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Western Sahara and Aminatou Haidar: A Matter of Life and Death

Stefan Simanowitz January 12, 2010 Stefan Simanowitz

Aminatou Haidar
Aminatou Haidar's hunger strike, staged in protest after being deported for refusing to acknowledge Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, unleashed an intensive political and diplomatic activity in Spain, the US, the United Nations, and the European and African Unions. On December 19th, a 32-day standoff that had been playing out on the Canarian Island of Lanzarote between the Moroccan government and the hunger-striking Nobel Peace Prize nominee, reached its dramatic conclusion.

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Bolivia’s Next Steps

Benjamin Dangl January 11, 2010 Benjamin Dangl

Published in The Nation on December 16, 2009

A rainbow of campaign posters covered the stairways and tinted glass walls in the Bolivian Congress building. After arriving in the crowded office lobby of leftist Congressman Gustavo Torrico, I sat for hours next to union leaders and other rank-and-file constituents, waiting to speak with the politician.

Torrico was meeting with members of the Bolivian Workers Center, one of the largest unions in the country. When I finally sat down on the couch in his dimly lit office, the smiling Congressman explained one of the key reasons for the success of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), the party he and indigenous President Evo Morales helped construct. read more

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Liberal Arts Education and the Growing Class Divide

Valerie Saturen January 11, 2010 Valerie Saturen

Antioch College

Source: In These Times

At the end of the 2007-2008 academic year, shrinking enrollment and a budget crisis forced Antioch College to close its doors after 156 years of progressive liberal arts education. Other liberal arts colleges and programs are under similar stress. University of California-Santa Cruz is not accepting applications to its History of Consciousness for the 2010-2011 academic year. Goddard College underwent dramatic restructuring in 2002, and the New College of California ended operations in 2008. These losses are emblematic of the hardships facing liberal arts and humanities programs. read more

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Bill Sutherland, Pan African Pacifist, 1918-2010

Esi Sutherland-Addy, Ralph Sutherland, Amowi Sutherland Phillips, and Matt Meyer January 7, 2010 Esi Sutherland-Addy, Ralph Sutherland, Amowi Sutherland Phillips, and Matt Meyer

Bill Sutherland
Bill Sutherland, unofficial ambassador between the peoples of Africa and the Americas for over fifty years, died peacefully on the evening of January 2, 2010. He was 91. A life-long pacifist and liberation advocate, Sutherland became involved in civil rights and anti-war activities as a youthful member of the Student Christian Movement in the 1930s.

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Why Obama Should Say One Term Is Enough

Joel S. Hirschhorn January 6, 2010 Joel S. Hirschhorn

I always suspected that due to Obama's dependence on corporate money he would prove to be a big disappointment to the millions of Democrats, liberals, progressives and independents that fell for his slick rhetoric.Here are some of the main reasons that he should cut his ties to corporate and political elites, announce that he will not run for reelection and, instead, become the populist, reformist president the nation desperately needs.