Subjects Archives: Human Rights

The research is pretty clear that oppressive economic and social conditions are bad for one’s mental and physical health. And there is also research showing that protesting is good for one’s mental and physical health.

In a major victory for the left and progressive forces, all of the criminal convictions against Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have been struck down by the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil’s highest court.

Leonidas Iza Salazar is one of the main leaders of the indigenous movement in Ecuador. His name gained national prominence in the October 2019 uprising against the attempted economic adjustment sought by the government of Lenin Moreno.

In the West, Cuba has set an example of efficiency and shown that another way is possible in the fight against the pandemic. The numbers speak for themselves; we only need to compare Cuba with other countries or even big cities with similar populations to get a very clear picture of the difference in results.

Ken Loach is one of Britain’s most revered and successful left filmmakers and he is currently being smeared by propagandists. If those who share Loach’s values fail to mobilize and stand in solidarity, then all of us should be fearful of potential similar persecution.

Mumia Abu-Jamal must be hospitalized. He has tested positive for COVID-19 and isbeingwarehoused in a completely inadequate prison infirmary. Given his age, 67, his liver disease, and his blood-pressure challenges, Mumia’s life is seriously in danger.

In the final piece of the series, NLG Anti-Racism Committee Co-Chair and one of the proponents of the 2020 policing resolution Kira Kelley makes the case for the abolition of policing and offers examples of individuals and projects taking power and resources away from police and prisons to create non-carceral, non-punitive alternatives.

In a statement marking the “return” of the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken disclosed that the Biden Administration is placing democracy and human rights at the centre of American foreign policy. 

Social media has been ablaze with this question recently. We know we face a crisis of mass poverty: the global economy is organized in such a way that nearly 60% of humanity is left unable to meet basic needs. But the question at stake this time is different.

Over half a million people have died of coronavirus in the U.S. Grasping the enormity–half a million people gone–is difficult to visualize.

Students from over 50 leading U.S. law schools–including Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and New York University–have announced a recruiting boycott of a prominent Chevron law firm to protest its “unethical” private prosecution of U.S. human rights lawyer Steven Donziger after he helped win a $9.5 billion pollution judgment against Chevron.

Of all the reasons to be angry during the pandemic—the profit-first response of governments, the neglected state of the health system, the environmental crisis underpinning the disaster, the millions dead—it has been people buying extra toilet paper that has elicited the most outrage.

The Jewish Virtual Library quotes Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as having said: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Avoidable deaths, not avoided.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working with states to provide more information on the demographic characteristics of vaccinated people.

21-year-old Disha Ravi was arrested on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy for her involvement with a ‘toolkit’ which contained campaign material in support of the the ongoing farmers’ agitation in the country. Two other activists also face arrest.

The now former mayor of Colorado City, Texas, Tim Boyd, has resigned after two Facebook posts telling people needing help and without electricity that they are on their own.

In the post-Christmas edition of the United Kingdom’s daily socialist newspaper the Morning Star, the editorial commented on the holiday television broadcast of the 1983 film Educating Rita. In it, author Jim Leman pointed out that the 1980s story of a mature working-class hairdresser attempting to enter university, encouraged by a benign academic on tenure, could not happen today. 

Coast Guard techniques for blocking Haitian asylum seekers have their roots in the slave trade. Understanding these connections can help us disentangle immigration policy from white nationalism.

Forced labor of Uyghurs in China is questionable, but there is absolute proof that incarcerated people in this country are forced to work for little or no pay.