tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19380916292346955942024-03-14T06:43:49.011+00:00Updates ( Newsletter of SSF )Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-81523829993263191892009-11-02T23:05:00.002+00:002009-11-02T23:10:20.924+00:00Inequity increasing in globalization age, says prof. BeckInequalities and stratifications among world populations are increasing in the light of globalization, Harvard University professor Ulrich Beck said Tuesday.<br /><a href="http://crossroadsmag.eu/images/2008/review/Schuman/UlrichBeck.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 168px;" src="http://crossroadsmag.eu/images/2008/review/Schuman/UlrichBeck.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a> <br />Beck’s lecture on modernization, “risk society” and cosmopolitanism, titled “Remapping Social Equality in the Global Age,” drew an audience of about 100 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Beck is a sociologist and a sociology professor at the University of Munich, who also holds a position at the London School of Economics in sociology, and has written seven books on the topic.<br />Beck said the injustices in global society come from misplaced nationalism and protectionism.<br />“These inequalities cannot exist in a modern society,” he said. “We must not cling to old loyalties.”<br />Beck also coined the sociological term “risk society,” meaning “the process of societal progress by assessing and organizing according to the risks it faces,” he said.<br />The current risk, he said, was a lack of individual involvement in globalization and global society, resulting in insularity and xenophobia. <br />He said there are cultural, social and economic boundaries between countries, so it is important for government to engage in exchange rather than isolation. <br />“Active members in this exchange, who embrace a cosmopolitan perspective, are the ones who are succeeding in the twenty-first century,” he said. “Young people, transnational organizations [and] the global elites who have power and influence accept and embody this idea.”<br />Beck also said there are other global issues that play into the risks and balances of social groups, contributing or hindering progress. His main example was climate change. <br />“This is a border-transcending issue,” he said. “The normal inequalities and vulnerabilities are exposed and exaggerated by this issue.” <br />Beck said it is necessary to address climate change in a global dialogue that was not subject to national interests.<br />“The more that ecological conflicts become stratified and divided by national borders, the more that impoverished and subjugated people will suffer,” he said. <br />Harvard urban planning professor Susan Fainstein said she came to the lecture because she was interested in Beck’s perspective on how communities and governments could incorporate global concerns in planning infrastructure and development. <br />“Professor Ulrich is foremost in his field and in innovative understanding of the challenges we face today,” she said. “His ideas are the ideas we need to incorporate in planning for our future.” <br />Harvard sophomore student Chris Ivey said he found Professor Beck’s lecture interesting and provocative. <br />“I wouldn’t have drawn all of the connections that he did,” Ivey said. “It was a good perspective on issues and what needs to happen in the future for a more equal society.” <br />Harvard freshman Bennett Locke said the lecture was illuminating.<br />“I learned a lot about interconnectedness among issues and how not engaging in global really is damaging.” <br /><br /><a href="http://www.dailyfreepress.com/inequity-increasing-in-globalization-age-prof-says-1.1942838">source</a>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com66tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-40620311678383776002009-10-11T23:04:00.001+00:002009-10-11T23:04:48.936+00:00Human Rights`Center: Wellcome!!<h3>Welcome!!!</h3> <div><img style="WIDTH: 942px; HEIGHT: 150px" title="banner.gif" alt="banner.gif" src="http://www.humanrightscities.org/images/banner.gif" width="200" height="31"></div> <p>Human rights are for all people, everywhere, and under all circumstances. There are no exceptions. That is what all governments promised when they signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.<br><br>Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the small committee that drafted the Declaration (1948) and the aim was to clarify the universality of human rights --- consistent with all political ideologies, all ethical systems, all world religions, and the tenets of all economic systems. The Declaration is truly international, embraced by peoples everywhere.<br> <br>But then Eleanor Roosevelt made this remarkable statement:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.</em> </p> </blockquote> <div>The Center for Human Rights will be tackling three big projects "in small places:" youth programs, workshops in the community, and "going to bat" for those in our community who experience discrimination.<br><br>The Center is located in the barrio, in the tradition of Saul Olinsky, Cesar Estrada Chavez, and Barack Obama. Students who take Judith Blau's classes on human rights have the opportunity to connect theory with practice through service-learning. Their idealism and commitment inspires us. As they say, "Si se puede --Changing the world, two cities at a time." They are truly amazing and we thank them all.<br> <br><br><strong>Judith Blau</strong>, Director<br><br><strong>Rafael Gallegos</strong>, Assistant Director</div> <div> </div> <div>See the homepage of <a href="http://www.humanrightscities.org/">Human rights` Center</a></div> Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-52153499025565952009-10-06T23:02:00.001+00:002009-10-06T23:02:55.872+00:00Mark Frezzo Interview with Walda Katz-Fishman<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" dir="ltr" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#ff0000"><strong><font size="4">Mark Frezzo Interview with Walda Katz-Fishman</font></strong></font></font></span></p> <p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> <img title="walda.JPG" alt="walda.JPG" src="http://api.ning.com/files/jGHFtF-TpMVqe31SepWp8qjIs*hVXuILeOOE*QO1NoNSx*sYpcmin*-S2Wde4qWER1ww2aqb7m4r0NmI3TMfy9WnPNcZhxl6/walda.JPG" width="199" height="200"></font></span></p> <ol style="MARGIN-TOP: 0cm" type="1"> <li style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"><i><span lang="EN-US">Since the 2004 Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), there has been considerable debate on the concept of "public sociology." On the one hand, proponents of public sociology have been divided between those who advocate deploying sociological research to alleviate inequalities of gender, race, and class—something akin to "applied sociology"—and those who favor mobilizing sociological acumen to support the agendas of activists. On the other hand, opponents of public sociology have fallen into two camps: those who find the concept tautological and superfluous (on the assumption that professional sociology is, by definition, geared to the service of the public); and those who find the concept contradictory (on the assumption that professional sociology is duty-bound to avoid taking political positions). What is your perspective on public sociology? To what extent does the concept inform your research and teaching at </span></i><i><span lang="EN-US">Howard</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US"> </span></i><i><span lang="EN-US">University</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US">? To what extent does it inform your activist work with Project South? </span></i></font></font></li> </ol> <p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p> <p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">The ASA in 2004 was a wonderful confluence of events. It was the year of Michael Burawoy's presidency, with his programmatic focus and address on public sociology, as well as the year Jerome (Scott) and I received the ASA award for public sociology. Not surprisingly, as you suggest, the whole concept and practice of public sociology is a highly contested terrain between those who embrace a sociology dialectically connected to social struggle and collective human agency, and those who profess a value-neutral sociology, which of course supports the politics of the status quo and is quite the opposite of apolitical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></span></p> <p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p> <p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">And even among those who support engagement with various publics, the question is always which publics and whose interests are we really serving? Are we putting sociology in the service of the interests of the mandarins of the state and NGOs looking for policy reforms and program funding to extend the life of capitalism in crisis, or are we linking sociology as theory and practice to a liberatory vision and praxis that serves the interests of those most dispossessed and oppressed in today's world, and the very survival of humanity and the planet?</font></span></p> <p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p> <div style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Public sociology exists within a historical context of change and the dialectical unity of theory and practice. But, because even that can mean different things, the point is the content and quality of change, actors, and agency. For some, change is reform – better policies for those marginalized, excluded, exploited, and oppressed; and change agents are policy makers, research experts, and advocates.</font></span></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></span> </div> <div style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Read continue here in <a href="http://api.ning.com/files/ah9fzZdJubdwxFxrYznscd69iCbS*CnwfLh7HPX6pX58Wa3xuumtvFmxhMxmjOvW3AGfbtMJS73PKTTTSI6VEYjPdpGi3m6v/waldassfinteview.doc">SSF Think Tank</a></font></span></div> Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-13672619955076683912009-01-28T00:01:00.002+00:002009-01-28T00:09:26.177+00:00The Fallacies of Neoliberalism and the Emergence of Human Rights<a href="http://www.opuslibros.org/Imagenes/Moncada.jpg"><br /><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 155px; height: 170px;" src="http://www.opuslibros.org/Imagenes/Moncada.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><strong>Alberto Moncada </strong><br /><br />Translated by Louis Edgar Esparza <br /><br /> <strong>Introduction </strong><br /> <strong>H</strong>ow is it possible that an economic system that benefits merely ten percent of the populace is accepted by a plurality of the population? <br /> <strong>H</strong>ow is it possible that well-regarded popular economists defend this system uncritically, especially now that there is an international reaction against it, translating into political transformations under the thumb of neoliberalism? <br /><br /> <strong>N</strong>eoliberalism is the ultimate and most extreme version of capitalism, begun by heads of state, Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain and Ronald Reagan in the United States taking advantage of the moment of collapse of the communist system. This final version is accentuated by globalization. <br /><br /> <strong>B</strong>ut Globalization is the third chapter in the history of capitalism. The first was state capitalism, colonization, exercised by powerful states over other, weaker ones, to defend themselves against their own risks and to control their activity, generally preferring the use of force. This is the case between Spain and Latin America, between England and India, and between Belgium and the Congo. The protection of states against their own business enterprise will be the subject of the second chapter. The United States sends their Army to protect the interests of the United Fruit Company in Central America, founding the expression "banana republic." In another sense, this is the origin of the military coup in Chile and as usual, with the petroleum problem, with the crisis in the Middle East. In the third chapter, the protagonists are the multinational corporations that benefit from the protection of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and especially the World Trade Organization, to privilege their own interests over the interests of the states on which they are sitting upon. This chapter represents the moment of the most amount of liberty of capital, not so much to open up the borders to free trade, but more to impose upon those countries onto which the labor and environmental laws they exploit. This freedom allows an organizational reinforcement that goes from foreign direct investment to the creation of monetary paradises where they hide their money, leading to the overvalued financial sector and again, the exploitation of the countries in which this occurs. <br /><br />See full text <a href="http://api.ning.com/files/t1CrdIA3JdbIXBhEdq6yKf*IM2iCyRZUpK9EAVMNvgsa*xK-U4fiWsy7EGA6vnEOCCCg2Sl75KiXxOhUrnE1ZLYJkYnpm5On/TheFalsehoodsofNeoliberalism.pdf"><strong>here</strong></a>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com520tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-24901557717679315362008-10-15T16:29:00.002+00:002008-10-15T16:33:21.116+00:00The Depression: A Long-Term View<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOKALA%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:applybreakingrules/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Normal tabell"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">by Immanuel Wallerstein</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Immanuel_Wallerstein.2008.jpg/180px-Immanuel_Wallerstein.2008.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 165px; height: 192px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Immanuel_Wallerstein.2008.jpg/180px-Immanuel_Wallerstein.2008.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"></span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The depression has started. Journalists are still coyly enquiring of economists whether or not we may be entering a mere recession. Don't believe it for a minute. We are already at the beginning of a full-blown worldwide depression with extensive unemployment almost everywhere. It may take the form of a classic nominal deflation, with all its negative consequences for ordinary people. Or it might take the form, a bit less likely, of a runaway inflation, which is simply another way in which values deflate, and which is even worse for ordinary people.
<br />
<br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> Of course everyone is asking what has triggered this depression. Is it the derivatives, which Warren Buffett called "financial weapons of mass destruction"? Or is it the subprime mortgages? Or is it oil speculators? This is a blame game, and of no real importance. This is to concentrate on the dust, as Fernand Braudel called it, of short-term events. If we want to understand what is going on, we need to look at two other temporalities, which are far more revealing. One is that of medium-term cyclical swings. And one is that of the long-term structural trends.</span>
