Eight Things I learned About Palestine While Touring Eight Western Nations

Ramzy Baroud May 30, 2018 Ramzy Baroud

On February 20, 2018, I embarked on a global book tour that has, thus far, taken me to eight nations. The main theme of all my talks in various cultural, academic and media platforms was the pressing need to refocus the discussion on Palestine on the struggle, aspirations and history of the Palestinian people. But, interacting with hundreds of people and being exposed to multiple media environments in both mainstream and alternative media, I also learned much about the changing political mood on Palestine in the western world.

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It’s ‘Feminist Christmas’ in Ireland

Katha Pollitt May 29, 2018 Katha Pollitt

Source: The Nation

“We’ll never go back,” say activists, as a vote to repeal the ban on abortion wins by an overwhelming margins.

The vote to repeal the amendment banning abortion was supposed to be close. That was what the polls said, and that’s how the press reported it. That was how organizers for both sides thought it would go. But when the voting was over at 10 pm on May 25, the first exit polls showed Yes had achieved an electoral tsunami, crushing No by a two-to-one margin. I was with the psychiatrist Veronica O’Keane and other Doctors for Choice when the word came down, and I swear I saw them dancing in the streets that night. read more

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A Broken Idea of Sex is Flourishing. Blame Capitalism

Rebecca Solnit May 29, 2018 Rebecca Solnit

Source: The Gaurdian

In this world, women are marketed as toys and trophies. Are we surprised when some men take things literally?

Since the Toronto bloodbath, a lot of pundits have belatedly awoken to the existence of the “incel” (short for involuntary celibate) online subculture and much has been said about it. Too often, it has been treated as some alien, unfamiliar worldview. It’s really just an extreme version of sex under capitalism we’re all familiar with because it’s all around us in everything, everywhere and has been for a very long time. And maybe the problem with sex is capitalism. read more

Carlos Maaz, a Q'eqchi' fisherman shot and killed during a police crackdown on May 27, 2017 in El Estor. Hundreds of residents took part in his funeral procession across town the following day. Photo: Sandra Cuffe

Maya Q’eqchi’ Fishermen and Journalists Fight Back Against Criminalization and Mining in Guatemala

Sandra Cuffe May 24, 2018 Sandra Cuffe

Maya Q’eqchi’ fishermen faced deadly state repression last year for their opposition to transnational nickel mining and lake pollution in El Estor, Guatemala. Now they are confronting criminal charges for their protest. The court case highlights the ongoing environmental and human rights crisis in a country where corporate power regularly meets indigenous resistance. “Just for defending our rights as Maya Q’eqchi’, we’ve been criminalized,” fishers' union leader Cristóbal Pop told Toward Freedom.