Category: Democratic rights

A Woman’s Voice of Resistance in Afghanistan

 A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice, by Malalai Joya, with Derrick O’Keefe. Scribner, 2009.

5 January 2010 – Afghan social activist and writer Malalai Joya is the voice of another, hidden Afghanistan – the partisans of independence, democracy, and human rights that have no voice under the corrupt U.S.-sponsored regime of Hamid Karzai.

She has survived multiple assassination attempts for her outspoken advocacy of women’s rights and withdrawal of U.S., Canadian, and other NATO armed forces. She believes the people of Afghanistan, especially the women, can organize the struggle for fundamental rights such as health care, education, control of their bodies and their lives – but only when the foreign occupiers leave their country. Continue reading A Woman’s Voice of Resistance in Afghanistan

After Referendum Defeat, Chávez Pledges to Continue the Struggle

A Report from Caracas

John Riddell and Suzanne Weiss traveled to Venezuela at the end of November, as participants in a tour organized by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network.

Responding to what he termed a “photo finish” defeat in Venezuela’s December 2 constitutional referendum, President Hugo Chávez pledged to continue the struggle for the measures that were presented to voters.

Announcing the results on national TV, he accepted “the decision made by the people” and thanked all voters, both those who voted “yes” and those in the “no” camp. But he called for his movement to stay on course. “I do not withdraw a single comma from the proposal,” he added. “The proposal is still on the table.” Continue reading After Referendum Defeat, Chávez Pledges to Continue the Struggle

How Women’s Oppression Began—and How It Will End

Based on a talk given to the Socialism 2007 conference in Toronto, April 28, 2007.

When I think about the course of my life, I am struck by how much things have changed for me—and for all women—over the course of the last half century. Through the explosive struggles in the 1960s and 1970s, women won more freedom to choose our life paths. We gained access to contraception and abortion. Our lives were no longer defined solely by marriage and children. Many women decided they had a right to a full education and to a career. Now, in some countries, including Canada, women can even marry other women! Continue reading How Women’s Oppression Began—and How It Will End