Oakland police preventing the reoccupation of a property in the process of foreclosure. 90% of Oakland’s foreclosures are concentrated in 3 largely black and brown zip codes, 94621, 94603, 94605.
(via theveganarchist)
The Atlantic | In Focus; Portraits of Greece in Crisis
Top: Dimitris Stamatakos, 36, sits in a field on land he is renting near his home in the village of Krokeae in the Peloponesse area of Greece, on March 18. Before the crisis Stamatakos was able to make a living by selling olives that he farmed on the land he owns, now he is forced to work for neighboring farms and do odd jobs to earn his living.
Center-left: Afghan immigrants jump from an abandoned rail car to catch the train for Athens in Orestiada, on April 9. Human rights groups have heavily criticized Greece over the the building of a six-mile-long fence topped with razor wire, and for plans to intern illegal immigrants in former military bases pending deportation. The debt-crippled country is the European Union’s main entry point for illegal immigrants, mostly from Asia and Africa.
Center-right: Protesters run from police after hurling petrol bombs during violent anti-austerity demonstration in central Athens, on February 12. Historic cinemas, cafes and shops went up in flames in central Athens as black-masked protesters fought Greek police outside parliament, while inside lawmakers endorsed a new EU/IMF austerity deal.
Bottom: Passers-by cast shadows on pavement near a pool of blood following an attack on a policeman by protesters in Athens’ main Syntagma Square, on April 7. A protest march that followed a memorial service for Dimitris Christoulas turned violent with marchers beating a policeman and stealing his uniform, bulletproof vest, handcuffs and radio.
See more. [Images: Reuters, AFP/Getty, AP]
Headed to Ladakh this summer…should be interesting.
Hundreds of government employees demanding their arrears protested in Srinagar, Kashmir. The police used batons and a water cannon spraying dyed water to disperse them.
Photography by; Fayaz Kabli.
(via 3rdcoastunder)
The UK agreed to give India £166m to fund the programme, despite allegations that the money would be used to sterilise the poor in an attempt to curb the country’s burgeoning population of 1.2 billion people.
Sterilisation has been mired in controversy for years. With officials and doctors paid a bonus for every operation, poor and little-educated men and women in rural areas are routinely rounded up and sterilised without having a chance to object. Activists say some are told they are going to health camps for operations that will improve their general wellbeing and only discover the truth after going under the knife.
This is stuff that’s happening within your lifetime. This is not something from the past, something that happened a while ago. Population control is something that still exists.
And if you ever try saying that we need to save women in foreign countries, well maybe you should step back and consider how Western countries are aiding in (and have encouraged) creating these issues.
UGH. where to start…
Sterilization campaigns are the legacy of institutional eugenics programs that have spanned multiple continents starting in the early 1900s. In fact, Hitler modeled his program off of American legislation in the 1930s (See “Better for All the World” by Harry Bruinius, 2006, for more on this and the history of Eugenics in America).
The US also engaged in institutional sterilization campaigns up until the late 1960s. These campaigns specifically targeted Native American women, Puerto Rican women, and Black women, planted the roots of distrust within communities of color for the medical establishment far before Tuskegee took place.
It is also important to note that family-cap policies and sterilization campaigns are explicitly outlawed in the UN issued Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Then again, I’m not sure any nation really respects these documents or interprets them in the interest of the vulnerable peoples they seek to protect.
That being said…there is never any real justification for sterilization campaigns and / or family cap policies (prevalent in the US and much of the developed world), but to use ‘population control’ for justification?!….let me explain:
In case you weren’t aware, it is people in DEVELOPED countries that UTILIZE THE MAJORITY OF RESOURCES in nearly every conceivable category (from electricity/energy, to petroleum, food resources, etc.) so it is not only deplorable and unjust of us to make these demands of people in the developing world, it is incredibly hypocritical!!
