Today in Labor History November 10, 1995: The Nigerian government executed playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight other members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop). Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent movement protesting the despoiling of Ogoniland by Royal Dutch Shell. Beverly Naidoo’s 2000 novel, “The Other Side of Truth,” is based on Saro-Wiwa’s execution, as is Richard North Patterson’s 2009 novel, “Eclipse.”
Informed by her time as a journalist, author Rhonda Roumani's Tagging Freedom is a thoughtful look at the intersection between art and activism, infused with rich details and a realistic portrayal of how war affects and inspires children.
We've just published volume 17 of George Lansbury's archive, which covers his peace campaign up until his death. It also includes lots of correspondence about refugees. It's online here: https://lse-atom.arkivum.net/uklse-dl1gl01
My friend is joining mastodon and needs some accounts to follow. Need some suggestions for accounts that focus on #activism#lgbtq#books#education and just accounts y'all really like!
No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.
A thought-provoking reconsideration of how the revolutionary movements of the 1970s set the mold for today's activism. The 1970s was a decade of "subversives". Faced with various progressive and revolutionary social movements, the forces of order—politicians, law enforcement, journalists, and conservative intellectuals—saw subversives everywhere.
I’m not a fan of the term “ally” as it has a performative ring. It implies doing as opposed to being. But I’ve come to accept the word as a metonym for a larger concept: good people. Better people.
—@clayrivers
Today in Labor History September 27, 1962: Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring was published, ushering in the modern environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
One thing a lot of white people, especially white men, get wrong is thinking that understanding a Black person’s experience is a zero-sum game in which they either understand every conceivable nuance about the Black experience or they understand none of it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
—@clayrivers
In case you haven’t noticed, the fight for racial equity in America is a five-alarm fire and the house is engulfed in flames, so the more hands, the better.
—@clayrivers
This week’s editor’s letter was written as a submission for an annual anthology a couple years ago. They wanted the thoughts of Black writers, so I took that as an invitation to share what it’s like, for me as a Black man, to watch white people come to grips with racism.
—@clayrivers
This is a comment I made on a thread on Lemmy. I thought I would share it here because it sums up a lot of the thoughts I have about twitter/x, and some of the leftist and liberal leaning content creators that remain. I am open to feedback and criticism though if you think I am missing something or being unfair.
I'm forgiving of artists because most of their customer base is there, and internationally, alt platforms are even more unknown. I am somewhat forgiving of journalists who want to reach the widest amount of people possible, despite the fact that Musk has been intentionally targeting and censoring journalists he doesn't like.
I really don't get a lot of leftist or liberal content creators though. Many constantly push the message that you vote with your wallet, and discourage patronizing businesses, services, or franchises that actively hate or harm marginalized people. Yet at the same time, they are using a platform owned by some who is literally trying to make the platform as hostile to marginalized people as possible. A lot of users have left twitter because they no longer feel safe using the platform. In fact, the reason you see a lot of queer people here on fediverse is because many of them are twitter refugees.
And yet many leftist and liberal creators remain on twitter, exclusively in fact. I could understand it if they pushed some content to alts to keep within reach of users that left while still maintaining their fanbase on twitter, but many of them won't even touch any of the alternatives, much less make themselves more reachable on youtube or other social platforms. By remaining on twitter, they are encouraging their userbase to remain as well, which creates engagement, which benefits ad companies who pay Musk, who funnels that into groups and causes that undermine their audience.
At this point, It is an integrity test for me. How large is this creator's following on twitter? How often does this person post and interact on twitter? and what have they said in the past about interacting with harmful brands? What's their excuse for remaining if any, and would they had accepted that excuse if the shoe was on the other foot?
I accept some people have an addiction, and as someone who tried to leave reddit many times, I know it can be a hard one to kick. But if your brand is built on integrity, standing up for the marginalized, and being ethical with your consumption habbits, remaining active on twitter is not a good look to me.
Today in Labor History August 14, 1846: The authorities jailed Henry David Thoreau for refusing to pay his taxes in protest of the Mexican War. Aside from this early act of American civil disobedience and war resistance, Thoreau also wrote, “Walden.” His essay, “Civil Disobedience,” influenced generations of activists and writers, including Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Tolstoy, Yeats, Proust, Hemingway, Upton Sinclair and Martin Buber.
I'm starting to get really tired of "should" posting, especially about #climatechange. I saw a post recently saying that personal responsibility was pointless, and that we should try to end capitalism, we should take the fight to the governments, armies and companies who cause the most pollution, and we should start a revolution to save the planet.
I see lots of calls to action, but no action.
I'm just doing what I can as an ordinary person to reduce my impact on the environment. I know it isn't going to save the world, but at this point, what else can I do? Honestly, I;m not ready to go to jail, die, or kill in order to fight climate change, and I doubt most people are at that point either. Most of us are just trying to survive.
If you want to start the revolution, be my guest, but you shouldn't shame people for the little they can do, and you certainly shouldn't post expecting others to fight your battles for you. Be the change you want to see in the world, because if people's actions had the same passion and gumption behind them as their posts on #Mastodon, the world would be very different now.
Visual Activism in the 21st Century: Art, protest and resistance in an uncertain world
"Our investigation is concerned with two domains – relating to the visual and to activism – and is premised on the question of whether there is good reason to believe that there is an increasingly strong association between these two domains"
Teens engaged in activism become better critical thinkers, study finds: Youth involved in community-based activism over time become better critical thinkers and more politically active, according to a new University of Michigan study. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-teens-engaged-critical-thinkers.html
@sociology@politicalscience@histodons#activism
I'm having trouble getting leads for a lit I know exists: Relation between activists working on local or specific issues and broader movement-building. I'm arguing there are tensions, not all local issues can become national, goal of fixing specific local problem not always congruent with building a bigger movement. Appreciate suggestions to academic or activist sources
Welcome @Nita_Alexander to the Fediverse!
You will feel welcome here! 💜
You may post an #introduction with #hashtags and saying if you are at John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio or at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia 🙂