By Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights)

“Canada’s $233 million arms sale of military combat helicopters to the Philippine government will enable and worsen the already dire human rights situation under the Duterte administration. We call on the Canadian people and Filipino migrants in Canada to oppose this arms deal and intensify support for human and people’s rights in the Philippines,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, after the agreement between the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) and Philippine military was announced on February 6, 2018. Continue reading Canada’s Philippines arms deal will abet human rights violations →

The following message has been sent to the people of PNG, by Benny Wenda, who chairs the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP). Next week there is going to be an important summit in Port Moresby. This should also be of interest in Australia, because our nation has been involved in the situation in West Papua, and because the Melanesian peoples are our close neighbours. Our government should stop supporting the Indonesian occupation.

Continue reading West Papuan leader appeals for support on eve of Summit →

 by Joe Montero

Julian Assange failed in his bid to have the British warrant for his arrest struck down, despite being tied to an earlier Swedish investigation that is no longer taking place. They dropped their investigation last year. The United Nations also ruled that the case should not be proceeded with. The international arrest warrant was dropped and this implied that the British one should be as well. Continue reading Julian Assange loses bid to get British arrest warrant dropped →

By Jim Hayes

Rupert Murdoch and his empire has been caught in Saudi Arabia’s purge of members of the royal family, government ministers and officials. Continue reading Murdoch at risk of losing control over his empire →

Contributed

The woman at the forefront of the Panama Papers is dead. She lost her life when a bomb in the car she was driving blew up and sent the vehicle flying into a paddock.

A tranche of 11.5 million documents connected to more than 200,000 offshore accounts make up the Panama Papers and this immense volume of information is still being sifted through and new evidence of money laundering and tax evasion is constantly bubbling to the surface.

Those who stand to be exposed had an incentive for having her silenced.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a journalist who passionately focused on uncovering establishment corruption and her untimely death shows that the corrupt are ruthless and will do anything to keep on the gravy train.

Her son, Matthew Caruana Galizia said, “this was no ordinary murder and it was not tragic” and argued that “when there is blood and fire all around you, that’s war. We are a people at war against the state and organised crime, which have become indistinguishable.”

He added on Facebook. “Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, Chris Cardona, Konrad Mizzi, the Attorney General and the long list of police commissioners who took no action: you are complicit. You are responsible for this”.

There is an obvious connection between these words and the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his closest aids, whose links to offshore companies had been exposed.

There is also a global dimension to this, as the exposures Galizia worked on involved the who’s who list of multinational corporations and political leaders. Even the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been named as one of them.

It makes perfect sense to allege that there is a war going on between the people in general and the greed of a small and exclusive group, amassing fortunes at the expense of everyone else.  A war that is becoming more open and brutal.

Rights of citizens are being trampled

One of the Maltese police officers who is supposed to be investigating the murder, a sergeant called Ramon Misfsud, wrote about it on his own Facebook account: “Everyone gets what they deserve, cow dung! Feeling happy”. There is not going to be much of an investigation from this quarter.

Although the sergeant has been suspended, this is not a great deal under the circumstances,  and it suggests that power structures provide impunity to wrongdoers, encourage corruption and punish those who make a stand against it.

This is why it is so important that other carry on the work of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

College students view race hate speech and make a connection between with this and what is unfolding today.

Video from FBE

By Migrante Australia

Today (21 September 2017), we commemorate the 45th year of Martial Law declaration with a sense of déjà vu with the transformation of President Duterte into a despotic ruler now almost complete. Continue reading Never again to tyranny and dictatorship in the Philippines →

By Joe Montero

Venezuela has just gone through an election for a new Constituent Assembly. This is a new body, designed to lift discussion about the country’s future and bring about the peace, put forward by government led by Nicolás Maduro.

Regardless of the merits or otherwise of the claim, at the very least, it should be acknowledged that the voters were asked and encouraged to cast their verdict.

A sticking point is that the Constituent Assembly would have the power not to change the constitution. The truth is that it will only have the power to make recommendation that will then have to be  put a referendum. A clear guideline has been set, based on what has been called the “nine lines of work, which are

1. Achieve peace, isolate the violent, reaffirm the values of justice and accountability.
2. Perfect and broaden the Venezuelan economic system, to design or install a new post-petroleum economic system
3. Include within the Constitution all of the Missions and Grand Missions established by Comandante Chávez and the Revolution, among them those focused on housing, education, health, and culture.
4. Strengthen the functioning of the justice, security, and citizen protection system.
5. Promote new forms of participation.
6. Advance the defense of national sovereignty.
7. Promote cultural identity and the country’s new spirituality.
8. Guarantee youth a future.
9. Show concern for the survival of life on the planet.

Despite the ‘official opposition’ boycott, 6,100 candidates stood for 456 positions, representing Venezuela’s different social sectors. Not all were government Maduro supporters.

Forty-three international observers and electoral experts oversaw the vote and have declared the result legitimate. The have also appealed for the will of the people of Venezuela to be respected.

In a statement the observers said,

“the Venezuelan people have made their case for peace despite threats and interventionist actions from the United States as well as their associates and allies.”

They also said that Venezuelans “have concurred in a civic and peaceful manner to exercise their right to vote in a free, universal, direct, and secret election as expressed in Article 63 of the Bolivarian Constitution.”

Much of the media coverage outside Venezuela has chosen to ignore all this and only put out the story provided by statements coming from the opposition. The line here is that this is about a dictator, working to consolidate his absolute power.

The vote for Constituent Assembly is for representatives of social sectors, in addition to representing electorates. This means that workers, peasants women, youth and students will have their own representatives.  Provision has been made to also include representatives for indigenous people, Afro-Venezuelans and the disabled. The opposition also objects to social sector representation.

Video from TeleSur

The reality is that the opposition’s support base is concentrated and does not spread across all sectors, especially working class and poor communities. This put it at a disadvantage and has a lot to do with the decision for a boycott.

Trawling through the reporting, shows wholesale unverified reporting, relying on uncritical repetition of media releases from this opposition. There is a lack of proper investigation. Only one story gets out and anything getting in its way is effectively censored by the major media outlets.

For instance, the unrealistic claim that 70 percent of the electorate supported their boycott and stayed away from the polls has been peddled widely. On this basis, the election process was labeled a fraud by the White House and sanctions on the South American country are being stepped up.

What is not mentioned is that the figure comes from a survey of intention conducted by the opposition, before the election. Any fair-minded person would accept that this is not the actual voting figure and needs to be verified against other evidence in any case.

Official figures of the count show that over 41 percent of the population voted. It may be short of a full turnout. But it was the highest turnout at any election for the past 18 years. Higher than when the collective opposition won a majority in the Congress in 2015.

Given the context in which the election occurred, this was a respectable turnout.

Video from TeleSur

For months, the opposition had been waging an openly violent and armed campaign in the streets to prevent the ballot from taking place. Perceived opponents have been hunted down by gangs. Continue reading What is really going on in Venezuela? →