Activism
To celebrate 4th of July, I thought it would be best to share with you, a few of the many valuable life lessons we can all learn from many great men and women who campaigned for human and civil rights and promoted freedom. People like Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence. Abraham Lincoln who issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy. Martin Luther King who inspired the American civil rights movement and organized the 1963 March on Washington, where he gave his famous “I have a dream” speech. Eleanor Roosevelt who devoted her life to gaining freedom rights for others. Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a bus and sparked a boycott that changed America. And many others.
Those who seek to live outside hierarchical systems of control have found themselves increasingly embattled as “civilization” has endlessly expanded.Numerous examples of people in the western world seeking to get off the grid, free from the imposed control of government, make it clear that the impetus is one felt throughout humanity.
Investigative journalist Will Potter shares his personal experiences and insights about the government’s use of power to silence truth and suppress dissent (including nonviolent protests) regarding what some large corporations are doing to harm the environment, animals, whales, and more.
The Mayor in a rural South Carolina town fired the local police chief because she was an out and proud Lesbian. The town responded by holding a referendum, voting 2 to 1 to strip the Mayor of most of his powers, and give those powers to the city council.
Government will not fix itself unless the people organize and mobilize to end the ‘rule of money’ and replace it with the real ‘rule of people.’ ’ This week of a “Rolling Revolt” is the first stage of an ongoing campaign to create real democracy in the United States.
Transition Streets, a neighborhood carbon-reduction and community-building project, really is coming to a neighborhood near you. All across the US Transition groups and allies will be rolling out this 7-part curriculum.
Eccentric Chinese recycling tycoon Chen Guangbiao, known for his unusual advocacy stunts, is hosting a free lunch for people struggling to survive in NYC.
Noam Chomsky’s explications of empire, mass propaganda, the hypocrisy and pliability of the liberal class and the failings of academics, as well as the way language is used as a mask by the power elite to prevent us from seeing reality, make him the most important intellectual in the country.
Once a radical mass movement educates itself about structures of power, and once those in state authority display their indifference to the tepid demands of the demonstrators, a movement becomes bolder and wiser.
The urban social and geographical transformations caused by the World Cup have highlighted linkages between the movements fighting for social justice in Brazil.
It is an old question in social movements: Should we fight the system or “be the change we wish to see”? Should we push for transformation within existing institutions, or should we model in our own lives a different set of political relationships that might someday form the basis of a new society?
With so many problems in the world, it can be easy to question the value of so-called ‘selfish spirituality,’ when we could be focusing on helping others. Common images of people retreating from the problems of the world to meditate have given spirituality a reputation for being escapist, but it doesn’t have to be.
A New York City judge sentenced Occupy Wall Street protester Cecily McMillan on Monday to three months in jail and five years of probation for elbowing a police officer while he was clearing out a protest in Zuccotti Park. Judge Ronald Zweibel’s decision comes at the end of a trial that sparked widespread anger among Occupy supporters for the circumstances under which McMillan was convicted of second-degree assault. They said McMillan, a graduate student who’s now 25 years old, was simply reacting to an unknown hand grabbing her breast while visiting a March 2012 protest. Officer Grantley Bovell, not McMillan, they said, should have been on trial.
Chris Hedges: It is through imagination that we can reach the dark regions of the human psyche and face our mortality and the brevity of existence. It is through imagination that we can recover reverence and kinship.
People across the United States responded with outrage after Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan was found guilty Monday afternoon of “assaulting” the very police officer who she says sexually assaulted her. Over 100 people rallied in New York City’s Zuccotti Park Monday night and, according to advocates, messages of support immediately began pouring in from across the country.
