Alternatives International

Accessible Education for a Prosperous and Just Society

Georgina Alonso — 2012-06-02T03:40:45Z

Students in Quebec have been on strike for over three months in response to the provincial government's decision to raise tuition fees by seventy-five per cent, reflecting a lack of support for low- and middle-income families and students. In the wake of the 2008 economic crisis, the Quebec government, along with governments around the world, is putting the politics of austerity above public services and thereby further indebting the poor and future generations. Students and their supporters in various parts of the world are flexing their democratic muscles in opposition to government priorities that penalize the most vulnerable populations—such as students—in the name of austerity.

Conservatives everywhere have responded with the same condescending rhetoric. In Chile, President Sebastián Piñera has repeatedly reminded angry students that “Nothing is free in this life. Someone has to pay.” In Quebec, students are reminded of the province's massive debt. It is not, however, the students who are responsible for the global economic crisis of 2008. It is not the students who run the banks, corporations, or governments that have wasted taxpayer money and failed the majority of citizens for the benefit of the few. Why should students be the ones who bear the economic burden rather than those responsible?

Tuition fees in Canada have been rising much faster than the rate of inflation. Those in the government who benefited from much lower tuition fees cannot claim that this is just part of the student experience when their own student experiences were much more publicly funded. People forget that tuition fees are not the only costs of attending university; the costs of textbooks, administrative fees, and, for those students supporting themselves entirely, the costs of living, need to be factored in.

The affordability of society to pay tuition fees is not the same thing as an individual or family's ability to pay. Proportional taxation ensures that only those who can afford to pay do so, and that those who cannot—in an economy where jobs are being cut, personal debts are high, and Employment Insurance is becoming less accessible—are not being further punished.

Rising tuition fees are not an inevitable fact of life, despite what many in government and corporate media would have us believe. Proportional taxation of income, corporate taxation, and a prioritization of government spending that supports investment in the future are actions that are not only possible, but have been implemented in countries such as those in Scandinavia in order to provide free post-secondary education. These countries, coincidentally, are consistently rated as having the world's highest living standards.

Students should not be denied an education simply because they cannot afford it. If the morality of the issue is not enough, the argument for reduced tuition fees can still be made in terms of economics. Education means having a more skilled, informed, and critical society which is necessary for a healthy democracy. Investing in students means investing in future parents who will raise the next generation. Investing in students means investing in the next innovative leaders of change to address problems of climate change, disease, poverty, and inequality. How can this be done well when graduates are struggling to pay off debt or when those who want to go to school choose not to due to fear of debt?

While attention lately has been focused on the inspiring student leaders and the sheer number of protestors in Quebec, the need for accessible education and an end to the commodification of education extends beyond Quebec. Global neoliberalism has exported the commodification of education to various parts of the world. Frustrations with this inadequate system are being expressed globally. In late 2011, thousands of student protestors in Chile publicly demonstrated in favour of more affordable secondary and post-secondary education as a key part of a more equal and just society. In late 2010, huge protests also erupted in response to the British government's plan to raise tuition fees and cut funding to post-secondary institutions. There have also recently been numerous demonstrations across the world in solidarity with Quebec students.

The United States post-secondary education system is the prime example of how commoditized education leads to increased inequality. Many students do not consider attending university or college for fear of insurmountable debt, which on average is between $50,000 and $100,000, making them likely to face more challenges in raising their socio-economic status. This debt is sometimes higher, especially when the school is part of the prestigious Ivy League. The fact that the more renowned universities also tend to be the most expensive means that only those who can afford to pay will have the opportunity to reap the benefits that a prestigious degree makes possible. Many graduates spend years and years trying to pay off their loans, while at the same time trying to start their careers and families. With nearly one trillion dollars in total student debt, the United States is experiencing another rapidly growing debt bubble. It is only a matter of time before it bursts, and when it does, the damaged economy will wreak havoc on many.

We have the power to decide our society's priorities. It is a cop-out to say that free education is not affordable. What we cannot afford is to deny students the education they deserve, or to only do so only as long as it is attached to a massive debt.

It is true that following the provincial government's intended tuition hikes, Quebec students will still pay thousands less a year than other Canadian students. But if Quebec students have fought for decades to keep their education so accessible, it is certainly not because they lack a sense of perspective; instead, it is because they look ahead to the future.

Project Briefs: June 2012

Houda Chergui — 2012-06-02T03:32:23Z

Alternatives Montreal — Montreal, Canada

Alternatives is hosting its Festival of Solidarity on Saturday, June 9. The festival will include workshops as well as conferences centered around the idea of uniting in a common battle against the right-wing agenda of austerity. It will bring together several key leaders of this spring's social movements. Notable speakers include Gabriel-Nabeau-Dubois, the spokesperson for the most militant of student organizations in Quebec, as well as Hervé Kempf, author of How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth.