<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> The capitalist world-economy has had, for several hundred years at least, two major forms of cyclical swings. One is the so-called Kondratieff cycles that historically were 50-60 years in length. And the other is the hegemonic cycles which are much longer.</span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> In terms of the hegemonic cycles, the United States was a rising contender for hegemony as of 1873, achieved full hegemonic dominance in 1945, and has been slowly declining since the 1970s. George W. Bush's follies have transformed a slow decline into a precipitate one. And as of now, we are past any semblance of U.S. hegemony. We have entered, as normally happens, a multipolar world. The United States remains a strong power, perhaps still the strongest, but it will continue to decline relative to other powers in the decades to come. There is not much that anyone can do to change this.</span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> The Kondratieff cycles have a different timing. The world came out of the last Kondratieff B-phase in 1945, and then had the strongest A-phase upturn in the history of the modern world-system. It reached its height circa 1967-73, and started on its downturn. This B-phase has gone on much longer than previous B-phases and we are still in it.</span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> The characteristics of a Kondratieff B-phase are well-known and match what the world-economy has been experiencing since the 1970s. Profit rates from productive activities go down, especially in those types of production that have been most profitable. Consequently, capitalists who wish to make really high levels of profit turn to the financial arena, engaging in what is basically speculation. Productive activities, in order not to become too unprofitable, tend to move from core zones to other parts of the world-system, trading lower transactions costs for lower personnel costs. This is why jobs have been disappearing from Detroit, Essen, and Nagoya and factories have been expanding in China, India, and Brazil.</span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> As for the speculative bubbles, some people always make a lot of money in them. But speculative bubbles always burst, sooner or later. If one asks why this Kondratieff B-phase has lasted so long, it is because the powers that be - the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and their collaborators in western Europe and Japan - have intervened in the market regularly and importantly - 1987 (stock market plunge), 1989 (savings-and-loan collapse), 1997 (East Asian financial fall), 1998 (Long Term Capital Management mismanagement), 2001-2002 (Enron) - to shore up the world-economy. They learned the lessons of previous Kondratieff B-phases, and the powers that be thought they could beat the system. But there are intrinsic limits to doing this. And we have now reached them, as Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke are learning to their chagrin and probably amazement. This time, it will not be so easy, probably impossible, to avert the worst.</span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> In the past, once a depression wreaked its havoc, the world-economy picked up again, on the basis of innovations that could be quasi-monopolized for a while. So, when people say that the stock market will rise again, this is what they are thinking will happen, this time as in the past, after all the damage has been done to the world's populations. And maybe it will, in a few years or so.</span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> There is however something new that may interfere with this nice cyclical pattern that has sustained the capitalist system for some 500 years. The structural trends may interfere with the cyclical patterns. The basic structural features of capitalism as a world-system operate by certain rules that can be drawn on a chart as a moving upward equilibrium. The problem, as with all structural equilibria of all systems, is that over time the curves tend to move far from equilibrium and it becomes impossible to bring them back to equilibrium.</span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> What has made the system move so far from equilibrium? In very brief, it is because over 500 years the three basic costs of capitalist production - personnel, inputs, and taxation - have steadily risen as a percentage of possible sales price, such that today they make it impossible to obtain the large profits from quasi-monopolized production that have always been the basis of significant capital accumulation. It is not because capitalism is failing at what it does best. It is precisely because it has been doing it so well that it has finally undermined the basis of future accumulation.</span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> What happens when we reach such a point is that the system bifurcates (in the language of complexity studies). The immediate consequence is high chaotic turbulence, which our world-system is experiencing at the moment and will continue to experience for perhaps another 20-50 years. As everyone pushes in whatever direction they think immediately best for each of them, a new order will emerge out of the chaos along one of two alternate and very different paths. </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> We can assert with confidence that the present system cannot survive. What we cannot predict is which new order will be chosen to replace it, because it will be the result of an infinity of individual pressures. But sooner or later, a new system will be installed. This will not be a capitalist system but it may be far worse (even more polarizing and hierarchical) or much better (relatively democratic and relatively egalitarian) than such a system. The choice of a new system is the major worldwide political struggle of our times.</span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> As for our immediate short-run ad interim prospects, it is clear what is happening everywhere. We have been moving into a protectionist world (forget about so-called globalization). We have been moving into a much larger direct role of government in production. Even the United States and Great Britain are partially nationalizing the banks and the dying big industries. We are moving into populist government-led redistribution, which can take left-of-center social-democratic forms or far right authoritarian forms. And we are moving into acute social conflict within states, as everyone competes over the smaller pie. In the short-run, it is not, by and large, a pretty picture.</span>
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span> <span style="" lang="EN-GB"> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--></span> <span style="" lang="EN-GB"></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> <!--[endif]--></span></p> Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-30377954604735801272008-07-20T19:29:00.000+01:002008-07-20T19:35:25.637+01:00SSF Interview Series with Mark Frezzo<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">Shulamith Koenig</span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sociologistswithoutborders.org/img/shula.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 191px; height: 136px;" src="http://www.sociologistswithoutborders.org/img/shula.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="style17">On behalf of Sociologists without Borders (SSF), Mark Frezzo interviewed Shula Koenig—founder and president of PDHRE, the People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning and recipient of the 2003 United Nations Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Human Rights. Designed to develop and advance pedagogies for human rights learning and dialogue relevant to people’s daily lives in the context of their struggles for social and economic justice, societal development and democracy,” PDHRE includes activists, community organizers, NGO representatives, UN officials, and scholars <a href="http://www.pdhre.org/index.html" class="style15">(PDHRE)</a>. Upon establishing PDHRE in 1988, Ms. Koenig worked with the UN Human Rights Center and the UN Commission on Human Rights, participated in the Vienna Human Rights Conference in 1993, and pushed tirelessly for the UN Decade of Human Rights Education (1994-2004). In recent years, Ms. Koenig and PDHRE have pursued the Human Rights Cities Program. Emphasizing popular participation in decision-making, a human rights city is<span class="style15"> “<a href="http://www.pdhre.org/projects/hrcommun.html">a community based on equality and nondiscrimination</a>” </span>. </p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="style17"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153); font-weight: bold;" class="style11">Frezzo:</span> Let’s begin with a few reflections on your work as a human rights educator. Interestingly enough, your writings and lectures reflect a taste for religious imagery. For example, you often use the term “evangelist” to characterize your role as an advocate of human rights. In addition, you often allude to the Bible and other sacred texts in demonstrating that the concept of human rights is rooted in a sense of dignity. Finally, in a manner characteristic of a “secular religion,” you offer a totalizing vision of human rights that encompasses morality, law, politics, social life, and culture. In a way, your reference to religion has the effect of de-emphasizing the role of the European Enlightenment in codifying and propagating human rights. Tell us more about your vision of human rights.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="style18"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153); font-weight: bold;">Koenig:</span> As the psychologist Alfred Adler established, human culture is rooted in the desire for dignity and belonging. Notwithstanding their contributions to the canon of human rights and their occasional appeals to universality, the world’s major religions are by definition exclusionary. They impose <em>conditions</em> of belonging on their adherents. In contrast, the political ideology of human rights is intrinsically and irreducibly <em>inclusive</em>. By definition, all people are included in the framework of human rights. Since I was trained as an engineer and worked on water distribution and irrigation , I like water-related allegories. Human rights can be seen as the banks of a river. Life flows freely between the banks. In times of flooding, as the water levels rise, people strengthen the banks to protect themselves. </p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="style17"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153); font-weight: bold;">Frezzo:</span> The image of levies as concretized human rights is especially poignant in light of the humanitarian disaster in New Orleans in 2005. In revealing the total erosion of the social compact, along with enduring inequalities of race, class, and gender, the disaster in New Orleans had the effect of inspiring sociologists to “go public,” so to speak, with their advocacy of human rights. Perhaps this will lead to greater collaboration among scholars, NGOs, movements, and community groups. This points to the mission of PDHRE—namely, the promotion of human rights education. What are the major principles of human rights education?</p><p class="style17"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="style18"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153); font-weight: bold;">Koenig:</span> In actuality, I prefer the term “learning” because it suggests an <em>active</em> participatory position, whereas the term “education” often suggests a passive one. In my work with PDHRE, I operate from the following premise: although all people are bearers of human rights, many people are not aware of their human rights. Thus, the purpose of PDHRE is to facilitate program that enables people to be aware of their human rights and own them as a powerful too for action. This has the effect of mobilizing people to empower themselves guided by the holisitic human rights framework..<br /></p><p class="style18">See continue <a href="http://www.sociologistswithoutborders.org/Interviewshula.html">here</a><br /></p><qtl style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); overflow: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; opacity: 0; display: block; position: fixed; z-index: 999; direction: ltr; left: 383px; top: 302px;"><qtl style="padding: 0pt; height: 22px; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 255); cursor: move; display: block; text-align: left;"><img title="close" style="margin: 1px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://qtl.sf.net/close.png" /><img style="margin: 1px 2px 0pt 1px; float: left;" src="http://babylon.com/favicon.ico" /><input style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 1px; padding: 1px; height: 15px; font-size: 10px;"></qtl><qtl style="padding: 1px; height: 20px; background-color: white; display: block; text-align: left;"><img style="margin: 1px 2px; 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cursor: pointer;" src="http://qtl.sf.net/copy.png" title="copy selection" /><img style="margin: 1px 2px; cursor: pointer;" src="http://qtl.sf.net/say.png" title="pronounce selection" /><a style="margin: 1px 2px;" target="_blank" href="http://search.babylon.com/?babsrc=qtl&q=here"><img src="http://www.google.com/favicon.ico" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a><a style="margin: 1px 2px;" target="_blank" href="http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=here"><img src="http://search.yahoo.com/favicon.ico" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a><a style="margin: 1px 2px;" target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=here"><img src="http://www.flickr.com/favicon.ico" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a><a style="margin: 1px 2px;" target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=here&search=Search"><img src="http://www.youtube.com/favicon.ico" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a><a style="margin: 1px 2px;" target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/associates/link-types/searchbox.html?tag=qtl0e-20&creative=374001&campaign=211041&adid=0NM007JMM5JYDBDT13Y6&mode=blended&keyword=here"><img src="http://www.amazon.com/favicon.ico" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a></qtl><qtl style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 5px; height: 236px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); overflow-y: auto; overflow-x: hidden; display: block;"></qtl><qtl style="height: 64px; display: block; background-color: white;"></qtl></qtl>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-58680697290827287712008-05-07T18:17:00.000+00:002008-05-07T18:25:33.587+00:00Working women work harder than men?A new study has found that<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">women feel they have to work harder than men in a workplace.</span><br /><br />Sociologists Elizabeth Gorman of the University of Virginia and Julie Kmec of Washington State University carried out five different surveys given in different years, to different groups of men and women in Britain and the United States.<br />They discovered that a gender gap persisted in ratings of the statement: "My job requires that I work very hard,” with women significantly more likely to say they strongly agreed.<br />“Between a man and a woman who hold the same job, shoulder the same burdens at home and have the same education and skills, the woman is likely to feel she must work harder,” Elizabeth said.<br />The paper, 'We (Have to) Try Harder: Gender and Required Work Effort in Britain and the United States' says, "We argue that the association between sex and reported required work effort is best interpreted as reflecting stricter performance standards imposed on women, even when women and men hold the same jobs."<br />"This is what women are up against. They have to prove themselves," Elizabeth added.<br />Controlling for physical and mental demands of the job and whether family responsibilities drained energy, Elizabeth and Julie found that neither group of factors explain the different findings about work effort. The only interpretation that held up was that women were held to higher performance standards.<br />In looking for another potential reason, the sociologists considered whether domestic responsibilities outside of work, including child care and housework, made women feel more fatigued and that they had to work harder to keep up, but that did not emerge as the answer either.<br />"Marriage and parenthood had the same effect on reports of required effort for women and men. In the U.S. sample, the researchers were able to match workers on the number of hours they spent on childcare and housework," Elizabeth Said.<br />Between men and women who performed the same amount of child care and housework, women were still more likely to say their jobs required them to work very hard,” Elizabeth added.<br />“We know that people give lower marks to an essay, a painting or a resume when it has a woman’s name on it. And when a man and a woman work together on a project, people assume the man contributed more than the woman did. In light of this previous research, it makes sense to conclude that women have to work harder to win their bosses’ approval,” she said.<br />See:: <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Work/Working_women_work_harder_than_men/articleshow/2585700.cms">The Times of India</a>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-49744992778909910832008-03-25T23:27:00.000+00:002008-03-25T23:40:03.025+00:00moveoncities<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">MoveOnCities.org</span></span> <div style="font-weight: bold;" class="post-credit">by Judith Blau<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.hrc.org/structural_images/hrc-logo.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 152px; height: 231px;" src="http://www.hrc.org/structural_images/hrc-logo.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a></div> <p>I feel we need to coin a phrase. ‘MoveOnCities.org’ might serve the purpose, because just as MoveOn.Org incorporates Americans into the national political process, the new city movement incorporates Americans into related grassroots processes that fundamentally transform their cities.</p> <p>It is a city movement because the main tool that Americans have discovered for effective change is the City Ordinance, and four have been central: Nondiscrimination, Human Rights, Fair Trade, and Anti-Sweatshop Ordinances. These are not as distinct as they might appear since each draws from a human rights framework.</p> <p>Take San Francisco. In 1998, responding to a broad based coalition of groups, the City of San Francisco passed an Ordinance to adopt into law, the International Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). (Do note that the US is not a state-party to CEDAW.) Much credit for relentlessly campaigning in San Francisco goes to the <a href="http://www.wildforhumanrights.org/ourwork/index.html" target="_blank">Women’s Institute for Leadership Development for Human Rights</a> (WILD<http:>). WILD is now pursuing other human rights objectives for San Francisco: universal health care, minimum standards for the protection of prisoners, affordable housing, and standards for employment.</http:></p> <p>Take Austin, Covington (KY), East Baton Rouge, Fort Worth, Ithaca, New Orleans, and Peoria. All have recently passed legislation that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, just a tiny number of cities that already have, according to <a href="http://www.hrc.org/" target="_blank">Human Rights Campaign</a>.