Articles by Richard Swift

Critic of the Canadian mining industry, Alain Deneault, talks to Richard Swift about the destructive nature of this sector.

Richard Swift’s picks from the 2014 Toronto HotDocs festival include: Nelson Mandela: the myth and me, Mission Blue and The Malagasy Way.

Richard Swift interrogates capitalism, exploring the alternatives offered by left-wing politics.

A portrait of Italy’s satirist politician by Richard Swift.

A profile of the former guerilla leader turned tyrant, Ethiopian Prime Minister Zenawi, who died today after 21 years in power.

Richard Swift gives us a round-up of the best offerings at Toronto’s annual film-fest.

Richard Swift says Canada’s wave of pots-and-pans protests signal the first major rupture with the austerity agenda.

The 71-year-old legend of social movement politics in India shows no signs of slowing down, as Richard Swift discovers.

Facts, figures and ratings in our latest country profile.

There’s a clear link between the sexual assault charges faced by Dominique Strauss-Kahn and what he does every day at the IMF, says Richard Swift. Look closely, it’s all in a day’s work.

An epic migration to the cities has been responsible for China’s turbocharged economic performance. But, as Richard Swift explains, the cost for many workers has been too great and they refuse to be quiet any longer.

‘What is glimpsed at such times is a sense of what democracy could be: a notion of radical self-rule.’

By Martin Kohan; translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor

By Peter Eichstaedt

By Tariq Ali

Big coal equals big profits, so Don Blankenship doesn’t worry too much about pollution.

Richard Swift on the nature of the human beast.

By Julia Bacha

By Stephanie Boyd

Israel’s recent outrage may prove a step too far, argues Richard Swift.

Egyptian politics heats up over Mubarak succession

Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World. By Wade Davis.

Resistance continues despite US recognition of post-coup regime

This book provides some amusing and insightful analysis of the way in which knee-jerk fundamentalism mixes with the celebrity sell to provide a personal narrative on which the hopes of the Republican Right have come to reside.

Richard Swift finds some traces in Egypt and Latin America.

Richard Swift reports from the Caribbean.

The country, once one of Italy’s few colonial possessions, covers an 800-kilometre strip along Africa’s Red Sea coast, stretching from Sudan in the north to Djibouti in the south.

Obamamania starts to ebb

Vancouver-based journalist Terry Gould tells the stories of six journalists who paid with their lives for refusing to surrender their conviction that journalism is meant to be about ‘telling the truth’.

The Maquila Solidarity Network has sent out this call to action against the human rights abuses in Honduras.

A military coup in Honduras puts Latin America’s fragile democracy in peril, reports Richard Swift.

This is the story of ‘Joshua’, an underground video journalist. By Anders Ostergaard

This film documents the corporate chicanery and disinformation that has followed since the Exxon tanker dumped millions of gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s pristine Prince William Sound.

US documentary-maker Liz Canner takes on Big Pharma over the creation and marketing of a disease called ‘female sexual dysfunction’.

A gritty, uncomfortable offering from Renzo Martens that brought outraged responses from some of the NGO and media people in the audience.

Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir challenges the idea that there is a ‘new anti-Semitism’.

Protesters raise the stakes as strikes sweep the French Caribbean

This is a rallying cry that shows the way in which people in many parts of the world are resisting seed privatization through actions big and small.

Facts, figures and the history of Ghana.

Sander L Gilman delves into culture to demonstrate that our belief that fat can be identified with a number of character flaws

Jewish voices raised against Israel’s Gaza onslaught

Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood

The Other by Ryzard Kapuscinski

Richard Swift on the hard edge of hunger in a year of perpetual crisis.
Action – a new diet for the world food system.

As we all struggle to get to grips with all the implications of the financial crisis as it unfolds, there are a couple of websites that provide good points of reference.

Superstar philosopher Slavoj Zizek writes in defence of lost causes

A masterful piece of film-making that leaves the audience gasping at the injustice of a 99 year sentence for a Mexican ‘illegal’ migrant following the death of the child she was minding

An explosive mix of politics, religion and sexuality explored through the life of a gay couple in Fiji

The horrors of the attitudes towards money of Los Angeles 12-16-year-olds

The story of one journalist who tirelessly exposed its horrors and manipulation by the Moscow political class.

Gordon is well-grounded in both anarchist theory and as an activist in Britain and his own country, Israel. He provides a useful examination of the movement in many ways at the heart of the resistance to contemporary war and globalization.

Has the left been duped or duped itself into pursuing the holy grail of identity politics?

As the forces of corporate globalization press on its borders, change is inevitable.

A visual guide to political manipulation.

The tell-tale symptoms of a democratic ethos in distress.

Puzzled by democracy’s failed promise, Richard Swift explores the way our political culture infantilizes both the elected and the electorate.

A special report from Toronto’s HOTDOCS film festival, featuring movies on Darfur, Abu Ghraib and climate change.

A documentary festival leaves you with some startling images. Indigenous women in La Paz, Bolivia dressed in long skirts and blouses throwing each other around the ring in Lucha wrestling as enthusiastic fans cheer and jeer. A Palestinian activist in an Israeli prison for women completely without remorse for the deaths of eight children in the bombing she helped plan.

Can a shift to organic create a sustainable yield? Richard Swift weighs the evidence.

India’s farmers have been killing themselves by the thousands. Richard Swift finds out why.

Richard Swift wonders if there are better ways to get along with this difficult shrub.

From this month’s editor

Richard Swift dissects the corporate takeover of the European Union.

Richard Swift plays a little euro-chess.

A photo essay of squatter life.

The idea of empire has certainly made a comeback at both ends of the political spectrum. Richard Swift guides us through the troubled water from Hardt & Negri right through to Niall Ferguson – with a bit of graphic help from Polyp.

Richard Swift meets the determined squatters of Bangkok who don’t know the meaning of the word eviction.

By 2030 there will be over two billion squatters worldwide. Richard Swift reports on their attempt to carve out their own piece of urban space.

Afflicted Powers by Retort

Disney rewrites Carib history.

The war on terror has provoked a global state of siege. Richard Swift sees a spreading ‘occupation mentality’ that may be visiting your neighbourhood soon.

Leanne Allison and Karsten Heuer have been living with the caribou on one of the longest migrations undertaken by land mammals, across the Yukon and Alaska.

The Corporation directed by Achbar, Abbott and Bakan

Voices – both optimistic and sceptical – from the frontlines of Georgia’s democracy movement.

Profiles in activism from the former Soviet Union.

The corporate baddies are running amok again. Richard Swift, Private Investigator, skulks around corners to get a fix on what they are up to and how to stop it.

Judge the corporate criminals for yourself.

Richard Swift weighs up the claims and counterclaims and lays bare the core of contention in this seemingly endless conflict.

An interview with Palestinian intellectual Mustafa Barghouthi.

Possible paths to peace.

A conversation with Uri Avnery.

George Bush gives a blank cheque.

Activists from all around the world are challenging the economic gospel according institutions like the World Bank. Richard Swift tests the winds of change.