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IPAM—Paris, France

IPAM is supporting, from June 20 to 22, a new United Nations Conference for Sustainable Development (CNUDD) in Rio de Janeiro twenty years after the Rio's Earth Summit of 1992. The subject in question is “green economics,” which is proposed to be the solution to multiple crises today by international institutions – just as sustainable development was some time ago.

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Forum des Alternatives Maroc (FMAS)—Rabat, Morocco

On May 9, the Forum hosted a conference that discussed the negative effects of globalization on the daily lives of the residents of various neighborhoods in Casablanca. This meeting served as a preparatory stage for the upcoming World Social Forum to be held in Tunis in March 2013. Participants numbered close to a hundred and included several NGOS, social activist groups, as well as the residents of the most populated neighborhoods of Casablanca.

The issue of urban policy over neighborhoods was the core subject of debates throughout the day. The Forum expressed a need to rebuild the city with certain ideas in mind such as social justice and gender equality.

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Teacher Creativity Center—Ramallah, Palestine

The Teacher Creativity Center focuses on providing a safe, democratic, and stimulating environment, where human rights and democracy values can be effectively taught. It has just launched its 3-year operational plan. The center will work on accomplishing its objectives for the next three years via activating four principle projects: the civic education program, the human rights and gender program, the social responsibility program, and the educational monitor program. The center seeks, in the next three years, to intensively work in 120 social locations.

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Un Punte Per—Rome, Italy

Un Punte Per is supporting a program launched at the end of 2011 that aims to help preserve the multiplicity of civilizations that constitute Iraq today. The first project has the primary objective of providing schooling for young Christian, Yazidi and Kudish minorities displaced in Northern Iraq.

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Alternative Information Center—Jerusalem, Israel

The AIC, a joint Palestinian-Israeli activist organization engaged in the diffusion of information, political advocacy and grassroots activism, is hosting: Gaza: Two Years after the Freedom Flotilla with Freedom Flotilla organizer Lubna Masarwa on June 2.

On May 31, 2010, Israel's navy attacked the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla, a civil society initiative to break Israel's siege of Gaza and bring humanitarian aid and international solidarity to the Palestinian people of Gaza. Israel killed 9 Turkish citizens aboard the Mavi Marmara ship, injuring dozens and detaining and deporting hundreds during the attack.

The talk will address questions such as: “How has life in the Gaza Strip changed since the Freedom Flotilla? How is the struggle to end Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip linked to the broader Palestinian struggle for liberation from Israeli colonialism? How has international solidarity been impacted by the experience of the Freedom Flotilla?” Masarwa was arrested by Israel on board one of the ships. Lubna is a Palestinian political and social feminist activist and a community organiser with rich experience in connecting different struggles on the local and international levels. She was also a key organizer for the Welcome to Palestine Campaign that began in 2011.

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Associação Civil Alternativa Terrazul - Fortaleza, Brazil

As the UN Conference on Sustainable Development approaches, organizations worldwide have begun mobilizing activists, academics and researchers to place pressure on the countries attending the Earth Summit 2012. However, Associação Civil Alternativa Terrazul has also begun educating and prompting local youth to fight for social, economic and environmental justice. Youth have the gumption, wherewithal and creativity to provoke transformative change, as was seen at the 1992 UN Earth Summit where 13 year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuk spoke about the plagues of climate change. Her speech explained the grave health risks of climate change and the plagues of environmental injustice on future generations. The astute environmental consciousness of her speech exemplifies the jolting impact youth can have on sustainability. Nearly half of the globe's population is under 25 years-old, and their mobilization in the next year is a critical step to launching new international policies towards climate justice.

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Bill 78 and a Brief Sketch of the Quebec Student Movement

Jacob Dobias — 2012-06-02T03:12:03Z

On June 9, Alternatives will be hosting the Festival of Solidarity, which will explore the process of mobilization in response to austerity and regression. Notable speakers will include Hervé Kempf as well as Coalition large de L'association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE) representative Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. Social movements are thriving around the world and many activists, such as Kempf and Nadeau-Dubois, are taking note of the influence activism can have. However, under a new Quebec law, power that comes from social statements like marches is threatened. Bill 78 is a piece of emergency legislation that has recently been pushed through by the Charest government on May 18, 2012, and is severely violating Quebec civilians' right to protest, a liberty protected under the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. This new law will be addressed during the festival, with particular attention given to its effects on recent demonstrations.

Hervé Kempf is the founder of the ecology magazine Reporterre as well as the acting environmental editor at Le Monde. At the Festival of Solidarity, Kempf will be discussing social movements and how they have the ability to save the planet. Kempf's research can be found in his two novels How the Rich are Destroying the Planet and Enough with Oligarchy, Long Live Democracy.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is a history major at the University of Quebec in Montreal. As one of the representatives for the student union coalition CLASSE, Dubois has become a major player in the student movement in Quebec. CLASSE, along with two other student organizations, Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) and Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ), has been actively protesting the rising tuition rates in Quebec for the last several months, though the fight has been ongoing since 2003. The movement, however, has since evolved. It has become much more about the role of government, the power of the people and other social justice issues. The student strike in Montreal is nearing its fourth month and as support grows, ignoring the unrest is no longer an option for either the public or the government.

