Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
February 18, 2019
Hello All – It is true. We are now in a "National Emergency." Not the fake emergency promoted by Trump, of course, but a real emergency, testing whether whatever we still have of Democracy can long endure. By its nature, this State of Emergency is open-ended. Given Trump's madness and the utter depravity of what passes for the Republican Party, we have no choice but to stop this now. We must assume the worst.
The rules laid out in the 1976 National Emergency legislation give us a framework and a partial timetable for what might come next. Trump has two weeks to specify what emergency powers he is claiming, and then the House of Representatives will pass a Joint Resolution rejecting the state of emergency. After that, the Senate has to vote on it. If both the House and the Senate agree on a Joint Resolution, Trump will veto it; and we will see if there are enough votes in both Houses of Congress to override his veto.
There is also the possibility that the federal court system will rule that there is no "emergency," or that for other reasons Trump's claim of emergency powers is unconstitutional. The final step, of course, is the Supreme Court, and we can't be optimistic about that.
That leaves the other Great Power in the USA, the People. What Congress and the Courts will do depends, I believe, on the extent of demonstrated outrage and disruption. Clearly the chances of getting two-thirds of the Senate, where the Republicans have a majority, to override Trump's veto are very small if "the voters" are passive. And we recall from the swarming of the airports after Trump's January 2017 ban on immigrants that even the courts can take courage if it is obvious that an executive order is widely regarded as an outrage. I hope that we are up to the challenge we now face to stop this slide towards fascism.
Save the date – invading Venezuela
Next Saturday the so-called Opposition in Venezuela plans to deliver some/all of the "humanitarian aid" that has been deposited by US cargo plans on the Colombian side of the border with Venezuela. As everyone knows by now, the purpose of this Theatre is not primarily to meet the needs of people in Venezuela, but to stage a confrontation with the security forces of the Maduro government. I believe the minimum goal for the Opposition is to dramatize the repressiveness of the Maduro government, while the maximum goal is to provoke a bloody conflict that the Trump team will use to justify a US military invasion.
As described in some of the good/useful reading linked below, Plan A for the US-staged coup has failed. Despite the huffing and puffing of Trump, Secretary of State Pompeo, and Senator Marco Rubio, the Maduro government has not collapsed, and the military leadership remains loyal to him, rejecting the pleas and bribes of the Opposition. Moreover, the Opposition itself is in disarray. And there appears to be no Plan B. Trump and Opposition puppet Juan Guaido have refused peace negotiations; the Colombian government appears reluctant to lead a military invasion; the International Red Cross and the UN have refused to participate in the "humanitarian aid" charade; and no one seems to be in charge. In Congress, the Democrats' position is (mostly) supportive for regime change, but rejects US military action. The voices of peace & justice stalwarts can play a helpful role by letting our congressional representatives know that war is unacceptable.
News Notes
For some video and pictures of today's anti-Emergency Trump rally in Union Square, go here. Andrew Courtney reports that there were 200 people at an anti-Emergency rally at Schumer's office at noon today. For a look at today's demonstrations across the USA, go here.
Last Friday, thousands of students walked out of class in the UK to protest the dirty deal that global warming and climate chaos gives them and their future. See a good video here and read a good essay by a high school student here.
It has been a year since 17 students were murdered at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, In that year, more than 1,200 children have been killed in gun violence. This useful report from Democracy Now! details what the Parkland survivors and many others have been doing to end this scourge.
