Revolution?

PudgyIndian blogs:

The good news is, “Americans get to keep their guns.” The bad news is, Americans point their guns at their fellow poor instead of the wealthy who are truly the ones “stealing their jobs” and creating suffering world wide so they can have more wealth.

Support the Fight for Asian American Studies at Hunter College

Rage, at down on the brown side, blogs about the fight for Asian American Studies at Hunter College:

I’m writing this in response and in support of the righteous students and organizers at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York, who are organizing and pushing to protect and expand Asian American studies at their school. I stand with these students and urge any reader here to check out their information (here’s an article to start) and see how you can be supportive of their cause. I’ll post more information up as I get it about how allies and supporters around the nation can show them love and let them know that we stand with them in this struggle.

Hero from Egypt

Roobing blogs:

If your hero is Justin Timberlake or Santa Claus, Madonna or the Tooth Fairy… or any such legend or fluff merchant you’re wrong. Your hero is actually Hossam el-Hamalawy, currently reporting the uprising in Egypt, led by the textile workers of Mahalla.

Hossam reports:

The Textile Workers’ League activists Kamal el-Fayoumi and Kareem el-Beheiri, as well as a number of the Mahalla detainees, are currently undergoing interrogation at the Tanta Prosecutor’s Office. I have a report from an activist, which I couldn’t confirm yet, that Kareem was subject to severe beatings in police custody. The activist I spoke with said he heard this from one of the recently released detainees. We should know soon whether Kareem and the others were abused in custody or not when the lawyers who are attending the interrogation come out…

…

For continuous updates on the detainees, please follow Tadamon, April 6th Strike, Abna2Masr and the HMLC blogs, especially as reports are coming out that those ordered by the prosecutor to be released in Alexandria and Mansoura, remain in police custody… Shehab Ismail also called me from NYC yesterday to say his sister Sarah who had been detained earlier in Cairo was still in police custody despite a release order…

40th Carnival Against Sexual Violence

Marcella Chester hosts the 40th Carnival Against Sexual Violence which deals with sexual violence issues involving: gender, the law, the media, personal stories, and other subjects.

Lakota Nation Renounces US Citizenship

Yolanda blogs:

This is huge. The decision by the Lakota leadership to withdraw from the United States was announced three days ago, but I only heard about it just this second. The Lakota have declared their independence from the US after over 150 years of broken treaties, oppression, and violence. The Lakota cite both the US Constitution and the United Nations’ Vienna Convention as legal precedent for their decision. The Nation has not only delivered official notice to the State Department, but have appealed to the embassies of several UN member nations, such as South Africa and Venezuela, for support and recognition.

The official press release is below. More information here and here.

Resistance Gardens

 The blogger at wsfoft.heart blogs about a book on Japanese internees in World War II:

I recently learned about a book called Defiant Gardens, which includes documentation about gardens planted by Japanese American internees in the internment camps during WWII. I love the way that these gardens provided a transformative and life-affirming mechanism for resistance.

Jena 6 and Black bloggers

AngryIndian posts:

Jackson, Sharpton and other big-name civil rights figures, far from leading this movement, have had to scramble to catch up. So, too, has the national media, which has only recently noticed a story that has been agitating many black Americans for months.

As formidable as it is amorphous, this new African-American blogosphere, which scarcely even existed a year ago, now comprises hundreds of interlinked blogs and tens of the thousands of followers who within a matter of a few weeks collected 220,000 petition signatures-and more than $130,000 in donations for legal fees-in support of six black Jena teenagers who are being prosecuted on felony battery charges for beating a white student.

“We had Nina.”

Ann blogs about Nina Simone:

There is a quotation attributed to Richard Pryor that states that: “White people had Judy Garland — We had Nina.”  Nina Simone (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, 1933-2003) was a masterful, superb singer-songwriter, pianist, arranger, composer,  goddess, a civil rights activist, “High Priestess of Soul”, and a beautiful woman the likes of which the world will never see again. There are so many of her songs that I love, including, “Four Women” (a song of four different women who epitomize America’s racist, sexist mistreatment of black women), “Mississippi Goddamn” (a scathing indictment of white America’s racist mistreatment of her black citizens), “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, her black ballad which would become Black America’s national anthem,  “Strange Fruit” (her inspiring rendition of the legendary Billie Holliday classic), and my favourite, “My Baby Just Cares For Me”, a song that is an homage to the beauty of black women (ironically the song appeared in a Chanel No. 5 commercial decades ago).

“We had Nina.”

