The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Stephen Zunes -
Editor's Note: You may also be interested in reading Stephen Zunes follow up article: "Iran's Stolen Election Has Sparked an Uprising -- What Should the U.S. Do?" There's also this superb must-read article by M K Bhadrakumar from Asia Times Online "Beijing Cautions US Over Iran." The article is extremely valuable for its demystification of internal Iranian politics and how the US consistently misreads this.
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It is certainly not unprecedented for Western...
Iran's presidential hopeful, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has "green power" as well as "girl power" behind him and a serious shot at winning what is turning out to be the most important election in the 30-year history of Iran's Islamic revolution. Mousavi is challenging current Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mousavi is an architect, an abstract painter, a former newspaper editor and has been described as "a very good manager." "Tehran rocks!"...
In the wake of a rightward shift in European politics, Britain’s Gordon Brown seems to be losing his grip on the leadership of the New Labour Party, while his party itself appears to be losing the support of its traditional grassroots base. Al Jazeera's Riz Khan interviews two analysts to shed more light on the issue. *** RIZ KHAN: Hello and welcome. Is Britain's New Labour dying a slow death? British prime minister Gordon Brown and his party have seen some of the lowest poll ratings...
The ruling Indian National Congress-led coalition has just emerged victorious after the five-week-long national elections that saw a 60 percent voter turnout from the over 700 million eligible voters. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, or UPA, captured a decisive 262 seats in India’s 543-seat Parliament, just ten seats short of an outright majority. The Congress is now seeking allies from smaller regional parties to form the new government. The biggest defeat, however, was...
Saliem Fakir -
President Zuma’s reconciliatory tone and the selection of his cabinet is not just symbolism, but a genuine attempt to comfort his critics and intended to assure them that he is capable of being a good, if not better president than his predecessor.
One thing is plain; he hasn't surrounded himself with "yes" men and women, but with people who are known to have minds of their own and who will fight for every inch of policy and strategy.
Some vocal left figures that mounted...
Prishani Naidoo & Ahmed Veriava -
Growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s in South Africa, our imagination of freedom and its possibility would be shaped by the time. As children, the invisible participants of history, we discovered the world and its possibilities through the struggles of our elders and the passions our parents had fallen into. This was the world of the liberation movement given to us in the militancy of the songs, slogans, and forms of protest that were exploding around us, as well as in the poems...
