Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
September 17, 2018
Hello All – Last Saturday CFOW's weekly vigil/rally focused on the links between global warming/climate chaos and our very imperfect democracy. As Hurricane Florence barreled into the Carolina coast, we learned from climate scientists that the storm carried 50 percent more rain and was 50 miles larger because of global warming. Because increased carbon dioxide in our atmosphere – mainly from the burning of gas, oil, and coal – our oceans are warmer and our atmosphere holds more water. And, not surprisingly, storms will get even more violent and more rain will come down as global warming continues.
How have we come to this? Thousands of people die, billions of dollars of property are destroyed, and – especially in Africa and the Middle East – millions of people become climate refugees. And yet the basic facts of our climate dilemma were known 30 years ago. In a society where the needs of all the people would guide public policy, steps would have been taken to slow and eventually stop global warming and make plans to mitigate the predictable disasters to come. Instead, as we now know too well, the economic and political power of giant fossil fuel corporations – coal, gas, and oil – prevented public authorities from taking much action, and even persuaded millions of people that warnings from climate scientists about global warming were a Hoax. (All the Republican candidates for president in 2016, for example, swore on their mother's grave that they sincerely believed this.)
Our climate disaster may be the most serious price that we are paying and will pay for our failure to dethrone the Rule of the Very Rich and establish a real democracy in the United States. The lack of truly democratic control over our military and foreign policies, over our tax-and-public spending policies, over the extent and kind of services (education, health, food, housing) that people enjoy, are largely related to our imperfect democracy. Whether measured by income inequality, racial and gender disparities, or other measures by which a small minority dominates the making of our public policies, this system is destroying us and threatens much of the world.
In the time between now and the November election, CFOW will useful our weekly rallies/vigils to make the connections between gaining greater popular control over our political/economic system and addressing the problems of the day that work against the needs of the great majority of people of our country, depriving us of our full measure of "life, liberty, and happiness."
Justice Kavanaugh?
Just as all seemed lost, and a vote next Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee would send Judge Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nominaton to the Senate for a confirmation vote, the testimony of a victim of a high-school attempted rape has thrown a monkey wrench into the Republicans' confirmation machine. Readers will recall that the strategy of those seeking to stop the Kavanaugh nomination is to defeat him and/or to postpone a confirmation vote until after the November 9th election, when (one hopes) the Democrats will have a majority in the Senate. Today's Democracy Now! news program includes useful discussions about this here and here. Also today, Time published an open letter by four people who worked with Kavanaugh as Senate staff members when Kavanaugh was in the Bush White House: "Brett Kavanaugh Can't Be Trusted." We are reduced to "Hail Mary" passes; let's hope one works.
News Notes
During World War II, in fascist Europe, helping Jews and communists to hide or escape was outlawed. People who did so were arrested … and worse. Today, in Europe and in the American Southwest, people helping "illegal" refugees are also being arrested and face jail time. This useful article describes what's happening to aid workers in Greece and Hungary. Here is a moving short film showing the arrest, trial, and eventual release of aid workers who saved refugees coming by sea to Greece. In Arizona, the US Border Patrol targets religious aid workers such as "No More Deaths" who seek to save lives by putting food and water in areas where immigrants cross the US border. The Border Patrol now hunts aid workers as well as "illegal" immigrants. Read more here. As war, climate chaos, and predatory capitalism displace millions of people each year, helping them requires a massive uprising of civil disobedience.
Climate science tells us that Hurricane Florence was more powerful and held more rain because of global warming. We should we do to protect ourselves from violent storms? The Deep Thinkers in the North Carolina legislature had a plan: no government report or state official would be allowed to use words such as "climate change" or "global warming." Check out this ""Postcard from Carolina" to see what happened next.
As it does each year, the anniversary of 9/11/2001 encourages us to think about the human cost and the economic cost that followed the Bush administration's "Global War on Terror." Here's a concise scorecard.
Football players and others who "Take a Knee" during the playing of the National Anthem generally say they are doing so in response to racism and police brutality. But what about the song itself? The verse denigrating the "slaves and hirelings" who worked with the British may be a clue that we need to look into this. In "Why We Should Be Protesting the National Anthem," Shaun King quotes the English writer Samuel Johnson, who in 1775 asked "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?'' Read more about slavery and liberty here.