Upon the introduction of Bill 78, the student movement has grown in both numbers and diversity. Simultaneously, it has increased tension amongst civilians, police and government officials through increased violence and arrests.

It is first important to understand the impact Bill 78 has had on the student protests here in Montreal. The legislation has set out very severe regulations upon student demonstrations, such as Section 16, which states that it is necessary to provide eight hours notice and detailed information concerning the route and duration. Several sections that have given rise to both national and international criticism.

For example, Sections 13 and 14 state that it is forbidden for any person or persons to directly or indirectly delay classes or deny access to them. The loose terminology in these sections does not specify what actions might fall under this rubric, leaving much up to the individual to interpret, something which is troubling for students and the public alike as it can be manipulated in favour of the government and police. Section 15 says that student organizers must undertake appropriate measures in order to convince students to neither directly nor indirectly disrupt classes. Section 17 puts the onus upon the student organizers once again, and states that they must ensure that they remain within the parameters that they had submitted previously. Finally, Section 25 threatens fines of up to $5,000 for individuals and $125,000 for groups that violate the bill. These are some of the more pressing sections that have garnered attention from both media and legal experts.

Throughout all of this, the student movement in Quebec has persevered, but Bill 78 has also affected how the international community perceives Quebec and its students. An article published in The New York Times, titled “Our Not-So-Friendly Northern Neighbor”, argues that Charest's objective is to weaken student and union organizations, rather than try to restore security.

Quebec students' ability to maintain a strong presence despite this bill can be attributed to a variety of factors. To understand why Quebec is so active when it comes to social justice issues, one would have to return all the way back to the Quiet Revolution, which first instilled the ideals of accessible post-secondary education. Student groups in Quebec are often composed of smaller numbers and are seen to be more politically active compared to student organizations in other provinces.

Bill 78 has lit a fire under an already large movement; once it was passed, there was a clear increase in participation and mobilization in the marches, as demonstrated in the nightly marches since Bill 78's introduction. In light of this new law, students have gained more support from the media and the public.

Bill 78 has created a more diverse movement, encompassing a variety of age groups, cultures and political affiliations, and it has given rise to discussions concerning civil rights in Quebec, and their role and direction in society. There has been a clear lack of support from many of the Anglophone schools in Quebec. The French schools, when deciding whether to participate in the protest, typically discussed the principles of society being addressed, while discussions in English universities typically revolved around the economic aspects of the student protest. However, with the introduction of Bill 78 Anglophone support has increased along with Francophone support.

These are just a few of the developments of the student movement in Quebec. Social movements are constantly evolving and changing to better suit the topic they are mobilizing for or against. To find out more about the issues facing the student movement, and social movements in general, please refer to the June Alternatives podcast, and listen to an interview with the Concordia Student Union outgoing VP External, Chad Walcott. A key figure in increasing student participation at Concordia, Walcott has been involved with the student movement since its onset. The interview also addresses Bill 78 and the issues it presents both symbolically and practically.

Egyptian Presidential Candidate Sparks Protests

Michael D'Alimonte — 2012-06-02T03:03:43Z

Following news that Hosni Mubarak's former premier, Ahmed Shafiq, will face off against Muslim Brotherhood backed Mohammed Mursi in the country's presidential runoff later this June, thousands of protestors have gathered again in Tahrir Square, chanting “where is the revolution?”

Shafik's campaign headquarters have been ransacked and set ablaze.

Although a recent law prohibited any candidate who worked under Mubarak to partake in the election, Shafiq directly appealed to the Higher Presidential Election Commission and was made a candidate. Many complaints were made against Shafiq, such as disregarding the electoral silence imposed on all candidates 48 hours before voting occurred, but the Election Commission has remained complacent to Shafiq's actions.

Mursi is the head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, and was the second candidate backed by the Brotherhood – despite their previous promise not to include any members in the presidential election. Given that the Brotherhood currently controls parliament, Egyptians are concerned with having a president in the same party.

Since those under thirty were the catalyst to the revolution, and comprise a significant portion of the electorate, the young will play a key role in the election. But which candidate will they choose? Apprehension exists towards Shafiq for his ties to Mubarak, but Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood are not excluded from criticism.

Rachad Antonius, a sociology professor at UQAM, claims that the Brotherhood “just cashed in on the movement done by the young people, and as a result some young people even boycotted the presidential election.” With negative sentiments linked to both candidates, it is unclear how Egyptian youths will go on to vote in June.

