May 2015 - Page 2 of 6 - Toward Freedom

Why does Greece not simply default?

Jérôme Roos May 24, 2015 Jérôme Roos

History has shown that countries that refuse to pay their debts fall harder but recover faster than those that do not. So why does Greece’s left-led government not simply get it over with?

As the Greek debt drama finally comes to a head these weeks, with the Syriza-led government quietly warning the U.S. Treasury Secretary and the chief of the International Monetary Fund that its last-remaining cash reserves are now all but depleted and the government will not be paying the Fund if it does not receive an infusion of new cash before early June, a critical question arises: why do the radical leftists not simply get it over with and declare a default on the outstanding debt? What do they care about their creditors? read more

The New Imperial Scramble for Africa: How China and the US Compete Over Africa’s Resources and Labor

Dan Read May 20, 2015 Dan Read

A real sense of the ongoing clash between American/Chinese interests can be found in Africa. What's marked African politics in recent years is the growing competitiveness of the far-off Chinese with a seemingly omnipresent US imperialism.

Vandana Shiva: Women and Biodiversity Feed the World, Not Corporations and GMOs

Vandana Shiva May 20, 2015 Vandana Shiva

Women have been the primary growers of food and nutrition throughout history, but today, food is being taken out of our hands and substituted for toxic commodities controlled by global corporations. Monoculture industrial farming has taken the quality, taste and nutrition out of our food.

Celebrating Romani Resistance Day

Margarata Matache and Jacqueline Bhabha May 20, 2015 Margarata Matache and Jacqueline Bhabha

Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

A growing movement among Roma activists looks to celebrate their ancestors’ resistance to persecution — and to pick up where they left off.

On May 16, 1944, the Nazis scheduled the extermination of the Roma in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau’s Zigeunerlager. But the transfer of the Roma to the gas chamber met with vigorous resistance. Approximately 6,000, Roma alerted to the Nazis’ extermination plans, barricaded themselves in the Zigeunerlager buildings and prepared to fight back against the German SS. The guards withdrew in the face of this uprising. read more

Iyad Burnat on Palestinian Resistance and the Meaning of Freedom

Alina Mogilyanskaya May 18, 2015 Alina Mogilyanskaya

For the last 10 years, the West Bank village of Bil’in has been the site of weekly protests against Israeli occupation. Home to some 1,900 Palestinians and, in recent years, a rotating cadre of international activists and visitors, the village has become known around the world for its nonviolent tactics and its persistence against the Israeli Defense Forces.

Benjamin Dangl

Toward Freedom May 18, 2015 Toward Freedom

Dr. Benjamin Dangl is the editor of Toward Freedom and a journalist focusing global politics and Latin American social movements. He has worked widely throughout Latin America as a reporter, and is the author of the books The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press, 2007) and Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America (AK Press, 2010). He has reported for a variety of publications including The Nation, The Guardian, The Progressive, Vice, and Al Jazeera. He teaches journalism at Champlain College and has a PhD in history from McGill University. Email: BenDangl(at)gmail(dot)com read more