By GARY PORTER The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) is a heavily funded spy agency. With a $500 million (CDN) annual budget, it operates gunslinger-style, spying on Canadians and others it considers a security risk, gathering information from the dozens of innocent people their suspects contact, such as friends, relatives, neighbours, and co-workers. This…
By BRUCE LESNICK On April 11, the Ecuadorian government revoked asylum protection for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Within minutes, British gendarmes entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, arrested Assange, and seized his computers, documents, and other materials. He is now being held in London’s Belmarsh prison for bail violation. That spurious charge stems from a…
By JEFF MACKLER and BRUCE LESNICK In a new campaign reminiscent of the McCarthy era witch-hunt, politicians and media pundits have taken to smearing pro-Palestinian, pro-BDS activists as anti-Semitic. Singled out for special attention are those, like Somali-born Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who happen to be people of color. A…
By BARRY SHEPPARD Chelsea Manning, a transgender U.S. soldier who blew the whistle on U.S. war crimes and spent 2013 to 2017 in an army stockade as a result, is back in prison again. This time, it is because she refuses to join a bipartisan campaign against Wikileaks that seeks to bring Julian Assange from…
The following statement was published by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) on Dec. 3. Supporters of Israel and Zionism have repeatedly charged in the mainstream media that Professor Marc Lamont Hill’s statements at the UN on behalf of the rights of the Palestinian people are “anti-Semitic” and have demanded that Temple University fire him,…
By BARRY SHEPPARD The most effective way to counter Donald Trump’s reactionary policies is through mass action. The Democratic Party hopes to steer movements and individuals opposed to Trump into support of its candidates. While this trap of “lesser evil” politics has proved to be a failure over and over again for the past eight…
By GARY BILLS We are republishing an article that appeared in the print edition of Socialist Action newspaper in May 2007. The article is pertinent to the widespread discussion on gun control today, when some are calling for repeal of the Second Amendment. After a horrific gun crime like the one at Virginia Tech [32…
