Nation Topics - Movements | The Nation

The article offers various views of marriage and same-sex marriage. If you believe social conservatives, marriage in the United States has been under dire assault for more than a century--from adultery, divorce, feminism, birth control and now, apparently, gays and lesbians, who on May 17, 2004, the day Massachusetts began recognizing same-sex marriages, joined this at once venerable and fraught institution. Conservatives have a point; the percentage of married U.S. citizens has been in steady decline for decades. And yet, as the annual June hordes at the altar and the dramatic struggle for gay marriage attest, marriage continues to occupy a dominant position in society. How does one make sense of this confusing marital landscape? We asked a range of writers and scholars to offer their thoughts. Should marriage be abolished? Reformed? How is it that marriage--despite its routine and oft-documented failures--persists as the focus of both our personal aspirations and political struggles? Their responses follow.

Presents criticism of the antiwar movement in the U.S. Efforts of Marc Cooper to oppose the U.S. proposals of war with Iraq; Consideration of Christopher Hitchens, a commentator who supports the left wing of government; Involvement of the Workers World Party in the antiwar movement.

Offers observations on a nascent United States peace movement which opposes a war against Iraq. Operations of the Not in Our Name network, which organized demonstrations against U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Iraq; Goals of these groups, including the disruption of events featuring members of the administration of President George W. Bush, and an end to considerations of war; Relations between protest groups; Growth of the movement.

The triumph of World Pride, a weeklong program of conferences and cultural and social events culminating in the march, offered the edifying spectacle of Italy's small, and heretofore politically quiescent, gay movement out-organizing the most powerful antihomosexual forces in Italian society. The tiny but vociferous far-right Forza Nuova group promised to add a bit of fascist muscle to respectable conservative antigay opposition with its threats of violence against World Pride participants.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) infiltration of movements in the sixties is by now well-known. But those who have excavated the history of such surveillance have barely looked into the government's infiltration of the women's movement. The FBI, it turns out, viewed the women's movement as a serious threat to national security. The FBI's surveillance of the women's movement began as part of COINTELPRO, an FBI domestic surveillance program begun in 1956. This mission was to "neutralize" the effectiveness of civil rights, New Left, anti-war and African-American liberation groups.

The article focuses on one-sided coverage of globalization by mass media. The media has have embraced the mantras of globalization as the new sustaining ideology for the role of the U.S. in the world. The antidote for biased coverage is more honest reporting, on the ground reporting where the story is happening, free of abstract presumptions promoted by the established order. The press does not lead the way when a new social movement arises but usually follows hesitantly, reluctant to side with dissent until the public itself is greatly aroused or the story is too big and obvious to be ignored.

The article focuses on one-sided coverage of globalization by mass media. The media has have embraced the mantras of globalization as the new sustaining ideology for the role of the U.S. in the world. The antidote for biased coverage is more honest reporting, on the ground reporting where the story is happening, free of abstract presumptions promoted by the established order. The press does not lead the way when a new social movement arises but usually follows hesitantly, reluctant to side with dissent until the public itself is greatly aroused or the story is too big and obvious to be ignored.

For many kids at that time, punk music was one of the few vehicles for expressing anger toward what they perceived as the political and cultural bankruptcy around them. But Beefeater's songs and the antiapartheid activism they helped to inspire were destined for obscurity. The music was far too loud and abrasive for most people over the age of 30 and, more significant, inaccessible to the majority of young Americans, whose tastes in music have long been dictated by trends set in the offices of music conglomerates.

The article presents information on political and civil movements in the U.S. History lies heavy on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from its glory years. Civil rights groups became prisoners of their own success, whipsawed between history and change. When the NAACP tried last year to debate the very real dilemma of pressing for school desegregation versus improving black schools, it was attacked for abandoning its historical commitment to integration. The debate was stifled before it began-and the NAACP was savaged for being a dinosaur. The burden of its honorable past kept the group from discussing one of the crucial questions facing colored Americans.

The article presents a cartoon depicting religious movement in the U.S.