Oldsters may (barely) remember, and youngsters may not be aware of the time, back in the day, when most cities and towns were blessed with an "Underground Press." Usually weekly, always lively, and often radical and important, we sorely miss them today. Last week John Wilcock, "pioneer of the underground press," died at 91. Check out his obituary for a quick tour through this exciting, and now lost, era of journalism.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – CFOW holds a vigil/rally each Saturday at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring) from 12 to 1 p.m. Everyone invited; please join us!
Thursday, September 20 and 27 – Westchester for Change, the Greenburgh Human Rights Advisory Council, and many other groups invite you to attend a two-part voter turnout/civic engagement workshop. The workshop will take place at the Theodore Young Community Center, 32 Manhattan Ave. in White Plains, from 7 to 9 p.m. To learn more, go to the event's Facebook page. If you plan to attend, please RSVP.
Sunday, September 30th – Countering the Muslim Travel Ban and Deportations will be the subject of a forum sponsored by the Westchester Coalition Against Islamphobia, at the Ethical Cultural Society of Westchester, 7 Saxon Wood Rd. in White Plains, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. They write: "Religious discrimination, xenophobia, and racism are being channeled to close our borders to immigrants and asylum-seekers. This panel discussion will describe what is happening and how we can overcome it. Q&A will follow." Speaking will be Debbie Almontaser President, Board of Directors, Muslim Community Network; CEO/Founder of Bridging Cultures Group Inc. ; Albert Fox Cahn Legal Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations, New York (CAIR-NY); member, Immigrant Leaders Council of the New York Immigration Coalition; and Karina Davila Co-founder of the Yonkers Sanctuary Movement; Current DACA recipient and President, John Jay DREAMers. This event is free and open to the public. Donations gratefully accepted. Parking available on site.
Sunday, October 7th – CFOW's monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m. At these meetings we review our work over the past months and make plans for what's coming next. Everyone is welcome at these meetings!
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our rallies are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's immigration policies are often targeted, depending on current events. We meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page.
Please Support CFOW
CFOW runs on a shoestring; but with the price of shoestrings these days, we're asking for your support. If you can make a financial contribution to our work, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
This Newsletter
Articles linked in the CFOW newsletter are intended to illuminate some of the main action-issues about which we are concerned. Coming mostly from the "dissenting media," they provide an alternative to the perspectives of the mainstream media. In addition to the excellent "Featured Essays," I especially recommend a set of articles assessing last Thursday's New York elections; another set of articles about the failure of the Oslo Agreement [Israel/Palestine] after 25 years; a useful article by Mark Hertsgaard about impeaching Trump; some assessments of the consequences of the Trump administration's decision to cut off virtually all aid to UN programs serving Palestinian refugees in Gaza; and an interesting article about the background of the "community control" teachers strike in NYC, which happened 50 years ago this month. Read on!
Rewards!
This week's Rewards for stalwart readers are pulled from the Bessie Smith song bag. For those who don't know her, check out this 10-minute film. Here are a few favorites from the 1920s: "I Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl"; 'Careless Love Blues" (with Louis Armstrong); and "Wild About That Thing." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
THIS WEEK'S ELECTIONS
Progressive Democrats Took a Bite Out of New York's Machine
September 14, 2018]
---- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo survived a primary challenge on Thursday night, but his once impregnable political machine sustained heavy damage across the state as progressive insurgents threw out conservative incumbents down-ballot. In a state Democratic primary with national implications, Cuomo cruised to a double-digit victory over actor Cynthia Nixon as machine-backed incumbent Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul fended off New York City Council member Jumaane Williams. A wide-open race for the party nomination for attorney general ― one of the most closely watched contests in the country on the American left ― ended in victory for another machine candidate, New York City Public Advocate Letitia "Tish" James. But after getting hammered in the state's marquee races, progressives dominated contests in the state legislature. Left-wing primary challengers effectively ended the Independent Democratic Conference ― a coalition of Democrats who conferenced with Republicans to block Democratic control of the state legislature with Cuomo's tacit consent. [Read More]
A Group of Democrats Joined Republicans to Give Them Power in New York; On Election Day, New Yorkers Wiped Them Out.
