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Turning Activists Into Voters in Uruguay: Frente Amplio and José Mujica

Benjamin Dangl December 3, 2009 Benjamin Dangl

Mujica with Madres of Plaza de Mayo

Torrential rain didn't keep voters away from the polls on Sunday, November 29th when José "Pepe" Mujica was elected president with 52% of the vote. The 74-year-old Agricultural Minister spent 14 years in jail for his participation in the Tupamaro guerilla movement, and has pledged to continue the policies of his predecessor, current left-leaning president Tabaré Vásquez. Mujica also promised that while president, he would return to his farm outside the capital city at least 5 hours a week to tend his flowers and vegetables.

How To End Climate Change and Create a Sustainable Future

Al Huebner December 2, 2009 Al Huebner

In his new book on climate change, Now or Never: Why We Must Act Now To End Climate Change and Create A Sustainable Future, eminent scientist and author Tim Flannery refers to two vital concepts. The first is "tipping point." The climate tipping point is the point at which the greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere reaches a level sufficient to cause catastrophic climate change. The second is the "point of no return." This is reached when the concentration of greenhouse gas has been in place sufficiently long to give rise to an irreversible process.

Purpose in the Struggle: A Woman’s Journey Underground and Back

Dana Barnett November 25, 2009 Dana Barnett

Diana Block's memoir, Arm the Spirit: A Woman's Journey Underground and Back, is an example of a leftist making sense of the world around her, attempting to act with integrity, and searching for political strategy and home. In prose as engaging as a good novel Block depicts her childhood, her politicization, her coming out, her search for the right political program, her experiences with partnering and parenting, and the day to day details of life underground. At the same time the book offers a wealth of history lessons.

Unpredictable Futures: Stories From Worker-Run Factories in Argentina

Benjamin Dangl November 24, 2009 Benjamin Dangl

Following the social upheaval in Argentina in 2001-2002 a book was published in Spanish that a lot of activists and independent journalists in the country began trying to get their hands on. It wasn't in all of the bookstores, but news about it traveled like wildfire. Now the legendary book, Sin Patron: Stories From Argentina's Worker-Run Factories, is translated and available to the English-speaking world.

The Battle for Angola’s Oil

Khadija Sharife November 23, 2009 Khadija Sharife

Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

Resource-rich Angola was once known as the scene of Africa’s longest-running civil war. Today, life expectancy hovers around 44 years – not unlike that of an average Briton living in the 1800s. Over 70% of the population lives in poverty, and the country has one of the highest child mortality rates in the world. And the nation’s lifetime dictator of 30 years, Jose Dos Santos, leader of the liberation-party-turned-permanent-government, the MPLA, does not appear to have lost his lust for the throne. read more

Brazil: GM’s Rainforest Racket

Mark Schapiro November 23, 2009 Mark Schapiro

Jonas de Souza

I am standing in the shadow of General Motors' $1 tree. It's a native guaricica, with pale white bark and a spreading crown that looms about 40 feet above my head. Hanging from its trunk is a small plaque that identifies it as tree No. 129. I've come here, to the verdant chaos of Brazil's Atlantic forest, to understand the far-reaching and politically explosive controversies taking shape in diplomatic corridors thousands of miles away over the fate of trees like this one.