Wal-Mart workers across the country are planning to stage unprecedented walkouts and protests on Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. Wal-Mart has sought to counter the effort by filing an unfair labor practice charge against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, and, according to critics, threatening workers with retaliation. We're joined by William Fletcher, a Wal-Mart worker and member of the employee advocacy group OUR Walmart; and Josh Eidelson, a contributing writer for The Nation.
Tampilkan postingan dengan label protest. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label protest. Tampilkan semua postingan
Rabu, 21 November 2012
Wal-Mart Accused of Threatening Workers With Retaliation Ahead of Black Friday Protests
Wal-Mart workers across the country are planning to stage unprecedented walkouts and protests on Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. Wal-Mart has sought to counter the effort by filing an unfair labor practice charge against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, and, according to critics, threatening workers with retaliation. We're joined by William Fletcher, a Wal-Mart worker and member of the employee advocacy group OUR Walmart; and Josh Eidelson, a contributing writer for The Nation.
Selasa, 31 Juli 2012
Kamis, 12 Juli 2012
Woody Guthrie Centennial: Celebrating Life, Politics and Music of the "Dust Bowl Troubadour"
Today a Democracy Now! special on the life, politics and music of Woody Guthrie, the "Dust Bowl Troubadour." Born a hundred years ago on July 14, 1912, in Oklahoma, Guthrie wrote hundreds of folk songs and became a major influence on countless musicians, including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs. While Guthrie is best remembered as a musician, he also had a deeply political side, speaking out for labor and civil rights at the height of McCarthyism.
Amidst commemorations across the country marking Woody Guthrie's centennial, we're joined by Guthrie's daughter, Nora Guthrie, author of the book "My Name is New York: Ramblin' Around Woody Guthrie's Town"; his granddaughter Anna Canoni; and musician Steve Earle. We hear stories from Woody Guthrie's family life and his time in New York City, where he lived from 1940 until his death in 1967 after a long battle with Huntington's Disease. Guthrie's wife, Marjorie, later dedicated her life to finding a cure for the disease, inspiring young doctors to pursue genetic research and founding what became the Huntington's Disease Society of America. Earle, a three-time Grammy winner, performs two of Guthrie's songs and discusses how the singer inspired him as a musician and activist. "I never separated music and politics, which [I] kept bringing back to Woody over and over again," Earle says. "I still don't consider myself to be a political artist. I'm just an artist that -- I think like Woody was -- lives in really politically charged times."
"A lot of people don't think of him as a New Yorker, but that was really his home town, for most of his life actually," says Nora Guthrie, president of both the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, and Woody Guthrie Publications. Her new book, "My Name is New York: Ramblin' Around Woody Guthrie's Town," documents many of the places Woody lived and wrote his most popular songs, including "This Land Is Your Land." "It's really a New York song, its about the result, the culmination of that journey," she says. "I'm constantly learning about Woody, I feel like he's constantly evolving because we're still learning more and more about him," says Canoni. "He had something to say that was very important."
See the first installment of the Woody Guthrie special in the Democracy Now! archive, http://www.democracynow.org/2012/7/4/woody_guthrie_at_100_pete_seeger
Amidst commemorations across the country marking Woody Guthrie's centennial, we're joined by Guthrie's daughter, Nora Guthrie, author of the book "My Name is New York: Ramblin' Around Woody Guthrie's Town"; his granddaughter Anna Canoni; and musician Steve Earle. We hear stories from Woody Guthrie's family life and his time in New York City, where he lived from 1940 until his death in 1967 after a long battle with Huntington's Disease. Guthrie's wife, Marjorie, later dedicated her life to finding a cure for the disease, inspiring young doctors to pursue genetic research and founding what became the Huntington's Disease Society of America. Earle, a three-time Grammy winner, performs two of Guthrie's songs and discusses how the singer inspired him as a musician and activist. "I never separated music and politics, which [I] kept bringing back to Woody over and over again," Earle says. "I still don't consider myself to be a political artist. I'm just an artist that -- I think like Woody was -- lives in really politically charged times."
"A lot of people don't think of him as a New Yorker, but that was really his home town, for most of his life actually," says Nora Guthrie, president of both the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, and Woody Guthrie Publications. Her new book, "My Name is New York: Ramblin' Around Woody Guthrie's Town," documents many of the places Woody lived and wrote his most popular songs, including "This Land Is Your Land." "It's really a New York song, its about the result, the culmination of that journey," she says. "I'm constantly learning about Woody, I feel like he's constantly evolving because we're still learning more and more about him," says Canoni. "He had something to say that was very important."
