Activism

There is a widespread, growing and committed resistance movement happening in US prisons across the nation. This movement is not going away, and with more outside support and national coordination, it could be powerful enough to reshape not only the US prison system, but the entire society.

A fellow Vietnam vet once quipped to me that there are two high holy days for him — Veterans Day and Memorial Day. We both laughed since he’s an avowed atheist, and I consider myself something of a secular humanist. But with all jokes that skirt around deeper truths, this one has its barbs attached.

50,000 people gathered in Tunis, Tunisia the last week of March for the World Social Forum (WSF) to debate how to make a better world to serve the interests of humanity rather than corporations.

On March 21st, the first day of spring, Quebec students went on strike over the Liberal Couillard government’s austerity policies; those numbers swelled to over 60,000 striking students by Monday the 23rd.

A Catholic friend once said to me that he is less concerned with what religion a person practices than where they place themselves within their tradition. Are they more like Dorothy Day, or more like Cardinal Ratzinger? Are they closer to Yankev-Meyer Zalkind or Ariel Sharon? Malala Yousafzai or the Taliban gunman who tried to kill her? Chris Dixon takes a similar approach to understanding the left in his new book.

Timebanking is mutual credit, where whenever somebody provides a service to a member in a timebank, they get credit, which they can redeem for that same amount of time to get something they need from someone else in the network.