Red Pepper News

New Hamas?

Although no one would accuse Hamas of softening its message into a bland 'third way' politics, its attempts to reform and become the new dominant voice of Palestine nationalism have not gone unnoticed. Graham Usher (a regular contributor to Red Pepper on Palestine and Israel ) has documented this trend in this informative article for Middle East Report, published in August 2005. The following quotation is particularly interesting:

Sheikh Ahmad Hajj Ali is a member of Hamas' Shura Council, the supreme decision-making body in the organization. He sketches a future in which a new Hamas, domestic in thrust, consensual in aim, international in reach, emerges gradually from the old one: "Our aim is governance and one can only govern through the institutions of government. If we are the minority in Parliament, we will monitor the ministers on the basis of their performance, not on the basis of their political affiliation. If we are a majority, we will not monopolize power like Fatah. We will share power in a national coalition, a government that represents all the Palestinian people."             

The sheikh continues: "But in all cases our priority now is to address the internal Palestinian situation rather than the confrontation with Israel. We would negotiate with Israel since that is the power that usurped our rights. If negotiations fail, we will call on the world to intervene. If this fails, we will go back to resistance. But if Israel were to agree with our internationally recognized rights -- including the refugees' right of return -- the Shura Council would seriously consider recognizing Israel in the interests of world peace."

In the eye of the storm

New publication: When the Brazilian Workers Party (PT) came to power, it seemed likely to act as a practical source of inspiration and learning for the construction of another world. But whilst the severe constraints of international finance and politics were always likely to weigh heavily upon Lula's government, its failure to extend the promise of participatory democracy and redistribution to a state level was far from predictable. In August 2005, Red Pepper editor Hilary Wainwright went to Brazil to find out 'what went wrong', and what positive lessons the Brazilian experience might hold for the future of the left. But on her arrival in Brazil, she found herself observing at first hand the unfolding of a political crisis, as revelations of systemic political corruption by elements of the PT leadership were uncovered. In the eye of the storm is, first and foremost, a collection of interviews with some key players in (and left- wing critics of) the PT, conducted as the crisis unfolded. Rather than expressing outrage at the moral lapses of their colleagues, the interviewees are concerned, above all, with how to protect the project of political transformation which, at its best moments, the PT had stood for. Essays by Sue Branford and Hilary Wainwright, and a preface by Geraldo Campos, set the interviews in the wider context of contemporary Brazilian politics. Download the pdf in English or Spanish

Charles Kennedy: dignity in retirement

Outgoing Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy will no doubt be as amused as we were by the ironic main headline on the party's website. It reads:  "Our vision: dignity and security in retirement."

George in the House

From the Grapple in the Apple... to boredom in Borehamwood. George Galloway has never been one to shy away from publicity, but his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother certainly raised a few eyebrows on the left.

The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow's constituents were initially shocked to hear that George had entered the House.
 
They weren't the only ones. Senior SWP members were kept in the dark about their Respect comrade's latest exploit and are not exactly best pleased. The Party's Central Committee are apparently fans of rival ITV show I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, if dark rumours that they are organising their own Bushtucker trial for Galloway are to be believed.

Death, Abundance and New Orleans

Jordan Flaherty of Left Turn magazine continues his series of articles from New Orleans (apologies this took a while to post here!). Wednesday, December 14, 2005. On Sunday, I drove past streets named Abundance, Pleasure and Humanity to a memorial for Meg Perry, a 26 year old Common Ground Collective volunteer from Maine. Meg died on Saturday when the bus she was in crashed near downtown New Orleans. She had come to New Orleans in September, then left and returned with more volunteers. The memorial was in a community garden she had been working on in the Gentilly neighborhood. All around were empty houses. It was a small moment of mourning, in a city of mourning. Mourning that feels like it won’t end, because the disaster hasn’t ended.

WTO: around the web

For up-to-date and radical analysis of the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong, the Focus on the Global South website is an excellent place to start. Choike, a Southern-based civil society portal, also has a wide range of news and analysis - it's WTO page is here, and it  includes useful briefings from the Third World Network. The World Development Movement has the best coverage of the UK NGOs, including blogs from Caroline Lucas (Green MEP) and various WDM campaigners. For more on the WTO protests, Via Campesina is organising solidarity amongst farmers' movements, whilst the Hong Kong People's Alliance has brought together local campaigners. Indymedia, the activist news site founded at the Seattle anti-WTO protests in 1999, is also worth a look.

WTO Fiasco: Lamy Spins Deception Deal at Hong Kong

Focus on the Global South: The unholy trio of the EU, US and Pascal Lamy succeeded in their attempt to force developing countries into accepting a Ministerial Declaration that further forecloses the development of countries of the South.

After 6 days of acrimonious negotiations the final day of the Hong Kong Ministerial ended with the adoption of a highly flawed text that doesn’t reflect what several developing countries have been demanding over the last 5 days. The resistance of countries such as the G90, Venezuela, Kenya and Cuba were systematically thwarted by immense pressure from the developed world. Venezuela and Cuba registered a reservation on the NAMA and services components of the text at the closing plenary. Its legal standing remains unclear. 

Coca Cola banned from New York University

New York University (NYU), the largest private university in the United States with over 50,000 students and 16,000 employees, becomes the 12th college or university in the US, and at least the 20th worldwide, to have taken strong economic action against The Coca-Cola Co. by banning the sale and marketing of Coke products on campus.

Climate Justice, or, what's really going on in Montreal

If you're unimpressed by the 'greenwashing' that routinely accompanies intergovernmental climate change talks, then the Climate Justice blog is an excellent source of information from environment campaigners at the summit.

And if you still want to check in on the official course of the negotiations, try here
or here

Chairman Mao: the new face of Starbucks

We've received a few requests for the 'Starbucks Mao' image from the Red Pepper China issue. So by popular demand, here it is - courtesy of our designer Tom Lynton. Clicking on this small version will bring up the full size image.