Are you now speaking or have you ever spoken Spanish in Montana? Beware.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Tuesday, February 19th - There will be a Town Hall on Justice for NYS Farmworkers, hosted by the Justice for Farmworkers Campaign, at the Riverfront Library (Auditorium), One Larkin Center, in Yonkers, from 6 to 8 p.m. In addition to sharing important information about the inadequate working conditions for farm workers in NYS, to meeting will urge Governor Cuomo and the members of the NYS Legislature to pass the Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act (S2837/A2750). Senate Bill 2837, sponsored by Senator Jessica Ramos, and Assembly Bill 2750, sponsored by Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan will provide basic worker rights to New York State farmworkers. For more information, check out the website of the Rural Migrant Ministry
Sunday, March 3rd – The next monthly meeting of Concerned Families of Westchester will take place at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 PM. At these meetings we review our work over the past month and make plans for the month to come. 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 (usually) 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. And if you would like to support our work by making a contribution, 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. As always, we have some excellent "Featured Essays." I would like to call your attention esp. to the essay by former military officer Matthew Hoh, who has written what to my knowledge is the most insightful overview of the past and present US military campaigns in Afghanistan, and why they have failed. I also recommend the set of articles on Venezuela, and especially the half-hour video documentary about the "Bread Maker." Also highly recommended are the essays by Marjorie Cohn and Michael Klare ("War & Peace") and by Bill McKibben ("Global Warming/Climate Chaos"). I think you will enjoy the insightful essay by Joe Penny about the dangers confronting activists in Ferguson, MO. Finally, there are two excellent essays in "Our History." The first is by Raymond Bonner, once the New York Times' excellent reporter in El Salvador, about the 1981 massacre in the village of El Mozote that killed 900 men, women, and children. (This is the massacre that Eliot Abrams lied about during his recent congressional hearing.) And the second essay is about Rachel Carson and her book Silent Spring. Read on!
Rewards!
As the Godfather gets ready to invade Venezuela, I'm in a dark mood. Even this week's "Rewards!" are dark. First up is Leonard Cohen's "The Partisan," his tribute to the incredibly brave men and women of Europe who resisted the Nazis and fascists during the plague of 80 years ago. And next we have the Chilean folk group Inti Illimani, a very popular group in the 1960s and 1970s, whose song "Venceramos" became the theme song of socialist Salvatore Allende's Popular Unity party and government. This recording was made in July 1973, just two months before Henry Kissinger and the Chilean military staged a coup that destroyed this beacon of freedom for the Americas.
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Time for Peace in Afghanistan and an End to the Lies
---- It has been more than nine years since I resigned in protest over the escalation of the Afghan War from my position as a Political Officer with the US State Department in Afghanistan. It had been my third time to war, along with several years of working in positions effecting war policy in Washington, DC with the Department of Defense (DOD) and the State Department. My resignation in 2009 was not taken lightly by my superiors and my reasons for opposing President Obama's "surge" in Afghanistan found support amongst both military officers and civilian officials at senior levels in Kabul and Washington. … Nearly almost a decade after my resignation, there are reports of a possible peace deal in the making for Afghanistan. What I recognize, so clearly and sickeningly, just as my mind, and my soul, can recall the bright scarlet red of fresh arterial blood that dulls in contact with dust and cloth, or the clay-like frozen set jaw of a dead young man, whether he have been called an Afghan, American or Iraqi, are the same lies of the war that were so skillfully and effectively utilized by politicians, generals and the media to escalate the war in 2009 now being recirculated to defeat any current attempts for peace. [Read More]
The Battle Lines Have Been Drawn on the Green New Deal
By Naomi Klein, The Intercept [February 13, 2019]
---- "I really don't like their policies of taking away your car, taking away your airplane flights, of 'let's hop a train to California,' or 'you're not allowed to own cows anymore!'" So bellowed President Donald Trump in El Paso, Texas, his first campaign-style salvo against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey's Green New Deal resolution. There will surely be many more. It's worth marking the moment. Because those could be the famous last words of a one-term president, having wildly underestimated the public appetite for transformative action on the triple crises of our time: imminent ecological unraveling, gaping economic inequality (including the racial and gender wealth divide), and surging white supremacy.
