European Airs: Unity Of The Left. Chimera Or Reality?

23 April, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

Author: Gaither Stewart

(Rome-Paris) Four parties and movements of the quarrelsome and divided Italian Left have allied for the European parliamentary elections next June. That is good news. Communist Refoundation, Party of Italian Communists, Socialism 2000, and United Consumers have agreed to unify their meagre forces in order to surpass the 4% electoral barrier so that Communists, with their red flag with the hammer and sickle emblem, can again sit in the Assembly of the European Union.

For many years now such unity on the Italian Left has been painfully absent, its former voters, bewildered and confused, wandering from center-left to right, in an electoral diaspora. Running separately in national elections in 2006, the two parties using the name Communist garnered a total of 10% of the vote. In comparison to today’s numbers those were the good old days. For during the breakdown of Left unity, proletarians in the Rome periphery even voted for the neo-fascist National Alliance and workers in north Italy cast their votes for the rightwing Northern League. Communists now hope to win back their traditional Left vote that once-though today almost a political relic-counted one-third of the nation’s electorate. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1s EN, 2B Analysis, Authors, Gaither Stewart, Social Movements, Socialism. Tags: . Leave a Comment »

The New Class And The Workers

5 April, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

Permalink, 5 April 2009

Author: Gaither Stewart

(Rome) Protests, broken heads and hundreds of arrests at the G20 in London, bloody demonstrations in Kehl and Baden Baden and Strasbourg at celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of NATO, workers uprisings across the face of France, and on Saturday in Rome’s Circus Maximus a mammoth manifestation organized by the CGIL trade union underline the abyss separating the New Class of capital from labour. The current and spreading revolt of labour against capital seems to mark the second phase of the crisis of capitalism, as a consequence of the financial crisis caused by the New Class of an elite that has illogically chosen to separate itself from labour in the Occidental world.

When the Yugoslav Communist Milovan Djilas wrote his book, The New Class, he was referring to a “political” bureaucracy in Yugoslavia. Today’s global New Class consists of the financial class that has bought and subjugated its second component, the political class, which fronts for it, protects it and legislates for it. Today’s New Class thus consists of on one hand a political elite with its armed wings of police and military and agencies of control and the shadowy, illusory, virtual world of finance. The two wings of the New Class blend to such a degree that it is nearly impossible to determine where the financial world ends and the political world begins. The real conflict is not between them. The real conflict is a class conflict, deeper and more evident today than anytime since the industrial revolution. It is the conflict between the New Class aided by its hangers-on and the rest of the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1s EN, 2B News, Authors, Capitalism, Gaither Stewart, Socialism. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

Too big to save: the end of financial capitalism

5 April, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

Published by OpenDemocracy, 2 April 2008
Author Saskia Sassen

he misnamed “Group of Twenty” (G20) meets in London on 2 April 2009 to discuss how to save the global financial system. It is too late. The evidence is in: we don’t have the resources to save this system – even if we wanted to. It has become too big to save: the value of global financial assets is several times the size of global gross national product (GDP). The real challenge is not to save this system but to definancialise our economies, as a prelude to move beyond the current model of capitalism. Why should the value of financial assets stay at almost four times the overall GDP of the European Union, and even more of the United States. What do everyday citizens – or the planet – gain from such excess?

The question answers itself. To explore further the inner workings of the financial system that has brought the world to this predicament is also to glimpse a future beyond financialisation. The task the G20 should actually address is not to save this financial system but to begin to definancialise the major economies to a significant degree, so that the world can begin to move towards the creation of a “real” economy that delivers security, stability, and sustainability. There is much work to do. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1s EN, 2B Analysis, 2B News, Authors, Financial Crisis, Globalisation, Sassen Saskia, World Economy, World Policy. Tags: , , , , . Leave a Comment »

G20: 28 March 2009 (videos)

2 April, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

From fourmanfilms

Manifestation Put People First 28 March 2009

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1s EN, 1s Video, 2B News, Action, Actvism, Globalisation. Tags: . Leave a Comment »

G20 1 April 2009 (videos)

2 April, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

From AlJazeeraEnglish

G20 protests rock London’s financial area – 01 Apr 09

Read the rest of this entry »

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Media brengen slecht nieuws

2 April, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

PALA 71 – 2 april 2009

Inleiding

Wat brengt de toekomst voor de media en voor PALA?

