MetaFilter posts tagged with activism

Mr. Kramer's Opus

Joe Beese — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:17:15 -0800

From a simple insight, it has grown to some 4,000 pages. ... Whatever it is (he grudgingly calls it a novel, for legal reasons), [Larry Kramer] believes it to be an entirely true work. Certainly it’s epic. From primordial Florida swamps to the homophilic colony at Jamestown to Lincoln’s male love and the “holocaust” of AIDS, he reframes the country as a gay creation, culminating with the advent of modern antiviral drugs: “the single greatest achievement that gay people have accomplished in history.” (previously)

The Potential Power of Organized People

HP LaserJet P10006 — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:30:29 -0800

Amid the financial headlines (about new banking reforms, more bank failures, the need for more lending by the fat-cats, the question of whether a European-style bonus-tax might be possible here, and the shrinking of the middle class), on PBS yesterday Bill Moyers wondered, in an in-depth segment (with organizers from here and here), whether a new wave of populist economic activism is perhaps, despite all odds, beginning to make a dent after all.

The Occupation of Alcatraz 1969-71

Kattullus — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:14:48 -0800

Forty Thanksgivings ago Alcatraz Island was occupied by a number of Native American activists as a protest. The occupation lasted until June of 1971 The best place to learn about it is PBS's website for Alcatraz Is Not an Island, Jim Fortier's documentary about the Alcatraz Occupation. Besides an overview of the events it has video interviews with the people involved. [RealPlayer required] Here are photographs of the occupation, mostly from newspapers. For a flavor of how the local media covered the events, here's the San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive's Occupation of Alcatraz Collection which has over 40 contemporary newsreports [MPEG4]

Journalism - ethics + activism = propaganda

IvoShandor — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:21:42 -0800

Mark Bowden tells us "The Story Behind the Story" in the October issue of The Atlantic: "With journalists being laid off in droves, ideologues have stepped forward to provide the “reporting” that feeds the 24-hour news cycle. The collapse of journalism means that the quest for information has been superseded by the quest for ammunition. A case-study of our post-journalistic age." Related, from The Atlantic archives: The Massless Media by William Powers, January/February 2005. The recent stories about ACORN have similar implications.

Hi, I’m a person too.

heatherann — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:17:39 -0800

The Deal with Disability "Hey, I’m Eva. I’m 26 and a recent college graduate. I like to write, to take digital photographs, and just chill. But this blog is not about what I like. This blog is about how people treat me. You see, I am physically disabled. Actually “severely” physically disabled. I have Cerebral Palsy, which for me means I can’t walk, speak, or use muscles in traditional ways. I use a power wheelchair to get around and spell out what I want to say on a letterboard. This blog will be videos of people treating me bizarrely." (via bitch)

Occupy, not gentrify

puckish — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:23:07 -0800

The National Coalition for the Homeless announces that anti-homeless attacks are up, while Maryland becomes the first state to expand hate crimes legislation to include attacks on the homeless. Meanwhile, new DHS restrictions in New York close drop-in shelters and up restrictions for faith-based homeless shelters, while New-York based advocacy group Picture the Homeless take over a vacant J.P. Morgan lot to protest rising vacancies in the face of the housing crisis

A Day in Hand

acb — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:52:40 -0800

The latest tool to challenge homophobia: same-sex hand-holding. This past weekend, a same-sex hand-holding relay was held in London, to coincide with Olympic-related events. It's not just for gay and lesbian couples; sympathetic heterosexuals are encouraged to join in and take a stand, or rather a stroll, for tolerance.

