Frances Coppola explores how increasing automation is fundamentally shifting the nature of work away from 'making stuff' towards personal services. One of the most interesting issues to arise in the course of the "comment-athon" on my post "The Golden Calf" was the suggestion that the link between money and work is broken, and indeed that there is no longer...
Ladies of New York , you are free to walk bare-breasted through the city! New York City's 34,000 police officers have been instructed that, should they encounter a woman in public who is shirtless but obeying the law, they should not arrest her. This is a good step towards gender parity in public spaces. This decision means that breast exposure is not considered public lewdness...
As the death toll in the Rana Plaza building collapse outside the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka climbs past 400, the kinship between our purchasing decisions and the loss of life is becoming harder to ignore. This has been the deadliest industrial disaster to hit the beleaguered South Asian nation, resulting in three times the number of fatalities as the devastating Tazreen Fashions fire a...
News reports tell us that more than 500 people have now died and more than 2,500 were injured in Savar, Bangladesh, while the toll in West, Texas stands at 15 dead and over 200 injured. Behind these two disasters is a common thread of greed – and a common need for unionized resistance. “It was like a nuclear bomb went off,” said the mayor as a mushroom cloud soared...
Before 19-year-old Dzhokar Tsarnaev was interrogated, President Obama asked, “Why did these young men who grew up and studied here as part of our communities and our country resort to such violence?” Yesterday, the Washington Post provided the answer to the president in a news article entitled, “ Boston Bombing Suspect Cites U.S. Wars as Motivation, Officials Say...
Above. Workers from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) chant slogans during a May Day rally at Seoul City Hall Plaza in central Seoul May 1, 2013. Thousands of workers who took part in the rally asked for an extensive revision of the labor law and demanded that the government provide temporary workers employment stability by converting their status to full-time workers...
Placing bombs among civilians – as happened at the Boston Marathon – is an inexcusable act, but Americans invite future violence when they ignore how their government’s acts of brutality abroad drive people to extremism, a half-century-old lesson from Martin Luther King Jr., as Jose-Antonio Orosco recalls. April 16 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther...
News reports yesterday indicated that Bradley Manning , widely known to be gay, had been selected to be one of the Grand Marshals of the annual San Francisco gay pride parade, named by the LGBT Pride Celebration Committee. When the predictable backlash instantly ensued , the president of the Board of SF Pride, Lisa L Williams, quick
There are few ways to make a decent living in Bangladesh, but there are many ways to die trying. The cruel weight of that reality bore down on a Dhaka factory complex on Wednesday as it crashed to the ground and instantly extinguished hundreds of lives and livelihoods. As of this writing, the body count at Rana Plaza is about 300 and rising , with hundreds more workers still unaccounted...
CISPA is all but dead, again. The controversial cybersecurity bill known as the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act, which passed the House of Representatives last week, will almost certainly be shelved by the Senate, according to a representative of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The bill would have allowed the federal government to share...
They say when a population puts pressure on a corrupt system, the system pushes back. So it’s not surprising to see the Harper Government crackdown on dissent, but the level of his attack on democracy is so great that even Stalin and Mao would be impressed. After alread
Lessons from Violet is a romantic comedy about a religious man who trouble with women until he meets a prostitute who becomes his dating coach. The story was inspired by the ancient Hebraic text of Hosea. The screenplay won an honorable mention at the Colorado Film Festival and won the screenplay award at the Las Vegas Film Festival. Shawn is shy, religious and awkward with the ladies...
San Franciscans pass by panhandlers every day. Some give change. A few smile. Fewer still strike up a conversation. It's likely that only one has ever formed a relationship with a panhand
The word “libertarian” is becoming an increasingly popular descriptor of political ideology in the US, though many in the US incorrectly associate libertarianism only with the capitalist Libertarian Party. Historically libertarianism was a term used most commonly by anti-authoritarian socialists to describe their political philosophy. In fact, in most countries the term is...
Seeing gurneys of babies trundled through the chiaroscuro of old black-and-white footage at the start of Scott Noble’s Human Resources, the gurneys in the tunnels of God only knows what kind of institution, the viewer does well to brace herself for the coming onslaught. The piano accompaniment is not so much music as it is the hammering of wires in the industrial mode, a harbinger...
What is wrong with work? For the majority of us, most of our lives are dominated by work . Even when we are not actually at work, we are traveling to or from work, worrying about work, trying to recover from work in order to get back to work tomorrow, or trying to forget about work.
