Ne News: Independent News

Ne News 30 March 2018 At the current time, governments around the world are privatising state assets, either claiming that owning the services is a "conflict of interest" or that the private sector can do it better for lower costs. In Australia, the "conflict of interest" argument was used to justify the privatisation of Telstra and Medibank Private among others. The "private sector can do it better for lower costs" argument was used for public transport. The argument used for privatisation is "lower costs" for "consumers". When it comes to public transport, privatisation will lead to "lower fares" for "customers". Note that governments, and increasingly the mainstream media, are increasingly using the terms "consumers" and "customers" to describe citizens. In 1999, the Victorian Government under Premier Jeff Kennett privatised the public transport system in Victoria, breaking the metropol...

Dick Nichols Socialist Project 29 March 2018 France is once again on the brink of an all-out industrial war – and its outcome could transform the country’s political landscape. The showdown is over the plans that President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe have for the state-owned National Railway Company (SNCF), which have been described by  Le Monde  as “the biggest change for the SNCF since its founding in 1937.” The stakes in the fight are huge: France’s 150,000 rail workers could suffer a defeat like that of Britain’s miners under Margaret Thatcher. On the other hand, Philippe could suffer the same fate as former PM Alain Juppe, whose 1995 economic “reform” was trashed by a vast wave of industrial action and popular revolt. As an initial response, rail worker unions led a Paris demonstration on March 22 in defence of public services that also involved workers from Air France, air traffic control centres, Paris regional public ...

Ajamu Baraka Global Research 29 March 2018 “They called in [Roy] Wilkins; they called in [A. Philip] Randolph; they called in these national Negro leaders that you respect and told them, ‘Call it off.’ Kennedy said, ‘Look, you all are letting this thing go too far.’ And Old Tom said, ‘Boss, I can’t stop it, because I didn’t start it.’… And that old shrewd fox, he said, ‘If you all aren’t in it, I’ll put you in it. I’ll put you at the head of it.’… ( Malcolm X on the 1963 “Farce on Washington”) Liberals and Democrat party connected organizations and networks have been quite adept at getting out in front of movements to pre-empt their radical potential and steer them back into the safe arms of liberal conformism. Before resistance to the election of Donald Trump could be developed into a radical rejection of the neoliberal order, the new alignment of ruling class forces that coalesced around the candidacy of Hilary Clinton launched a pre-emptive strike ag...

Ne News 26 March 2018 Once again, Ne News failed to provide a Week in Review last week (sorry), but there has been some major stories over the past two weeks, from the denial of service on the website of New Eastern Outlook (bad) to a possible break up of the European Union (good for humanity). Denial of Service at New Eastern Outlook If you trying to access New Eastern Outlook over the past couple of weeks, you would've seen a "504" on your web browser. That is because there was an attack on New Eastern Outlook on March 19 ( https://www.journal-neo.org/2018/03/25/neo-has-come-under-attack/ ). It is believed that this DDoS came from Washington (the so-called "Champion of Democracy") who was getting uncomfortable with the news that sites like New Eastern Outlook (as well as other progressive, left-wing, anti-war sites, as well as international sites such as Russia Today , China Global Television Network and Press TV ) were reporting the real news (an...

Ne News 24 March 2018 As people in the West knows, China is about to launch a "super-broadcaster" called "Voice of China", with some broadcasters (including SBS here in Australia) will be monitoring the content of the new international broadcaster ( https://tvtonight.com.au/2018/03/sbs-to-monitor-bulletins-from-chinas-new-super-broadcaster.html ). But the question is this: If broadcasters in the West wants to monitor international broadcasters such as Voice of China (as well as Iran's Press TV and Russia's Russia Today ), shouldn't we be monitoring international broadcasters such as the Voice of America? Or Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty? It is worth noting that stations such as Voice of America, as well as affiliates such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are not allowed to be broadcasted in the United States of America because it is viewed as propaganda . That's right, Voice of America and its affiliates such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Lib...

Ne News 17 March 2018 Many people may not know that the US Midterm Elections are coming up, and both Democrats and Republicans are fighting for seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. But while there are planned to be protests against Donald Trump's military parade on Veterans' Day on 11 November 2018 (the one hundredth anniversary of the Armistice Treaty that was signed on 11 November 1918, and is known in the rest of the world as either Armistice Day or, here in Australia, Remembrance Day) ( https://www.globalresearch.ca/mass-mobilization-against-trump-military-parade/5631008 ), there are concerns that the Democrats are hiring former members of the military and - even worse- former members of the Central Intelligence Agency. Yes, that same entity that overthrew democratically-elected governments throughout the world during the Cold War, including the overthrow of the democratically-elected Salvador Allende on 11 September...

Ne News 11 March 2018 A couple of years ago, Ne News brought you an editorial about how culture flows like a river, and that culture is never static. In fact, culture always changes, and has always changed due to influences of nearby cultures. Sometimes, cultures (such as African-American culture) often develop in isolation from its parent culture/s (you can view this editorial at http://nenews2016.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/editorial-evolution-of-culture-and-how.html ). This allegory of culture and how it flows like a river can also apply to international relations, and how it is never the same. International relations has been around for millennia, but it is never the same as the first time around due to it being like a river, in which it is always flowing. It started with relations between different (neighbouring) tribes all around the world either through peaceful means or through warfare. Then over time, we saw the emergence of city-states (like Venice), and then conferedation...

Richard C. Cook Global Research 10 March 2018 Overview What is “Western civilization”? Why might it end soon? What can be done to prevent that? These are the questions that face both the U.S. and Russia in the current standoff. The stakes could not be higher. Relationships between the two nations are the most important geopolitical issue, and the most volatile, facing the world today. But first, some history, including concepts that may be controversial. Speaking globally, the West is that part of the world settled by people of European descent. Racially, the original peoples of the West stem from those classified as Indo-European, though people of that race and language family also long ago penetrated into Asia, including Northern India and Persia. Over the centuries, Western civilization has incorporated people of other races whose lands the Europeans conquered, such as the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and the peoples of Siberia and parts of...

Phil Butler New Eastern Outlook 7 March 2018 US President Donald Trump may soon have more to worry about than RussiaGate. If the American people ever get wind of the fact they’ve bought and paid for trillions and trillions in useless weapons systems, there will be hell to pay. Washington had better prepare to “embrace” the fact that Putin’s missile is truly bigger. My last report on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brandishing unstoppable world order killer weapons was, many said, spot on analysis of the real situation in Putin’s Kremlin. But a friend who works with the Russian Academy of Science clued me to something as important as Russia standing down the U.S. backed liberal order. Apparently, those in the know at the Kremlin have had this nuclear ace up their sleeve for years now. According to my sources, the wily Russkies have been mightily entertained watching and waiting for the moment Mr. Putin unleashed. To break it down, the Putin team sees the...

Caleb Maupin New Eastern Outlook 5 March 2018 The understanding that the American press, both TV and print media, thrives on negativity is deeply embedded in the culture, so much so that the theme music to the popular 1990s American TV sit-com “Family Matters” began with the couplet: Its a rare condition this day and age,  to read any good news on a newspaper page… The US media is a for-profit industry. TV outlets depend on advertising revenue, the value of which depends on ratings. The drive of mainstream American TV news networks is to increase ratings, and make profits. Bad news, scandal, and sensationalism is a way to do that. However, the commercially-owned mainstream American press has always had another role: crafting public opinion. A huge amount of US government funds are devoted to handling and managing the media. The government and the political establishment is deeply worried about making sure that the US public thinks in ways that are con...