Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
April 29, 2018
Hello All – In our depressing and war-torn world, from out of the blue – well, from Korea – comes a ray – nay, a blast! – of hope. The diplomacy underway now between North and South Korea – and implicitly, with the United States – includes positive statements on intentions and items that only a few weeks ago seemed simply impossible. Today, for example, according to The New York Times, "Kim Prepared to Cede Nuclear Weapons if U.S. Pledges Not to Invade." (The full joint-statement issued by North and South Korea can be read here.) Thanks to the aggressive and creative diplomacy of the leaders of North and South Korea, it appears that peace is being snatched from the jaws of war.
Needless to say, many in the US political/military establishment view these developments as a disaster. On a personal level, why this is so is probably interesting; but irrelevant. On an institutional level, however, the horror with which the foreign/military policy "establishment" views the prospect of the success of Korean peace diplomacy is serious problem. Take today's New York Times evaluation from White House correspondent Mark Landler. His article is headlined, "As Two Koreas Talk Peace, Trump's Bargaining Chips Slip Away." "The talk of peace," he writes, "is likely to weaken the two levers that Mr. Trump used to pressure Mr. Kim to come to the bargaining table. A resumption of regular diplomatic exchanges between the two Koreas, analysts said, will inevitably erode the crippling economic sanctions against the North, while Mr. Trump will find it hard to threaten military action against a country that is extending an olive branch." Landler is far from alone in pointing to the dangers of negotiations, and the skepticism of the usual experts seems to dominate the mainstream media. For an alternative perspective, check out some of the good/useful reading about Korea, linked just below.
For the fifth consecutive week, demonstrations in Gaza were met by bullets from Israel. On Friday, 4 more Palestinians were killed and a further 176 were wounded by bullets, bringing the total for the 5 days of protest to 45 dead and about 1,700 wounded by bullets. [Link]. Several thousand more have been taken to hospital suffering from wounds from rubber bullets or tear gas. Though at great cost, the Palestinian defiance of Israeli soldiers has succeeded in drawing attention to the dreadful plight of people living in Gaza, the need to end Israel's blockade of Gaza, and more generally the need to end the conditions in Gaza often described as "the world's largest open-air prison." Amnesty International and many other organizations have called for a worldwide embargo on sending military equipment to Israel. This is an important issue for the USA, which sends $3.8 billion worth of such equipment to Israel each year. (Westchester's share of this largess is $40 million a year.) Haaretz, Israel's leading liberal newspaper, editorialized "Once Again, Stop the Shooting"; and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, called for independent investigations into Israel's use of force. And – only in America – the refusal of actress Natalie Portman to accept an award from Prime Minister Netanyahu is causing controversy within liberal Jewish organizations in the USA. Israel's brutal occupation of Gaza is becoming visible.
On Saturday, CFOW held a well-attended rally/protest in Hastings that demanded an end to the killing in Gaza and an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza. Some of the reasoning behind our protest is suggested in the articles/essays linked just below. While Westchester (and certainly Hastings) is just a dot on the political map, our Senator Schumer and our congressional representatives Lowey and Engel are important leaders in Congress and important leaders of the "pro-Israel" faction in Congress. They have repeatedly expressed support for Israel's wars, including the slaughters in Gaza, and often break with their own party to vote according to what they believe to be Israel's interests (e.g. opposing the Iran nuclear agreement). Therefore, people who oppose Israel's blockade and their killing of Palestinians might give a call to our congressional representatives to express their opposition to the US support of Israel's policies in Gaza. If you don't have them on your speed-dial, they are: Senator Charles Schumer: 212-486-4430; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: 212-688-6262; Congresswoman Nita Lowey: 914-428-1707; Congressman Eliot Engel: 718-796-9700.
News Notes
Each week, CFOW holds an antiwar vigil/protest in Hastings. Our rally this week focused on the events in Gaza, called for an end to the killing and an end to the blockade of Gaza. Susan Rutman has a short video on the CFOW Facebook page.
