy and urban stasis in Turkey
Turkey's urban citizens are standing up against authoritarian governance, and for their right to the city, their right to difference, and their right to resist the top-down imposition of moral and...
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