Southern African Women Stand Their Ground Against Big Coal

Samantha Hargreaves and Hibist Kassa The South African Civil Society Information Service
More than 50 grassroots women activists from throughout Southern Africa met in late-January to coordinate their stand against the ravages of Big Coal, which includes sickness, displacement from stolen lands and food insecurity. The six-day strategy meeting, organized by WoMin, a regional alliance of women’s organizations fighting the impact of natural resource extraction, involved dozens of organizations in South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

A Story of Drinkers, Genocide and Unborn Girls

David Bauer Quartz
Men now outnumber women on the planet by 60 million, the highest ever recorded. Preference for sons in India and China is driving the trend, but those two countries are not the only ones struggling with an imbalanced population.

Safety Is Life-or-Death, Say Refinery Strikers

Samantha Winslow Labor Notes
So far 3,800 workers are off the job. Non-striking refinery locals are getting 24-hour contract extensions each day. But the unions says, if need be, it will bring more sites out. It's the first national refinery strike since 1980. Back then workers at all represented refineries went out together, and stayed out for three months before they got a deal.

Diane Nash -- Bio of a Civil Rights Activist

This short biography of Diane Nash features contemporary footage of Nash and her comrades in the Freedom Rides, in boycotts, sit-ins, marches and demonstrations, challenging segregation and facing down official and unofficial violence and hatred. Angela Bassett narrates.

The Fiery Cage and the Lynching Tree, Brutality’s Never Far Away

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers and Company
I couldn't sleep the night we heard the news of the Jordanian pilot’s horrendous end, burned alive in an iron cage. ISIS be damned! I thought. But then I was haunted by the story of our own barbarians, of decades of lynchings. By insiders. Our neighbors, friends, and kin.

Confessions of an Erratic Marxist in the Midst of a Repugnant European Crisis

Yanis Varoufakis Yanis Varoufakis
Yanis Varoufakis is currently the Greek Minister of Finance. In this essay, posted to his website one year ago, he explains why he believes that radicals must work to stabilize the Eurozone on a more equitable basis so as to mimimize human suffering and to provide the time and space to develop a humanist alternative to Corporate Europe. He also describes the influence of Karl Marx on his views and asserts the necessity to embrace -- critically -- Marx's insights.