But to divide the conflict into groups of young or old and revolutionaries or old regime would be to simplify the array of political ideologies that exist in Egypt. As Egyptian lawyer Hazem Mehrez points out, “it is wider than this, if we look within the revolution it is divided in itself.”

For the first time, Egypt has televised news broadcasts and debates as well as online resources that are accessible to voters. Antonius praised the positive influence of the media in the ongoing election process for two main reasons. First, with online media representing all of Egypt's political parties, it is possible for voters to be fully informed. This access to information also forces the main media sources to be more objective. “The [main media] can no longer just ignore things people are talking about,” Antonius claims.

News and political information in Egypt is now more accessible and accurate than ever before.

With political conversation at a newfound height, Egyptian citizens are able to make an informed vote and discover each candidate's platform on the major issue of Egypt's economic stability. Egypt's economy is one of the largest issues to resolve as it has been declining for years. This is a problem affecting nearly all citizens and one that Antonius and Mehrez believe must be addressed immediately. As to who would be the more qualified candidate regarding this issue, Antonius believes that “none of them are qualified. This is an issue with many factors, it's a matter of whether people are convinced processes are going on correctly so that people try to get into a `normality' from the point of view of economics…A lot of things are going to go wrong because a lot of issues have not been settled as part of the revolutionary process. I don't think that anyone can guarantee a return to economic stability.”

Mehrez was much more optimistic on the topic. He believes that “once [Egypt] has a president working with parliament it will resolve a large part of the problem. I don't think it will be resolved in a few months but we have to start and the first thing to do is to bring security and stability back.” The security of the Egyptian people and their sense of safety is yet another major issue facing the nation.

The contrasting sentiments of these individuals reflect the various perspectives concerning the presidential election. Many different ideologies exist but the core issues facing Egypt – its security, economic stability, and governance itself – apply to all citizens. Mursi and Shafiq will have to address these problems and demonstrate their competency to an eclectic mix of voters if they hope to win the runoff vote to be held June 16 and 17.

The Future of Europe and the Balkans: Subversive Forum 2012

2012-06-02T02:29:56Z

This year's instalment of the annual Subversive Forum was held earlier this month, from May 13 to 19, in the Croatian capital of Zagreb.

Now in its fifth year, the international conference, this year themed “The Future of Europe,” brought together leading political thinkers in a week-long series of lectures, debates, and round-table discussions to examine the national and international issues affecting the European Union (EU) and Europe at large: Does Europe exist as anything other than a geographical entity? What is the role of the Balkans in the contemporary European context? What are possible forms of resistance against the neo-liberal agenda? Perhaps most importantly: is another Europe possible?

Without any institutional support and with minimal resources, the Subversive Forum has nevertheless flourished since its inception five years ago.

Srećko Horvat, Director, and Igor Štiks, Co-director of the Forum, make a point to oppose the exceedingly pervasive and, moreover, dangerous political mantra of today, which is “[to] put in place ‘essential' austerity measures, make amendments to the labour market, encourage new privatization, further deindustrialize, allow prices to grow and labour costs to drop.” There has not yet been a European social movement that has adequately resisted the neo-liberalism of today—the Subversive Forum hopes to change that.

In their view, this is what it means to be subversive: to criticize, challenge, and change the modern standard and dominant ideology; to present alternatives rather than accept the current state of affairs. If neo-liberalism has failed, why does it continue to be the default policy of the ruling elite?

Looking to provide political, social, and economic alternatives to the standard of today, political scientists, journalists, activists and contemporary leading intellectuals participated in multiple round-table discussions, each falling under three main headings, entitled “The Crisis in Europe,” “The Struggle for the Commons,” and “Towards the Balkan Social Forum”.

The first of the panels—“The Crisis in Europe”—touched on the various, multi-faceted aspects of the current European economic and political crises. Sociologist Francine Mestrum, member of the working group Transform! Bruxelles, argued that it is not a matter of European politics, but of national politics: “It is not European politics that interferes with national politics, but vice versa—it is the member states that decide the composition of EU policy.” Germany's perceived hegemony within the EU seems to only solidify Mestrum's statement.

Is a European resistance to neo-liberalism possible? Despite austerity measures and policies aimed at the reduction of social and labour rights, Elisabeth Gauthier, Director of Espaces Marx (France), believes that an “open door” is available, whether to popular movements or progressive political organizations, but “nothing is done” as of yet. In the same vein of thought, François Hollande's presidential victory in France is only a symbol of change; change itself has yet to occur.

The second of the panels—“The Struggle for the Commons”—was dedicated to a discussion on the governance and usage of collective property and the power of communal action. The commodification of the Commons has increased exponentially throughout Europe and the EU; natural resources and, moreover, public services as consequential as education and public media are now facing extreme pressure for privatization and commercialization. The urgency of the situation is undoubtedly clear: without protecting the Commons now, sustainable living will be impossible for future generations.

