Global Pulse - Israel's Segregation Wall On the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Click to Play

On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, hundreds of demonstrators from across the West Bank convened in Qalandiya to demand the immediate dismantling of Israels wall. In a dramatic turn of events, protesters managed to tip over a a section of the wall, opening a passage in this strategic and symbolic location at the entrance to East-Jerusalem.

Exactly twenty years ago today the Berlin Wall came crumbling down in two days that changed the world forever. Today, a wall twice as high and five times as long is being built by Israel in the West Bank, in blatant contempt of international law, to separate Palestinians from their lands.

Despite the International Court of Justices advisory opinion of 2004, that pronounced Israels wall illegal, and called for its removal, no significant changes on the ground were made. After the demonstration ended, Mushir Ghazzal, an organizer with the popular struggle coordination committee, said that Todays events prove that we must not wait for Israel to end its occupation on its own we Palestinians should do it with our own two hands. Like the Berlin Wall at the time, Israels wall seems to us an undefiable reality, but twice this week it has caved in to the pressure of ordinary people fighting for their rights.

The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has been declared an international day of action against Israels barrier. Last Friday, mass demonstrations were staged simultaneously in three villages along the path of the wall, including in Niilin where protesters managed, for the first time ever in the West Bank, to topple the 8 meter tall concrete wall there.

Keith McHenry - Food Not Bombs

Click to Play

With the help of seven friends in their shared house in 1980, Keith McHenry co-founded Food Not Bombs, an all-volunteer organization that collects surplus food from groceries and other business and uses it to prepare vegetarian meals for the homeless and hungry. The group gained most of its fame from numerous run-ins with San Francisco Police beginning in 1988, as officials tried to stop the mass feedings that drew large crowds of homeless people. McHenry says he has been arrested more than 100 times, and spent 500 nights in jail. He also ran the kitchen for

The 2009 Edward Said Memorial Lecture by Richard Falk “Imagining Israel-Palestine Peace: Why International Law Matters”

Click to Play

The exclusion of international law from past efforts to establish a peace process has disadvantaged the Palestinians and benefitted the Israelis. Respect for Palestinian rights would help neutralize the disparities of diplomatic and military power that have so far existed. Neither the realization of rights nor military power can achieve either peace or victory for one side. International law matters in the following respects: to identify the contours of a fair and sustainable peace; to explain the failures of past diplomatic efforts to solve the conflict; to establish winners and losers in the legitimacy war that is being waged on a global battlefield.

Richard Falk is the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestine Territories and Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Previously, he was the Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice at Princeton University. He was a member of the Independent International Commission on Kosovo (1999-2001) and the Human Rights Inquiry Commission for Palestine of the UN Human Rights Commission (2002). Mr. Falk is author of several books including The Declining World Order (2004), The Costs of War (2008) and Achieving Human Rights (2009).

Noam Chomsky - Is the U.S. a Terrorist State?

Click to Play

This is an extract from an interview with Noam Chomsky on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program

Edward Said - Palestine, Iraq, and U S Policy

Click to Play

Edward Said, acclaimed for his literary and cultural criticism, is a sought-after commentator on Middle Eastern politics and America's foremost spokesman for the Palestinian cause. His influential book, "Orientalism," (1978), is an examination of Western perceptions of the Islamic world. His criticism extends to the United States, which he calls a dishonest broker in the peace process due to its long-standing support for Israel. - ResearchChannel is a nonprofit media and technology organization that connects a global audience with the research and academic institutions whose developments, insights and discoveries affect our lives and futures.

