Tag: Issue 1-25-2013
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A Conversation with Noam Chomsky
On January 8, Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, Spare Change News' editor-in-chief, sat down with one of the world’s leading public intellectuals, Prof. Noam Chomsky, in his office at MIT. They had a wide-ranging and free-flowing conversation about the most pressing issues facing our democracy. They covered topics ranging from liberation theology in Latin America, to…
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Sudan and the Anti-Genocide Paparazzi
Crimes against humanity are best carried out in secret. Terror can be inflicted, ethnic cleansing can be waged, torture can be committed, and if it is not an official hot spot that the whole world is already watching then who in the world will even know? That is the way it has pretty much…
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Hacktivism: Civil Disobedience or Cyber Crime?
When Reddit co-founder and internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide last Friday, he was facing up to 13 felony counts, 50 years in prison, and millions of dollars in fines. His alleged crime? Pulling millions of academic articles from the digital archive JSTOR. Prosecutors allege that Swartz downloaded the articles because he intended to distribute them for…
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Deval Patrick’s Tax Plan Is Regressive and Dangerous
While credit is due to Governor Patrick for his submission of a revenue-progressive tax structure, the devil is in the details. A close look at the proposal – in particular the forty-five tax exemptions that are slated to be abolished – demonstrate that the proposal is not progressive at all. Indeed, the real-world effects…
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Mayor Menino Wants Aggressive Panhandling to End
Mayor Menino’s office is filing an ordinance to the city council regarding aggressive panhandling. The ordinance is the first step in a three-point plan to help change interactions between the general public and homeless people. According to Sheila Dillon, the Director of the Department of Neighborhood Development, the problem was recently brought to the Mayor’s…
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The Student Lending Crisis
On September 17th, 2011, people took to the streets in lower Manhattan as Occupiers to denounce the financial and banking institutions that, as they saw it, caused suffering, economic disaster, and uneccessary harm during and after the financial crisis of 2008. Many of the protesters, Occupiers, asserted — and with solid arguments — that the…
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Obama, Climate, History
It was worth staying up until 2 a.m. on election night to hear Barack Obama’s victory speech. The brother sure can bring it when he is inspired. Now it’s time for the climate and progressive movements to do our job as citizens and demand that he do the same on climate. It’s time, long…
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Guns, Guns, Guns
As promised, the President presented his proposals for gun control, through the panel led by the Vice-President, a month after the shootings at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut. Most of the new proposals are really nothing new: tougher background checks, assault weapons ban, and limiting magazine rounds. Requiring background checks for all gun…