Or they could be the epitaph for a habitable climate, with Trump's lies and scare tactics succeeding in trampling this desperately needed framework. [Read More]
What Ilhan Omar Said About AIPAC Was Right
By Ady Barkan, The Nation [February 12, 2019]
---- As a Jew, an Israeli citizen, and a professional lobbyist (ahem, activist), I speak from personal experience when I say that AIPAC is tremendously effective, and the lubricant that makes its operation hum is dollar, dollar bills. In 2006, fresh out of college, I landed a job as the first real staffer on a long-shot Democratic congressional race in deep-red Ohio. … Omar is right to point all this out. These dynamics are not unique to the Israel-Palestine issue, however, and there is no reason that Americans should be surprised or offended by what she and I are saying. The NRA and the broader gun lobby operate in the same way. Same with ExxonMobil and the fossil-fuel lobby. But since Omar and Tlaib are powerful new spokeswomen for the movement to end the Israeli occupation, delegitimizing them is a central aim of the Israel lobby. … For 12 years, I have harbored minor private shame for advising Vic to endorse AIPAC's position papers and more significant shame for not doing enough to stop the oppression of the Palestinian people. I am speaking up now because it may be my last chance. Although I am only 35, I am dying. [Read More]
For more on Omar and AIPAC – Even as she was forced to apologize, Ilhan Omar opened a Pandora's Box that will not be easily closed. For a sampling of the controversy and public inquiry now out in the open, read "Ilhan Omar, AIPAC, and Denial," by Mitchell Plitnick, LobeLog [February 13, 2019] [Link]; "Pro-Israel Lobby Caught on Tape Boasting That Its Money Influences Washington," by Ryan Grim, The Intercept [[Link]; "Pro-Israel donors spent over $22m on lobbying and contributions in 2018," from The Guardian [UK] [February 15, 2019] [Link]; and "Here's how the pro-Israel lobby — criticized by Ilhan Omar — stacks up against other Washington influencers," from Market Watch [February 14, 2019] [Link]. The website Open Secrets reports that, over the last 20 years, "pro-Israel" campaign contributions have amounted to $138 million, of which $110 million went to incumbents, with Democrats receiving 60 percent of these funds.
The Real Motive Behind the FBI Plan to Investigate Trump as a Russian Agent
By Gareth Porter, Consortium News [February 13, 2019]
---- The New York Times and CNN led media coverage last month of discussions among senior FBI officials in May 2017 of a possible national security investigation of President Donald Trump himself, on the premise that he may have acted as an agent of Russia. The episode has potentially profound political fallout, because the Times and CNN stories suggested that Trump may indeed have acted like a Russian agent. By reporting that Russia may have been able to suborn the president of the United States, these stories have added an even more extreme layer to the dominant national political narrative of a serious Russian threat to destroy U.S. democracy. An analysis of the FBI's idea of Trump as possible Russian agent reveals, moreover, that it is based on a devious concept of "unwitting" service to Russian interests that can be traced back to former CIA director John O. Brennan. … The "witting or unwitting" ploy has its origins in the unsavory history of extreme right-wing anti-communism during the Cold War. For example, when the House Un-American Activities Committee was at its height in 1956, Chairman Francis E. Walter declared that "people who are not actually Communist Party members are witting or unwitting servants of the Communist cause." The revelation that it was turned against a sitting president, however briefly, is a warning signal that national security bureaucrats and their media allies are now moving more aggressively to delegitimize any opposition to the new Cold War. [Read More]
---- The New York Times and CNN led media coverage last month of discussions among senior FBI officials in May 2017 of a possible national security investigation of President Donald Trump himself, on the premise that he may have acted as an agent of Russia. The episode has potentially profound political fallout, because the Times and CNN stories suggested that Trump may indeed have acted like a Russian agent. By reporting that Russia may have been able to suborn the president of the United States, these stories have added an even more extreme layer to the dominant national political narrative of a serious Russian threat to destroy U.S. democracy. An analysis of the FBI's idea of Trump as possible Russian agent reveals, moreover, that it is based on a devious concept of "unwitting" service to Russian interests that can be traced back to former CIA director John O. Brennan. … The "witting or unwitting" ploy has its origins in the unsavory history of extreme right-wing anti-communism during the Cold War. For example, when the House Un-American Activities Committee was at its height in 1956, Chairman Francis E. Walter declared that "people who are not actually Communist Party members are witting or unwitting servants of the Communist cause." The revelation that it was turned against a sitting president, however briefly, is a warning signal that national security bureaucrats and their media allies are now moving more aggressively to delegitimize any opposition to the new Cold War. [Read More]
THE INVASION OF VENEZUELA
(Video) The Breadmaker: on the frontline of Venezuela's bakery wars
From The Guardian [UK] [February 15, 2019]
---- In the midst of Venezuela's spiraling economic crisis, Natalia and fellow members of a Chavista collective have stepped in to take over production at a local bakery, La Minka. Authorities had suspended operations when the owners were accused of overpricing their loaves and hoarding flour. In March 2017, with the tacit support of the government, the collective began selling affordable bread. This is the story of their fight to safeguard the bakery's future and keep the Chavista dream alive [See the Program]
Yes, conditions in Venezuela are bad. No, we shouldn't intervene.