It appears that Westchester County does not keep track of the activities of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Westchester. Some barebones information, however, can be obtained from ICE's periodic press releases that boast about what a great job it is doing. In their most recent release about arrests in New York, ICE claims 225 arrests "during Operation Keep Safe." The Greenburgh Human Rights Advisory Council, which collects information from media and concerned organizations, states that there have been 48 "abductions/detentions in Westchester during this period." (h/t SH).
For those who missed the Washington correspondents' annual dinner, I think you will enjoy (video) comedian Michelle Wolf's cogent remarks about how the media profits off complaining about the monster (Trump) that it created.
I'm unsure if this is good news or bad news; but I think everyone should check out this article: "Scientists Accidentally Develop 'Mutant' Enzyme That Eats Plastic." What could go wrong?
The professional football disgrace that has prevented Colin Kaepernick from playing got some much-needed daylight this week, as The New York Times published some secretly recorded info: "Inside the Confidential N.F.L. Meeting to Discuss National Anthem Protests."
Good news from the Outer Boroughs! The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday that four climate activists facing criminal charges may use an unusual "necessity defense" over their efforts to shut down a pair of tar sands pipelines owned by Enbridge Energy. Read about it here.
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 tax cut legislation 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. If you would like to 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," and the sets of articles on Korea and Israel/Gaza, I especially recommend Robert Fisk's explorations of rubble in Syria; a chapter from Medea Benjamin's new book Inside Iran; a Democracy Now! interview with Karen Korematsu, an advocate for immigrants and the daughter of Fred Korematsu, interned during World War II and the successful plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that ruled such internment was illegal; and another Democracy Now! program that commemorates the 50th anniversary of the strike and occupation of Columbia University in 1968.
Rewards!
Next Tuesday is May Day. Known throughout the world as a "communist holiday," May Day as a workers' day of marches and rallies got its start in the United States. Today we think of "May Day" as something in the past tense; but the strikes of teachers and others hold out the hope that the spirit of solidarity and "May Day" may come again. This week's May Day would be a good time to remember the fighters of past generations who gained for us much of the good things we have, and to rescue them and their lives from what the historian E. P. Thompson called "the enormous condescension of posterity." In that vein, perhaps we can appreciate Leon Rosselson's "Song of the Old Communist." And for an even older link in our political/genealogical chain, enjoy "The Diggers' Song."
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
A Firsthand Account of Israel's Siege on a Palestinian University
April 28, 2018]
---- I experienced the ripple effects of the Israeli Army's crackdown on Palestinian protesters firsthand this month during my two-week residency at the Al-Quds University English Department in Abu Dis, a suburb of occupied Jerusalem. During the start of Israel's most recent killing spree in Gaza, the world's largest open-air prison, I followed reports of the campaign from Abu Dis with the perspective of someone on the ground in the occupied territories (albeit temporarily). I read about Israel's deployment of snipers on Land Day -- also the first day of Passover -- who, with cold deliberation, killed 19 Palestinians in proximity of the Gaza border, and injured more than 1,400 -- numbers that continue to rise on each successive Friday. I also witnessed the lesser-known ways the violence of occupation permeates all of Palestine, including Al-Quds. The Israeli Army regularly invades the Al-Quds campus I was visiting. Tear gassings are frequent enough that, upon arrival at the campus guesthouse -- about a kilometer from campus, and on the eighth floor of the Al-Quds medical clinic -- the other residents advised me to leave town by Friday night, when the army deploys tear gas. [Read More]
An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Trump and the Future of US Politics
April 24, 2018]
[Interviewer – "Noam, it's been already 14 months into Donald Trump's turbulent White House tenure; … how bad is it having Trump in the White House?"]
