Food Justice

Cross-post: Are you a farmer at heart?

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Tom Philpott of Grist talks about a surge of young farmers ready to tackle organic farming and the huge challenges they will need help surmounting.

A growing number of young people are finishing college and resisting the pressure to plunk down in a cube behind a computer. Others skip college altogether—given the spiraling costs involved, it’s hard to blame them—and yearn for meaningful, hands-on work.

Community-scale organic farming has emerged as an attractive profession for such talented, energetic youth. But there are problems with this choice. Hours are long, the pay too often stinks, and land prices remain crushingly high. To top it off, our nation lacks universal health coverage.

Politics

Thousands Die in the Desert as a Result of U.S. Border Policy

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Stephen Lemmons chronicles the activists who are fighting back in this Phoenix New Times feature article.

Gene Lefebvre remembers the day in late August 2008 when 20 to 25 Border Patrol agents, half of them on horseback, raided the Arivaca, Arizona campsite of No More Deaths, a group dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance to migrants in the desert.

“They said they had tracked 10 migrants into our camp,” says Lefebvre, a retired Presbyterian minister who helped co-found the organization in 2004. “There weren’t 10 migrants, and there weren’t the tracks.”

No More Deaths did have a couple of migrants in the camp’s medical tent, but there was nothing unusual about

… Read more

Tanton Memo of the Month – U.S., Inc.

Written by Sarah Viets

This February’s Tanton Memo of the Month* details a list of nearly 30 organizations founded by U.S., Inc., John Tanton’s financial “umbrella” organization. The other day I found this document in our archives. As I plied through a variety of anti-immigrant documents, I stumbled across John Tanton’s description of his “umbrella”, U.S., Inc. For those unfamiliar with John Tanton, he’s the founder of a variety of anti-immigrant organizations, including Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), NumbersUSA, Pro-English, U.S. English, the white nationalist publication The Social Contract, and a variety of environmental and anti-immigrant projects.

Tanton has also financially supported… Read more

Immigration

Divided Workers Can Come Together

Written by Carlos Rich

When I entered the workforce as a young adult, I had to learn to navigate professional relationships and sometimes conflicts. I have been fortunate enough to be upfront with my differences or conflicts, even with people in more powerful positions than me. Unfortunately, in places such as meatpacking plants or other factories where there are immigrants, refugees and other workers of color who are earning low wages and little to no other fringe benefits, this is not possible.

I would like to tell you a story of two unlikely friends, in an unlikely place, who found themselves in the same situation. These two fellows were not free to express opinions or disagreements in their… Read more

Politics

The John Tanton Network Brings Hate to African American Community in Maryland

Written by Stephen Piggott

Tonight in Glenarden, Maryland, a townhall meeting is taking place entitled, “Understanding the Impact of Illegal Immigration on the Citizens of Prince George’s County and the State of Maryland.” The event features three groups connected to the John Tanton Network: Help Save Maryland, a group that is listed as a state contact on FAIR’s website; NumbersUSA, a project of the John Tanton Network; and Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), another project of the Tanton Network. The discussion’s moderator is Sandy Pruitt of People for Change. Leo Alexander, a candidate for mayor of Washington DC and Paulette Faulkner, a former State of Maryland… Read more

White Supremacist Group Advertises on Conservative Websites

Written by Chris Bober

Last Thursday we reported that the white supremacist hate group Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) has been actively involved in recruiting new members at tea party rallies. The most recent rally attended by the group was this past Saturday in Crystal River, Florida – an event hosted by the Citrus County Tea Party. As shocking as this was, there have been recent developments regarding CofCC’s efforts to grow its organization and spread its racist message to a larger pool of conservatives – mainly through online advertisements.

In a recent issue of The Citizen’s Informer, CofCC’s boasts that its “national website is stronger than ever, with daily traffic getting higher all the time.” It… Read more

Politics

Great White Hopes: Race and the Right

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

One of the high privileges of being white in America is to be able to speak of race in coded terms and language—or by allusion to “broader” political issues, critiques, and concerns—and then profess innocence (“plausible deniability”) when called out for one’s racism.

Recent gatherings of the Tea Party and the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) provide a case in point, as do almost daily sound bites from so-called Congressional leaders determined to prevent the Obama Administration from moving forward on any agenda. Tea partier and former Congressman Tom Tancredo called for a return to Jim Crow-era voter literacy tests, declaring the President was elected by “people who could not even spell the word… Read more

Immigration

Anti-immigrant Leader Admits Using Climate Change for Political Gain

Written by Guest Blogger

by Rebecca Poswolsky and Dave M.

The anti-immigrant movement has long capitalized on environmental concerns to attack America’s immigrant communities. This tactic was on full display at the Conservative Political Action Conference this past weekend in Washington D.C.

While most people were listening to Newt Gingrich speak on Saturday, about 75 people assembled in one of the smaller rooms to hear a discussion entitled “Immigration: The Defining Issue for the Republican Party,” sponsored by American Council for Immigration Reform. The panel’s four speakers included: Robert E. Rector, Senior Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation; Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies (CIS); James G. Gimpel, Professor of Government, University of Maryland; and Read more

Politics

Anti-immigrant Network Uses Faith to Mask Hateful Agenda

Written by Jill Garvey

The John Tanton Network has debuted its newest spin-off group. This time, instead of targeting environmentalists or progressives, they are trying to win over faithful Americans to their anti-immigrant agenda.

The group is called Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy (CMIP). The public face of the organization includes a priest who, keeping with the Tanton Network’s history, has ties to controversial organizations like American Free Press – founded by notorious holocaust denier Willis Carto, and the white nationalist journal, The Social Contract, founded by John Tanton.

In fact, Social Contract’s bigot-in-chief, Wayne Lutton, personally helped Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy (CMIP) get started at the Conservative Political… Read more

Sports

Possible NFL Player Lockout Damages Worker Rights

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

‘When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.’
-Ancient African proverb

The land knew peace for nearly three decades. The kings in their rented castles sent their warriors out to challenge each other once a week for 16 weeks. The warriors gave the people of the land great contests and the people were pleased. Yes, there was peace in the land and all were happy, until the kings decided not to extend their contract with the warriors.

The last labor dispute that the NFL experienced was the strike of 1987. Prior to 1987 NFL owners did not just own their franchises, in reality they owned the players also, as the players were… Read more