By Stephen Kinzer, The Boston Globe [February 8, 2019]
---- Things are going badly in a Latin American country, but don't worry — the United States wants to help. That news has been scaring Latin Americans for generations. Now, as the United States escalates its confrontation with Venezuela, it is once again flashing through the hemisphere. Few Americans could find Venezuela on a map. Suddenly we are being told that its people are suffering, and that we can improve their lives by overthrowing their government. … Bringing liberty to the brutalized and oppressed has rarely if ever been the true central motive behind an American-sponsored coup or invasion. For the United States as for other big powers, the goals of intervention are strategic and economic. In Venezuela, overthrowing Maduro would count as a feel-good victory. Gloating over his political corpse would not be as satisfying as doing the same to Castro or Chavez, but with them gone, it's the most satisfying victory available. Besides, Venezuela has rich resources, including reserves of strategic minerals like coltan, large gold deposits, and — second surprise! — the world's largest proven oil reserves. President Trump's national security advisor, John Bolton, let the cat out of that proverbial bag when he said, "It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela." That was a startling burst of honesty, contrasting sharply with the boilerplate mendacity epitomized by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's droll insistence that the invasion of Iraq had "nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil." [Read More]
Also useful for understanding the Venezuela crisis – "Venezuela: A Diplomatic Coup?" by Paul Dobson Venezuela Analysis [February 11, 2019] [Link]; "Enough Western Meddling: Let the Venezuelan People Decide," bFebruary 15, 2019] [Link]; "Taking A Look At The Anti-Maduro Narrative," by Steve Ellner, Consortium News [February 17, 2019] [Link]; and "Democratic lawmakers say U.S. military action in Venezuela 'not an option', " from Reuters [February 12, 2019] [Link].
WAR & PEACE
Trump Moves the World Closer to "Doomsday"
By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout [February 16, 2019]
---- In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union adopted the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in an effort to eliminate missiles on hair-trigger alert for nuclear war due to their short flight times. It was the first time the two countries agreed to destroy nuclear weapons. That treaty outlawed nearly 2,700 ballistic or land-based cruise missiles with a range of roughly 300 to 3,000 miles. The Trump administration thought nothing of pulling out of the INF. On February 2, the United States suspended its obligations under the treaty, starting a dangerous chain reaction that brings us closer to nuclear war. Russia followed suit and pulled out of the treaty the next day. Then the three countries with the largest nuclear arsenals quickly test-launched nuclear-capable missiles. France conducted a test of its medium-range air-to-surface missile on February 4. The next day, the United States fired a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). And an hour and a half later, Russia launched an RS-24 Yars ICBM. … It is incumbent upon all of us to resist the inexorable march toward nuclear winter. We must join together in coalitions and protest to Congress, the White House, in writing and in the streets. There is no time to lose. It is two minutes to midnight on the Doomsday Clock. [Read More]
---- In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union adopted the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in an effort to eliminate missiles on hair-trigger alert for nuclear war due to their short flight times. It was the first time the two countries agreed to destroy nuclear weapons. That treaty outlawed nearly 2,700 ballistic or land-based cruise missiles with a range of roughly 300 to 3,000 miles. The Trump administration thought nothing of pulling out of the INF. On February 2, the United States suspended its obligations under the treaty, starting a dangerous chain reaction that brings us closer to nuclear war. Russia followed suit and pulled out of the treaty the next day. Then the three countries with the largest nuclear arsenals quickly test-launched nuclear-capable missiles. France conducted a test of its medium-range air-to-surface missile on February 4. The next day, the United States fired a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). And an hour and a half later, Russia launched an RS-24 Yars ICBM. … It is incumbent upon all of us to resist the inexorable march toward nuclear winter. We must join together in coalitions and protest to Congress, the White House, in writing and in the streets. There is no time to lose. It is two minutes to midnight on the Doomsday Clock. [Read More]
Has the Coming Sino-American Conflict Already Begun?
