February 2004 Archive 

Silence of the hawks Nigel Chamberlain and Ian Davis decry the absence of debate over the government’s decision to sign Britain up to George W Bush’s missile defence programme

Saving broadcasting for democracy With the BBC suffering a post-Hutton savaging and Rupert Murdoch, Conrad Black and many in the Labour Party keen to see British broadcasting mimic the monopolistic, right-wing US model, it’s time the left leapt to the corporation’s defence.

Lula critics expelled from Brazilian Workers Party When Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva addressed January’s Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, his words were music to activist ears. Neo-liberalism, he said, was "a perverse model that mistakenly separates the economic from the social, stability from growth, responsibility from justice". "We in Brazil have begun the war against hunger," he continued. "The starving cannot wait."

Who rules space, rules earth Dave Webb explains the rationale of star wars.

Space cowboys If the missile defence programme goes to plan, the US will be free to act wherever and whenever it wants, writes Paul Rogers

Peace forum breaks Middle East’s spell of fear After decades of silence, over 1,200 dissidents and activists from across the Arab world found their voice at Cairo’s anti-war forum in December 2003.

Warming up for a new arms race Nicola Butler launches Red Pepper’s focus on the "special military relationship" by spelling out the significance of the highly sexed-down and soon to be renewed Mutual Defence Agreement

UK campaigners join Amazon battle An international tribal rights group is calling on the Brazilian government to take a stand against corrupt local politicians and Western businesses following the kidnap of three Catholic missionaries who supported indigenous Indians in the northern Amazon.

What planet are we on? Imagine a planet which once held great oceans. Which had the warmth and water needed to support life. Now a freezing wind howls across rock strewn deserts whipping its red earth around high peaks and deep into valleys. With January’s latest expeditions to Mars this, the Red Planet, is once again under scrutiny. For the first time, the robotic envoys of the human race will be searching for a history of water, a prerequisite for life on Mars. And although the planet’s atmosphere is currently too heavy with carbon dioxide to sustain human life and the plants that would meet many needs, the question again rears its head - what would it take for human beings to live on Mars?

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