By Rafik Saley, Okoth Osewe, and John Goss - December 19, 2012

The question on every reasonable person’s lips is: why can’t the Swedish government “just give Mr. Assange the diplomatic guarantees that he has asked for?” In light of Sweden´s complicity in illegal rendition right up to 2006, a diplomatic guarantee to Assange that he won’t be extradited to the US is of integral importance. After all, the Swedish government has the final say in the matter and, if its past history in illegal renditions is anything to go by, Assange’s fears about extradition or rendition to the United States are justifiable.

By Lauren Kelley - December 24, 2012

McDonald’s has become synonymous with food that’s terrible for you, low-wage jobs and overzealous marketing to children. Largely that’s because of McDonald’s scale; the company serves more customers each day than the entire population of Great Britain, and it hires some one million workers each year...This is all to say that there’s a lot to hate about McDonald’s. As such, here is a not-comprehensive list of some of the more outrageous facts about McDonald’s, past and present.

In America, there are three words for that freedom: “Jobs, jobs, jobs!” That is the essence of American freedom – a job. Every free American is entitled to search for one, and to make every effort to find and occupy one – especially when the country is in a crisis. By doing so, Americans look out for their own good and everything that is important to them. What they earn, no matter how little that might be, is their property from which they and their families can live freely.

The theoretical investigation of state and society, art and culture, thinking and feeling, has the same task as the branches of the natural and applied sciences: They should also provide their sponsor with useful knowledge about their fields. The state doesn’t only want to know how the atom functions in order to build bombs and power plants, it also wants to know how humans, upper and lower stratas, production and consumption, education and edification function – so that it and its responsible departments can successfully bring about “socially desirable” results.

Marx, Engels and Luxemburg were all keen to return to the egalitarian relations of primitive communism, at a higher level. But how does the egalitarianism of early human societies connect up with Marxism’s prime focus on the rise and decline of capitalism? As capitalism continues to disintegrate, this article looks at the egalitarian origins of money in ancient Greece for clues as to how we might transcend the whole money system.

The Global BDS (Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions) movement is one of the most important initiatives challenging Israeli lawlessness, occupation harshness, apartheid, and viciousness.

By Andrew Gavin Marshall - December 18, 2012

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper once said, “You won’t recognize Canada when I get through with it.” With multiple “free trade” agreements under way, expanded corporate rights, expropriation of vast amounts of natural resources, Canada is becoming one of the world’s foremost corporate colonies, unrecognizable from what Canadians once imagined our nation to be.

By MARK WEISBROT - December 19, 2012

Venezuela is a middle-income country where the rule of law is relatively weak, as is the state generally...But compared with other countries of its income level, it does not stand out for anything in the realm of human rights abuses. Certainly there is nothing in Venezuela comparable to the abuses by Washington allies such as Mexico or Honduras – where candidates for political office, opposition activists, and journalists are regularly murdered...By contrast, we in the United States are not doing so well by comparison to our own history and income level. We have suffered a serious loss of civil liberties under the administrations of George W. Bush and President Obama.

By Hassan N. Gardezi - December 17, 2012

For all practical purposes the Arab Nationalist movement of the 1950s and 60s collapsed under the relentless opposition of Islamist groups of the time such as the Muslim Brotherhood...But the vestigial memories of the movement and fears of its resurrection in one form or the other...continue to haunt both the Islamists under the umbrella of al-Qaeda and the United States’ establishment. That is precisely the reason why the U.S. and al-Qaeda while at war in Afghanistan have found it expedient to gang up in a last ditch battle to eliminate their common enemies in Libya and Syria.

By Maher Arar - December 14, 2012

Life under a national security state is not a life. Living under such a state is simply living like a slave, or at best it is like living in a big prison...While invisible, these bars are, nevertheless, extremely constraining...Listed below are 10 aspects that characterize life under the national security and surveillance state.

By Finian Cunningham - December 15th, 2012

This story connects far-flung places. Kenya, Malaya, Northern Ireland and now Syria. The one over-arching theme is British counter-insurgency strategy, or more plainly, the use of state terrorism by British forces to achieve political objectives.

Agreements Washington makes aren't worth the paper they're written on. US supported death squads celebrated being named Syria's representative. Conditions are no better for beleaguered Palestinians. Israel waged war on them for decades. Daily crimes of war, against humanity, and slow-motion genocide continue.

From: www.gegenstandpunkt.com

Selon la décision du législateur moderne, contraignante dans la pratique, le « Peuple » n’est rien de plus que l’ensemble des habitants d’un pays que l’Autorité étatique compétente déclare comme faisant partie intégrante d’elle-même.

By ERIC BAILEY - Counterpunch

"Obama’s policies have been approximately the same as Bush’s...The Democrats supported Bush’s policies. There were some objections on mostly partisan grounds, but for the most part, they supported his policies and it’s not surprising that they have continued to do so. In some respects Obama has gone even beyond Bush."

By Michael Laxer - December 8, 2012

Wal-Mart is "so confident in our low prices, we guarantee them"...Ever wonder how they do it?...[They] have sourced all of their purchasing from factories in the Third World that can produce certain goods more cheaply than they could be produced in North America...But this fixation on the bottom line is even more deadly and crass than many consumers would have assumed. It turns out that, when given the chance, Wal-Mart directly refused to pay for a plan to make fire safety improvements in the factories that it gets its clothing from, as it would have cost them money.