Social Justice Blog

"When I heard, from behind, the orders to renew the march, up in the sky a star, surely fed up by its subjugation to the black roof, managed to break away and, by falling, to leave a brief and fugitive trace on the nocturnal blackboard.

'That's what we are,' I said to myself, 'fallen stars that barely scratch the sky of history with a scrawl.' As far as I knew, I had only thought this, but apparently I had thought it aloud, because the companero asked, 'What did he say?'"

Perhaps it's because we're nearing the end of the year, and a new year traditionally beckons forth with the renewed promise of change, that I feel particularly hopeful revitalizing efforts can be made to effect positive change on the global stage. At such times, I often revisit the writings of political leaders living on the edge of society. One such leader is Subcomandante Marcos, leader of the Zapatista Movement in Mexico. His collected writings comprise the book "Our Word is Our Weapon." The above excerpt relays his first feelings toward revolutionary action. I've always found this excerpt particularly moving and, in this case fitting, as we usher in a new year.

You can read the full excerpt here.
posted by Alexandra at 12/28/2006 04:35:00 PM

"...we must resist the trend toward the over-simplification of these great problems. We need to ensure that new generations of young people who are enlightened on the issues also understand the tremendous complexity of these challenges. They must not be led to believe that activism ends at the cash register or remote control. Watching a Jay-Z interview on Nightline is a start, but little more than that. Gatorade has educated consumers to believe that you can be athletic by drinking a sports beverage, even if from a sedentary position on your couch. Our generation cannot afford this myth to be perpetuated in the context of the important global issues that lie ahead."
- Jonathan Greenblatt, Worldchanging.com -

Read the article here.
posted by Alexandra at 12/26/2006 10:13:00 AM

As it is the holiday season, I thought I would spotlight some excellent organizations that go above and beyond the spirit of giving. Consider supporting these organizations...

Practical Action uses the "small is beautiful" philosophy to aid developing communities in Latin America, East Africa, Southern Africa and South Asia by incorporating new technologies, creating jobs and improving health and livelihoods. In these countries, Practical Action works with poor communities to develop appropriate technologies in food production, agroprocessing, energy, transport, small enterprise development, shelter and disaster mitigation.

StyleWillSaveUs is an independent digital magazine that promotes "all things super-stylish, organic, eco-friendly, vintage, recycled and sustainable" such as beauty, fashion and gourmet items that are fairtrade or made from organic and sustainable materials. Also advertised are homes and lifestyle features that enable reduced energy consumption, nnd/or are made from sustainable, organic, biodegradable, recycled or recyclable materials.

One Planet Living partners with relevant local or regional government authority, local community representatives, developers, architects, engineers, financiers, and providers of key infrastructure and services related to transport, energy, waste and food to create, develop and build sustainable communities. Building upon learnings from their award-winning BedZED urban eco-neighbourhood in London, UK, OPL's next-generation design process integrates sustainable lifestyles, green building standards, bioregionalism, and eco-footprint analysis.

The World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank, goes beyond research to create practical solutions to both protect the Earth and improve people's lives, building bridges between ideas and actions, "meshing the insights of scientific research, economic and institutional analyses, and practical experience with the need for open and participatory decision-making."
posted by Alexandra at 12/22/2006 10:12:00 AM

As the year comes to a close, corporate America is about the wrap up its fourth year of successive growth. Consider that total earnings of the blue-chip Standard & Poor's 500 companies have risen at double-digit percentage rates for the past eighteen consecutive quarters - to many financial analysts, an unprecedented streak. U.S. corporate profits have increased 21.3% in the past year and now account for the largest share of national income in 40 years, the Commerce Department reported last Thursday (Marketwatch).

But who has really benefited from these much lauded financial gains? Have the bulls running on Wall Street made their way to all streets?

No, "many companies' tight controls over spending...have helped earnings to balloon. And because labor is the largest expense for business overall, the damping of growth in wages and benefits has been a key contributor to corporate America's profit success in this decade" (The Seattle Times).

Corporate earnings generated in the United States totaled $1.42 trillion at an annualized rate in the third quarter, or 10.7 percent of the economy's gross domestic income, government data show. That was the highest share of income that companies claimed since the 1960s and was up from 6.2 percent at the end of 2000.

