Noam Chomsky and Robert Fisk - War, Geopolitics, and History



Noam Chomsky, professor, linguistics, MIT Robert Fisk, correspondent, The Independent Journalist Robert Fisk of the UK-based publication, The Independent, recounts his experiences traveling around the world and living in the Middle East, Fisk speaks on history and geopolitics in the Middle East. His focus is on the problems with journalism in the United States, which include an over-reliance on what government authorities say and the common mode of reporting 'from Baghdad' but entirely within the confines of a hotel room. Using newspaper articles and speeches from politicians, Fisk illustrates the lack of concern for Iraqis as human beings. Fisk's talk also looks at the Armenian genocide, which was downplayed in Western media. After the talk, Fisk fields questions ranging from the rumors of civil war in Iraq to the situation in Lebanon. The event was organized by the Armenian National Committee's Eastern Region in conjunction with the Technology and Culture Forum at MIT and the Harvard Alliance for Justice in the Middle East. Additional sponsors included the MIT Thistle, the MIT Social Justice Cooperative, and the Nation Institute.

Noam Chomsky - The World After The Iraq Invasion



Noam Chomsky introduced by David Barsamian speaking on "The World After The Iraq Invasion" at University of Colorado, Boulder on April 5, 2003.

Manfred Max-Neef - From knowledge to understanding



From knowledge to understanding Manfred Max-Neef IIASA Conference 2007

In depth with Noam Chomsky (3 hours)



Noam Chomsky, professor of Linguistics at MIT University in Cambridge, MA, talked about his life and career as a political activist and critic of U.S. foreign policy. Among the topics he addressed were efforts to combat terrorism, war with Iraq, and Bush administration economic and foreign policy. He also responded to questions from viewers on the telephone and submitted by fax and electronic mail. Mr. Chomsky's books included: Language and Mind. New York: Harcourt Brace & World, Inc., 1968. American Power and the New Mandarins. New York: Pantheon Books and London: Chatto & Windus, 1969. At War with Asia. New York: Pantheon Books, 1970. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1970. For Reasons of State. New York: Pantheon Books, 1970. Chomsky: Selected Readings, edited by J. Allen and P. Van Buren. London: Oxford University Press, 1971. Problems of Knowledge and Freedom. New York: Pantheon, 1971. Language and Responsibility. New York: Pantheon, 1978. Intellectuals and the State. Baarn, Netherlands: Internationale, Het Wereldvenster, 1978. The Political Economy of Human Rights, vol. 1, The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism and vol. 2, After the Cataclysm: Postwar Indochina and the Reconstruction of Imperial Ideology. Boston: South End Press, 1979. Rules and Representations. New York: Columbia University Press and Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher, 1980. The Fateful Triangle: Israel, the United States, and the Palestinians. Boston: South End Press, 1983 and Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1984. Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1986. The Chomsky Reader, edited by J. Peck. New York: Pantheon Books, New York, 1987. On Power and Ideology, The Managua Lectures. Boston: South End Press and Montreal and New York: Black Rose Books, 1987. Language and Problems of Knowledge. The Managua Lectures. Cambridge, Mass. and London: The MIT Press, 1987. Thought Control in Democratic Societies. Boston: South End Press; London: Pluto Press; Montreal, Toronto, New York, London: CBC Enterprises, 1989. Secrets, Lies and Democracy. Berkeley, Calif.: Odonian Press, 1994. East Timor: Genocide in Paradise. Tucson, AZ: Odonian Press, 1995. On Language: Chomsky's Classsic Works "Language and Responsibility" and "Reflections on Language" in One Volume. New York: The New Press, 1998. The New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1999. New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 9-11. An Open Media Book, edited by Greg Ruggerio. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001. Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky, edited by Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel. The New Press, 2002. Pirates & Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World. Cambridge, Mass.: South End Press, 2002. Power and Terror: Post-9/11 Talks and Interviews. Edited by John Junkerman and Takei Masakazu. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003. Chomsky on Democracy and Education. Edited by Carlos P. Otero. New York and London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003. (date: june 1, 2003)

Robert Fisk - The Age of the Warrior



In "The Age of the Warrior", Dr. Robert Fisk has assembled a remarkable collection of essays and stories which serve to amplify and reflect the blood-stained past and present in which we live.

Fisk takes readers from the London bombings to the streets of Lebanon, from war torn Iraq to the horror of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, offering courageous eyewitness accounts.

Ranging from the inspirational to the utterly tragic, these essays encompass our world today - World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C.

Noam Chomsky on U.S. foreign policy



Professor Chomsky gave the keynote address at the fifteenth anniversary of the publication, \f2Covert Action Quarterly\fR. In his speech, he was critical of U.S. foreign policy and the language of defense and diplomatic affairs. His remarks were preceded by a musical presentation.

