Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
Human Rights

Porto Alegre: A Competing Vision

by | Feb 5, 2002

Porto Alegre, Brazil ­ As the sixth and final full day of the World Social Forum dawns here on southern tip of Brazil, delegates prepare for a now-familiar routine of dawn to dusk forums, side meetings over meals, and impromptu protests in the foyer of the main campus building. Today’s events culminate with a mass march opposing the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), the United States’ main proposal for integrating the hemisphere under a single trade and investment regime.

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Second Day in Porto Alegre

by | Feb 1, 2002

Porto Alegre, Brazil – The World Social Forum (WSF) officially began Thursday evening (Jan 31) with a march through the heart of this city’s main business district by some 10,000 delegates waving a sea of mostly red banners, chanting political slogans, and beating pots and pans, a Latin American symbol of protest. They gathered in a lakeside park for a 4-hour cultural performance by a variety of Brazilian bands and dance groups and a satellite hook-up via a giant television screen with worker and labor groups protesting outside the World Economic Summit in New York City.

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First Day in Porto Alegre

by | Jan 31, 2002

Porto Alegre, Brazil–Under a strong summer sun and a broad political proclamation that “Another world is possible,” tens of thousands of activists from around the world are arriving here for the second annual World Social Forum. The host, like last year, is Brazil’s southernmost major city, capital of the state of Rio Grande de Sul. The city and state governments, which are both facilitating and underwriting some of the Forum’s cost, have won international acclaim for their progressive policies, providing extensive social services and a high quality of life.

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A New Marshall Plan for 2002: Advancing Human Security and Controlling Terrorism

by , | Jan 7, 2002

As the endgame nears in the fighting in Afghanistan, with Taliban power collapsed and Al-Qaeda members dead or on the run, it is tempting to believe that military success has decided the outcome of the war on terrorism. The Bush administration has already made it clear that it has limited interest in the long and arduous task of rebuilding Afghanistan. But Washington decisionmakers may want to heed this advice from a senior U.S. military officer and statesman from an earlier era, General George C. Marshall. In outlining the so-called Marshall Plan to rebuild a war-ravaged Europe on June 5, 1947, he warned that there could be “no political stability and no assured peace” without economic security. Europe, much like Afghanistan today, was torn by war, poverty, disease, and hunger, and risked “disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people,” and thus deserved American attention and funds to recover and rejoin the world community.

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Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan

by | Sep 1, 2001

Not a shot has been fired–yet–at Afghanistan’s Taliban, but the country’s beleaguered population already is paying a heavy price for the ruling militia’s pariah status as host to alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

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The Folly of the U.S. Boycott

by | Sep 1, 2001

The U.S. boycott of the historic United Nations Conference Against Racism is indicative of the growing U.S. arrogance in international forums. The Bush administration, backed by congressional leaders of both parties, used a couple of controversial lines–out of a document hundreds of paragraphs long–critical of the policies of a U.S. ally as an excuse to avoid addressing such critical questions as racism, xenophobia, and other forms of discrimination that continue to plague humanity.

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Human Trafficking Policies: Ships Passing in the Night

by | Aug 1, 2001

Nearly every five to ten years the U.S. overhauls its immigration policies, sometimes giving illegal aliens a fresh start through legalization programs. What is novel about the current, serious discussion of a new illegal alien legalization program, is that it is taking place within the context of a much greater awareness of and concern over the expansion of human smuggling into the U.S. and around the world.

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U.S. Policy on the UN Conference Wrong

by | Aug 1, 2001

The United States, the self-described leader of human rights, effectively decided to boycott the UN conference against racism in Durban, South Africa. The U.S. could have made a strong, positive impression by sending its African-American Secretary of State, a descendent of slaves, and making a forceful stand against racism. Instead, it chose to send a low-level delegation.

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