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The ‘Poorly Housed’ Rise Up in France

Though France's endless winter is finally thawing, for tens of thousands spring time marks the beginning of another cold spell: evictions and the wild goose chase for a new place to sleep. People waiting for years to get into public housing, those living in unsafe conditions, the homeless, and those crammed into dilapidated hotels make up the over three million people in France classified as mal-logés, or the 'poorly housed.' French housing laws prohibit evictions during the winter, thus for the mal-logés, the season's changing brings little relief.

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No Longer Silent: Sexual Harassment in China

Xiong Jie
As working hours wound down in Sichuan, a southwestern Chinese province, 29-year-old human-resources manager Liu Lun invited recent college graduate and new hire Chen Dan into his office and asked her to be his girlfriend. When she refused, he grabbed her by the neck and forcefully kissed her. Colleagues overheard and called police. Chen escaped.

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Pacifism and The Military-Industrial-University Complex: Interviewing Mark Rudd

Mark Rudd
Mark Rudd was the chairman of the Columbia University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society [SDS] at the time of the 1968 Columbia Student Revolt; and Rudd's autobiography, Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen was finally published in March 2009. In an interview with Toward Freedom, Rudd responded to some questions about how U.S. pacifists might consider responding to the role U.S. universities play in the current historical era of "permanent war abroad and economic depression at home" and about his new book.

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Militarism Under Obama: A New Phase of the Anti-war Movement

On Saturday, March 21, 2009 the anti-war movement held its first national mobilization against U.S. militarism since the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama. Marking the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war, about 10,000 people participated in the March on the Pentagon, organized by the ANSWER Coalition. While there were radical groups in attendance that viewed Obama as being little different from Bush, Obama supporters comprised a sizeable contingent of protesters.

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Uncovering Haiti’s Hidden History

A congressional bill that would create a truth commission to explore the U.S. role in the 2004 regime change in Haiti is languishing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee with only 12 co-sponsors. But Rep. Barbara Lee's (D-Calif.) H.R. 331 has sparked hope among some Haitians who think the bill might pass under a friendly Obama administration and bring needed change to the indebted island nation.

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The Nuclear Goliath: Confronting Industrial Energy

Lately, many may have heard the affable radio jingles for nuclear energy as a clean and reliable candidate to supplant the U.S.'s reliance on foreign fossil fuels. This is sheer, malignant propaganda. Nuclear energy, along with its requisite mining, is not only unsustainable to a high degree, but is, in all aspects, violently rapacious as it dissolves the planet's fecundity and ultimately encumbers the creation of life for generations to come.