I headline this article with a question that, given the economic, political, and also military divisions that are shaking the international scene, might appear to have an obvious answer: in effect, globalization is behind us. But there is another, earlier question that turns out to be quite revealing and, in my opinion, is necessary to pose: which globalization are we talking about?

In the capitalist system, writes Fernando Luengo, “Workers offer their labor power to the owners of the means of production, who buy it in exchange for a wage. This is the essence of capitalism; far from being a peripheral or irrelevant issue, I would say that it constitutes one of the keys that explain the operation and reproduction of the system.”

As I wheeled my luggage into the John F. Kennedy airport terminal in New York City, the air was filled with a symphony of sounds that blended the murmurs of conversations in different languages, the echoing announcements over the intercom, and the occasional distant rumble of airplane engines. My heart raced, erratic beats echoing in my chest as I waited for my plane to board. It was my first time traveling abroad as a first-generation Latina, and I was filled with excitement as I embarked on my journey to Spain. Prior to my departure, I knew that I wanted to learn more about decolonization, and I believed that Spain was the perfect place for this pursuit.

I woke up this morning in Malaga with the knowledge that today was an important day in Spain: a day of nationwide demonstrations calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. At a time when European leaders continue to fail to meet their basic moral obligations vis-a-vis the Palestinian people, more than 70 Spanish cities from Alacant and Albacete to Zamora and Zaragoza were scheduled to host actions under the common banner of stopping the genocide, ending arms sales to Israel, and cutting off diplomatic relations with the apartheid state.

The Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE), a transmission corridor owned by a subsidiary of private equity group Blackstone, is designed to import hydroelectricity from Canada to Queens. A closer look at the situation, however, reveals that the project represents an effort by a leading fossil fuel profiteer to augment its fossil fuel profits with greenwashed imported hydropower as a false climate solution.

In a seismic collision of technology and journalism, December 2023 witnessed The New York Times (NYT) thrusting the issue of artificial intelligence (AI) into legal and ethical crossfires. The NYT lodged a lawsuit against tech giants and AI-industry leaders Microsoft and OpenAI, pinpointing their ChatGPT language model for alleged copyright infringement. The charge is weighty: ChatGPT purportedly harnessed millions of NYT articles, even those shielded behind paywalls, to mold its language learning capabilities.

When I started studying New York State child care policy in spring 2023, I met Ms. Rhodes, co-founder of Western New York Child Care Action Team, while supervising a qualitative study of Erie County child care providers. Ms. Rhodes introduced me to local providers and coached me through the ins and outs of a complicated industry seeking concrete reforms at the State level. Now, I am embedded in the Child Care Community of Erie County and remain inspired to effect political change, beginning with workforce compensation reforms which will improve wages for child care workers. My passion for this work is largely influenced by Ms. Rhodes’s mentorship, helping me understand the nuances of early childhood education and care, as well as connecting me to other researchers, advocates, providers, and parents who are impassioned about child care policy reform. I had an opportunity to interview Ms. Rhodes, and to publish the interview here with the support of Weave News.

No one seems to be talking about how criminally underpaid child care professionals are in New York State. A coalition of child care providers, advocates, and parents, the Empire State Campaign for Child Care, has announced that child care workforce compensation and development are the top policy priority for the industry. There is consensus about this priority among providers, advocates, and parents outside of the statewide coalition as well. Child care professionals rank among the lowest paid professions in New York State. As the workforce behind the workforce, child care professionals facilitate the working lives of millions. If they remain underpaid and abandon the industry, which they have been over the last few years, the collapse of the child care industry would create unimaginable social ruptures. The child care community wants better pay and government support to achieve it. Will Governor Hochul say anything about child care? Will she invest in workforce compensation for child care professionals?

On Wednesday, December 13, child care advocates from across New York State gathered in front of the midtown Manhattan building where the Governor stays on New York City trips, 633 Third Avenue. There were close to 30 activists huddled together holding signs, speaking into mics, and demanding that Governor Hochul sign the Decoupling Bill. The Empire State Campaign for Child Care, led by Dede Hill, Executive Director of the Schuyler Center, hosted the rally. I was there, too.

