There is a person on IndyMedia beginning a series of articles on Building a Global Grassroots Infrastructure-1, development of the IMC network which promises to be a good exploration of how the Internet is enabling real democratic mass communications. In short, how we can take all the Internet execs’ phony rhetoric about revolution and start making it into a reality.

Good articles on feminist topics on Salon are few and far between, but this one was a really excellent analysis of some of the dynamics of the erosion of support for abortion rights, and how both the Clinton administration’s feel-good liberalism, and generational politics within big repro rights groups like NOW and NARAL have helped shut young women (and boys) out of pro-choice organizing and fighting for the pro-choice message.

On the other hand, the Feminist Majority Foundation has done some very interesting work on the more specific dynamics of this change: support for legalized abortion (as opposed to taking up politicized labels like pro-choice) has been making slow but steady progress over the past few decades, but support for anti-choice restrictions on abortions have also been growing in popularity. Not too surprising given the intense organizing that the anti-abortion Right has been putting into the chipping away tactics to limit access to abortion as much as possible.

More for the In a Stunning Development file: an internal audit commissioned by Chief Charles Ramsey, it has been found that 10% of the officers on the D.C. police force have sent e-mail containing hate slurs, including ethnic and racial slurs, sexually inappropriate content and offensive comments about homosexuals. Some of the e-mails also included content about illegal drug use by officers, sexual activity on the job, and evidence of racial profiling. Malcolm X once said that white hatemongers had traded in the hoods and sheets — well, some of them have traded in the hoods and sheets — and taken up blue uniforms. The sad thing is how often the news continues to prove him right.

Salon has an interesting article which does a great job of exposing the horror of Stalingrad, as against the theme-park version of it that occupies most of Enemy at the Gates.

In some rather distressing news, a Surgeon General’s report has found that the number of women smokers has increased. There is some excellent work by Jean Kilbourne on how tobacco advertising targets women.