Children suffer strongly from homeschooling in Lockdown (tags)
The situation, which UNICEF described as a "catastrophic education crisis" at the beginning of March, continues. In addition, errors, stereotypes, misjudgements and trivialization prevail in the discussion about children, Corona and digital distance learning.
Democracy beyond Corona (tags)
Whether the experiences of the lockdown will result in lasting damage in the sense of a democratically consumptive "new normality" depends not least on whether it is possible to take up and strengthen the very existing democracy-building impulses and initiatives - from "Black Lives Matter" to "Fridays for Future".
Advice on Corona and Budget 2020 (tags)
Emancipatory politics is characterized by the fact that interests are negotiated. The post-Corona phase will show what can be learned about the relation between politics and capital. Civil society should be engaged and resistant to ruling politics
NYC SJP questions the BDS Movem,ent (tags)
Many divestment campaigns have passed through student referendums and student government resolutions, but all but a few have been purely symbolic. No actual divestment, and no real boycotts against israeli universities have been established...
Outrageous MSM Putin Bashing (tags)
Russia
Philippines: One Year after Typhoon Haiyan (tags)
Statement of Akbayan Chairperson Risa Hontiveros
Ukraine
Philippines: Justice for Ka Norvict! (tags)
Akbayan Partylist condemns the cold-blooded murder of its fisherfolk leader Honorio “ Norvict” Baculao in Bohol. Ka Norvict, as he is fondly called by comrades in the civil society community and social movements, had just attended a municipal assembly of civil society groups and basic sectors in Getafe, Bohol on Tuesday when he was shot in the head by a lone gunman. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends and comrades who are grieving his loss.
Philippines: Declare a humanitarian ceasefire in Zamboanga City now! (tags)
A Petition Campaign in Support for Dialogue, Humanitarian Action and Ceasefire
Israeli Delegitimization (tags)
Israel
MILF PLEDGES BANGSAMORO SUBSTATE WILL BE JUST FOR ALL (tags)
The Alliance Philippines (AJLPP) welcomes the pronoucement of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that pledges that the Bangsamoro self-governance setup it seeks to be established in Mindanao will not be unjust to non-Moros. ?A just undertaking, pursuing legitimate and civilized methods will always result in just outcome,? MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told civil society leaders during a recent dialogue here in Cagayan De Oro City, Mindanao last June 13, 2011 The AJLPP appreciates that the Monday?s dialogue with civil society was held by the MILF. This is the 14th was since March. The government panel also held its 31st consultation last week in Tawi-tawi.In Iligan City, chancellor Sukarno Tanggol of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) expressed hope that such dialogues will spell success for the Mindanao peace process.
Venezuela's New Social Responsibility Law (tags)
media
URGENT INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR PAPERS: JUDICIAL CORRUPTION; KOBE, JAPAN, AUGUST 5-9, 2011 (tags)
Human Rights Alert (NGO) Seeks Worldwide Submissions on JUDICIAL CORRUPTION for the 16th World Congress of the International Society for Criminology, KOBE, JAPAN, AUGUST 5-9, 2011.
Website for South African Social Movements Research (tags)
The Centre for Civil Society Website an excellent resource for activists unionists & academics!
The Lessons of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (tags)
how to stop Israeli crimes
Reform: The Making of a Philippine Presidential Campaign (tags)
There is real possibility for a significant leap in the reform process in the Philippines after the 2010 elections. If, as seems likely at this time, Noynoy Aquino wins the presidency, a number of converging developments could produce the conditions necessary for change. The first is Noynoy himself, who has successfully embodied the political legacy of his mother Cory, and his father Ninoy. This, in turn, has introduced a new dimension of enthusiastic voluntarism to the election campaign. Finally, the people running Noynoy’s campaign constitute the leading core of an enlarged reform constituency.
