It’s that time of year again … time to drink some eggnog, make your New Year’s resolution and then promptly break that New Year’s resolution, and, of course, rock the vote — the ITF vote, that is.

There are two parts to this year’s vote: (1) your picks for the Top Ten U.S. social justice organizations (choose from eighteen), and (2) your favorite ITF articles of 2003 (pick one article for each of the four channels of the magazine). We’ll publish the results in the January “BEST OF InTheFray 2003” issue.

Please email your votes to vote@inthefray.com NO LATER THAN MONDAY, JANUARY 5. Feel free to cut and paste the list below in the text of your message.

READERS’ CHOICE: TOP TEN SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS

Now that you’ve helped us choose our top ten activists in America, we need your help again. Choose ten picks from the following list of eighteen. The question is: “Which ten organizations working on social justice issues in the United States have had the most influence over the past three decades?”

[ ] ACORN

[ ] ACT UP

[ ] The American Lung Association

[ ] Amnesty International

[ ] Center for Community Change

[ ] Center for Third World Organizing

[ ] Environmental Justice Fund

[ ] Green Party

[ ] Human Rights Campaign

[ ] Jobs with Justice

[ ] MoveOn.org

[ ] National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

[ ] The National Organization for Women (NOW)

[ ] Public Citizen

[ ] Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

[ ] Reform Party/Independent Party

[ ] Schools of the Americas (SOA) Watch

[ ] Third World Majority

Optional: We’d love to hear why you chose the ten organizations that you did. Make your case for your picks in the Forum or email them with your votes. We’ll publish your comments (without your name if you prefer) in the next issue of the magazine.

BEST OF InTheFray 2003

Choose your favorite article in each of the four channels below:

IDENTIFY

[ ] Genocide is not a spectator sport
Exploring the roots of ethnic violence in Gujarat. By Anustup Nayak.
February 12, 2003

[ ] Bollywood ending? Not yet.
What digital video could mean in the world’s largest democracy. By Nicole Leistikow.
April 10, 2003

[ ] Driving us into the ground
The debate over the true cost of cars. By Nick Hoff.
June 9, 2003        

[ ] Southern hospitality
Mourning a lost home, refugees from Vietnam start over in North Carolina. By Krista Mahr and Lissa Gotwals.
September 29, 2003

[ ] The end of old-school organizing
How United for a Fair Economy is reaching across lines of class and race in the fight for economic justice. By Victor Tan Chen.
October 27, 2003

[ ] The revolution will be emailed
Can a widespread, loosely knit organization — connected only through email — make the American mainstream media take notice of the Palestinian perspective? By Tamam Mango.
November 13, 2003

[ ] The battle after Seattle
Four years after the landmark 1999 protests in Seattle, times are tougher for the global justice movement. But activists are adapting by broadening their ranks, shifting their tactics, and envisioning an alternative world. By Victor Tan Chen.
December 26, 2003
        
IMAGINE
    
[ ] A is for ambivalent
The rise, fall, and pending resurrection of an Asian American magazine. By William S. Lin.
February 10, 2003

[ ] From sparks to full blaze
Reporting Civil Rights traces the evolution of a movement and its coverage. By Andrew Curry.
April 9, 2003        

[ ] Breaking the celluloid ceiling
Asian Americans embrace the bad-boy characters of Better Luck Tomorrow. By Gavin Tachibana.
April 10, 2003

[ ] The painted ladies of Queens
When Matisse and Picasso visit Long Island City, it’s their mistresses who take center stage. By Maureen Farrell.
June 9, 2003

[ ] Not on my watch
Can A Problem From Hell make stopping genocide a priority? By Jal Mehta.
September 29, 2003

[ ] Elisabeth Leonard, Raging Granny
Faith, righteousness, and the march to stamp out war. By Henry P. Belanger.
October 27, 2003

[ ] Where give meets take
Sharing a house, a shower, and a meal at the Catholic Worker. By Maureen Farrell.
November 13, 2003

[ ] Burning Man lights a fire
The Nevada desert art event doesn’t just produce art, it produces citizens. By Katherine K. Chen.
December 22, 2003

INTERACT
        
[ ] Crying wolf
A television journalist decries bias in media coverage after 9/11. By Hari Sreenivasan.
February 12, 2003

[ ] ‘Mother-guilt’
The unscientific progress of a psychiatric resident. By C.T. Kurien.
April 10, 2003

[ ] Free at last
Saying goodbye to that nettlesome question: Is it the French Quarter, or the Freedom Quarter? By Judith Malveaux.
June 9, 2003

[ ] The other side of Lawrence
A Supreme Court victory may turn out to be the gay community’s death knell. By Adam Lovingood.
September 29, 2003

[ ] The new ‘crisis’ of democracy
The world today is witnessing an unprecedented level of popular protest — but watch out, the Empire is striking back. A conversation with Noam Chomsky.
October 27, 2003

[ ] ‘Assault on the very basis of life’
In an age of unprecedented corporate power, social movements offer the greatest hope for humanity’s survival, says Vandana Shiva. A conversation with Vandana Shiva.
November 13, 2003

[ ] It’s lonely at the top
Every generation likes to think it stands at the end of time. But there are good reasons for activists to remember their history — and remember their humility. By Larry Yates.
December 24, 2003

IMAGE

[ ] Kids in color
Nurturing the adults of tomorrow. By Lia Chang.
February 10, 2003

[ ] The peace series
Because no one wants to shoot a teddy bear. Illustrations by Genevieve Gauckler.
April 8, 2003

[ ] The propaganda remix project
Somewhere, Norman Rockwell is rolling over in his grave. Posters by Micah Wright.
April 8, 2003