---- Chomsky - Very bad. As Trump began his second year in office, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists advanced their Doomsday Clock to two minutes to midnight, citing increasing concerns over nuclear weapons and climate change. That's the closest it has been to terminal disaster since 1953, when the US and USSR exploded thermonuclear weapons. That was before the release of Trump's Nuclear Posture Review, which significantly increases the dangers by lowering the threshold for nuclear attack and by developing new weapons that increase the danger of terminal war. On climate change, Trump is a complete disaster, along with the entire Republican leadership. Every candidate in the Republican primaries either denied that what is happening is happening or said ... we shouldn't do anything about it. … It is hard to find words to describe the fact that the most powerful country in world history is not only withdrawing from global efforts to address a truly existential threat, but is also dedicating itself to accelerating the race to disaster, all to put more dollars in overstuffed pockets. No less astounding is the limited attention paid to the phenomenon. [Read More]
Jill Stein breaks silence, completing handover of documents
By Jill Stein, Green Party US [April 27, 2018]
---- Today, cooperating with the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, our campaign has completed the handover of materials in response to the Committee's request. The information provided includes documents regarding my 2015 visit to Russia to speak at RT's 10th anniversary conference on media and international relations, an extension of my trip to the UN climate conference in Paris, where I also spoke with international leaders and activists. … We are endangered by interference in our elections, interference in our civil liberties, by unbridled militarism and needless warmongering. On all these counts, we must defend our imperiled future and the democracy it depends on. A military-industrial-surveillance complex is now deeply entrenched within the bipartisan political establishment and much of the corporate media. This dangerous juggernaut must not be allowed to twist legitimate concerns about election interference into support for political repression, censorship and warmongering. Instead, we can begin restoring confidence in our democracy right now with a nonpartisan Emergency Commission for Election Protection & Voting Justice and international negotiations for an election non-interference treaty. [Read More]
---- Today, cooperating with the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, our campaign has completed the handover of materials in response to the Committee's request. The information provided includes documents regarding my 2015 visit to Russia to speak at RT's 10th anniversary conference on media and international relations, an extension of my trip to the UN climate conference in Paris, where I also spoke with international leaders and activists. … We are endangered by interference in our elections, interference in our civil liberties, by unbridled militarism and needless warmongering. On all these counts, we must defend our imperiled future and the democracy it depends on. A military-industrial-surveillance complex is now deeply entrenched within the bipartisan political establishment and much of the corporate media. This dangerous juggernaut must not be allowed to twist legitimate concerns about election interference into support for political repression, censorship and warmongering. Instead, we can begin restoring confidence in our democracy right now with a nonpartisan Emergency Commission for Election Protection & Voting Justice and international negotiations for an election non-interference treaty. [Read More]
A New Generation Against the Bomb
By Ray Acheson, The Nation [April 27, 2018]
---- There are quite a few similarities between the struggle against guns and the struggle against the bomb. The violent, militarized masculinities associated with gun violence are the same associated with the acquisition, use, and threats of use of nuclear weapons. The privileging of "gun rights" above the rights of human beings to live in safety and security is similar to the privileging of the possession and modernization of nuclear weapons above the lived experience of those who have suffered from the use and testing of nuclear weapons and the reality of the impacts any future use of nuclear weapons will have on our bodies, our cities, our societies, and our planet. … The outrageous responses to gun violence and the threat of nuclear war are pretty much the same, too. Instead of gun control, let's arm teachers and prepare kids with active shooter drills. Instead of nuclear disarmament, let's build bomb shelters and practice duck and cover. The main difference between guns and nuclear weapons, other than the scale of destruction that one weapon can cause, is that students are bleeding and dying in their schools across the country right now from gun violence. This lived experience has no parallels. Even with the current president's threats of "fire and fury," the fear of nuclear war is not nearly as resonant as it was for preceding generations of the atomic age. But this could change in a heartbeat. [Read More]
KOREAN PEACE DIPLOMACY
South and North Korea Prepare to Discuss an End to the Korean War
By Tim Shorrock, The Nation [April 25, 2018]
---- On Friday, the leaders of North and South Korea, Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in, will meet at the truce village of Panmunjom for a historic summit that many Koreans believe could end the war and state of belligerence that has plagued both sides of the Korean Peninsula since the late 1940s. Kim's symbolic crossing of the border into the South could also pave the way for another precedent-shattering event: the planned summit in early June between Kim Jong-un and President Trump. If all goes well in the consecutive summits, the talks could end the threat of war—nuclear war—between North Korea and the United States and usher in a new era of peace in Northeast Asia. To Korea hands who have seen tensions rise and fall over the years, the upcoming summits are a remarkable sign of progress toward ending a North Korean nuclear and missile program that started in the late 1980s to create a deterrent against the United States and succeeded in 2017 beyond anyone's dreams in Pyongyang or Washington. [Read More]
What if Kim Jong-un is Looking to Liberalize?