By Eoin Higgins, The Intercept [
---- The majority of members of the Independent Democratic Conference, or IDC, have been defeated in the New York state and local primary election. Six members of the defunct group, which broke away from Senate Democrats to hand control of the chamber to the Republicans in 2011 and caucused with the GOP until April, followed their leader, Jeffrey Klein, in defeat. Klein fell to Alessandra Biaggi in a shocking upset. It's a steep fall from political grace for Klein, who as the leader of the IDC was one of the most powerful people in Albany for nearly seven years, and leaves just two of the former IDC members behind. In Manhattan, Robert Jackson, a former city councilor, who ran explicitly on defeating the IDC, beat Marisol Alcantara. Zellnor Myrie, a lawyer and activist, defeated incumbent Jesse Hamilton in the 20th. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio aide Jessica Ramos unseated incumbent Jose Peralta in the 13th. And in the 11th, former city comptroller John Liu beat incumbent Tony Avella in Liu's second challenge to the sitting Senator. … The IDC's power to regroup after the November elections and determine the makeup of the next Senate has effectively been destroyed. The insurgent victories against the conference represent a minor victory in the latest battle in the Democratic Party's civil war, which was offset by Governor Andrew Cuomo's decisive win against Cynthia Nixon. [Read More]
For more on last Thursday's election – "DSA's Julia Salazar Is Headed to the New York State Senate," by Daniel A. Medina, The Intercept [[Link]; "Big Wins by Down-Ballot Progressives Are Going to Transform New York Politics," by John Nichols, The Nation [September 14, 2018] [Link]; and "What Kind of Resistance? The Battle for New York Attorney General Opens Up a Rift," by Daniel A. Medina, The Intercept [[Link]. To see interesting map of precinct voting in NYC, go here.
FEATURED ESSAYS
A new authoritarian axis demands an international progressive front
By
---- There is a global struggle taking place of enormous consequence. Nothing less than the future of the planet – economically, socially and environmentally – is at stake. At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, when the world's top 1% now owns more wealth than the bottom 99%, we are seeing the rise of a new authoritarian axis. While these regimes may differ in some respects, they share key attributes: hostility toward democratic norms, antagonism toward a free press, intolerance toward ethnic and religious minorities, and a belief that government should benefit their own selfish financial interests. … While the authoritarian axis is committed to tearing down a post-second world war global order that they see as limiting their access to power and wealth, it is not enough for us to simply defend that order as it exists now. We must look honestly at how that order has failed to deliver on many of its promises, and how authoritarians have adeptly exploited those failures in order to build support for their agenda. We must take the opportunity to reconceptualize a genuinely progressive global order based on human solidarity, an order that recognizes that every person on this planet shares a common humanity, that we all want our children to grow up healthy, to have a good education, have decent jobs, drink clean water, breathe clean air and live in peace. [Read More] Also of interest is another article in the Guardian series, this one by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, "Our new international movement will fight rising fascism and globalists" [Link].
Demonization of Russia in a New Cold War Era
By Mairead Maguire, ZNet [September 14, 2018]
[FB - Mairead Maguire was awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work to help end the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland. For many decades she has been a stalwart in advocating for peace & justice.]
[FB - Mairead Maguire was awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work to help end the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland. For many decades she has been a stalwart in advocating for peace & justice.]