Norman Finkelstein Speaking on Operation 'Cast Lead'



Dr. Norman Finkelstein speaking at University of California-Irvine, as part of the Muslim Student Union's annual Anti-Zionism Week, on 11 May 2010 on the topic of Operation Cast Lead.

Dahlia Wasfi - The New Iraq Genocide



Dr Dahlia Wasfi talks about the human and environmental cost of war on Iraq.

Norman Finkelstein on the Israel-Palestine conflict



Dr. Norman Finkelstein discusses the Israel-Palestine conflict. Recorded at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on 04/25/08. Sponsored by Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society.

Edward Said on Hardtalk



On the first anniversary of 11 September a leading Palestinian, Edward Said, has warned the US against taking further military action against Iraq. In an interview for BBC HARDtalk, Mr Said told Tim Sebastian that many Arab countries are keen to seek a diplomatic solution to the Iraqi crisis. Professor Said, who for many years been a spokesman in America for the Palestinian cause, said: "I think it's possible to salvage something from the ruins, but it cannot be done quickly unfortunately, and it cannot be done by military means and that's what makes me so despondent."

Did you know ??? Facts from the real world...



The truth is often a bitter pill to swallow. "Did you know??? Facts from the real world..." wants to show the brutal reality behind our little perfect world. (by theArchit3kt)

Noam Chomsky & Victor Kattan - Why History Matters - Israel/Palestine



Given the volume of writing on the Arab-Israeli conflict, "you might think that everything has been said," says Noam Chomsky. But Victor Kattan's new book, Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, takes a fresh look at the prehistory of the dispute, as well as the evolution of international law and its import for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, says Chomsky. While he is familiar with much of the material in this account, Chomsky also notes episodes in Kattan's narrative that open up new, "sordid chapters" in these "convoluted, complex, often painful historical events."

Kattan set out to explore how the conflict began, and so pored over the writing of scores of European political figures, and leaders of Zionist and Arab nationalist movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries. His key insight: Neither Arabs nor Jews were to blame for triggering hostilities, but rather Britain, and the other major powers.

Kattan argues that anti-Semitism, which welled up during a period of collapsing colonial empires, motivated British actions that led to a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and paved the way for trouble over decades to the current time. In the 19th century, Jews viciously persecuted in Russia began flooding Western Europe, especially Britain, where many thousands more embarked to the U.S. America and Britain were the promised land to the Jews, says Kattan -- not Palestine. But British distaste for these immigrants soon led to plans for diverting the unwanted foreigners to an alternative location.

In the early 1900s, Kattan describes documents authored by British statesmen, and by such early Zionist leaders as Theodor Herzl, arguing that Britain's Jewish immigration "problem" could be solved by finding Jews a homeland in Palestine. Kattan even cites U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis endorsing such a solution. Anti-immigrant fervor, says Kattan, led to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, describing Britain's intention to facilitate a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

This was a compromised piece of diplomacy, suggests Kattan, ushering in an era of unending disputes and hostility. Key issues the British sidestepped or muddied, says Kattan, included promises made to Arabs for their own independent kingdom, and the principle of self-determination, emergent in international law, which would have acknowledged the claims of the Arab majority in the lands carved out for the Jews. While Britain bore the largest share in creating the Middle East mess -- with its many vital interests in the region -- Kattan says that other nations were complicit, entangled as they were by immigration and independence movements and their own strategic influence.

Howard Zinn - A Power Governments Cannot Suppress



Howard Zinn discusses his latest collection of essays at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress critiques America's response to 9/11, examines the current state of democracy and government responsibility in America and cites examples of when government has overstepped throughout American history.

Event Date:
01.28.07

Robert Fisk - Ask All You Like about 911, But Just Don't Ask Why



In this talk, Robert Fisk takes on the American press for over reporting on the "what and where" of the events of September 11th, and its inability to broach the question "why"? He is scathing in his criticism of the Bush administration's change of focus from pursuing Osama Bin Laden to Saddam Hussein.

(February 5, 2003, Running Time: 02:44:17)

Norman G. Finkelstein speaks at the University of Ottawa



"A Farewell to Israel: The coming break-up of North American Zionism" Presented by Dr. Norman G. Finkelstein on February 5, 2007 for the 11th Interdisciplinary Conference of the Graduate Students' Association (GSAÉD) at the University of Ottawa.

Inside Burma, land of fear - John Pilger



John Pilger and David Munro go undercover in one of the world's most isolated, and extraordinary countries, Burma, which Amnesty International calls 'a prison without bars'. They discover slave labour preparing for tourism and foreign investment. 1996

Aung San Suu Kyi - Portrait of courage



1996. Pro-democracy advocate and prisoner of conscience Aung San Suu Kyi is interviewed by John Pilger. http://www.johnpilger.com/

Arundhati Roy - Instant Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One Get One Free)



Speech given by Arundhati Roy at the Riverside Chruch in New York City. May 2003. Visit www.weroy.org for more information.

