The war on libraries is being fought on two fronts. On the first, we have extremists calling on librarians to repent for the sin of building collections and offering programming related to LGBTQ+ experiences. Proud Boys show up armed to protest Drag Queen Story Hours. The cops are called to investigate allegedly “obscene” materials on the shelves during Pride month. The second front… Source Source / Read More: As the Public Focuses on Book Bans, the Right Is Quietly Defunding Libraries
Austerity
Zambia: Amnesty International welcomes the abolishment of the death penalty
Responding to an announcement by Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema on Friday 23 December 2022, that he had assented to a law banning the death penalty and the offence of criminal defamation of the president, Tigere Chagutah Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa said: “Amnesty International welcomes the announcement by President Hichilema that […] The post Zambia: Amnesty International welcomes the abolishment of the death penalty appeared first on Amnesty International.
Will Lula Mount a Sufficient Challenge to Bolsonaro and the Far Right in Brazil?
On Sunday, Brazilians will go to the polls in the first round of elections that will be watched around the world. Incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro has seen his support plummet amid a devastating coronavirus pandemic, rising inflation and food costs, increasing poverty and severe deforestation in the Amazon. His most recognized challenger is the former president and Workers’ Party leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Amid the many crises facing the Bolsonaro government, various representatives of the Brazilian capitalist class have gone over to the Lula campaign. Among them are many leaders of the impeachment process (in reality, an institutional…
My University “Rebranded.” Instead, It Should’ve Actually Confronted Injustice.
For more than 10 years, I have been a professor of American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston). This is a community I have been seeking to join since the mid-1990s. I really wanted to be a part of the faculty at Boston’s only public research university, a place whose “urban mission” embodied exactly the kind of rigorous, social justice-oriented work I wanted to do. I have been an active member of my union and our Faculty Council, and (I think) fairly clear-eyed when it comes to understanding the very different roles played on campus by faculty…
Inflation Crisis Is Being Resolved on Backs of Workers. It Doesn’t Have to Be.
On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its latest report on inflation, and the news is not good for working people. According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — which measures the cost of consumer products — inflation for all goods, including food and energy, rose again in January, this time by 0.6 percent. This latest increase brings the yearly rate of inflation up to a whopping 7.5 percent, a figure not seen since the early 1980s when out-of-control inflation and a stagnant economy amounted to an all out economic war on U.S. workers. While wages for this…