---- In examining the future, we must look to the past. As we watch the media today, we are spoon fed more and more propaganda and fear of the unknown, that we should be afraid of the unknown and have full faith that our government is keeping us safe from the unknown. But by looking at media today, those of us who are old enough will be reminded of the era of Cold War news articles, hysteria of how the Russians would invade and how we should duck and cover under tables in our kitchens for the ensuing nuclear war. Under this mass hysteria all Western governments were convinced that we should join Western allies to fight the unknown evil that lies to the east. … Many years later, when speaking to young Americans in the US, I was in disbelief about the fear the students had of Russia and their talk of invasion. This is a good example of how the unknown can cause a deep rooted paranoia when manipulated by the right powers. [Read More]
No Peace for Palestine: Twenty-Five Years After the Oslo Agreement
From Peace to Armageddon: The Israel-Palestine Nightmare
By Sandy Tolan, Tom Dispatch [September 13, 2018]
By Sandy Tolan, Tom Dispatch [September 13, 2018]
---- When I first traveled to Israel-Palestine in 1994, during the heady early days of the Oslo peace process, I was expecting to see more of the joyful celebrations I'd watched on television at home. The emotional welcoming of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat back to Palestine. The massive demonstrations for peace on the streets of Tel Aviv. The spontaneous moment when Palestinians placed carnations in the gun barrels of departing Israeli soldiers. And though the early euphoria had already begun to ebb, clearly there was still hope. It was the era of dialogue. Many Palestinians stood witness to Israeli trauma rooted in the Holocaust. Groups of Israelis began to understand the Nakba, or Catastrophe, when 750,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948. In the wake of the Oslo Declaration of Principles, signed on September 13, 1993 -- a quarter of a century ago today -- polls showed that large majorities of Israelis and Palestinians supported the agreement. Israelis, weary of a six-year Palestinian intifada, wanted Oslo to lead to lasting peace; Palestinians believed it would result in the creation of a free nation of their own, side by side with Israel. [Read More]
Twenty-five years on, analysts say Oslo didn't fail: it offered Israel a formula to block the emergence of a Palestinian state
From Middle East Eye [September 13, 2018]
---- There will be no anniversary celebrations this week to mark the signing of the Oslo Accords in Washington 25 years ago. It is a silver jubilee for which there will be no street parties, no commemorative mugs, no specially minted coins. Palestinians have all but ignored the landmark anniversary, while Israel's commemoration has amounted to little more than a handful of doleful articles in the Israeli press about what went wrong. The most significant event has been a documentary, The Oslo Diaries, aired on Israeli TV and scheduled for broadcast in the US this week. It charts the events surrounding the creation of the peace accords, signed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Washington on 13 September 1993. The euphoria generated by the Norwegian-initiated peace process a quarter of a century ago now seems wildly misplaced to most observers. The promised, phased withdrawals by Israel from the occupied Palestinian territories got stuck at an early stage. And the powers of the Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian government-in-waiting that came out of Oslo, never rose above managing healthcare and collecting garbage in densely populated Palestinian areas, while coordinating with Israel on security matters. All the current efforts to draw lessons from these developments have reached the same conclusion: that Oslo was a missed opportunity for peace, that the accords were never properly implemented, and that the negotiations were killed off by Palestinian and Israeli extremists. [Read More]
"The Oslo Diaries" – Film and History
By FB – This evening, and on Wednesday and Sunday, HBO will broadcast the documentary film "The Oslo Diaries" to mark the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Agreement. (See a short clip here.) While the film has been strongly praised, a Palestinian filmmaker argues that "The Oslo Diaries" tells the story of Tel Aviv, not Oslo: "it is actually telling the story of the rise and fall of the Israeli Labour Party … from the party's point of view." [Read More] The Palestinian filmmaker's film, "The Price of Oslo," made on the 20th anniversary of the Oslo Agreement, can be seen in its entirety here [Part 1] and here [Part 2]. And then there is a third film about Oslo that also looks very interesting. It is called "Naila and the Uprising," and it follows a Palestinian woman, Naila, as she becomes a leader in the First Intifada, which was the prelude to the 1993 Oslo Agreement. Read about Naila and her film here, and you can see short clips from the film here and here.