The third panel—“Towards the Balkan Social Forum”—focused on the need for solidarity between the European Left, within the Balkans and throughout Europe. The consequences of austerity throughout the Balkans appear to be strikingly similar, as the audience cited “high unemployment, privatization and flat tax regimes” coupled with “nationalist rhetoric” as the main causes for concern.

This year's Subversive Festival is the first to establish the Balkan Social Forum, in which over forty organizations and progressive movements from the region will come together to discuss the role and future of the Balkans in Europe and the EU. One discussion focused on the influence of neo-liberalism in the Balkans and possibilities of resistance. Activists from every corner of the Balkans discussed their respective challenges: right-wing nationalism, militarism, exploitation, ideological domination, and more. On a more optimistic note, student resistance and occupation was referenced as a wholly viable form of resistance and direct democracy.

The need for European solidarity, according to Horvat and Štiks, is more necessary now than ever: “This isn't a story which only concerns post-socialist countries.” Rather, the Balkan states and the EU states—and those few overlapping states—face the same crisis.

Nevertheless, solidarity is hard to achieve in an area as ethnically and linguistically diverse as Europe, the EU, or even the Balkans. According to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, literary critic, theorist, and professor at Columbia University, solidarity between borders is only possible if “every citizen rethink[s] nation as a site of capital-management,” functioning both with and without borders; a contradiction, but one that must be overcome. The shift from nation-thinking to capital-management thinking, in her view, is the key.

The Subversive Forum stands starkly as a form of direct opposition to the failed, neo-liberal European project of today. Through continued discussion and criticism against the contemporary status quo, Europe must seize the opportunity of the “open door,” as Elisabeth Gauthier succinctly put it, and instigate change through solidarity between similarly-minded popular movements and progressive political organizations.

Hunger Striking Prisoners in Palestine Win Concessions from Israel

Lola Duffort — 2012-06-02T02:21:00Z

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners ended a weeks-long hunger strike on May 14 when the Israeli government conceded to improve prisoner conditions, and to limit their use of administrative detention.

Administrative detention is a policy by which Israel detains suspected militants without formal charge indefinitely. Israeli sources put the number of hunger strikers at roughly 1,600; Palestinian sources at 2,500. Two participants, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh, refused food for seventy-seven days, making this the longest and largest Palestinian hunger strike to date.

According to a statement made by Palestinian minister of detainees, Issa Qaraqe at a press conference held that evening in a protest tent in the Central West Bank city of Ramallah, the agreement stipulates that administrative detainees will have their files examined by legal committees, and that their detentions will not be renewed unless new evidence is submitted.

Activists are calling this a victory both for Palestine and for the use of non-violent protest tactics. Palestine Liberation Organization official Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement that “The hunger strikers' courage is magnificently inspiring, and their selflessness deeply humbling. They have truly demonstrated that non-violent resistance is an essential tool in our struggle for freedom.”

Bruce Katz, co-founder of Montreal-based human rights organization Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), says that while “this is an important political victory for Palestinians,” that “this process of arbitrary arrest for political ends, for the purposes of intimidating the Palestinian population, is nowhere near over.”

Addameer, an NGO dedicated to supporting Palestinian political prisoners, has alleged in a statement released on May 24 that, in direct violation of the May 14 agreement, multiple extensions to administrative detentions have already been issued by the Israeli Prison Service.

According to Qaraqe, Israel has also agreed to end its solitary confinement policies within three days of the May 14 agreement, to allow for family visits for detainees from the Gaza strip, and to handing over the remains of one hundred Palestinians buried at the Numbers Graveyard. Family visits to prisoners from the Gaza strip were barred in 2006 when militants linked to Hamas captured and held Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for five years.

Addameer has also alleged that one of the hunger strike's first participants, Diab, has already been denied a family visit.

Since the first Intifada in 1989, according to Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, Israel has held thousands of administrative detainees for prolonged periods of time; often, for several years. Of the 308 current administrative detainees, more than a third have been held for over a year.

Israel has continued to defend administrative detention as a necessary security measure in a state of emergency. McGill political science professor and Israeli politics expert Harold Waller puts it this way: “Well of course nobody wants to use administrative detention. But Israel has retained its use because it faces unusually hostile circumstances.”

Neither administrative detainees nor their legal counsel are informed of charges laid or any evidence put forward, a fact which a 2003 United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee found undermined Israel's appeal to article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in order to justify its use of administrative detention. Article 4 declares that states may infringe on a person's right to a trial in the event of arrest “[i]n a time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation.”

The UN Committee also expressed concern about the frequency with which administrative detention is used.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon released a statement six days before the strike ended urging that “those detained must be charged and face trial with judicial guarantees, or released without delay.”

