Day: December 11, 2015

Syria
B-52

Syrian revolution met with US, Israeli air-strikes

The same day the Assad regime fell and rebel forces took Damascus, the US military carried out a series of air-strikes against Islamic State positions across central Syria. The Pentagon’s Central Command announced that it “struck over 75 targets using multiple US Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s.” The targets included “ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps.” Also that day, Israeli warplanes conducted dozens of raids across Syria, including in Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) counted more than 100 Israeli strikes on military and industrial targets, including a research center believed to be linked to chemical weapon production. Israel said it was acting to stop weapons from falling “into the hands of extremists.” Israel has additionally seized control of a demilitarized “buffer zone” in the Golan Heights, saying the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria had “collapsed” with the rebel take-over of the country. (Photo of B-52 bomber: USAF via A&SF)

Planet Watch
countervortex

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The world faces multiple, urgent converging crises now: the war in Ukraine and relentless Russian disinformation campaign in its defense; the attendant threat of imminent nuclear war; democracy under attack from the fascist right in Europe, Asia, South America and here in North America; regimes of mass detention and genocide proliferating worldwide; countryafter country collapsing into chaotic warfare; an unprecedented global crisis of displacement; the rapid fraying of the planet’s life-support systems, and the endemic incapacity of the capitalist system to do anything about it. We are an admittedly small voice amid the online cacophony of bloggery, but we think it is a voice needed more than ever—ongoing coverage of under-reported conflicts, a critical dissident-left perspective with 0% unvetted provocation or state propaganda, a CounterVortex to the general downward spiral. We need your support to do it. Please give what you can.

Planet Watch
Aleppo

Podcast: R2P in the 21st Century

In Episode 101 of the CounterVortex podcast, we present the audio from a panel at the Ninth International Herbert Marcuse Society Conference, held in October at Arizona State University in Tempe. The panel, “The Responsibility to Protect in the Twenty-First Century,” features two presentations. Javier Sethness speaks on “Realism, Egalitarianism, and Internationalism,” providing a theoretical and historical framework, including a discussion of Herbert Marcuse‘s work with US intelligence in World War II. Bill Weinberg, speaking from New York, follows with “For Solidarity; Against Dictators and Campism,” discussing contemporary examples, including Syria, Libya, Burma and Taiwan. A third presentation was to have been offered by Anner G. in Ethiopia, on “The Responsibility to Protect in Tigray,” but she was unable to join. The work of her group, Horn Anarchists, is discussed in Weinberg’s presentation. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: Destruction of Aleppo, via 7ee6an)

The Andes
paramilitaries

Colombia: inactive guerillas join active paras off US terror list

The US State Department announced that Colombia’s disbanded FARC guerilla army has been removed from the list of “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” The statement acknowledged that the FARC “no longer exists as a unified organization.” In fact, the de-listing came on the fifth anniversary of the peace agreement under which the FARC agreed to demobilize. However, the right-wing paramilitary groups now active across the country are still not listed by the State Department. These paramilitary forces are overwhelmingly behind the ongoing campaign of assassinations of social leaders across Colombia.  (Photo via Contagio Radio)

New York City
James Bay

Podcast: the struggle for James Bay

“Who is James Bay?” That’s the frequent reaction from New Yorkers when it is brought up—despite the fact that James Bay is not a “who” but a “where,” and a large portion of New York City’s electricity comes from there. In Episode 44 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s so-called “Green New Deal,” and how maybe it isn’t so green after all. The mayor’s plan is centered on new purchases of what is billed as “zero-emission Canadian hydro-electricity.” But supplying this power is predicated on expansion of the massive James Bay hydro-electric complex in Quebec’s far north, which has already taken a grave toll on the region’s ecology, and threatens the cultural survival of its indigenous peoples, the Cree and Inuit. And it isn’t even really “zero-emission.” Listen on SoundCloud,and support our podcast via Patreon. (Photo: Orin Langelle)

East Asia
China

Beijing squatter protest —and human rights dilemma

A rare protest is reported from Beijing following the mass eviction of a squatter camp for migrant workers. The protest comes just as the US and EU condemned China on the occasion of International Human Rights Day—and China held its own "South-South Human Rights Forum" in Beijing, in a bid to deflect Western criticism and redefine human rights as a "right to development."

Greater Middle East

General Assembly demands halt to Aleppo siege

With action in the Security Council blocked by Russia and China, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution demanding an immediate end to all attacks on civilians in Syria.

REFUGEES DEFY CRACKDOWN IN TURKEY

by Andrew Connelly, IRIN

The gloomy streets of Basmane in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir have long been associated with bordellos and drug dealing, but this year it is the smuggling of souls that has become the neighbourhood’s key nefarious industry. Compared to the summer months when Izmir was the main departure point for the roughly 5,000 refugees setting off for the Greek islands by boat every day, the city is relatively quiet. Winter temperatures and rougher seas have deterred some. Following a recent agreement between the EU and Turkey, in which the former will pay the latter €3 billion to stem the flow of refugees into Europe, many more may soon be forcibly prevented from making the journey.

Amer twirls amber-colored prayer beads outside one of Izmir’s numerous hotels. With a black money-belt strapped around his waist, athletic shoes and a heap of rucksacks piled up on the floor next to him, his purpose in the city is easy to guess, and sheepishly he admits: “I’m waiting here to swim to Europe! Well, hopefully by boat anyway.”

Continue ReadingREFUGEES DEFY CRACKDOWN IN TURKEY 
New York City

New Yorkers say yes to refugees, no to Trump

Marking International Human Rights Day, activists gathered at New York's Columbus Circle, overlooked by the Trump Hotel, for a rally in solidarity with Syrian refugees.