It was and remains a great inspiration to have participated in yesterday’s Labor Day rally in Manila. Along with the electrifying militancy of a large number of leftist organizations including unions, political parties, campus activists, national activists, women’s advocacy groups … Continue reading “Labor Day Manifestation sa Maynila”
Re-posted from Occupy 2012. Why do we strike on May Day? What is that strike? We strike in solidarity with global labor, our own histories and with each other. The action of striking is not just a withdrawal of labor but … Continue reading “Striking New Relationships”
Italy was really great, but it’s so good to be back in NYC! Today I walked through Union Square, which is filled with tables distributing information for Occupy May Day. There’s a very exciting series of events planned, as well … Continue reading “Back to the Big Apple”
Why do we strike on May Day? What is that strike? We strike in solidarity with global labor, our own histories and with each other. The action of striking is not just a withdrawal of labor but what Marina Sitrin calls “striking new relationships.” The actions of refusal to play the part expected of us, in whatever way we can, and imagining other ways of relating to each other are what will constitute a day of generally striking, a striking day.
Jacqueline Aquino Siapno (Joy) is originally from Dagupan City, Pangasinan, Philippines and is married to Fernando `Lasama’ de Araujo, Presidential Candidate in Timor Leste (East Timor) and current President of Parliament. Joy Siapno is the author of Gender, Islam, Nationalism … Continue reading “Siding with the dispossessed: Interview with Jacqueline Aquino Siapno”
Jacqueline Aquino Siapno (Joy) is originally from Dagupan City, Pangasinan, Philippines and is married to Fernando `Lasama’ de Araujo, Presidential Candidate in Timor Leste (East Timor) and current President of Parliament. Joy Siapno is the author of Gender, Islam, Nationalism and … Continue reading “Siding with the dispossessed: Interview with Jacqueline Aquino Siapno”
Can the subaltern speak? No, but she can certainly sob, with tears of raking loss and, a few rapid film cuts later, tears of heartwarming gratitude. I learned that much watching Kony 2012 this morning, even if, like most people from the … Continue reading “Kony 2012: Inaudible Children”
I was recently part of a fact-finding delegation to Palestine organized by the US Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. The delegation was composed of concerned academics and scholars based in the U.S., including myself. During our weeklong investigative trip, we were witness to multiple and varied testimonies to and clear evidence of the daily acts of violence, harassment and humiliation that Palestinians are subjected to, both massive and intimate. Individuals from several families living in Eastern Jerusalem told us their personal stories of being physically thrown out of their homes in the middle of the night, their houses pillaged and taken over by settlers (many of whom were only recently residents of the U.S.), their belongings strewn onto the streets only to be looted by morning, their children targeted to bear recurring nightmares of the punishing character of their eviction (being made to see, for example, the displayed burning of their dolls alongside that of their beds).
In this interview, Christian Parenti and Mike Menser discuss issues raised by Parenti’s recently published book Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. The Geography of Catastrophic Convergence MM: Kenya, Uganda and East Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, … Continue reading “Tropic of Chaos: Christian Parenti Interviewed”
Technically, I never worked on Wall Street. But, for a difficult year in my early twenties, I did don a suit at the crack of dawn and schlep down to one bank or another in the financial district or, occasionally, to one of its outposts in Long Island City, Queens, or Stamford, CT. Citibank, Chase Manhattan, American Express, Swiss Bank. I was a perma-temp in a series of glorified secretarial pools, the highest paid work my liberal arts degree could secure me, even in the middle of the Nineties dot com boom.
To note that a camera is a weapon is nothing new. Susan Sontag articulated the relationship between the camera and the semiotic violence that “turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed.” For Sontag the violence was symbolic, as … Continue reading “Cameras are Weapons for #OccupyWallStreet”
For many, the political movement known as Anonymous conjures one thing and one thing alone: anarchy. I have now seen this association made so many times, I thought it might be a good idea to lay out in some detail … Continue reading “Is Anonymous Anarchy?”
Standard and Poor downgrades US debt, stock markets gyrate around the world, Sarkozy and Merkel do yet another pointless summit, the Chinese and Japanese economies look worrisome. Serious commentators worry about global recession, Eurozone dissolution, and austerity programs that only … Continue reading “Deficits, Debts, and Deepening Crisis”
It’s difficult to know how to begin to write about the last few days here in the UK. The disturbances — shall we call them ‘riots’, ‘protests’, ‘unrest’, ‘civil disobedience’, ‘mob violence’? — that started last Saturday in Tottenham, just … Continue reading “London Calling…”
On Sunday June 26, 2011, my wife and I, along with our daughter and son-in-law, were on the M15 bus traveling downtown to Chinatown for dinner. We had just left the celebration of a lifetime at the annual LGBT Pride … Continue reading “The Trouble with Tiaras: Facing Marriage Equality Head-on”