Next: A Popular Referendum for a New Honduras Constitution? (tags)
"The coup was held on June 28 precisely to stop a non-binding referendum – one that asked if Hondurans wanted the right to vote for or against a new Constitution – but the regime’s own insistence on holding faux “elections” on November 29 inadvertently provides the people with the opportunity to do the very thing the coup was intended to stop: To put up ballot boxes outside of every “official” polling place and survey the people on that original question. Now that the Honduran civil resistance and its diverse social movements are so much better organized in every town and city than ever before, the little bird asked, why not utilize the November 29 date of the regime’s sham “elections” to hold a real referendum? The suggestion is to place a “First Ballot Box” (“primera urna”), outside of every official polling place, that asks the first question anew: “Do you favor convening a national Constituent Assembly to democratically write a new Constitution for the Republic of Honduras?” “Yes” or “No?” That little bird must have likewise carefully listened to the voices from below. We heard it - and reported it to you - from the northeastern cities of Trujillo, Tocoa, and Saba and the nearby farms of Guadalupe Tepayac. We heard it throughout our reporting from coastal La Ceiba and from the Afro-Honduran and Garifuna communities throughout that coast. From the popular barrios of San Pedro Sula and the highway blockades of Comayagua the same central demand was on everyone’s lips: ¡Constituente! From the colonias in resistance throughout greater Tegucigalpa, ¡Constituente!"
US-Arroyo Gov’t fails to stop killings, Political killing Still Persists (tags)
he Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) condemns the US -Arroyo Regime for its failure to stop extrajudicial killings in the Philippines and its avowed policy that the military should end the insurgency "once and for all" by 2010. The AJLPP beleives that this policy remained the justification of military officials in tagging political and civil society organizations as fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army. These are some of the observations made by Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings in a recent report. "Overall, the most important shortcoming has been the Government's failure to institutionalize or implement the many necessary reforms that have been identified. In the absence of such steps, the progress that has been made remains fragile and easily reversed," Alston said in his 16-page report. Alston said the follow-up report was based on information provided by the government as well as through consultations with domestic and international civil society, and by reference to publicly available reports and materials.
US Government Report Undermines Zimbabwe Opposition’s Claim of Independence Filed under: (tags)
The US government had a hand in formulating the policy platform of the Tsvangirai faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, and funded community-based newsletters to create a platform to persuade Zimbabweans to accept Washington’s point of view, according to a US government report
Industriales de la miseria, los nuevos dueños del Paraguay (tags)
Declarar estado de emergencia es para algunos comedores de carroña de Paraguay un gran negocio, que se traduce en millones de dólares.
Civil Society by Stephen Hume (tags)
Improvements in people's lives often have come about when society listened to voices on the periphery, not just the political and economic elites.
Satur Ocampo details UN report on HRVs in Canada speech (tags)
Philippine Rep. Satur C. Ocampo (Party List, Bayan Muna), Deputy Minority Leader in the House of Representatives of the Philippines, appealed to the Canadian government to urge the Philippine Government to seriously consider the recommendations of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the spate of extrajudicial killings that have been going on at an alarming rate in the Philippines over the past six years. In a speech delivered to the Filipino community at the Carr Hall of St. Michaels College of the University of Toronto, Ocampo spoke about the report submitted by Prof. Philip Alston to the United Nations on November 28, 2007.
Civil Society - Fact or Fiction (tags)
Civil society is simultaneously a goal to aim for, a means to achieve it, and a framework for engaging with each other.
Tracing a Trail of Destruction: Report from Lebanon, August 13, 2006 (tags)
BEIRUT, Lebanon - The wounds of war were evident shortly after we crossed the Syria-Lebanon border at 1130 in the morning on August 12. At Haissa, about three kilometers from the Dabboussiyeh border crossing, we come across the ruins of a bridge hit by Israeli war planes just the day before. Villagers tell us 12 people were killed and 10 wounded, all civilians.
LIFE OVER DEBT & POVERTY IN AFRICA: THE REAL STORY (tags)
Leaders address the most pressing and widespread challenges facing the African continent
Haiti: AFL-CIO and the Batay Ouvriye (tags)
For many activists, academics, and labor historians in the 1980’s the AFL-CIO became referred to as the AFL-CIA. Founded in 1961 the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) was the AFL-CIO’s foreign organizing wing for Latin America and the Caribbean. Along with its counterparts in Africa, Asia, and Europe, AIFLD was used to undermine leftist trade movements, support dictators such as the Duvalier’s and back military coups in Chile and Brazil.
Help Protect Your Journalists at an Hour of Moral Crisis (tags)
"This is an hour of moral crisis from Bolivia to the Border. Our journalists – your journalists – at Narco News are in the line of fire. Yet they are there, at the front, with smiles on their faces and a passion for reporting the truth in their hearts. I know you agree, as we do, with the philosopher Dante Alighieri when he wrote: “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.” Today I plead with you to not be neutral at this hour when authentic democracy and Authentic Journalism in Latin America are flexing their muscles at the very moment when the powers long accustomed to imposing their will on our América are losing their grip: No one is more dangerous than a tyrant when he realizes that the jig is up. And that makes this very hopeful moment also a precarious one."