By
---- Kim is acting like a man in a hurry. Among those changes, Kim agreed to seek a formal end to the 1950 Korean War—supported by some 80 percent of South Koreans, such an accord would be a massive domestic win for Moon, himself the son of North Korean refugees, ahead of the June 13 elections. Following a visit to Beijing that signified a sign-off from North Chinese patrons (confirmed soon after when Kim received Song Tao, a key Chinese diplomat, in Pyongyang), Kim Jong-un announced denuclearization of the peninsula negotiable, while at the same time saying he'll no longer insist the U.S. remove its troops in the South as a precondition to discussions. Trump could never agree to troop reductions at this early stage, and could never move into a summit if denuclearization was non-negotiable. Kim has now taken those problems off the table. Kim then announced a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests, and closed down the Punggye-ri test site. The rain of missiles that in the fall prompted Trump to issue his "fire and fury" threat simply…stopped. … These concessions and changes are exactly what would have been expected to be the focus of the summits, if not the hoped-for results of months of tedious negotiations to follow. But what if Kim wants more? [Read More]
GAZA: STOP THE KILLING! END THE BLOCKADE!
American Jews Have Abandoned Gaza — And The Truth
April 26, 2018]
---- "In our time," wrote George Orwell in 1946, "political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible." British colonialism, the Soviet gulag and America's dropping of an atomic bomb, he argued, "can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face." So how do people defend the indefensible? Through "euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness." By obscuring the truth. … But the actor with the greatest power over Gaza is Israel. Israeli policies are instrumental in denying Gaza's people the water, electricity, education and food they need to live decent lives. How do kind, respectable, well-meaning American Jews defend this? How do they endorse the strangulation of 2 million human beings? Orwell provided the answer. They do so because Jewish leaders, in both Israel and the United States, encase Israel's actions in a fog of euphemism and lies. The fog consists, above all, of three words — "withdrew," "security" and "Hamas" — which appear to absolve Israel of responsibility for the horror it oversees. [Read More]
The Gaza border is a theater of cultural resistance
By Fadi O. Al-Naji, We Are Not Numbers [April 27, 2018]
---- While Israeli and some Western media label Gaza Palestinians' ongoing, six-week protest a "riot," what visitors and participants see on the ground is completely different. The tire and (Israeli) flag burning that may seem "riotous" to some are actually carefully planned by a coordinating committee to obscure the vision of Israeli snipers and serve as a peaceful outlet for frustration and anger. And while those activities are occurring on the front lines of the border protest, the "Great Return March" (so-named because of the desire of the refugees in Gaza to return to the homes they were forced to evacuate in 1948), also is hosting many family-oriented cultural celebrations. On any given day, you may encounter women cooking Bedouin bread, young men dancing dabka and children flying kites. … Thousands of Gaza families take their children and head off to the border to participate in the Great Return March every day, raising the Palestinian flag and chanting the event's motto, "We have the right to return to our ancestral land." They sit on the ground, in sight of stolen lands just a few hundred meters away, while listening to their elders' tales about their ancestral villages and towns. [Read More]
Can Gaza Survive?
By Sari Bashi, Jacobin Magazine [April 25, 2018]
---- Israel controls every aspect of life in Gaza, but takes no responsibility for the brutal consequences.