</p> <p><http:> Take New York City. Energized by the success of the 2002 statewide anti-sweatshop campaign for legislation that ensures<a href="http://www.labor-religion.org/sf_sunycuny_top.htm" target="_blank"> ethical procurement practices</a><http:>, an amazingly ambitious coalition emerged in New York City: the <a href="http://www.nychri.org/" target="_blank">New York City Human Rights Initiative</a> <http:> (NYCHRI) Formed in 2002, NYCHRI is a coalition of 90 groups, including such heavy weights as ACLU and Amnesty International, as well as smaller community based organizations. NYCHRI’s position is that New Yorkers should be protected by international human rights laws, and is campaigning for the city to adopt provisions from international treaties, much the same way that WILD is in San Francisco.</http:></http:></http:></p> <p>Take Eugene, Oregon. On the verge of becoming a Human Rights City<http:>, the objective will be to filter city programs through international human rights laws. Already in North America Edmonton <http:> has <a href="http://humanrightscity.ca/dnn/Portals/0/publications/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20HRC%20Report%20October%202007%20Draft%20One.pdf" target="_blank">declared itself</a> to be a <a href="http://www.humanrightscity.com/Human_Rights_City_Project/Welcome_.html" target="_blank">Human Rights City</a>, and is affiliated with the international network of human rights cities, Peoples’ Decade for Human Rights Education (PDHRE). Edmonton has committed itself to closing gaps in access to healthcare, employment, social services, and housing, to ending cycles of discrimination, and to ensuring an inclusive, pluralistic community. <a href="http://www.pdhre.org/" target="_blank">PDHRE</a><http:>, headquartered in New York City, provides resources for Human Rights Cities around the world.</http:></http:></http:></p> <p>Take Media (PA) and Mountain View (CA), cities that have each passed a <a href="http://transfairusa.org/content/support/Fair_trade-resolutions.php#resolutions" target="_blank">Fair Trade Resolution</a>: <http:>, which means in practice that the towns serve only Fair Trade coffee and tea at receptions and social gatherings, and that nonprofit organizations and private enterprises commit to work to ensure these commitments.</http:></p> <p>Take Amherst, Boston, Chicago, Brattleboro (VT), Los Angeles, Portsmouth, Seattle, Las Vegas, New York City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, and Washington, DC., among other cities with <a href="http://transfairusa.org/content/support/Fair_trade-resolutions.php" target="_blank">Fair Trade Coalitions</a><http:>: They conduct educational campaigns, both with merchants and consumers, and lobby city agencies to adopt fair-trade procurement practices.</http:></p> <p>It seems evident that the federal government is not providing the moral leadership on any of these issues. That’s because human rights generally are a thorny topic in Washington. As <a href="http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/un/2003/0806charade.htm" target="_blank">Kenneth Roth</a><http:>, Director of Human Rights Watch, clarifies, the US, through legal obfuscation, exempts itself from all international human rights treaties. Let us imagine, however, through some amazing transformation of national policy that the US made a complete U-Turn and became a good citizen in the international community and at the same time pledges to Americans that it would uphold human rights treaties, and strive to protect Americans’ rights.. In theory this would involve treaties currently in force: 1) Civil and Political Rights; 2) Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; 3) Elimination of Discrimination against Racial Minorities; 4) Elimination of Discrimination against Women; 5) Rights of the Child; 6) Rights of Migrants; and 7) Prohibition of Torture.</http:></p> <p>Even were the US to make that U-Turn and to make a commitment to uphold human rights, it would not be enough. Human rights need to be embedded in daily practices, social interaction, local norms, local opportunities and upheld in local laws. Its only in communities where people can practice deeper forms of democracy, foster egalitarian values, and uphold norms of mutual respect and solidarity.</p> <p>If we are lucky the US will make that U-Turn and if we are very, very lucky, MoveOnCities.Org is on the move.</p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: bold;">Judith Blau</span> (<a href="mailto:jrblau@email.unc.edu">jrblau@email.unc.edu</a><mailto:jrblau@email.unc.edu>) writes on human rights, often with Alberto Moncada, is president of Sociologists without Borders <http:>, and blogs at <a href="http://www.humanrightsnow.net/" target="_blank">http://www.humanrightsnow.net</a>/</http:></mailto:jrblau@email.unc.edu></em></p><p><em><mailto:jrblau@email.unc.edu><http:>See::::: http://www।commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/24/7864/<br /></http:></mailto:jrblau@email.unc.edu></em></p>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-42922658068273582922008-01-26T20:03:00.000+00:002008-01-26T20:15:20.516+00:00<p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:130%;" ><b>The GDA and the State of the Nation</b></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span></span><br /></p> <p style="font-weight: bold;"><span style=";font-family:Helvetica;font-size:100%;" >By Marina Karides #<br /></span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Helvetica;font-size:100%;" >The United States is in the midst of a media blitz on the presidential nominees for the two dismal parties. While the possibilities of a woman or an African-American as president offers some hope that change is on its way in the belly of the beast, the real movement for justice taking place in the US was reflected in the Press Conference on the Global Day of Action (GDA) held on January 22 in Atlanta, Georgia. As it was in Press Conferences taking place all over the globe including Zurich, Switzerland; Fortaleza, Brazil; Recife, Brazil; Natal, Brazil; Belem, Brazil; São Paulo Brazil; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Chennai, India; Mumbai, India; Erbil, Iraq; Rome, Italy; Brussels, Belgium; Mexico City, Mexico; La Habana, Cuba; Ramallah, Palestine; Manila, Philippines; Seoul, Korea; Beirut, Lebanon and Barcelona, Spain—all a response to the Global Call to Action made by the WSF. </span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Helvetica;font-size:100%;" >Alice Lovelace, lead USSF organizer and poet, set the mood claiming that this press conference was a place to talk “to talk about what is happening in the real lives of real people.” The conference set in the Auburn Library of Atlanta, the day after the nation celebrated Martin Luther King Day, brought together movement builders from around the US working on key political issues including immigrant rights, the right to return of Gulf Coast residents, the poverty, violence, and the racist imprisonment of young people, and the loss of political freedoms. </span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Helvetica;font-size:100%;" >The press conference was highly charged with criticism of the US government’s failure to meet the needs of its population and marked how deeply connected US internal conditions were with the violence it wrought abroad. Sandra Robertson, speaking for Georgia Citizens Coalition on Hunger, described the dwindling of people’s economic resource in Georgia and lack of governmental assistance available to the poor and low income despite the fat wealthfare checks being cut for the corporate elite. The Poor People’s Caravan and Assembly on January 26 in Atlanta will draw strength and participation from the multiple groups participating regionally. </span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Helvetica;font-size:100%;" > Links were clearly made in speakers’ presentations between the poverty and violence within US borders and outside of them. Monica Garcia, of the Southwest Workers Union, spoke to the immediate violence along the US-Mexican border and the resistance in the region to the vicious construction of a wall that will divide families and communities but porous to corporate greed. Ajamu Baraka, speaking for US Human Rights Network, spelled out US responsibilities abroad: </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Helvetica;font-size:100%;" >“ . . . this nation state is deeply implicated in the affairs of countries around the world from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe from Columbia to Haiti to Nepal to Serbia in the systematic and persistent violence of people around the world.” Presenting clear and concrete figures on the expansion of US empire, Allison Budschalow, from American Friends Service Committee, discussed the proliferation of US military bases here and abroad and her organization’s concern with the widening net of the US economic reach through military expansion. </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Helvetica;font-size:100%;" > </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Helvetica;font-size:100%;" >The absence of mainstream press was not lost. After thanking the Independent Media for its presence, Emery Wright from Project South pointed to the absence of corporate media at the event and its lack of focus on “real issues in this country or in the world.” The continued absence of US media at key political moments in US history such as the USSF (despite organizers attempts to cajole them) are expected but always striking as the history of the people, their history, is missing from their daily view of news on their TV screens.</span><br /></p> <span style=";font-family:Helvetica;font-size:100%;" >The solidarity of US activists and movement organizations with the rest of the world was a bright light to the grim descriptions of US imperialism. Cindy Wiesner the political coordinator of Grassroots Global Justice, positively remarking on “the advancement of the globe and US social movement acting together in a more coordinated fashion” reminded us of the alliances of justice that WSF process has helped to foment around the world.<br /><br /></span><strong style="font-weight: normal;"> # Assistant Professor of Sociology in Florida Atlantic University</strong><br /> <strong style="font-weight: normal;">Email:</strong> <a href="mailto:mkarides@fau.edu">mkarides@fau.edu<br /></a><div id="row"> </div>http://www.fau.edu/sociology/karides.phpEditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-24265075504362666172007-12-24T03:10:00.000+00:002007-12-24T04:18:36.446+00:00December 18, 2007 <blockquote></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><br />ASA´s Statement on the arrested students in Iran</span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.asanet.org/site/images/logo_asa_cent.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 221px; height: 135px;" src="http://www.asanet.org/site/images/logo_asa_cent.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><blockquote></blockquote>Ayatollah Sayyid ‘Ali Khamenei <blockquote></blockquote>Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran <blockquote></blockquote>Your Excellency: <blockquote></blockquote>We write on behalf of the more than 14,000 members of the American Sociological Association (ASA), a scientific society of academic and professional sociologists, to request freedom from detention for the Iranian university students recently detained or arrested by government security forces in Tehran, Tabriz, Ahvaz, Shiraz, and elsewhere in Iran until their cases can be adjudicated by an appropriate court. Many of them are being held in Evin Prison in Tehran for protesting against the Iranian government, and we urge that they be freed. <blockquote></blockquote>The imprisoned persons include sociology student Jelveh Javaheri and others who advocate for the equal rights of women. While they are in your custody, we urge you to use your good offices to guarantee their safety and freedom to confer with legal counsel. We urge you to determine the circumstances of their detention, drop politically motivated charges, and secure their immediate release. <blockquote></blockquote>As a party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is required to provide among other rights to its citizens, the: (1) Right to hold opinions without interference (Article 19.1); (2) The right to freedom of expression; this right includes freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds (Article 19.2); and (3) Citizens are entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law (Article 14). Under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Article 23), individuals also have the right to freedom of thought, opinion, and speech.<blockquote></blockquote> As a scientific organization, with an international membership, ASA is committed to ensuring academic freedom, free exchange of ideas, and free expression, to all scholars including those conducting research on sociological and related comparative studies of culture and social institutions. Without governmental assurance of such intellectual freedoms, a nation quickly becomes universally recognized as failing to ensure superior scholarship and unwilling to protect its intellectual status in international cultural and scientific arenas. <blockquote></blockquote>We are profoundly dismayed by the arrests of these students. We are hopeful that under your leadership Iran will respond to avoid the harm this damage to intellectual and scientific pursuits will do to your country at home and in the international community. <blockquote></blockquote>We appreciate your consideration of our concerns about of this apparent breach of Iran’s commitments under International Conventions, and we urge you to ensure that all false or politically based charges against these students will be dropped. The leaders and members of the American Sociological Association consider this to be a matter of great urgency. <blockquote></blockquote> Sincerely, <blockquote></blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Arne L. Kalleberg,</span> <blockquote></blockquote>PhD President, American Sociological Association, Kenan Distinguished Professor, and Director of International Programs, College of Arts & Sciences, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill<blockquote></blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Sally T. Hillsman,</span><blockquote></blockquote> PhD Executive Officer, American Sociological Association<blockquote></blockquote> cc: Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi <blockquote></blockquote>President, His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad <blockquote></blockquote>Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations <blockquote></blockquote>Secretary of the Islamic Republic Human Rights Commission<blockquote></blockquote>See <a href="http://www.asanet.org/">here</a>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-71578518709942787542007-12-07T11:10:00.000+00:002007-12-07T11:17:46.932+00:00<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">Thinking Internationally - Acting Locally</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-align: justify;" class="post-credit">by Judith Blau<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.unido-ichet.org/ichet.org/activities/international_projects/files/page1_1.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 261px; height: 171px;" src="http://www.unido-ichet.org/ichet.org/activities/international_projects/files/page1_1.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Americans ignored Martin Luther King when he urged that the civil rights movement broaden to become a human rights movement just as the nation earlier ignored FDR when he proposed a bold human rights framework for the US. Human rights are not part of the American psyche, are not part of our laws, are rarely mentioned in the media, and they are not in the US Constitution. To be sure, Civil and Political Rights are part of our Constitution, but these are citizens’ rights, not human rights. America had a short flirtation with human rights, in the disorienting post-World War II period. Europe was in ruins and America was magnanimous. Shortly after the UN was founded in 1945, a small committee was formed to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The US was supportive and the committee was chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. The US signed the 1948 UDHR, not a legal treaty but a document of great international significance, still today.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">The initial idea in 1948 was to redraft the UDHR as a treaty and send it out to states for their signatures and ratification, but the United States became increasingly adamant as the Cold War dragged on that it would not ratify a treaty that was such a bold challenge to the rights of capitalists. The UDHR advances civil and political rights as well as property rights, but it also encompasses social security, freedom from discrimination, and spells out certain rights - the right to work, to an adequate standard of living, to adequate food, to medical care, to assistance in old age, to special protections for mothers and children, and to education. The stalemate was finally broken when the UDHR was divided into two: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The truth of the matter is that the US is party to neither. It uses a legal loophole so that its signature on the ICCPR is not binding (”not self executing”).