Achin Vanaik, Prof. Michael Lowy, Emeritus Research Director in Social Sciences at the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris, Francesco Martone
23 Enero 2011
Multi-media
No single political movement in India should assume that it represents the nucleus of a radical left alternative, but be ready to build principled alliances.
Despite evidence that torture was used to extract false confessions in the lead up to the war in Iraq, the Obama administration continues to block efforts to abolish torture and restore justice and the rule of law.
2011 will be marked by the ascendancy of emerging countries, tensions between the United States
and China, border clashes, a weak United Nations and the risk of an attack on Iran.
On 17 December 2010, Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old Tunisian man set himself on fire in protest at a police beating after he resisted attempts to confiscate the cart that he used to sell vegetables and fruit. His desperate action prompted a wave of protests - first in Tunisia and then across the whole of the Middle East - as public anger at pervasive corruption, police brutality, unemployment, neoliberal economic policies, rising inequality and persistent human rights abuses exploded to the fore.
This section explores the underlying causes of the uprisings, debates the military intervention in Libya, examines the ongoing constraints on democratic movements, and looks to highlight the implications of changes in the Middle East for Western powers and their main ally, Israel who have supported autocratic dictatorships to facilitate ready access to oil, support the 'War on Terror' and act as a repressive buffer for migration into Europe.