See the first installment of the Woody Guthrie special in the Democracy Now! archive, http://www.democracynow.org/2012/7/4/woody_guthrie_at_100_pete_seeger
Rabu, 02 Mei 2012
Immortal Technique Discusses 'May Day' Protests
As the May Day protests continue, New York city is playing host to a wide array of community leaders, activists and artists who will be speaking out and performing for thousands of demonstrators gathering in lower Manhattan. RT's Marina Portnaya spoke with music artist and activist Immortal Technique.
Selasa, 24 April 2012
#Occupy Movement Targets Wells Fargo Meeting in San Francisco
Occupy movement targets Wells Fargo meeting in San Francisco
by Kari Huus | msnbc.com
Several hundred protesters marched to the Wells Fargo Bank headquarters Tuesday in San Francisco and about 30 managed to gain access to the company's annual shareholder meeting and disrupt proceedings, San Francisco Gate reported. About a dozen were escorted out of the 15th floor meeting by police.
Police in riot gear arrested six people involved in the protest, which focused anger on foreclosures, high executive compensation and low corporate taxes, Reuters reported.
Demonstrators carried a huge inflated rat with dollar bills coming from side pockets, and held signs that read: "99 percent take over, topple the 1 percent" — referring to the majority of the U.S. population and the 1 percent who make up the wealthiest Americans.
Senin, 16 April 2012
America's Youth Is Uprising: 5 Signs From Our Nation's Public Schools
America's Youth Is Uprising:
5 Signs From Our Nation's Public Schools
by Christopher Emdin | Huffington Post
Last year, the whole world came to a standstill as people from across the globe connected via social media, voiced their collective frustrations with their oppressive everyday experiences, confronted old regimes and sprung into action to topple powerful and seemingly indestructible age-old political structures.
In Egypt, millions of protesters from a variety of backgrounds successfully overthrew the repressive Mubarak regime in public protest that despite peaceful intent, often spilled into violence. In Syria, public demonstrations against the Bashar al-Assad government, the rampant police brutality and the imprisonment of those who speak out against the government evolved from small protests to a national uprising. In Chile, a number of student protestors from across the country grew frustrated with the large societal inequities, increased privatization and high prices of education. In response, they organized and started one of the most visible and passionate protests the nation had ever seen, which resulted in constant clashes with police. Global protests also appeared in Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, Greece, Italy, Spain, the United States and more.
The powerful messages and meteoric growth of both the global protests and the Occupy movement here in the United States, has inspired an underground uprising from high schools all across the country. Younger Americans, not quite college-age, who have had their concerns dismissed by the educational and political powers that be, are simmering with emotion due to the mistreatment they receive in both schools and in society.
Over the last few months, I have visited and worked in public schools in both New York and Detroit. I have sat with students from both cities, listened to their collective frustrations and watched how their schools have transformed from beacons of hope to places of limitation. I have seen how the students' desire to create a future for themselves that is brighter and more accepting than those of the generations before has been squashed by a test-driven school system that devalues voice and squashes free thinking. I have seen the few schools that students see as a home, and that have the potential to harness the energy of the youth and translate it into academic success, close without warning. I have witnessed poor learning conditions in other schools, heard stories of unwarranted detentions and arrests based on race, sexual orientation, and gender. I've heard complaints about the disconnection between what is happening in school and what is happening in the world, and I've felt the energy of a movement in motion.
Student protests in Detroit, New York, Colorado, Chicago, and across the nation are indicators of the rising youth discontent within American public schools and they demand our attention. We as parents, teachers, and community members should support students in their need for more civic engagement in public education standards.
Less than 3 weeks ago, a group of African American male students walked out of their high school classes in protest of a number of issues including inadequate school resources and poor teaching. These students, who represent a demographic that is usually presented to the public as disinterested in education, were protesting to demand a quality education in a school district that seems to have been forgotten by the world at large. These young people, who were suspended for their protest, were silenced for seeking a voice and advocating for themselves. The question we must ask is, what happens to the energy and fervor that drove these young men to protest. Will it die with their suspensions? Will it simmer until it finds connections with others who share the same frustrations?
