Afghanistan has continued for two centuries to reject the outside interventions, in ways open and covert. Whenever the outside interveners seemed to win for a while, it soon became clear that they had not. Worse yet, their interventions seemed to turn the very Afghans they supported against them. There is little reason to assume that the outsiders will be any more successful now than in the past.
Source: The Nation
The movement to stop climate change needs both mass mobilizations and direct action.
Last Sunday, we joined 400,000 people in the People’s Climate March (PCM) to demand action on climate change. The next day, we joined with 3,000 others to participate in Flood Wall Street (FWS), disrupting business as usual and naming capital as the chief culprit of climate change.
In the days leading up to these mobilizations, a few critics on the left framed a stark dichotomy between these two kinds of actions. The PCM was cast as a depoliticized, corporate-friendly sellout, in contrast to more militant direct action, which Flood Wall Street soon emerged to organize. Chris Hedges, for example, called the PCM “the last gasp of climate change liberals,” and argued that the real resistance would come afterward “from those willing to breach police barricades.” Resistance, according to Hedges, can only be effective “when we turn from a liberal agenda of reform to embrace a radical agenda of revolt.” Likewise, Arun Gupta accused PCM of spending too much money on subway advertisements and wondered how much political value a march can have when mainstream politicians and other elites felt comfortable enough to march in it.
September 21st was written into history when, according to the organizers, approximately 400,000 people marched on the streets of Manhattan in what was called the People’s Climate March, the biggest mobilization around climate change in history.
Source: Al Jazeera
In a recent op-ed in The Washington Post, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a review of Henry Kissinger’s latest book, “World Order,” to lay out her vision for “sustaining America’s leadership in the world.” In the midst of numerous global crises, she called for return to a foreign policy with purpose, strategy and pragmatism. She also highlighted some of these policy choices in her memoir “Hard Choices” and how they contributed to the challenges that Barack Obama’s administration now faces.
Uruguay’s marijuana legalization law should be a wake up call to political leaders across the hemisphere stop applying the failed policies of the past, and instead address the structural changes that need to happen to end the drug war.
On its own the Arabic word al-Nakhwa, means “gallantry.” Combined with the word “al-Arabiya” - “Arab gallantry” - the term becomes loaded with meanings, cultural and even political implications and subtext. But what is one to make of “Arab gallantry” during and after Israel’s most brutal war on Gaza between July 8 and August 26 which killed 2,163 Palestinians and wounded over 11,000 more?
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019