Archive for the ‘Political activism’ Category

GEO wins tuition waiver security! Pickets suspended!

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

In a successful 2-day strike - the first by a union local at the University of Illinois in 10-years, and one of the largest in the history of graduate unions in the US - the GEO has secured a commitment to retain tuition waivers for graduate employees. The University had ...

Call to action: Call the U of I this Wednesday, and support graduate employees

Monday, November 9th, 2009

This Thursday, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees will meet in Springfield. Members of the GEO will be there to remind them of the urgency of reaching agreement on a fair contract. You may not be able to be in Springfield, but you can play your part in persuading ...

GRC summary

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

I had planned to blog more from GRC, but my airport card stopped working on Friday, which was somewhat of an annoyance. I was pleased that my session on podcasting was reasonably successful - we didn't get into discussing much of the more arcane aspects of adopting podcasting for community ...

Grassroots radio

Friday, July 25th, 2008

I'm in Portland at GRC13 - the Grassroots Radio Conference. So far it's been a great experience. We're at lunch at the moment (2 hours, so plenty of time to meet people and chat, as well as enjoy the fantastic Middle Eastern food provided). The opportunity to meet with people ...

Visiting New Orleans

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Approximately 225,000 people left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina flooded most city neighborhoods in August 2005. A sizeable number came from the 9th ward. Some 1800 people died during the floods; later, hundreds more succumbed to stress-related ailments. [Saul Landau] My parents visited the US recently, and we took the opportunity ...

Healthcare provision in the United States

Monday, July 21st, 2008

The American Federation of Teachers - with which my union, the GEO, is affiliated - has voted to endorse a bill to provide Universal Healthcare in the United States: HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system in the U.S. by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to every resident. HR ...

Overview of Venezuelan media

Monday, July 21st, 2008

One of my colleagues in the ICR, Andrew Kennis, has published an overview of the Venezuelan media system at Narconews. He starts with an analysis of US coverage, such as of the recent decision not to renew the license of one of the independent commercial stations, and moves on to ...

The curious case of Steven Kurtz

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Back in 2004 I posted an item about an artist who had been arrested and charged with terrorism-related charges. Steven Kurtz had been using (harmless) bacteria as part of various art projects, as part of his work with the Critical Art Ensemble. He has recently - 4 years later - ...

Kucinich introduces articles of impeachment against Bush

Monday, June 9th, 2008

I had heard nothing of this previously, and there's nothing on the BBC News website, which is generally my first destination for breaking news in the US or UK. However, Dennis Kucinich is currently on the floor of the US House of Representatives, introducing 35 articles of impeachment against Bush. ...

Sitting in on the NCMR keynotes

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

As I mentioned in my previous post I'm currently at the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis. Yesterday was designated as an 'evening on the town' by writ of the organizers, and I ended up spending much of it at several of the receptions run by groups like IPA, ...