Communities of Color find solutions in Boston

When it comes to pollution and climate change, all too often people of color shoulder the greatest burden. The recent fire at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, California is just the latest example. We have more residents living near polluting industry. We suffer higher rates of asthma. And our neighborhoods are hit hardest by severe weather caused by climate change.

It makes sense, then, that more and more solutions to these problems are coming from communities of color.

A new report released this week by the Center for Social Inclusion highlights one of these solutions. The report, Energy Democracy: Community Innovation in Boston features the work of the Boston Workers Alliance, an organization founded by Green For All Fellow Aaron Tanaka.

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Raw milk victory for Missouri farmers

On July 31 Armand and Teddi Bechard entered into a consent agreement with the State of Missouri, ending a case that began in 2009. On two occasions in the spring of 2009, undercover agents from the Springfield-Greene County Health Department allegedly purchased raw milk at the Bechard's central delivery point, a health food store parking lot in Springfield.

The Missouri State Milk Board through the state attorney filed a lawsuit to enjoin the Bechards from delivering raw milk and cream to their customers at a central distribution point. Missouri statute allows for the sale and delivery of raw milk by unlicensed farmers; however, the Milk Board was insisting that raw milk could only be delivered to the customer's residence while prohibiting delivery at a central distribution point. The Greene County district attorney's office also brought a criminal action against Armand for allegedly selling milk at a premises off the farm; he was later acquitted on appeal in January 2011.

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Karen Morrison-Hume is inspired by the struggles and courage of others

Having worked with society's most at-risk for the past 16 years, the missioner who breezes into Anglican Action's reception area is not the wearied woman you might expect.

Karen Morrison-Hume is immaculate, articulate and engaging, and seemingly as motivated as ever towards helping those who, for whatever reason, have found themselves at the bottom of life's pecking order.

When Mrs Morrison-Hume says on the glass half full or empty scale, hers is "always overflowing", it is easy to believe her.

Her endless enthusiasm for helping others may stem from the fact she does not perceive it as helping at all, instead looking at such interactions as symbiotic.

"The more we go out into these places where life is toughest, the more we'll receive."

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Gordon Brown demands R&A golf club to admit female members

Gordon Brown has accused one of the world's most influential golf clubs, the Royal and Ancient in St Andrews, of perpetuating discrimination by refusing to admit women as members.

The former prime minister said it was indefensible that the club, which until 2004 set the rules of the game worldwide, was still men-only after Augusta National, the most powerful club in the US, abandoned its ban on female members this week.

"If the golf club in Augusta can admit women, then shouldn't St Andrews? If they can do it in South Carolina, can we not do it in Scotland?" Brown asked.

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Local Press targeted on the Ivory Coast

Lagos, Nigeria, August 24, 2012--Ivorian authorities must immediately halt censorship of news outlets reporting critically on the government and investigate an armed assault on the offices of a publishing group, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Iranian women banned from universities in their own country

Universities across Iran have announced that almost 80 subjects in both the liberal arts and sciences will be off limits to incoming female scholars.

Female students learned of the bans, which will affect 77 fields across 36 universities, in letters received throughout the past couple of weeks, according to the Telegraph.

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

African American Celebrities who support Gay Rights

Oprah Winfrey recently admitted that she received some of the most vitriolic and racist criticism of her career for supporting Ellen DeGeneres when she came out as a lesbian in 1997. Winfrey had guest-starred on the well-known episode of DeGeneres' sitcom in which the comedian let the world in on her sexual orientation.

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

San Fransisco 49ers tell LGBT Youth: It gets better

The San Francisco 49ers have become the first professional football team to join the online antibullying It Gets Better campaign intended to build confidence and spark optimism in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youths.

"Something you should never experience is being bullied, intimidated or being pressured to being a someone or something that you are not," 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks said, looking straight into the camera for the one-minute video that was posted Thursday on YouTube.

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Immigrants in Greece marching against Racism

Thousands of immigrants marched in Athens on Friday to protest police sweeps and a rash of racist attacks in Greece as the country struggles to pull itself out of a huge debt crisis.

Greece is the main entry point for illegal immigrants seeking a better life in the European Union.

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Disability Rights Movement in Russia

Russia’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in May signaled a great moment for the country’s more than 13 million citizens with disabilities. In practical terms, this long-awaited ratification means that Russia must now translate the guarantees in the convention into domestic legal reform and overcome the pervasive discrimination against people with disabilities. That is far from an easy task.

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Campaign for Caregivers launched

Single parents, adults caring for sick children or parents, we all know someone who can be called a caregiver. The Center for Community Change today launched the “Give A Care” campaign to thank all caregivers for their selfless contributions and why they should be recognized.

The campaign aims to open a dialogue on the importance of caregiving and what it means to be a caregiver in today’s society.

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Front yard Garden in Quebec saved by petition

Remember this fabulous front yard garden in Drummondville, Quebec that city officials, in all their wisdom, wanted to dig up? It's staying, thanks to a 30,000-signature petition, media attention and much grousing from sensible people. City council members even invited its creators, Josée Landry and Michel Beauchamp, to help shape the city's new guidelines for urban food gardens. Speak up. It matters.

"It will now be allowed to Drummondville this type of garden in the front yard."

Read More

To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org