Archives Archives - Page 572 of 625

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.

Irish Women and Nationalism: An Interview with Margaret Ward

Bob Feldman August 29, 2005 Bob Feldman

In November 2004, Irish Academic Press published Irish Women and Nationalism: Soldiers, New Women and Wicked Hags, a book co-edited by Margaret Ward and Louise Ryan. In an e-mail interview with Toward Freedom, Irish historian Ward recently discussed her new book.

Monkey-Wrenching the Globalization Gang

Aziz Choudry August 25, 2005 Aziz Choudry

I went to Bretton Woods, but all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Amazingly, it's not a 'one size fits all' and it's not full of holes.

Walking through the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods two years ago, in the New Hampshire mountain resort and official birthplace, in July 1944, of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and of plans for an international trade organization - eventually embodied by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO), I thought about the genocide of Indigenous Peoples in that part of the USA, now called "New England", perpetrated by Puritans and other settlers who viewed them, as historian Douglas Leach put it, as a "graceless and savage people, dirty and slothful in their personal habits, treacherous in their relations with the superior racefit only to be pushed aside and subordinated"(i).

Darfur, Sudan: The Overkill

Rene Wadlow August 24, 2005 Rene Wadlow

The on-going conflicts in the provinces of Darfur in western Sudan are a textbook example of how programmed escalation of violence can go out of control. It is increasingly difficult for both the insurgency and the government-backed forces to de-escalate the conflict which has been called with reason "genocide". It will be even more difficult after the war to get the pastoralists and the settled agriculturalists to live together again in a relatively cooperative way.

Worker Unions in Iraq: An Interview with Amjad Aljawhary

Benjamin Dangl August 23, 2005 Benjamin Dangl

Amjad Aljawhary is the North American Representative of The Federation of Worker Councils and Unions in Iraq. In this interview he discusses his union's main objectives, the US government's response to union organizing in Iraq, how the money for reconstruction is being spent, public opinion in Iraq regarding the presence of US troops there and what activists and workers outside of the country can do in solidarity to help Iraqi workers.

Heartbreak Hotel in Gaza

Remi Kanazi August 22, 2005 Remi Kanazi

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, military man gone peace-loving hippy, is unilaterally "disengaging" from the Gaza Strip. The hardships Israel is enduring are plastered all over the television, play by play. Scenes of Israeli soldiers, emotionally and physically struggling to remove the 8500 settlers from the Gaza Strip is displayed while CNN anchors utter soft, shocked words in the background. Images of Israeli soldiers painstakingly carry flailing settlers who are protesting the move. Their government once spent billions to protect and contain the animosity of 8500 people who once turned to them for help. But as the old saying goes, you break the law, you pay the price.