(via dumbthingswhitepplsay)
ANARCHIST DAY SCHOOL @ University of Rochester (U of R SDS x Rochester Red and Black)
https://www.facebook.com/events/219278661510930/
EVERYONE OUT FOR TOMORROW’S ANARCHIST FORUM
Rochester Red and Black and U of R Students for a Democratic Society are proud to present “Another World is Possible: An Anarchist Day School”, a day-long series of workshops intended to provide broader access to the rich and varied field of anarchist ideas and practices. We’re excited to be hosting authors of new releases from AK Press, including Deric Shannon, co-editor of “The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics” and Maia Ramnath, author of “Decolonizing Anarchism: An Antiauthoritarian History of India’s Liberation Struggle”.
The event will be hosted in rooms 108 and 109 in Goergen Hall at the University of Rochester. Parking will be free during the event.
- SCHEDULE -
OPENING PLENARY
12:00-2:00
Anarchist Economics
Speaker: Deric Shannon
Editor of the new book “The Accumulation of Freedom: Writing on Anarchist Economics”, Deric Shannon will discuss some of the common critiques of capitalism anarchists hold and explore the centuries-long debate about what free, egalitarian society could look like.
SESSION 1
2:15-3:30
Room 1
Especifismo: Anarchist Organization and Praxis
Speaker: Colin O’Malley
Colin O’Malley will discuss the organizational strategy used by many South American anarchist organizations (including groups like Red Libertaria in Argentina and the FARJ in Brazil) and how it can be used to shape effective anarchist organizations in the US.
Room 2
Anarchism in the Philippines, Past and Present
Speaker: Prof. Thomas Gibson
Thomas Gibson, professor of anthropology at the University of Rochester will lead a discussion about the history of anarchism in the Philippines from the late 19th century to present.
LUNCH
3:30-4:30
Food is available on campus, and some refreshments will be provided. We also encourage attendees to check out our vendors including AK Press and Thought Crime Ink!
SESSION 2
4:30-5:45
Room 1
Taking Back the Land
Speaker: TBA
Take Back the Land (http://takebacktheland.org/) will talk about its approach to the idea of “Housing as a Human Right” and why direct action is critical to expanding direct, community control over land and housing.
Room 2
Strategies for Building an Independent Media
Speakers: Andy Dillon, Ted Forsyth, and Ben Dean-Kawamura
Long-time media activists Ted Forsyth, Andy Dillon, and Ben Dean-Kawamura will lead a presentation on the history and strategies behind Rochester Indymedia (rochester.indymedia.org), a 10-year old independent media outlet dedicated to promoting community control and participation in media production.
CLOSING PLENARY
6:00-8:00
Decolonizing Anarchism: An Antiauthoritarian Look at India’s Liberation Struggle
Speaker: Maia Ramnath
Author of Decolonizing Anarchism: An Antiauthoritarian History of India’s Liberation Struggle and Institute for Anarchist Studies fellow, Maia Ramnath will give a presentation on the anti-authoritarian elements within India’s liberation struggle, examining the history of South Asian struggles against colonialism, while highlighting lesser-known dissidents as well as iconic figures.
A fantastic poem:
white girls who want my culture’s bindis and saris and henna
take my skin colour too
and my dark brown lips
take my self-hatred because i don’t fit into the euro-centric ideals of beauty
take the oppression too
take the history of colonization that has devastated my country
and the drones that currently devastate my country
take all the bad stuff too
not just the pretty, shiny, sparky bits
take the ugly, dehumanizing and shitty parts too
(Source: sheer-powder)
ABOUT TIME!
-
The University of Rochester announced that effective July 1 it is extending benefit coverage to opposite-sex domestic partners, as it does for same-sex partners of its employees.
Opposite-sex partners had not been eligible for benefits, which include health care, retirement, tuition and a home ownership incentive program.
The university has 20,340 employees, making it the largest employer in the region. Approximately 85 same-sex couples had been recognized by the university as domestic partners. UR spokeswoman Sharon Dickman said it wasn’t known how many opposite-sex couples would apply for recognition. She said the university would not disclose how much the expanded benefits program would cost.
