Interview: Susana Almanza

Susana Almanza is a founding member and Director of PODER (People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources), a grassroots environmental, economic and social justice organization.  Susana has overcome poverty, prejudice, and segregated schools to face down some of the world’s most powerful transnational corporations. Continue reading “Interview: Susana Almanza”

Tried, Tested, True Five Step Strategy for “Domestic Threats and Attacks”

 

By Harsha Walia

Regarding the incident in Ottawa yesterday:

1. Immediately characterize the suspects as racialized (“suspects appear dark”) and link to an Othered political or religious ideology (if possible, not only link, but prove that violence is inherent to said religion or culture). Continue reading “Tried, Tested, True Five Step Strategy for “Domestic Threats and Attacks””

We Have All the Facts We Need: What Indigenous People’s Day Teaches Us

 

By William J. Jackson

When these news stories and topics come up with un-armed folks of color getting gunned down and the prison industrial complex, I don’t sit quietly and let them be called isolated incidents. Continue reading “We Have All the Facts We Need: What Indigenous People’s Day Teaches Us”

What’s the Appeal of Marriage Equality?

By Christian Matheis
By the middle of 2014, legislative, judicial, and electoral actions in 19 U.S. American states have paved the way for nationalized access to marriage for adult couples without restriction to sex or gender. The movement for “gay marriage” or, more inclusively, “marriage equality” has gained broad support in social, political, and economic facets of contemporary U.S. society. Progressive organizations herald the shift as a triumph against cultural homophobia and institutionalized discrimination. Celebrities and politicians clamor to give endorsements for marriage equality, and corporate sponsors flock to hang their banners on what seems the leading civil rights issue of the day. Even certain conservative groups have come to endorse the expansion of marriage, parting ways with their peers over the issue. It seems a sea-change waits just around the corner and everything from domestic, familial intimacy to government tax codes will shift in its tidal wake. Continue reading “What’s the Appeal of Marriage Equality?”

Until the Rulers Obey

Join us for an afternoon discussion with Clifton Ross and Marcy Rein, the editors of the new book Until the Rulers Obey, on Tuesday, March 4, 2014  from 12:00 – 2:00 PM.

Until the Rulers Obey brings together voices from the movements behind the wave of change that swept Latin America at the turn of the twenty-first century. These movements have galvanized long-silent—or silenced—sectors of society: indigenous people, campesinos, students, the LGBT community, the unemployed, and all those left out of the promised utopia of a globalized economy. They have deployed a wide range of strategies and actions, sometimes building schools or clinics, sometimes occupying factories or fields, sometimes building and occupying political parties to take the reins of the state, and sometimes resisting government policies in order to protect their newfound power in community.

This unique collection of interviews features five dozen leaders and grassroots activists from fifteen countries presenting their work and debating pressing questions of power, organizational forms, and relations with the state. They have mobilized on a wide range of issues: fighting against mines and agribusiness and for living space, rural and urban; for social space won through recognition of language, culture, and equal participation; for community and environmental survival. The book is organized in chapters by country with each chapter introduced by a solidarity activist, writer, or academic with deep knowledge of the place. This indispensable compilation of primary source material gives participants, students, and observers of social movements a chance to learn from their experience.

Contributors include ACOGUATE, Luis Ballesteros, Marc Becker, Margi Clarke, Benjamin Dangl, Mar Daza, Mickey Ellinger, Michael Fox, J. Heyward, Raphael Hoetmer, Hilary Klein, Diego Benegas Loyo, Courtney Martinez, Chuck Morse, Mario A. Murillo, Phil Neff, Fabíola Ortiz dos Santos, Hernán Ouviña, Margot Pepper, Adrienne Pine, Marcy Rein, Christy Rodgers, Clifton Ross, Susan Spronk, Marie Trigona, Jeffery R. Webber, and Raúl Zibechi.

See and hear editor interviews, book reviews, and other news on Clifton Ross’s Page HERE and Marcy Rein’s Page HERE