Page 347 – Toward Freedom

On Sunday, people across Spain took to the polls for this year’s highly anticipated municipal and regional elections. The outcome of the vote has ended up shaking the status quo, catapulting a host of social activists and citizens’ organizations onto the political scene, and exploding a whole new set of opportunities for the country’s grassroots movements as they explore innovative new ways to negotiate the precarious balance between resisting austerity and reclaiming the commons while retaining a commitment to direct democracy. read more

How War is Remembered

Robin Lloyd, WILPF-US June 1, 2015 Robin Lloyd, WILPF-US

Late April witnessed three centennial events related to WW1, all happening in the same week 100 years ago: the international Congress for Women at the Hague (April 28), the use of chlorine gas by Germans at Ypres, Belgium (April 22), and the start of the British and ANZAC (Australian- New Zealand Army Corps) attack on Gallipoli, in Turkey (April 25).

Chelsea Manning: The years since I was jailed for releasing the ‘war diaries’ have been a rollercoaster

Chelsea Manning May 28, 2015 Chelsea Manning

Source: The Guardian Unlimited

It can be difficult, sometimes, to make sense of all the things that have happened to me in the last five years

Today marks five years since I was ordered into military confinement while deployed to Iraq in 2010. I find it difficult to believe, at times, just how long I have been in prison. Throughout this time, there have been so many ups and downs – it often feels like a physical and emotional roller coaster.

It all began in the first few weeks of 2010, when I made the life-changing decision to release to the public a repository of classified (and unclassified but “sensitive” ) documents that provided a simultaneously horrific and beautiful outlook on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. After spending months preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in 2008, switching to Iraq in 2009 and actually staying in Iraq from 2009-10, I quickly and fully recognized the importance of these documents to the world at large. read more

Beyond the Middle East: The Rohingya Genocide

Ramzy Baroud May 28, 2015 Ramzy Baroud

“Nope, nope, nope,” was Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott’s answer to the question whether his country will take in any of the nearly 8,000 Rohingya refugees stranded at sea.

A Growing Resistance Movement in US Prisons Seeks to End Slavery and Torture Behind Bars

Ben Turk May 27, 2015 Ben Turk

There is a widespread, growing and committed resistance movement happening in US prisons across the nation. This movement is not going away, and with more outside support and national coordination, it could be powerful enough to reshape not only the US prison system, but the entire society.

An “Other” Feminism: A Review of Hilary Klein’s Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories

Charlotte Maria Sáenz May 27, 2015 Charlotte Maria Sáenz

Volumes have been written about the Mayan indigenous Zapatista social movement of Chiapas, Mexico since they made their first public appearance on January 1, 1994. However, until now, we were missing the direct voices of women from the communities themselves. Hilary Klein’s Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories reveals their perspectives as contemporary indigenous women who are active subjects together with men in shared processes of change and liberation.