Noam Chomsky - The Emerging Framework of World Power

Click to Play

Noam Chomsky, professor, linguistics, MIT Exploring the repercussions of the attacks on September 11, 2001, Noam Chomsky talks about the war on terrorism, US involvement with Afghanistan, and the long-term implications of America's military attacks abroad. His extensive knowledge of American foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia sheds light on the new contours of world power while posing important and troubling questions about our country's role in international affair

Noam Chomsky - The Militarization of Science and Space

Click to Play

Chomsky launches a savage, two-pronged assault on national economic policies and efforts at “global domination….By now the stakes are so high that issues of survival arise,” says Chomsky. The basic principle underlying our current economy is “to make rich people happy and make everybody else frightened.” Chomsky lays particular blame for this doctrine on Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan-- “Saint Alan”-- who claims the economy is working well because of private entrepreneurial initiative and expanding consumer choice. Chomsky disagrees. He claims that in the last 30 years, it has been public spending on such technologies as computers, satellites, the Internet and lasers that has fed the economy. And the wealth derived from these technologies has gone primarily into the hands of corporate masters, who represent a fraction of the American people. The government has used a succession of bogeymen—the Soviets, Communist insurgents around the world, and now global terrorism—to scare taxpayers into supporting core defense programs whose technologies ultimately spin off into private hands. The current administration advocates not merely controlling space, but owning it, with a new missile-based system and satellite-guided unmanned drones. This expensive strategy, combined with the doctrine of striking first at perceived enemies, may well bring global calamity.

Noam Chomsky - The Political Economy of the Mass Media

Click to Play

"Voices from the Archive" lecture by Noam Chomsky, March 15, 1989 - "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" - Recorded at the Memorial Union Theater on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, Wisconsin.

Noam Chomsky - History of US Rule in Latin America - Elections and Resistance to the Coup in Honduras

Click to Play

Beginning with an overview of the four Nobel Peace Prize winning US President's influences on the region.

Filmed by Paul Hubbard at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on 12-15-09

MARIACHI RELAMPAGO Plays at La Feria Mexican Restaurant

Click to Play

MARIACHI RELAMPAGO Plays at La Feria Mexican Restaurant in Austin, TX

Noam Chomsky - The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism

Click to Play

Noam Chomsky delivers the 5th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture: The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism at Columbia University School for International Affairs for the Heyman Center for the Humanities. After paying homage to Edward Said's stressing imperialism as central to our culture Chomsky builds his case with telling quotes of American leaders rationalizing and denying extermination of Native Americans on through US terrorism in Latin and South America, like in Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua, and the Middle East.

Q & A Noam Chomsky - The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism

Click to Play

Noam Chomsky delivers the 5th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture: The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism at Columbia University School for International Affairs for the Heyman Center for the Humanities. After paying homage to Edward Said's stressing imperialism as central to our culture Chomsky builds his case with telling quotes of American leaders rationalizing and denying extermination of Native Americans on through US terrorism in Latin and South America, like in Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua, and the Middle East.

Noam Chomsky on Modern-Day American Imperialism: Middle East and Beyond

Click to Play

Hosted by Boston University School of Law and the Boston University Anti-War Coalition

Noam Chomsky - Crises and the Unipolar Moment

Click to Play

It is widely felt that the fall of the Soviet Union left a unipolar world, dominated by the remaining superpower, and that the "moment" is coming to a close with the collapse of the Anglo-Saxon "free market" economic model. Investigation of this two-decade "moment" can provide considerable insight into what came before, and possibilities for shaping the future.

Noam Chomsky: Philosophies of Language and Politics

Click to Play

World-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky has been pushing change in language, politics and culture for decades. The controversial expert on modern language explains why "the smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum."

Andrea Smith - Conquest: "Sexual Violence & American Indian Genocide"

Click to Play

In this lecture, author, scholar, and activist Andrea Smith of INCITE! Women of Color against Violence discussed sexual violence in American Indian communities and the role of sexual violence in genocide. Smith argues hat sexual violence is an inherent part of the colonial project. She also asserts that sexual violence--as a weapon of both patriarchy and colonialism--must be approached from an anti-colonial perspective. Finally, she shares her thoughts on organizing against sexual violence and argues for a "mass movement" against sexual violence that exists outside of current non-profit structures.

