Space for change: Gaza, Facebook, feminism

Ali Abunimah is a journalist and the founder of the electronic intifada. That's an independent online news publication and educational resource focusing on Palestine, its people, politics, culture and its place in the world. In the days after the recent ceasefire in Gaza, he joined rabble.ca's Redeye podcast to share his viewpoint on the conflict and the ceasefire. Host Mordecai Briemberg began by asking him about why he thought Israel attacked.

An international boycott of businesses profiting from illegal Israeli settlements is needed. Dr. Richard Falk made that assertion in a report to the United Nations this October. His recommendation for a boycott led Canada, the United States, and Israel to call for his resignation. Dr. Falk is a professor emeritus of International Law at Princeton. He is also the special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories for the UN. And Dr. Falk has not resigned. rabble.ca's Redeye podcast has been covering the conflict in Gaza over the last month, and they invited him to join them on their podcast. Here he is, explaining why he made the call for a boycott.

You've had a few weeks to recover from the U. S. presidential election coverage. It's safe now to pull your fingers out of your ears as the 24-hour-a-day horse-race coverage is thankfully over. Now is the time for a little more reasoned coverage. Kevin MacKay is a professor of social sciences at Mohawk College, and executive director of the Skydragon Co-operative is a non-profit worker-coop dedicated to the goals of progressive social and environmental change. Here he is, speaking with Riaz Sayani-Mulji from rabble.ca's Progressive Voices Podcast about the difference between the parties.

Rape jokes, creepshots, and a slut memes about 12 year olds. They're all there on Facebook. Talk about Facebook privacy concerns abounds in the media. But there's not much in the news how the site deals with misogyny. Soraya Chemaly writes for Alternet, Fem 2.0, The Feminist Wire, and the Huffington Post, which is where she took on Facebook's failure to shut down misogynist posts and pages. Here she is on rabble.ca's Feminist Current podcast, after host Meghan Murphy asked about when she first noticed Facebook's misogyny problem.

It comes up in many conversations about feminism. This comment: "I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist." But what if a person could be a feminist AND a humanist? It's a radical thought. Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson is one person who believes that it is both possible, and necessary. She calls it radical humanism. Hutchison is the founder of the Black Skeptics Los Angeles and a senior fellow with the Institute for Humanist Studies. The F Word collective invited Dr. Hutchinson onto their podcast to talk about faith, feminism and radical humanism.

When rabble radio produced our 100th episode, we thought it would be a good idea to check in with a centenarian. Anne McPhee was 100 at that time, and she graciously agreed to talk with me about her life and the changes a century had brought to Nova Scotia. Anne McPhee died this month. She was 103. McPhee was well-known in Nova Scotia. She had a head for business and for years she ran a clothing store in Mulgrave. Here she is, talking about changes to the business and life in the Maritimes.