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The desert sun slants down, filtering through the dust and car exhaust. We shift our weight from one foot to the next, babies from hips to shoulders. Packages are set on the ground in resignation. Women in brightly embroidered thobes, traditional Palestinian dress, discreetly loosen their headscarves to allow a little air to pass over their throats. We are trying to get from one place to the next, and have been bottlenecked into a checkpoint. There are more than fifty-seven checkpoints in Palestine's West Bank, each one with a series of metal detectors and narrow cattle-shoot passages that one must pass through to reach the Israeli soldiers who staff them. Leaning against their sandbags, guns and ammo hanging from their chests, the soldiers lazily flip through each person's passport or ID card and then make the decision; to be let through, to be questioned further, or to be pulled to the side for a full investigation. It is a wild card every time.

Powering Alaska After The Oil Runs Out

Brian Yanity September 6, 2005 Brian Yanity

Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline

Someday Alaska's oil and gas reserves will run out. It is not a question of if, but when. Eventually, these commodities can no longer be the mainstay of the state's economy. This probably won't be the case for a couple of decades, but reality has a way of catching up with those who try to cheat the laws of physics. It is often claimed in Alaska that the "jobs versus environmental protection" dichotomy is an unbridgeable chasm. This may be historically true, based on past and present modes of economic production. However, Alaska can use new modes of energy production that are both economically and environmentally sustainable. The only way to protect resource-based jobs in the long run is through a sustainable working relationship with the land. Development of renewable energy sources, not just in Alaska but worldwide, is absolutely essential for a sustainable economy that preserves both jobs and the environment. The sooner Alaska starts developing innovative renewable energy resources, the more diverse Alaska's economy will be.

The Wholesale Looting of the Gulf Coast

Brian Dominick September 5, 2005 Brian Dominick

If you are more interested in and disgusted by rumors of civilian "troublemakers" on the streets of New Orleans and other Gulf Coastal communities than in the massive failings of the United States government before, during and since this tragedy began, consider a career in journalism.

The real criminals are sitting in positions of authority: the president, the director of FEMA, and the hundreds of congresspersons cutting their excessive vacations short to pat one another on the back as they pass emergency funding provisions for the hardly-operative relief efforts centered in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Women Lead the Way

Robin Lloyd September 1, 2005 Robin Lloyd

Raging Grannies sing out against torture.

Women are leading the anti-war movement right now. The grief and rage of Cindy Sheehan is spreading across America. Thousands of letters have flooded in to the Crawford Texas, Post Office, demanding that President Bush meet with Cindy. Over 1,600 candlelight vigils took place on Wednesday, August 17, and communities are setting up their own Camp Caseys, named after Cindy's son who died in Baghdad last year. Has the 'tipping point' finally arrived?

Radical Folk Music: An Interview with David Rovics

Matt Dineen August 31, 2005 Matt Dineen

Having just started a deadening temp job alphabetizing books that students had returned at the semester’s end, there was something comforting about hearing the triumphant chorus: “When all the minimum wage workers went on strike!” bouncing off the University of Wisconsin’s buildings. It was early May and rabble-rousing folk musician David Rovics was in Madison to celebrate the centennial of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). I had first heard him play “Minimum Wage Strike” six years before at a student activism conference in Boston. I’ve been drawn to David’s music ever since. He continues to leave his own unique mark on the radical folk tradition. I had the chance to sit down with him on a lovely spring day inside the Orton Park gazebo where we discussed his passion for playing music for the revolution as an antidote to crippling wage slavery. read more

Gold Mine in Guatemala Faces Indigenous Resistance

Cyril Mychalejko August 30, 2005 Cyril Mychalejko

Indigenous communities in the western highlands of Guatemala who are organizing against an illegal gold mine in the face of violence and repression are beginning to see the fruits of their labor. The Canadian/U.S. mining company Glamis Gold operates the World Bank funded project. Construction of the open-pit gold mine is nearly complete, with the company eager to start the drilling. Local community members claim the World Bank and Glamis Gold violated international law when they failed to consult them and gain their consent for the "Marlin" mine project. Yet Glamis counters that it consulted with the community, that the project has broad support and that international NGO's and a few individuals are solely responsible for orchestrating the "small" opposition to the mine.