Latina Lista tells us about the invaluable work of a new collaboration to publish the work of journalists who have been murdered around the world for simply committing acts of journalism:
The lucky journalists are the ones who live to finish their investigations, publish their stories and expose the criminals. The unlucky ones are those who end up sacrificing their lives for the sake of justice.
Too many times, murdered journalists not only leave behind grieving families, friends and co-workers but also unfinished stories. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 34 journalists have been killed in 2017.
In response to the growing dangers faced by many journalists, an unique project founded by the Freedom Voices Network, in partnership with Reporters Without Borders, strives to protect the work of journalists under attack.
Forbidden Stories, a non-profit initiative, is comprised of a network of journalists with one mission: “to publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison, or murder.”
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Breanna Edwards at The Root shows us that white supremacy will not be washed from our country in a sudden great wave of justice and consciousness raising, but in a long, arduous process of extrication, street by street, community by community:
If you’re gonna talk the talk, you’re gonna have to walk the walk. At least that’s what the Montgomery County, N.C., decided after a group of local firefighters refused to remove a Confederate flag from fire station property.
According to 11 Alive, the Uwharrie Volunteer Fire Department has been proudly flying the flag of losers and traitors for years, claiming that it represented history and heritage.
Montgomery County Commissioners, however, insisted that the flag was inappropriate and divisive and attempted to get the fire station to remove it.
“The Board of Commissioners stated their position, that they did think the flag was inappropriate and requested for the fire department to take it down,” Montgomery County Manager Matthew Woodard told the news station
By Tuesday, the Board of Commissioners issued an ultimatum in writing: remove the flag or lose full funding.
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Emily Moon, writing for Pacific Standard, gives us a clear reminder that elections have consequencesTM, at every level, and the minute details of rule making and bureaucratic procedures are often where the most crucial battles to save the world, and oppose the oligarchs, are fought:
More than 200,000 galloons of crude oil leaked from the Keystone Pipeline into a grassy field in South Dakota on Thursday—but regulators in neighboring Nebraska won't be able to consider the accident while approving a pipeline in their own state, officials say.
A 2011 Nebraska law prevents the state's Public Service Commission from factoring pipeline safety and leaks into its decision, because it's considered a federal issue and thus out of the state's purview…
State regulators will announce their decision on the Keystone XL's permits Monday—the last regulatory hurdle for company TransCanada, which also operates the Keystone Pipeline. The Keystone XL, which is part of the same pipeline network, would carry an estimated 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada though the Great Plains…
"It's hard to believe they won't hear about this massive spill," Doug Hayes, a senior attorney for the Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program, told the Hill. "It's one of the biggest concerns to Nebraskans."
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From Reina Gattuso at Feministing, we get a report on the tenth anniversary of Delhi Queer Pride:
This year’s event marked a decade of queer pride in Delhi, ten years characterized by struggle and love as the rights of queer and trans people, women, and other minorities took a roundabout journey. This year was full of both brutality and hope, evidenced in the placards and slogans of the march which drew attention to both LGBT rights and to the struggles of women and other minority communities. In the wake of increased lynching of Indian Muslims under the influence of right-wing fear-mongering, explosive movements against sexual harassment in universities, an ongoing struggle to ensure women’s right to choose spouse and religion, the pride march indicated the fundamental interrelatedness of LGBT rights and other struggles of oppressed people for justice and dignity.
This year’s platform reflected these interrelated struggles, calling for not only the repeal of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code — which outlaws “carnal acts against the order of nature,” including all non-heterosexual penis-in-vagina intercourse — but for the repeal of sedition laws, draconian anti-terrorism acts used to harass dissidents (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), and the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) which gives broad and much-abused powers to the Indian military in Kashmir and the Northeast region of the country. The Delhi Queer Pride Committee demanded comprehensive anti-discrimination and anti-hate crime legislation. Finally, they demanded “effective implementation” of the Supreme Court’s landmark 2014 NALSA judgement, which gives comprehensive protections to transgender people but which has yet to be seriously enforced.
The message for progressives in the US— our struggles, our causes, our values, are always global, always local, always urgent; lives hang in the balance every day.
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Justin Weinberg at the Daily Nous, a website focused on the work and concerns of philosophers in academia, shines a light on the pervasive and persistent misogyny and gender discrimination in philosophy departments across the country, making it painfully clear that ostensibly high-IQ confers no immunity to the pathology of male ego insecurity:
It was impossible for me to get credit for my own work… and for the faculty to put the two things together: me, Lisa Lloyd, the woman, and my own original work… So what can you say?
That’s Professor Elisabeth Lloyd, the Arnold and Maxine Tanis Chair of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, discussing her graduate school experiences in an episode of Sci Phi, a philosophy podcast series hosted by Nicholas Zautra, an Indiana PhD student.
previous Alternative Voices Roundup compilations:
Alternative Voices Roundup: Other voices around the net.
Alternative Voices Roundup: Other voices around the net. (Oct. 29, 2017)
Alternative Voices Roundup: Other voices around the net. (Nov. 6, 2017)
Alternative Voices Roundup: Other voices around the net. (Nov. 12, 2017)