The difficulties faced by migrants trying to cross from Mexico into the United States have grown “exponentially” since 2002. After the appalling Aug. 23 murders of 72 migrants from different countries on a ranch in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, activists have been discussing how to improve the assistance they offer migrants and how to draw attention to and combat the abuses. Read the rest of this entry »
Latin America has been the success story of the world left in the first decade of the twenty-first century. This is true in two senses. The first and most widely-noticed way is that left or left-of-center parties have won a remarkable series of elections during the decade. And collectively, Latin American governments have taken for the first time a significant degree of distance from the United States. Latin America has become a relatively autonomous geopolitical force on the world scene.
A new study by Pesticide Action Network International (PAN) documents that hazardous pesticides are commonly used in unsafe situations around the world, and calls for assertive action by corporations, governments and international bodies to address pesticide hazards. The report release coincided with the Brussels meeting of CropLife, the global trade association for multinational pesticide corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta.
Source: The Daily Beast Bestselling author Henning Mankell, who sailed on the ships trying to break Israel’s Gaza blockade, shares his diary of the journey: being attacked by Israeli commandos, robbed of his possessions, and finally deported back to Sweden.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a dangerous proposal to radically expand intellectual property rights at the global level. The draft agreement has been negotiated in secret, without inclusion of developing nation perspectives, and without any participation from civil society or regard for the global public interest. ACTA specifically targets the Internet and regulates the flow of information in a digital environment. ACTA would create significant negative consequences for fundamental freedoms, access to medicines, innovation, the balance of public/private interests, access to knowledge and culture, to name a few of its problems. ACTA represents a “wish list” from Hollywood and Big Pharma which will be imposed unilaterally on developing countries through trade pressure from the US, Europe and other wealthy states.
Please consider signing on to the below (draft) International Civil Society Declaration, which was the result of a meeting in Washington, DC this week of over 90 academics from 5 continents, public interest organizations and other legal experts concerned with the public interest aspects of ACTA. The meeting of international experts was hosted by American University Washington College of Law Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP). Read the rest of this entry »
Sampada Grameen Mahila Sanstha (SANGRAM) is an HIV/AIDS organization that works primarily with sex workers. SANGRAM is based in the Sangli district in Maharashtra state. Maharashtra has HIV rates four to five times the Indian national average, and Sangli has the highest infection rate in the state. The HIV rate among sex workers in Maharashtra was 17.91 percent in 2007, compared to the 0.34 percent overall prevalence among adults in India.
The International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), an international advocacy organization for women’s health and rights, has partnered with SANGRAM since 2006 and produced a documentary about their work called “SANGRAM: Sex Workers Organizing in India.” Paradigm Shift, a feminist organization in New York, screened the documentary during an event on sex work and human rights in March.
The story of stuff project presents this new video together with organizations such as Corporate Accountability International, Polaris Institute, Environmental working group, Food and Water Watc- Pacific Institute.
People gathered for Eugene Terreblanche's funeral salute in Nazi-style, AP
After the murder of white supremacist leader Eugène Terre’Blanche, a longtime supporter of the apartheid government and an advocate for the creation of an all-white republic within South Africa, racial tensions in South have reached a new high.
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now speaks with Adam Habib. Habib, visiting the United States of America, is professor of political science and deputy vice chancellor of the University of Johannesburg. He was barred from entering the United States for over three years until the Obama administration withdrew the ban on his US visa earlier this year.
By Peter Waterman - It is less with an authoritarian or even authoritative international structure and leadership that the road to global social emancipation starts, it is in virtuous spirals of dialogue, coordination, reflection, proposition, action and evaluation – as well as forms of cultural expression and exchange reaching parts of the human psyche that politics cannot touch. See full text, pdf format.