[ ] The oxymoron
A war that the whole family can enjoy. Posters by John Carr.
April 8, 2003

[ ] On the front lines
Images of anti-war. By multiple contributors.
April 8, 2003

[ ] Guerilla banner drop
5:30 a.m.: We drop the flag on Union Theological Seminary. Photos by Dustin Ross.
April 8, 2003

[ ] 911: State of Emergence
Ride the Saturation Engine. Multimedia immersion courtesy of 47.
April 8, 2003

[ ] I love war!
Print them out and share the love. Stickers by DesignBum.
April 8, 2003

[ ] Por los ojos
Down a road in Central America, eyeing each other. By Alejandro Durán.
June 12, 2003

[ ] A walk in the dark
Photographs and notes from a long walk home during the Blackout of 2003. By Dustin Ross.
September 29, 2003

[ ] World trade barricade
Puppets and protests galore at the World Trade Organization’s Cancún ministerial. By Dustin Ross and Victor Tan Chen.
October 27, 2003

[ ] Fear totalitarianism
Dodging rubber bullets at the Miami FTAA ministerial. By Tom Hayden, Diane Lent, Toussaint Losier, Andy Stern, and Victor Tan Chen.
December 26, 2003

Optional: Please tell us what you think about any or all of the articles you voted for. You can post your comments in the Forum or email them with your votes. We’d love to hear what you think about the magazine in general, too — constructive criticism is always welcome.

The articles that receive the most votes will be featured in the “BEST OF InTheFray 2003” on Monday, January 12. We’ll publish readers’ comments along with the winning articles. If you don’t want your comments or name published, please let us know.

Finally, please submit your vote NO LATER THAN MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 2004 to vote@inthefray.com.

It really is that easy … no hanging chads, no confusion about whether Jewish Floridians actually voted for Pat Buchanan — just your voice and your vote.

Happy holidays, happy voting — and don’t forget to check your lists twice!

Laura Nathan
Managing Editor, InTheFray Magazine
Austin, Texas

In The Fray Contributor

The voting booth is often touted as the way that Americans can change their society — the site where democracy plays out in its purest form. But we live in an era where electoral politics has been diluted, its power leeched into the hands of pollsters and lobbyists. So where does this leave democracy? If one vote per citizen is not enough to overcome the influence wielded by corporations and the wealthy elite, then where should we look to find the new face of political engagement?

When our democratic institutions fail us, when citizens lose their ability to speak and be heard, Americans organize. Political and civic associations form a kind of test kitchen for democracy. It is here that we serve up new and classic combinations of citizen participation. The debate within these groups over organizing tactics is not just a matter of touchy-feely outreach and political correctness. It is a struggle over the very nature of democracy.

In this special issue of InTheFray Magazine, we take a look at this process in action. How do today’s social movements organize themselves? In what ways are organizers dealing with the fragmentation of American society — its separation into bickering identity groups, its division into silos of single-issue organizations toiling in isolation? Has this generation of activists come up with innovative ways to bond communities and bridge their divides?

This month, we begin with a series of four articles. In “The new ‘crisis’ of democracy,” we speak with the legendary thinker and activist Noam Chomsky about the recent, encouraging signs of political protest around the world, and the barriers and backlash that continue to stand in the way of real change. In “The end of old-school organizing,” Victor Tan Chen looks at United for a Fair Economy, a Boston-based economic justice group that has staked its success upon reaching out to communities of color, winning over sympathetic wealthy elites, and bringing the white working class back to progressive politics — a tall order for even the most visionary of activists. In “Elisabeth Leonard, Raging Granny,” Henry Belanger profiles a veteran peace and justice activist whose life story shows us how much — and how little — the struggles against oppression have changed over the years. And in “World Trade Barricade,” Dustin Ross and Victor Tan Chen offer us a glimpse of last month’s protests in Cancún, where thousands of farmers and anarchists and environmentalists from around the globe converged to demonstrate against the World Trade Organization and its alleged bias in favor of "free-trade fundamentalism."

In November, we’ll follow up with two more updates to our Special Issue. The stories to come include:

• A list of the Top 10 social justice organizations in the country — compiled by the editors with the help of activists across the country — and a chance for readers to choose their own favorite activists and groups.
• Maureen Farrell’s profile of the Catholic Worker, a group that since the days of its legendary co-founder, Dorothy Day, has striven to “obliterate” the distinctions that separate the poor from everyone else.
• Tamam Mango’s look at Palestinian Media Watch, a media advocacy group that is organizing individuals across geographic lines in a decentralized, democratic fashion.
• Victor Tan Chen’s analysis of the global justice movement, which shut down Seattle in 1999, helped derail trade talks in Cancún last month, and is mobilizing for another huge protest next month in Miami.
• An interview with renowned Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva, author of Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply and founder of Navdanya, a movement for agricultural diversity and farmers' rights.

Ben Helphand
Projects Editor, InTheFray Magazine
Chicago

p.s. You’ll notice a new look and feel to the magazine. Our redesigned site offers a range of new features, including a regularly updated blog (the reincarnation of our old “Pulse” department), the ability to post comments directly after articles, personalized user identities, automated printing and emailing of our online content, and a better-integrated Readers' Forum. We ask for your patience in the coming weeks as we work out the remaining bugs on the new site. Please send any feedback to webmaster-at-inthefray-dot-org.

STORY INDEX

TOPICS > SOCIAL MOVEMENTS >

“The Other Superpower”
By Jonathan Schell. Published in The Nation. March 27, 2003.
URL: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030414&s=schell

“The Second Superpower”
Explanation of the term “second superpower,” and its recent use by The New York Times. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Superpower

In The Fray Contributor