This is not the first time that I stand trial for my beliefs. But it is the first time that they will probably be able to stop me. I always knew that many people silently supported me, and that if I ever got into trouble they would stand behind me. This moment has come. […]
Subjects Archives: Inequality
Iran: For Human Rights, Against Intervention
“No matter where we come from, there should never be any support for the US or any outside forces intervening in any country, particularly in Iran. There should be no sanctions. Not only sanctions are not humane but are not effective even, for the purpose of people who are doing them. . . . […]
Spinning the Honduras Coup
In the Summer of 1984, under the oversight of U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, I was deported from Honduras with five other Americans for meeting with union representatives who wanted to tell us about the murders and disappearances of their leaders. At the time, the poor nation was known as “the aircraft carrier USS Honduras” […]
The Truth about Amnesty for Immigrants
“Amnesty” has become one of the dirtiest words in U.S. politics. Immigration opponents use it to attack any plan — however restrictive and punitive — to regularize the status of the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. Immigration advocates avoid the word, substituting euphemisms like “a path to citizenship.” Amnesty’s big problem […]
Honduran Resistance Leaders Speak in Chicago
Labor Express interviews four Honduran civil society leaders, who visited Chicago on 7-8 August 2009 as part of the Honduras Coup Resistance Speaking Tour sponsored by the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC): Abencio Fernández Pineda, Gerardo Torres, Maria Luisa Jimenez, and Luther Castillo. Play now: “We are here, in the […]
The Politics of the UNDP Arab Human Development Report
On Tuesday, July 21st, the United Nations Development Program launched its 5th Arab Human Development Report (AHDR). The independently prepared report was not presented to the public prior to its publication, but criticism began to surface even before it was released, both from researchers involved in the report and from observers. Wujohat Nazar (Perspectives) […]
Giorgio Agamben’s State of Exception
Giorgio Agamben. State of Exception. Translated by Kevin Attell. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. 104 pp. $15.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-226-00925-4. State of Exception, a book written by Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, is the English translation by Kevin Attell of the monograph Stato di eccezione. Well known are the author’s works that […]
“Human Beings Are Members of a Whole”: Protecting the Iranian Civil Society
Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. If you have no sympathy for human pain, The name of human you cannot retain. — A poem by the Persian poet Sa’adi (1210-1290) gracing the entrance of […]
Mapping a Legal Geography of Yugoslavia’s Disintegration
Ana S. Trbovich. A Legal Geography of Yugoslavia’s Disintegration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. xiv + 522 pp. $80.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-533343-5. Ana S. Trbovich’s A Legal Geography of Yugoslavia’s Disintegration is a valuable intervention in the long running and, at times, torturous debate over the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. The […]
Obama and the New Gay Civility
Recently gay rights groups became seriously miffed when our new President’s own Justice Department released a legal brief upholding the Defense of Marriage Act by likening same-sex marriage to pedophilia and incest. “What about our civil rights?” we huffed. This is a President, after all, whose life was profoundly shaped and guided by the civil […]
On the Increasingly Complex Relationship between Immigration Policy and (Inter)national Security
Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, Simon Reich, eds. Immigration, Integration, and Security: America and Europe in Comparative Perspective. The Security Continuum: Global Politics in the Modern Age. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. xi + 480 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8229-4344-0; $27.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8229-5984-7. Migration and security have always been linked, but, as Ariane Chebel […]
Against Tolerance: Islam, Sexuality, and the Politics of Belonging in the Netherlands
The Slovenian philosopher and sociologist Slavoj Zizek argues that tolerance constitutes a mystifying discourse veiling what is really at the heart of political and social struggle. There is good reason, Zizek argues, that someone like Martin Luther King didn’t make use of the concept. The struggle against racism is not a struggle for tolerance, […]
Israeli Parliament Bill Aims to Punish Those Who Help “Illegal” Immigrants and Refugees
Israelis caught assisting “illegal” immigrants could soon receive the same punishment as the people they help. If a bill being discussed in the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) becomes law, it would be the only legislation in the world that mandates equal punishment for both parties, a leading Communist Party member MK Dov Khenin says. The […]
His Name Is Ezra Nawi
Every so often someone comes along who is so brave and so inspiring that you just can’t sit by and remain silent when you learn they need your help. We’re writing to you today about one of these rare people. His name is Ezra Nawi. You’ve probably never heard of him, but because you […]
July Delegation to Venezuela: Human Rights, Food Sovereignty, and Social Change
A food sovereignty delegation from the Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of New York visits La Vela de Coro, Falcón, Venezuela. Video by Diego Gerena-Quiñones. The Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of New York invites you to join us in July for a 10-day trip to Venezuela examining advances in food sovereignty and other initiatives for social […]
Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem
This video was brought online on 4 June 2009, to conincide with Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo on the same day. According to Max Blumenthal, the video was censored by the Huffington Post: “Censored by the Huffington Post and Imprisoned by the Past: Why I Made ‘Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem’” (Mondoweiss, 6 June […]
An Open Letter from the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies to President Barack Obama on the Occasion of His Cairo Speech to the “Blacks” of the Twenty-first Century
June 2, 2009 Mr. President, The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) hopes that your speech to the Arab and Muslim worlds will contain practical steps to uphold your administration’s stated intention to seriously deal with the problems that have inflamed resentment and fostered a sense of humiliation among peoples, individuals, and ethnic and […]
Caterpillar under Fire for Human Rights Abuses for Sixth Year in a Row
Chicago, IL (June 3) — For the sixth year in a row, members of Jewish, Christian, and human rights organizations will be present at Caterpillar, Inc.’s annual shareholder meeting to demand that Caterpillar end its complicity with violations of human rights and international law in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. Concerned […]
Samieh Jabbarin Still under House Arrest
Dear friends, The solidarity struggle with Palestinian theatre-artist and activist Samieh Jabbarin, who is still under house arrest in Um Al Fahm, has gained significant resonance in the past two weeks thanks to the publication of journalist Aviva Lori’s extensive coverage of the affair in Haaretz weekend supplement in Hebrew (22.5.09) and English (28.5.09). […]
N’Dimagou — “Dignity”
First of all, we would like to ask you where the story that you tell in your movie comes from. The idea was born from the complexity of the theme proposed: dignity. I think it’s very difficult to deal with such sweeping concepts as justice and dignity in the allotted two or three minutes, so […]
