Category: Blog

From Indu, a message about how to donate and what is going on:

**please forward widely**

14 million people have now been affected by the flooding in Pakistan. Recent reports state that the carnage is worse than the 2004 Tsunami and the earthquake in Haiti.

 

The situation is getting worse by the hour as monsoon rains continue and water is washing down from the Himalaya Mountains. The international response to the flood is underwhelming, the UN has launched an appeal for $459m, to date, five countries, Britain, the US, Australia, Italy and Kuwait, have committed or pledged more than $5m in new funding. Currently, the amount of international aid that is committed does not scratch the surface of the need on the ground. Continue reading “support for people impacted by disaster in Pakistan”

I thought this PBS story about people living in small houses might be of interested to some. It is a rare opportunity to see discussion about the difference between “need” and “want” in the media.

My colleague at Seattle University, Tayyab Mahmud, was featured at a symposium in Cleveland. You can watch his presentation by scrolling forward to 1:02 in the video. His slides are packed with interesting information and statistics, they are slides 832-938 and you can scroll through them on the right. One quote of particular interest that he included:

“The 2008-2009 bailout ‘has turned out to be one of the largest redistributions of wealth in such a short time in history…'” (quoting Joseph Stiglitz, slide 905).

Hello! Did anyone else feel a little demolished by Detroit? Amazing but exhausting. But I underwent a transformation at the U.S. Social Forum (at first I thought it was just regular emotional meltdown, but now I’m reconceptualizing it as transformation in honor of the USSF), a result of not eating or sleeping enough, doing too much, and extending myself far beyond my limits. The nonstop intensity was punctuated by moments of deep awe and inspiration, and since coming home I’ve been thinking so much about care and healing and community-building and how important they are as tools for movements. I was confronted with some important truths about my body’s capacity, in a space where I also got to be amazed by incredible organizers and healers and workshops about trauma, somatics, healing justice, accessibility and disability justice, and building communities of support and care. Exposure to all that amazingness can change a person! I’m landing back home committed to prioritizing those things even more, both in my life and my organizing. And not in a lip service-y way – in a real way. Continue reading “Link city”

My favorite sociologist just sent me this link to an animation of part of a speech by David Harvey. Fun to watch. I wish someone would animate all the best speeches and articles so that more people would access them and enjoy them.

Also, here’s an article I wrote for the queer issue of Tikkun about the wealth redistribution and queer politics.

I just learned about this site which seems like a nice tool for starting conversations about wealth distribution and class. It doesn’t address stored wealth (like, I can imagine college students who don’t have jobs and are supported by their rich families and stand to inherit a lot putting in their income to happily discover that they aren’t rich), but it still seems like a useful intervention. Also, I just stumbled across this new comic book about the economic crash. I read it cover to cover in the bookstore cafe, thinking about whether it would be good to assign to my Poverty Law students since it both covers a lot of ground in terms of economic policy and describes social movement resistance work.

Hello! I just got back from the Bay Area where among many things I had the pleasure of co-hosting a house party for POOR Magazine, and it reminded me that I should post that interview/conversation I did with Tiny in the last issue of make/shift. So here it is! Though you should really buy the magazine – you get lots of other amazing articles, plus an extra cute and dorky picture of me and Tiny.

Hi friends, I wanted to pass along two links. First, this article that talks about how the gap between Black and white household accumulated wealth quadrupled from 1984 to 2007. Second, this link to the Democracy Now coverage of the ongoing strike at the University of Puerto Rico.

One of our readers wrote in with a really interesting question that I’m hoping you will all have feedback about:

“I’m writing because I’m looking for support, feedback, strategies and this seems like a really good place to find it. The subject is: a cross-class intimate relationship where the two people involved come from different class backgrounds AND, most saliently, have really different levels of access to money/resources right now. And, maybe, they want to embark on a big land-based project together (with other folks involved, but as the primary movers). This project will require many resources from both of them, but money can only come from one. You see how some issues might come up where support and strategies would be very helpful!”

Please share your thoughts by commenting. Thanks!