“…everyone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious.” —Arthur Young; 1771 Our popular economic wisdom says that capitalism equals freedom and free societies, right? Well, if you ever suspected that the l
Capitalism is presented as a 'natural' system, formed a bit like mountains or land masses by forces beyond human control, that it is an economic system ultimately resulting from human nature. However it was not established by 'natural forces' but by intense and massive violence across the globe . At its root, capitalism is an economic system based on three things...
Something Fishy Continues in Costa Rica and Germany Commentary by Captain Alex Cornelissen Sea Shepherd crew approaches the Varadero Photo: Sea Shepherd Last Friday we were informed of a decision that gives irrefutable evidence that the case against Captain Paul Watson is political. Since Captain Watson’s arrest in Germany, our legal defense team has been working tirelessly...
The End of Polio is within reach. Together, we can make it reality. Our generation stands on the brink of eradicating the second human disease in history. Polio - a disease which has disabled millions and pulled individuals further into poverty - has been reduced by 99% over the past 30 years, and its end is within our reach. Global efforts have delivered incredible progress...
HOME > JUSTICE AT WALMART END DEATHTRAPS FOR WALMART WORKERS Hold Walmart Accountable for Inferno in Bangladesh BREAKING NEWS!! NEW EVIDEN
(Washington, DC) – Governments should pre-emptively ban fully autonomous weapons because of the danger they pose to civilians in armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These future weapons, sometimes called “killer robots,” would be able to choose and fire on targets without human intervention. The 50-page report, “Losing Humanity: The...
Gaza resident Asem Alnabeh posted a photo of his little sister Nesma earlier tonight in their home. Her name means breeze . "But she really isn't," her brother writes me. "she's very impish!" Nesma's house has lost electric power. There are fighter jets roaring over the house, and there are explosions never too far away -- not sufficiently far for the worried parents to attempt to calm...
Gaza is a window on our coming dystopia. The growing divide between the world’s elite and its miserable masses of humanity is maintained through spiraling violence. Many impoverished regions of the world, which have fallen off the economic cliff, are beginning to resemble Gaza, where 1.6 million Palestinians live in the planet’s largest internment camp. These sacrifice zones...
Ten years ago, I spent my 21 st birthday in Palestine. It was a fairly perfect scenario. In the UK, you traditionally reach adulthood at 21. You are presented with a symbolic key. I was presented with a shocking realisation: what I saw on the news was not true. What I read in the papers was not true. There was a disgraceful sociocide happening in the world and I would not have...
Last week, PFC Bradley Manning offered to accept responsibility for releasing classified documents as an act of conscience – not as charged by the US military . As people who have worked for decades against the increased militarization of societies and for international cooperation to end war, we have been deeply dismayed by his treatment. The military under the Obama administration...
No issue may be more contentious or more misunderstood than the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Hatred, fear, religion, politics, propaganda, media misinformation, and decades of cyclical violence has made understanding the roots of this conflict (not to mention finding potential solutions to it) seemingly impossible. But if we're to ever see reconciliation for the people suffering on...
THEY SAY WHEN all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. But when you are a politician and all you have is a hammer, you must convince voters every problem looks like a nail. This is the only thinking that can explain Israel's behavior in escalating bombardment of Gaza. The Israeli spin machines are out in full force in the hopes of convincing Israelis and the rest of the world...
It’s a long drive from Florida to Denver, but Leonel Perez and his colleagues at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) don’t mind. In fact, they arrived in the Mile High City three weeks early for Cultivate , a food, beer, and music festival sponsored by Chipotle Mexican Grill . They were not drawn by a love of burritos. In the days leading up to Cultivate, Perez, Jake...
The Black Hills were stolen from the Sioux in 1877. Now, Indians are in a desperate quest to buy back their sacred sites When I was a little girl , a long time ago, we would go camping in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We had to pay, just as tourists do, to camp there and enjoy the beauty of the Black Hills or, in Lakota, of the Paha Sapa or He Sapa. When I say we had to pay, I...
Stand in solidarity with the people of Syria calling and dying for their freedom and right to choose their leaders. The idea is very simple, but potentially very powerful: Imagine if a million people spoke the words "I Support The Syrian Revolution"? Our aim is to collect as many videos as possible of people from all over the world declaring their support for the Syrian...
Kampala, Uganda - From Kampala, the Kony 2012 hysteria was easy to miss. I'm not on Facebook or Twitter. I don't watch YouTube and the Ugandan papers didn't pick up the story for several days. But what I could not avoid were the hundreds of emails from friends, colleagues, and students in the US about the video by Invisible Children and the massive online response to it. I...
