The rabbinic arm of the Reform movement has emphasized the importance of collective bargaining for decades. So why have so many recent Reform conferences taken place at union-boycotted hotels?
2013
Away With All Borders: The Immigration Mess
|
National reforms are not enough. To end the fear and heartbreak of the current system will require the implementation of a Global Marshall Plan and a basic challenge to our notions of land ownership and the nation-state.
2013
The New Abolitionism: The Struggle to End Deportation
|
The travails of deportation will cease only with its abolition. From Dayton, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., activists are joining forces with targeted communities in the burgeoning movement to end this unjust system.
2013
Healing the Wound: Immigration, Activism, and Policies
|
To build a world free of borders and border violence—a world where no one yells, “go back to where you came from”—we need to address the fear motivating those who would shut the door.
2013
An Evangelical Perspective on Immigration
|
Inspired by Scripture and struggling to serve immigrant worshippers, the evangelical community is calling for reforms to keep families together and establish a path toward citizenship for people without papers.
2013
Living in the Shadow of SB 1070: Organizing for Migrant Rights in Arizona
|
The predatory escalation of immigration enforcement in Arizona has continued to worsen in the wake of Arizona’s 2010 immigration law. In response, migrants have organized Barrio Defense Committees, Freedom Rides of undocumented activists, and more.
2013
Creating Sanctuary: Faith-Based Activism for Migrant Justice
|
When would-be migrants die in the desert, it’s not just an ethical issue, it’s also a religious crisis. Arizona groups have put their faith into action for decades, defying federal law and offering humanitarian aid.
2013
How to Stop a Deportation
|
Individuals often endure deportation proceedings in isolation, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The stories of Steve Li and Laibar Singh show what is possible when communities mobilize in response.
Activism
An End to Easy Answers: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s New Memoir
|
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore describes decades of queer activism in her new memoir, which is often scarring, startling, and never easy. But Sycamore confronts the problems in her life with real feeling, showing that emotion—if genuine—can often break us out of the corporate-sponsored numbness which so inundates our culture.
Activism
Old Roots, New Branches: Jewish Spiritual Communities and the Rise of Alt-Labor
|
In both the independent Jewish communities and the alt-labor groups, newcomers are more comfortable with the languages of faith and justice than their predecessors.
Activism
An Interdependence Day Celebration for July 4
|
Faced with July 4th celebrations that are focused on militarism, ultra-nationalism, and “bombs bursting in air,” many American families who do not share those values turn July 4th into another summer holiday focused on picnics, sports, and fireworks, while doing their best to avoid the dominant rhetoric and bombast.
Activism
In the Name of God: Interfaith Activism, Immigration Reform, and the Dangers of Pragmatism
|
A key component of the “Gang of Eight” immigration proposal would entail a strengthening of the very system of immigration control and exclusion that has given rise to the current “crisis” and underlies the push for change. It will also permanently bar many now living and working in the United States—regardless of their ties to the country—from ever having the possibility of regularizing their status, while making their lives, and those of future unauthorized immigrants, more difficult.
Activism
Twenty Years After the Gay March on Washington: Time for a Spiritual Progressive Paradigm to Affirm Homosexuality
|
With the gay pride and rights marches of yesteryear, the responses from mainstream society to homosexual people marching down city boulevards or the National Mall was either the sound of vitriolic hatred, or a tepid tolerance. Now, a slight majority of Americans favor full marriage equality for same-sex couples, and there is an outside chance that the Supreme Court may declare state bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, or at least end same-sex marriage discrimination in California.
2013
Searching for Solidarity in an Atomized Society
|
We desperately need to build up an ethic of accompaniment. But we must do it while consciously understanding ourselves to be operating in a profoundly countercultural context.
Activism
A sad but humorous account of the divisions in Germany’s left-wing activist forces
|
Ed note: Victor Grossman is a frequent writer for Tikkun and has an insider understanding of the dynamics inside the German Left. A VALIANT PHONY, VALIANT PROTESTS AND A VALIANT DOG
Victor Grossman, Berlin Bulletin No. 51, January 15, 2013
First a glance at long-past history – at the American hero Friedrich Wilhelm Augustin von Steuben, known as Baron Steuben. In many ways he was really a phony. His noble title and rank as “Prussian Lieutenant General” were inventions; he had really been dropped from Friedrich the Great’s army as a lowly captain.