What We Protest For: A Soldier Returns Home Video Source: PoliticsTV.com
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Al Gore on our "Planetary Emergency"
Al Gore Speaks to Congress on the "planetary emergency" of global warming, March 21, 2007.
Monday, February 5, 2007
A Call for Cease-Fire in Iraq
Today's Baltimore Sun has a well-developed op-ed by David Cortright and Robert G. Gard, Jr., calling for a cease-fired in Iraq. This idea, posed here earlier, is so reasonable that it is incomprehensible why it hasn't been aired more fully (or at all) as Congressional hearings explore alternative approaches to current U.S. policy in Iraq.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Thousands March Against the War in Iraq...
...or was it "tens of thousands," or "hundreds of thousands?" The mass media report--you decide.
Washington, D.C. Anti-War March, January 27, 2007
Photo Source: Washington Post Sunday, January 21, 2007
World Social Forum Opens in Nairobi, Kenya
More than 80,000 people from around the world have gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, from January 20 to 25, 2007, for the the 2007 World Social Forum.
The Forum brings peace, justice and democracy activists, social movements, networks, and coalitions from around the world together for panels, workshops, symposia, processions, film nights, and "five days of cultural resistance and celebration." Stories about the Forum may not be prominent on CNN, Fox, or MSNBC, etc., but can be found in abundance when you do a search for it on Google news.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Impeach, Nancy, Impeach!
With the ascent of the Democrats to power in the Capitol and Nancy Pelosi newly elected as the Speaker of the House, it's time to for Congress to address the overwhelming pattern of deeply disturbing abuses of fundamental constitutional and human rights by the Bush Administration. If illegal spying on citizens' emails, government-sanctioned torture, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and CIA renditions and secret prisons, weren't enough reason to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney, now there is news that Mr. Bush has attached a "statement" to recently passed postal legislation allowing the government to open citizens' mail without a warrant when it deems it necessary "for foreign intelligence collection."
It's incomprehensible that this latest news hasn't been reported and protested as the huge scandal that it is. Isn't the premise that the government is not able to open our mail supposed to be one of those basic elements that allow us to say that we live in a free country and a democracy? How many basic freedoms have to be eroded before there is a consistent protest movement on this issue? As columnist Molly Ivins has put it, "this administration has done away with rights first enshrined in the Magna Carta nearly 800 years ago, and we’ve let them do it."
We've tried exporting democracy, maybe we should try importing it. We can start by impeaching the President and restoring the constitutional and human rights principles of the United States. Impeachment needs to be put back "on the table."
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
American Democracy Reaffirmed
Beyond being pleased with the Democratic turn in yesterday and today's election results, I know a lot of people, including me, are just plain relieved with proof that American democracy still works, though it remains flawed in so many ways. With the combination of the 2000 Supreme Court Presidential no-recount decision, alleged voter fraud in Ohio in 2004, widespread evidence of ongoing Democratic voter disenfranchisement, concern over the legitimacy of electronic voting machines, and gerrymandered congressional districts, it was reasonable to wonder whether we had a functioning democracy. The biggest news of the 2006 election is that the people are still a check against the government in power.
Now, we can ask the next question: when an overwhelming majority of the people in a democractic country so clearly rebuke a war conducted by its government, how can that war continue?
Footnote: It's not being covered anywhere in the mainstream national or international media, but in House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi's home district in San Francisco, there was a ballot measure yesterday, asking "Shall it be City policy to call for impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney?" The measure passed by a 59.4 to 40.6 margin. San Francisco values at work.\
Archives of
Another World is Being Born
by Joel Federman
February 23, 2005 - September 21, 2005
Ways to Help After Hurricane Katrina
Direct Reports from Camp Casey on the Road
Letters from Fort Lewis by Kevin Benderman
Kevin Benderman: The "Real Deal"
Pro-Soldier, Anti-War
Joel Federman Joel Federman Joel Federman Joel Federman January 28, 2005-February 7, 2005
Media Coverage of
Davos vs. Porto Alegre Shows Elitist Bias
More News from the World Social Forum
100,000 Activists Gather to Build Another World:
fjfjfMajor Media Ignore Story
Links to Another World:
Voices You May Not Have Heard
Share The World's Resources
Share The World's Resources (STWR) is an nongovernmental organization (NGO) campaigning for global economic and social justice. STWR Global Focus presents information about why the world economy needs reforming and how a system based on the principle of sharing can prevent 50,000 people dying from poverty every day. The latest news, analysis and videos on these issues can be found on the organization's website.
