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New Zealand: The Maori Struggle for Land and Life

The Maori People of Aotearoa (New Zealand) are now standing at a crossroads, forced to choose between sovereignty and colonialism. Within the recent Maori settlement program, the government offers large sums of money and small fragments of land. In exchange, the Maori are expected to give up their independence and become New Zealand citizens. Recent history shows that the New Zealand government is more than willing to use intimidation and violence to control and assimilate the Maori.

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Chicago 10: Image Politics and Protest, From the Past to the Present

Popular culture is the site of complex struggles between the forces of repression and those of liberation, British critical theorist Stuart Hall argued two decades ago. Movies and music, television and books all constitute the raw material of political imagination. Such cultural products not only engage the present but craft a narrative of the past. And what better way to blend past and present, culture and politics, than an animated documentary of the (in)famous Chicago conspiracy trial, one of the most well-known events of the 1960s?

Photo: IndyBay

Dissonant Democracy: Protest, Brutality and Healing at the RNC

I am hosting dozens of young activists at my home. Even before the out of town activists arrived, our three bedroom house had up to five kids under ten, and four adults. Beginning on the weekend of August 30-31, twenty four youth with their backpacks and zines arrived in groups looking for floor space or a lawn to roll out sleeping bags. My neighbors provided a big soup pot. Before the RNC even started, police raided many community houses in Minneapolis and St Paul. Over the duration of the RNC, 818 people were arrested.