Three decades of Israeli-imposed closure have wreaked havoc on the Gaza Strip's infrastructure, natural resources, economy, and, most importantly, its people, who are denied the right to engage in dignified, productive work. Factory equipment and skills atrophy as raw materials are banned, markets are cut off, and power shortages make production too expensive. Universities are isolated from the cosmopolitan exchange that is their lifeblood. High-tech entrepreneurs are constrained by Israeli restrictions on 3G smartphone technology and the inability to meet clients face-to-face. Families are separated. Patients struggle to access adequate care. The Palestinian factional split has exacerbated these ills, as Fatah and Hamas fight over who will pay for services in Gaza, and neither appears responsive to Gaza's needs. Understanding the "de-development" of Gaza requires a close look at the evolution of Israel's movement and access policies and what they mean for the Occupied Territories. Undoing the de-development of Gaza requires changing the fundamental principle of those policies, namely, Israel's closure of borders and repudiation of responsibility for the people trapped inside. And finally, reversing course for Gaza also requires us to re-think the wisdom of interim Palestinian autonomy over local affairs, given the lack of Palestinian control over major aspects of life in both Gaza and the West Bank. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
(Video) Pompeo Confirmed: Ready to Pursue Regime Change Agenda
From The Real News [April 15, 2018]
---- Despite soft approach at Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has shown little interest in diplomacy on issue after issue. We speak to Medea Benjamin of Code Pink and Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies. … What does Pompeo's position mean for the Iran nuclear deal?
---- Despite soft approach at Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has shown little interest in diplomacy on issue after issue. We speak to Medea Benjamin of Code Pink and Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies. … What does Pompeo's position mean for the Iran nuclear deal?
Phyllis Bennis: It means that Pompeo supports ending U.S. role in the Iran nuclear deal. Because as you say, the negotiations are over. There's no more room to see if we can get more concessions or make a better language somewhere. The deal is a done deal. It's been in place now since 2015. And it's been working very well, as we just heard from Medea. Even the CIA has acknowledged that Iran is, indeed, complying with its required terms. So when Pompeo uses these weasel words about I want a better deal, I'm not trying to get rid of the deal, I want to fix it. There's no fixing. It's over. It is what it is. And anybody who tries to tamper with it is saying we should end it, because there are no more negotiations to be had. [See the Program]
Senate Proposal To Constrain Trump's War Making Would Actually Expand Perpetual War
Kevin Gosztola, Shadowproof [April 23, 2018]
---- A new authorization for the use of military force proposed by Democratic and Republican senators would further entrench the United States in endless war. It would also streamline the ability of President Donald Trump and future presidents to expand the "war on terrorism" to additional countries and broaden a list of "associated forces" that are "co-belligerents" of al-Qaida, the Taliban, or the Islamic State. Under the proposed AUMF [PDF], which was drafted to replace the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs still in effect, military force against the Taliban, al-Qaida, ISIS, and "designated associated forces" is renewed.… When the president determines that a "new organization, person, or force is an associated force covered," a report should be submitted to the "appropriate congressional committees and leadership." A similar procedure is to be followed when adding new foreign countries to the list of places where the U.S. is at war. "New" countries are any countries other than Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya. [Read More]
The War in Syria
What Mysteries Lie in the Ruins of the Scientific Studies and Research Center in Damascus?
---- I was reminded of this [poem about a lion] while clambering through the ruins on the side of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre in the Damascus suburb of Barzeh last week. This was the centre – now famous from so many satellite pictures – destroyed by Donald Trump's missiles when they struck at "the heart of Syria's chemical weapons programme". Did they? Anything with a Strangelove name like the "Department of Pharmaceutical and Civilian Chemical Research" – the bit of the complex hit by at least 13 missiles – deserves to have its contents studied closely. I'd been refused permission to visit this Syrian institution for three days. If it was all in ruins – which it assuredly is, and on a scale much larger than the photographs suggest – why the delay? And does it matter? Well, yes. [Read More]
War with Iran?