</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Students in my two classes this semester read the constitutions of other countries. In one class the focus was human rights (housing rights, gay and lesbian rights, rights of indigenous peoples, rights to peace, healthcare rights, rights of women, and so forth). In the other, the focus was labor rights (collective bargaining, decent pay, maternity leave, vacation with pay, and so forth). <a href="http://confinder.richmond.edu/index.php" target="_blank">University of Richmond Law School</a> provides online access to almost all state constitutions with English translations. Remarkably, most countries have recently revised and expanded their constitutional human rights provisions along the lines of international human rights law.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Empowered, the students decided to have a Mock Constitutional Convention where they would ceremoniously unfurl their nearly 60 Amendments they had written during the semester. We invited a few local leaders to join the conversation and to briefly speak - the Mayor of Chapel Hill, the Mayor of Carrboro, labor organizers from the University of North Carolina, NAACP members, and local activists. The two mayors are justifiably proud of their progressive cities. They have collective bargaining whereas the state and university do not. The residents of Carrboro recently voted to impeach Bush. Chapel Hill is one of the nation’s leading cities on green energy, and both mayors are pleased their municipalities advance the rights of gays and lesbians. Both mayors described their towns as having (their words) “human rights orientations.”</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Is there a problem? You bet there is. Like all American cities Carrboro and Chapel Hill are plagued by human rights abuses: homelessness, inadequate health care, food insecurity, inadequate labor protections, low wages, long work hours, migrants who live in terror of raids, discrimination, obscene gaps between black and white incomes, and growing numbers without health insurance. Protection of farmers’ rights is incomplete as is realization of equality for African Americans and other minorities, and since human rights and environmental protections go hand in hand, it is imperative that the two cities cut carbon emissions, reduce reliance on private automobiles, and have race- and class-neutral policies for waste sites.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">We have come full circle. Chapel Hill and Carrboro cities are situated in capitalist America, a nation where the gap between the wealthy and the poor is greater than any other industrialized country, a nation with the highest child poverty rates among all the OECD countries, and, indeed, the US has not ratified a single human rights treaty. Is it hopeless? Set this aside for a moment and consider that countries around the world, all mostly poor, all much poorer than the US, have revised their constitutions to embrace human rights. My next point has astonishing implications. An international network, <a href="http://www.pdhre.org/index.html" target="_blank">People’s Movement for Human Rights Education</a>, is assisting cities around the world to become Human Rights Cities. Most that have started pilot projects face far more complex challenges than any American city does, including deep, structural poverty (Timbuktu, Mali) and one, decades of civil war and genocide (Musha, Rwanda). Others in the network are in capitalist countries, including Winnipeg, Canada, and one American city, <a href="http://www.humanrightscity.com/" target="_blank">Eugene, Oregon</a> is not in the network but models itself along similar lines.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">Before we shrug and toss off the idea that American cities do not have the democratic capacity for such projects, we should recall that when Tocqueville came to America in 1831 he found communities to be animated, inclusive, and highly participatory. Because many American cities are still today potentially democratic, we can turn to them again to advance deeper forms of democracy and to propose they be Human Rights Cities. This requires building broad coalitions and partnerships, and beyond that, reaching out and involving all citizens as economic and social security expands and becomes universal, and as cultural and social pluralism more securely anchored.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><em><a href="mailto:jrblau@email.unc.edu" target="_blank">Judith Blau</a> teaches at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and is president of the US chapter of <a href="http://sociologistswithoutborders.org/" target="_blank">Sociologists without Borders</a>.</em></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>Source: <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/06/5637/">Commondreams</a><br /></em></span></p>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-44250062549192053602007-11-20T02:00:00.000+00:002007-11-20T02:10:08.461+00:00<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:100%;">SSF-Iran´s Statement about Social Situation of Iran:<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">To every bodies who have concern about Social development in Iran!</span><br /><br />In the last days SSF-Iran decided to issue a statement to protest about many social problems which threaten the society of Iran. I summarized some phrases of that in below. It has published by Persian words. This is the first reaction by Iranian sociologists against their concerns as agent and structure:<br /><div style="text-align: center;">###<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://sociologyofiran.com/images/stories/iswb.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 235px; height: 151px;" src="http://sociologyofiran.com/images/stories/iswb.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In follow of increasing social problems in Iran and sentencing scholars and sociologists to jail, SSF-Iran have issued a statement for Islamic Republic authoritarians as a warning. In this statement there are two important subjects:<br /></div>1. In the Iran society there have been increased many social issues such as:<br /><ul><li>Poor ( more than 9 millions live under poverty line)</li><li>Deprivation of children from basic education ( more than 3 millions under 18 old years) </li><li>Working of children ( more than 1.5 millions) and abusing of them in the informal and unsafe conditions</li><li>Unidentified children without any national ID ( more than 80,000 children)</li><li>Militant abusing of children as the revolutionary force as titled Basij especially in the schools </li><li>Children harassment ( 30% of 1-5, 20% 6-11, 10 % 11-18 years old in the country)</li><li>Children marriage ( more than 700.000 ones in which 60% are girls)</li><li>Execution in the public spaces ( more than 200 persons in this year) </li><li>Poverty of women who are in charge of their families ( more than1 millions households)</li><li>Gender discrimination and violence against women ( 67% of all women observed at least on time violence) within family, job & society<br /></li><li>Coerced veiling and covering of women and arresting of all girls and women in the street because of unveiling</li><li>Malnutrition of children ( short height of children in some regions at least 10 cent. )</li><li>Stoning of women just for sexual relation and love!</li><li>Spread of prostitution and sex smuggling to neighbor countries i.e Dubay ( approximately 300.000 women and girls)</li><li>Increasing unemployment ( more than 4 millions) and detaining of some of worker and teacher protesters<br /></li><li>Censorship of books, and products of producers in the cultural, artist, and scientific fields by the government</li><li>Filtering of Internet, satellite, video network, medias, radio and TV</li><li>Ideological selection system in the base of the doctrine We and Others in the job, study, management for exclusion of all other thinkers </li><li>Religious discrimination against some minorities such as Baha'i s(more than 300,000 and send out of 200 students form universities), Sufi's ( arresting of more than 170 persons) and Jewish (25000 persons) </li><li>Segregation of ethnic minorities in the political participation and their languages between Kurds, Blucher's, Turks & Arabians and strengthen of ethnic conflicts</li><li>Increasing of addiction and drug smuggling ( more than 5 million addicted)<br /></li><li>Children living in danger of addiction (more than 2 millions pupils)<br /></li><li>Increasing Suicide rate ( 1700 children and 14000 adults in 4 years!)</li><li>Murder recording ( more than 7000 cases in 4 years) and chastity killings( more than 400 cases) </li><li>Violated conducts with criminal people and torture of the min the public<br /></li><li>Suppression of women, workers, teachers, students, writers, journalists activists and extend arresting of them</li><li>Emigration and brain drain ( more than 100,000 high educated persons per year) </li><li>And more other violation of Human Rights in Iran..</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"> These examples have many pathological consequences on the justice, freedom ,democracy, development, welfare, security and health being in the now and future of Iran.<br /></div> 2. In scientific society of Iran there are many limitations and censorships such as:<br /><ul><li>Threaten of independent thinkers, writers and academicians especially sociologists such as Dr.s Tajbakhs, Bozorgian, Delaram Ali, Razzaghi, Baghi,<br /></li><li>Sending out of some others such as Dr.s Tavasoli, Bashirieh, Vosoghi, Asgari, Namakdost and Jafari just in this year</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"> SSF-Iran is warning to all leaders and decision makers in the top political level positions i.e Khameneii and Ahmadinejad to their dys performances and their actions on the society, national security, human rights, and scientific freedom. These actions bring up the religion in front of science and it would be so humanist catastrophe to Iran. In this critical situation of Iran in the world in which the nuclear power and technology will take Iran to a new militant attack by US and his alliances in EU by leadening of bushism, we sociologists invite all Islamic authoritarians and politicians to give priority to internal problems and find their solutions and prevent from every social and militant threatens to Iran.<br /></div><br /><a href="http://iswb.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"></a><span lang="FA" style="color:red;"></span><div style="text-align: right;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Ali Tayefi<br />President of SSF-Iran<br />See Persian Version:<a href="http://iswb.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></a><br /></div></div><a href="http://iswb.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://iswb.blogspot.com</a>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-8680871135975379332007-08-30T14:53:00.000+00:002007-08-30T14:58:21.000+00:00<p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:130%;" ><b>Why We Protest</b></span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102); font-weight: bold;">Judith Blau </span></span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102); font-weight: bold;">Ali Tayefi</span></span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >The Code of Ethics of the American Sociological Association does not explicitly state that sociologists have a responsibility and duty to protest injustices. It does, however, state: “Sociologists are aware of their professional and scientific responsibility to the communities and societies in which they live and work” (ASA 1997). As sociologists know, failing to challenge and to interrupt injustices helps to perpetuate them and, indeed, confounds them. Sociologists without Borders/Sociólogos sin Fronteras –SSF- advocates an active, committed and engaged sociology, and contends that sociologists have an ethical responsibility to protest injustices and violations of human rights (see </span><a href="http://sociologistswithoutborders.org/" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>http://sociologistswithoutborde<wbr>rs.org/</u></span></a><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >). The ASA, as we describe below, does, in fact, protest repression of individual sociologists, while Sociologists without Borders goes further and invites others to join us in protesting injustices against sociologists and injustices generally. We live in especially perilous times. </span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Now there are a few questions. <i> Why do we protest? </i>We do because we are ethically responsible to do so. No better a source than Immanuel Kant for a definition of ethical responsibilities: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law" (Kant [1785] 1993: 30).<i> Where do we protest? </i> Naming and shaming campaigns are global, and thanks to the Internet, we mobilize .and coordinate our protest internationally. Oppressors must not be allowed to hide within their own borders. <i>When do we protest?</i> There are two main aspects to this question – a social scientific, or an external aspect, and a community, or an internal aspect: </span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >1. The social scientific (external) aspect: There are many injustices that sociologists care about because we encounter them in our research – homelessness, poverty, child labor and abuse, sexism, violence against women, religious and ethnical discrimination, hunger, racism, exploitation of migrants and, more generally, violations of human rights. If not protested, such injustices ratchet up and become magnified and more intense. One of our responsibilities, as intellectuals, academicians, and social researchers is to be allies of oppressed people and to help change the conditions that oppress them. Sociologists can clarify that people are not to be blamed for their oppression but instead the blame lies with social institutions, economic practices, elitism, political repression, racism, ideological exclusion, xenophobia, and other forces. This clarification is empowering in its own right. </span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >2. The community (internal) aspect: There are other acts of injustice that we must protest on humanistic grounds. This is when a state abusively harms a sociologist (or any scholar or researcher) for their research, publications, or on the basis of their teaching or thinking. In instances like these we protest, not drawing from analysis and research, but as colleagues and relying on our networks and the media for information. During this past year two sociologists have been imprisoned. Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh was jailed in May 2007 in Iran’s infamous Evin Prison. On all accounts he has been tortured. He was charged with spying (see </span><a href="http://www.freekian.org/" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>http://www.freekian.org</u></span></a><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > ). Andrej H, a Humbolt University researcher was incarcerated in a Berlin on July 31, 2007 for belonging to a leftist organization, <i>militante gruppe</i> (see </span><a href="http://www.policing-crowds.org/petition.html" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>http://www.policing-crowds.org<wbr>/petition.html</u></span></a><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >). <i> </i> Andrej H has just been released and we believe it was in response to the letter-writing campaign, although the charges have not been dropped. One other prominent scholar has also been imprisoned in Evian Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, a researcher at the Woodrow Wilson Center, was charged and jailed in May 2007 by the Iranian government for spying, which was protested by scholars from around the world (see </span><a href="http://www.freehaleh.org/" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>http://www.freehaleh.org</u></span></a><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > ). She has just been released Very recently another prominent scholar, Professor Hossein Bashiriyeh, a political scientist, has just been fired from Tehran University (see </span><a href="http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/psc/faculty/Bashiriyeh.asp" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/psc<wbr>/faculty/Bashiriyeh.asp</u></span></a><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > ). His friends and family fear the worst. </span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >In June President Frances Fox Piven wrote a letter to Ayatollah Sayyid ‘Ali Khamenei to urge Iranian authorities to release Kian Tajbakhsh (see </span><a href="http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/Iran_ltr_re_Kian_Tajbakhsh+%282%29.pdf" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>http://www.asanet.org/galleries<wbr>/default-file/Iran_ltr_re_Kian<wbr>_Tajbakhsh%20(2).pdf</u></span></a><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > ), as did other learned societies and human rights organizations .On August 15, 2007, ASA Council passed a Resolution strongly condemning any government that “monitors, detains, or incarcerates social science scholars and researchers” for reasons that have to do with “scholarly concepts, writings, or field research contacts” (</span><a href="http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/DetentionResolution.PDF" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>http://www.asanet.org/galleries<wbr>/default-file/DetentionResoluti<wbr>on.PDF</u></span></a><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >). </span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >We applaud the ASA and its officers for upholding the principles of academic freedoms and condemning governments who violate such freedoms. The release of Esfandiarj and Andrej H. suggests that protest is effective, and indeed, a study by Agnone (2007) finds that protest generally is effective. That is reassuring. Yet we propose that sociologists not only protest what we termed “internal” injustices, but also “external” injustices, that is, protesting with and on behalf of the oppressed in the larger society. They are ever as much our brothers and sisters. This is sometimes criticized on so-called scientific grounds, and it is sometimes said that sociologists should be “objective,” “neutral,” and “appropriately detached.” Our answer is that sociologists must first and foremost be advocates of peoples and of their fundamental human rights – including their rights to freedoms, dignity, equality, and nondiscrimination - since the achievement of such rights is what makes a just society and it is a just society that promotes these rights. This is a virtuous and self-reinforcing circle.