Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières

How Walmart Helped Make Newtown Shooter's AR-15 the Most Popular Assault Weapon in America

2012-12-19T14:34:45Z

When Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, December 14, inexplicably bent on ending as many lives as possible, he was carrying a Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle and several high-capacity magazines. Sadly, this isn't the first time the country has had to deal with the aftermath of a horrific shooting spree, nor is it the first time we've encountered an AR-15 in this context: only days earlier, it was the weapon of choice for a shooting at an Oregon mall that (...) - Police, weapons / USA (Eng), Wal-Mart

Disability politics in a time of capitalist crisis: could history repeat itself?

FORD Chris J. — 2012-07-09T18:14:25Z

A recent article in the British Observer by Ian Birrell discussed an ominous development that has historical connotations. “The demonization of the disabled is a sign of the times” outlined how more and more British disabled people are being increasingly subjected to bullying and hate crime. This rising incidence of disability harassment has followed austerity-driven measures by the British Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government to cut disability benefit (...) - Disability / European Union, Capitalism (Eng), Crisis (economic & social), Great Britain, New Zeland, Eugenism (eng)

The demonisation of the disabled is a chilling sign of the times

BIRRELL Ian — 2012-07-09T18:00:19Z

There is a climate of hostility towards people for whom life is already difficult and it is being fostered by politicians and journalists. Peter Greener endured a barrage of hate from his neighbour. Sometimes, it was eggs thrown at his house, stones thrown at his windows or paint thrown at his fence; more often, it was words hurled in his face: spastic, cripple, scum, scrounger. These assaults went on for months, leaving the former Nissan car-sprayer in floods of tears, feeling suicidal (...) - Disability / Great Britain

Oral Intervention of FIAN International and La Via Campesina in the 8th session of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee

Fian International, Via Campesina — 2012-02-23T16:25:12Z

21 February 2012 Dear Mr. /Mrs. President, La Via Campesina, the international peasant movement, together with FIAN International, would like to commend the Advisory Committee for its final study on the advancement of the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas. Secure access to and control over land and productive resources are inextricably linked to the expression of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and several regional and (...) - On: Human Rights & Freedoms / Peasantry, Via Campesina, FIAN, United Nations

An Open Letter to Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch

Collective — 2012-02-11T23:55:14Z

Dear Kenneth Roth, In your Introduction to Human Rights Watch's World Report 2012, “Time to Abandon the Autocrats and Embrace Rights,” you urge support for the newly elected governments that have brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Tunisia and Egypt. In your desire to “constructively engage” with the new governments, you ask states to stop supporting autocrats. But you are not a state; you are the head of an international human rights organization whose (...) - On: Human Rights & Freedoms / Rights (social & environmental), Fundamentalism, Secular, Rights (women), HRW, Political Islam, Arab Revolutions

Facebook revolutions? My foot

SULEHRIA Farooq — 2011-09-19T15:13:14Z

Will the media experts or Messrs BBC & CNN enlighten us as to why Facebook magic did not work in Libya. Why Qaddafi regime had to be NATO-bombed and not ‘Facebooked'? Warning: I am writing this piece out of irritation. I think irritation is pretty legitimate inspiration under irritating times. Five hundred people, mostly youth, laid their lives on the streets of Tunis. Thousands of Tunisian revolutionaries spent their youth in Ben Ali's horrible dungeons. When (...) - Media / Internet (Eng), Arab Revolutions

The US, 9/11, the left, and women's human rights

TAX Meredith — 2011-09-14T21:54:04Z

Portside, the leftie elist, asked a number of people to write a response to the anniversary of 9/11. Here's mine. It doesn't say everything because we had a 500 word limit, but it says one of the big things. You can find other people's responses, and lots of other news, at portside.org/. The US left was theoretically unprepared to deal with the attacks of 9/11 and the resulting upsurge of nationalist politics. There had been no widespread effort after the end of the (...) - Women's Rights / USA (Eng), Imperialism (Eng), Fundamentalism, Afghanistan (Eng), Feminism (Eng), September 11, 2001

Amid the Murdoch scandal, there's an acrid smell of business as usual

PILGER John — 2011-07-23T22:27:41Z

The Fleet Street hacks and men from Westminster are now scrabbling to rewrite the history of the phone-hacking fiasco. The pact between press and parliament remains the same. In Scoop, Evelyn Waugh's brilliant satire on the press, there is the moment when Lord Copper, owner of the Daily Beast, meets his new special war correspondent, William Boot, in truth an authority on wild flowers and birdsong. A confused Boot is ushered into his lordship's presence by Mr Salter, the (...) - Media / Great Britain, MURDOCH Rupert

The Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR)

CSBR — 2011-05-20T21:31:56Z

The Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies was founded in 2001, following the “Women, Sexuality and Social Change in the Middle East and Mediterrenean Symposium” organized by WWHR-New Ways in Istanbul, Turkey. In this groundbreaking meeting, NGO representatives, activists and academicians from the Middle East and North Africa came together to the first time to discuss sexuality in the region and affirmed the need for a solidarity network of those advocating (...) - Women's Rights / Muslims, Sexuality, Reproductive Rights, Family, CSBR

John Pilger's Investigation Into the War on WikiLeaks and His Interview With Julian Assange

ASSANGE Julian, PILGER John — 2011-01-25T15:45:44Z

The attacks on WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, are a response to an information revolution that threatens old power orders in politics and journalism. The incitement to murder trumpeted by public figures in the United States, together with attempts by the Obama administration to corrupt the law and send Assange to a hell-hole prison for the rest of his life, are the reactions of a rapacious system exposed as never before. In recent weeks, the US Justice Department has (...) - Media / Internet (Eng), WikiLeaks