When the people on the streets in Iran use the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom," the freedom they refer to is freedom from domination. Iranians are living under a regime that limits what they can say, how they dress, and how they may gather and organize. Their government is imprisoning, torturing, and killing people who are … Continue reading Freedom: Challenging Domination or License to Dominate?
The Left and the Rule of Law
The recent election called on us to fight hard—and in the streets if necessary—to protect the rule of law and our formal processes of electoral democracy. Did I really just say that I wanted to protect the “rule of law”? For the past four years many of us on the left have found ourselves in … Continue reading The Left and the Rule of Law
The Fortress World of Capitalism vs. the Beautiful Possibilities of Cooperation
Our beloved world is entering an increasingly unstable period, full of dangers and also full of possibilities. In many countries, old political parties are crumbling faster and anyone thought imaginable. Old geopolitical alliances have come unglued as the US comes to exercise its role as world hegemon in new and unpredictable ways. The development of … Continue reading The Fortress World of Capitalism vs. the Beautiful Possibilities of Cooperation
Thinking about Fascism
The 2016 presidential election made me think about 1933 and Hitler's rise to power. I've known that he came to power through constitutional means and then used that power from the inside to destroy a constitutional system of government. This seemed like a good time to better understand the way that someone who was a … Continue reading Thinking about Fascism
Making Rights Work
Making Rights Work: A Review of "The Human Rights Enterprise" A few years ago, when California was going through a major budget crisis and money for education was being cut back dramatically, many students protesting the cuts claimed that education was a right. Conservatives shot back that education wasn't a right, it was a privilege. … Continue reading Making Rights Work
Cynthia Kaufman 