April 2015 - Toward Freedom

James Baldwin: A Report from Occupied Territory

James Baldwin April 30, 2015 James Baldwin

July 11, 1966

On April 17, 1964, in Harlem, New York City, a young salesman, father of two, left a customer’s apartment and went into the streets. There was a great commotion in the streets, which, especially since it was a spring day, involved many people, including running, frightened, little boys. They were running from the police. Other people, in windows, left their windows, in terror of the police because the police had their guns out, and were aiming the guns at the roofs. Then the salesman noticed that two of the policemen were beating up a kid: “So I spoke up and asked them, ‘why are you beating him like that?’ Police jump up and start swinging on me. He put the gun on me and said, ‘get over there.’ I said, ‘what for?’ ” read more

Past and Future Struggles for Indymedia: Lessons from Urbana Champaign’s IMC

James Anderson April 30, 2015 James Anderson

In the wake of the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999, the Independent Media Center network started communicating alter-globalization struggles in unprecedented ways, as IMCs across the globe self-organized and linked together with an ethos of participatory democracy and web technology suited for such purposes.

No Arab Bolivars: As Region Implodes, Arab Socialism Fizzles Out

Ramzy Baroud April 30, 2015 Ramzy Baroud

A student group recently asked me to address socialism in the Arab world, with the assumption that there is indeed such a movement that is capable of overhauling inherently incompetent and utterly corrupt regimes, across the region. But of course, no such group, or configuration of socialist groups exist today, but in name.

Hawkish Highlights from Hillary Clinton’s Career

Charles Davis and Medea Benjamin April 28, 2015 Charles Davis and Medea Benjamin

Announcing her latest campaign for the presidency, Hillary Clinton declared she was entering the race to be the champion for “everyday Americans.” As a lawmaker and diplomat, however, Clinton has long championed military campaigns that have killed scores of “everyday” people abroad, from Iraq to Yemen.

Baltimore: Nonviolence as Compliance

Super User April 28, 2015 Super User

Source: Atlantic

Rioting broke out on Monday in Baltimore—an angry response to the death of Freddie Gray, a death my native city seems powerless to explain. Gray did not die mysteriously in some back alley but in the custody of the city’s publicly appointed guardians of order. And yet the mayor of that city and the commissioner of that city’s police still have no idea what happened. I suspect this is not because the mayor and police commissioner are bad people, but because the state of Maryland prioritizes the protection of police officers charged with abuse over the citizens who fall under its purview. read more

The Rebel, Oronto Douglas: Memorial for a Friend

Daphne Wysham April 26, 2015 Daphne Wysham

If they knew him at all, the world knew Oronto Douglas as the former attorney for the Nigerian writer, playwright and Ogoni human rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa.