Daily Archives: January 3, 2021

2021-01-03: News Headlines

Peoples Dispatch (2021-01-03). Italian organizations condemn imprisonment of No TAV activist Fabiola De Costanzo. peoplesdispatch.org On December 30, an Italian court convicted three No TAV activists, including Fabiola De Costanzo, for their role in an agitation in 2012. The No TAV movement is opposed to the construction of the Turin-Lyon high speed Railway project…

The Grayzone (2021-01-02). Top 12 The Grayzone stories of 2020: From Julian Assange persecution to Bolivia coup defeat, corporate war on free speech to OPCW cover-up. thegrayzone.com 2020 was a chaotic year for the planet. While the Covid-19 pandemic dominated global politics, The Grayzone continued shining a light on the machinations of empire, from the persecution of imprisoned journalist Julian Assange to the defeat of a US-backed coup regime in Bolivia, from the growing corporate war on free speech to the OPCW's scandalous Syria cover-up. Throughout the year, The Grayzone's website had more than 5.24 million views and 2.48 million unique visitors. Our small, independently funded team …

Cancel the Rents Boston (2021-01-02). Cancel the Rents builds people power to stop evictions in Boston. zcomm.org The following is a guest statement by Cancel the Rents Boston, a collective of activists and residents organizing to fight against housing displacement exacerbated by COVID-19, anchored in the heart of Roxbury…

Staff (2021-01-02). Activists Say Wealthy Universities' Property Tax Exemptions Hurt Public Schools. truthout.org When the University of Pennsylvania said it would pay $10 million a year for 10 years to address environmental hazards in Philadelphia's public schools, Gerald Campano's reaction was complicated. | "Of course it's important that Penn at least recognizes the profound challenges that the School District of Philadelphia faces with things like lead poisoning and asbestos," Campano, a professor at Penn's Graduate School of Education, said. "But charity is not the same as social and racial justic…

Andrea Germanos, staff writer (2021-01-01). Youth Activists Ring In 2021 With Renewed Demand That World 'Wake Up to the Climate Crisis'. commondreams.org "It must be the year we take real action instead of continuing to repeat meaningless words and empty promises." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Alicia Jrapko and Bill Hackwell (2021-01-01). In the Fabric of the Cuban Revolution. dissidentvoice.org Image from the Plaza of the Revolution by Bill Hackwell Time is starting to distance itself from that dramatic moment, 6 years ago today, when the final 3 members of the Cuban Five were freed from the prisons of the Empire after 16 years. Never the less, because of a healthy distrust of the US …

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (2021-01-01). Best of CounterSpin 2020. fair.org (photo: Daniel Arauz/Wikimedia) | As we start a new year, longtime CounterSpin listeners will know, we revisit a few of our weekly looks behind the headlines. We call it "the best of," but it's just a reflection of the sorts of conversations we hope have offered some voice or context or information that you might not have heard elsewhere, or that might help you assess the news you are hearing. We're thankful to all of the activists, researchers, reporters and advocates who appear on the show to help us understand the world and how we can change it.

John Malkin (2021-01-01). Stop The Sweeps in Santa Cruz: Activists Resist Closing San Lorenzo Park. indybay.org Interviews with human rights activist Abbi Samuels and unhoused activist Hannah, who lives in a homeless encampment in San Lorenzo Park in downtown Santa Cruz.

_____ (2020-12-31). Victories For Palestine Continued On US Campuses In 2020. popularresistance.org Despite the challenges of online/remote learning, campus activism has not stopped over the past year. National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is currently planning their 2021 conference, celebrating 10 years of this annual reunion of SJP chapters from around the nation. And many student chapters have passed significant resolutions around some major issues, from censorship, to the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, to divestment and, most recently, the training of campus police by the Israeli military. As we wrap up 2020, here is a representative sample of…

Cancel the Rents Boston (2020-12-30). Cancel the Rents builds people power to stop evictions in Boston. liberationnews.org The following is a guest statement by Cancel the Rents Boston, a collective of activists and residents organizing to fight against housing displacement exacerbated by COVID-19, anchored in the heart of Roxbury. An estimated 337,900 jobs have been lost in Massachusetts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The city of Boston has 38,872 confirmed COVID cases …

_____ (2020-12-30). Climate Activists Mount Utility Strike. popularresistance.org Santa is not the only one giving out coal this year. Climate activists like Johnny Sanchez and Sonja Birthisel in Portland, Maine, recently sent their utility company an envelope of coal instead of payment towards their electric bill. This symbolic act of defiance, organized by the No Coal No Gas coalition, is part of a broad New England consumer strike against utility payments to protest the continued burning of coal. | The Strike Down Coal campaign launched on Sept. 1 and aims to continue until ISO New England — the system operator responsible for running New England's energy grid and power system —…

_____ (2020-12-30). The Activist Roots Of Black Feminist Theory. popularresistance.org The idea that race, class and gender are interrelated dynamics of power and oppression has gained sufficient currency in the academic world to go by the shorthand "intersectionality," or "intersection theory." But the origins of contemporary Black feminist theory are not sufficiently known or acknowledged, and, given the invaluable work of university-based theorists, too many assume that the core concepts of Black feminism were born in the academy. In fact, much can be traced to activists in groups including the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Third World Women's Alliance, and the Combahee…