This video shows a panel discussion, moderated by Gayatri Gopinath, featuring the following scholars and papers: Katherine Fobear, “Queer Settlers: Exploring the Intersections of Colonial Violence and Settler Homonationalism With LGBTQ Refugees in Canada”; Colleen Jankovic, “Paranoia, the ‘Untold Story’ of Queer Palestine, and Non-Aligned Queer Solidarity”; Emrah Yıldız, “Alignments of International Refugee Law, Liberalism […]
Subjects Archives: Inequality
Just Another Shin Bet Interrogation
I was fortunate this week. I had a quick and easy crossing from Jordan back into Israel. No delays, no questions, no invasive body searches and no lengthy rummaging through my luggage. The border guard sitting next to the computer took my passport, opened it and looked at the screen, presumably to check for […]
Strategizing to Defeat Control Unit Prisons and Solitary Confinement: An Interview with Author/Activist Nancy Kurshan
Author and longtime activist Nancy Kurshan’s new book, entitled Out of Control: A Fifteen Year Battle Against Control Unit Prisons, has just been released by the Freedom Archives. Kurshan’s book documents the work of The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML), which she co-founded in 1985 as a response to the lockdown at the […]
I, Samer al-Issawi, Son of Jerusalem, Send You My Last Will: Carry My Soul as a Cry for All the Prisoners
Message from Samer al-Issawi, day 209 of his hunger strike, via Rona Merrill and Neta Golan I turn with admiration to the masses of our heroic Palestinian people, to our Palestinian leadership, to all forces, parties, and national institutions. I salute them for standing by our fight to defend our right to freedom and […]
Greece’s Big Smog: Neoliberal Austerity, Public Health, and the Environment
Neoliberal austerity in crisis-torn Greece has a significant implication for public health and the environment. The disturbing reality is that the unbearable cost of heating oil for a large portion of the country’s population has led to an increased use of solid fuel heating. The smog that has appeared in Athens and other Greek […]
Expanding Executive Power for Extrajudicial Executions: An Interview with Marjorie Cohn About DOJ Drone Memo
DB: We continue our discussion of the revelations around a memo coming out of the Justice Department that the administration plans to keep up these assassinations and expand the program. Joining us to take a legal look at this is Marjorie Cohn, Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former President of the […]
Word Goes Out: “Free Colombian Political Prisoner David Ravelo”
Injustice and judicial failings in the case of Colombian political prisoner David Ravelo are outrageous by any standard. By December 11, 2013, that well-known defender of human rights, a resident of Barrancabermeja, had spent more than two years behind bars. The announcement he was convicted and would spend 18 years in jail came that […]
Prison for the Man With the Megaphone: Dresden Court Passes a Harsh Sentence Against Participant in Anti-Nazi Protest of 2011
An alleged “ringleader” of protests against a Nazi march on February 19th, 2011 in Dresden was sentenced by a local court to a prison sentence of 22 months. “Eventually the population of Dresden has had enough” — with this opinion, district judge Hans-Joachim Hlava justified his harsh sentence against a participant in an anti-Nazi […]
“Iranian Mothers for Peace” Alert the World on Sanctions and Shortage of Medicines
“Iranian Mothers for Peace,” in an open letter of January 2013 to Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, and Dr. Margaret Chan, the Director General of the World Heath Organization, have alerted the responsible world bodies and human rights organizations to the critical shortage of vital medication due to the US/EU-led sanctions on Iran […]
Dipankar Chakraborty, Aneek Editor, Passes Away
Dipankar Chakraborty, the founding editor of the independent left Bangla journal Aneek, passed away on Sunday night. He was 71. A cardiac patient, he had suffered a respiratory problem in the evening and died on the way to hospital. He is survived by his wife, son, daughter, and grandchildren. Always active in people’s movements, […]
Why Is Cuba’s Health Care System the Best Model for Poor Countries?
Furious though it may be, the current debate over health care in the US is largely irrelevant to charting a path for poor countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. That is because the US squanders perhaps 10 to 20 times what is needed for a good, affordable medical system. The waste […]
Hunger Strike in Prisons of Turkey
In Turkey 10,000 Kurdish political prisoners are now on hunger strike. 64 of them have entered their 65th day while 79 more have passed their 54th day. The file above, prepared by the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. | Print
Revisiting Dust-Covered Dreams
Najaf, Iraq, November 11, 2012 I returned from Baghdad last night. Over coffee this morning, I filled the father of my host family in on my trip. I told him it was wonderful to see everyone, but I only heard sad stories. A few minutes ago a fierce wind rose, blowing the trees and […]
Health Care Reform, Year Zero
The ideological ambiguity of health care reform during Obama’s first term concedes few absolute truths. The enterprise of reforming health care by way of corporate regulation ignites debate across the left spectrum about the Affordable Care Act’s place in the 2012 election and beyond. Like it or not, the rules of the ACA are now […]
Police on Playback — Copwatch in New York City
Stories of police brutality are often told in a way that casts victims as helpless bystanders of cops run amok. We met with Sean Pagan, a recent victim of police violence, and found that his story changes how we think about policing in New York. Sean’s story shows that communities are finding new and […]
Capitalism and “Human Nature”: A Rebuttal
In the celebrated section of The Wealth of Nations in which he discusses the advantages of the division of labor, Adam Smith advances the thesis that “common to all men” is a “propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another.” Smith hedges on whether this “propensity” is a matter of original human nature […]
Colombian Prisoners Demand Justice
Popular momentum is building to ensure that any settlement coming out of upcoming Colombian government peace negotiations with insurgents promotes social justice. New prisoner resistance and recent documentation of abuses in Colombian prisons serve as reminders that, ideally, a peaceful and just Colombian society should promote prisoner rights. Indeed, “Our people and a bit of […]
Violating the Privacy and Dignity of “Suspected” Gay Men in Lebanon
I would like to start off by saying that I am not a journalist. However, I do know that there are some common practices in journalism involving privacy. Some investigative journalists use hidden camera footage to raise awareness of issues of vital public interest when there is no other means of obtaining information about them. […]
The Prisoners of Democracy AKP Style in Turkey
“The remains of the human beings, each weighing 70, 80, 90 kg when alive, fit into just five 20-kg plastic bags. I mean, even their bones had burned down. I am a lawyer and I have seen many autopsies after murders and accidents, but I have never seen anything like this. Even their teeth […]
Against Eco-incarceration: Class Struggle and Indigenous Rights in India
Whereas once the primitive was our savage other, today the native is the bearer of an alternative future. In the late 1980s the Kayapo Chief Raoni, with his spectacular feathered headdress, accompanied the pop star Sting on concert tours to enlighten western audiences of the ecological disaster in the Amazon that came hand-in-hand with human […]
