Nation Topics - Activism | The Nation

The article examines how Christian-right activists took part in a Republican gambling industry scheme, in light of the indictment of Indian casino lobbyist and Republican activist Jack Abramoff. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, joined a group of Christian-right activists, including Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, to spearhead Abramoff's campaigns against the establishment of several casinos in Louisiana that infringed on Abramoff's tribal clients.

The author comments on the State of the Union address delivered by U.S. President George W. Bush. Bush did not mention the government's defense pact with the Shiite leaders who will dominate Iraq. While Bush paid tribute to civil right leader Coretta Scott King, antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan was tossed out. Bush addressed issues like healthcare, education and gas prices. He thinks we have too much insurance, so he offered to privatize healthcare. Bush didn't mention that he has not funded his own education programs and is cutting education spending. He remains in denial about global warming.

The article looks at the universal pre-kindergarten movement in California. Preschool activist Rob Reiner is pushing for a proposed measure that would guarantee access to preschool for every child in California. Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia, and New York offer universal preschool programs. The push for early childhood education comes from research on the cognitive and emotional development of children. The Perry Preschool study showed the advantages of preschool among poor children. The universal pre-kindergarten movement has created a media campaign to promote the benefits of early learning.

Focuses on a grassroots movement against U.S. military recruitment organized by Latinos. Research being done by the U.S. Dept. of Defense to find out how to make enlistment appealing to Latinos; Claim by Larry Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense in Ronald Reagan's Defense Department, that a decrease in Latino enlistment numbers would hamper the U.S. military because they are the fastest-growing minority; Drop in African American recruitment due to dissatisfaction with the Iraq war; Details of a campaign to educate Latinos about recruitment, Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (YANO), organized by Jorge Mariscal, a Vietnam veteran and professor at University of San Diego.

Presents the author's views on the issue of global poverty and the forthcoming G-8 summit in Scotland. Discussion of the work of Ken Saro-Wiwa, an activist killed by the Nigerian government for claiming that Nigeria was not poor but rich and that the country's involvement with Western corporations kept people in poverty; View that Africa is kept poor not by lack of political will but by the profitability of current corporate business arrangements; Analysis of the concept of land rights in Bolivia and Iraq; Review of activist protests scheduled in coordination with the G-8 summit.

Looks at the work of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her controversial critiques of Islamic sexual mores in the Netherlands. Discussion of Hirsi Ali's views that Islam oppresses women; Death of Hirsi Ali's colleague Theo van Gogh; View of some Dutch Muslims that Hirsi Ali promotes Islamophobia; Review of Hirsi Ali's career; Comments from Hirsi Ali regarding the role of women in Islam; Analysis of the role of Muslim women in Dutch society; Comments from activist Miriyam Aouragh, who states that Hirsi Ali has never fought for the oppressed.

Comments on the trial of Lynne Stewart, an activist attorney charged with being a terrorist. Representation of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, now serving time for conspiring to blow up Manhattan bridges, by Stewart; Violation of an administrative agreement with the sheik by Stewart, which would normally lead to disciplinary charges before the bar in the most extraordinary case but led to the charge that Stewart aided terrorist activity instead; Use of fearmongering, guilt by association, and evidence on terrorism completely unrelated to Stewart to win a conviction.

The article focuses on Christian author and political activist Jim Wallace. Can a dose of Christianity stiffen the Democrats' spine, win back Kansas and bring people power to the anemic left? In the wake of the 2004 election, quite a few powerful liberals are wondering if they can frame their politics as "faith" the way the right has so effectively done. One of the people the Democrats have invited to tell them how to go about this is the evangelical Protestant activist Jim Wallis, a founder of the antipoverty group Call to Renewal and editor of the magazine "Sojourners." Wallis draws a sharp line between the God-on-our-side Christianity responsible for countless evils and the social-justice kind he favors. The more insistently people bring Christianity into politics, the more political argument becomes a matter of Christian hermeneutics. It is interesting that in his earlier book "The Soul of Politics" Wallis cited numerous women theologians, while "God's Politics" mentions not one. That so many Christians are firmly persuaded that the Bible condemns abortion suggests that God's politics tend to be the politics of the people who claim to speak for him.

The article focuses on the role of labor unions in the 2004 United States presidential campaign. Union-backed programs greatly increased voter registration of both members and nonmembers. Both directly and acting indirectly through other groups, unions proved again to be the cornerstone of Democratic politics, especially in personal contact with voters. There will always be conservative union members who vote Republican, but the diverse nature of membership gives unions a better chance than many progressive groups to sway swing voters. To the extent unions found success in this election, they found it by emphasizing the need for affordable healthcare, job creation and fairer trade agreements, retirement security, protection of overtime pay and other bread-and-butter issues, such as the successful initiatives to raise the minimum wage in Nevada and Florida. Yet in the end, even though union members were primed to make their presidential decision in terms of a troubled economy and a misguided war, only 51 percent who ranked the war as the first or second most important issue (40 percent of union voters) voted for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

The author focuses on women's issues in the South and details a conference she attended in Memphis, Tennessee. The First Congregational Church was recently home to the sixth annual Southern Girls Convention, where I had come in search of an endangered species: the Southern feminist. It's hardly a secret that the South is no bastion of women's liberation. When I asked the 100 or so participants, from college students to veteran libbers, what challenges Southern women face that those in other regions may not, the most common response was laughter. "It feels about twenty years behind other parts of the country," said First Congregational's Pastor Cheryl Cornish. As unabashed liberals in the heart of the Bible Belt, they saw their battle as a very long-term, if not romantic, one. Robin Jacks, who co-founded the event with fellow activist Jennifer Sauer, said that when they organize progressive protests, "We get double digits and call it a success." Southern white women are the most conservative in the country--exit polls from this year's election reveal that 68 percent voted for Bush and only 32 percent for Kerry, double the margin in 2000. But Southern women suffer immensely from conservative policies. According to a 2002 report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, seven of the nine worst states for women are in the South--in terms of earnings, access to health and reproductive services, and political participation.