April 2006 - Toward Freedom

Media Discussion Email List

Super User April 30, 2006 Super User

Independent Media: Hopes and Challenges

This is an email list which continues the discussion started at the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela (1/06) at a panel organized by Toward Freedom and Between the Lines Radio entitled, Independent Media: Hopes and Challenges

Through this email list we continue exchanging ideas, analysis and information about how to build and improve independent media. The email list includes articles, links and thoughts related to this topic.

If you would like to subscribe to this list, please send an email to read more

Recent Trends in the Politics of Thailand: Perspectives on Thaksin Shinawatr

Prakirati Satasut April 27, 2006 Prakirati Satasut

"Thaaaaaak.sin, GET OUT!" shouted thousands of demonstrators near the Parliament Building in Bangkok, Thailand. The scene was heated. Speakers rotated on and off the main stage in front of the crowd. Their speeches were broadcasted down Outer Rachadamnern Road while people attentively sat down to listen, observed the scene and read pamphlets about the country's new danger, Thaksin Shinawatr, the 23rd Prime Minister of Thailand.

Interview with Celia Martinez of a Worker-Controlled Factory in Argentina

Benjamin Dangl April 26, 2006 Benjamin Dangl

One day before Argentina's economic crash on December 19, 2001, fifty-two workers from the Brukman Textile Factory, the majority of them women, refused to continue working until their bosses handed over their back-wages. Plagued by debt and gradual bankruptcy, the owners hadn't paid the workers their weekly pay check for fifteen days. The bosses demanded that the workers returned to their stations, but the sewing machines remained silent.

Bhutan’s Outsiders in Limbo

Charlie Devereux April 25, 2006 Charlie Devereux

The broad leaves of banana trees obscure hundreds of rows of bamboo huts set out in compact grids that reach the fringes of the forest. The intersecting pathways are neatly swept, and many huts sport fenced gardens of white and yellow roses. Outside their huts, women sit and talk while they work at their wool looms. The men play carrom, a traditional board game, or drink tea while children play or attend school. Life seems tranquil in Beldangi II Extension.

Social Movements and Progressive Governments: The Current Veins of Latin America

Claudia Acuña, Translated by Kirsten Daub April 24, 2006 Claudia Acuña, Translated by Kirsten Daub

Bolivia has Evo Morales. Mexico has the Zapatista movement. Argentina is Kirchner's. Where do social movements stop when facing progressiveness that restores power? Are these governments the triumph, or the downfall of these movements? Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, a Mexican with vast experience in Bolivia, visited Buenos Aires to talk about these themes with local movements and with LaVaca.org, offering a deep look to look at the continent in its own mirror.

The Risk of Change: Thinking and Acting Globally and Locally

Matt Dineen April 20, 2006 Matt Dineen

"Think Globally-Act Locally," read the fading bumper stickers on thousands of cars and guitar cases across the United States. This influential statement has defined a popular activist strategy that politically connects our local movements with those in other countries. But what does this idea mean and where has it gotten those of us working toward social change in our communities and across the world? How does the challenge to think globally and act locally play out in our everyday lives?