Awards can't save forests.

divabat — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:25:57 -0800

Awards can't feed the hungry. (via, with supporting links)

home planet

nickyskye — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:34:24 -0800

June 5th was established in 1972 as World Environment Day by the United Nations General Assembly. Home, the movie by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, which premieres today for the occasion, has some nice aerial visuals. Related. The movie's home site.

mapping snoops annotate North Korea

nickyskye — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:51:49 -0800

North Korea has a reputation as one of the most secretive, authoritarian, repressive countries in the world. But that doesn't stop Curtis Melvin, a PhD student at George Mason University, from trying to shine some light into the country's dark corners l His North Korea Economy Watch site, which includes The most authoritative map of North Korea on Google Earth l Gulags, Nukes and a Water Slide: Citizen Spies Lift North Korea's Veil.

“I want you to know I care deeply about your views”

univac — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:01:19 -0800

Single-payer health care advocates arrested at Senate hearing. On May 5, 2009 advocates of a U.S. national health care program disrupted a Senate Finance Committee event to call for single-payer healthcare to be part of the discussion. The eight protesters were subsequently arrested. The protesters included representatives of Physicians for a National Health Program, which favors the The United States National Health Care Act, H.R. 676. Committee Chair Max Baucus (D - Montana), who has received more money in contributions from health insurance companies than any other member of Congress, favors requiring Americans to purchase private health insurance from those companies. Baucus, who has previously said that single-payer is "off the table," responded to the doctors and their fellow activists with, “I want you to know I care deeply about your views," and then, "we need more police [to eject protesters]."

"Oh Dear"-ism

homunculus — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:18:52 -0800

Adam Curtis on the rise of "Oh Dearism" in television news. [SLYT, Via]

Crowdsourcing Activism

Bango Skank — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:42:21 -0800

A startup is proposing a new model for harnessing the power of the web for activism that gets results: bite sized actions, under written by corporate sponsors.

Radical Graphics

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 19:45:50 -0800

Radical Graphics you can use in your flyers against the system.

Rick Steves' Iran

Ogre Lawless — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:09:47 -0800

With many stations showing it over the next couple of days it may not be too late for you to catch Rick Steves' Iran. For a TV guy, Steves online documentation isn't bad either: read his compiled blog entries or peep his slideshow. We've discussed the fact that he's a man with an agenda before and that's certainly the case here as well.

Complex, partly private games

Abiezer — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:28:11 -0800

What DeLillo can tell us about Gilchrist Nicely-composed meditation on the parallels between the career of NZ political police tout Rob Gilchrist and the characters described in Don DeLillo's 1988 novel Libra.

Counting Calories

puckish — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:14:31 -0800

Two social justice teachers decide to start eating on one dollar a day. See also: Food Cost Index. Day 3: $5 toothpaste, $0.97 meal Day 21: We have ventured into new territory. Soup! We are eating a good deal of bean, rice, chickpea, and tomato based foods. (Dinner: 1 Bowl of Southwestern Tortilla Soup - $0.18) Day 27: We had ramen noodles today. It was hard to find something ready to eat, so we took the lazy way out. Despite the fact that I was longing for it earlier, I now realize that we have been lucky to avoid it. It is filling, but it has very little nutritional value, and too much salt. A little dated (from September), but still worth checking out.

Can Facebook Save the World

cal71 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:34:22 -0800

"Can Facebook defeat terrorism?" wonders Matt Armstrong. A conference of both web and social entrepreneurs, policy wonks, and activists will convene to create a how-to guide for changing the world through social networking tools. Jared "Children of Jihad" Cohen was a driving force behind the initiative. We've seen social networking impact an election, while others are already trying to change the world with it. This conference, while exciting and important, raises a few questions. Just look at the list who's convening it: "Facebook, Google, YouTube, MTV, Howcast, Columbia Law School and the U.S. Department of State Convene the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit." As Steve Corman notes: "...merely giving Facebook (or other social networking technologies) to people in other terrorism hotspots will probably do little until the right social conditions develop for them to have an imact. Facebook, by itself, is not enough to cause social movements that can defeat terrorism." Well said. Aren't the unique cultural conditions in each of these "hot spots" being ignored under the relatively new (and market-driven) idea of "global youth culture"? MTV is one of the organizers of this event, and they are certainly invested in promoting a global youth culture (read Naomi Klein's No Logo, ch 5 for more on this). Is this the apotheosis of certain brand identities, the moment when corporations merge with the government and with the left simultaneously? Will this initiative address the challenges of creating peaceful dialogue among cultures, or simply become overly enamored of the tools at its disposal? Do young people want their social networking time to be productive? Could Spam bring it all down? What about the digital divide? Shouldn't we be focusing on the more pressing technological issues that most people face? Can we do both at the same time? I'm very curious to hear feedback from the Blue on this.

