NewsTrust - Social Change - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

News articles as assets and paths

Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Buzzmachine - By Jeff Jarvis - May. 27 (Opinion) - This is the start of a new project I’m working on to brainstorm new forms, relationships, and (business) models for news. Responding to a current discussion on Twitter among @AntDeRose, @felixsalmon, @jayrosn_nyu & @davewiner about the form of articles, I’m posting it here. The discussion started when Jay challenged Anthony, as a representative of Reuters.

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"We Need to Make a Ruckus": Robert Reich Hails Occupy for Exposing Concentration of Wealth and Power

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 08 (Interview) - In his new book, "Beyond Outrage," former Labor Secretary Robert Reich opens with a dedication to the Occupy Wall Street movement. He writes: "To the Occupiers, and all others committed to taking back our economy and our democracy." We speak to Reich about the success of Occupy in reshaping the national dialogue on the economy and why strong grassroots movements are needed to push elected leaders in Washington to enact a progressive agenda. Reich also discusses why austerity is not the answer to the economic crisis at home or in Europe. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Violence, USA: An Interview with Henry A. Giroux

Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Michael Slate, Henry A Giroux - May. 07 (Interview) - if you are at all concerned, if you are at all awake, in the deepest sense of being awake, and you look at the society we live in you really have got to question, what is going on in the society? How does it link to the terrible things that are going on in the world? How does this link to the fact that the world is a horror?

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Noam Chomsky on America's Economic Suicide

Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - May. 05 (Interview) - The US and Europe are committing suicide in different ways. In Europe it’s austerity in the midst of recession and that’s guaranteed to be a disaster. There’s some resistance to that now. In the US, it’s essentially off-shoring production and financialization and getting rid of superfluous population through incarceration.

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Fascist America: Have We Finally Turned The Corner?

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Sara Robinson - May. 01 (Opinion) - Research by Political Research Associates estimates that, at any given time in our history, roughly 10-12 percent of the country's population has been bred-in-the-bone right-wing authoritarians -- the people who are hard-wired to think in terms of fascist control and order. Our latter-day Christian Dominionists, sexual fundamentalists and white nationalists are the descendants -- sometimes, the literal blood descendants -- of the same people who joined the KKK in the 1920s, followed Father Coughlin in the 1930s, backed Joe McCarthy in the early '50s, joined the John Birch society in the '60s, and signed up for the Moral Majority in the 1970s and the Christian Coalition in the 1990s.

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Taking Back May Day: What to Expect on the Nationwide Day of Rallies, Strikes and Actions

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Sarah Jaffe - Apr. 30 (Opinion) - Long celebrated as International Workers' Day, long forgotten in the United States and replaced with the defanged Labor Day, May Day is once again shaping up to be a national day of action for the “99 percent,” thanks to the Occupy movement.

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What May Day means to me

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

greenleft.org.au - By Noam Chomsky - Apr. 30 (Opinion) - May Day started here, but then became an international day in support of American workers who were being subjected to brutal violence and judicial punishment. Today, the struggle continues to celebrate May Day not as a “law day” as defined by political leaders, but as a day whose meaning is decided by the people, a day rooted in organising and working for a better future for the whole of society.

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Social Darwinism or a Decent Society

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - We are likely to hear a lot more about social Darwinism in the months ahead. It was the conservative creed during the late 19th century - legitimizing a politics in which the lackeys of robber barons deposited sacks of money on legislators' desks, and justifying an economy in which sweat shops were common, urban slums festered, and a significant portion of America was impoverished.

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Robert Greenwald on the New Film "Koch Brothers Exposed" -- the 1% at Its Very Worst

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Mar. 29 (Interview) - One of the problems in the progressive movement, all too often -- and, you know, people have talked about this endlessly -- the separate silos, the single-issue folks who are both focused and funded to do a single issue -- but how do you encourage and work so that the issue people come together and see the importance of the fact that the people who are attacking the environment are attacking Social Security, are attacking public education, are attacking and buying politicians, are attacking an African-American community, etc., etc.

