In the November issue:
Taking
Back Iraq's Oil
by Jeff Sowers
Oil may not be the only reason
the U.S. government is rushing into war with
Iraq, but it is certainly one of the main
reasons. Domestic politics, arms industry
sales, and other factors all play a role.
But for the money-hungry oil corporations,
like Exxon-Mobile, Shell, and BP, it is oil
that glitters like a mountain of diamonds
in the Iraqi desert.
read
more
Letters From Readers
Why I Oppose the War: I am
against a U.S. war against Iraq. I support
other countries standing up to the warmongering
rhetoric of Bush. I am for a nonviolent solution
that is international in scope.....
Dear School Principal: In an
attempt to balance the extremely patriotic
event that had been planned for 9-11-02 for
our students, my class worked on a unit about
the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. We looked
at library books and discussed the fact that
the people were like us in many ways.s....
read
more
Incidents
Mar Otherwise Successful Anti-War Protests
by Sandra Ahten
As evidenced by the recent demonstrations
in Washington, DC that drew nearly 200,000
protestors, the anti-war movement is being
"reinvigorated," as reported in
the October 30th New York Times. Locally,
the trend of increasing skepticism and opposition
to the Bush administration's plans to use
military force in Iraq has been reflected
in the growing number of people attending
the weekly protests along Prospect Avenue
organized by A.W.A.R.E., the Anti-War, Anti-Racism
Effort.... read
more
A
Review of Civil Liberties One Year After 9/11
by Stephen Hartnett
As the failed hunt for Osama
Bin Laden gives way to preparations for the
invasion of Iraq, and as the passing of a
year of mourning gives way to commercial exploitation
and political opportunism, many Americans
are beginning to realize that one of our most
pressing duties is to protect the Constitution
from the Patriot Act. Ponderously titled An
Act to Deter and Punish Terrorist Acts in
the United States and Around the World, to
Enhance Law Enforcement Investigatory Tools,
and for Other Purposes, the Act amounts
to the most drastic revision of US civil liberties
since the shameful Espionage Acts of 1917
and 1918. The Acts final phrase, and
for Other Purposes, sounds ominously
like a blank check for government intervention...
read
more
Protestors
As Targets
By Belden Fields
Santa
Claus Conquers the Longshoremen
By Ricky Baldwin
The mainstream media have buried
the biggest labor story in decades, far bigger
than the Reagan Administrations decision
to fire the air traffic controllers. The Bush
Administration has used the 1947 Taft-Hartley
Act, not to break a strike, but to slap down
a union already locked out by employers. Never
before has the government used this power
in a lockout... read
more
Chuck
D Takes on MTV
By Shawn Gaynor
(originally published by the Ashville
Global Report)
Chuck D, front man of the Hip-hop
group Public Enemy, is once again at odds
with the mainstream music world, this time
over song lyrics that MTV finds objectionable.
So what is the word in question? Is it booty,
bitch, ho? No, the word in question is "free",
as in "free Mumia and H. Rap Brown"...
read
more
Letter
from Guatemala, August 24, 2002
by Jessica Pupovac
It has been a while since I
have had the chance to write. A lot has been
going on down here and with me personally
and I havent had much opportunity to
sit at a computer much less organize my thoughts.
Most significant, however, I should tell you
before continuing that 500,000 communion wafers
turned out to NOT BE ENOUGH during Pope John
Pauls visit to Guatemala City recently.
Can you believe it? Guatemalans everywhere
found themselves embarrassed and disillusioned
and without a communion wafer. As if being
found guilty of genocide in the Spanish courts
a couple months ago werent enough...
read
more
The
World Summit in Johannesburg
by Michael Goldman
On the drive from the Johannesburg
airport to the wealthy white suburb of Sandton
host to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable
Development, the largest international conference
ever colorful billboards cajole Summit
delegates to taste and enjoy the citys
tap water, boasting that it is as pure and
clean as bottled water. Suspended above the
airport freeway, Black township boys splash
joyfully in an endless bath of fresh blue
tap water. Unlike bottled water, the messages
imply that Joburgs water is free,
clean, and for all to enjoy... read
more
A
Development Distaster: The Pak Mun Dam in
Thailand
by Joe Rupp
For the past half-decade Thailand's
Pak Mun Dam has been recognized by environmental
and human rights groups as a posterchild of
insensitive, inequitable, top-down development
strategy. Despite civil society's criticism,
however, thousands of local villagers still
squat in a makeshift, shantytown protest village
only yards from the dam. They eat, sleep and
commune in protest of the dam that has stolen
their own livelihoods, their families' food
source and their children's playground. Still
today their demands to permanently decommission
the dam, restore the river ecology and revitalize
community health remain unmet... read
more
About
This Issue
Poetry
by Matthew Murrey
Leverage
Woodcutter
Detained
Obsessed
read
more
March
IMC Calendar
Middle
Room Gallery
Past Issues
Aug2001
| Sept2001
| Oct2001
| Nov2001
| Dec2001
| Feb2002
| March2002
| April2002
| Oct 2002