</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Finally, we need to recognize that our ethical responsibilities are global. “Invisible College” was what Robert Boyle and his colleagues called the network of widely scattered scientists in seventeenth-century England. Now we are connected globally through the Internet, the WWW, and institutional exchanges. As a matter of conscience and on the basis of our knowledge, we protest, for example, child labor, disenfranchisement, and exploitation of labor, As a matter of conscience we also protest when our colleagues are imprisoned or punished <i>anywhere in the world </i> for opposing their governments. We protest the injustices that they suffer on the behalf of our invisible college and all our colleagues. Besides, because they are imprisoned for their sociological views that their governments deem to be dangerous and subversive, we protest in the defense of sociology, proud to be in a field that dictators, the military, and intelligence services fear. Freedom of thought and freedom of expression are also fundamental human rights. More generally, regarding both domains we have considered, in both their external and internal aspects, protesting injustice reconciles us with society and reinforces our solidarity. </span><br /></p><p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102); font-weight: bold;">Judith Blau , </span>University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, </span><a href="mailto:jrblau@email.unc.edu" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>jrblau@email.unc.edu</u></span></a><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102); font-weight: bold;">Ali Tayefi ,</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Sweden, </span><a href="mailto:alitayefi@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>alitayefi@gmail.com</u></span></a><br /></p><p>--------------------------------------------<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >References </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span><br /></p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Agnone, Jon. 2007. “Amplifying Public Opinion.” <i>Social Forces </i> 85: 1593-1620. </span><br /><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Kant, Immanuel</span></a><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >; [1785] (1993). <i> Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals 3rd ed.</i>. Trans. James W. Ellington (Indianapolis: Hackett), 30</span></p><p>American Sociological Association. 1997. <i>Code of Ethics. </i></p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><b><i> </i></b></span><a href="http://asanet.org/cs/root/leftnav/ethics/code_of_ethics_table_of_contents" target="_blank"><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>http://asanet.org/cs/root<wbr>/leftnav/ethics/code_of_ethics<wbr>_table_of_contents</u></span></a>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-31897402476653799962007-08-21T21:28:00.000+00:002007-08-21T21:40:37.083+00:00<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:130%;" >Scientists find out: Gentrification is bad for you!</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Roger Keil #</span><br /><p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Gentrification is bad for you. How bad? Just ask a group of German</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blog.kievukraine.info/uploaded_images/3581-714242.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 198px; height: 236px;" src="http://blog.kievukraine.info/uploaded_images/3581-714242.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" > researchers who find themselves accused of belonging to a “terrorist organization”, largely because they published on the subject. Their work on gentrification (among other things) can allegedly be linked through textual analysis to the communiques of a so-called ‘militant group’ suspected of political extremism. In turn, three persons, who are charged with trying to set fire to three army vehicles outside of Berlin on July 31, 2007, are suspected by the police to be members of that group. In this cycle of suspicions, the ends don’t quite meet.</span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >However, in the eyes of the German police writing texts is not the only crime committed. The researchers are also accused of having “contacts”, mostly resulting from their long participation in neighborhood groups and anti-war movements, to people seen as a being a part of Berlin’s radical left wing scene. Ideas and contacts are mixed by the prosecution into a cocktail of “terrorist activities”.</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Gentrification plays a critical part in this story. People in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and other Canadian cities have learned in recent years that a seemingly unstoppable process is changing their cities. Gentrification is the name of the game. It replaces the local corner store with a Starbucks and a low rent apartment with a luxury condo. It evaporates the jobs that allow people to make ends meet. Scholars have studied this process, which takes its name from the root of the word, <i>gentry,</i> used for the English landed aristocracy, since the 1960s. Since the mid-1980s, it has spread as a world wide phenomenon and has changed the face of our cities. While many urban development agencies and municipal governments actively promote gentrification as a strategy of urban renewal, critical researchers everywhere decry the catastrophic consequences for local communities, poor people and the social diversity of cities.</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >This kind of research has now gotten some academics into trouble. In a bizarre series of developments, the German Federal Prosecutor has accused a sociologist, a political scientist, as well as a student and a social movement activist of “terrorism”. One prominent scholar, Dr. Andrej Holm, is in solitary confinement in a Berlin jail; another one, Dr. Matthias B. has had his apartment raided, his computer confiscated and is under investigation for belonging to a terrorist association. All accused have been charged under a recently more frequently used section of German criminal law, 129a, which was passed in 1976 at the height of the tense period of West German history, when the government pulled out all the stops to defeat the terrorist threat of the Baader-Meinhof group, also known as the Red Army Faction. It is directed in particular at exposing and destroying links between the ‘doers’ and the ‘thinkers’ in movements. From its inception, it has been criticized for allowing the state to criminalize both activists and researchers by claiming that together they form a terrorist association. It seems that 31 years after it saw the light of day, the law has finally created its perfect storm.</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >We have gotten used to a fair degree of government panic and overreaction since the unfortunate events of 9/11 but the German developments signal yet another step into the wrong direction. Although there is no established link at all between the critical scholarly writings of the accused – some as long ago as 1998 – and the attempted burning of the army vehicles, the connection is nonetheless made. Nor has it been established that the three arrested for alleged arson are members of the elusive “militant group,” an association the accused have denied. </span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >The wider consequences of this development are alarming beyond Berlin. The question on the mind of many critical social scientists everywhere is now: which aspects of their work may lead to their criminalization down the road? If they can do this in Germany, should we be surprised that people are arrested and tortured for their views as it has happened to Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh and fellow academics recently in Iran, who are accused of pro-American propaganda. Tajbaksh and his colleagues have been arrested three months ago and have been detained since. Those arrested in Tehran are in jail for doing work interpreted as threatening by the government there. Have we arrived at the point where thinking critically has become a dangerous activity in the West, too?</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Both cases have exposed the vulnerability of critical social science research. But they have also led to an unprecedented wave of protest and reaction among the academic and intellectual communities world-wide. It seems a line has been crossed. At a time when we hail creativity as an urban panacea from New York to Toronto, from Berlin to Shanghai, those who research the downside of gentrification, and expose social exclusion and marginalization will not go silently into the urban night. Critical social science is indispensable for a healthy democratic society. Standing up for free speech and academic freedom must concern us all. When those who are persecuted for their critical academic work are in danger, it is up to all of us to step up to the plate to defend their and our freedoms.</span><br /></p> <span style="font-weight: bold;"># </span><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Director, The City Institute at York University </span><br /><p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Ute Lehrer</span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >Toronto, August 12, 2007</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" >For further information and join other international academics who have signed an Open Letter of protest submitted to the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office, see:</span></p> <a href="http://einstellung.so36.net/en/openletter" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><u>http://einstellung.so36.net/en<wbr>/openletter</u></span></a>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-19695066356071850932007-07-31T20:36:00.000+00:002007-07-31T20:38:20.412+00:00<div align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#663366;"><strong>Ending the Cold War is a Good Place to Start </div><blockquote></blockquote><div align="justify"></strong></span><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>by Judith Blau </div><blockquote></blockquote><div align="justify"></strong></span>Recently, I told my daughter that the U.S. media had hyped the Chinese toy recall. “Just more rehashing of Cold War rhetoric,” I said. My two-year old daughter rebuked me: “Come on, Mom! You read politics into everything!” Then, after a moment or two of silence, she said, “Oh yes, I see what you mean. The Chinese toys with toxic paints could have been made in sweatshops owned by U.S. multinationals” (proud mom—politically aware daughter).<br />The reason I am so quick to discount many accounts in the U.S. media about China (and Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, “Old Europe,” Iran, etc.) is that I feel that many American commentators and journalists too easily fall for the official U.S. party line, unaware of how complicit the U.S. is in the darkest and most grievous affairs around the world. The easy path is to blame other countries, as Danna Harman blames China for inaction on behalf of Darfuri civilians in her Christian Science Monitor article—the focus of this month’s Roundtable.<br />The U.S. is up to no good. The evidence is overwhelming that U.S. officials drastically exaggerate the obstructionist role that China is playing in the Sudanese genocide to divert attention from the obstructionist role that the U.S. is playing. Independent media outlets document why it is not in the interests of the U.S. to get tough with Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan. <a href="http://allafrica.com/http:/allafrica.com/" target="_blank">All Africa News Service</a>, <a href="http://africaaction.org/" target="_blank">Africa Action</a>, <a href="http://www.africaresource.com/" target="_blank">Africa Resource Center</a>, <a href="http://www.sudan.net/news/news.html" target="_blank">Sudan Net</a> and <a href="http://www.africaspeaks.com/" target="_blank">Africa Speaks</a> all provide comprehensive coverage of the Sudanese barbarism and the complicities of foreign governments in Sudanese affairs—including China and the United States. Although the U.S. has gone through some motions in the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution that would deploy a large peacekeeping force in Sudan, <a href="http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/147675/1/" target="_blank">inside observers</a> say that the U.S.’s commercial and military interests are dominant and the U.S. is just dragging its feet, while attempting to maintain public appearances.<br />From the mid-1980s until September 11, 2001, <a href="http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4516&l=1" target="_blank">the CIA relied on the Sudanese</a>, chiefly Maj. Gen. Salah Abdallah Gosh, for intelligence about Osama bin Laden. Gosh supplied the CIA office in Khartoum with information, and occasionally was flown to Washington D.C. to report on bin Laden’s activities before bin Laden left for Afghanistan in 1996. After that, Gosh and others in the Sudanese government continued to supply the CIA with information on Arab Islamists traveling through African countries to the Middle East. </div><div align="justify">In June 2003, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick acknowledged in Congressional testimony that the Bush Administration was still maintaining an intelligence-sharing partnership with the government of Sudan. What Zoellick did not disclose, but what African news sources report (also in <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-ussudan11jun11,1,603958.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true" target="_blank">The Los Angeles Times</a>), is that the Sudanese government recruits and trains U.S. spies for deployment in both Iraq and Somalia. In a 2007 interview with an LA Times reporter, Sudan’s ambassador to the U.S., John Ukec Lueth Ukec, said that tougher sanctions would affect his country’s willingness to cooperate with the U.S. on matters of intelligence. Nat Hentoff published an article in <a href="http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/11283" target="_blank">Truth Out</a> with the title, “CIA’s Close Relationship with Sudan’s Government Enables Genocide there to Continue,” referring to the U.S.-Sudan partnership on espionage and intelligence.<br />However, intelligence is not the only thing that the U.S. puts ahead of the lives of Darfuri civilians. Rich oil deposits and abundant water resources are something that the U.S. dearly covets—Chevron discovered major oil deposits in southern Sudan in 1979-80, estimating that Sudan had more oil than Iran and Saudi Arabia put together. Water is now viewed as a valuable commodity and the blue Nile and the White Nile meet in Sudan. America’s rival, China, now controls 40 percent of the Sudanese oil sector, with Pakistan, Malaysia, Russia and France controlling the rest. Although <a href="http://fidelityoutofsudan.googlepages.com/fromthebasementtothemainstream-fidelityd" target="_blank">Fidelity recently divested</a> from Sudan, other American investors remain, and Sudan continues to court more American and other foreign investors, still perfectly legal and actively encouraged by the <a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21255186~menuPK:34467~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html" target="_blank">World Bank</a>. New laws also make it easier for companies to <a href="http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/17721/sample/9780521817721ws.pdf" target="_blank">invest indirectly</a> in Sudan through second and third parties, which Chevron now appears to be doing through Indonesia. <blockquote></blockquote><span style="color:#663366;"><strong>Toward a Better World?<br /></strong></span>Those of us who have attended any of the <a href="http://wsf2007.org/" target="_blank">World Social Forums</a> (WSF) know that the current geopolitical system that makes the Sudanese genocide possible cannot last. The people of the world will not put up with it, and the planet cannot sustain it. This seems like a remarkably naïve statement, except for the fact that the WSF is so incredibly multi-stranded, and is as much a part of local communities as it is embedded in interconnected, international networks. The brilliance of the Forum is that other than human rights and a commitment to deep forms of democracy, there is no substantive agenda except to make a “possible better world, an alternative world, a world for the people.”