MEL GURTOV – The tit-for-tat warnings between the U.S. and China reflect the politics of their relations today: the “China threat” being pushed in Congress, and American public opinion now very unfavorable toward China; and Chinese upset with the US “Cold War mentality” and strategic containment of China. Sadly, students and researchers in both countries suffer from this negative dialogue.
How Can People Actually Protect Their Privacy in an Era of Total Digital Surveillance?
JOHN P. RUEHL – Governments and private entities have steadily eroded privacy on the internet. The trend toward internet functions centralizing within national borders and fragmenting internationally reinforces the need to safeguard both openness and security in cyberspace.
Looking Beneath the Surface of the End-the-War Encampments
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – The encampments are filled with students from different religious traditions — Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, unaffiliated as well as spiritual but not religious students. They are finding solace and courage among themselves.
Plastic Pollution Is a Crime Against People and the Planet
ERICA CIRINO – Plastic particles and chemicals pollute all of our bodies. But people living on the fencelines of the fossil fuel, plastic, and waste industries face even more life-threatening pollution.
War Culture Hates the Ethical Passion of the Young
NORMAN SOLOMON – With transcendent wisdom, this spring’s student uprising has rejected conformity as a lethal anesthetic while the horrors continue in Gaza. Leaders of the most powerful American institutions want to continue as usual, as if official participation in genocide were no particular cause for alarm. Instead, young people have dared to lead the way, insisting that such a culture of death is repugnant and completely unacceptable.
Columbia students are sick at heart — just as we were in ‘68
MARK RUDD – An organizer of the 1968 Columbia University protests, Mark Rudd analyzes why the message against war, then and now, is the same.