We're still waiting on the new Kony 2012 video, supposedly slated to go live later today, that will answer all of our concerns about Invisible Children's finances and goals, but we have some idea of what we can expect: earnest proclamations about how \"uncomplicated\" it is to bring Joseph Kony down and reassurances that Invisible Children does spend some of their money (37%) on-the-ground in...
from the let's-walk-through-the-reasons dept There's been plenty of talk (and a ton of posts here on Techdirt) discussing both SOPA (originally E-PARASITE) and PROTECT IP (aka PIPA), but it seemed like it would be useful to create a single, "definitive" post to highlight why both of these bills are extremely problematic and won't do much (if anything) to deal with the issues they're...
Hundreds of Citizens Pack Council Chambers, Council Votes Unanimously to Support the “Move to Amend” LOS ANGELES, CA – After forty-five minutes of public testimony urging a yes vote, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to support a resolution calling on Congress to amend the Constitution to clearly establish that only living persons -- not corporations -- are...
“You say laughter and I say larfter,” sang Louis Armstrong. The difference is subtle. Across the world, however, from the Amazon to the Arctic, tribal peoples say it in 4,000 entirely different ways. Sadly, no one now says “laughter” in Eyak, a language from the Gulf of Alaska, whose last fluent speaker died in 2008, or in the Bo language from the Andaman Islands, for...
A judge is allowing an Army veteran who says he was imprisoned unjustly and tortured by the U.S. military in Iraq to sue former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld personally for damages. The veteran's identity is withheld in court filings, but he worked for an American contracting company as a translator for the Marines in the volatile Anbar province before being detained for nine months...
What we should be talking about when we talk about the debt ceiling is the proper role and size of government. Instead, we are asking whether the government spends too much on programs that alleviate the pain that is the result of government policies in the first place. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance and food stamps are all good programs, but all are meant to deal...
Residents from 10 Bidayuh villagers this week set fire to five logging camps and thirteen heavy machines in a stark protest against logging activities on their land, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. As reported by Free Malaysia Today , the Bidayuh villagers took matters into their own hands because of the governments refusal to address their complaints about logging activities within...
Supporters of accused WikiLeaks source vow to fight on for open trial and freedom Hundreds of thousands of individuals globally celebrate today the confirmation that their efforts to end the torturous pre-trial confinement conditions inflicted upon US Army PFC Bradley Manning have been successful. Manning’s lead defense attorney, David E. Coombs of Rhode Island, has personally...
Frack! tells the story of the unconventional gas-drilling ("fracking") frenzy sweeping the Marcellus region, including the Catskills and Upper Delaware River watershed, threatening pristine areas which provide clean drinking water for over 15 million people. Without a massive public outcry, once idyllic rural landscapes could become toxic industrial wastelands, and New York State a gas...
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Many of us believe the Internet to be open and free for us to explore all known information. Indeed, it is true that we currently can surf to any active website with our browser, and we can start a website or blog on any topic we wish to discuss. And it is quite a profound concept that everyone with a smart phone literally has all of the world's knowledge in the palm of their hand. Ben...
The town of Sedgwick, Maine, currently leads the pack as far as food sovereignty is concerned. Local residents recently voted unanimously at a town hall meeting to pass an ordinance that reinforces its citizens' God-given rights to "produce, process, sell, purchase, and consume local foods of their choosing," which includes even state- and federally-restricted foods like raw milk. The...
Here is the first issue of Gonzo Times for Print. We ask that you print not only one for yourself but others to distribute in your area. Coffee Shops, Libraries, Campuses, Book Stores and Community Centers may be some places you can do this. This publication thrives on Mutual Aid so it needs your support. Small Independent press you can partake in.
Dear Citizens of the United States of America, It has come to our attention that the brothers, David and Charles Koch--the billionaire owners of Koch Industries--have long attempted to usurp American Democracy. Their actions to undermine the legitimate political process in Wisconsin are the final straw. Starting today we fight back. Koch Industries, and oligarchs like them, have most...
Afraid that your family will be gunned down or kidnapped by gangs brought to power by the American-led prohibition on drugs and have half a million dollars to invest? Then you are in luck . For prospective residents who invest at least half a million dollars in Dallas, the City of Dallas Regional Center, in partnership with the federal government, will reward investor visas and green cards...
The official position of the US Secretary of State is that countries around the world should respect their citizens' rights to free speech, free expression and free assembly -- and that's precisely what Sec. Hillary Clinton said during a Tuesday speech at George Washington University. Unfortunately, as she spoke, not 15 feet in front of her, a series of events unfolded that utterly...
Will Stewart-Starks, an Iraq Veteran and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) gives an audience of Lawrence art enthusiasts and local activists a summary of his organizations recent campaign to address military deployments of wounded soldiers. Ar t show introduces Lawrence community to Operation Recovery Campaign February 12, 2011, Lawrence, KS --