By contrast, total labor compensation accounted for 56.4 percent of gross domestic income in the period. That percentage has fallen from 58.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2000 and has been in general decline since the early 1980s. (The Seattle Times)

To many rank-and-file workers, the booming bottom line serves solely as a reminder of what's absent from their own paychecks. John Sweeny, President of the AFL-CIO, certainly expressed as much in his editorial of December 12 asking for a renewed look at global labor standards: "Linking core international workers' rights to market access does three important things: It empowers workers and gives them a fighting chance to bargain for their fair share of the wealth they create; helps to build a middle class, so that workers can buy more of the goods they produce..."
posted by Alexandra at 12/20/2006 09:40:00 AM

Senator Patrick Leahy will restore constitutional values, civil liberties and renew accountability in Washington. In a speech given at Georgetown University on December 13, 2006, Leahy, the newly appointed Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, laid out plans for his tenure in broad brushstrokes. In particular, he promised a restorative agenda comprised of the "repair and renewal" of constitutional values. He said:

"In my 32 years...in the Senate, I have never seen a Congress so willfully derelict in its duties as during this Administration. This has been an unfortunate chapter in Congress's history, a time when our Constitution was under assault, when our legal and human rights were weakened, when our privacy and other freedoms were eroded. This election was an intervention. The American people rose up to take away Congress's rubber stamp, and to demand a new direction with more accountability."

Leahy also pointed out that he would rectify a government that has "systematically eroded Americans' privacy rights," deriding this administration's dereliction of lawful authority through wiretapping without warrants and creating databanks and dossiers on law-abiding citizens without legal authorization. As he said: "This White House has behaved as if the Constitution begins with Article II, and they have taken their extreme ideology of a 'unitary executive' to strip both Congress and our independent federal judiciary of their rightful roles."

Leahy ended his speech with the proposal for a new subcommittee, a Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee, to be chaired by Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill) to "help us better fulfill our role in a challenging global environment. Over the years we have enacted laws against torture, human trafficking and war crimes, for example." I don't think I'm alone in saying I certainly look forward to Leahy's leadership.
posted by Alexandra at 12/13/2006 05:50:00 PM

"Global Voices is...a network of bloggers, activists, and citizen media people from around the globe who are not only working on those media issues but are also working on free speech issues and outreach issues and trying to get more people involved with citizen media. " -Ethan Zuckerman, Co-Founder, Global Voices-

"Global Voices is a daring innovator," says PEJ (Project for Excellence in Journalism), an international network of bloggers based around the world offering visitors a variety of political and social commentary from parts of the world that don't always receive mainstream media coverage. Co-founder Ethan Zuckerman spoke with PEJ about the web site's history, editorial structure and role in contemporary journalism.
posted by Alexandra at 12/13/2006 02:30:00 PM

"Although increasingly interdependent, our world continues to be divided - not only by economic differences, but also by religion and culture. That is not in itself a problem. Throughout history human life has been enriched by diversity, and different communities have learnt from each other. But if our different communities are to live together in peace we must stress also what unites us: our common humanity, and our shared belief that human dignity and rights should be protected by law." -Kofi Annan-

On Monday, outgoing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan implored the United States to refrain from abandoning "its own ideals and objectives" in the war against terrorism, emphasizing that "human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity." In his final speech in the position, Annan also pressed for UN Security Council reform, expressing that the body's membership "reflects the reality of 1945, not of today's world."
posted by Alexandra at 12/12/2006 03:47:00 PM

With the public debut of the report from the Iraq Study Group and the ushering in of James Baker, more questions than answers are fomenting in the continuing public debate over the best way to alleviate the tragedy in Iraq. Here are a few of those perspectives:

"No way out of the tragedy is feasible without looking at the occupation itself and identifying it for what it is: the source of and magnet for most of the violence and antagonistic divisions. Moreover, if the US-led occupation forces are not fully and swiftly withdrawn from Iraq, then the US 'exit strategy' will mushroom into new, devastating wars against Lebanon, Syria and Iran."
Read more from Sami Ramadani at opendemocracy.net

"It's hard to imagine a more sweeping rebuke to the president's disastrously misguided Middle East policy. The report breathes not one word about 'victory' in Iraq. Ever the master of understatement, Baker said that the idea of staying the course in Iraq 'is no longer viable.'"
Read more from Robert Drefuss at TomPaine.com

"The report calls for the United States to assist in privatizing Iraq's national oil industry, opening Iraq to private foreign oil and energy companies, providing direct technical assistance for the 'drafting' of a new national oil law for Iraq, and assuring that all of Iraq's oil revenues accrue to the central government."
Read more from Antonia Juhasz at AlterNet

"All of this should ensure that, well into 2008, at least 70,000 American military personnel will still be in Iraq, after which, in the midst of a presidential election season, will actual withdrawal finally appear on some horizon? In other words, the Baker Commission plan guarantees us at least another 3-5 years in Iraq."
Read more from Tom Engelhardt at Tomdispatch.com
posted by Alexandra at 12/08/2006 11:01:00 AM

"The system of transferring prisoners seized in the "war on terror" between secret locations around the world involves a new form of transnational injustice. Civil society must catch up."
-Aziz Huq-
Director of the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. He is author of Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror (New Press, March 2007), and a 2006 Carnegie Scholars Fellow.

