"...What opened my eyes was the experience of going to Washington, DC not for a demonstration, but for a national conference...The purpose of this portal is to provide an experience as close as possible to that...." Read more....
GET YOUR NEWS
DO IT!
PEOPLE AND GROUPS
Democracy Now The morning news as it ought to be. On radio and the Web; headlines via a daily e-mail newsletter.
antiwar.com Basic source of war news and antiwar news
Common Dreams Both a portal to a broad spectrum of news and (left of center) opinion, and a daily compilation of articles on current events.
Resources
FAIR provides analysis of media and media bias. It puts out an excellent magazine and a newsletter, a radio program, and a terrific (about three a month) e-mail newsletter with information alerts and well focused action alerts--as well as a trove of info on its website.
Counterpunch Radical daily webzine.
CORP-FOCUS is a weekly e-mail newsletter that scrutinizes multinational corporations. "Written with a sharp edge..."
The Weekly Spin One can't understand the media and how they affect our lives without understanding how the public relations industry works. This newsletter will keep you up to date. See also the related website: http://www.prwatch.org/ The newsletter authors, John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, have written outstanding books on the pr industry: Toxic Sludge is Good For You, and Trust Us, We're Experts.
Economic Reporting Review A weekly newsletter by Dean Baker which provides analysis of the economic news of the week. Great resource! Baker demystifies economics, and provides an education in the subject by way of regular critiques of articles in the New York Times and Washington Post.
Znet is an important institution of the Left. Its website has many articles on current events, and an archive of articles. This is one of Noam Chomsky's web vehicles, and you can find his recent articles and interviews and speeches here. One feature, available to subscribers who pay an annual fee of at least $20, is the sustainers forums, in which the subscriber can engage in e-mail correspondence with Chomsky, Znet founder Michael Albert, and others.
The Official Noam Chomsky Website
The Institute for Public Accuracy seeks to broaden public discourse. With systematic outreach to media professionals, the Institute provides news releases that offer well-documented analysis of current events and underlying issues.
Institute for Policy Studies - Ideas into Action for Peace, Justice, and the Environment. "A think tank for the rest of us."
The New York Times Newsroom Navigator A basic Web resource. If you don't know it, go for a visit.
The Corporation Documentary film. From the review by Corp-Focus: "Scrap the civics curricula in your schools, if they exist. Cancel your cable TV subscriptions. Call your friends, your enemies and your family. Get your hands on a copy of this movie and a copy of this book. Read the book. Discuss it. Dissect it. Rip it apart. Watch the movie. Show it to your children. Show it to your right-wing relatives. Show it to everyone. Organize a party around it. Then organize another." There's a good set of links to informational as well as activist resources here.
BLOGS
Freedom of the press is for those who own one? Not anymore. The blogosphere is an antidote to the pundits who are employed by the megacorporations that own the major media today, and who frame what passes for national debate.
Glenn Greenwald Greenwald, a former civil rights litigator, focuses on the subversion of democracy in America and its enablers in the media. In a class by itself.
Baghdad Burning Riverbend's brilliant, heartbreaking "Girl Blog from Iraq" has been inactive since April 26, when she announced her intention to leave Iraq. Invaluable, nonetheless.
Informed Comment by the incredibly knowledgeable Juan Cole is a basic source of info on Iraq and politics generally.
thismodernworld.com Blog by cartoonist Tom Tommorw, with links to his astonishing weekly cartoons and the cartoon archive.
Firedoglake A basic source, along with Greenwald, on the struggle to restore constitutional government to the United States. Its lawyer-writers provide a sort of CSPAN web coverage of key congressional hearings and trials.
Crooks and Liars A good source on politicians, with good video links.
Easy Stuff
1. Keep informed. (See left-hand column.)
2. Talk with your friends and acquaintances and your family about war and peace and democracy and social justice.
3. Follow the doings of organizations you respect. You can find some suggestions in the right-hand column. Let us know of others.
4. Go to local rallies and demonstrations.
5. Write thoughtful letters (and send via snailmail) to your members of congress and the president.
6. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper.
7. Subscribe to Action Alerts from organizations such as FAIR (see left-hand column) or moveon.org or Not in Our Name (see right column), and write letters when this is called for.
8. Make financial contributions to groups whose work you support.
9. Sign the Voters Pledge. It's not an innocuous online petition, but a pledge: "I will not vote for or support any candidate for Congress or President who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression, a public position in his or her campaign."
."The Voters' Pledge is a project comprising many of the major organizations in the antiwar movement, United for Peace and Justice, Peace Action, Gold Star Families for Peace, Code Pink, and Democracy Rising, as well as groups with broader agendas like the National Organization for Women, Progressive Democrats of America, AfterDowningStreet.com, and magazines including the American Conservative and The Nation." Daniel Ellsberg See also the Voters For Peace website and its Voters For Peace Activist Toolbox.
Major Stuff
1. Find out what if any good organizations working for peace and justice exist in your area, and contact them to make their acquaintance. Go to one of their meetings.
