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?
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted last month just hours before what would have been the first ever popular consultation in Honduran history in order to gauge the people's support for re-writing the country's constitution that was written in 1982 when the country was ruled by a US-backed military dictatorship. The current constitution is easily manipulated by the Honduran economic elite, who have the support of the United States (US) and Canada, says this report from The Real News...
Richard Pithouse -
Across the country the most vulnerable people in our society are being subject to brazenly unlawful and often violent action at the hands of the state. Homeless people, refugees, sex workers, street traders and shack dwellers are all being taught, in the most literal sense of the term, to know their place. But state illegality is not only aimed at the segregation of physical space. It is also about ensuring that the people on the margins of society know their political place.
This is why...
Early on Sunday morning, 28 June 2009, 100 soldiers escorted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, from his bed to an airplane, which flew him to Costa Rica, in a military coup that is supported by the country's powerful political elite. The president wasn't the only victim of the coup. Some of his cabinet members were also kidnapped by the military. Inter Press Service reports that the coup was sparked because Zelaya planned to hold a non-binding popular referendum on Sunday, asking voters...
This Link TV report charges that Arab rulers from the region fear that the protests in Iran will serve as a reminder about democracy to their own populations. "Democracy in Arab countries goes only as far as the election booth. Democracy, however, is based on the education of change, civic institutions and human rights. Do these things exist in Arab countries? Do the Arab masses believe in these democratic principles? The answer is no," contends one commentator in this clip....
Richard Pithouse -
From the Communist Party across to the corporate spin-doctors and down to the Development Committees in the shack settlements, more or less everybody in South Africa speaks the language of development. In some ways this is a good thing. It indicates a hard won agreement that the realities of inequality in our society are so cruel and perverse that any social project can only be credible if it will ameliorate these divisions and the suffering they cause.
But one of the key problems with...
There's something fishy about the election results in Iran. It's odd that President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad won the elections by almost a "two to one margin," says Pepe Escobar, given the energy of the "green revolution." But the results are even more surprising given the timeline of the vote counting. Polling booths closed at 22h00 on election day on Friday, 12 June 2009 and results declaring Ahmedinejad the victor were announced at 02h00 on Saturday morning, just four...
