This day. US blockade of Cuba came into effect 57 years ago

Havana, Feb 7 (Prensa Latina) – The United States’ economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba celebrates today 57 years of its official enactment, repudiating the international community which considers this policy anachronistic and a violation of human rights.

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This day. Liberation of Auschwitz – Imbue with new life the clarion call of Never Again!

By DOUGAL MACDONALD

Memorial to the victims of Nazi atrocities at the site of the former Dachau concentration camp representing the demand of the world’s people to never again permit the rise of fascism

(Ja. 25, 2014) – On January 27, 1945, the advancing Soviet Red Army entered the Nazis’ Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp, liberating more than 7,000 prisoners, most of whom were ill or dying. The prisoners were liberated as the Red Army was inflicting one defeat after another on the German troops, driving the Hitlerites steadily backward until the final demise of the Third Reich in Berlin on May 9, 1945.

Australia Day

Australia Day on January 26 marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the “First Fleet” to Sydney Cove, carrying mainly convicts and troops from Britain. For many indigenous Australians, who trace their lineage on the continent back 60,000 years, it is “Invasion Day”, the start of Britain’s colonization of aboriginal lands and their brutal subjugation – akin to “Columbus Day” that is celebrated in the USA.

The ruling elite that emerged in Australia made a determination of all those considered acceptable to constitute a nation of themselves based on ethnic, religious, political, physical and intellectual criteria. All outside the criteria were excluded and even exterminated. In fact, this approach became the policy of Nazi Germany. Today this approach requires that all those who do not swear allegiance to the “values” declared Australian, American, Canadian, British, civilized, etc., are qualified for civil death.

Due to colonialism, Australia’s 700,000 or so indigenous people track near the bottom of its 25 million citizens in almost every economic and social indicator. While opinion polls suggest over half the country supports changing Australia Day, the conservative government is still trying to legally entrench it as a national holiday.

Australia’s day for secrets, flags and cowards by John Pilger

The moral travesty of Israel seeking Arab, Iranian money for its alleged Nakba

The Great March of Return of the Palestine people, Land Day, March 30, 2018.

by RAMZY BAROUD* 

The game is afoot. Israel, believe it or not, is demanding that seven Arab countries and Iran pay $250 billion as compensation for what it claims was the forceful exodus of Jews from Arab countries during the late 1940s.

This Day. A reflection on Amílcar Cabral, Portugal and NATO

Amílcar Cabral (1924-1973)

By TONY SEED

On January 20, 1973, Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral, leader of the national liberation movement in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde in West Africa, was assassinated, just months before Guinea Bissau won its long independence struggle against Portugal.

Guinea-Bissau was once part of the kingdom of Gabu, part of the ancient Mali Empire; parts of this kingdom persisted until the 18th century. Other parts of the territory in the current country were considered by the Portuguese as part of their empire. Portuguese Guinea was known as the Slave Coast, as it was a major area for the exportation of African slaves by Europeans to the western hemisphere.

This day in 1890: The massacre at Wounded Knee

Court of Leaves, Painting by GateKeeper

By TONY SEED

1890 (29 December): The 7th U.S. Cavalry commanded by Col. James Forsyth massacred 300 unarmed and peaceful Lakhota Sioux Indians, many of them women and children, at Wounded Knee Creek (Chankpe Opi Wakpala), South Dakota – a Lakota encampment on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation – after a fruitless search for weapons in their encampment. In other words, the Sioux are completely disarmed. About thirty soldiers also died, many victims of their own crossfire.

Anniversary of Downing Street Declaration: Self-determination for the Irish people remains the goal

The Downing Street Declaration of December 15, 1993, issued by then Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, paved the way for a new stage in the struggle for Irish self-determination. It followed the 1992 Sinn Féin document “Towards a Lasting Peace in Ireland” which pointed out that a lasting peace must address the root cause of conflict, British intervention and colonial rule, and be grounded in democracy and self-determination.