Noam Chomsky - When Elites Fail, and What We Should Do About It

Click to Play

Noam Chomsky gives the keynote at the Econvergence conference on October 2nd, 2009. "What to do when elites fail? There is a simple answer. Get rid of them. It's going to be a long struggle. But the first question to ask is do they really fail?" Adam Smith pointed out, The principal architects of policy in England make sure their own interests are very well served no matter how grievous the effect on others. The outlines from Smith's time to today are fairly consistent. The powerful protect their interests. Chomsky talks about the democratic deficit: the gap between public opinion and policy. Interesting discussion on democracy juxtaposing Aristotle and Madison. Lecture is followed by Q&A.

Noam Chomsky is an internationally renowned MIT professor. He practically invented modern linguistics. In addition to his pioneering work in that field he has been a leading voice for peace and social justice for many decades. He is in huge demand as a speaker all over world. "The New Statesman" calls him, "The conscience of the American people." The New York Times says he's "a global phenomenon, perhaps the most widely read voice on foreign policy on the planet." Author of scores of books, his latest are "The Essential Chomsky" and "What We Say Goes."

Antonia Juhasz - The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry - And What We Must Do To Stop It

Click to Play

Antonia Juhasz will speak about her book

Community Forum on the Abuses from Centex, Pulte & KB Homes *Entire*

Click to Play

Homeowners of Texas, Workers Defense Project and Labor Unions discuss the problems with Corporate Residential Home Builders. Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA) has organized a caravan from Los Angeles to Pulte Homes' headquarters in Bloomfield, Michigan in order to call attention to the company's role in the housing crisis, especially their high profits and receipt of bailout funds as others lose homes and jobs.

Community Forum on the Abuses from Corporate Residential Home Builders

Click to Play

Homeowners of Texas, Workers Defense Project and Labor Unions discuss the problems with Corporate Residential Home Builders. Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA) has organized a caravan from Los Angeles to Pulte Homes' headquarters in Bloomfield, Michigan in order to call attention to the company's role in the housing crisis, especially their high profits and receipt of bailout funds as others lose homes and jobs.

The Lives of Indigenous Women in a 'Post-Racial' and 'Post-Feminist' World

Click to Play

Well known for both her academic and activist work, Andrea Smith combines careful scholarship and a commitment to community engagement. In her lecture she analyzes the realities of white supremacy and patriarchy as they play out in the lives of indigenous women in the United States. Smith is the author of Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances (2008) and Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide (2005). She is also the editor of The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex (2009) and co-editor of The Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology (2006). Smith currently serves as the U.S. coordinator for the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians and is a co-founder of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, a national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color. She recently completed a report for the United Nations on Indigenous Peoples and Boarding Schools.

Workers Defense Project - Action Against Centex/Pulte Homes for Unpaid Wages in Austin

Click to Play

Workers Defense Project and community supporters gathered at the Central Texas Division of Centex Homes in North Austin to demand payment for unpaid wages. A group of four workers report they are owed $2,700 for carpentry work they performed on three homes.

In May of 2009, Marcos Cuevas, Franklin Barahona, Salvador Gamiño, and Santos Arriaza worked for a subcontractor of Centex to perform carpentry work on Centex homes. The subcontractor never paid the four workers nearly $3,000 in wages.

Workers Defense Project has tried to negotiate directly with Centex and their subcontractors for payment, but the homebuilder has refused to pay. Dallas-based Centex merged with Pulte Homes in August 2009 to create the largest homebuilder in the country. Their combined stock is valued at $3.1 billion. Pulte has taken $450 million dollars from taxpayer-funded bailouts.

Workers, advocates and community supporters sent a delegation to the Centex corporate office demanding to pay these workers their hard-earned wages. Homebuilders need to take responsibility for labor practices on their work sites,

Stated Selena Fernandez of Workers Defense Project.

The Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA) held a community forum bringing together homeowners of Pulte and Centex and the workers who built the homes to discuss how these large homebuilders arent holding up their end of the bargain.

Take Action! Call Centex/Pulte and ask them to make sure these workers are paid for their hard work! (512) 532-3300

Visit: http://www.workersdefense.org

La Fleur Clair de Lune *Redux*

Click to Play

A new arrangement of 15 + hours of moon flowers time-lapsed down to 5 min. to the beautiful "Clair de Lune" on the piano. This is a Z Graphix Production, http://www.zgraphix.org