An Ongoing Struggle

"Well, it might come as a surprise to many, including younger generations of women in the global north, many of whom perceive feminism to be an outdated ideology, that it was only in the early 1990s that the United Nations finally recognised that women and girls also have human rights. If you consider this a bit late in history, you might be even more surprised to learn that the UN did so rather unwillingly, and only under the immense pressure of thousands of women and women's groups both from the south and the north, initiated by a global women's network coordinated by the Center for Women's Global Leadership."-Pinar Ilkkaracan-

Ilkkaracan is a psychotherapist and researcher and the founder and coordinator of Women for Women's Human Rights as well as the author of "Human Rights and Legal Literacy Training Manual," used across Turkey to increase knowledge and understanding of women's sexual and reproductive rights. In "Do Women and Girls have Human Rights?" she explores the work of the international women's movement as well as continuing and future struggles the movement faces. She has said: "My sister and I developed a clear sense of the injustices women and girls face, but it was only when I joined the feminist movement and consciousness-raising groups that I realized we were not alone, that women all around the world experience violence just because they are women. This had an incredible impact on me. To this day I believe that the consciousness-raising group is the best tool the women's movement ever created."

Where is the next Norma Rae?

"On a human level, Norma Rae is the story of one woman, played by Sally Field, who finds redemption risking her life for economic justice, and of factory workers demanding to be treated as more than slaves. In the realm of the political, it is virtually the only American movie of the modern era to deal substantially with any of these subjects. Even today it remains iconic--a major studio movie about the lives of working people with a profound and, for its time, disturbing political message: The little guy may have a prayer of getting social justice, but he'll have to fight desperately to get it. Try to think of a contemporary American film with a similar message or a political statement anywhere near that blunt. The closest thing to a message in this year's crop of Oscar nominees for Best Picture can be found in Babel, which poses the rather mild question, Why can't we all just get along?"
-Robert Nathan and Jo-Ann Mort-

Nathan and Mort pose the question: if the Academy Awards handed out an award to the best progressive film of the year, who would it go to? In reviewing the seemingly progressive films of the recent past, they remember the classic "Norma Rae" and question whether today's cinema captures (or fails to capture) the modern progressive spirit and challenge the status quo. Read the article here.

How The Other Half Still Lives

"The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's 'haves' and 'have-nots' continues to widen." -Tony Pugh-

Read Pugh's article about how things are getting not better, but worse, for America's poor.

Media Cheerleaders

"I believe in my bones that few priorities our country confronts have such long-term effect on our democracy as how America communicates and converses with itself and how this process has deteriorated."
-FCC Commissioner Michael Copps -

"Over the years, basically all of the responsibilities that were asked of media owners have been diminished. There's virtually nothing left. And now, their only job is to make as much money as possible in any way they can."
-Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)-

My mother and I both graduated college with degrees in political science. This past weekend, we talked about the thesis she wrote back in 1974. It focused on media consolidation and ownership, and suggested the use of media outlets by large congolmerates to control how information was dispersed (and what information was dispersed). In effect, the media became cheerleader to the group by whom it was financed. "Today, with the Internet and citizen journalism it doesn't seem like it would be as large an issue," she said.

But it still is. Consider that one-third of America's independently owned television stations have disappeared since 1975. Today, five corporations own all the broadcast networks; 90 percent of the top-50 cable TV networks now produce three-quarters of all prime-time programming. That's what FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, a leading advocate for the reform of U.S. media ownership laws wants Americans to know. Adelstein is visiting Vermont this week, at the invitation of Senator Bernie Sanders, to hear what Vermonters have to say about the effects of media consolidation on their communities and on the democratic process.

You can read more about Adelstein in the Seven Days article. You can also check out Michael Shudson's (CJR) review of "Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America's Media" by Eric Klinenberg , a book that examines media concentration.

"Do We Have Black Leaders?"

That's what Dr. Julia Hare, a founder of The Black Think Tank, asked at the State of the Black Union. She furthered her inquiry by asking, "or do we have those who are leading blacks?" L. Douglas Wilder, former governor of Virginia asked: "Does it mean anything that we have more African Americans holding elected offices? Does it mean anything to most of us? Yea, sometimes nay." These were only some of the questions voiced at the annual event (held since 1998). Read more in "Revisiting the Dream" by Leutisha Stills.

Pushing the Green Envelope

"Anderson's internationally acclaimed Salt Lake City Green program has slashed the city government's greenhouse-gas emissions, built popular support for public transit, enticed private businesses to go greener, and made Salt Lake more friendly for walkers and cyclists. Over a long conversation, I asked him how he's pulled it all off, and why, after seven successful years, he's planning to quit government."
-David Roberts-

Roberts, of Grist Environmental News and Commentary, interviews Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, who, locked in the middle of one of the reddest states, has proved himself to be a green innovator and successful actor in that city's green movement. Read the interview here.

"Damn fools, wake up and think"

Fierce, witty and acutely analytical journalist Molly Ivins died yesterday (she had battled cancer). In addition to her work as a columnist, Ivins co-authored the best-sellers Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush and BUSHWHACKED: Life in George W. Bush's America. David Rubien of Salon said of Ivins "[She] is a political columnist, but somehow that term doesn't do her justice. We've come to associate political columnists (or commentators) with the self-important talking heads who clutter the airwaves and the predictable bores who take up space on the Op-Ed pages. What she has in mind is more ambitious than that. Basically, she's a storyteller who uses satire to drive home her points, and thus is in the rarefied line of such legendary observers as Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Will Rogers, H.L. Mencken and Red Smith, all of whom considered pomp deflation and conventional-wisdom dispersal among their primary missions."

Here are some inspirational words culled from her journalistic oeuvre:

"There are two kinds of humor, [the kind] that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule. That's what I do."

"The trouble with blaming powerless people is that although it's not nearly as scary as blaming the powerful, it does miss the point...Poor people do not shut down factories...Poor people didn't decide to use 'contract employees' because they cost less and don't get any benefits."

"We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on Jan. 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it, now!'" (from her last article, "Stand Up Against the Surge").

You can read more at Salon, Editor & Publisher (with whom she did her final interview), and, of course, The New York Times.