WAR & PEACE
Beijing's Bid for Global Power in the Age of Trump: "America First" Versus China's Strategy of the Four Continents
By Alfred W. McCoy, Tom Dispatch [August 23, 2018]
By Alfred W. McCoy, Tom Dispatch [August 23, 2018]
---- As the second year of Donald Trump's presidency and sixth of Xi Jinping's draws to a close, the world seems to be witnessing one of those epochal clashes that can change the contours of global power. Just as conflicts between American President Woodrow Wilson and British Prime Minister Lloyd George produced a failed peace after World War I, competition between Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and American President Harry Truman sparked the Cold War, and the rivalry between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and President John F. Kennedy brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, so the empowered presidents of the United States and China are now pursuing bold, intensely personal visions of new global orders that could potentially reshape the trajectory of the twenty-first century — or bring it all down. … This contest between Xi's globalism and Trump's nationalism has not been safely confined to an innocuous marketplace of ideas. Over the past four years, the two powers have engaged in an escalating military rivalry and a cutthroat commercial competition. [Read More]
U.S. Support for the Bombing of Yemen to Continue
---- On September 12, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo officially certified Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates "…are undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure resulting from military operations of these governments." This is required to allow U.S. planes to continue refueling jets for the Saudi/UAE coalition, without which it could not keep dropping bombs on targets in Yemen. … Among many attacks on civilian targets in Yemen, last month's bombing of a school bus in a market district, which killed 51 people including 40 children, was among the most horrific, so much so that even Saudi Arabia admitted it was "unjustified." Of course, the Saudi regime should not be allowed to merely get away with investigating itself (indeed, Human Rights Watch released a 90 page report which is highly critical of the Saudi-UAE coalition's investigations into its attacks, particularly on civilians). [Read More]
The U.S. Goes to War Against the International Criminal Court [ICC] to Cover Up Alleged War Crimes in Afghanistan
By Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept [
---- The United States has never been a friend of the International Criminal Court. While relations between the U.S. and the ICC have fluctuated over the course of different administrations, the American government has steadfastly refused to take the step that 124 other states have of ratifying the Rome Statute and thus becoming a member of the international legal body. The ICC's mandate to investigate war crimes has thus been hampered by the unwillingness of the world's sole superpower to commit to the organization. Recent statements from the Trump administration suggest that the United States is now preparing to go to war against the ICC itself, motivated largely by an effort to silence investigations into alleged American war crimes committed in Afghanistan, as well as alleged crimes committed by Israel during the 2014 war in the Gaza Strip. [Read More]
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHAOS
(Video) Bill McKibben to Jerry Brown: We Must Keep the Oil in the Soil, Limiting Emissions Is Not Enough
From Democracy Now! [September 13, 2018]
---- Governors, mayors and policymakers from around the world are gathering this week for the Global Climate Action Summit. The conference was organized by California Governor Jerry Brown. The conference begins today, just days after Brown signed a new law to shift California to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045. While Brown is hailed as a climate hero, he has been widely criticized by many climate justice activists who are planning to protest outside the opening of today's conference. We speak to Bill McKibben, the co-founder of 350.org. His latest piece for The Nation is titled "Jerry Brown's Climate Legacy Is Still Being Decided." [See the Program] Another interview with McKibben on the California climate summit can be read here, and McKibben's article for The Nation, "Jerry Brown's Climate Legacy Is Still Being Decided," can be read here.
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Who's Afraid of Impeachment?
By Mark Hertsgaard, The Nation [September 14, 2018]
---- Half of all Americans want President Donald Trump impeached, according to an August 31 poll from The Washington Post and ABC News. Simply as an empirical statement about the current political moment in the United States, this is an extraordinary data point. In modern history, never have so many Americans wanted to pursue such a radical, albeit constitutional, course of action against a president. The Post/ABC News poll found that 49 percent of the public wants the House of Representatives to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump, with 46 percent against. That 49 percent dwarfs the 29 percent who favored impeaching Democrat Bill Clinton in 1998, and it's significantly higher than the 42 percent who supported impeaching Republican Richard Nixon in 1974. But unless you were paying close attention over the Labor Day weekend, you wouldn't have heard about this stunning news: It quickly disappeared from the media narrative of Trump's presidency. Instead, we've heard ad nauseam about the New York Times op-ed by an anonymous Trump administration official and the resulting search for his or her identity; about Bob Woodward's book Fear; and about Trump's fury at both. These three developments were certainly newsworthy—but so is the fact that half of the American people apparently want the president impeached. [Read More]
(Video) No Shelter: Family Separation at the Border
From Aljazeera [September 11, 2018]
---- In May, the Trump administration announced a "zero tolerance" immigration policy, resulting in the separation of thousands of families who crossed the US border from Mexico - with no clear plan to reunite them. In hundreds of cases, parents were deported without their children; back to the same country and the same violence they were fleeing. … As the Trump administration continues to pursue an immigration policy that makes it more difficult to claim asylum in the US, families impacted by "zero tolerance" are left to deal with the emotional trauma of their separation - and a loss of hope that they will be able to escape the violence they fled in the first place. [See the Program]
For more good reading on "The State of the Union" – Matt Taibbi, "Ten Years After the Crash, We've Learned Nothing," Rolling Stone [September 14, 2018] [Link]; Aaron Maté, "The Mueller Investigation Is Sending People to Jail—but Not for Collusion," The Nation [September 13, 2018] [Link]; and John Feffer, "The GOP Wants Trumpism, Just Without Trump," Foreign Policy in Focus [September 12, 2018] [Link].
