Earlier this month, the jury in Ward Churchill‘s civil trial against the University of Colorado found, in his favor, that the university had fired him because of critical remarks he made after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. While Churchill awaits a hearing on his ongoing employment at the university, this victory is […]
Subjects Archives: Inequality
Israel, Palestine, and Queers
On January 28, little more than a week after Israel concluded its brutal military campaign against the Gaza Strip, James Kirchick published the latest installment (advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid71844.asp) in his growing corpus of articles about tolerant, gay-friendly Israel and homophobic, “Islamofascist” Palestine. Although Kirchick has published essentially the same article under different titles — “Palestine and […]
AFL-CIO Excludes Single Payer from Its Health Care Survey
In an attempt to find out what union members think about the health care crisis and its solution, the AFL-CIO recently asked union members and supporters to complete a health care survey: . The problem with the survey is that it does not present the full range of opinions union members have, and nowhere in […]
The Immigration System: Maybe Not So Broken
David Bacon, Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants, Beacon Press, 2008. Hardcover, 261 pages, $26.95. With the Obama administration reportedly set to push for immigration reform this year, the debate on immigration seems likely to start up again. If it’s anything like the debate we got from the mainstream media in previous […]
Has Change Come to Post-Katrina New Orleans? Bush, Obama, and the First 100 Days
As people in the U.S. and around the world evaluate President Barack Obama’s first one-hundred days, many — that is, those who truly wanted a break from the racist, militarist, anti-working class policies of the Bush regime — are coming to the conclusion that the ‘change’ his campaign promised seems to have turned into […]
Homage to Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
A great American theorist and intellectual Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, one of the founders of queer theory and the author of Epistemology of the Closet, Between Men, and Tendencies among other books and articles, died on the night of Sunday, 12 April 2009. To pay homage to her, I posed questions to two of her […]
Humanitarian Blues
Conor Foley, The Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism Went to War, Verso, 2008. All is not well within the world of humanitarian aid organisations. In his new book, The Thin Blue Line, Conor Foley, an experienced aid worker, discusses many of the problems associated with the burgeoning relationship between contemporary aid organisations and recent […]
Israel Forcefully Condemned at UN Conference against Racism
The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attended the conference to condemn the Israeli government’s brutal and repressive policy against the Palestinians. The European delegates walked out when he called the government of Israel “racist,” but the Latin Americans stayed. The United States and eight other countries boycotted the event. The Israeli government’s stance against […]
21st Century Socialism on the Move — Reflections on “The Path for Human Development”
Within an otherwise bleak reality of capitalist crisis, Mike Lebowitz has provided us with an eloquent restatement of the case for socialism — The Path for Human Development: Capitalism or Socialism? This short text is now circulating widely in Venezuela, in Spanish, as a pocket-sized pamphlet, has been published in Monthly Review, and is […]
Red Showdown in Bangkok
After a day of chaos and violence, Bangkok is currently in a tense stand off. Thousands of Red Shirt protesters are in control of a large geographic area around Government House. They have armed themselves and have erected a number of roadblocks around the city. In response to this challenge, the government has declared […]
Israel Railways Accused of Racism over Sacked Arab Guards
A decision by Israel’s state-owned railway company to sack 150 Arab workers because they have not served in the army has been denounced as “unlawful” and “racist” this week by Arab legal and workers’ rights groups. The new policy, which applies to guards at train crossing points, is being implemented even though the country’s Arab […]
Protest in Hebron to Open Shuhada Street Ends with Five Injured, One Arrested
On March 28, Palestinians and international activists gathered to protest the long-time closure of Shuhada Street in Hebron, leaving one arrested and five injured. The protest was attended by about 50 local and international activists, including MK Mohammad Barakeh of Hadash and Palestinian Legislative Council member Sahar Qawasmi. Giving a passionate and fiery speech […]
Being Gay in Iran
Couscous Global: Tell me — how is gay life in Iran? Depends on your situation. As all the people know, it’s not easy here, but it depends on your situation, too. Which kind of family you are, what’s your religion, yes, it depends on your situation. – – – – – – – – – […]
What Difference Does Inequality Make?
Although many people believe inequality is socially divisive and adds to the problems associated with relative deprivation, what inequality does or does not do to us has remained largely a matter of personal opinion. But now that we have comparable measures of the scale of income inequality in different societies we can actually see […]
Who Am I?
Who Am I? / من انا؟ Observer / متفرجة Excerpts from the Book of Aswat / مقتطفات من كتاب أصوات Aswat / أصوات Aswat (Voices) is a group of Palestinian gay women, home to all lesbian, inter-sex, queer, transsexual, transgender, and bisexual women and women who are just beginning to question their sexual identities.
The Reasons for Mobilization in Réunion
Jean-Hugues Ratenon is President of the “Agir Pou Nou Tout” [Act for All of Us] Association, which is part of the Collective of Trade Unions, Political Organizations, and Community Associations of Réunion (COSPAR), the organizer of the social movement. The prefect of Réunion announced, on Thursday, 5 March, a decrease in the price of […]
The Shift in Canadian Immigration Policy and Unheeded Lessons of the Live-in Caregiver Program
This paper posits there has been a significant shift in Canadian immigration policy over the past two years — a shift which has passed under the radar screens of most Canadians. Formerly based on the precepts of permanent residency and family reunification, from 2006, Canada’s immigration system began shifting to a model of temporary migration […]
Békés: A Matter of Inheritance
Sitting in the shadow of an elegant carbet, feeling the trade wind, Roger de Jaham, age 60, lets his Creole accent lilt, talking about the blow that he recently suffered: “For the first time in my life, a man whom I greeted told me: ‘I don’t shake the hand of a béké.” The man […]
Iran: Poverty and Inequality since the Revolution
Thirty years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed equity and social justice as the Revolution’s main objective. His successor, Ayatollah Khamene’i, continues to refer to social justice as the Revolution’s defining theme. Similarly, Presidents Khatami and Ahmadinejad, though they are from very different political persuasions, placed heavy emphasis on social justice in their political rhetoric. Yet the […]
Is Talking about Homosexuality Still a Taboo?
Is talking about homosexuality still a taboo? In the Arab world, specifically Lebanon, the answer to this question is yes and no. Sure, you can have an actual discussion about homosexuality. People can freely discuss homosexuality being a disease, unnatural, and even disgusting. The Arab world doesn’t seem to have an issue with such discussions. […]
