I enjoy reading histories of past activism, including memoirs by long-time activists, such as Lawrence Wittner’s new book, Working for Peace and Justice . Almost every such account includes belated discoveries of the extent to which a government has been spying on and infiltrating activist groups. And almost every such account includes belated discoveries of the extent to [...]

A huge crowd gathered for several hours and marched for over two miles in the hot sun to oppose NATO and U.S. wars on Sunday in Chicago.  Finishing the march outside the NATO meeting, numerous U.S. veterans of current wars denounced their previous “service” and threw their medals over the fence, a scene not witnessed [...]

MAY 20, 2012, MILITARIZED CHICAGO — Next month in Baltimore they’re going to celebrate the War of 1812.  That’s what we do with wars.  We say they’re the last resort.  We say they’re hell.  We say they’re for the purpose of eliminating themselves: we fight wars for peace.  Although we never keep peace for wars.  [...]

Now here’s a book that’s meant to be used: ” Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution ” edited by Andrew Boyd and Dave Oswald Mitchell.  The subtitle should be “Try this at home — but innovate!”  Instead it’s “From the people who brought you the Yes Men, Billionaires Against Bush, etc.” Beautiful Trouble is a terrific addition to [...]

We protest the G-8 and NATO, but not Bilderberg.  Why? Do you have to be xenophobic, paranoid, isolationist, or libertarian to protest a secretive gathering of over 100 billionaires, industrialists, media barons, and politicians working to shape our public sphere, or has the left dropped the ball?  Is it time for Occupy to step in? From [...]

You’d never know it from watching television, but there are many thousands of people in the United States who take peace, justice, environmental protection, and government of the people so seriously that they don’t censor themselves whenever the president is a Democrat. While many others are still debating whether it would be appropriate to criticize [...]

Originally published in the Indypendent Reader In this bicentennial year of the War of 1812, the StarSpangledBaltimore.com website tells us:

The War of 1812 represents what many see as the definitive end of the American Revolution. A new nation, widely regarded as an upstart, successfully defended itself against the largest, most powerful navy in the world during the maritime [...]

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Wilkins heard the arguments on Friday in Washington, D.C., and is deliberating now on the question of whether young people can sue to compel their government to take serious measures to stop global warming. Judge Robert Wilkins is familiar with discrimination, having been the plaintiff in a well-known driving-while-black case of racial [...]

Bank of America has hired G4S for its shareholder meeting.  According to Wikipedia:

“G4S plc (formerly Group 4 Securicor ) ( LSE: GFS , OMX: G4S ) is a global security services company headquartered in Crawley, United Kingdom. It is the world’s largest security company measured by revenues and has operations in more than 125 countries. With over 630,000 employees, it is [...]

On March 9th the Federal Aviation Administration requested comments from the public on drone test sites.  On May 8th, lengthy comments were submitted by Not 1 More Acre! and Purgatoire, Apishapa & Comanche Grassland Trust.  The FAA asked all the wrong questions, but still got a lot of the right answers.  When the drone accidents start, [...]

By Leah Bolger and David Swanson

We did not choose this war.  This war came to us on 9/11.  We don’t go looking for a fight.  But when we see our homeland violated, when we see our fellow citizens killed, then we understand what we have to do.

These are the words that President Obama used on [...]

There’s a new Atrocity Prevention Board in town, and its chief tool for preventing atrocities will be . . . wait for it . . . atrocities! What a breakthrough! And this clown is forming a tentative life partnership with an unbelievably beautiful model from Libya.  The key word is “unbelievably.” The Atrocity Prevention Board is rumored [...]

Two key steps have helped to ruin May Day in the United States.  First, Labor Day was created at a completely different time of year — labor day without the struggle, labor day without the history, labor day without the labor movement.  Second, Loyalty Day was created on May 1 st. Loyalty Day is a monstrosity [...]

Sibel Edmonds’ new book, Classified Woman , is like an FBI file on the FBI, only without the incompetence. The experiences she recounts resemble K.’s trip to the castle, as told by Franz Kafka, only without the pleasantness and humanity. I’ve read a million reviews of nonfiction books about our government that referred to them as “page-turners” and “gripping [...]