Page 167 – Toward Freedom

How Republican-Led Voter Suppression is Undermining Democracy in America

John Lasker September 20, 2018 John Lasker

This in-depth Toward Freedom investigation points to the likelihood of massive voter suppression in the mid-term elections, particularly targeting Democrat-leaning demographics. Republicans have passed laws across the country to deny voters their constitutional right to vote. “These laws are part of an ongoing strategy to roll back decades of progress on voting rights,” says Bobby Hoffman of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project.

Ten Years On, The Crisis of Global Capitalism Never Really Ended

Jerome Roos September 19, 2018 Jerome Roos

Source: R oar Magazine

With inequality on the rise, global debt higher than ever and international tensions intensifying, the political backlash to the crash of 2008 has only just begun.

This weekend marks the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the once-mighty US investment bank whose dramatic bankruptcy on September 15, 2008 unleashed the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. A decade on, we commonly hear the complaint that little has changed since then: the banks are still too big to fail, finance continues to dominate productive activity, and ordinary households are yet to feel the impact of a sluggish economic recovery in their pockets. But this perceived continuity, while certainly valid, is only part of the story. In reality, a lot has changed over the past 10 years – much of it, unfortunately, for the worse. read more

Decolonizing the Notion of Citizenship

Phumlani Majavu September 18, 2018 Phumlani Majavu

A number of foreign nationals were attacked in Johannesburg, South Africa last month as part of a wave of anti-immigrant violence and sentiment in the country. This xenophobic violence has once again reminded us of the politics of citizenship and what it means to belong and not to belong in the post-colony. What we need to do now is decolonize, ideologically and practically, the colonial notion of citizenship.

George Orwell Illustrated: Comic Art for Tragic Times

Kristian Williams September 17, 2018 Kristian Williams

A manifesto by George Orwell, published in a recent book on the British author, argues that democracy and socialism are not merely two desirable and complementary ideals, but are, or ought to be, the same thing -- that socialism is simply the extension of democratic principles into the economic life of the society.

How Afghanistan’s Peace Movement is Winning Hearts and Minds

Roshni Kapur September 17, 2018 Roshni Kapur

In May 2018, a group of seven Afghans in the mostly Taliban controlled province of Helmand set off on a more than 370-mile peace journey to the capital city, Kabul, sparking a nationwide movement.

Is Latin America Still the U.S.’s ‘Backyard’?

Alexander Main September 17, 2018 Alexander Main

Though often cloaked in a rhetoric of democracy promotion and human rights, Washington’s political playbook in Latin America can be summarized as follows: coddle the governments and movements that support U.S. economic, security, and foreign policy objectives and try to eradicate those that don’t.