Obama and hopes for global nuclear disarmament
Achin Vanaik
Obama’s announced shift in US nuclear policy should not be exaggerated. However it provides an opportune moment to revisit the issue of regional and global nuclear disarmament and to develop strategies for civic action to further global disarmament.
See also For nuclear sanity by Praful Bidwai
and Interview with Achin Vanaik (in German)

There is an alternative: Reimagining Socialism
Hilary Wainwright
Despite the crisis, capitalist elites seem to be confidently regrouping and renewing themselves. Nevertheless it is clear that the credibility of the mantra "there is no alternative" is at its end, which opens up the possibility to generalise from the myriad experiments driven by socialist values and develop a sense of direction that can persuade the majority to join.

Governments must deal with complexity of current crisis:
Contribution to Vienna Conference of the Club of Rome
Susan George
By handing vast sums of money to the discredited international financial institutions, the G20 has shown it can't deal with the complexities of the current crisis. We can and must move to an ecologically and humanly balanced future for North and the South.
See also The problem isn't beef, bananas, cultural diversity, or the patenting of life: the problem is the WTO

Twenty years on, the Wa-Burmese cease-fire looks shakier
Tom Kramer
The Wa region in the north of Burma has been destabilised by counter-productive opium bans, lack of alternative development and growing tensions with the Burmese military government.

‘Cuba’s biggest “crime”: its desire to be a sovereign and independent nation’ (Part 3)
Interview by Saul Landau with Gerardo Hernandez, one of the “Cuban Five” in U.S. prison for counter-espionage (Part 1 - Part 2)