Women of Syria and Their Daily Resistance

 by  Alexandra Valiente and  Marinella Correggia           at Internationalist 360°.              shared with thanksWoman from Quneitra in front of a mosaic in Damascus |Image © Marinella Correggia

The oriental fable “Appointment in Samarra”, of the soldier rushing away from his destiny of death while indeed rushing into this very destiny (it is the theme of the song Samarcanda by Roberto Vecchioni) seems well suited to what Om Ahmad is telling us.

Robust, flowered scarf on her head and black dress, sitting on the cushions that serve as a sofa in the bare apartment rented in Masaken Barzeh district, she explains that her husband, an auto mechanic, and their three sons lived in Douma, the most Islamist area of Eastern Ghouta.

“Over five years ago, while several formations of musallahin – armed Islamist groups – were coming to the area, we closed the house and came here to Damascus, where we had friends”.Her second child Rabee, now sixteen, is in a wheelchair. “One day, three years ago, he and my husband were in the mechanical workshop…. when it was hit by a missile that targeted Damascus, starting right from the area that we had left behind.”

Rabee’s father died in the explosion, and the boy’s mangled legs had to be amputated. Continue reading “Women of Syria and Their Daily Resistance”

‘Toons, ‘Toons, ‘Toons … Trumping The Truth


jilldennison's avatarFilosofa's Word

I am working on a project and find myself short on time today, so I thought a few cartoons might be just the thing for a few … um … laughs?  More likely a few shakes of the head and rolls of the eyes!

Pol-toon-1Tom Toles Editorial Cartoon - tt_c_c180812.tifTom Toles Editorial Cartoon - tt_c_c180817.tifPol-toon-4Pol-toon-5Pol-toon-6Bruce Plante Cartoon: Trump and the MessengerPol-toon-8

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US prison strike .. solidarity events ..END PRISON SLAVERY

We honor Anarcha the Slave! Resisting Patriarchy and Racist Capitalism

thefreeonline's avatarThe Free

In 2015 # Anarchagland, an autonomous-research project of #gynepunk  in Catalonia,  renamed female sex glands after 3 slaves, Anarcha, Betsey and Lucy, who were abused as guinea pigs  by the maverick doctor J Marion Sims.  

Dr Sims, who had no gynecological experience,  obtained up to 20 black slave women suffering gynecological injuries of torn fistulas and experimented on them, without anesthetics , for 4 years in his ”medical Plantation” in Alabama .

“If there was anything I hated,” he wrote from the outset, “it was investigating the organs of the female pelvis.”

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Indigenous Environmental Defender killed as logging mafia targets tribe

The Guardians of the Amazon recently destroyed a logging truck they discovered in their territory.The Guardians of the Amazon recently destroyed a logging truck they discovered in their territory.© Guardians of the Amazon

shared with thanks from Survival International   A leader of an Amazon tribe acclaimed for its environmental defenders has been killed, the latest in a series of deaths among the tribe.Image result for guardians of the amazon

The body of Jorginho Guajajara was found near a river in the Brazilian state of Maranhão. He was a leader of the Guajajara people, acclaimed internationally for their work as the ‘Guardians of the Amazon’ in the most threatened region in the entire Amazon. Continue reading “Indigenous Environmental Defender killed as logging mafia targets tribe”

CrimethInc: Occupy ICE

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Robert Graham's avatarRobert Graham's Anarchism Weblog

Occupy ICE is a movement spreading across the USA to protest and oppose the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on refugees and immigrants, resulting in mass incarcerations of adults and children, with the children often separated, most likely permanently, from their parents. As with the Occupy movement, there are sometimes heated disagreements over tactics, as this piece from CrimethInc. illustrates.

Portland and Tacoma: You Can’t Build a Movement Based on Shame

I spent time at both the blockade in Portland, Oregon and the Northwest Detention Center Occupation in Tacoma, Washington. I think it is so inspiring and exciting that these occupations and blockades are happening all over the country. I wish they were happening in every city, at every ICE facility.

At both of these occupations, there were many anarchists with whom I felt affinity; but there were also aspects of these occupations that reminded me of the worst parts…

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Towards a World without Bullshit Jobs.. Interview with David Graeber on his Theory

Shared from Roar with thanks

In this interview about his latest book, David Graeber discusses the role of unions, the challenges posed by automation and “the revolt of the caring classes.

Is your job pointless? Do you feel that your position could be eliminated and everything would continue on just fine? Maybe, you think, society would even be a little better off if your job never existed?

If your answer to these questions is “yes,” then take solace. You are not alone. As much as half the work that the working population engages in every day could be considered pointless, says David Graeber, Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and author of Bullshit Jobs: A Theory.

According to Graeber, the same free market policies that have made life and work more difficult for so many working people over the past few decades have simultaneously produced more highly paid managers, telemarketers, insurance company bureaucrats, lawyers and lobbyists who do nothing useful all day. Labor journalist Chris Brooks interviewed David Graeber to learn how so many pointless jobs came to exist and what it means for labor activists. Continue reading “Towards a World without Bullshit Jobs.. Interview with David Graeber on his Theory”