Category Archives: Viva!

More on the Andijon massacre

Sarah Kendzior

I have an op-ed about the Andijon massacre in the New York Times:

On May 13, 2005, military forces dispatched by the government of Uzbekistan fired on a massive protest in the city of Andijon, killing hundreds of Uzbek citizens. The day before, thousands had gathered in Andijon’s Bobur Square to protest the imprisonment of 23 businessmen and, more broadly, to protest the deteriorating social, political and economic conditions of Uzbekistan.

The next day the crowd grew to over 10,000, some drawn by an expectation that President Islam Karimov would come to address the protest. Instead, demonstrators were greeted by gunfire. According to eyewitness accounts, the military fired indiscriminately, killing innocent bystanders. Human rights activists put the death toll at more than 700.

This is one narrative of what has come to be known as the Andijon massacre. It is the narrative that the Uzbek authorities do not want you to…

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Buffy Sainte-Marie: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee : Video-Lyrics

Indian legislation on the desk of a do-right Congressman

Now, he don’t know much about the issue

so he picks up the phone and he asks advice from the

Senator out in Indian country

A darling of the energy companies who are

ripping off what’s left of the reservations. Huh.

1.

I learned a safety rule

I don’t know who to thank

Don’t stand between the reservation and the

corporate bank

They send in federal tanks

It isn’t nice but it’s reality

chorus:

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee

Deep in the Earth

Cover me with pretty lies

bury my heart at Wounded Knee. Huh.

2.

They got these energy companies that want the land

and they’ve got churches by the dozen who want to

guide our hands

and sign Mother Earth over to pollution, war and

greed

Get rich… get rich quick.

chorus…

3. We got the federal marshals

We got the covert spies

We got the liars by the fire

We got the FBIs

They lie in court and get nailed

and still Peltier goes off to jail

chorus…

4.

My girlfriend Annie Mae talked about uranium

Her head was filled with bullets and her body dumped

The FBI cut off her hands and told us she’d died of

exposure

Loo loo loo loo loo

chorus…

We had the Goldrush Wars

Aw, didn’t we learn to crawl and still our history gets

written in a liar’s scrawl

They tell ‘ya “Honey, you can still be an Indian

d-d-down at the ‘Y’

on Saturday nights”

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee

Deep in the Earth

Cover me with pretty lies

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. Huh!

via Buffy Sainte-Marie: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee : Video-Lyrics.

Janice Suhji Lucha Libre

Janice Suhji is currently working on a project that involves home-made Luchador masks and vintage dresses in order to commemorate every woman who is fighting the unseen fight, taking her stand as a woman in this world. From hijabs, wedding veils, to recent beating of Pussy Riot in Sochi, Russia, mask has been and still is playing a significant role in the history of women.

In Máscara Contra Máscara, process is everything. First, comes the thrifting of feminine and domestic-looking dresses. Then, Suhji applies a skill that traditionally has always been a woman’s responsibility–sewing–in making one of the most masculine and violent symbols, a Mexican wrestling mask, that would go with the dress. Each home-made mask has its own wrestler name, is photographed on a female model, in an environment where the woman is camouflaged with the background. Each final image is a composite of minimum twelve photographs.

via Janice Suhji.

Robert Reich: To Play the Game or Change the Game – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

Robert Reich: To Play the Game or Change the Game – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.

In fact, Americans made only one percent of the products that generated Nike’s $27.8 billion revenue last year. And Nike is moving ever more of its production abroad. Last year, a third of Nike’s remaining 13,922 American production workers were laid off.

Most of Nike’s products are made by 990,000 workers in low-wage countries whose abysmal working conditions have made Nike a symbol of global sweatshop labor.

As wages have risen in China, Nike has switched most of its production to Vietnam where wages are less than sixty cents are hour. Almost 340,000 workers cut and assemble Nike products there.

In other words, Nike is a global corporation with no particular loyalty or connection to the United States. Its loyalty is to its global shareholders.

5 Things You Don’t Know About Linda Ronstadt | Dame Magazine

In the 1970s, Linda Ronstadt was selling out arenas and pumping out platinum albums like a pro. By the end of the decade she was the highest paid woman in rock. Of course, at the time, she was one of the only solo female acts in rock, and while she praises Billie Holiday for paving her way, Ronstadt set the stage for many to come. On look at this live rendition of “You’re No Good” on The Midnight Special and you’ll see why.

 

1) She lost her voice to Parkinson’s Disease.

In 2013 she revealed, in an AARP interview with DAME contrib Alanna Nash, that she sadly “can’t sing a note.”

via 5 Things You Don’t Know About Linda Ronstadt | Dame Magazine.

UKIP′s Farage battles for his future in South Thanet | Europe | DW.DE | 06.05.2015

Heading towards town, a UKIP poster declares “only one party can control our borders.” But it’s the rather rude graffiti defacing Farage’s image – including a toothbrush Hitler moustache – that truly catches the eye. Some houses carry party or candidate endorsements in their windows, but the majority do not. On show, for the most part, is the color purple, and Conservative blue.

via UKIP′s Farage battles for his future in South Thanet | Europe | DW.DE | 06.05.2015.

Leftist Party’s Win in Alberta May Affect Future of Oil Sands – NYTimes.com

With an economy dominated by the oil industry and a conservative, free-market political tradition, Alberta has long been cast as the Texas of Canada. But on Tuesday, not only did the province’s voters put the Progressive Conservative Party out of power after 43 years, they elected a government from the far left of Canada’s mainstream political spectrum.

The unexpected rise of the New Democratic Party, which was partly founded by labor unions, may have implications for Alberta’s oil sands, which, many critics say, enjoyed a light regulatory touch under Conservative governments. And with a federal election coming this year, the result will not be welcomed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative whose party’s power base is in Alberta, along with his own parliamentary constituency.

via Leftist Party’s Win in Alberta May Affect Future of Oil Sands – NYTimes.com.

Robert Reich: Trans Pacific Trickle-Down Economics – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

What we should have learned by now about trickle-down economics is that nothing trickles down.

If the Trans Pacific Partnership is enacted, big corporations, Wall Street, and their top executives and shareholders will make out like bandits. Who will the bandits be stealing from? The rest of us.

via Robert Reich: Trans Pacific Trickle-Down Economics – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.