Read Rendition and democracy: civil society's role here
posted by Alexandra at 12/07/2006 12:27:00 PM

The latest updates on the legal front...

"House Rejects Fetal Pain Bill"
"FBI Director Is Mum on Domestic Spying"
"FEMA Appeals Court Order"
"Habeas Corpus Rights for Military Detainees"
posted by Alexandra at 12/07/2006 11:30:00 AM

Bad public relations can kill public image much faster than any lawsuit. So that's probably why the government and corporate entities have gone the route of staging savvy, well-produced public relations spots for themselves. Or so the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reports. In an investigation of Video News Releases (affectionately called VNRs), CMD found that from April 2006 through October 2006, 46 local stations across the country aired 33 different VNRs a total of 54 times; 90% of the stories aired offered no disclosure. "The total number of VNRs tracked for this study, 109, represents just 2% of the estimated 5,000 VNRs offered to U.S. television newsrooms over a six-month period"(CMD Summary). By FCC mandate (April 2005 Public Notice), VNRs "must clearly disclose to members of their audiences the nature, source and sponsorship of the material." Prompted by CMD's report, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched its own investigation. Consider that WTOK-11 in Meridian, MS, aired without disclosure a VNR titled, "Global Warming: Hot Air?," a segment ridiculing claims that increased hurricane activity is related to global warming. It was funded by TCS Daily and published by DCI Group, a PR and lobbying firm which counts ExxonMobil among its clients. "No wonder the public is having a hard time distinguishing between news and propaganda," said FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein in a statement. "Americans have a legal right to know that what appear to be independent news reports are actually bought and paid for by a private corporation."
posted by Alexandra at 12/06/2006 01:36:00 PM

So Wal-Mart is attempting to reinvent its public image in the wake of public demonstrations by workers and lagging economic performance. How? Through the creation of employee outreach programs, described in company documents as a way for Wal-Mart to show workers "that we do appreciate you and that we have an ongoing commitment to listening to and addressing your concerns." But is it enough, is it sincere? "When you look at the list of best employers," said Richard W. Hurd, Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, "you will find programs that look something like this," but, he continued, the question "is how sincere the effort is and how much change you see in workers' lives." Perks like a ten percent holiday discount and a shirt for long-time workers, are "a very token, modest form of appreciation. It is not sufficient"(NYTimes). You can read more about the "Wake Up Wal-Mart" campaign, a group funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, here and more about Wal-Mart and unionization (in the wake of the new Democratic Congress) here.
posted by Alexandra at 12/05/2006 12:00:00 PM

President Bush has chosen the wrong man for the job. Again. This past week, Dr. Eric Keroack, an anti-choice and abstinence-only advocate, was appointed as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs. In this post, Keroack would have authority over Title X funding, funding that is supposed to go toward comprehensive family planning services, contraception and STI testing and treatment. As explained by the Feminist Majority and the National Organization for Women, Keroack's record shows that he will work not for, but against healthy reproductive choices for women. You can read more about Keroack and why he is an egregious choice for this position here in an article by Roberta Riley.
posted by Alexandra at 12/04/2006 01:54:00 PM

The political pundits and spin doctors told us that, this election season, Democrats used a double-pronged strategy: align all Republicans with the failures of the current administration, offering a Democratic vision as the viable alternative, while recruiting Democratic candidates with a slight socially conservative bent to appeal to a broader spectrum of voters. The focus was on the seeming "centering" of Democratic candidates (a far cry from Dean's strategy in 2004). Lost in these analyses are the ideals of economic populism that the new class of Democrats brings with it to Congress, the tenets of which many argue they will have to enact to redefine themselves. This was nicely illuminated in a piece in The New York Times and by others over at Working Life. Read more about Economic Populism versus Rubinomics here.
posted by Alexandra at 12/01/2006 02:43:00 PM