By URI AVNERY www.counterpunch.org

Why obnoxious? Any Israeli spokesman (not to mention spokeswoman) will tell you readily: because it is a “unilateral” move. How dare they proclaim a state unilaterally? How dare they do so without the consent of the other party to the conflict - us?

A stickler for detail might ask at this point: “But was the State of Israel not proclaimed unilaterally?” Our state, it may be remembered, was declared by David Ben-Gurion and his colleagues on Mai 14, 1948, without asking anyone.  But who would dare to compare?

Verlede week het ek geskryf dat Malema se praatjies deur die media aan die groot klok gehang word, terwyl hy eintlik maar net die doelwitte van die Freedom Charter herhaal. So gesien, verskil dit wat Malema sê dus niks van dit wat die ANC verkondig nie. Pas is verneem dat die ANC in Noordwes die sieninge van Malema onderskryf het. Dit behoort ingeligte mense nie te verbaas nie. Nasionalisering was en is steeds ANC-beleid. Die Grondwet rek wel net die proses van onteiening uit, terwyl die gewone ANC-lid ongeduldig raak met die stadige proses. Hulle wil ook soos die nomenklatura deel in die rykdomme!

by Martin Hart-Landsberg

Although capitalism has always been a global system, the international integration of production and finance and our dependence on cross-border activities seems greater than ever before. At the risk of oversimplifying, we now have a world system within which Latin America, Africa and the Middle East specialize in the production and export of primary commodities, increasingly to East Asia. East Asia operates as the world's manufacturing hub, exporting final products to the developed capitalist world, especially the United States. And the United States specializes in providing the finance that underpins the international production system and developed capitalist country consumption.