Indigenous weavers in Guatemala are challenging the appropriation of their identities by both national and transnational companies. On November 24, hundreds of indigenous weavers from across the country made the journey to Guatemala City to present congress with a series of reforms that would lead to the legal protection of their intellectual property rights as weavers.
In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s electoral victory, progressives quickly remembered radical labor activist Joe Hill’s evocative call to his supporters on the eve of his execution—“don’t mourn, organize.” But Hill’s command is more of a battle cry than a battle plan. The most difficult question is still front and center: What is the best way to organize against Trump’s regime?
Drawing upon historical episodes and the more recent forms of right-wing violence, Building the Commune author George Cicciarello-Maher allows the reader to delve into a tangible Venezuela with a perspective that is conscious of political complexities and the historic importance of grassroots movements.
Here is a volume offering great surprise, at least to this presumably well-educated reader, deeply sympathetic to the Cuban Revolution since its inception. Perhaps the cult of the personality around Che and Fidel is the reason for an absence of real social history on this vital subject?
I'm angry. White people in Oregon are acquitted while Native people in North Dakota are attacked by riot police from five states. And our politicians are preoccupied.
Fantastical, boldly-colored creatures wove their way from Mexico City's Zocalo and through the city on Saturday. With neoliberalism's stronghold on Mexico, combined with 60 percent of workers forced to sell goods informally in the streets and on trains, consumerism in the country can be overwhelming. But cultural traditions like the production of these giant paper mache alebrijes help to combat consumerism's dominance and bring communities together.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019