The strike sparked sympathy protests and demonstrations across the Occupied Territories, unsurprising among a population in which most families have had a direct experience with imprisonment. Katz points out that since 1967, nearly twenty percent of the Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories has been imprisoned at least once. “Just to put that in perspective – if those numbers were applied to Canada, that would mean that about 7 million Canadians alive now would have been in prison at least once in their lives,” Katz told Alternatives. “Nearly half of all Palestinian men over 18 have been arrested at least once.”

Addameer director Sahar Francis told Mondoweiss that Israeli jails currently hold nearly 4,700 Palestinians; 220 of which are minors, and 27 of which are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

France Elects Hollande, Rejects Austerity

Houda Chergui — 2012-06-02T02:12:46Z

The European population is angry. Protests have erupted throughout the European Union as a result of indignation at mass unemployment and cuts in social programs. Nations such as Spain and Greece have been suffering abnormally high unemployment rates that are mostly affecting the youth and the poor.

Three weeks ago, Spain hit a record unemployment rate of 24.4 percent, and Greece's stood at 21. 8 percent, making regional unemployment rise to an all time high. Aggregate demand has dropped in both countries: Greece is nearing its fifth consecutive year in a recession as Spain is plunging back into one, its last having been in 2009.

Who is the culprit for such structural pitfalls? Participants in these movements seem to be blaming the austerity measures instituted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) in order to alleviate the debt crisis that struck Europe in 2007.

The purpose of austerity measures is primarily to stabilize budgets, promote growth and increase the Euro's confidence by cutting back on public spending. These austerity measures—supported by former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel—have further impoverished the nations' youth and poorest, according to Economist Joseph Stiglitz. Omar Benderra, activist for the Franz Fanon Foundation, is of a similar opinion, and claims that those responsible for the financial crisis are putting the responsibility on the masses to finance the debt by increasing taxes while leaders of big banks are receiving tax cuts.

Believing that society's most valuable asset, human capital, is being destroyed at the hands of these budget cut backs, Stiglitz has indicated that there are alternatives to this, such as taxing at the top and providing education at the bottom. “If the programme is well-designed […] the increase in GDP and employment can be significant,” he said.

Similar policies are being advocated by France's newly elected Socialist Party president François Hollande, as he plans on lowering the retirement age from 62 to 60, as well as imposing a 75 percent tax bracket on those earning more than one million euros per year. Although France has been partially insulated from the economic woes of the Eurozone, it still suffers from a sinking economy and an unemployment rate of ten percent.

Hollande's electoral victory further indicates a growing desire for a change in policy priority as Sarkozy, a strong advocate of austerity measures, is only the second incumbent in France's history to have failed to gain re-election since the start of France's Fifth Republic in 1958. France has not seen a Socialist Party president since 1988, under François Mitterrand.

Are we seeing a change in popular political discourse?

Benderra claims that if Hollande does institute any changes, it would be restricted. “France is tied to the Euro, a transnational currency, so there is only so much that it can do.” As most of the Eurozone is in crisis, and because of the Euro's symbolic bind, Hollande has publicly declared that he stands in solidarity with Greece.

Hollande is supportive of Greece's plight. IMF director Christine Lagarde does not share the same sympathy. Lagarde recently made a controversial statement in British newspaper The Guardian, in which she declared that the situation in Greece is a national problem, and that citizens should fulfill their civic responsibilities and pay their taxes. She illustrated her point by claiming that she is more concerned with Niger, where numerous children have to sit at the same table in school classes, showing no pity towards Greece.

Benderra says Greece and Germany have very different histories that have shaped their current economic status: Germany is a country that has been characterized by a fear of inflation ever since the 1920s. Also, most of their industry focuses on high grade products that prefer a confident currency—a result generated by austerity. Lastly, and more importantly, the European Central Bank is located in Frankfurt.

Greece's trajectory, on the other hand, is marked by a long history of debt. Even prior to their entrance into the Euro, leaders knew Greece did not meet the necessary criteria and turned a blind eye. Now Lagarde is rejecting any sympathy toward Greece and the fact that Greece's suicide rate is at an all-time high, with nearly 3,000 deaths related to the economic crisis.

“What Lagarde is saying here is that the Greek state must reimburse its debt, even if its population dies of hunger,” Benderra said in response to Lagarde's Guardian statement. “The unacceptable aspect is her reference to Niger and its suffering population, as she fails to acknowledge that their current state is partially due to structural programs instituted by the IMF twenty years ago.”

Although the Eurozone, together with the IMF, has spent close to 150 billion euros on Greece since 2010, they are doing so with strict expectations in regards to debt repayment. Hollande has said that he would insist on rewriting the deal that 17 European Union countries signed earlier this year that cuts spending so that deficit is no more than three percent of national output.

“What Hollande is trying to do is shift the political economic discourse from austerity to growth,” says Florent Schaeffer, activist for French NGO Initiative Pour un Autre Monde (IPAM), an Alternatives member organization.