(Video) Trump Decries Iran Nuclear Deal as He Fills Cabinet with Advocates Pushing Regime Change in Tehran
From Democracy Now! [April 25, 2018]
---- President Trump threatened to attack Iran on Tuesday if it restarts its nuclear weapons program, while at the same time hinting he plans to scrap the international deal to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms. Trump made his comments at the White House during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who had come to Washington in an attempt to preserve the Iran deal. Trump must decide by May 12 whether the U.S. should stay in the deal. Macron said he opposes throwing out the existing nuclear deal but is open to a new agreement with Iran to address Iran's role in Syria and other issues. But advocates say Trump is likely to leave the deal and that the U.S. is trying to force Iran to be the party that ends up leaving the accord—and that Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton and State Department Secretary nominee Mike Pompeo aren't "seriously interested" in further negotiations. [See the Program]
How the U.S. and Iran Got to This Tense Moment
By Medea Benjamin, Code Pink [April 26, 2018]
----- Iran has a long history of interacting with the rest of the world—initially as the various empires discussed in earlier chapters, and now as the Islamic Republic. The resentment and suspicion of foreign interference found in the Iranian political culture are a direct result of historic deals with foreigners that took power away from the local elites, including bazaaris and the clerics. Through the 1800s to the early half of the 1900s, Russia and Britain were the main foreign interventionist forces and therefore became the focus of the public's vitriol. As the 20th century evolved, the United States began playing a larger role in Iran, due primarily to Cold War dynamics. As American policy in Iran came to resemble the earlier Russian and British imperial policies, anger towards the United States grew. That resentment boiled over and was a key factor in the 1979 revolution. [Read More]
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHAOS
Move Over Chernobyl, Fukushima is Now Officially the Worst Nuclear Power Disaster in History
---- The radiation dispersed into the environment by the three reactor meltdowns at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan has exceeded that of the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe, so we may stop calling it the "second worst" nuclear power disaster in history. Total atmospheric releases from Fukushima are estimated to be between 5.6 and 8.1 times that of Chernobyl, according to the 2013 World Nuclear Industry Status Report. … Contamination of soil, vegetation and water is so widespread in Japan that evacuating all the at-risk populations could collapse the economy, much as Chernobyl did to the former Soviet Union. For this reason, the Japanese government standard for decontaminating soil there is far less stringent than the standard used in Ukraine after Chernobyl. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES/"THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
Gina Haspel's CIA appointment will delight torturers around the globe
---- Gina Haspel, who has worked at the CIA since the 1980s, stands accused of running a notorious CIA facility in Thailand where a Saudi terrorist suspect, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was subjected to waterboarding and other forms of "enhanced interrogation techniques" – which our experts at Freedom from Torture would have no trouble recognising as torture. She then reportedly ordered the destruction of videotapes of these torture sessions, which smacks of a cover-up…. At the very least, there are serious questions for Haspel to answer in a court of law. This lamentable state of affairs could have been avoided had Barack Obama complied with the United States' obligations under the UN convention against torture to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the CIA's torture programme. He refused to do so, as part of a misguided theory that the best way to stop future torture by the CIA was to "look forward as opposed to looking backwards". [Read More]
(Video) Karen Korematsu: "My Father Resisted Japanese Internment. Trump's Travel Ban is Just as Unfair"
From Democracy Now! [April 27, 2018]
---- The U.S. Supreme Court looks poised to uphold President Trump's travel ban, which blocks most people from seven countries—including Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen—from entering the United States. During oral arguments on Wednesday, Justice Anthony Kennedy appeared to side with the conservative side of the court. Lower courts have repeatedly ruled against versions of Trump's travel ban, saying they were unconstitutional and in violation of federal immigration law. Among those who have asked the Supreme Court to rule the travel ban unconstitutional are the children of Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II. Joining us now is one of those children: Karen Korematsu, daughter of civil rights icon Fred Korematsu who was jailed for refusing orders to be sent to an internment camp set up for U.S. residents of Japanese ancestry. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Last year Karen Korematsu wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post headlined "My father resisted Japanese internment. Trump's travel ban is just as unfair." For more we speak with Karen Korematsu, founder and executive director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute. [See the Program]. For more on this topic, read Sarah Aziza, "As Supreme Court Weighs Travel Ban, Trump's Wider Anti-Muslim Agenda Proceeds Unchallenged," The Intercept [[Link].
