People, Power, and Public Spaces
What the privatization of public spaces has to do with our likelihood of taking to the streets.
Month: February 2011
Egypt: Net Tightens Around Mubarak Cronies
Source: IPS News
Toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s cronies and political allies could not be touched for years, but his departure has stripped them of protection. Now they are under investigation for corruption and graft – and many Egyptians expect to finally see justice.
“It’s a beautiful time for all Egyptians,” says Sherif El-Sharkawy, a small business owner in Cairo. “We watched for years as these men raped our country with impunity.”
Anti-corruption campaigners accuse Mubarak and his cronies of treating Egypt as their own private estate, plundering its resources and funnelling their ill-gotten wealth into offshore accounts. They maintain that a small group of ruling party officials and business tycoons with close ties to Mubarak were given preferential treatment in land deals, allowed to buy state assets at a fraction of their value, and that they enriched themselves at the public’s expense.
Vermont Film Screening of Crossing the American Crisis
Film Screening of Crossing the American Crisis: From Collapse to Action
Saturday, February 26 · 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Vermont Workers’ Center – 294 N Winooski Avenue, Burlington, VT 05401
Free and Open to the Public, Parking Available
Join us at the Vermont Workers’ Center to see the debut screening of Crossing the American Crisis: From Collapse to Action. From filmmakers, Michael Fox and Sílvia Leindecker, Crossing the Crisis explores the recent financial meltdown and current economic crisis from the perspective of American workers. The film features the Vermont Workers’ Center and other grassroots organizations. Michael Fox will be at the VWC to present his film.
Video: Vermonters Rally in Solidarity with Wisconsin Workers
While tens of thousands demonstrate in Madison, Wisconsin hundreds rallied in Montpelier, VT to connect the struggles that are facing working class people all over the country.
Wisconsin Revolt Goes Nationwide
The drama unfolding in Wisconsin is now in its second week, and as tens of thousands of workers and their supporters ring the state’s capitol expressing outrage over Union-busting Republican Governor Scott Walker’s bill, the impasse doesn’t appear to be headed towards a resolution anytime soon. AlterNet is staying on top of this momentous story, and here are the latest developments.
For ongoing updates and analysis, go here
Uprisings: From the Middle East to the Midwest
Source: TruthDig.com
As many as 80,000 people marched to the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison on Saturday as part of an ongoing protest against newly elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to not just badger the state’s public employee unions, but to break them. The Madison uprising follows on the heels of those in the Middle East. A sign held by one university student, an Iraq War vet, read, “I went to Iraq and came home to Egypt?” Another read, “Walker: Mubarak of the Midwest.” Likewise, a photo has circulated in Madison of a young man at a rally in Cairo, with a sign reading, “Egypt supports Wisconsin workers: One world, one pain.” Meanwhile, Libyans continue to defy a violent government crackdown against masses seeking to oust longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and more than 10,000 marched Tuesday in Ohio to oppose Republican Gov. John Kasich’s attempted anti-union legislative putsch.