Ann blogs about Nina Simone:

There is a quotation attributed to Richard Pryor that states that: “White people had Judy Garland — We had Nina.”  Nina Simone (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, 1933-2003) was a masterful, superb singer-songwriter, pianist, arranger, composer,  goddess, a civil rights activist, “High Priestess of Soul”, and a beautiful woman the likes of which the world will never see again. There are so many of her songs that I love, including, “Four Women” (a song of four different women who epitomize America’s racist, sexist mistreatment of black women), “Mississippi Goddamn” (a scathing indictment of white America’s racist mistreatment of her black citizens), “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, her black ballad which would become Black America’s national anthem,  “Strange Fruit” (her inspiring rendition of the legendary Billie Holliday classic), and my favourite, “My Baby Just Cares For Me”, a song that is an homage to the beauty of black women (ironically the song appeared in a Chanel No. 5 commercial decades ago).

First Carnival of Radical Action

Sylvia and Fire Fly hosted the first Carnival of Radical Action at The Anti-Essentialist Conundrum:

Fire Fly and I are pleased to dedicate this carnival to the phenomenal WOC blogger BrownFemiPower. This carnival idea is her brainchild. Fire Fly’s encouragement, along with these excellent submissions, gave it wings. So we thank her and all of you, first and foremost.

Voices of Protest

Annie, of the blog Black Looks, writes about a new book:

Voices of Protest: Social Movements in Post-apartheid South Africa is a collection of essays on the different movements that exist in South Africa today. Two essays in particular caught my eye, one on the Treatment Action Campaign, and the other on the LGBTI movement. This latter is written by Teresa Dirsuweit, and is titled The Problem of Identities. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Social Movement in South Africa. In terms of style, this essay falls a little flat in two ways. Firstly, it attempts to do too much, looking at the LGBTI movement from too many different angles: gender, class, race, sexual identity, political ideology. Secondly, it incorporates quotes rather abruptly and so frequently that we sometimes lose the author’s voice. It is still a very interesting piece to read though.

Memorial Day Tradition

Shark-fu, of the blog Angry Black Bitch, blogs in memory of her father and of their Memorial Days together:

The Air Force was the first place where my father was given expectations and expected to meet them. Not fail, but meet and/or exceed high expectations. My father left the Air Force believing in himself for the first time. With that belief and some nice ‘thanks for your service now get yourself an education, son’ funding he struggled yet succeeded to get an education then build the life he dreamed of as a bitterly poor young man so long ago.

And that belief ran head on into the reality of American during the mid 1960’s…into the reality of prejudice and racism…into the harshness of guaranteed failure and low if not no expectations. Like so many, my father’s military service only took him so far before segregation came into play. But like so many, his service showed him that he could…should, but for the color of his skin, go farther. I have always believed that my father would never have become committed to social justice if his experience post service hadn’t been dehumanizing by comparison.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers Seeking Justice

Tiffany, of the blog The Personal is Political, writes about the recent work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers:

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is moving quickly to get more of the fast food industry on board with their quest for fair food and dignity for tomato pickers. The CIW just announced that Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, is extending their agreement with Taco Bell to the rest of their brands, which include A&W, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Long John Silvers.

Originally linked by Critical Bloggers.

Palestinian Women

Mona El-Farra, of the blog From Gaza, with Love, writes about women in Palestine:

I believe that women in my country need to be empowered in various ways. What is most important is that women are aware of their social, legal, economic, health and political rights and have the tools to fully implement those rights. While education for women about these rights is important, knowledge and enlightening alone is not enough. Practical projects and programmes that help to alleviate poverty for women and strengthen their economic independence are essential. Having this economic independence means they can play a much greater and important role, both inside the family and in the community as a whole.

Support People’s Radio in Oaxaca

Scott, of the blog Angry White Kid, gives us some more information on the situation in Oaxaca:

The only available remedy is community radio. Right now, young Oaxaquenos are working to put on the air as many community radio facilities as the communities can afford. The technical support project for them is completely Oaxaqueno in staff and muscle. It’s controlled and managed at the base, in a system of democratic participation. But the funding comes in part from people like you.

Support People’s Radio in Oaxaca

Scott, of the blog Angry White Kid, gives us some more information on the situation in Oaxaca:

The only available remedy is community radio. Right now, young Oaxaquenos are working to put on the air as many community radio facilities as the communities can afford. The technical support project for them is completely Oaxaqueno in staff and muscle. It’s controlled and managed at the base, in a system of democratic participation. But the funding comes in part from people like you.

Fighting Globalism

Bhupinder writes:

Economist Amit Bhaduri has an insightful article in EPW (pdf), where he argues for an alternative development model bypassing the corporate- led globalization. It is only the resistance of people at the ground level that seems to be working to thwart the current economic orthodoxy- that too, only when this resistance results in deaths as in Nandigram. If economics is nothing but concentrated politics, there is little to differentiate between the Hindutva BJP and the secular Left, to say nothing about the Congress party.

