The truce between the Israeli government and the Hamas-led authorities of the Gaza strip began on June 19. There are many in Israel, in Gaza, and in the Fatah-led West Bank who believe that the truce will be short lived and will not change the deep divisions among Palestinians and between Palestinians and Israelis. The truce is fragile in an area where only a few sparks are needed to start a blaze.
Activists and organizers are asking local groups and individuals to call, e-mail, visit and protest at Japanese embassies over the unjust arrests, detentions, deportations, and repression occurring around counter-G8 mobilization in Japan. Japanese police continue to escalate repression against protesters of the Group of 8 Summit. This is part of a growing trend of the suppression of human rights in Japan.
Mitrovica, Northern Kosovo-Kosovo is beautiful in the summer with its rolling hills, lush fields and emerald green lakes. In the towns hit hardest by the civil war in the late 1990s, reconstruction has largely been successful. In Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, cafés are packed with young Kosovars drinking espresso; summer nights are vibrant, bars and restaurants are full. Signs of positive change in Kosovo are obvious, yet the dilemma of inter-ethnic reconciliation remains.Bosniak, Serb, Albanian & Roma Women Meet
Each year, as fireworks celebrate the Declaration of Independence and people discuss how the
Monsanto is a world leader in industrial agriculture, providing the seeds for 90 percent of the world’s genetically modified crops. Once a chemical company based in the US, Monsanto has transformed into an international life sciences company, aiming to solve world hunger and protect the environment. Filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, however, exposes the company’s troubling past, in her recent film, The World According to Monsanto. In an interview with The Real News Network, she discusses Monsanto’s controversial practices from a producer of PCBs and Agent Orange to genetically modified seeds and related herbicides.
Source: The Nation
In a Lower Manhattan apartment, one of the greatest living musicians and activists sat down with one of the country’s most effective young grassroots leaders. Pete Seeger, with a list of awards and honors longer than the neck on his famed banjo, still works tirelessly at 88 years of age. He spoke with Majora Carter, the young and indefatigable founder of Sustainable South Bronx, an organization that is re-shaping the neighborhood of her youth through pioneering green-collar economic development projects, about the environmental work he has worked at for more than forty years. And while he’s at it, he also finds time to sing a couple songs, demanding the film crew sing along, because it’s not nearly as much fun singing to someone as it is singing with someone.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019