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Estela Bravo’s Fidel (2001), A Documentary

Joanne Bealy Bright Lights Film Journal
Bravo's film was commissioned by Channel 4 in Britain, and won the Distinguished Achievement for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking from the Urbanworld Film Festival in New York, and played the Toronto International Film Festival to sold-out crowds despite the fact that it opened three days after the September 11th attacks. It has played in arthouses throughout the U.S. It and several other films about Castro, can now be viewed on YouTube and are also listed below.

The Left’s Secret Identity

Ethan Young Portside
Now, after the wave of new protests in the late Obama era, the Sanders campaign, and the post-primary mess that resulted in the election of Trump, there are signs of a new direction. As the shock of November 8 drives a turn toward left politics, many new converts are looking for orientation and training. The left has plenty of passion, but lacks a coherent organizing strategy or analysis of how power is defined by social relations from top to bottom.

The Victory at Standing Rock Could Mark a Turning Point

Bill McKibben The Guardian
When native American protesters sat down in front of bulldozers to try and protect ancestral graves, they were met with attack dogs – the pictures looked like Birmingham, Alabama, circa 1963. But it went back further than that: the encampment, with its teepees and woodsmoke hovering in the valley, looked like something out of an 1840s painting. But this was not just one tribe. The flags of more than 200 Indian nations lined the rough dirt entrance road.

Publish, Punish, and Pardon Nine Things Obama Could Do Before Leaving Office to Reveal the Nature of the National Security State

Pratap Chatterjee TomDispatch
At this late date, what might a president frightened by his successor actually do, if not to hamper Trump's ability to create global mayhem, then at least to set the record straight before he leaves the White House? Unfortunately, the answer is: far less than we might like, but as it happens, there are still some powers a president has that are irreversible by their very nature. Here are nine recommendations for action by the president in his last 40 days.

Trump’s $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan: Lincoln Had a Bolder Solution

Ellen Brown The Web of Debt Blog
Donald Trump was an outsider who boldly stormed the citadel of Washington DC and won. He has promised real change, but his infrastructure plan appears to be just more of the same – privatizing public assets and delivering unearned profits to investors at the expense of the people. He needs to try something new; and for this he could look to Abraham Lincoln, whose bold solution was very similar to one now being considered in Europe: just print the money.

Support Chelsea's Petition to Obama

Chelsea Manning Support Network Chelsea Manning Suppport Network
"New York Times, November 14, 2016 -- Chelsea Manning, who confessed to disclosing archives of secret diplomatic and military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010 and has been incarcerated longer than any other convicted leaker in American history, has formally petitioned President Obama to reduce the remainder of her 35-year sentence to the more than six years she has already served."

Immigrant Youth in the Silicon Valley: Together We Rise

Kent Wong, Mario De Leon et al UCLA Labor Center
This report intends to understand the experience of undocumented youth in the Silicon Valley. While previous studies have found that immigrant communities face low wages and difficulties in accessing affordable housing, this study presents key statistics about educational and employment prospects for immigrant youth residing in this region.