The Sustainable Living Roadshow
Begun in Spring 2007, the Sustainable Living Roadshow (SLR) is comprised of experienced educators, activists and entertainers who tour university campuses and community events throughout the United States and internationally in a fleet of non-petroleum based renewable fuel vehicles. Theys set up off-the-grid, zero-waste experiential learning villages, featuring workshops, speakers, sustainability exhibits and entertainment which demonstrate practical solutions to social and environmental issues created by our modern industrial society.
Video Source: Sustainable Living Roadshow
Kiva: Loans That Change Lives
As profiled recently in the New York TimesandPBS's Frontline World, Kiva is an organization that lets you connect with, and loan money to, unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence.
Billion Tree Campaign Launched for 2007 The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is launching a major worldwide tree planting campaign for 2007. Under the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, people, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments will be encouraged to enter tree planting pledges on their website with the objective of planting at least one billion trees worldwide during 2007.
Global Disarmament banner in Switzerland protest, date unknown
Source: Club Chaos website
Nonviolent Regime Change Computer Game
A Force More Powerful is a computer game that teaches activists and leaders of nonviolent resistance and opposition movements how to fight real-world adversaries—dictators, military occupiers and corrupt rulers, using methods that have succeeded in actual conflicts—not with laser rays or AK47s, but with non-military strategies and nonviolent weapons.
Katrina Information Networkand Rebuild Green The Katrina Information Network and Rebuild Green provide social justice and environmental perspectives on the Katrina relief effort.
DarfurGenocide.org This
site's sole purpose is to try to save lives by helping
stop the genocide in Darfur. It empowers you to take smart,
strategic actions to compel those in power to act through
international petitions or local events. It provides access
to the best, most relevant and most up-to-date information
available. www.savedarfur.org is a similar website.
Peaceful Societies
Peaceful societies are contemporary groups of people who
effectively foster interpersonal harmony and who rarely
permit violence or warfare to interfere with their lives.
The Peaceful Societies website serves to introduce these
societies to students, peace activists, scholars and citizens
who are interested in the conditions that promote peacefulness.
It includes information on the beliefs of these peoples,
the ways they maintain their nonviolence, and the factors
that challenge their lifestyles.
An
Appeal to Global Conscience Signed
by leaders of the American peace movement, this appeal,
posted on Alternet, speaks for 40 million Americans
who say the United States should immediately withdraw
from the war in Iraq.
(Didn't
Know I Was) UnAmerican This is a powerful song
and video by musician Ian Rhett, expressing pretty much
everything that topia.net is all about. A cross between
John Lennon's "Imagine" and one of Bob Dylan's
early protest songs.
Jesus
vs. Bush in 2008: What the Campaign Would Look Like Many
liberal and progressive politicians are now considering
running away from their core values in the face of a skewed
interpretation of the 2004 election result. The alternative
would be to stand
up for those values and advocte them vigorously--though,
as this mock ad shows, even Jesus, the first liberal,
would have hard time running against George Bush in 2008. (Be sure to turn your computer sound on for the voiceover.)
Your
Global Rich List Position
This website provides a calculator that allows you to
determine your annual income relative to the rest of the
world. By entering your annual income, and clicking on
the calculator, it gives you the following read-out, with
specific dollar figures where the xxx's are: "You
are in the top xx% richest people in the world. There
are x,xxx,xxx,xxx people poorer than you. How do you feel
about that? A bit richer we hope. Please consider donating
just a small amount to help some of the poorest people
in the world."
Parliament
of the World's Religions
Authoritarian religion may be on the rise politically around
the world, but so is a more inclusive vision. In July 2004,
more than 8,000 religious leaders and lay people from around
the world gathered in Barcelona, Spain, to explore a common
spiritual vision of universal compassion, justice and nonviolent
social change. Click above for a link to the Parliament
of the World's Religions, and click
here for links to other ongoing efforts of this kind.
Idealist.org and Opportunitynocs.org
Want to make a career of changing the world? Idealist.org
and Opportunitynocs.org provide thousands of prosocial job
listings, mostly in nonprofit organizations, according to
city/state/country and job type.
No
Sweat Store
All products offered at No Sweat Store are made by non-sweatshop
manufacturers. Some are union plants, others are not, but
none allow what has become the typical apparel manufacturing
pattern of Mexican maquilladoras or the sweatshops of Asia.
(Full and proud disclosure: No Sweat Store is operated by
Alan Federman, brother of Topia.net editor Joel Federman.)
Better
World Handbook
The Better World Handbook is a guide for the average person
wanting to make a positive difference in the world. The
book provides hundreds of examples of practical, effective
actions you can take to make a positive difference in the
world. These actions are aimed at realizing the following
values: Economic Fairness; Comprehensive Peace; Ecological
Sustainability; Deep Democracy; Social Justice; Culture
of Simplicity; and Revitalized Community.