“By Any Means Necessary”

Fellow Blog and the Bullet editor Yolanda posts a video of Malcolm X at Oxford on her blog The Primary Contradiction.

“By Any Means Necessary”

Fellow Blog and the Bullet editor Yolanda posts a video of Malcolm X at Oxford on her blog The Primary Contradiction.

May Day in Iran

Maryam Namazie, of the blog of the same name, blogs about May Day and what it means for the people of Iran:

There is an immense revolutionary movement against the Islamic Republic. Working class is the backbone of this movement and due to the active presence of the worker-communist movement and its party the socialistic and libertarian demands dominate this movement. The continuous workers’ strikes, the nationwide strike of school teachers that has mobilized the whole society, marking the student movement with the slogan “Socialism or Barbarism”, proposition of the most radical demands on March 8th, growth of children’s rights movement and the movement for abolition of the death penalty with leftist slogans and demands, chanting the Internationale anthem in meetings; all these confirm the key role that the working class and its socialism plays in the existing social situation in Iran. The working class in Iran can and should overthrow the Islamic Republic under the banner of its party and as the pioneer of the people. It should form the socialist republic and save not only itself but also the people of Iran and of the world from the horrific fate that the dead end of bourgeoisie and its wars can create. May Day of this year, far and most, should be the reflection of the will and intention of the workers towards changing the world.

Chinese Tenants Unite to Fight Corrupt Landlord

Xiao La Jiao blogs about the recent victory of Chinese and white tenants uniting in New York to take on a corrupt landlord in the blog of the same name:

Yesterday, residents of 55 and 61 Delancey Street met and celebrated their successes in holding their landlord accountable to their demands for safe housing, repairs, and an end to baseless evictions. With more than 500 HPD (Department of Housing Preservation and Development) violations, the tenants were living with some of the worst housing conditions in the city. Many had been served unwarranted eviction notices. Over the past few months, tenants have been participating in a rent strike and holding accountability meetings. They have also organized and participated in actions at the buildings with the support of the Chinatown Tenants Union.

Black Women Standing Up For Themselves

The blogger at Shuck’N’Jive Notes blogs in support of National Day of Truthtelling:

Based on the overwhelming deafening silence from mainstream Black (predominantly male) ‘leaders’ and organizations about the documented racist/sexist comments made by the White Duke Lacrosse team members, it’s clear to me that no one will speak for us– Black women–but ourselves. It doesn’t matter if you’re a rape survivor, a child sexual abuse survivor, a domestic violence survivor, a stripper, a prostitute, a lesbian, a bisexual woman, a heterosexual woman, a single mother (especially with several children from different fathers), on welfare, a high school drop out, college educated, working in corporate America, working at a minimum wage job with no health insurance, or working in the film/music/television entertainment industry. Yes, I placed what some people would view as very different/distinct categories of Black women in the same category because I firmly believe that if any of the aforementioned Black women are at the wrong place at the wrong time (which could be at any time), we, Black women, will be left to heal our very public wounds alone.

Increased Political Harassment in the Philippines

The blog author of Kabataan Central Visayas posts an article by Zofia Leal. Kabataan is a party in the Philippines that represents the radical left youth sector in the Philippines:

As the election nears, the harassment of progressive party-list members is intensifying. Last April 18, a University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD) student and KABATAAN (Youth) Party-list member who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons was almost abducted on her way home to Quezon City.

…

This incident is a manifestation of a systematic plan of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her minions to paralyze her critics and prevent them from having a seat in the government,” said Urbiztondo.

Near An End of White Reign

Glen Ford, an editor of the blog Black Agenda Report, writes about the end of “Euro-American domination of the planet”:

The era of Euro-American domination of the planet is coming to an end. Only the American public seems to be oblivious to this reality. However, five hundred years of white rule over almost the whole of the planet has created lasting scars on the rest of humanity – contradictions that may take generations to resolve. In the meantime, the threat of global conflagration will hover over humanity, since many Euro-Americans cannot imagine a world in which they are not in charge. But there is finally light at the end of this half a millennium-long tunnel: the subjugation of a planet by a people from a small corner of the world.

Abortion and the Supreme Court

Ann writes about the recent Supreme Court decision on the banning of certain abortion procedures in the blog Feministing:

Justice Ginsburg penned a moving dissent from today’s Supreme Court opinion upholding the Federal Abortion Ban. Some highlights:

Today’s decision is alarming. It refuses to take Casey and Stenberg seriously. It tolerates, indeed applauds federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). It blurs the line, firmly drawn in Casey, between previability and postviability abortions. And, for the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman’s health.