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Horizontal Meets Vertical: 3 Ways Occupy, Community Groups and Unions Can Work Together to Change Society | | AlterNet

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Stephen Lerner - Mar. 21 (Opinion) - Occupy has cracked open the door that lets us imagine that another world is possible. Thousands of arrests, months of protest and acts of incredible personal risk and sacrifice have put inequality and Wall Street’s out-of-control political and economic power on center stage. As activity ratchets up this spring, the challenge is to get more people pushing that door open ever wider.

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Occupy PressThink: Tim Pool

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Press Think - By Jay Rosen, Alexis Madrigal - Nov. 21 (Opinion) - “Being a livestream he acts as ‘eyes and ears’ for the viewers. Literally. People will tell him to move the camera somewhere and he’ll do it. They’ll ask for interviews with someone, and Tim will go over and do so… The viewers will ask him questions and he won’t rest until he gets them their answers.” Recently, Alexis Madrigal, the technology editor of The Atlantic and pretty much the smartest young journalist ’round these parts, re-described occupy Wall Street as an API, or Application Programming Interface.

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Paramilitary Policing of Occupy Wall Street: Excessive Use of Force Amidst the New Military Urbanism

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - Nov. 17 (Interview) - We host a discussion on policing and the Occupy Wall Street movement with Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which helped organize calls among police chiefs on how to respond to the Occupy protests, and with Norm Stamper, the former police chief of Seattle, who recently wrote an article for The Nation magazine titled "Paramilitary Policing from Seattle to Occupy Wall Street." "Trust me, the police do not want to be put in this position. And cities really need to ask themselves, is there another way to handle this kind of conflict?"

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84-Year Old Dorli Rainey, Pepper-Sprayed at Occupy Seattle, Denounces "Worsening" Police Crackdowns

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 17 (Interview) - Police departments across the country are coming under criticism for using excessive force against Occupy Wall Street protesters during the past two months. In Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn apologized Wednesday, hours after an 84-year-old retired Seattle school teacher named Dorli Rainey was pepper sprayed in the face during a protest. Photographs of her moments after she was pepper sprayed went viral, showing the chemical irritant and liquid used to treat it dripping from her chin. According to Occupy Seattle organizers, a priest and a pregnant teenager were also pepper sprayed Tuesday night. Dorli Rainey joins us from Seattle. "My problem is not only with police brutality,” Rainey says. “It is with the progressively worse attitude of the police."

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Occupy Wall Street is "So Important Because It is in the Heart of Empire"

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Arundhati Roy - Nov. 15 (Interview) - Renowned Indian writer and global justice activist Arundhati Roy is preparing to address Occupy Wall Street on Wednesday. She recently joined us in the studio to talk about the Occupy movement. "What they are doing becomes so important because it is in the heart of empire, or what used to be empire," Roy said. "And to criticize and to protest against the model that the rest of the world is aspiring to is a very important and a very serious business. So...it makes me very, very hopeful that after a long time you're seeing some nascent political, real political anger here." She also discussed her new book, "Walking with the Comrades," a chronicle of her time in the forests of India alongside rebel guerrillas who are resisting a brutal military campaign by the Indian government. [includes rush transcript]

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Occupy Honolulu: Hawaiian Musician Makana Performs Protest Song to World Leaders at APEC Summit

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 14 (Interview) - within the heavily guarded compound where the summit took place, renowned Hawaiian musician and guitarist Makana carried out his own act of protest. Makana had been invited to play instrumental music at the gala dinner Saturday night. At the dinner, Makana opened his jacket to reveal a t-shirt which read, "Occupy with Aloha." Then, instead of performing the background instrumental he was scheduled to play, he started to sing a protest song he had released earlier that day.

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5 New Rules for an Economy That Works

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By David Morris - Oct. 09 (Opinion) - The 99% is growing stronger and larger. The next step is to move the country. Which requires us to decide where we want to go and how we want to get there.

