Articles
Articles
‘It’s a sovereign place’
Stewart Huntington, Indian Country Today: RAPID CITY, S.D. — When Lakota activists set up a camp for homeless relatives in this Black Hills town last month, the police descended immediately and shut it down. ... The response? The activists quickly moved the encampment to trust land just outside of town. ... Today the camp, built on traditional values and teachings, is flourishing. ... “They’re giving the people a chance to have somewhere to sleep and live like they used to a long time ago, like the ancestors, you know? ” ... the camp is perched on some 90 acres held in trust for the Cheyenne River, Rosebud and Oglala Sioux tribes that used to be part of the shuttered Rapid City Indian Boarding School..
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Nov 15, 2020, 3:34pm
Articles
A Reset for Unprecedented Times - Buen Vivir
Natasha Chassagne: Zambrano and other Kichwa who inhabit the cloud forest in this mountainous region of the Andes, know that if their environment is destroyed, it will profoundly impact their ability to thrive. And so they are embroiled in an ongoing fight to protect it. Cotacacheños are guided by what they call Buen Vivir in Spanish, or sumak kawsay in the Kichwa language, which loosely translates as “the Good Life.” It is for them both a philosophy and a lived practice. ... A direct and critical response to Western ideas of sustainable development, Buen Vivir is about respecting the rights and responsibilities of communities to protect and promote their own social and environmental well-being by driving grassroots change...
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Nov 4, 2020, 12:01pm
Articles
What Good are Police on Patrol? An Analysis of Traffic Enforcement in Albuquerque
Ernesto Longa, David Correia, and Matias Fontenla: The police traffic stop is the most common way people come into contact with cops. ... In 2018, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) made 44,132 traffic stops, an increase of 35 percent over the previous year. ... We examined the first 1,000 non-criminal traffic cases (e.g., infractions related to insurance, registration, licensing, moving violations, improper/faulty equipment ... Traffic stops, particularly those that include certain kinds of infractions, always result in the threat of arrest, suspension of driving privileges, additional and escalating fines and fees ... and incarceration ... The data show that enforcing traffic laws with armed police does nothing to enhance public safety...
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Aug 27, 2020, 2:33pm
Articles
Why I Love the Post Office (And You Should, Too)
Mindy Isser: The postal service isn’t just a service; it’s countless resources, opportunities, and livelihoods- and we cannot take it for granted. ... The United States Postal Service, as we know it today, didn’t exist until 1970, when postal workers in New York City went on an 8 day wildcat strike. Prior to their successful strike, postal workers were extremely underpaid, earning only slightly over $6,000 a year to start, and many survived on food stamps and other government assistance to fill the gaps. ... Defending the post office isn’t just about making sure seniors get their medication, or about protecting good union jobs, although it’s those things too. ... It’s about deciding that we want a society based on human connection instead of a society based on profit and atomized human misery...
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Aug 22, 2020, 3:10pm
Articles
The First Emancipation
Alan Johnstone and Stephen Shenfield: The first enactment – the first emancipation – came 80 years earlier (than the Civil War), during the War of Independence. And – this may come as a shock if you were raised on the “patriotic” version of American history – the “good guys” – the emancipators – were the British. ... Most Americans are unaware that slaves fought for their freedom on the side of the British. ... In November 1775, Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, promised freedom to any slave who deserted a rebel master and joined the British Army. ... Nearly 100,000 slaves came over to the British side. They risked their lives for a chance of freedom as slave-owners vowed to execute any who were recaptured.... Many ex-slaves also served as blacksmiths, coopers, tailors, carpenters, cooks, and guides....
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Aug 18, 2020, 10:55am
Articles
Nine Mile Ride: Why Police Reform Always Results in More Police Violence, Not Less
David Correia, Justin Bendell, and Ernesto Longa: It’s called a Nine Mile Ride in Albuquerque because that’s where the ride ends. ... Albuquerque cops grab someone from the International District near the Albuquerque Indian Center, a place they call the “War Zone.” That’s where the ride starts. ... “They’ve taken me out to the westside, Nine Mile Hill, handcuffed and beat my ass. Happened six months ago. Drove me out there in the dirt, handcuffed, beat me, and left me out there.” ... The Albuquerque Police Department is notoriously among the most lethal police departments in the United States. ... Five years of intense police reform and things are worse. ... We need alternatives to police and policing because more cops does not mean less crime. More reform does not end police violence...
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Aug 13, 2020, 3:45pm
Articles
How Did a Lawyer Who Took on Big Oil and Won End up Under House Arrest?
Rex Weyler: Eight years ago, Donziger and a team of Ecuadorian lawyers, on behalf of Indigenous and farmer plaintiffs, won the largest human rights and environmental court judgment in history, a $9.5-billion US verdict against the Chevron Corporation for massive oil pollution in Ecuador’s Amazon basin. ... Following the trial, Chevron removed its assets from Ecuador, left the country, and has refused to pay. ... Chevron launched a retaliatory campaign to attack the victims, discredit Ecuador’s courts, and “demonize” Donziger. ... Using US RICO statutes designed to prosecute organized crime syndicates, the firm filed a “racketeering” case against Donziger...
