Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Human Rights Watch condemns US prison system, immigration policy

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, January 28, 2011

Human Rights Watch condemns US prison system, immigration policy

by Kate Randall from WSWS.

Whenever US government leaders meet with Chinese officials, the issue of human rights in China is always a mandatory topic promoted by US media. With US's record on human rights in relation to their torture prisons scattered throughout the world, the attacks on protesters here in the US, and reports such as this, it almost causes one to vomit.

In its annual world report, Human Rights Watch condemns the United States on a broad range of civil liberties abuses. In particular, the human rights group slams the US prison system, immigration policy, and the treatment of suspects in the “war on terror.” HRW also points to the US’s dismal record on women’s rights and the treatment of child laborers.