Recent protests of Tibetans in Lhasa and in Tibetan-majority areas in Chinese provinces have drawn attention to the ever-growing frustration and anger of Tibetans as Chinese settlers take over the economy of Tibet. For the first time, there has been violence used by angry Tibetans against Chinese and Muslim merchants in Lhasa.
In 2006, Filipino trade unionist Diasdado Fortuna died under suspicious circumstances. Nobody was arrested or charged. Later in the year, International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) member Brian Campbell arrived in the Philippines to investigate his death. After discovering the local police unconcerned and unwilling to investigate, Campbell's efforts to uncover the truth were met with opposition.
On the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, media coverage of the occupation continues to decline. According to a survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the percentage of news stories devoted to the war has sharply declined since last year, dropping from an average of 15% last July to just 3% in February, 2008. Public interest has also dropped.
Beer, like so many other products, is largely in the hands of giant corporations. Therefore, drinking beer can often enrich the same systems of power we as activists are fighting against. Fermenting Revolution: How To Drink Beer and Save the World by Christopher O'Brien is a book about how the people can take back the brew and join together in saying, "If I can't drink good beer, it's not my revolution."
We should all take a moment in this five year mark since the start of the Iraq War to observe and reflect on the suffering of Iraqi women, who have become invisible "collateral damage" in our country's war in this now defenseless Middle Eastern nation. A good place to start would be by picking up and reading Haifa Zangana's book, "City of Windows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance." Author Haifa Zangana
Watch these testimonies from U.S. veterans who served in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. In these videos, they give an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019