Spokesman Books

Peace News , August 2014 Review by Gabriel Carlyle A. W. Zurbrugg (ed), Not Our War: Writings Against the First World War (Merlin Press, 2014; 264pp; £12.95) / Ernst Friedrich, War against war! (Spokesman, 2014; 242pp; £9.99) In the UK, the centenary of the First World War has already prompted a deluge of books, events and media coverage. The BBC alone has announced 2,500 hours of programmes, which – like 99% of the mainstream response – will doubtless run the A to B of the mainstream political spectrum. True, Thatcherite historian and apologist for imperialisms past and present, Niall Ferguson, was granted 90 mins on BBC2 to argue that Britain should have stayed out of the war, at least at the outset. In his view, it was ‘a great mistake’. Even this had to be ‘balanced’ by an hour-long slot with former Telegraph editor Max Hastings, arguing that Britain’s participation was ‘tragically necessary’. Almost completely absent, it seems, are the voices and arguments of those s...

Dearest friends - The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent. The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals are working 12-24hrs shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS! Now, once more treated like animals by "the most moral army in the world" (sic!). My respect for the wounded is endless, in their contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock; my admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless, my closeness to the Palestinian "sumud" gives me strength, although in glimpses I just want to scream, hold someone ...

Disappointing global response to Israeli aggression calls for more grassroots efforts to help Palestinian struggle. Richard Falk For the third time in the last six years, Israel has cruelly unleashed the full fury of its military machine against the defenceless 1.7 million people of Gaza, inflicting heavy civilian casualties and further devastation on the long besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip. With cynical disregard of the realities of this latest confrontation between Israel and Palestine, instead of condemning such recourse to massive violence as "aggression" that violates the UN Charter and fundamental international law principles, the reaction of western diplomats and mainstream media has perversely sided with Israel. From the UN Secretary-General to the president of the United States, the main insistence has been that Hamas must stop all rocket attacks while Israel is requested ever so politely to show "maximum restraint". Up to now, the Israeli atta...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                      Contact: Scott Campbell: +510-295-8843 (US) Jamal Juma’ (Stop the Wall): +970-598921821 (Palestine)   8 July 2014                                                    On 10 th Anniversary of Historic Ruling against Israel’s Wall, Legal Scholars call on world to act   As protests continue in Palestine, worldwide events to stop Israeli impunity; At the UN, 86 top legal experts urge UN and third-state action   Leading international jurists and legal networks from all continents, among them UN special Rapporteurs, acting and former judges, leading law professors as well...

Ireland refused the invitation from the United States to join NATO when it was founded in 1947, and has maintained its military neutrality ever since. Roger Cole, Chair of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA), recently published this article in the IRISH TIMES. CrisisOpinion: The Army, born in a national struggle against imperialism, is being increasingly integrated into BattleGroups of the EU, a strategic military partner of Nato. ‘A small nation has to be extremely cautious when entering into alliances whichbring it, willy nilly, into those wars... we would not be consulted in how a warshould be started – the great powers would do that – and when it ended, no matterwho won . . . we would not be consulted as to the terms on which it should end.” – Taoiseach Éamon de Valera, Dáil Éireann, July 12th, 1955. On February 15th, 2003, millions of people throughout the world marched inprotest against the plan by the US and its vassal states to invade, conquer and occupy the sec...

This the latest offering by Dexter Whitfield which makes for uncomfortable reading. It is full of detailed well researched and explosive exposees of neoliberalism and faux austerity. Where most of us will have a general grasp and idea of just how our society is being abused and raped by these financial systems Whitfield goes into forensic detail. He offers some of the most chilling observations of unscrupulous conduct being passed off as financial management you will read. I could not put this book down. Once I started reading despite the painful content it was necessary to finish it immediately. As with Whitfield’s previous offerings he presents the facts and details rather like the diagram you would receive when purchasing an Airfix model toy to construct. You have the vision of the finished product preceded by the “exploded version” where you are able to clearly examine each and every component part in minute detail complete with where it fits into the overall view. The four ch...