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Aug 11, 2020, 3:47pm
Articles
How Black Pullman Porters Waged a Struggle for “Civil Rights Unionism”
An interview with Eric Arnesen: - author of Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality ... Led by A. Philip Randolph, black Pullman porters struggled against the exploitation of the company and the racism of the mainstream labor movement to win a fighting union. They secured dignity on the job — and laid the foundation for the modern Civil Rights Movement...
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Jul 28, 2020, 3:26pm
Articles
The Bonus Army Protest
Gary Olson: July 28 will mark almost the 90th anniversary of one of most controversial protests in U.S. history and yet it remains virtually unknown to most Americans. ... On that day, in 1932, 500 U.S. army infantrymen with loaded rifles, fixed bayonets and gas grenades containing a vomit inducing ingredient, 200 calvary, a machine gun squadron, 800 police and 6 M1917 army tanks, prepared to attack 17,000 unarmed men, plus thousands of their wives and children. ... The camp, nicknamed “Hooverville,” occupied by WWI veterans who were living in tents and shanties ... Some 4 million vets had returned from the war and found that others had taken their jobs at a considerably higher wage than the $1 per day soldier’s pay and expected more help from their government...
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Jul 24, 2020, 3:01pm
Articles
The Murder of Malcolm X
Joel Whitney: There was nothing J. Edgar Hoover feared more than a charismatic black radical who could inspire the oppressed to fight back. And that’s why, according to a compelling new series, the FBI had its fingerprints all over Malcolm X’s murder. ... Who Killed Malcolm X? features Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a journalist, father, and Malcolm admirer who, over six episodes, guides the viewer through his decades-long investigation to reveal that two of the three men convicted for Malcolm’s murder were innocent. He goes on to show that the FBI knew this but did not submit evidence to exonerate the men...
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Jul 17, 2020, 4:47pm
Articles
The Catholic Church Siphoned Away $30 Million Paid to Native People for Stolen Land
Mary Annette Pember: Free, government-funded schools were rarely built on reservations—meaning that for many Native families, Catholic mission schools were the only option. ... Indian boarding and day schools attempted, for decades, to forcibly assimilate Native children. The schools have a long, documented history of abuse and cultural debasement. ... The economic violations committed at these schools, however, have not been widely reported. ... for the greater part of the 20th century, the federal government routed funds—designated as direct payments for Native people—to Catholic mission schools, draining families of millions of dollars by today’s measures ... over the nine years records were available (1910, 1933, 1935, 1939–1943, 1954), Native parents gave the schools some $30.4 million, adjusted for inflation...
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Jul 15, 2020, 4:05pm
Articles
The hidden trackers in your phone, explained
Sara Morrison: How covert code enables your phone’s apps to spy on you. ... Your phone is the ideal tool for advertisers and data brokers, both as a means of collecting your information and serving you ads based on it. This is usually done through software development kits, or SDKs, which these companies provide to app developers for free in exchange for the information they can collect from them, or a cut of the ads they can sell through them. ... When you turn on location services for a weather app so it can give you a localized forecast, you may be sending your location data back to someone else. ... A recent Wall Street Journal article revealed that location data was not just being sold to marketers or data brokers but also to law enforcement, where it was used to help catch undocumented immigrants...
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Jul 9, 2020, 3:01pm
Articles
For Indigenous Zapotec Families, Spinning Becomes a Lifeline
Tracy L. Barnett: Khadi Oaxaca, a farm-to-garment nonprofit textile enterprise, follows what is known as the Gandhian economic model in three ways: It focuses on producing gainful employment for many instead of big profits for a few; it strives to build local autonomy and resilience at the village level, building in a cash supplement that supports the traditional agrarian life; and it follows the Gandhian strategy of making clothing from scratch, with workers spinning their own thread from organically grown cotton. ... And now, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic causing jobs to dry up everywhere, this handspun thread has become a lifeline for the local economy...
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Jun 22, 2020, 3:05pm
Articles
Unique Recollections of the Night RFK Was Gunned Down (Published 2018)
Audio File: Paul Schrade, a long-time friend and political ally of Kennedy’s, was shot in the head that night, but he recovered from his wounds. Two years ago, when Schrade was 91, WhoWhatWhy’s Jeff Schechtman spoke to him about Kennedy, the assassination, and about his theory of the case. ... Many people doubt the official story of what happened when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in the kitchen of Los Angeles’s Ambassador Hotel exactly 52 years ago. ... Conclusions: Sirhan Sirhan could not have killed RFK ... his gun shots missed him ... audio file shows a second gun man ... RFK shot from behind ... LA police covered up evidence as did the FBI...
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Jun 6, 2020, 3:05pm
Articles
Women Have Risen to Heroic Heights During Covid-19
H. Patricia Hynes: ... — comprising the majority of essential health care workers, leading successful countries in containing the coronavirus, homeschooling children while working from home. ... As of mid-April, women led six of seven countries with the best record of containing Covid-19 infections and deaths: Germany, Taiwan, New Zealand, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Denmark. ... Though taking different approaches, some lockdowns, some not, the women-led successful countries acted immediately and decisively with testing, tracking, widespread education, adequate personal protection, and with ongoing personal communication through press conferences, some for children only. ... "women are more likely to lead through inspiration, transforming people’s attitudes and beliefs, and aligning people with meaning and purpose than men are."...
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May 21, 2020, 3:16pm
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