Hollande's presidency is not the only sign of a need for a change in the political discourse in Europe. Shaeffer cites the ‘Blockupy' protests in Frankfurt, Greece's radical coalition of the left's victory in parliamentary elections, as well as the Subversive Forum in Zagreb, Croatia as important indicators that initiatives to finding alternatives to austerity are gaining traction in Europe.

The Struggle in Bahrain Continues

Juan Camilo Velásquez-Buriticá — 2012-06-02T02:05:18Z

On May 28, Nabeel Rajab, one of the Bahraini uprising's most prominent leaders, was released on bail after nearly a month of imprisonment. Rajab, who is also the head of the Bahraini Centre for Human Rights, was arrested on May 5 by Bahraini authorities as he landed in Manama, the country's capital. Charges against him include taking part in illegal assembly and using social media to insult the government's security forces.

The activist is still facing a travel ban, and a trial concerning the illegal demonstration charges has been scheduled for mid-June. His arrest, however, has cast a light on the state of the Bahraini uprising, which started on February 14, 2011 but has since received little attention. The movement, led by Shiite leaders like Rajab, demands equality for Shiites, greater political freedom, and, in some instances, even calls for an end to the country's monarchy.

Western media coverage of the Bahraini rebellions has been sporadic at best, and often factually inaccurate.

In an interview a few days before his arrest, Rajab told Wikileaks's Julian Assange that he has been constantly harassed by Bahraini authorities.

“I was just detained for almost half a day, and then before that I was beaten up in the street, few months ago I was kidnapped from my home by masked security […] and taken to another place after being blindfolded and handcuffed, and I was tortured,” said Rajab.

Before meeting with Assange, Rajab tweeted about the upcoming interview. Soon after, police officers surrounded his house and told his family that Rajab was due to meet the public prosecutor.

Rajab has come to represent the Bahraini revolution as a whole. The movement—like Rajab—is constantly detained and repressed, but never quite defeated. And in spite of continuous intimidation, Rajab—like the revolution—continues to persevere in its struggle for political freedom.

Although the revolutions of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt have toppled their respective governments, the movement in Bahrain is still fighting an uphill battle. As the total death toll nears a hundred, media coverage has not been as profound as the coverage seen in other Arab nations, and awareness of the issue continues to be scarce.

“[The] revolution is still working and did not yet achieve anything, but the revolution is still in a process, still continuing after a year, many people were killed, in terms of percentage much more than people lost in Tunisia or Egypt,” Rajab said to Assange.

Saudi Arabia has directly intervened by sending troops in March 2011, but Western nations and the international press are complicit as well, argues Rajab.
Rajab cites what he perceives to be a double standard from the United States and many European nations. These states, he says, are influenced heavily by Saudi Arabia due to the weapon and oil trades. Rajab pointed to the importance these countries place on these interests rather the human rights of Bahraini citizens.

“For example the same Unites States, who asked Russians not to sell arms for Syria, they are selling arms to Bahrain,” said Rajab.

Rajab also stated that in spite of Al Jazeera's insightful coverage in other Arab nations, the Arabic version of the news station has been completely silent when it comes to Bahrain and has, in fact, taken the government's side in many instances.

“A democracy in Bahrain is going to have an impact on Qatar, it's gonna have an impact on Saudi Arabia the Al Arabiya TV channel,” said Rajab.

Tight domestic constraints have also made access difficult for journalists and NGOs. In March 2012, Amnesty International cancelled its fact-finding visit to Bahrain as a result of a 5-day time limit imposed by the government.

In spite of this secrecy, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on UN member states to “scrutinise Bahrain's deplorable human rights record.” As the country approached its universal periodic review on May 21, Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at HRW said in a statement that “the universal periodic review should focus on Bahrain's routine suppression of basic political rights like freedom of association as well as the grave human rights violations committed in the brutal 2011 crackdown against pro-democracy protesters.”

French ambassador to the UN in Geneva Nicolas Niemtchinov highlighted Rajab's case during the review of Bahrain's human rights records.

“France condemns the arbitrary arrests and ongoing charges against defenders of human rights, trade unionists and campaigners for simply expressing their opinions,” said Niemtchinow.

Following his release, Rajab has vowed to continue in his struggle for rights and his defense of the oppressed. The activist is willing to “pay the cost of the revolution”, he says, and sacrifice his well-being in order to ensure the continuance of what has been the most silenced, but not silent, revolution in the Arab world.

Obama's War on Whistleblowers Continues

Joel Balsam — 2012-06-02T01:54:17Z

The 1917 Espionage Act, a World War I-era law originally meant for German and Russian spies, has been used six times against current or former United States government officials who have leaked secrets to the public during Obama's term in the White House. That is twice as many prosecutions on whistleblowers as any other administration put together.

New legislation passing through Congress is meant to change all that. This past month the US Senate passed s.743, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, after over 12 years of lobbying and discussion. Among several reforming measures, the bill will allow disciplinary measures to be consigned to federal departments that retaliate against whistleblowers and reform non-disclosure agreements.