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Massive Crowds Flood Capital as Arizona Teachers Stage First-Ever Statewide Walkout
By Jonah Furman, Labor Notes [April 27, 2018]
---- Seventy-five thousand teachers and allies in red shirts flooded the streets of Phoenix as Arizona educators launched a statewide walkout on April 26 for increased school funding and raises for all school employees. "You have West Virginia who stood up, you have Kentucky who's standing up, you have Oklahoma," said Brittani Karbginsky, a sixth grade teacher in Phoenix. "Now you have us." For months multimillionaire Governor Doug Ducey had been insisting he would follow this year's meager 1 percent raise for teachers with another 1 percent next year. Under mounting pressure from the grassroots #RedforEd movement, on April 12 he announced that he would grant teachers a 20 percent raise by 2020. Sounds like a win? Teachers weren't buying it. Arizona Educators United, the statewide organization built over the last two months, pointed out that the raise was unaccounted for in the budget. They wanted a dedicated source of funding to make sure they won more than an empty promise.
AEU is also insisting that Ducey and the state legislature address its other demands, unveiled at a March 28 rally. [Read More]
Actually, Guns Do Kill People
By Mike Konczal, The Nation [April 27, 2018]
---- Right-to-carry laws actually increase the rate of violent crime. Ten years after a state passes a right-to-carry law, violent crime—which includes murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault—will be 13 to 15 percent higher than if the state had done nothing. What makes this new report so convincing? First, there's simply a lot more experience with right-to-carry laws: 33 states adopted such legislation between 1981 and 2007. There's also a lot more data: The researchers were able to track crime statistics until 2014. Starting in the early 1990s, violent crime plummeted across the United States. That reduction has masked the effects of right-to-carry laws, but the states that implemented them showed a smaller decrease in violent crime than the ones that didn't. By itself, this isn't sufficient evidence, since there could be other factors involved. But the study's authors used a variety of controls to compare the two sets of states, and they found that the increase in violent crime holds. Interestingly, with the additional data, they found that even the methods of researchers like Lott and Mustard confirm this rise. [Read More]
Also useful/interesting – Jessica Glenza, "Flint crisis, four years on: what little trust is left continues to wash away," The Guardian [UK] [April 25, 2018] [Link]; and German Lopez, "Huge Racial Disparities in US Police Use of Force," VOX [Link].
OUR HISTORY
The Selfless Servant Leadership of the African-American Women of the Civil-Rights Movement
By Janet Dewart Bell, The Nation [April 25, 2018]
---- During the civil-rights movement, African Americans led the fight to free this country from the vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow. Though they all too often were—and remain—invisible to the public, African-American women played significant roles at all levels of the movement. Some led causes and organizations, such as Dorothy Height, the president of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the National Council of Negro Women. Others did not have titles or official roles, including Georgia Gilmore, one of the cooks who organized to raise money to support the Montgomery bus boycott. These women didn't stand on ceremony; they simply did the work that needed to be done, without expectation of personal gain. Often unnamed or underappreciated, African-American women helped to construct the cultural architecture for change. [Read More]
(Video) How Black Students Helped Lead the 1968 Columbia U. Strike Against Militarism & Racism 50 Years Ago
From Democracy Now! [April 23, 2018]
---- On April 23, 1968, hundreds of students at Columbia University in New York started a revolt on campus. They occupied five buildings, including the president's office in Low Library, then students barricaded themselves inside the buildings for days. They were protesting Columbia's ties to military research and plans to build a university gymnasium in a public park in Harlem. The protests began less than three weeks after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The 1968 Columbia uprising led to one of the largest mass arrests in New York City history—more than 700 people arrested on April 30. It also inspired student protests across the country. Today, we spend the hour looking back at this pivotal moment. … We also feature excerpts from the 1968 documentary "Columbia Revolt" by Third World Newsreel. [See the Program]