Is het verstandig om voor degelijke media bijna volledig te vertrouwen op privébedrijven die in de eerste plaats winst willen maken? We doen dat toch ook niet voor onderwijs of cultuur, zoals de mensen van Indymedia terecht opmerken in hun nieuwe boek (zie ook verder in deze brief). PALA 71 zoomt in op de mediacrisis die al lang woekert maar acuter wordt door de economische crisis. En we zoeken naar uitwegen. Enkele media zagen deze opinie niet meteen zitten, één krant beloofde te publiceren maar deed dat nog niet. We blijven proberen, maar gelukkig is er PALA. Stuur deze editie gerust door – iedereen mag toch weten wat er aan de hand is met de media?

Intussen bereiken we met PALA 30.000 abonnees, een aantal dat blijft groeien. En we vragen ons af hoe we in deze mediacrisis best onze verantwoordelijkheid kunnen nemen. In de klassieke media blijft de belangstelling voor hoe onze wereld eraan toe is onderma ats. Nog minder is er aandacht voor de vragen waar het naartoe moet, en hoe we daar dan geraken. We moeten dus nog meer en nog beter berichten, en daar meer mensen mee bereiken. Read the rest of this entry »

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Regional Wars and the Decline of the US Empire

1 April, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

Published by Information Clearing House, 31 March 2009
Author: James Petras

All the idols of capitalism over the past three decades crashed. The assumptions and presumptions, paradigm and prognosis of indefinite progress under liberal free market capitalism have been tested and have failed. We are living the end of an entire epoch: Experts everywhere witness the collapse of the US and world financial system, the absence of credit for trade and the lack of financing for investment. A world depression, in which upward of a quarter of the world’s labor force will be unemployed, is looming. The biggest decline in trade in recent world history – down 40% year to year – defines the future. The immanent bankruptcies of the biggest manufacturing companies in the capitalist world haunt Western political leaders. The ‘market’ as a mechanism for allocating resources and the government of the US as the ‘leader’ of the global economy have been discredited. (Financial Times, March 9, 2009) All the assumptions about ‘self-stabilizing markets’ are demonstrably false and outmoded. The rejection of public intervention in the market and the advocacy of supply-side economics have been discredited even in the eyes of their practitioners. Even official circles recognize that ‘inequality of income’ contributed to the onset of the economic crash and should be corrected. Planning, public ownership, nationalization are on the agenda while socialist alternatives have become almost respectable.

With the onset of the depression, all the shibboleths of the past decade are discarded: As export-oriented growth strategies fail, import substitution policies emerge. As the world economy ‘de-globalizes’ and capital is ‘repatriated’ to save near bankrupt head offices – national ownership is proposed. As trillions of dollars/Euros/yen in assets are destroyed and devalued, massive layoffs extend unemployment everywhere. Fear, anxiety and uncertainty stalk the offices of state, financial directorships, the office suites the factories, and the streets… Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1s EN, 2B Analysis, 2B News, About War, Authors, Capitalism, Economic Analysis, Petras James, US, World Policy. Tags: , , , , . Leave a Comment »

De Google Paradox

1 April, 2009 — peppinoimpostato

Permalink, 1 April 2009

‘Googlen’ is een werkwoord geworden in onze taal, synoniem voor zoeken op het Web. Het probleem is dat we er zo kritiekloos mee omgaan, alsof Google alle antwoorden heeft. Ons vertrouwen in Google berust echter op een misvatting volgens Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor in de Bibliotheekwetenschappen:

“….We do not properly understand the nature of the nature of the transaction between us and Google. …into our relationship with Google we do not grasp that we are not really Google’s costumers. Google calls us users, but in fact we are Google’s products. Our attention is what Google sells to its customers, which are the advertisers.” (BBC interview)

We zijn dus geen klanten van Google, maar Google gebruikt onze argeloze aandacht en nieuwsgierigheid om zijn adverteerders te bedienen.

