Some 2,500 people participated in the March for Our Lives at the Montpelier, VT statehouse on Saturday, March 24. Participants in the rally called for bans on bump stocks and high capacity magazines, but perhaps most importantly, they called one another to action.
Since the 1940s, Argentina has had free universal public healthcare for all of its citizens. But under the government of conservative president Mauricio Macri — who was elected in late 2015 — budget cuts and layoffs have riddled the public health sector.
Indigenous communities in Latin America, who have suffered the plunder of their natural resources since colonial times, are reliving that phenomenon again as mega infrastructure are jeopardizing their very survival.
Source: Institute for New Economic Thinking
We recently interviewed Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Laureate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Arizona. He shares his thoughts with the Institute for New Economic Thinking on foreign policy, dissent in the Internet age, public education, corporate predation, who’s really messing with American elections, climate change, and more.
Lynn Parramore: You’ve been looking at politics and international relations for quite a long time. Over the decades, what are the continuities in these areas that stand out in your view?
Source: The Nation
Killing reporters here is only one element in a campaign of state terror.
Xalapa, Mexico—This pleasant colonial city in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains, the capital of Veracruz state, is deceptively calm. Despite the surface normality, Veracruz may be the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist. In the past seven years, a total of 25 reporters have been murdered, and another four have disappeared, according to the journalists I’ve talked to here. (One more reporter has just been murdered in Veracruz state, on March 21. Leobardo Vázquez, who ran a news website, had apparently gotten threats from local officials.) By contrast, in the entire United States, over the past 16 years only one journalist has been murdered for doing his job.
With the Trump administration creating such a hostile atmosphere, the role of sanctuary to protect vulnerable communities has become even more critical. But in the long term, sanctuary has to mean more than just providing refuge, or filing legal briefs on behalf of the displaced, though these services are vital. Ultimately, with sanctuary should come a renewed commitment to challenging the U.S. foreign policies that actually displace people.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019