Over the last year, there has been an overwhelming response from a variety of groups and community organizations to the New York City Department of Education's decision to close public schools that were classified as underperforming. However, in the last few months, the voices of community groups and parents have been replaced with the voice of students who are advocating for their schools to remain open. After school hours, these students went to the site of the decision to close the schools, protested loudly, held up signs, and were confronted with the police instead of with answers. They returned home simmering, waiting for opportunities to connect to others who share the same frustrations.
Less than a month ago, high school students in Colorado began a protest after a few of them, who were working on the school yearbook, were forced to exclude a lesbian couple from their yearbook's pages. The students were threatened to either remove the picture or have the page they created completely removed. Their faculty advisor had the page replaced. These youth, despite their protest, were left frustrated and simmering, waiting for opportunities to connect with others who share the same experience.
Earlier this month, students in Chicago protested the layoffs of non-tenured teachers. For these students, their frustration lay in the fact that some of these teachers were "good teachers" who were described as making students love certain subjects while helping them get into college. Students couldn't understand the bureaucracy that forced good teachers out. They began an online petition using social media to garner support for their cause. In response, the local school board agreed to review their initial decisions. As these students wait for a final decision, their frustration simmers.
5) Florida Trayvon Martin protest
A few weeks ago, students from a number of high schools in South Florida engaged in a massive protest that included walkouts of their classes, and gatherings at a local mall in response to the Trayvon Martin shooting and the slow response of the Sanford police department to arrest George Zimmerman. As this group of students waits patiently for justice, they simmer in hopes to connect with others who share their same frustrations.
A few weeks ago, students from a number of high schools in South Florida engaged in a massive protest that included walkouts of their classes, and gatherings at a local mall in response to the Trayvon Martin shooting and the slow response of the Sanford police department to arrest George Zimmerman. As this group of students waits patiently for justice, they simmer in hopes to connect with others who share their same frustrations.
My intention in this piece is not to incite alarm or fear. It is to make clear that it is important for us all to work with youth to work through their frustrations, and express them in a constructive fashion. The current approach to dealing with youth frustrations, which is to ignore that these issues do exist, are somehow connected, and can simmer into something larger can no longer work.
***
Urban Education Expert, Dr. Christopher Emdin, is a Professor at Columbia University Teachers College and is the Director of Secondary School Initiatives at the Urban Science Education Center in New York. He holds a Ph.D. in Urban Education. Dr. Emdin has taught middle school science and mathematics, high school physics and chemistry, and was the chair of science departments in New York City public schools. Emdin is the author of Urban Science Education for the Hip-hop Generation.
Minggu, 08 April 2012
Rabu, 12 Oktober 2011
#Occupy Your City [video]
People young and old are taking the streets to let our government and corporations know that we are a democracy that's not for sale. Take action:http://bravenewfoundation.org/occupy
Selasa, 11 Oktober 2011
#OccupyWallStreet Hip-Hop Anthem
The Grounded TV Network teamed up with Hon. George Martinez of Ground Zero and The Global Block Collective to produce this music video. Please share and help this go viral!
http://www.globalblock.org/
http://www.globalblock.org/
The Global Block harnesses the spirit of innovation, creativity and activism at the core of the Hip-Hop movement to empower youth and transform communities across the globe. Through its leadership, expertise and financial support it aims to inspire individuals to become agents of change in their communities.
Developmental Action Areas:
Developmental Action Areas:
- Cultural Diplomacy
- Social Enterprise/ Economic Development
- Youth Development
Sustainable Community Building:
We believe that building sustainable communities is possible through holistic, creative and non-paternalistic approaches that incorporate Green Technologies, Social Programming, Accountability, and Research and Development.
Jumat, 23 September 2011
A Generation Renewed?
Howard Students Protest Troy Davis Execution
by Jeremy Borden and Clarence Williams | The Washington Post
A total of 13 people from Howard University — one a professor and the rest, students — were arrested outside the White House Wednesday while protesting the pending execution of Georgia inmate Troy Davis.
Soon after protesters arrived, police cordoned off the sidewalk area in front of the White House and moved them into Lafayette Square, students and witnesses said. More than a dozen students, along with a Howard English professor, sat along the fence and refused to move, said Marcus Ware, a third-year law student and one of the protest’s organizers.
The protesters felt strongly about their right to position themselves against the White House fence, other witnesses said.
Police gave the students and the professor three warnings to move, before arresting them, Ware said.