2. If there are no groups you like in your area, get in touch with like-minded friends and acquaintances, and consider forming one, perhaps a local chapter of one of the groups listed to the right. The Organizers Manual of the War Resisters League which is available for $10 including postage tells how to do this. It covers the ABC's of forming and maintaining an organization, and includes such subjects as holding meetings, publicity, fundraising, leafleting, etc. Contact United For Peace and Justice or Moveon.org or Not in Our Name or the Green World Center or the group of your choice for help and advice.
3. Go to a regional or national conference on peace or social justice. You can find some here and more through groups in the right hand column
4. Make major financial contributions to groups whose work you support.
5. Use your own special talents: "If you have legal training, help political detainees; if you knit, send hats for children to Iraq; if you act, do street theatre to educate people in your community."
Misc. Other Stuff
Workshops, conferences, training, publications, and other resources for organizing
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Deadly Mistakes? | Democracy Dialogues | Home page
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The Future of the Internet is up for grabs
We must understand that virtually all media --TV, radio, phone-- will soon be delivered digitally through the Internet. With increasing speeds, every Web site holds the revolutionary potential to become a TV or radio network, breaking the corporate bottleneck on media access and distribution. But today, cable and phone companies are mounting a full-court press in Washington to privatize the Internet, and make them the gatekeepers to all media -- by removing the long-standing principle of "Net Neutrality" on the Internet. Fortunately, public backlash is winning the day (so far), buoyed by the SavetheInternet.com . Click here for another good resource.
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The National
Organizers Alliance has links to dozens of groups. So does Historians
Against War.
Educators To Stop The War has a page of links to groups relevant to teachers and others.
United for Peace and Justice is "a nonpartisan resource for anti-war and social change activists."
Stop Torture Now looks like a good resource for activism and information.
Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Since our founding in 1988, we have successfully increased public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change.
CODE PINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities.
Moveon.org is a major group.
So is Not in Our Name,
Links to many
civic groups here:
http://www.essential.org ,
http://www.essentialaction.org/
, and
http://www.essential.org/links.html
The Youth and Counter-Militarism project of the War Resisters League has links to numerous groups regarding the draft and related issues.
Peace Brigades International (PBI) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which protects human rights and promotes nonviolent transformation of conflicts.
"When invited, we send teams of volunteers into areas of repression and conflict. The volunteers accompany human rights defenders, their organizations and others threatened by political violence. Perpetrators of human rights abuses usually do not want the world to witness their actions. The presence of volunteers backed by a support network helps to deter violence. We create space for local activists to work for social justice and human rights. " Where does PBI work? Currently, we have volunteers protecting human rights activists in Colombia, Indonesia, andMexico, as well as a project restarting inGuatemala and a joint project with other organizations in Chiapas, Mexico."
Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) is a pacifist organization which "seeks to replace violence, war, racism and economic injustice with nonviolence, peace and justice.Ę We are an interfaith organization committed to active nonviolence as a transforming way of life and a means of radical change. We educate, train, build coalitions and engage in nonviolent and compassionate actions locally, nationally, and globally. Since 1915, FOR has carried on projects concerned with domestic and international peace and justice, nonviolent alternatives to conflict and the rights of conscience. The FOR promotes nonviolence and has members from many religious and ethnic traditions. The International Fellowship of Reconciliation, which has affiliates in over 40 countries. We envision a world of justice, peace and freedom. It is a revolutionary vision of a beloved community where differences are respected, conflicts are addressed nonviolently, oppressive structures are dismantled and where people live in harmony with the earth, nurtured by diverse spiritual traditions that foster compassion, solidarity and reconciliation." For more information, contact: FOR-USA, P.O. Box 271, Nyack, NY 10960 USA. Tel.: 845-358-4601; E-mail: for@forusa.org Web site: www.forusa.org
Campus Antiwar Network has affiliated groups on many campuses, and a good website
The website of the film The Corporation has a good set of links to activist groups, especially ones dealing with issues pertaining to corporations.
There are links to an interesting little assortment of international labor groups and other groups at Naomi Klein's site. When you get to the home page, click on the Contacts tab. (A valuable site overall.)
Vote Power
One reason bad candidates win elections is that they outpoll their opponents. Another reason is that their opponents offer little improvement. Here are some organizations that help organize vote power AND that work to change the system:
For Voters for Peace and the antiwar Voters Pledge, see center column, top.
The League of Pissed Off Voters - Offers resources and organizing help, including organizing college campuses.
See Wellstone Action, center column.
Other Groups
"USAction and our affiliates in 24 states join together to win social, racial and economic justice for all. We connect issues to elections and policy to politics. We seekĘto take our democracy back from the corporate elite and the well-heeled special interests that dominate the political process today." USAction is involved with a number of issues, such as public education, preserving Social Security, and voter mobilization.
Alliance for Justice works "to promote a fair and independent judiciary and to strengthen public interest advocacy. They offer training programs.
www.stopbigmedia.com The name says it.
More to come....