Amnesty International told me that it “does not take a position on the current application” of U.S. economic sanctions that Trump’s administration imposed on Venezuela in August “but rather emphasizes the urgent need to address the serious crisis of the right to health and food which Venezuela is facing. In terms of human rights, it is the Venezuelan state’s responsibility to resolve this.”  Amnesty’s full reply to three questions I asked them by email can be read here.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the May 1968 uprising in France. Is it about to happen again? "All Power to the Workers Councils, All Power to the Imagination!"

Every year, at least 60,000 individuals are killed in Brazil, at least 160 murders every day. The majority of the dead are black, young and from urban peripheries where the state is present only through its delinquent police force. Although the police are not responsible for all these deaths, it directly or indirectly pulls the trigger that kills black youth. Books, academic articles, brief-reports, film documentaries, op-eds all have ad nausea denounced this genocidal proportions of violence in the country known as “the land of cordial man.” It is a waste of time, energy and resources. Nobody cares or they care too little to turn these deaths into a national scandal. There is an underlying belief that the word genocide is an overstatement to depict what is going on in a country where racial boundaries are supposedly not rigid as in the United States or South Africa. Apartheid and the Jim Crow are usually mentioned to compare Brazil´s 'benign' race relations in opposition to these countries’ racial violence.

The latest Marvel Comics science-fiction movie “Black Panther” is stealth ruling-class propaganda, consistent with its production by the great manufactory of mass consent that is the American corporate entertainment complex.

Did you expect something different? If so, why?

The National Lawyers Guild, the largest and oldest human rights bar association in the United States, has been a vocal supporter of the Bolivarian Project and its fraud-proof electoral process since we sent our first delegation to Venezuela in 2006.  We have steadfastly opposed the longstanding drumbeat of illegal intervention by the United States in Venezuela, as well as the U.S.-supported attacks against Venezuela’s sovereignty by Luis Almagro, in violation of his current role as Secretary General of the Organization of American States.  We have strongly supported mediation efforts between the Venezuelan government and the non-violent segments of the opposition, and are well aware of the toxic

Javier Sethness interviews science fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson about the post-capitalist future explored in his books.

Kristin Ross discusses how the Paris Commune remains valuable as a resource for anti-systtemic movements today.