"Any appearance of a permanent occupation of Iraq will both undermine domestic support here in the US and play directly into the hands of those in the Middle East who—however wrongly—suspect us of imperial design." So spoke James Baker last week in a speech at Rice University in Houston.
HARRY COHEN, Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead, told a Stop the War meeting last week, "15 February contributed to the unravelling of the policies to justify war—19 March can be just as effective." He was speaking at a rally in Waltham Forest, east London, alongside Sami Ramadani, an Iraqi refugee who teaches sociology at London Metropolitan University.
In the winter of 1921 the Russian socialist leader Lenin made a trip to a new art school. The art school had a progressive and experimental curriculum, where questions of art and design were annexed to the needs of the Soviet state. A student told Lenin that they were trying to figure out how art and politics could be linked.
Tony Blair has promised that Labour’s election manifesto will "drive through the market based reforms in the health service". But the privatisation of our NHS isn’t simply a threat for the future—it’s happening now.
The myth of choice The next few years will see the introduction of the government’s "patient choice" scheme, where people will be offered up to five different hospitals for their operation.But a MORI poll carried out for the government showed most patients don’t think a choice of hospital is important—they would rather have more say in decisions about what kind of treatment they receive.
THE FIFTH World Social Forum assembles next week in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This great gathering will bring together tens of thousands of activists from Latin America and the rest of the world. It comes at an important moment in the history of the movement against corporate globalisation. It is now more than five years since that movement first became visible in the Seattle protests in November 1999.
IN THE past year, the movement against war and corporate globalisation has continued to grow, especially at the national level, where movements are directly defending workers’ and farmers’ livelihoods by reclaiming land and campaigning against privatisation and trade liberalisation. In many parts of the world, from Bolivia to Thailand, social movements have successfully pressed their governments to reconsider or change economic policies.
ON 1 January 1994 the Zapatistas broke the imperialist tranquillity of Latin America. Five years later and a large part of the continent had entered a period of revolts, government changes and general strikes that continues to the present day. In January 2000 a revolt by the Ecuadorians against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demolished the government of Jamil Mahuad.
A GREAT battle in southern Italy in 71BC pitted an army of privileged citizen soldiers, commanded by a corrupt millionaire, against an army of slaves and rural labourers led by an escaped gladiator called Spartacus. It was the climax of the greatest slave revolt in antiquity.
Wednesday 26-31 JanuaryWorld Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil. For details go to www.forumsocialmundial.org.br
The government tells us we are living too long. What ought to be a cause for celebration has, it seems, become a problem because we are getting too much in pensions.
