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[unusualmusic_lj_archive]

The Small Arms Trade

Dealing and Wheeling in Small Arms, a new documentary from Sander Francken, explores the world of small weapon’s dealers and how weapons used by the United Nations and NATO in places like the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere are “recycled” throughout the developing world, especially Africa. There are no international regulations governing the trade in small arms and, according to Francken, there are some 840,000 small arms circulating worldwide.

A Movement in Oaxaca

In 2006, New York reporter and activist Brad Will was killed by paramilitaries in Oaxaca, where he was covering a teachers’ strike. Since the strike--demanding higher salaries and free books for all students--the movement has expanded but the violence hasn’t stopped. Tami Gold, in her film Land, Rain and Fire looks at the impact of NAFTA, privatization, and land appropriation on the people of the region. The teachers union has continued to oppose the privatization of public education in the midst of severe repression.

US Empire and the Conflict in Israel/Palestine

Why Palestine? It’s hard to overstate the significance of Israel/Palestine to global politics. Some say that Barack Obama’s success or failure will be judged on whether a resolution to the conflict is reached during his presidency. For others the issue has deep moral resonance. As an indication of the fault lines in America, Hampshire College’s recent decision to divest from companies that do business with Israel has been both repudiated and celebrated as a major breakthrough.
Ali Abunimah, editor and founder of The Electronic Intifada says that Palestine matters precisely because it is the site of the last Western colonial project in the Third World and that opposition to Israel is also opposition to US hegemony in the region.
Abunimah, Brian Van Slyke of Hampshire College’s Students for Justice in Palestine, Kanwal-Shazia Chaudhry a Doctor in Brooklyn who recently traveled to Gaza with the American Medical Mission to Gaza, and Hannah Mermelstein, co-founder of Birthright Unplugged take on the question of why Palestine matters.