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Haitian Sweatshops At Crossroads

Beverly Bell June 7, 2010 Beverly Bell

Haitian Sweatshop
The U.S. and U.N. have based their plan for Haiti's redevelopment on the expansion of the assembly industry. Toward this end, the U.S. Congress passed legislation last month which would expand benefits and income for U.S. investors yet again. Haitian workers will continue to earn $3.09 a day. Worker rights groups and other sectors of Haiti's social justice movements are adamant that a sweatshop-based development model cannot advance either the country or its workers.

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Refugee Film Festival Joins Western Sahara Independence Struggle

Stefan Simanowitz June 3, 2010 Stefan Simanowitz

Audience member at festival
During the 1960s, when decolonization movements were sweeping the world, it was joked that after achieving independence a country had to do three things: design a flag, launch an airline and found a film festival. Western Sahara has a flag but no airline and despite a 35 year struggle has yet to achieve independence. The closest it comes to its own film festival is the Festival Internacional de Cine del Sahara (known as FiSahara), the world's most remote film festival, which had its seventh annual gathering this week in a refugee camp deep in the Algerian desert.

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GMO Trees Approved for U.S. South

Orin Langelle/Global Justice Ecology Project June 2, 2010 Orin Langelle/Global Justice Ecology Project

USDA Approves ArborGen’s Request to Plant 260,000 Genetically Engineered Eucalyptus Trees Across U.S. South

On May 12th the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service issued its decision to approve the mass-release of over a quarter of a million GE eucalyptus trees across seven states in the U.S. South (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina), despite overwhelming public opposition.

"We are very disappointed but not surprised by the USDA’s decision, which is likely to have severe social and environmental impacts," stated Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project and Coordinator of the STOP GE Trees Campaign. "The USDA’s final environmental assessment disregarded concerns raised by thousands of people in comments submitted opposing the release of GE eucalyptus trees." read more

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Somalia: Pirates or Protectors?

Andrew Mwangura June 2, 2010 Andrew Mwangura

The hijacking of merchant ships by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden has been widely condemned in UN resolutions and news reports. Yet illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the dumping of nuclear and toxic waste in Somali waters by foreign fleets continues to be ignored.

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Floodlines: An Interview with Jordan Flaherty

Angola 3 News June 1, 2010 Angola 3 News

Floodlines: Stories of Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six is a firsthand account of community, culture, and resistance in New Orleans in the years before and after Katrina. The book weaves the interconnected stories of prisoners at Angola, Mardi Gras Indians, Arab and Latino immigrants, public housing residents, gay rappers, spoken word poets, victims of police brutality, out of town volunteers, and grassroots activists.