<br />WSF participants include international NGOs such as <a href="http://viacampesina.org/main_en/index.php" target="_blank">Via Campesina</a>, <a href="http://www.foodfirst.org/" target="_blank">Food First</a>, <a href="http://www.attac.org/?lang=en" target="_blank">ATTAC</a>, <a href="http://www.actionaid.org/" target="_blank">ActionAid</a>, <a href="http://www.socialwatch.org/" target="_blank">Social Watch</a>, <a href="http://www.focusweb.org/" target="_blank">Focus on the Global South</a>, <a href="http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/smallarms/articles/2006/0921roleinafrica.htm" target="_blank">Africa Forum on Small Arms</a>, and many, many others. They increase exponentially because of local-national-regional-global networks facilitated by the Internet.<br />But how can a peoples’ movement possibly deal with the immense power of the United States and China to dismantle dictatorial power in Sudan? Can it shatter the hold of economic elites of the IMF, World Bank, and WTO? Can it bring down the brutal, military dictatorship in Myanmar? Can it eradicate hunger and suffering in Haiti, Zambia, North Korea and everywhere else? I do not believe for a second that it is impossible. By emphasizing human rights principles of equality and self-determination, people’s movements can influence the type of change global superpowers fear.</div>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-35031055503756948442007-07-05T12:48:00.000+00:002007-07-05T12:53:27.667+00:00<strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">Mercenaries and Other Ways of Breaking the Law:</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">Why Our Blood Should Boil</span></strong><br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote><strong><span style="color:#663366;">by Judith Blau</span></strong><br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote>Among the many consequences of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the absence of investigative journalism and critical reflection in the U.S. is, perhaps, the most troubling; though we are now seeing a reversal of this trend. Jeremy Scahill has been one of the brightest and best examples of this reversal, relentlessly pursuing a trail of wrongdoing involving the U.S. government and private corporations. In particular, he has reported (primarily in The Nation and in his new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blackwater-Rise-Worlds-Powerful-Mercenary/dp/1560259795" target="_blank">Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army</a>) on the nefarious activities of Blackwater, focusing on the corporation’s activities as a subcontractor for the military and other operations in Iraq (as well as on its projects within the U.S., <a href="http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20060605&s=scahill" target="_blank">as a subcontractor for reconstruction in New Orleans</a>).<br />In his May 10, 2007 <a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070528/scahill" target="_blank">testimony</a> to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Scahill describes Blackwater as the major player in the escalating privatization of the war in Iraq. This privatization accompanies immense corporate profits, which have far-reaching, toxic effects. When war and conflict become the objects of wealth creation, the consequences are inevitably tragic. Blackwater is neither accountable to the American public, nor in any routine way to Congress, as its employees are not in the military chain of command. The corporation became involved in the war in Iraq purely for profit—not on behalf of Iraqi welfare, and not for peace. Its business is war and peace is not profitable.<br />It has been mostly journalists, not academicians, who have taken the lead in making the connections involving profit-making, multinational corporations and the war. Scahill has been joined by other journalists documenting privatization of U.S. military operations more generally, including a new book by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Betraying-Our-Troops-Destructive-Privatizing/dp/1403981922/ref=sr_1_1/103-7790478-0382208?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182255045&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Rasor and Bauman</a>; an article by <a href="http://alternet.org/blogs/peek/53723/" target="_blank">Adam Howard</a> published in June 2007 in Alternet, documenting Blackwater’s role in transporting prisoners to jails in Poland and Romania for the purpose of torture; and <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/09/1755/" target="_blank">Daniel J. Callahan and Marc P. Miles</a>’ recent published account of the Blackwater lawsuit against the families of U.S. contractors <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_world/blackwater/" target="_blank">brutally murdered, decapitated and hung from a bridge</a> in Fallujah in March 2004 (Blackwater is suing for the purpose of stifling investigation into the incident). With persistence and focus these journalists have engaged and pursued such important stories in their work as investigatory reporters, while they also open up space for academics to pursue topics related to what President Dwight Eisenhower famously called <a href="http://www.militaryindustrialcomplex.com/" target="_blank">“the military-industrial complex.”</a><br />While journalists have pursued these investigations into Blackwater by appealing to their readers’ sense of “Right” and “Wrong,” an alternative way of casting the journalists’ accounts is to highlight how international laws are being violated by the exposed practices. Let us start with international laws on mercenaries. The United States is not party to the 1979 <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/protocol1.htm" target="_blank">Protocol 1</a> of the Geneva Convention, which defines mercenaries and cautions states against using them, nor has it ratified the 2001 <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/mercenaries.htm" target="_blank">International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenarie</a>, which unequivocally prohibits states from hiring mercenaries. But this turns out to be only the tip of the iceberg of U.S. roguishness.<br />This is nothing new, however, since the U.S. has a notorious reputation when it comes to multilateral agreements: the superpower has not ratified the <a href="http://www.un.org/law/icc/" target="_blank">Rome Statute</a> or the <a href="http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.html" target="_blank">Kyoto Protocol</a>; and the U.S. has ratified few, if any of the fundamental conventions under he auspices of the International Labor Organization and the U.N. Environmental Programme. It is true that the U.S. has ratified a few of the human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but these ratifications mean nothing whatsoever since when the U.S. ratifies a U.N. human rights treaty it exempts itself from the provisions of the treaty. The legal language is “non-executing.”<br />Thus, contrary to rhetoric, the United States is not playing a facilitating or cooperative role in the international community when it comes to multilateral agreements; on the contrary, it serves as more of an obstacle to the advancement of global cooperation in matters of development, poverty reduction, sustainability, human rights, and peace. Never has cooperation been as important as the world is experiencing an unprecedented level of interconnectedness.<br />Jeremy Scahill’s investigative reports on Blackwell, mercenaries, and the privatization of war present three crucial implications from which academics can learn important lessons. First, Scahill and other journalists have taken on ambitious projects to educate the public and confront the U.S. government about its abandonment of the democratic principles on which our nation was founded. Second, that they have not yet addressed the issue within a broader, contemporary international context, there is a clear opportunity and need for such work to be done. Third, privatization plays out in other arenas besides the war in Iraq and it has done so with horrendous consequences to human populations: <a href="http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/trade/subsidies/index.htm" target="_blank">dumping practices</a> in African countries that benefit U.S. agribusiness; the <a href="http://www.sweatshopwatch.org/" target="_blank">sweatshops</a> of multinationals; international financial speculation; support of <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0613-07.htm" target="_blank">“big pharma;”</a><a href="http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/SAP.asp" target="_blank">structural adjustment programs</a>; <a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/19954">mega-dams</a> built at the insistence of investors that trigger immense population dislocation; the imposition of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2321443.stm" target="_blank">genetically modified seeds</a> on farmers; and on and on.<br />Mary Wollstonecraft offers us some useful language, still appropriate after more than two centuries. It is the “iron law of property,” she wrote in her 1790 letter to Edmund Burke (in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wollstonecraft-Vindication-Cambridge-History-Political/dp/0521436338/ref=sr_1_1/103-7790478-0382208?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182275551&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Vindication of the Rights of Man</a> ), that is crushing “benevolence, friendship, generosity, and all those enduring charities which bind human hearts together.” Humans have, she writes in her vitriolic attack, “enduring, unconditional, and undisputed rights.” These rights—“birthrights”—belong equally to all, while property belongs only to the few. “My blood boils” is the metaphor she hurls at Burke. Boiling blood is not a bad thing for American academics to have these days.<br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><span style="color:#003300;">Judith Blau has published three books on human rights with Alberto Moncada: Human Rights: Beyond the Liberal Vision (2005); Justice in the United States: Human Rights & the US Constitution (2006); and, Freedoms and Solidarities: In Pursuit of Human Rights (2007). She is Director of the Social and Economic Justice (interdisciplinary) Undergraduate Minor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Blau and Moncada are now working on a volume on human rights that will be published by Paradigm. Outside of her academic work. </span><br /><span style="color:#003300;">This article has published<a href="http://www.du.edu/gsis/hrhw/roundtable/2007/panel-b/07-2007/blau-2007b.html"> Here.</a></span>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com104tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-60449876961467776202007-06-06T21:45:00.000+00:002007-06-09T10:53:55.443+00:00<p><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">Geopolitics or Human Rights?</p><blockquote></blockquote><p></span>By: Judith Blau</p><blockquote></blockquote></strong><p>Human Rights & Human Welfare Roundtable, May 2007<br />George Soros’ article, <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20030">"On Israel, America and AIPAC"</a> in the April 12, 2007 issue of The New York Review of Books serves as sobering reminder that the human rights revolution is constantly being scuttled by geopolitics that not only sideline human rights but more devastatingly, undermine their premises. I happen to agree with him that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (<a href="http://www.aipac.org/">AIPAC</a>) is a major obstacle to the US’s normalizing relations with any country in the Middle East, including, and even especially, Israel.</p><p>AIPAC is something of a misnomer because it is a coalition, not a committee, and some of its key members include neocons, as he mentions, as well as Christian evangelicals. AIPAC has long been powerful in influencing American foreign policy with respect to Israel and the Middle East, but never as powerful as it is now with the Bush Administration. To criticize Israel, from the perspective of AIPAC, is tantamount to being anti-Semitic, and for that reason, Soros (who is Jewish, but not religious) is going out on a limb. In the end, I am not optimistic that Soros will be persuasive. But by focusing on the victims (or at least those in the Occupied Territory) I will propose another strategy that could be pursued that simply bypasses entrenched allegiances, perhaps undermining them altogether. </p><p>Soros contrasts the failure of the Bush Administration to facilitate a unity government between Hamas and Fatah with the efforts underway led by Saudi King Abdullah. Since Soros wrote his article a unity government has been put into place and it is led by President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Cabinet positions are split between Hamas and Fatah, with a few representatives of smaller parties. The economic boycott imposed on the Occupied Territory after the sweeping victory of Hamas in 2006 remains in place in spite of the fact that the EU and the US had earlier suggested a unity government would be acceptable. The EU and the Soros’ main point is that AIPAC has fundamentally stymied the US from playing a useful and even sane role in facilitating a process that would lead to peace between Israel and the Occupied Territory, if not a two-state solution. Since it was published, the Soros piece has been both <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20182">praised </a>and <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20181">condemned</a> in subsequent exchanges in the pages of the New York Review. </p><p>These exchanges follow on the heels of others set off about a year earlier, in March 2006 in an article published in The London Review of Books by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, entitled, <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html">"The Israel Lobby"</a>. The response to the article prompted the LRB to hold a debate under the heading 'The Israel lobby: does it have too much influence on American foreign policy?'. The debate took place in New York on 28 September at Cooper Union. The panelists were Shlomo Ben-Ami, Martin Indyk, Tony Judt, Rashid Khalidi, John Mearsheimer and Dennis Ross, and the moderator was Anne-Marie Slaughter. <a href="http://www.scribemedia.org/2006/10/11/israel-lobby/">Click here to view the debate.</a> </p><p>It is not as if these articles and live debates take place in a vacuum. Over the past year there has been an acrimonious fight between Alan Dershowitz and Norman Finkelstein involving similar issues (see <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/menetrez04302007.html">Frank Menetrez</a> ‘s April 30th article in Counterpunch for a recent summary). And it is important to stress that there is a long history in which criticisms of Israel are interpreted as criticisms of Judaism. Hannah Arendt was accused of being an anti-Semite (see <a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.aip?id=3771.">Commentary Magazine </a>) in 1963 when she published Eichmann in Jerusalem. </p><p>The truth of the matter is that Americans do not use the same standards for the state of Israel that they use for every other state, including their own, and since the invasion of Iraq, this has been exacerbated. This has had devastating consequences for Palestinians. But in this regard, the US is not alone. In April 2006 the European Union and the US both announced suspension of aid to Palestinian Territories, with the EU announcing that it would only give <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/gaza/intro/index.htm#1.">need based assistance</a>, and the US and announcing that it would only provide aid that “both protects and promotes <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0408-08.htm">democratic alternatives to Hamas. </a>“ (It should be noted that the 2004 election was considered by election observers to be democratic and fair.)<br />What is truly tragic is revealed by <a href="http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/HM-Mar_07.pdf">UNICEF's March 2007 Humanitarian Monitor for the Occupied Palestinian Territory</a>. Regardless of what the US State Department and the EU External Affairs Office believe, there is a humanitarian crisis unfolding: The details reported by UNICEF are tragic beyond comprehension: </p><p>#The Palestinian Authority can no longer pay salaries of health care workers<br />#Immunization programs and most drug dispensing programs for chronic illnesses have ceased<br />#There are no elective surgeries and outpatient clinics have closed<br />#There is a ban on the importing of many drugs<br />#In March 07, homes, olive tree groves and buildings were destroyed<br />#In March ’07 schools, including kindergartens, were destroyed<br />#The Beit Lahia wastewater treatment plant, consistent with warnings issued in 2004, overflowed in March ‘07, displacing more than 2,000 residents<br />#In March ’07, over 67% of children between 9 and 12 months were malnourished<br />#Food commodity imports declined appreciably in March 07<br />#17 children under 18 killed or injured in armed violence in March 07<br />#384 children under 18 held in detention by Israeli authorities in March 07 </p><p>What can possibly be done? It might be assumed that eventually the US and the EU would normalize relations with Israel, which in turn would mean more sensible thinking in the US and the EU regarding the Occupied Territories. But in the meantime a “humanitarian crisis” is unfolding according to the <a href="http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/gapal1035.doc.htm">United Nations </a>in a February 2007 report. Eventually is too long to wait for residents of Gaza and the West Bank.