Seligman said that including opposite-sex domestic partners was “the right thing to do. … This approach to our benefit policy reflects our university’s fundamental commitment to diversity and to fairness for all of our employees regardless of sexual orientation.”
![pushinghoopswithsticks:
Word cloud created using the transcript of President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address, “An America Built to Last.” Click here to embiggen. [wordle.]
Below, 2011’s SOTU word cloud:](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyc2axdfXj1qzpwi0o1_1280.jpg)
Word cloud created using the transcript of President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address, “An America Built to Last.” Click here to embiggen. [wordle.]
Below, 2011’s SOTU word cloud:
(Source: thedailywhat)
SOPA is bad news. Reallyyyyy bad news.
TELL YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND EVERYONE YOU KNOW.
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT HERE:
https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173
What is SOPA?
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, H.R. 3261) is on the surface a bill that attempts to curb online piracy. Sadly, the proposed way it goes about doing this would devastate the online economy and the overall freedom of the web. It would particularly affect sites with heavy user generated content. Sites like Youtube, Reddit, Twitter, and others may cease to exist in their current form if this bill is passed.
What is PIPA?
The Protect IP Act (PIPA, S. 968) is SOPA’s twin in the Senate. Under current DMCA law, if a user uploads a copyrighted movie to sites like Youtube, the site isn’t held accountable so long as they provide a way to report user infringement. The user who uploaded the movie is held accountable for their actions, not the site. PIPA would change that - it would place the blame on the site itself, and would also provide a way for copyright holders to seize the site’s domain in extreme circumstances.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation laid out four excellent points as to why the bills are not only dangerous, but are also not effective for what they are trying to accomplish:
- The blacklist bills are expensive. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that PIPA alone would cost the taxpayers at least $47 million over 5 years, and could cost the private sector many times more. Those costs would be carried mostly by the tech industry, hampering growth and innovation.
- The blacklist bills silence legitimate speech. Rightsholders, ISPs, or the government could shut down sites with accusations of infringement, and without real due process.
- The blacklist bills are bad for the architecture of the Internet. But don’t take our word for it: see the open letters that dozens of the Internet’s concerned creators have submitted to Congress about the impact the bills would have on the security of the web.
- The blacklist bills won’t stop online piracy. The tools these bills would grant rightsholders are like chainsaws in an operating room: they do a lot of damage, and they aren’t very effective in the first place. The filtering methods might dissuade casual users, but they would be trivial for dedicated and technically savvy users to circumvent.
Photos like this come in multitude and they receive similiar reactions:
“Life isn’t hard when I think about how Africans have it.”
“Oh this is so cute, let’s go help Africa”
“This is so empowering. I want to help the orphans.”
There is no fault in being conscious and aware about the conditions in which those in other countries are living. But the problem lies in this being the only mental image that millions imagine in association to Africa. It’s a shame, and photos, videos, commercials, etc. like this are why so many Africans have become angry, frustrated and fed up. There is nothing wrong is charity. There is nothing wrong with having a heart to help. But this is exactly the kind of image that the world grasp to whenever they envision Africa, and most of the time it’s the only image they’ll accept. Many people can only picture poverty and suffering because it’s all they’ve ever seen and all they’ll ever know. And if ever progress or improvement even creeps into the picture, a white person or white hands are usually suspected to be that source of healing. This is what we mean when we say Africa is Done Suffering. Poverty is not our identity, Africa is so much more than suffering and helplessness, but not many are willing to look beyond the manipulative media and it’s one-dimensional portrayal of Africa. It’s hard to imagine living in a world where Africa is seen as more than a handicapped and desolate land. It’s hard to picture a continent such as Africa being seen as a home of rich heritage and not overshadowed by visions of destitution, deprivation, and utter poverty. It’s hard to imagine, but something is being done about it. People are making efforts to reveal Africa for what it truly is, a land of various cultures, resilience, strength, and hope. People are speaking and exhausting themselves for this message to reach your ears but are you willing to listen? -Africa is Done Suffering
Yes.
(via pushinghoopswithsticks)
