Search Results for Toward Freedom Journal

Photo: Garet Bleir

Stories of Resistance: Indigenous Nations Unite Against Mining in Arizona

Garet Bleir April 9, 2018 Garet Bleir

Indigenous nations have accused the Canyon Mine mining company of desecrating land, medicine, and water surrounding Red Butte in Arizona, just six miles from the Grand Canyon and from land held sacred by the Havasupai Tribe. In response, a four day Havasupai Prayer Gathering invited other native nations to come together beneath Red Butte for ancestral ceremonies, inter-tribal gatherings, entertainment, direct action training, and speakers. Participants spoke of past and current illegal land grabs, religious and cultural oppression, spiritual guidance, and stories of resistance.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (right) at the country's independence anniversary in 2016. From early 1983 to late 1987, the Zimbabwe National Army carried out a series of massacres of Ndebele civilians called the Gukurahundi, deriving from a Shona language term which loosely translates to "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains". (Photo credit: Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty)

The Dark Chapter of Zimbabwe’s History That Won’t Go Away

Ignatius Banda April 9, 2018 Ignatius Banda

With Zimbabwe’s new President Emmerson Mnangagwa just concluding a 100-day timeline to address what he considered the country’s most pressing issues, which focused on economic revival, human rights activists have their own timeline. Survivors of the 1980s Gukurahundi atrocities, where a campaign by government soldiers claimed thousands of civilian lives, are demanding that the new president address the country’s dark past.

Palestinian singer Rim Banna

A Voice that Penetrated the Apartheid Walls: Singer Rim Banna and Palestinian Cultural Resistance

Ramzy Baroud April 4, 2018 Ramzy Baroud

Palestinian singer Rim Banna passed away at the age of 51. Her death on March 24, after a decade-long battle with cancer, brought grief to Palestinians everywhere. Music unites Palestinians when politicians fail. In fact, while for years the collective calls for 'Palestinian unity' has gone unheeded, Palestinian music has continued to bring Palestinians closer.

Zapatista women and thousands of women from around the world listen to the opening address kicking off the first International Political, Artistic, Sporting, and Cultural Gathering of Women who Struggle in the Zapatista Caracol in the Tzots Choj region, Chiapas, Mexico, March 8, 2018. Photo by Heather Gies

“Don’t Surrender, Don’t Sell Out:” The Zapatistas’ First International Gathering of Women Who Struggle

Heather Gies March 19, 2018 Heather Gies

Women insurgents wearing the Zapatista’s iconic black balaclavas greeted thousands of women from over four dozen countries at the entrance to the Zapatista Caracol in the highlands of Chiapas under a vibrant banner reading “Welcome women of the world.” Kicking off the first International Political, Artistic, Sporting, and Cultural Gathering of Women Who Struggle surrounded by murals celebrating women’s resistance, Zapatista compañeras invited women from around the globe to commit to organizing to rise up and fight capitalism and patriarchy.

Photo by Cpl. Jacob A. Farbo

Merchants of Death Are the Ultimate Winners in World’s Escalating Military Conflicts

Thalif Deen March 19, 2018 Thalif Deen

In most military conflicts worldwide, the ultimate winners are not one of the warring parties– but the world’s prolific arms traders, described by peace activists as “merchants of death.” According to a new study, the world’s five top arms suppliers are the US, Russia, France, China, and Germany. Together, these five biggest exporters have accounted for about 74 per cent of all arms exports during 2013–17.