<br />I have been impressed with the determination and effectiveness of citizen-actors when they mobilize around human rights campaigns. Internationally, the consumer boycott of goods and services produced by apartheid South Africa was an extraordinary success, and there is now a boycott getting underway of companies that have operations in the Sudan. There have been effective boycotts of particular companies – Taco Bell, Nike, Starbucks, Coca-Cola - and, also just getting underway, a boycott of Wal-Mart. Outlets. As consumers have become more savvy about campaigns and mobilization, they have become more effective. For example, <a href="http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/index.php">United Students Against Sweatshops</a> mobilized initially, and increasingly successful for “sweat-free campuses” and now chapters of USAS have launched related campaigns, including for a Living Wage, and Workers’ Rights to Organize. That is to say, students in the United States have become increasingly skilful in mobilizing around human rights, and, in making connections involving different ethical issues.<br />I would propose that we could start today with a campaign against multinationals headquartered in any EU country, the United States or Israel. This may appear to be logistically complex, but waiting for heads of state to recognize how their decisions are harming Palestinians has taken far too long, and, besides, the human rights revolution belongs to the people.</p>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com76tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-19476836535971423102007-05-29T11:31:00.000+00:002007-05-29T11:35:37.333+00:00<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><span style="font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);" lang="EN-US">FUNDATIONAL ACT:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><span style="font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);" lang="EN-US"> </span></b><b style=""><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">"SOCIOLOGISTS WITHOUT BORDERS INTERNATIONAL"</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: justify;" align="left"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style=""><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: justify;" align="left"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US">Alberto Moncada Lorenzo</span></i></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">,Spanish citizen,; <b style=""><i style="">Judith Blau</i></b>, USA citizen,; <b style=""><i style="">Isabella Paoletti</i></b>,<span style=""> </span>Italian; <b style=""><i style="">Karina Rodríguez</i></b>, Chilean; <b style=""><i style="">Paulo Martins</i>,</b> Brazilianl; <b style=""><i style="">Ali Tahefi</i></b>, Iranian; and <b style=""><i style="">Linda Deustchmann</i></b>, Canadian, gather to constitute the International Association "SOCIÓLOGOS SIN FRONTERAS" (Sociologists Without Borders"). The </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">promoters</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> of the association, members of SOCIOLOGOS SIN FRONTERAS </span><span style="color: red;">in their respective </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">countries, decide to create the International Association to coordinate their activities in a global level.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US">The Association bylaws will be the following: <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Article 1°: The Association "Sociólogos Sin Fronteras Internacional" (Sociologists without borders International) (SSFI) is established for unlimited time at the address: Comtat 60, Gandia 46730, Valencia, Spain with the purpose of doing<span style=""> </span>research, study, share and </span><span style="color: red;">disseminating </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">the new ways and principles of a new Sociology Without Borders – cosmopolitan, public, critic, with a compromise on the defense of Human rights in the global era. The Association will do research, promote meetings, especially </span><span style="color: red;">at </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">an international level, will publish documents, papers, books and fulfill other ways of communication, including the ways that can be developed through Internet and will cooperate with groups sharing the same goals. SSSI research will try </span><span style="color: red;">to understand how globalization victimizes people and will work in solidarity with people who are victimized to draw attention to their problems.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Article 2°: </span><span style="color: red;">Any social scientist can </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">be part of the Association </span><span style="color: red;">who share these goals </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">and </span><span style="color: red;">who </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">want to participate on its formulation and diffusion, regardless </span><span style="color: red;">of </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">their nationality. Sociological Associations can be members of SSFI. SSFI will also work as a coordinator of national association of "Sociólogos Sin Fronteras" which </span><span style="color: red;">would </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style=""> </span>like to join.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Article 3°: Members can be from any nationality. Every one of them should be accepted<span style=""> </span>by the Executive Committee., </span><span style="color: red;">and the Executive Committee has the power to remove them as members.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Article 4°: All members will constitute the General Assembly of the Association, deliberative, which will be ultimate responsible for the activities of the Association.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Article 5°: The organs of government of the Association are the</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Executive Committee </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">and the International Council. The Assembly will </span><span style="color: red;">have a </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">session at least once a year, appoint the members of the </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Executive Committee and foster the goals of art.1</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. The assembly as a deliberative organ will promote the aims defined at the article 1°. The Executive Committee functions will be administration, accounting and documentation of the Association and will gather if a simple majority of the members or the President requires to. Meetings of both organs by Internet will be allowed to conduct their business.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Article 6°: At the foundational act, the promoters will appoint a President of the Assembly and a Chairperson (President) of the International Council.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Article 7°: The Association is constituted with an initial deposit of seven hundred Euros, contributed in equal parts for the seven founder members. The associative year will coincide with the end of the natural year. The Assembly will decide its dissolution when the purpose/goals are achieved or the absolute majority of the members require it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US">This foundational record is signed for each of the promoters on May 30<sup>th</sup>, 2007 and will be the only document with all signatures.<o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style=""><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><span style="">4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US">The signers appoint Judith Blau as Chairperson of the Council and Alberto Moncada as President of the Executive Committee at his foundational record and later on<span style=""> </span>will proceed to appoint the other members of each organ according to the bylaws</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-52201746566458726082007-05-15T01:21:00.000+00:002007-05-15T01:33:00.997+00:00<div align="left"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>The First Conference of SSF :</strong></span><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong><br /></div></strong></span><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong><div align="center"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Human Rights & Sociology</span></strong></span> </div><div align="center"></div><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="147" alt="" src="http://www.crystalinks.com/sociologylab.jpg" border="0" /> <div align="left"><br /><strong>Sponsored by Sociologists without Borders</strong> (SSF) &<br /><strong>Center for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University</strong><br /></div><div align="left">(August 15, 2007 - To be held at Columbia’s School of Social Work, 1255 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY - With funding from the Social Science Research Council )</div><br /><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000066;"><strong><span style="color:#ff6600;">The Program of the Conference:</span><br /></strong></span><br /><strong>Welcome</strong></div><div align="left">9:00 </div><div align="left">Bess Rothenberg and Judith Blau<br />Facilitators: Bess Rothenberg, Keri Iyall Smith, and Alberto Moncada<br /><strong>Overcoming Inequalities</strong><br />9:15 -10:30<br />Paul Luebke, Sanjay Reddy, yh Patt<br /><strong>Defining Human Rights</strong><br />10: 45 – 12 15<br />Jack Donnelly, Alberto Moncada, Eunice Sahle<br />1215 115 lunch<br /><strong>Creating Spaces for Human Rights</strong><br />1:15-2:30<br />Michael Burawoy, Craig Calhoun and Gayatri Spivak </div><div align="left"><strong>Agency and Responsibilites<br /></strong>2:30 -3:45<br />Alison Brysk, John Hagan, Bryan S. Turner<br /><strong>Human Rights A Better World is Possible</strong><br />4:00 – 5:00 Manisha Desai, Teivo Teivainen, Jeff Madrick </div><div align="left"><strong>The Ways Forward</strong><br />5:00 -5:30<br />J. Paul Martin and Dave Brunsma<br /><strong>For dinner we will be joined by Francis Fox Piven.</strong> </div>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-26524593507692420962007-05-11T23:31:00.000+00:002007-05-11T23:39:26.219+00:00<div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>The migratory project of women coming</strong></span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>from Muslim countries</strong></span></div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><div align="justify"><br /></span></div><strong><span style="color:#663366;">Isabella Paoletti*</span></strong><br /><div align="justify">(Social Research and Intervention Centre, NGO, Perugia, Italy) </div><br /><div align="justify"> <a href="http://www.persecution.org/suffering/newssummimg/1964islam-veil.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 230px; CURSOR: hand" height="151" alt="" src="http://www.persecution.org/suffering/newssummimg/1964islam-veil.jpg" border="0" /></a>The research project involves researchers in SSF Italy and SSF-Spain and the Maroccan Women Group in Rome. The project aims to explore the migratory projects of women coming from Muslim Countries living in Italy and Spain.<br /> The relevance of this topic was highlighted during a talk with the president of the Maroccan Women Group in Rome. Souad Sbai highlighted as many migrant women see Italy as a place where they can finally see acknowledged their rights, but this is often an illusion. They get caught up in family bounds that keep exercising a total control over their lives. If in their own country, with their husband abroad, they had often the householder role and they work, coming in Italy they find themselves segregated at home, they don’t know the Italian language and they are totally isolated. At times, as in the case of Maroccan women, they find worst condition than in their homeland:<br /> “I notice a great difference between the Islamic community in Italy and the population living in Marocco. I immediately realised the extremism of Islam in Italy, in particular the extremism of Italians converted to Islam. Looking at the difference between Muslim people living in Marocco and those living in Italy, it seems to go back of decades. Not even that. It seems to go back directly to the medieval age. There are a few veiled women, women with no rights, women assaulted within their home in Marocco, a lot less than in Italy” (Sbai, 2007,199)<br /> Souad Sbai denounce the hypocrisy of multicultural ideology that allows, through a misinterpreted “respect of other cultures”, to maintain oppressive conditions, in open violation in respect to the Italian Constitution and the Human Rights charter. It is evident that the support to women’s rights coming from Muslim countries is bound to the struggle at a global level between liberal and progressive Islam on one side and fundamentalist and violent Islam on the other; a fight that is essentially internal in the Islamic world, before being a struggle between Western and Eastern world. Souad Sbai point out as a useful research aim, in order to understand and document those conflicts, the history of the Islamic committee in Italy.</div><div align="justify"> We think hat is really important and urgent to understand and document those phenomena in order to contribute to stop regressive processes that, once spread, it would be a lot more difficult to control. In particular the research project has the aim to find forms of support towards women coming from Muslim countries in other to see their rights recognised. This aim is seen also as a form of resistance to Islamic terrorism and to the culture that supports it. Souad Sbai says: “In Marocco women are encouraged to become religious leaders (murshidat), above all in order to keep believers out of the most fundamentalist doctrine. Fifty women were ordered as religious leaders. Here in Italy on the contrary we are not reasoning along these lines. We continue to want not to see the radicalism problem, to want not to face it. We have feminist that justify infibulation, judges who legitimise polygamy. With extremists you cannot make concessions: if they obtain one, they want more, until they impose their law, the Islamic law. (Sbai, 2007, 200)</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Bibliography</strong> </div><div align="justify">(hold in the Updates archive. everybodies who needs that, Pl contact Editor).</div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>* President of SSF-Italy</strong></div>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-62419784496448678312007-05-07T14:07:00.000+00:002007-05-15T01:11:32.027+00:00<p class="MsoNormal" style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,0); TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="left"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Manifesto for Universal, Worldwide Participation </span></b></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><b><span lang="EN-US">in a </span></b></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Vote to </span></b></span><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,0);font-size:130%;" ><b><span lang="EN-US">Impeach George W. Bush</span></b></span><br /><span lang="EN-US"></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,0); TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="left"><span style="color:#000000;"><span lang="EN-US">According to the United Nations agreement, <i>Principles on Human</i></span><span lang="EN-US"><i> Rights and Environment </i></span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size:85%;">(</span><a href="http://www.umhchr.ch/development/hurist.html"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Ksentini Principles, July 6, 1994</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">)<sup> <?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></sup></span></span></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 36pt"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_4mBJcklAWbc/Rj800nFhhaI/AAAAAAAAAAc/bq3jQsNtuUw/s1600-h/impeach2.jpg"></a></p><a href="http://www.impeachbush.org/images/content/pagebuilder/13385.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 273px; CURSOR: hand" height="181" alt="" src="http://www.impeachbush.org/images/content/pagebuilder/13385.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span lang="EN-US">All persons have the right to a secure, healthy, and ecologically sound environment:<b> this right and other human rights, including civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, are universal, interdependent and indivisible.