Volgens prominente linguisten zoals Arbib en Lakoff verklaren spiegelneuronen de biologische ontwikkeling van het menselijk taalvermogen (Arbib, 2005; Gallese, Lakoff, 2007). Ze maken het in alle geval mogelijk dat we elkaar begrijpen zelfs in dubbelzinnige situaties die weinig aanknopingspunten bieden. Omdat spiegelneuronen het mogelijk maken ons in de schoenen van iemand anders te plaatsen kunnen we ook zijn intenties begrijpen. Ook als we zoeken met Google maken we op een of andere manier onze intenties duidelijk. Google krijgt onze aandacht gratis. De vraag is schenkt Google ook aandacht aan ons, of loert het gewoon van achter een doorkijkspiegel naar ons terwijl het ons wat brokjes informatie toegooit die al of niet relevant zijn voor onze vraag. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1s NL, 2B News, Authors, Google, Google Watch, Googling, Verhoeven Daniël. Tags: . Leave a Comment »

Google tips and tricks: find definitions and define price ranges

31 March, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

Permalink, 31 March 2009

In a previous article we showed that Google is rather refraining the development of search technology instead of advancing it. But there is more. Google seems also to hide some undocumented search options. When you go to ‘advanced search’ you can use options like ’site:’ , ‘filetype:’, ‘allintitle:’ when you want to specify that you only want results from a specified domain, in a specified file type or only those who have your search term in the title. There is another undocumented option: ‘define:’

Its quite simple just type

define: adhd

define: swaps

define: schizophrenia

or another word you want the definition of and Google will return 10 to 20 definitions from trusted sites like Wikipedia, princeton.edu, Stanford.edu etc. You can even get those definitions in other languages like French, Italian, German or Russsian.

It’s a quick way to find a definition when you do not have the time to read the article in the Wikipedia. Read the rest of this entry »

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Economic Meltdown: The “Dollar Glut” is What Finances America’s Global Military Build-up

31 March, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

Published at Global Research, 29 March 2009

Author: Michael Hudson

I am traveling in Europe for three weeks to discuss the global financial crisis with government officials, politicians and labor leaders. What is most remarkable is how differently the financial problem is perceived over here. It’s like being in another economic universe, not just another continent.

The U.S. media are silent about the most important topic policy makers are discussing here (and I suspect in Asia too): how to protect their countries from three inter-related dynamics: (1) the surplus dollars pouring into the rest of the world for yet further financial speculation and corporate takeovers; (2) the fact that central banks are obliged to recycle these dollar inflows to buy U.S. Treasury bonds to finance the federal U.S. budget deficit; and most important (but most suppressed in the U.S. media, (3) the military character of the U.S. payments deficit and the domestic federal budget deficit. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1s EN, 2B Analysis, Authors, Economic Analysis, Economy, Financial Crisis, Hudson Michael, Imperialism, Military Industry, Military Strategy, US. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »

Adblock Plus: Save your time and traffic

31 March, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

more about “Adblock Plus: Save your time and traffic“, posted with vodpod

Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. Right-click on a banner and choose “Adblock” from the context menu - the banner won’t be downloaded again. Maybe even replace parts of the banner address with star symbols to block similar banners as well. Or choose a filter subscription, then even this simple task will usually be unnecessary: the filter subscription will block most advertisements fully automatically.