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
UN says Gaza Situation 'Catastrophic,' as Trump anti-Palestinian Aid Cuts Bite
---- The UN said Wednesday that the situation in Gaza was "catastrophic" after 11 years of "economic siege" and warned that Washington's decision to halt assistance to Palestinian refugees would create "more misery". "The situation in Gaza is becoming less and less livable," said Isabelle Durant, the deputy head of the United Nations development agency (UNCTAD). … The declining international support, coupled with "a freeze in the reconstruction of Gaza and unsustainable credit-financed public and private consumption, paint a bleak picture for future growth," UNCTAD said in a statement. The widespread restrictions on the movement of people and goods, confiscation of land and natural resources, and the accelerating expansion of Israeli settlements were also damaging, it said. Wednesday's report slammed the shackling of the economy in the Palestinian territories, which are struggling with the world's highest unemployment rate — of more than 27 percent overall and around 44 percent in Gaza alone. [Read More]
For more info on the end of US funding for the UN in Gaza - (Video) "Trump's funding cut to UNRWA affects millions of Palestinian refugees," by Yumna Patel, Mondoweiss [September 11, 2018] [Link]; "US Ends Final Sources of Aid to Palestinian civilians," [Palestine] [September 16, 2018] [Link]; and "U.S. Is Ending Final Source of Aid for Palestinian Civilians," by Edward Wong, New York Times [September 14, 2018] [Link].
Demolition of Palestinian Community Imminent: Israeli High Court Green Lights Razing of Khan al-Ahmar
By Anan AbuShanab, Human Rights Watch [September 16, 2018]
---- Over the years, Israeli authorities issued demolition orders against the school and every other structure in this small village of 180 residents, just east of Jerusalem, on the grounds that they lacked permits. On September 5, Israel's High Court rejected several appeals, and green-lighted demolition.
Israeli military planning documents do not recognize the community's presence, and Israeli authorities have repeatedly confiscated its land, demolished its buildings, and expelled its Palestinian residents for building without permits. This isn't the community's first displacement. … Transferring civilians within an occupied territory, either by direct force or indirect coercion into a place not of their choosing, is a war crime under the International Criminal Court's statute. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
The Rise of Community Control
By Clarence Taylor, Jacobin Magazine [September 2018]
---- A great deal has been written over the last fifty years about the 1968 New York teachers' strike. A major argument among some who have examined this episode is that such conflict was rooted in the politics of the 1960s. … The problem with the thesis that Black Power was responsible for the crisis in Ocean Hill-Brownsville is it ignores an earlier history of conflict between teachers and black and Latino activists and parents. Those critics of community control fail to see that those operating the school system had reduced black and Latino parents to observers while giving a professional class, most of whom had no close relationship with the communities they served, complete power to determine their children's education. Although relegated to the sidelines, parents were not passive. Years before the community control movement, parents and activists carried out campaigns attempting to assure that their children received a decent education. They met resistance from board officials and at times from teachers, convincing many that those who ran the schools had no interest in educating black and brown students. Long before 1968, the Board of Education, the Teachers Guild, and later, the United Federation of Teachers were the cause of the 1968 confrontation with black and Latino communities in the city. [Read More]
Salvador Allende's Last Speech [Chile – 9/11/1973]
By Salvador Allende, Jacobin Magazine [September 11, 2018]
[FB - Salvador Allende died 45 years ago in a US-backed coup. Here's his final address, broadcast over the radio while he was barricaded in the presidential palace.]
---- My friends, surely this will be the last opportunity for me to address you. The Air Force has bombed the towers of Radio Portales and Radio Corporación. My words do not have bitterness but disappointment. …. Given these facts, the only thing left for me is to say to workers: I am not going to resign! Placed in a historic transition, I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life. And I say to them that I am certain that the seed which we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever. They have strength and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested neither by crime nor force. History is ours, and people make history…. Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Go forward knowing that, sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again where free men will walk to build a better society. Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers! These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain, I am certain that, at the very least, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice, and treason. [Read More]