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p>Never before in the history of the planet has one country had as much power in the world as the </span><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-US">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-US"> does now. Because its power conflicts with peoples’ universal rights, we affirm that there be universal, global participation in a vote to impeach the President of the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-US">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-US">.</span></p><a href="http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage">click here</a> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></b><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Paulo Martins</span><br /><a href="mailto:marpaulo@uol.com.br">marpaulo@uol.com.br</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Alberto Moncada</span><br /><a href="mailto:amoncada1@telefonica.net">amoncada1@telefonica.net</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Judith Blau</span><br /><a href="mailto:jrblau@email.unc.edu">jrblau@email.unc.edu</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Ali Tayefi</span><br /><a href="mailto:ali.tayefi@gmail.com">mailto:ali.tayefi@gmail.com</a></span></p>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-83798479785688690612007-04-29T14:19:00.000+00:002007-04-29T20:45:15.649+00:00<strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Country Report of SSF-Iran</span></strong><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://sociologyofiran.com/images/random2/iswb.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 191px; height: 130px;" src="http://sociologyofiran.com/images/random2/iswb.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><strong><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153); font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >Ali Tayefi *<br /><br /></span></strong> <div style="margin: 1ex; color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-family:arial;"><div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"> <span style="font-size:100%;">At the turn of the </span><span style="font-size:100%;">New Year 2007, </span><span style="font-size:100%;">at the invitation of</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Judith Blau the president of SSF-US </span><span style="font-size:100%;">along with </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Alberto Moncada, </span><span style="font-size:100%;">president of SSF (international), </span><span style="font-size:100%;">SSF-Iran </span><span style="font-size:100%;">was formed. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">In the last 4 months SSF-Iran had many activities such as:<br /><br /></span> </div><ol style="text-align: justify;" type="1"><li style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Create</span><span style="font-size:100%;">d</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> a useful web log for SSF-Iran ( ISWB ) that </span><span style="font-size:100%;">has had more</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> than 3500 visits till now. In the web log there are many Iranian and world links on the our agendas i.e. human rights, social justice, poverty, globalization, children and women. </span><a href="http://iswb.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>http://iswb.blogspot.com</u></span></a></li><li style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The site, </span><span style="font-size:100%;"> “</span><a href="http://sociologyofiran.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>sociology of Iran</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;">” </span><span style="font-size:100%;">has become the </span><span style="font-size:100%;">famous </span><span style="font-size:100%;">site as an </span><span style="font-size:100%;">independent space for all Iranian sociologists and social researchers, now there are more than </span><a href="http://sociologyofiran.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=287&Itemid=72" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>150 members</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;"> in SSF-Iran who are from Iran and some other countries as students or </span><span style="font-size:100%;">as </span><span style="font-size:100%;">exiled elite. </span></li><li style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> In the last months after warning of likely invasion of US against Iran, SSF-Iran </span><span style="font-size:100%;">proposed </span><span style="font-size:100%;">publish</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ing</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> a petition to condemn this </span><span style="font-size:100%;">in</span><span style="font-size:100%;">human and </span><span style="font-size:100%;">anti-</span><span style="font-size:100%;">democratic </span><span style="font-size:100%;">threat. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">. Fortunately, by alliance of other SSF’ers i.e. US, Spain, Brazil, </span><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/0107ENG/petition.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>the petition</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">was </span><span style="font-size:100%;">published on line. After a few weeks this petition </span><span style="font-size:100%;">in English was </span><span style="font-size:100%;">supported by many </span><span style="font-size:100%;">other </span><span style="font-size:100%;">versions i.e. </span><a href="http://sociologyofiran.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=325&Itemid=65" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>Persian</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;">, </span><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/0107ENG/petition.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>English</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;">, </span><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/0107SPA/petition.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>Spanish</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;">, </span><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/0107FRN/petition.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>French</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;">, </span><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/0107POR/petition.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>Portuga</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;">l, and </span><a href="http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dc82npk9_114fkn39h" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>Germany</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;"> languages. This petition was the first united campaign between academician and sociologists in the world </span><span style="font-size:100%;">and it received </span><span style="font-size:100%;">more than 1700 sign</span><span style="font-size:100%;">atures</span><span style="font-size:100%;">. The petition has been linked by more than 50 web sites and web logs and it was </span><span style="font-size:100%;">perhaps </span><span style="font-size:100%;">the </span><span style="font-size:100%;">most successful </span><span style="font-size:100%;">multilingual petition in the world, </span><span style="font-size:100%;">at least to date.</span><span style="font-size:100%;">.</span></li><li style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> In this period some SSF-Iran members mobilized by its president </span><span style="font-size:100%;">to carry out </span><span style="font-size:100%;">some joint actions such as translate some articles for ISWB. Now there are more than 7 articles which have translated and published on the SSF-Iran website. In addition, for strengthening of SSF-Iran, I wrote 2 essays “</span><a href="http://www.sociologistswithoutborders.com/documents/AliTayefiessay.doc" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>Without Borders</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;">” & “</span><a href="http://www.sociologistswithoutborders.com/globalizatoinwarbetweenfunds.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>globalization and Fundamentalism</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;">” and some Iranian members participated on the discussions in SSF network.</span></li><li style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> SSF-Iran could arrange a good relation with Iran Sociology Association (ISA) and coordinate some activities such as exchange our notes, websites and mail</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ing </span><span style="font-size:100%;">list of members. Some of SSF-Iran members already were members of ISA. </span></li><li style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> After three months activity, president of SSF-Iran </span><span style="font-size:100%;">received the </span><span style="font-size:100%;">“First Annual Alvin Gouldner Prize” from SSF. It was for his activities and critical writings on applied sociology. </span></li><li style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> There are some </span><span style="font-size:100%;">draft </span><span style="font-size:100%;">initiatives </span><span style="font-size:100%;">for some joint</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> projects between SSF’ers i.e. SSF-Italy and Turkey. We contacted to design and invite our members to joint on those.</span></li><li style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Now the president of SSF-Iran has been selected as editor of the new SSF Newsletter "Updates" on the internet to publish all articles, notes, reports, debates and opinions of SSF’ers on the world. This website was published nearly a week ago at the address: </span><a href="http://ssfupdates.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>http://ssfupdates.blogspot.com</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;">.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">SSF-Iran wants to develop its activities in the near future on the discussion, some sessions on the human rights and sociology and spread its network with some other NGOs in Iran to do some joint activities.</span> </span></li></ol><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p><span style="font-size:100%;">* Ali tayefi is president of SSF-Iran and Editor of SSF newsletter “Updates”. See His </span><a href="http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dc82npk9_111fjbz3n&revision=_published" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>C.V</u></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;">.</span></p> </div> </div><a href="http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dc82npk9_111fjbz3n&revision=_published"></a>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-51923218147037287472007-04-25T17:43:00.000+00:002007-04-27T13:26:50.307+00:00<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >"Sociologists Without Borders" a misnomer? (1)</span><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153); font-weight: bold;">António Pedro Dores*</span><span class="lg1"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:9;" lang="EN-US" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="lg1"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:9;" lang="EN-US" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102);font-size:85%;" >(brief of discussions)</span></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sociologistswithoutborders.com/Header/SSFHEA%7E1_r1_c1.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 413px; height: 53px;" src="http://www.sociologistswithoutborders.com/Header/SSFHEA%7E1_r1_c1.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a> 1) It is not rational to mix political and professional toughs as being a continuum, as if there were not different issues, different ways of reasoning and different opportunities to act. Society differentiates professional, scientific, political, family, sport and other social spheres of social influence and social behavior.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> 2) Aneta, as other colleagues, will to change the world in a better place. This is OK. They hope (wrongly) sociology can do that. They know sociologists they know won't to that. They solve the contradiction between their won will and reality they experience in a non scientific way: they force the reality they dream of to become real and the people who do not fit with it, they are bad people, false people. That is why they look for "real"and "true" sociologists.<br /><br /> 3) This kind of wishful thinking has been used by XIX century positivism. And it continues to be used today, in sociology. Mainstream sociology support modernization, which is today a panglossian theory. That is why Risk society becomes a famous concept. Many things are falling apart (including social theory). What means to be in favor of modernization? It means to be neo -liberal form the left, supporting the façade of Social State does not contain any more no solutions for the social problems.<br /><br /> 4) This kind of wishful thinking, in politics, support terrible social secrets, such as Gulags and genocides and ethnic transportation to other territories and ecological disasters and political failures and corruption.<br /><br /> 5) As professionals of sociology we must support priority to social issues (not psychological or economic ones). Of course, we can - as a citizen - be against that kind of priority. The problem is: why a sociologist should be attracted to SSF to support inside priority to psychological or economic themes? Why s/he would not go to discuss the matter with economists without borders? Or why the question of disciplinary priorities is not discussed openly instead of being brought only at the end of the discussion?<br /><br /> 6) My feeling is that sociology needs to free it self from inferiority complex facing economics, politics and other more important sciences. Or sociology will dye of fear of being attacked, instead of fighting back. This is crucial: to go forward sociology needs to believe (as Durkheim teaches us) that moral issues are crucial when it comes to profound structural changes, such as we are living these days.<br /></div><br />*<i><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;color:navy;" ><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Arial;font-size:10;color:navy;" lang="EN-GB" ></span></span></i><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;color:navy;" >Professor auxiliar at the Department of Sociology of ISCTE, Lisbon University.<span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;color:navy;" lang="EN-GB" ></span></span>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938091629234695594.post-42598537758011466002007-04-18T21:47:00.000+00:002007-04-24T19:16:12.591+00:00Welcome to SSF`ers<div align="justify"> <strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" >Judith Blau & Alberto Moncada<br /><br /></span></strong> This newsletter "<strong>Updates</strong>" is an invitation for members of SSF to<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_4mBJcklAWbc/Ripfaw58tpI/AAAAAAAAAAM/_w7llhtoJE0/s1600-h/income.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 195px; height: 193px;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_4mBJcklAWbc/Ripfaw58tpI/AAAAAAAAAAM/_w7llhtoJE0/s320/income.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5055958445085996690" border="0" /></a> engage in a global conversation. It is a conversation about the big issues: Globalization and its inequalities, the slow emergence of human rights, the erosion and bad use of democracy, the new multinational power, the struggle from the grassroots to create political and social power from the bottom up.</div><div align="justify"> Many issues which provoke our reflection and allow us to create an alternative to the product of a media which sometimes obscure facts instead of presenting them. </div><div align="justify"> SSF want to facilitate access to places where real information is provided, sometimes hidden amount banal media outlets. The newsletter will be multilingual, each one uses his own, to open a real participation. Welcome to SSF Global Updates.</div><br />** <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><strong>Spanish version:</strong></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><strong>Introduccion</strong></span><br /><div align="justify">Este boletín "<strong>Updates</strong>" de noticias es una invitación para que los miembros de SSF o los que se sientan cerca de nosotros den a conocer sus puntos de vista acerca como podemos mantener una conversación global.Es una conversación sobre los grandes temas que nos preocupan: La globalización y su inevitable acentuación de la desigualdad, el lento pero igualmente inevitable progreso de los derechos humanos, la erosión de la democracia, la emergencia de un nuevo poder multinacional, la lucha de las comunidades por crear un poder político desde abajo.<br />Tantos temas que provocan nuestra reflexión y que nos han de permitir crear una alternativa a las opiniones de un mundo mediático que sirve, tantas veces, más para ocultar que para informar<br />Sociólogos sin fronteras quiere facilitar los sitios donde la verdadera información está medio escondida, páginas de Internet que ofrecen los hechos sin prejuicios.Y, en una formula multilingüe, cada uno escribe en su idioma, abrir la participación a los que se sienten más excluídos. Bienvenidos a SSF Global newsletter.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);font-size:130%;" ><br /></span></strong></div>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04096568910588429312noreply@blogger.com8