Brothers, Sisters and comrades, I am glad and honoured to be addressing you for this event. I would like to tell you that from the start of our Palestinian revolutionary movement, we knew we were not alone, that our struggle was part of the international struggle. This makes us continue our struggle without fear in facing zionism and imperialism, especially US imperialism, as we know people around the world are with us practically and not just theoretically. We have learnt from history that when a people is occupied and oppressed they will revolt to liberate themselves using all methods including armed struggle, which is also enshrined in the UN Charta. Our homeland has been occupied since 1948, and I Leila Khaled have been a refugee for 62 years like 6 million other … [read more]

Zhao Dongmin was arrested on 19 August last year after organizing more than 380 workers from about 20 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to form a labour rights group tasked with overseeing and monitoring SOE restructuring, and reporting corruption and abuses of power. The Shaanxi Union Rights Defence Representative Congress was formally banned by the municipal government of Xi’an on 27 July, after which Zhao wrote an open letter protesting the action to the State Council, the municipal, provincial and central committees of the Chinese Communist Party. He was arrested 18 days later. Since his arrest, Zhao’s case has been taken up by an increasingly vocal group of supporters, many of whom share his leftist political views. Zhao was the head of the Shaanxi Mao Zedong Thought Study … [read more]

On 17th October, when people were celebrating Dussehra to mark the victory of Good over the Evil, the Democratic Front Against Operation Green Hunt, Punjab, held a massive Convention in Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall, Jalandhar on "War against the people & Role of Democratic Forces." It was addressed by noted pro-people thinker & Booker Award winner writer Arundhati Roy and Gandhian social activist Himanshu Kumar. Hundreds of people from all walks of life - University Professors, Research Scholars, Students, Artists, littérateur, cultural activists, press-persons, farmers, agricultural & industrial laborers, trade unionists, thinkers etc., participated from all across Punjab & Chandigarh. The Convention Hall having a seating capacity of 900 was overfilled & hundreds of people were left to hear … [read more]

Press Statement from UK Delegation in Diyarbakir to observe the trial of 151 Kurdish political activists and human rights defenders: We, as delegates from Britain of varying backgrounds and ethnicities welcome the opportunity that has been afforded to us to have firsthand insight into these historic trials. During our observations thus far we have had the opportunity of meeting and speaking with Mayors, Parliamentarians, Lawyers, Academics and many other interested parties. This has given us the opportunity to explore at firsthand the issues in these trials and have helped to shape our understanding of the actual meaning of these trials. We had firsthand experience of being in the Courtroom with the 151 defendants and their 250 lawyers yesterday and today. We can confidently … [read more]

We had the renowned author and activist Ms. Arundhati Roy as a special observer in the IPT. The esteemed members of the Jury were Retd Judge of Jharkhand High Court, Justice Vikramaditya Prasad, Sri Prashant Bhushan Senior Supreme Court advocate, Sri K.S. Subramanian, I.P.S. and former Director General of Police, Sri C.S. Jha, former CMD of BCCL and ECL and others. We are sharing the observations and recommendations of the Jury. We hope it will have a huge impact in the human rights movement. Independent people’s tribunal on operation green hunt in Jharkhand (held in Ranchi on 25th and 26th Sept 2010) Observations of the Jury The jury heard the testimonies of a number of social Activists working the Tribals in Jharkhand as well as a number of Tribals themselves who have been … [read more]

Sumud: Can you give us some basic information on Hezbollah? Ali Fayyad (A.F.): Let me introduce myself first. I am now a member of the Lebanese Parliament, I am in the Political Bureau of Hezbollah and I am a professor at the Lebanese university where I teach Sociology of Politics. From 1982 until 1990, I was responsible for the students' and teachers' sector of the Hezbollah. After that from 1990 until 1994 I was the Hezbollah responsible for the media (TV, radio, newspapers etc.). Then, from 1995 until one year ago I was the General Director of the Consultative Center for Studies and Documentation, the think tank of Hezbollah, so for fourteen years. But when I got my seat at the Parliament I left my position here at this Center. So today I am only a professor at the university and an … [read more]

Early recovery typically requires rapid assessment that may help initiating a transition from life saving to life sustaining activities in the affected areas. This phase entails issues like resettlement, livelihood restoration, rebuilding of basic infrastructure and planning for effective rehabilitation phase. The major challenge in this phase would be the magnitude of physical disaster. The scale of mammoth challenge can be gauged from the damage data. According to NDMA's update of 23rd December, over 1.9 houses are damaged in the country. Sindh province appears to be the worst hit accounting for over 1.1 million damaged houses. Estimates of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, government offices, culverts do not appear in this report. However, various other reports provide … [read more]

Liu Xiaobo is a neo-liberal gadfly. His unreserved admiration for the political, economic and social system of the United States of America has been aptly expressed in his “Charter 08”. Is it because he has been sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy? In the 1980s Liu said in an Interview that only 300 years of occupation by a western colonial power could improve the situation in China: “Three hundred years of colonial rule. See what Hong Kong is like today, after one hundred years of colonial rule. China is so big, so of course it would require three hundred years of colonial rule to bring it up to the standard of Hong Kong; I guess three hundred years might even be not enough.” (Interview in Jiefang Yuekan, December 1988) As an unswerving supporter of the … [read more]

Makhoul’s lawyers further secured a ruling from the Nazareth District Court, September 14th, upholding Makhoul’s right to direct and confidential access to counsel. Makhoul’s right to counsel as a citizen of Israel had been routinely violated by prison authorities, who had been officially and conspicuously wire-tapping his conversations, conducted across glass barriers via telephone, with his lawyers. Background Sixteen members of Israel Security Agency, commonly known in English as the Shin Bet, abducted Mr. Makhoul from his home at 3:00 am on May 6th, 2010. They searched his home and office, seizing personal items belonging to Makhoul and his family, as well as office equipment, documents and databases. Makhoul was detained incommunicado. A sweeping “gag order” was … [read more]

The only network we belonged to was actually the Anti-Imperialist Camp, which the Berlusconi government, the then Minister for Internal Affairs Pisanu and the under-secretary Mantovano had been thinking of getting rid of for a long time, because of its great solidarity campaigns with the resistances of the oppressed people. For years we were under watch by the Ros and the Digos [special sections of the Italian Carabinieri and Police]. They did not find a smoking gun, nor what could be reasonably called evidence. So they settled for a non-existent entity, which was made up by the attorney of Perugia. Their theory was simple: according to the special terrorism laws (art. 270bis) and their hardening of December 2001 (270 ter, quater etc.), supporting the resistances to the occupation … [read more]