The following text was reprinted from “Ideas and Action” Bulletin 126, published in 1978 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. It is a very colorful look into a little slice of life under apartheid, touching lightly on how those material conditions interact with patriarchy. Migrant workers are employed in jobs which pay low wages – in public works, railways, mining, refuse collecting, brick yards, docks, steelworks and even grave digging. In 1974, of the men I knew, those who were employed by some city council as cleaners or park hands earned between 30 and 35 rand . . .
Anti-Imperialism
A Beginners Guide to Bank Failures
According to a February 2023 Federal Deposit and Insurance Corporation (FDIC) audit, 563 U.S. banks have failed and/or come under regulatory authority since 2021. Here in California, U.S., the latest casualty has been the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). This latest rash of bank failures, especially within the software start up SVB, have alarmed apologists for capitalism all over the world. With this piece, we are hopeful we can bring some fundamental understanding of “bank failure” and what’s happening for everyday working people. First, it should be explained that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an institution of the U.S. . . .
Eritrea: A Different Perspective
As I get ready to attend the United Nation’s 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women as a part of Eritrea’s delegation led by National Union of Eritrean Women’s President, Tekea Tesfamichael, I think it’s important to address the latest media blitz scrutinizing the state of Eritrea and highlight my perspective as a dialectical materialist and member of the diaspora. As a young Eritrean living in the United States and a proud product of the Eritrean people’s struggle and liberation movement, conversations around freedom, justice, self-determination, and sovereignty, were dinner table conversations growing up. This is common . . .
Equality Through Equal Participation: Eritrean Women
The participation of women in the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) was not only significant but central to the movement’s success. Women made up one-third of the armed struggle and played vital roles, from combat to nursing and mechanics, teaching, driving, and radio and clandestine operations. The EPLF was highly progressive in organizing women at the grassroots level and encouraging them to join the national liberation movement.Despite facing cultural, religious, and patriarchal obstacles, Eritrean women fought for their rights and shattered oppressive barriers through equal participation. Their contributions to the struggle challenged traditional gender roles and redefined the capabilities of . . .
SNAP Benefits for African Mothers Are Gone, While Ukraine Eats Good
As the country ushers in commemorations for ‘International Women’s Month’, 42 million households have been hit with a significant reduction in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits impacting the ability of millions of mothers to feed their children. In December 2022, Congress voted to end the pandemic emergency allotments after passing the government funding package the previous year. After nearly three years, the program that temporarily increased federal SNAP benefits for low-income families came to an end on March 1st. Eighteen states already ended the pandemic increase in SNAP benefits before March. The remaining 32 states and the District of . . .
BAP Supports National Day of Action Against Police Terror
Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) member organization Community Movement Builders (CMB) is calling all organizations, organizers, and community members to a National Day of Action Against Police Terror on March 9, 2023. In the wake of the brutal killings of Tyre Nichols and forest defender Manuel Tortuguita, the city of Atlanta is going full steam ahead to build what activists have dubbed “Cop City.” Atlanta officials have proposed a $90 million complex be built on 85 acres of forest. This would only arm and deploy more police—whom we refer to as the domestic army—in African and colonized working-class and poor . . .
Why and How To End The War In Ukraine
Jacqueline Luqman was a panelist on the February 16, 2023 webinar Why and How to End the War in Ukraine , which was sponsored by Chicago Area Peace Action. These were her remarks. What I think we need to be clear on is that the US, the EU, and NATO are directly responsible for lighting the embers of war in Ukraine back in 2014. From late 2013 until February 2014, the Obama/Biden administration sent weapons, money, and encouragement to anti-democratic right-wing elements in Ukraine to execute “regime change” and overthrow the democratically elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. The coup . . .
Ella Baker: Making The Struggle Everyday
Life-long human rights activist and movement organizer, Ella Baker, addresses a 1974 Puerto Rico solidarity rally. TRANSCRIPT: Friends, brothers, and sisters in the struggle for human dignity and freedom. I am here to represent the struggle that has gone on for three-hundred or more years — a struggle to be recognized as citizens in a country in which we were born. I have had about forty or fifty years of struggle, ever since a little boy on the streets of Norfolk called me a nigger. I struck him back. And then I had to learn that hitting back with my . . .