Howard Zinn - The Myth of American Exceptionalism



Americans have long embraced a notion of superiority, claims Howard Zinn. Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony described establishing "a city on a hill," to serve the world as a beacon of liberty. So far, so good. But driving this sense of destiny, says Zinn, was an assumption of divine agency—"an association between what the government does and what God approves of." And too frequently, continues Zinn, Americans have invoked God to expand "into someone else's territory, occupying and dealing harshly with people who resist occupation."

Zinn offers numerous examples of how the American government has used "divine ordination" and rationales of spreading civilization and freedom to justify its most dastardly actions: the extermination of Native Americans and takeover of their land; the annexation of Texas and war with Mexico; war against the Philippines; U.S. involvement in coups in Latin America; bloody efforts to expand U.S. influence in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The battle against Communism, often bolstered by arguments of America's divine mission in the world, was merely a convenient excuse to maintain U.S. economic and military interests in key regions.

Today, says Zinn, we have a president, who more than any before him, claims a special relationship with God. Zinn worries about an administration that deploys Christian zealotry to justify a war against terrorism, a war that in reality seems more about establishing a new beachhead in the oil-rich Middle East. He also sees great danger in Bush's doctrines of unilateralism and pre-emptive war, which mark a great leap away from international standards of morality.

Tariq Ali - Reimagining Pakistan



Tariq Ali speaks about Pakistan and Afghanistan at the University of Copenhagen's Asian Dynamics Initiative on 2 December 2009.

Arundhati Roy and Howard Zinn - Post Come Septmeber Discussion



Following Ms. Roy's "Come September" speech at the Lannan Foundation, she is joined on stage by Howard Zinn for a discussion on various topics. Visit www.weroy.org for more information.

Noam Chomsky on Ward Churchill



MIT Professor Noam Chomsky talks with documentary film producer Grant Crowell about his belief that Ward Churchill, the fired ethnic studies director of University of Colorado at Boulder, is a victim of politics (Recorded in October 2005 on MIT campus.)

"V for Vendetta" Speech

Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine — the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.
I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than 400 years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest that you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.

WATCH SPEECH here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DRAD-j8ObI

Noam Chomsky - "I am Kinda": Reflections on the Culture of Imperialism



Famed linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky delivered a lecture titled "'I Am Kinda': Reflections on the Culture of Imperialism" last Monday, March 8, in McCosh 50. Chomsky, a professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a renowned public intellectual who has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, international affairs and US foreign policy. The lecture's title refers to a woman named Kinda who introduced herself to Chomsky at a lecture he gave in Beirut in 2006. As a child, she had written a letter to President Ronald Reagan after the 1986 US bombing of Libya, her home country. Chomsky had printed the letter in his book "Pirates and Emperors: International Terrorism in the Real World." Chomsky's other books include "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," "Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy" and "Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs." The talk was designated as the Edward Said Memorial Lecture and was sponsored by the Department of English and the Princeton Committee on Palestine.

Dahlia Wasfi - Ain't Nothin' Green About the Green Zone



Having spent her early childhood in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and having returned twice to Iraq since the U.S. invasion, Dr. Wasfi has a first hand understanding of the invasions devastating repercussions. To begin the healing of the people and the land, Dr. Wasfi calls for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all foreign troops.

Slavoy Zizek - The Idea of Communism



A debate between Alex Callinicos, John Holloway and Slavoj Zizek on the Idea of Communism.

This was the biggest show by far in the 5 days of Marxism 2010 (the queue was HUGE!) which itself was the biggest Marxism event ever with [I think] around 6000 people attending from all over the world.

Filmed in Logan Hall, Institue of Education, Bloomsbury.
General Smedley Butler:

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class thug for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

WIKIPEDIA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler



War is a Racket by Smedley Butler is a famous speech denouncing the military industrial complex. This speech by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient exposes war profits that benefit few at the expense of many. Throughout his distinguished career in the Marines, Smedley Darlington Butler demonstrated that true patriotism does not mean blind allegiance to government policies with which one does not agree. To Hell with war.

Tariq Ali - From Cairo to Madison - The Arab Revolution



Tariq Ali: From Cairo to Madison - The Arab Revolution and a World in Motion --- Tariq Ali spoke at Brooklyn's Galapagos Art Space on Tuesday May 17th for a sell-out event co-sponsored by Verso and Haymarket Books, entitled "From Cairo to Madison: The Arab Revolution and a World in Motion." With thanks to Noel Benford for filming the event.

Tariq Ali is a writer and filmmaker. He has written more than a dozen books on world history and politics—including Pirates of the Caribbean, Bush in Babylon, Clash of Fundamentalisms and The Obama Syndrome—as well as five novels in his Islam Quintet series and scripts for the stage and screen. He is an editor of the New Left Review and lives in London.