On Thursday, November 16, I attended a “huelga estudantil” (student strike) held in Madrid, Spain, in support of Palestine. I was amazed to look out at the crowd and see such a diversity of young faces ranging from middle school students to university-age young adults. It was a truly diverse coalition of young people who were all there for the same reason: to condemn the current Israeli assault on Gaza and call for an end to the Israeli occupation. The fact that such a large group of students left their classrooms vacant to take to the streets in support of Palestine gave a strong sense that Gen Z is fiercely challenging the normalization of Israeli oppression.

s part of my commitment to bringing justice-oriented voices from Spain to a broader audience, especially in the context of the ongoing struggle for justice in Palestine, I am providing this English translation of remarks made by Ione Belarra, leader of the leftist Podemos party and Minister of Social Rights in the Spanish government between 2021 and 2023. Belarra spoke at a Podemos-organized event at the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid marking 76 years since the beginning of the Palestinian Nakba.

When Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke with international media on October 30, he ostensibly sought to clarify Israel's objectives in its ongoing military assault in Gaza. In doing so, he revealed yet again how language grounded in colonial denial serves to clear the way for the most extreme, even genocidal forms of violence. He also revealed, however, that Israel's brutal bombardment of Gaza may be providing an opening for us to revive a different, more liberating kind of language, one that survives the propagandistic weapons of colonial discourse as embers in the rubble of generational trauma.

This year, the children of two families outside Buenos Aires celebrated a simple yet essential pleasure for the first time in their lives: the warmth of a shower inside their own home. This sea change resulted from the work of a group of volunteers who undertook bathroom construction in 48 hours under the auspices of Módulo Sanitario, an Argentinian non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides bathrooms for those without access to them.

It’s been more than a month since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. In that month, I carried on with my day-to-day activities albeit with a heavy heart for the victims of the war. The officials and military combatants are not at the center of my thoughts and worries – the civilians are. Before the attacks, they bore the brunt of the war and terror in the region, and for decades after they will, too.

As recently as a few years ago, it would have been very unusual to see an article in a major US publication openly trying to refute what much of the world knows: that Israel’s project in Palestine is a settler colonial project. The standard practice was simply to ignore the colonization issue. Yet in recent months, we are seeing more and more pieces seeking to debunk the “decolonization narrative,” all the more so since Israel began its genocidal assault on Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. This is a welcome sign that the colonizers are losing control of the narrative.

As part of my commitment to bringing justice-oriented voices from Spain to a broader audience, especially in the context of the ongoing struggle for justice in Palestine, I am providing this English translation of remarks made by Spanish activist and Eurodeputy Miguel Urbán at an October 20, 2023 public event in Madrid held in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

As part of my commitment to bringing justice-oriented voices from Spain to a broader audience, especially in the context of the ongoing struggle for justice in Palestine, I am providing this English translation of remarks made by journalist Olga Rodriguez at an October 20, 2023 public event held in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

As Israel continues its brutal assault on Gaza, I continue to be struck by the difference between some of the news coverage here in Spain (as imperfect as it is) and the coverage I am used to seeing back home in the U.S. In my previous article, I wrote about the Spanish public television program La Noche en 24H and the interview they aired with former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. Today I focus on a subsequent interview from the same program aired last night (October 19, 2023).

As I noted in my recent report on Madrid’s October 15, 2023 Palestine solidarity march, protesters here in Spain have been seeking to focus attention on the genocidal aspects of Israel’s actions in Gaza. “No es una guerra, es un genocidio!” (“It’s not a war, it’s a genocide”) is one of the most common slogans heard at these solidarity events. For this reason, I was very interested in an interview featured in Spanish public broadcaster RTVE’s nightly news program La Noche en 24H last evening (October 18). Program host Xabier Fortes sought to shed light on the genocide issue by speaking with one of the most important international voices on war crimes prosecution. It was a refreshingly direct conversation.

As the Israeli military continues to subject Palestinians in Gaza to a brutal siege accompanied by heavy aerial bombardment, citizens around the world are rising up to express their solidarity with Palestinians and to demand that Israel and its international supporters be held accountable. At a march held in the Spanish capital, Madrid, protesters sought to focus attention on the role of the European Union (EU) in enabling Israel’s war crimes.