Politics

Geert Wilders Prevented from Spreading Anti-Islamic Hate

Written by Stephen Piggott

When I sat down to read the news yesterday the first story that caught my attention was the subject of my first ever blog post on this site, Geert Wilders. Today Wilders is in the news because he was refused entry into the United Kingdom. Wilders was due to come to London to view a screening of his anti-Islamic film Fitna at the House of Lords. The Home Office Secretary, Jacqui Smith, decided to ban Wilders from the country. He is already facing trial in Holland for inciting hate.

The screening of Wilder’s film was organized by the anti-EU conservative Independence Party. The Independence Party continued with the screening despite Wilders… Read more

Politics

On Lincoln and the Enduring Struggle for Racial Justice

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

By the time Abraham Lincoln arrived in my home town of Alton, Illinois to wrap up the grueling 1858 Senate debates with Stephen Douglas his position on slavery had become clearer. Alton was a town in the middle of the north-south divide and the slavery debate. Elijah P. Lovejoy, the outspoken abolitionist newspaperman, had been murdered there in 1837 by a racist mob. Like much of Illinois the city harbored outspoken proponents on both sides of the growing conflict.

Fittingly, the last Lincoln-Douglas debate revealed Lincoln’s own middle position: slaves were indeed fully human and thereby had natural rights to so live; slaves were not, however, to be accorded civil rights that would permit them… Read more

Immigration

Audio: Stop Arpaio, Stop the Circus!

Written by Noah Chandler

This week I’ve been in the area of Phoenix, Arizona documenting the organizing efforts of the young people here as they take a stand against the recent human rights abuses committed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. With the assistance of the Center for New Community’s Campaign for a United America Hip-Hop Project, a concert featuring local and national hip-hop talent was successfully pulled together within days of Sheriff Arpaio’s offenses. This was no small feat. In witnessing and working with the people who made this happen brought a new level of hope for me and in an area where I didn’t expect any. In between… Read more

Culture

Khmer Rouge War Criminals Brought to Trial 30 Years Later

Written by Jill Garvey

As we battle our domestic demons in Arizona this week, another battle is finally coming to a close halfway around the world. Five members of the Khmer Rouge, the political party that caused an estimated 1.7 million deaths in the late 1970s, will be brought to trial. In the 30 years since the party was overthrown, no leader of the Khmer Rouge has ever faced justice.

Immigration

What Peanuts Say About America

Written by Jill Garvey

The story of the salmonella-tainted peanuts just got a little grosser and a whole lot more absurd. The FDA accused Peanut Corporation of America (the company behind the recall) of selling peanut products they knew were tainted to the federal government’s free lunch program. That means salmonella-laced peanut butter was being sold to the very agency responsible for inspecting the peanut plant. And then that agency gave it to the poorest kids in the nation. Ironic? Try outrageous.

The recall has now touched on every dysfunctional part of our society, education, economy, health and immigration, and is a clear demonstration of why we need to desperately reform our political economy.

Immigration

EU Struggling to Preserve Human Rights

Written by Ana Turck

The European Union is facing a challenge regarding the preservation of human rights as the economic downturn creates fertile ground for governmental terrorism against socially marginalized people. Recession and job losses, rising crime and homelessness are all helping to refuel racism in public and private discourse, creating an environment ripe for hate crimes and policies that threaten to annihilate specific groups of people.

NYU Gives Up Banning Coca-Cola

Written by Katie Bezrouch

New York University threw in the towel on Wednesday. They’ve had a five year wrestling match with the Coca-Cola Company over human rights issues, and now NYU has decided to lift the three year ban that prohibited the sale of Coke products on campus grounds.

The ban was a response to an international demand for Coca-Cola Company to stop exploiting and abusing its workers. Between 1989 and 2002, eight union organizers from Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia were murdered after protesting the company’s labor standards. Isidro Segundo Gil was one of them. He was killed at a bottling plant in Columbia, where paramilitaries fired ten shots at him according to eye witness accounts.… Read more

Politics

Republicans Don’t Want You to Know: Immigration Sharply Declines

Written by Stephen Piggott

Unlike most media outlets, the Financial Times published an article this week describing the sharp decline in the number of immigrants entering the US over the past few years. In an article that would make LouDobbs cringe, FT reporter Edward Luce describes how 2 years after being the “biggest lightening rod” in US politics, some Republicans are bringing the issue to the national stage once more.

Republicans such as Iowa senator ChuckGrassley have written to Microsoft urging them to terminate foreign workers on H1B visas. Grassley believes it is the duty of American companies to put the American workers first during the crisis even though all of the Microsoft workers on… Read more

Politics

Napolitano, Arizona’s Sheriff Arpaio is your Problem

Written by Jessica Acee

It’s been 48 hours since over 200 undocumented immigrants were handcuffed, marched through Phoenix streets and abandoned in a tent city surrounded by an electric fence in the middle of the desert. This latest publicity stunt by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a clear violation of human rights law. Based on a recent report showing that ICE has been lying, and purposely targeting immigrants with no documented criminal activity, it’s very likely that some of these people have not committed crimes.

Meanwhile, sitting comfortably in DC, newly minted Secretary of Homeland Secretary (and former AZ governor) Janet Napolitano is being called “the best advocate for sense… Read more