February 2018 - Page 5 of 5

South Africa’s Shack Dwellers See Politics Very Differently Than the Average Westerner

Vijay Prashad February 9, 2018 Vijay Prashad

Walking into the settlement at Kennedy Road in Durban, what one is confronted with is the familiarity of the place. I’ve been here before. Not to this settlement, but to others like it. To bastis in India and favelas in Brazil, to Mexico’s Neza-Chalco-Izta to Bangkok’s Klong Toey.

The United Nation’s agency that monitors housing – UN Habitat – has said that there are a billion people in informal settlements (slums). A demographer at the UN tells me that within a few decades, he assumes that the number might easily double. In fact, he says, given how bad the data is, two billion people might already live in these kinds of vulnerable settlements. ‘We just don’t have the numbers,’ he said. read more

Pancakes Not Pipelines: Canadian Activists Organize to Stop Kinder Morgan’s Prized Oil Pipeline

Brandon Jordan February 5, 2018 Brandon Jordan

Dozens of Canadian activists hitched a bus ride from Victoria, British Columbia early on January 29th to Texas-based oil company Kinder Morgan’s terminal in Burnaby. There, they had two clear goals: to block the road to the facility and to cook some pancakes.

The People Who Made a Nuclear-Weapons-Prohibition Treaty Possible

Ari Beser February 5, 2018 Ari Beser

Source: The Nation

ICAN’s visionary work has brought us that much closer to a nuclear-free world—and won them a Nobel Peace Prize in the process.

Oslo, Norway—From the indigenous communities exposed by remote nuclear tests, to activists living in bustling cities across the globe—a new resistance is growing. Peace Organizations worldwide have joined together to stand up to the nine nuclear-armed states in the form of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, known commonly as ICAN. While many have hailed them for revitalizing the nuclear-disarmament movement, their greatest achievement to date is their influence on the creation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This bold new step in disarmament stands out from previous anti-nuclear movements, because it went after a comprehensive ban. While it won’t as of yet directly eliminate a single nuclear weapon, as none of the current signatories have them, many believe it will significantly alter the nuclear-weapons industry. read more

Worker Cooperatives Offer Real Alternatives to Trump’s Retrograde Economic Vision

Sarah Aziza February 5, 2018 Sarah Aziza

In dozens of cities, worker-owner cooperatives are establishing new enterprises based on joint decision-making, dignified work conditions and fair pay. Utilizing their existing skills and harnessing new ones, these groups are leveraging their labor on their own terms, with a vision to change their industries and the economic landscape. And in this rising movement, people of color, immigrants and women are leading the way.

Rohingya gather for aid handouts of clothing and food on in Tankhali, Bangladesh. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Whitewashing the Rohingya Genocide in Myanmar

Ramzy Baroud February 5, 2018 Ramzy Baroud

Although the genocide of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar has gathered greater media attention in recent months, there is no indication that the international community is prepared to act in any meaningful way, thus leaving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees stranded in border camps between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

As Mining Companies in Africa Make Billions, Children Are Left Illiterate

Vijay Prashad February 2, 2018 Vijay Prashad

Source: Alternet

Zambia is a rich country with a poor population.

A Zambian trade unionist, a veteran of many years of struggle in the copper belt of the country, tells me that the situation is bleak. It is true that the poverty rate is high – unimaginably high, beyond the data available from the government and international agencies. The numbers oscillate between 60% of the population in poverty to 80% in poverty. That means that at least 10 million of the 16 million Zambians live in poverty. read more