Reflections on the Victorious Hunger Strike - In first statement since end of hunger strike, Marwan Barghouti celebrates ‘the victory of the strike of freedom and dignity’

Marwan Barghouti; Allison Deger Mondoweiss
Barghouti’s statement, posted to social media around noon EST in Arabic. The letter lauds gains from the strike, including increased family visits, more clothing, special unnamed services for female and child prisoners, expedited transfers and, most importantly, the establishment of a collective bargaining committee where Israeli prison authorities will 'dialogue with the prisoners’ representatives in the forthcoming few days to discuss all issues without exception.'*

We Won't Always Have Paris - Withdrawing is a Crime Against Humanity

Edward Hunt Foreign Policy in Focus
The Trump administration today pulled out of the Paris agreement on climate change. That pits the U.S. against the world and the scientific consensus on global warming. Trump's comments on climate change during his meeting with European leaders prompted German leader Angela Merkel to conclude that Europe must increasingly go it alone. The Obama administration could have done more, while the Trump administration couldn't have done less. (John Feffer, FPIF)

Continuity or Change? Lenín Moreno Takes Power in Ecuador

Erika Astudillo Equal Times
Correísmo marked a turning point in Ecuador's history. Correa launched his administration with measures such as buying back the country’s debt, renegotiating oil contracts and better tax collection. As Lenin Moreno takes office he will seek to find ways to continue the progress made in reducing poverty while overcoming divisions in society. Moreno was Correa’s vice president between 2007 and 2013 where he was a strng advocate for people with disabilities.

Trump and Santos at the White House

By Chelsey Dyer NACLA
As protests in Colombia rage on, President Trump’s meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos could point towards a deepening of militarized drug war policies over investing in Colombia's peace process.

The Birthmark of Damnation: Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Black Body

By R.L. Stephens Viewpoint Magazine
What we find all too often in Coates’s narrative universe are bodies without life and a racism without people. To imbue race with an ontological meaning, to make it a reality all its own, is to drain it of its place in history and its indelible roots in discrete human action. To deny the role of life and people — of politics — is to also foreclose the possibility of liberation.

Class, Race and Political Strategy in the Rust Belt

Glenn Perusek The Stansbury Forum
Through much of the United States, Washington is viewed with deep suspicion. When unconnected with a higher purpose, said Augustine, the state is nothing more than highway robbery on a larger scale. (2) When was the last time the American state seemed connected to higher purpose? This sensibility is acute in the rust belt, with our towering hulks of shuttered steel mills, machine shops, auto assembly plants and so on.