Coming to a town near you... Prop 8 Protests

Glibpaxman — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:14:56 -0800

Proposition 8. Saddened? Curious? Outraged? Happy? Dont Care? On Saturday, November 15 in every state across America and even in cities worldwide there will be a day of action. The response has been so overwhelming the website organizers needed to open up a sister website to handle to traffic overload. In many cases, police are being updated repeatedly by event coordinators with exponential expectations for attendees. A taste of the action: Alabama, California, Texas, Iowa, New York, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Washington DC, International

The Right to Sleep

dinsdale — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:02:11 -0800

Crimes of Necessity On Oct. 14 2008 the B.C. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision declaring that, due to the lack of adequate homeless shelters, it was unconstitutional for the City of Victoria to prevent homeless individuals from erecting temporary structures for protection from the elements. The ruling culminates a multi-year campaign by David Arthur Johnston to establish the "right to sleep". As the decision is based on an interpretation of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the ruling applies to every municipality in Canada. In the wake of the decision, Victoria City Council passed a resolution which stipulates that such shelters must be removed by 7:00 each morning. David Arthur Johnston's Journal of the Occupation of St. Ann’s Academy (January 2004 to October 2008, chronological with the newest updates at the bottom.) Hope in a Homeless World (Monday Magazine) Park camps a useful push for real change (Victoria Times-Colonist) Tent City judgment is a revolution (The Republic of East Vancouver) Love and Fearlessness (full 90 minute documentary covering events leading up to the ruling.)

An outlaw view of the underbelly of the beast during the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:16:02 -0800

Fear and Loathing in Denver, Colorado - August 24-28, 2008.

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood not included in weekday program services this fall

k8t — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:55:08 -0800

After 40 years of national broadcasts, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood will be removed from PBS' weekday program service this fall. The current situation is that PBS beams the show to member stations as part of its children's programming block Monday through Friday. Most (63%) stations air it. Starting in the fall, PBS stations won't receive the show daily but rather one episode per week will be sent. This summer, PBS stations that still want to play the the show during the week will have an opportunity to receive a season's worth of episodes to stockpile. But receiving and scheduling those episodes requires effort. As such, contacting one's local PBS station requesting for the summer stockpile is one step. Here's a link to the station finder. One can also contact national PBS. Mrs. Rogers herself is encouraging people to do this. News article I don't mean this to be activistfilter, but past posts about Mr. Rogers seem to imply that others will care about this.

Between enraged and engaged Buddhism

homunculus — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:35:17 -0800

Asia's Angry Monk Syndrome. [Via]

Don't Say It Can't Be Done! -- This Brave Nation

carsonb — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:52:40 -0800

Pete Seeger and Majora Carter sit down together and bridge the generational gap with a discussion on environmentalism, activism, history, and music. A kind of "living history" project composed of short videotaped conversations, This Brave Nation brings together the most intelligent, passionate and creative voices of one generation with the activists, journalists and artists of the next to dialogue on loves, lives, politics and history. A coordinated effort from The Nation and the The Brave New Foundation.

A number we can live with

dead_ — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:05:41 -0800

Today marks the official 8-language launch of 350.org and the start of global action against climate change. But what does this 350 number even mean? As author Bill McKibben and a c h o r u s of scientific voices suggest, it means everything to the planet. If we want an earth at all, we'll need an Earth at 350.