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The Future Has Already Arrived: Ch@tlas: methodiek onlinehulp in eerstelijnswelzijnswerk

31 March, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

Posted at Slide Share

more about “The Future Has Already Arrived“, posted with vodpod

De Standaard, 31 Maart 2009
Online hulp groeit spectaculair in Vlaanderen: in 2008 waren er ongeveer 5.500 oproepen. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1s EN, WWW, Web 2.0. Tags: . Leave a Comment »

Russian Activist Forced into Psychiatric Confinement

31 March, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

Published at The Other Russia, 15 March 2009

Update: On March 20th, two weeks after he was detained and after a public campaign in his defense, Charushev was finally released.  “Our fight was successful,” said Olga Kurnovosa, who heads the St. Petersburg branch of the United Civil Front party.

“This is a very rare occurrence in today’s Russia,” she added.

A Russian opposition activist, who says he was confined against his will to a mental hospital, will remain in the facility after a St. Petersburg court ruled in favor of his compulsory treatment Saturday.  According to the ZAKS.ru online newspaper (Rus), Vadim Charushev is well known as the creator of several political web-resources and social networking groups.

According to Charushev’s attorney, Viktor Grozovsky, the activist was detained by police, then forcibly hospitalized on the night of March 6th.  It remains unclear why Charushev was first arrested. Read the rest of this entry »

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Commissars of the Internet: The FSB at the Computer [episode 4/4]

31 March, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

Published at La Russophobe, 22 February 2007
Athors: Anna Polyanskaya, Andrei Krivov & Ivan Lomko

Gulag
September 16, 2006

The Brigades in Action

The well-informed web-brigade

Before all else, the Brigade has the most remarkable ability to instantly find quotes from old postings of opponents on forums, even postings a year and a half old, sometimes no longer even in the archives of the site. Many brigadniki strive also to know as much as possible about the personal information of their opponents. With this objective they regularly conduct “intelligence interrogations” of critically-inclined opponents, in the course of which they ask a wide range of questions about their family, the college they graduated from, their work, the region in which they live, favorite places and friends. Somehow, one’s casual “conversation partner” from the Brigade is able to quickly identify the country and city from which one is writing, even on those sites where it is not possible to see one’s IP-code. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1s EN, 2B Analysis, Actual History, Authors, Intelligence, Polyanskaya Anna, Russia. Tags: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Commissars of the Internet: The FSB at the Computer by Anna Polyanskaya [episode 3/4]

31 March, 2009 — Daniel Verhoeven

Published at La Russophobe, 22 February 2007
Authros: Anna Polyanskaya, Andrei Krivov & Ivan Lomko

Gulag
September 16, 2006

Ideology and Tactics of the Brigades

Views of the USSR

The Brigade’s views of the Soviet past are, as a rule, apologist, although not always, and there exits here a certain separation of opinions. Many brigadniki warmly recall the Soviet period and worship the Soviet past in all its attributes, from the everyday to the official (often in terms from the Soviet-era propaganda piece “Short Course on the History of the USSR”, even when according to his “legend” the writer is a young man who has been living in the West for a long time). Often they publicly dream of the reestablishment of the USSR to its previous – or even better, expanded – borders. At the same time, they actively rehabilitate the Communist leaders, including Lenin, Stalin, Beria, Brezhnev and Andropov, as well as the totalitarian ideals of the Soviet period. The only idea from Communism that is completely excluded is the idea of Internationalism, which is replaced with a deep-seated nationalist-“patriotism”. This is often accompanied by a false substitution, in which the idea of the Motherland is associated exclusively with the authorities, and the Fatherland with the ruling regime. Devotion to leaders and totalitarian organizations like the KGB is taken as a patriotic position, while taking any position opposed to the regime is considered a betrayal of the Motherland and a form of Russophobia. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 1s EN, 2B Analysis, Actual History, Authors, Intelligence, Polyanskaya Anna, Russia. Tags: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »
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