African Americans and #Occupy: a convergence of interests
By Malik Miah, San Francisco
December 7, 2011 -- Green Left Weekly/Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- What strikes you about the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement and its popular slogan “We are the 99%” is how much the central demand of the movement resonates with the Black community. African Americans, with few exceptions, are in the bottom 20% of income and wealth. Double digit unemployment is the norm in “good” economic times. Yet the social composition of most OWS occupations (some 10,000 including college campuses) has had few Black faces including in urban areas with large Black populations.
The reality of high unemployment, few job opportunities, poverty and inadequate health care has most poor people trying to survive. It is why African Americans are not visible in large numbers.
In many cases, however, African Americans are taking to the streets. They are using civil action to protest police brutality and the shutdown of community schools, hospitals and obvious acts of discrimination.
These protests, while widely known in the Black community and Black-oriented media, rarely get prominence in the mainstream newspapers and networks.
Barry Sheppard: What Occupy Wall Street reveals
Occupy has led to an outburst of creativity ...One example is the many photos circulated on the internet showing the cop who pepper sprayed non-violent students at a California campus super-imposed on works of art and other pictures, pepper spraying the people picnicking in a Surrat painting, pepper spraying the members of the Constitutional Convention and so forth.
For more on the #Occupy movement, click here.
By Barry Sheppard, San Francisco
December 7, 2011 – Submitted to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal by the author. It first appeared in Direct Action -- No one predicted the phenomenon that has become known as Occupy Wall Street (OWS), nor could it have been predicted.
Climate talks: A dirty deal coming down in Durban
Photo: Orin Langelle/GJEP.
Capitalism, not consumers, is the big green problem
By Simon Butler
December 3, 2011 – OneWorldTV – Pablo Solon, former Bolivian ambassador to th
South Africa: ANC hirelings attempt to hijack march, attack left
Durban climate talks: ‘Forests are not for carbon stocks’ -- climate justice activists condemn REDD
Photo: Anne Petermann/GJEP-GFC.
Boris Kagarlitsky: Reflections on the Arab revolutions
By Boris Kagarlitsky, translated from Russian by Renfrey Clarke
Egypt: Profile of the Revolution Continues Alliance
The following profile of the left-wing Revolution Continues electoral alliance was published in the Egyptian weekly newspaper Ahram Online and
Spanish election: Right wins, but will face bolder resistance
The 1.68 million-strong vote for United Left was not just the result of the general disaffection with the major parties, but also of a decision to connect its campaign with the prot
South Africa: Rural women demand action on climate change
[For more on the COP17 Durban climate talks, click HERE.]
Memorandum from the Rural Women's Assembly to the UNFCCC, the government of the Republic of South Africa and the governments of Africa
December 4, 2011 -- We the Rural Women's Assembly of Southern Africa, meeting in Durban on the event of the 17th Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC in Durban [COP17] from November 30 to December 5, 2011, demand that governments take the following immediate steps to address the clear and present danger posed to rural communities by the climate crisis.
1. A climate deal that will take meaningful steps to halt the climate crisis by cutting carbon emissions. Historical emitters who are responsible for 75% of greenhouse gases (GHGs) must face trade and investment sanctions if they refuse to cut emissions, particularly from African governments, as Africa has contributed least to climate change, but is the worst affected.