Evo Morales knows about “change you can believe in.” He also knows what happens when a powerful elite is forced to make changes it doesn’t want.
Filed under Weekly Column
Alice Walker is the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But Monday, I called her to talk about a true story. The Obamas had just visited the White House. The first African-American elected president of the United States had visited his soon-to-be residence, a house built by slaves.
Filed under Weekly Column
Filed under D.N. in the News
Democracy Now! producer Anjali Kamat writes, “To all those for whom America has represented generations of racial injustice, the election of America’s first Black president marks the beginning of a new era…But unless the inspired millions who brought him to power continue to believe their demands matter and insist on holding him accountable each step of the way, it will be Obama’s corporate and hawkish friends who determine the domestic and foreign policies of the coming administration and our collective future.”
Filed under D.N. in the News
You could almost hear the world’s collective sigh of relief. This year’s U.S. presidential election was a global event in every sense. Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, represents to so many a living bridge—between continents and cultures.
Filed under Weekly Column
The legendary radio broadcaster, writer and oral historian Studs Terkel has died at the age of 96 in Chicago. Over the years Terkel has been a regular guest on Democracy Now!
In 2005, Studs Terkel appeared on Democracy Now! shortly after undergoing open heart surgery. He told Amy Goodman, “My curiosity is what saw me through. What would the world be like, or will there be a world? And so, that’s my epitaph. I have it all set. Curiosity did not kill this cat. And it’s curiosity, I think, that has saved me thus far.”
Filed under DN Archives
Election Day approaches, and with it a test of our election system’s integrity. Who will be allowed to vote; who will be barred? Who will get paper ballots; who will use electronic voting machines? Will polls be open long enough to accommodate what is expected to be a historic turnout?
Filed under Weekly Column
The candidates’ coffers are swelling with larger and larger bundles of cash, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the extended television discussions of this, because it’s the broadcasters who profit the most.
Filed under Weekly Column
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A movement is growing in support of the Jena Six—the black Louisana high school students charged with attempted murder for a school fight in which a white student was beaten up. The fight broke out after white students hung three nooses from a tree where the black students had sat. School board officials cut down the tree last week. Hundreds of people from all over the country gathered Tuesday for a march through Jena’s streets. Independent reporter Jordan Flaherty reports. [includes rush transcript]
The soft drink giant Pepsi has been forced to make an embarrassing admission—its best-selling Aquafina bottled water is nothing more than tap water. Pepsi has agreed to change its label under pressure from the advocacy group Corporate Accountability International (CAI) which has been leading an increasingly successful campaign against bottled water. We look at the economic and environmental costs of the bottled water industry with CAI’s Gigi Kellett and freelance journalist Michael Blanding. [includes rush transcript]
A protest against water privatization in El Salvador last month resulted in 13 demonstrators charged with committing acts of terrorism. If found guilty they could face up to 60 years of prison time under laws modeled on the USA Patriot Act. [includes rush transcript]
We end with a major victory for the opponents of water privatization. In 2003, the City Council of Stockton, California ignored overwhelming public opposition to approve a $600 million dollar, 20-year water privatization agreement. The deal gave a multinational consortium full control over the city’s water, sewage, and stormwater systems. But two weeks the council reversed the position and voted unanimously to resume control of its water utilities. We speak with Alan Snitow, co-director of an award-winning PBS documentary on water privatization and co-author of “Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of our Water.” [includes rush transcript]