Solidarity

The Persisting U.S.-Pakistan Alliance: Dysfunction and Co-Dependency

By Adaner Usmani — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:20:11 +0000

AS 2011 CLOSED, the mainstream press was awash with ominous, dark assessments of the state of the relationship between the United States and Pakistan. After a cross-border NATO air strike in November resulted in the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers, Pakistan responded forcefully, closing the Af-Pak border to NATO traffic, expelling the U.S. military from an air base inside Pakistan,(1) and boycotting the International Conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, which had been tasked with outlining the...

From "Occupy" to ...

The ATC Editors — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:49:40 +0000

THE QUESTION ISN’T whether the magnificent “Occupy” movement will continue after police action and the onset of winter have largely emptied the encampments. The righteous rage that made the movement possible, and the enormous social and economic crisis that made it necessary, are not going away anytime soon. Quite the contrary — capitalism’s inherent contradictions, made worse by economic policies in Europe and the United States that seem calculated to maximize the...

Iraq 2003-2011: The Losers

By David Finkel — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:52:37 +0000

IT TOOK ABOUT twenty minutes after the last official U.S. combat troops crossed the border from Iraq into Kuwait for the Potemkin village of “Iraqi stability and democracy” carefully constructed by the American occupation to fall apart. The regime of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has brought a terrorism indictment against the vice-president Tariq al-Hashimi, who promptly headed north to autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan where the central government’s hand doesn’t reach. Purges of university...

Fighting Back: Sotheby's and OWS

an interview with David Martinez — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:56:12 +0000

FORTY-TWO TEAMSTER art-handlers at Sotheby’s auction house in New York City have been locked-out of their jobs for more than four months. Against the Current interviewed Sotheby’s shop steward David Martinez about what’s at stake, and how they’ve built links with the Occupy movement to fight back.
Against the Current: You’ve been locked-out for four months now? How did we get here?
David Martinez: Sotheby’s chose this fight. Their arrogance was on display from...

Detroit's Crisis -- Coming to You?

David Finkel — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:02:10 +0000

THERE ARE TWO realities to grasp about the current plight of Detroit.
Reality one: Detroit is caught in a set of interlocking crises, from the level of the world economy and national political gridlock down to the viciously reactionary Michigan state government and the yawning divide between the city and suburban Detroit, that would severely challenge the most competent, the most visionary, the most energetic and most progressive city leadership.
Reality two: That’s not the leadership...

Why I Stand with Occupy

Elizabeth Roland — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:11:29 +0000

SOME OF YOU might know me; I’m Elizabeth Roland and a senior at Saint Mary’s. I am a women’s studies major and history minor and have worked damn hard to keep a 3.808 GPA. I am super active and social on campus, the only thing is…. I am not on campus this semester.
Instead, I work in a factory, 45 hours a week making aerospace printers for minimum wage. I am sure that sentence was hard to comprehend but, yes there is such a thing as aerospace printers, and yes I work in...

Audre Lorde: A black, lesbian, mother, socialist, warrior, poet

by Tessa R. Echeverria — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:04:52 +0000

“Your Silence Will Not Protect You..."
"...within the war we are all waging with the forces of death, subtle and otherwise, conscious or not - I am not only a casualty, I am also a warrior."
Audre Lorde
Born in New York City, February 18th, 1934, Audrey Geraldine Lorde decided when she was very young to drop the “y” from her name, saying that she like the artistic symmetry of the ‘e’ ending. Audre explains this decision in ‘Zami: a New Spelling of My Name” published in 1982. In...

The Movement for Justice and Equality in Mauritania

By Dan La Botz — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:07:29 +0000

Saidou Wane, who immigrated to the United States 15 years ago, resides in Cincinnati, Ohio where he is active in the Movement for Justice and Equality in Mauritania (MJEM, the French name of the Mauritanian parent organization is Touche pas à ma nationalité). MJEM exists to resist the Mauritanian government’s policy of discrimination against the country’s black Africans. Mauritania is located in northwest Africa, in the Maghreb and West Africa; much of the country is part of the Sahara...

Occupy: "The biggest social movement in forty years"

by Dan La Botz — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:07:37 +0000

Dan La Botz speaking about what the Occupy movement has accomplished, the Democrats and the role of the left at the Open University of the Left on January 28, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois.

The Party of Our Discontent? Interview with Green Party candidate Jill Stein

by Steve Horn — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:31:33 +0000

Discontent with the political system as a whole is rising, as seen clearly through the lens of struggles around the world and right here at home, via the ongoing Occupy movement. Numerous figures have speculated and are continuing to speculate as to what the electoral strategy, if any, will be for the Occupy movement, come the 2012 election cycle.

Dispatch from Indianapolis: Occupy the Superbowl

by Brooke Beloso — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:02:46 +0000

This is a short dispatch from Occupy the Superbowl this weekend in Indianapolis.
Spirits were high at the Super Bowl Hyatt
picket line yesterday, where over 400 of us from Indianapolis,
Detroit, and Chicago rallied with UNITE-HERE in solidarity with Hyatt workers. Workers have been fighting for collective bargaining rights, OSHA compliance, and a living wage with benefits. The $1,000/night room rate for Super Bowl weekend makes blatant the hypocrisy of the Hyatt's refusal to treat workers...

China: Top Down Reforms Cannot Solve the Social Crisis

by Zhang Kai — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:28:39 +0000

The Aggravating Crisis Cannot be Solved
Even with Wen Jiabao's Push for Political Reform