Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Latest editorial
The suffocation of democracy in India
Attacks on the progressive Indian news outlet NewsClick coincided with the suspension of 141 opposition members of Indian parliament, both constituting serious attacks on Indian democracy, writes VIJAY PRASHAD
DEMOCRACY BLOCKED: Indian paramilitary soldiers erect a barricade to prevent suspended lawmakers from marching outside Parliament House in
New Delhi, India, December 21, 2023
BEN CHACKO speaks with Knesset member OFER CASSIF about rising political violence, the prospects for peace and his continuous ‘silencing by suspension’
The City is leaning on Rachel Reeves to cut welfare spending — when what’s needed is cuts to all the benefits given to the mega rich, corporations and banks to help them not pay or blatantly dodge their fair share of tax, explains BERNIE EVANS
The choice between two Blairites to revamp the tepid centrism of our ruling party doesn’t even come as cold comfort as we wander the city streets suffering from their third decade of austerity and the fifth of wage stagnation, writes MATT KERR
ANN HENDERSON looks at the trailblazers of the Women’s Trade Union League and their successful fight for female factory inspectors — a battle that echoes in today’s workplace campaigns
HENRY FOWLER puts the strike of public-sector workers in New Zealand in the wider context of deteriorating employment conditions throughout the world’s major economies
MAT COWARD looks back at a protest 105 years ago this month, whose reporting by the media bears uncomfortable similarities with demos today
ON December 18 and 19, 141 members of the two houses of India’s Parliament were suspended by the Speaker of the House, Om Birla. Each of these members belong to the parties that oppose the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The government said that these elected members were suspended for “unruly behaviour.” The opposition had shaped itself into the INDIA bloc, which included almost every party not affiliated to the BJP. They responded to this action by calling it the “murder of democracy” and alleging that the BJP government has installed an “extreme level of dictatorship” in India. This act comes after a range of attempts to undermine India’s elected opposition.
Meanwhile, on December 18, the Indian news website NewsClick announced that the Income Tax (IT) department “has virtually frozen our accounts.” NewsClick can no longer make payments to its employees, which means that this news media portal is now close to being silenced.
The editors at NewsClick said that this action by the IT department is “a continuation of the administrative-legal siege” that began with the Enforcement Directorate raids in February 2021, was deepened by the IT department survey in September 2021, and the large-scale raids of October 3, 2023, that resulted in the arrest of NewsClick’s founder Prabir Purkayastha and its administrative officer Amit Chakraborty. Both remain in prison.
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