Organizers of May's "Whistleblower Summit: A Civil & Human Rights Conference" in Washington, DC praised the new legislation, saying it is a step in the right direction against Obama's “war on whistleblowers.”

However, one clause in the bill gives the Merit System Protection Board the right to refuse a jury trial to whistleblowers and victims of civil rights abuse. The right to a jury trial was earned in the 1964 Civil Rights Act and is seen as a strong tenet of civil rights in the US. This obstacle could bring the whole bill down in the House of Representatives.

John Kiriakou is the most recent American to be indicted for whistleblowing. The former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer known for unveiling waterboarding to the public in a 2007 interview with ABC News faced 50 years in prison for disclosing the identity of a CIA interrogator to the media, three Espionage Act counts, and for lying to the CIA's Publications Review Board. The information about waterboarding led to widespread condemnation of CIA torture tactics and forced Obama to release dozens of documents on George W. Bush-era interrogation methods shortly thereafter.

Kiriakou's trial date has been set for November 26.

David Carr of the New York Times believes indictments under the Espionage Act are used to scare people away from speaking out. “The majority of the recent prosecutions seem to have everything to do with administrative secrecy and very little to do with national security,” he writes. “In case after case, the Espionage Act has been deployed as a kind of ad hoc Official Secrets Act, which is not a law that has ever found traction in America, a place where the people's right to know is viewed as superseding the government's right to hide its business.”

While Kiriakou was charged for speaking out about waterboarding, a practice Obama has repeatedly referred to as torture, no one who has actually taken part in waterboarding has ever been taken to court in the US.

Obama promised “a new era of openness” for whistleblowers on his first official day in office. He later said these promising things about federal secret tellers: “Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled.”

Instead of keeping this promise, federal whistleblowers like Thomas Drake have been exposed to ruthless court prosecutions. Drake was charged for leaking information to The Baltimore Sun about a National Security Agency spy program that cost Americans over a billion dollars, in addition to their privacy. Facing 35 years in prison and 10 felony counts, Drake's case collapsed and he had to plead guilty to only one misdemeanor–the misuse of a government computer.

Drake was positive that the government made an example out of him, telling Antiwar.com: “The government convinced themselves I was a bad guy, an enemy of the state, and went after me with everything they had, seeking to destroy my life, my livelihood, and my person–the politics of personal destruction, while also engaging in abject, cut-throat character assassination, a complete fabrication and frame up.”

Another whistleblowing case, perhaps the biggest of all time, has also occurred on Obama's watch. US soldier Bradley Manning was charged with 34 counts including “aiding the enemy” for leaking hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables to Julian Assange at WikiLeaks. The current government says the leaks endangered national security, but supporters of Manning like Daniel Ellsberg, the famous whistleblower who in 1971 was the first to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for leaking thePentagon Papers, call him a hero.

The accusations against whistleblowers are all part of the “criminalization of whistleblowing,” says Jesselyn Radack, director of national security and human rights with the Government Accountability Project. Radack knows this because she experienced it herself.

When working as a Legal Advisor at the US Justice Department, Radack advised her bosses not to interrogate (or torture) a terror suspect named John Walker Lindh in the early days of the invasion of Afghanistan. She soon found that not only had her warnings gone unheeded, but had “disappeared” altogether from the file. She subsequently wrote a book entitled TRAITOR: The Whistleblower and the ‘American Taliban'. Radack soon found herself under criminal investigation and penciled into the notorious “No-Fly” list.

After beating the charges, Radack decided to dedicate her life to defending whistleblowers in court so they would not have to suffer for speaking out like she did. She wrote on Salon.com that “the war on whistleblowers is also a war on journalists.”

Journalists whose careers and reputations depend on their ability to protect their sources are being targeted for writing the stories of whistleblowers according to Radack.

James Risen from The New York Times is another example of a journalist affected by the “war on whistleblowers”. He was asked to testify about whether information from his 2006 book, State of War, came from Jeffrey Sterling, another CIA officer accused of leaking classified information.

Risen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, refused to give up his sources, citing the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and of the press. Yet, even without Risen's testimony, the government had access to “numerous telephone records, e-mail messages, computer files and testimony that strongly indicates that Sterling was Risen's source.”

What was once kept private for the sake of keeping a source's identity secret has been tossed out the window with floppy disks and the rotary phone in favour of a “high-tech war on leaks,” as Adam Liptak of The New York Times calls it. He quotes Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press recommended in his article: “For God's sake, get off of e-mail, get off of your cellphone. Watch your credit cards. Watch your plane tickets. These guys in the National Security Association know everything.”

Joel Balsam is a freelance journalist from Ottawa, Canada. For his blog and portfolio go to joelbalsam.wordpress.com. You can follow him on twitter @JoelBalsam.