Congress to Hear Blackout-Bomb Threatens Existence of Civil Society (tags)
On July 22, the Graham Commission, or EMP Commission, gives its long-awaited report to the House Armed Services Committee, and an advance briefing shows that it says the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bomb, or E-bomb, can threaten the continued existence of civil society in the United States.
Demonstration in Sao Paulo against the FTAA and the WTO (tags)
Yesterday, on Sao Paulo, where the 11th UNCTAD it’s having place , was made a demonstration protesting against the World Trade Organization, the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the war strategy of United States.
Elections or Resistance: Bolivar y Resistencia (tags)
US has military programs, bases or spies in every country in Latin America Only Cuba and Venezuela restrict US official activities. We want this entire military-espionage regime out! We won’t pay you anymore debt peonage and we take back all of our resources, our industries and our power
URGENT ACTION: NARCO NEWS NEEDS OUR SUPPORT! (tags)
I really don't know what has happened, quite possibly harrassment or threats from you know who, there has even been a journalist from Narco News murdered. Whatever is going on, Narco News needs our support and help! Support real journalism! Support Narco News Bulletin! Please distribute and get active!
U.S. is 3rd on World's "Economic Freedom" Index (tags)
Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States rank first, second and third, respectively, in the latest edition of the 'Economic Freedom of the World' annual report by the Cato Institute and more than 50 other libertarian think tanks around the world.
A Personal Chronicle of a Season of ‘Better to Laugh than Cry” Antiwar Activism. (tags)
Here is one NY-RTS' memories of the recent past- a memory of the particular groups anti-war activism.-- To be published on-line in the Journal of Aesthetics and protest. (print issue #2 to be released in late June, early July)
War isn't stopping the IMF/World Bank from plunder and destruction (tags)
It's the height of irony that the IMF/World Bank force poor countries to cut social services to their citizens in order to get out of deficit spending while the current US administration has taken our country from surplus to unprecedented mega-deficits in just a few short months.
The social construction of consciousness (tags)
This paper gives a theoretical discussion of the source and methodology of the social construction of consciousness. The first section introduces the piece. The second establishes the relationship between "interests" and "consciousness." The third describes growing inequality in the US. The fourth develops the structural source of consciousness. The fifth details the interlocking nature of politics and economy in the US. The sixth section discusses how our consciousness can be constructed. The final section offers some solutions.
A message for those who protest to prevent war against Saddam (tags)
A message for those who protest to prevent war against Saddam
Join The Localization Lobby (tags)
Localization as the only means to take back our economy and our democracy.
BREAKING NEWS: Venezuelan People Surround TV Stations (tags)
December 10, 2002, 2 a.m. ET Please Distribute Widely BREAKING NEWS Dear Colleagues, Alex Main reports from Caracas that masses of Venezuelans have peacefully surrounded all the commercial TV stations in the country to protest the dishonest simulating efforts by these media giants to provoke a coup d'etat:
Help Ireland Throw a Spanner in the works of the GATS Machine. (tags)
Help Ireland Throw a Spanner in the works of the GATS (http://www.gatswatch.org/index.html) Machine. A call to action Ireland (http://www.indymedia.ie/article133/) to anti-GATS campaigners worldwide.
Open Letter To Committee to Protect Journalists (tags)
I write to inform you of specific acts and immediate threats against journalists in Venezuela, and to ask you 12 questions, as a journalist, about your organization's previous statements regarding press freedom issues in that country. I hope that your organization will take immediate action to defend these journalists at risk, and that you will offer full and honest answers to the 12 questions.
World Social Forum Agenda (tags)
The list below, from the World Social Forum Website is a break-down of the four topics of conversation to be addressed at the WSF
Bombing Afghanistan: Alternative Viewpoints From IPA (tags)
Alternative views from John Quigley, Rahul Mahajan, Lamis Andoni, Anita Weiss, As'ad Abukhalil, Rania Masri, Kevin Danaher, Beau Grosscup.
"Civil Society sounds kind of like a tea party..." (tags)
Come check out the the Civicus youth media team's thoughts on civil society.
FTAA Investment Chapter Confirms Worst Fears of Civil Society (tags)
Leaked Quebec text sparks civil society outrage