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An Interview With Henry Giroux: Youth Movement in a Culture of Hopelessness

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Henry Giroux - Oct. 09 (Interview) - This was, for me, very exciting, because while it doesn't guarantee anything, it certainly marks a beginning that upsets, and, in many ways, challenged a liberal-conservative position that young people in the United States are utterly depoliticised, self absorbed and incapable of engaging in collective politics. It's interesting to see young people all over the world reacting both to the cruel austerity measures being imposed on the basis of neoliberal economics in France and in Western Europe and in Greece, and also of course the emerging young people fighting authoritarian regimes in the Middle East; and to see that being emulated in the United States to the same degree, given the horrible conditions of young people here, I thought, well, finally the Arab Spring and the European revolts are catching on

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Occupy Wall Street: A historical perspective - Occupy Wall Street

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - Oct. 09 (Opinion) -

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Real Class War Is Working to Keep Those Below You Down

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Joshua Holland - Sep. 20 (Opinion) - We live in a country where most people believe their opportunities are limited only by their innate talents and appetite for hard work, but over the last four decades, while decrying a wholly imaginary class war from below, conservative policies have undermined many of the ladders by which working people once achieved a middle-class lifestyle. Taking pot-shots at another class isn't war, nor is imposing a modest tax increase on those who have been showered with tax cuts for the last decade. Genuine class warfare is those at the very top working to keep everyone else far beneath them.

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David Graeber: The Debt of the American Poor Should Be Forgiven

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 19 (Opinion) - As President Obama prepares to outline a deficit-reduction plan that includes tax increases, as well as cuts to programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, anthropologist David Graeber proposes a radical solution: cancel the debt of the nation’s poor. “Debts between the very wealthy or between governments can always be renegotiated and always have been throughout world history. They are not anything set in stone,” says Graeber, author of "Debt: The First 5,000 Years.” “It's generally speaking when you have debts owed by the poor to the rich, debts becomes a sacred situation, more important than anything else. The idea of renegotiating them becomes unthinkable.” [Check back soon for complete transcript.]

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'People Are Close to Revolt'

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By James Fallows - Sep. 12 (Opinion) - I've never actually written to a journalist before, but I was one of the 1,252 people arrested this weekend in front of the White House. I also live in the rural Midwest and your source is right. People are close to revolt. I think it will be a five year process of movement building, but even my very conservative staff of library assistants all cheered me on when I told them what I was doing. The people I interact with here and the ones I met in DC are all fed-up at a deep and fundamental level.

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Three Things That Must Happen for Us to Rise Up and Defeat the Corporatocracy

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Bruce E. Levine - Aug. 27 (Opinion) - Transforming the United States into something closer to a democracy requires: 1) knowledge of how we are getting screwed; 2) pragmatic tactics, strategies, and solutions; and 3) the “energy to do battle.” The majority of Americans oppose the corporatocracy (rule by giant corporations, the extremely wealthy elite, and corporate-collaborator government officials); however, many of us have given up hope that this tyranny can be defeated.

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Study Shows Growing Number of Ethnic Elders in Financial Crisis

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New America Media - By Were Not Noted. - Aug. 06 (Advocacy) - SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—In a dismal week when the most positive economic news for the United States was Friday’s federal data showing anemic employment gains, the plight of ethnic elders looks “even worse than we thought it would be,” according to Henoch D

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"Arab Spring" Label Hampers Global Protests' Solidarity Potential

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By J.A. Myerson - Jul. 09 (Opinion) - In its unsubtle suggestions of "foreign," "not white" and implicit condescension, the handy moniker American media has developed in its attempt to make sense of 2011's global unrest - "The Arab Spring" - is counterrevolutionary, perhaps deliberately so.

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WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on Role of U.S. Cables in Helping Stir Arab Spring

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jul. 06 (Interview) - Earlier this year, WikiLeaks released a the largest trove of classified U.S. State Department cables in history, exposing the U.S. role in propping up unpopular regimes in the Middle East and supporting human rights abuses against opponents. During a July 2 discussion moderated by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange highlighted the importance in releasing the information documented in the diplomatic cables, the impact WikiLeaks has had on world politics and journalism in general, and about the Arab Spring political uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, now continuing across the region in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and Libya.

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