International

“The USA and China should assume shared responsibility for the global community”

by Prof. em. Beat Schneider,* Bern

(29 March 2024) (Ed.) This contribution arose from a lecture given by Beat Schneider as part of an event organized by the “Swiss Standpoint” on the topic “Thoughts on Chinese modernization. Is China a capitalist country?” on March 22/23, 2024. He is referring to his current publication “China’s Long March into Modernity”. It is characterized above all by the following two characteristics: In its portrayal of China, it starts from a consistently non-Eurocentric point of view and it presents Chinese culture as a culture of “as well as”.

“Rethinking War”

by Stefan Hofer,* Switzerland

(29 March 2024) When the Russian army took military action against Ukraine in February 2022, after Ukraine had refused to agree with Russia's demands

– Ukraine's renunciation of NATO membership

– No bases of NATO or other foreign armies on the territory of Ukraine

– No stationing of NATO weapons on the territory of Ukraine

– Disarmament of the fascist Azov Brigades

– Safeguard the rights of the Russian population in Donbass through immediate full implementation of the Minsk Agreement

and even negotiate, an outcry went through the Western mainstream media: the use of military force to enforce political demands is an incredibly unacceptable crime in this day and age.

German war plans against Russia

Discussions among senior German officers

by Robert Seidel

(16 March 2024) At the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, the German government reassured the country’s worried citizens that only helmets from old Bundeswehr stocks would be delivered to Ukraine and that any further military support would be ruled out. But the population’s mistrust was not deceived.

Middle East

In Gaza, March has begun just like February has ended – with death and destruction

by Karin Leukefeld*

(16 March 2024) (CH-S) Karin Leukefeld – one of the few independent Western journalists in the region – describes the inhumane situation in Gaza in precise words. She repeatedly gives the floor to directly affected civilians whom she knows personally. Her report from the beginning of March is stirring and extremely informative.
Tanzania

A mega construction goes into operation in Africa

Julius Nyerere Dam supplies electricity for 60 million inhabitants

by Ruy Barbosa

(9 March 2024) The “Julius-Nyerere-Dam” in Tanzania is practically completed and is due to start generating electricity these days. The new dam is a genuine pan-African project. The construction costs of 2.9 billion US dollars were financed entirely by the Tanzanian government, and the dam on the Rufiji River was built as part of a partnership between two Egyptian companies: the state-owned “Arab Contractors” and “El-Sewedy Electric”.

The myth of Israel’s “democracy”

Israel cannot be a colonial power and a democracy

Interview by Chris Hedges* with Ilan Pappé**

(29 February 2024) Israeli historian Ilan Pappé reframes ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’ as a colonising force that is inherently undemocratic due to its necessary subjugation of Palestinians.

Israel’s status as a bona fide democracy is often taken to be a self-evident truth, but a more critical look at the history and reality of Zionism calls this into question. After all, how can a democracy exist in a country constitutionally defined as an ethno state that can only exist through the suppression and gradual elimination of its Others?

Israeli historian Ilan Pappé joins The Chris Hedges Report for a discussion on Israel as an inherently colonial, and therefore anti-democratic, project.