Twelve people were arrested for failure to obey a lawful police order, and the professor was arrested for crossing a police line, said Sgt. David Schlosser, a U.S. Park Police spokesman.
Protesters were later allowed back in front of the White House.
Several Howard student groups had organized protests over the pending execution of Davis, convicted of killing an off-duty police officer. Davis is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m., and many around the country and world are weighing in, including religious leaders.
“We weren’t being aggressive,” Ware said.
Some students and other activists are hoping the White House will intervene. “We fundamentally believe the death penalty is wrong,” he said.
Jumat, 28 Januari 2011
Wither Twitter in Tunisia?
from Al Jazeera English
One of the questions many are now asking is what role social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter played in helping Tunisian activists during the uprising in that country. Activists have said that while the fuel for the revolution came from popular sentiment, new technologies made it easier to organise and to create a sense of solidarity. Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri reports from the Tunisian capital, Tunis.
Senin, 04 Oktober 2010
Does Conscious Music Still Matter? John Legend and the Roots
Has Conscious Black music gotten more of a voice in the Obama era?
'How We Got Over?': John Legend and The Roots Look Back
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21
As the myth goes, Clara Ward, one of the most influential Gospel singers of the 20th Century, wrote the song “How I Got Over” after a racist incident in the deep South. The Clara Ward singers were driving down South when their Cadillac was surrounded by a group of White men, upset that a group of Black women were driving in such a fine car. Supposedly Ward feigned being possessed by the devil and the men ran off. The subsequent song “How I Got Over,” which was later popularized by Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin, and recently invoked by The Roots, is not only a testament to “God’s deliverance,” but also a tribute to African-American ingenuity in the face of danger and trauma.
Ward knew, as well as anyone, that the song’s title tapped into the spirit of improvisation that manifested itself in the everyday survival skills of African-Americans, and it was the music that animated both that creative spirit and the will for freedom that marked earlier generations of Black culture. Conventional wisdom suggest that the irrepressible spirit that help Blacks transcend From Slavery to Freedom, to invoke the late great historian John Hope Franklin, is not present among this generation of artists and creative intellectuals. Wake Up! by John Legend & the Roots, suggest the error of conventional wisdom.
The thing that is perhaps most striking about Wake Up! is that it was even made; prior to Barack Obama election it’s easy to imagine record labels frowning on such project, particularly for artists who already presented a mainstream marketing challenge because of their “conscious” personas. It’s a different story in 2010 and what the Obama era has meant for many recording artists, is the total collapse of the music industry’s most recent business model. While the industry tries to chart an exit strategy (perhaps mirroring the Obama administration), some artists are suddenly finding the freedom to just simply get back to the music. Longtime Public Enemy front-man Chuck D, for example, recently suggested that conditions for recording artists are the best they have been in more than a generation.
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21
As the myth goes, Clara Ward, one of the most influential Gospel singers of the 20th Century, wrote the song “How I Got Over” after a racist incident in the deep South. The Clara Ward singers were driving down South when their Cadillac was surrounded by a group of White men, upset that a group of Black women were driving in such a fine car. Supposedly Ward feigned being possessed by the devil and the men ran off. The subsequent song “How I Got Over,” which was later popularized by Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin, and recently invoked by The Roots, is not only a testament to “God’s deliverance,” but also a tribute to African-American ingenuity in the face of danger and trauma.
Ward knew, as well as anyone, that the song’s title tapped into the spirit of improvisation that manifested itself in the everyday survival skills of African-Americans, and it was the music that animated both that creative spirit and the will for freedom that marked earlier generations of Black culture. Conventional wisdom suggest that the irrepressible spirit that help Blacks transcend From Slavery to Freedom, to invoke the late great historian John Hope Franklin, is not present among this generation of artists and creative intellectuals. Wake Up! by John Legend & the Roots, suggest the error of conventional wisdom.
The thing that is perhaps most striking about Wake Up! is that it was even made; prior to Barack Obama election it’s easy to imagine record labels frowning on such project, particularly for artists who already presented a mainstream marketing challenge because of their “conscious” personas. It’s a different story in 2010 and what the Obama era has meant for many recording artists, is the total collapse of the music industry’s most recent business model. While the industry tries to chart an exit strategy (perhaps mirroring the Obama administration), some artists are suddenly finding the freedom to just simply get back to the music. Longtime Public Enemy front-man Chuck D, for example, recently suggested that conditions for recording artists are the best they have been in more than a generation.
Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21
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