By Ari Berman
They carried signs that demanded "Voting Rights," "Jobs for All" and "Decent Housing." They protested the vigilante killing of an unarmed black teenager in the South and his killer's acquittal. They denounced racial profiling in the country's largest city.
This isn't 1963 but 2013, when so many of the issues that gave rise to the March on Washington fifty years ago remain unfulfilled or under siege today. That's why, on August 24, a broad coalition of civil rights organizations, unions, progressive groups and Democratic Party leaders will rally at the Lincoln Memorial and proceed to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the march and dramatize the contemporary fight. (President Obama will participate in a separate event commemorating the official anniversary on August 28.) The Supreme Court's decision gutting the Voting Rights Act in late June and the acquittal of George Zimmerman less than three weeks later make this year's march "exponentially more urgent" with respect to pressuring Congress and arousing the conscience of the nation, says Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, a co-sponsor of the march.
"The main themes will be voting rights, state laws like 'stand your ground' or local laws like stop-and-frisk, and the whole question of jobs and union-busting," says the Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network, who convened the march along with Martin Luther King III. "Fifty years after the original march for jobs and justice, we have a new version of the same issue."
In 1963, current Congressman John Lewis-who nearly died marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama-was the youngest and most radical speaker at the March on Washington. When Lewis returns to the Lincoln Memorial to address the rally on August 24, he will be the only surviving speaker from that historic afternoon. "We have come a great distance since that day," he said recently, "but many of the issues that gave rise to that march are still pressing needs in our society-violence, poverty, hunger, long-term unemployment, homelessness, voting rights and the need to protect human dignity."
When it comes to voting rights, seven Southern states have passed or implemented new restrictions that disproportionately target people of color since the Court's Voting Rights Act ruling. This follows a presidential election in which voter-suppression efforts took center stage and blacks waited twice as long as whites to vote, on average. On a more structural level, one out of thirteen African-Americans (2.2 million people) cannot vote because of felon disenfranchisement laws-four times higher than the rest of the population.
Showing posts with label Again. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Again. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Friday, 30 August 2013
All Hail Hungary: Country Bravely Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn - AGAIN
By Christina Sarich
More than 1000 acres found to have been planted with genetically altered maize crops have been destroyed in Hungary. Standing up to the biotech giants of Monsanto, Dow, and BASF, the country has boldly banned GMO seed. Peru has passed a ban for at least ten years on GM foods, along with Italy, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Austria with their own bans, as well as many other countries. We can only hope more will follow soon.
Hungary's Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development, Lajos Bognar, has made sure that the genetically modified crops don't spread - he says that 'the crops have been ploughed under but pollen has not spread form the maize.'
When checking the fields for GM crops, Hungary found Pioneer Monsanto seed among crops. Many farmers did not even know they were using GMO seed, so the search and destroy will likely continue. It is not surprising that so much seed is being planted without farmer awareness since Monsanto's acquisition of Seminis way back in 2005 allowed them to corner more than 40% of the seed market. They now own many seeds and seed varieties.
In late May of this year another 500 hectares (more than 1200 acres) of GM crops were burned after their discovery in Hungary. The aggressive manner in which this country is trying to derail Monsanto's plans to overtake even organic crops with hybridization due to pollen spread by wind and pollinators including bees and butterflies is not only necessary but valiant. This isn't the first few times that GMO crops have been destroyed. They have also been burned in previous years when found out.
More than 1000 acres found to have been planted with genetically altered maize crops have been destroyed in Hungary. Standing up to the biotech giants of Monsanto, Dow, and BASF, the country has boldly banned GMO seed. Peru has passed a ban for at least ten years on GM foods, along with Italy, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Austria with their own bans, as well as many other countries. We can only hope more will follow soon.
Hungary's Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development, Lajos Bognar, has made sure that the genetically modified crops don't spread - he says that 'the crops have been ploughed under but pollen has not spread form the maize.'
When checking the fields for GM crops, Hungary found Pioneer Monsanto seed among crops. Many farmers did not even know they were using GMO seed, so the search and destroy will likely continue. It is not surprising that so much seed is being planted without farmer awareness since Monsanto's acquisition of Seminis way back in 2005 allowed them to corner more than 40% of the seed market. They now own many seeds and seed varieties.
In late May of this year another 500 hectares (more than 1200 acres) of GM crops were burned after their discovery in Hungary. The aggressive manner in which this country is trying to derail Monsanto's plans to overtake even organic crops with hybridization due to pollen spread by wind and pollinators including bees and butterflies is not only necessary but valiant. This isn't the first few times that GMO crops have been destroyed. They have also been burned in previous years when found out.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Why Music Needs to Get Political Again
By Billy Bragg
How ironic that The Clash should be on the cover of the NME in the week that London was burning, that their faces should be staring out from the shelves as newsagents were ransacked and robbed by looters intent on anarchy in the UK. Touching too, that the picture should be from very early in their career - Joe with curly blond hair - for The Clash were formed in the wake of a London riot: the disturbances that broke out at the end of the Notting Hill Carnival of 1976.
At the time, the press reported it as the mindless violence of black youth intent on causing trouble; now we look back and recognise that it was the stirrings of what became our multicultural society - the moment when the first generation of black Britons declared that these streets belonged to them too.
The Notting Hill Riots of 35 years ago created a genuine 'What The Fuck?' moment - the first in Britain since the violent clashes between mods and rockers in the early 60s. While west London burned, the rest of society recoiled in terror at the anger they saw manifested on the streets of England. In the aftermath, severe jail sentences were handed down and police patrols stepped up in areas where there was a large immigrant population. Sound familiar?
But something else happened too - in the months that followed, bands appeared that sought to make sense of what went down on that hot August night. Aswad, Steel Pulse and Misty in Roots were among the reggae bands that stepped forward to speak for the black community.
How ironic that The Clash should be on the cover of the NME in the week that London was burning, that their faces should be staring out from the shelves as newsagents were ransacked and robbed by looters intent on anarchy in the UK. Touching too, that the picture should be from very early in their career - Joe with curly blond hair - for The Clash were formed in the wake of a London riot: the disturbances that broke out at the end of the Notting Hill Carnival of 1976.
At the time, the press reported it as the mindless violence of black youth intent on causing trouble; now we look back and recognise that it was the stirrings of what became our multicultural society - the moment when the first generation of black Britons declared that these streets belonged to them too.
The Notting Hill Riots of 35 years ago created a genuine 'What The Fuck?' moment - the first in Britain since the violent clashes between mods and rockers in the early 60s. While west London burned, the rest of society recoiled in terror at the anger they saw manifested on the streets of England. In the aftermath, severe jail sentences were handed down and police patrols stepped up in areas where there was a large immigrant population. Sound familiar?
But something else happened too - in the months that followed, bands appeared that sought to make sense of what went down on that hot August night. Aswad, Steel Pulse and Misty in Roots were among the reggae bands that stepped forward to speak for the black community.
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