---- The media and many politicians continue to focus on U.S.-Russian relations, in large part because of revelations of Moscow's meddling in the 2016 American presidential election and the ongoing Mueller investigation. Behind the scenes, however, most senior military and foreign policy officials in Washington view China, not Russia, as the country's principal adversary. In eastern Ukraine, the Balkans, Syria, cyberspace, and in the area of nuclear weaponry, Russia does indeed pose a variety of threats to Washington's goals and desires. Still, as an economically hobbled petro-state, it lacks the kind of might that would allow it to truly challenge this country's status as the world's dominant power. China is another story altogether. With its vast economy, growing technological prowess, intercontinental "Belt and Road" infrastructure project, and rapidly modernizing military, an emboldened China could someday match or even exceed U.S. power on a global scale, an outcome American elites are determined to prevent at any cost. [Read More]
The War in Yemen
The House Vote to End Support for the War on Yemen Shows How Much Has Changed
By James Carden, The Nation [February 14, 2019]
---- The resolution, which passed the House by a vote of 248-177, was sponsored by California Democrat Ro Khanna. who has been leading the effort to end American military support for the Saudi war, which, to date, has resulted in an estimated 60,000 deaths and by most accounts, including that of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet. The bill directs the president "to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting Yemen within 30 days unless Congress authorizes a later withdrawal date, issues a declaration of war, or specifically authorizes the use of the Armed Forces. Prohibited activities include providing in-flight fueling for non-U.S. aircraft conducting missions as part of the conflict in Yemen." … According to Khanna's spokeswoman Heather Purcell, "The Senate will now take up the resolution given its privileged status. After 10 calendar days, any senator can motion to discharge and force a vote. If passed, it will be sent to the President's desk for his consideration." Meanwhile, according to Purcell, Khanna plans to meet with acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan and perhaps also with UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths, who is leading the peace negotiations. [Read More] For the New York Times version, read "House Votes to Halt Aid for Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen" [February 13, 2019] [Link].
The War in Afghanistan
After 18 Years of War, the Taliban Has the Upper Hand in Afghanistan Peace Talks
By Bilal Sarwary and Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept [
---- Last year, thousands of young Afghans marched across the country, demanding an end to fighting that has destroyed millions of lives since the Soviet invasion in 1979. The grassroots peace movement led to a number of local ceasefires throughout the country between Taliban militants and Afghan government soldiers. Young men who had recently been trying to kill one another instead shared food and posed for photographs in the streets of Afghan cities. The scenes broadcast around the world were reminiscent of the famous World War I "Christmas Truce" between German, British, and French soldiers. That tentative peace effort, a poignant expression of Afghans' desire to end the violence that has scarred so many families, did not hold. But in recent weeks, there have been increasing signs that another peace deal may be coming together, negotiated from conference tables in Doha and Moscow. The Taliban and a group of former Afghan officials, including former President Hamid Karzai, met in Moscow last week to discuss the future of the country. These talks, along with separate negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban in Doha, seem to hold out the possibility of ending the violence that has ravaged the country over four decades. [Read More]
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHAOS
Endless Combustion: The origins of our ominously polluted present.
By Bill McKibben, The Nation [February 6, 2019]
---- From the moment that a light gets turned on in the morning, every action of a Western life uses energy. Its easy availability—thanks largely to the so-called fossil fuels—gave us modernity, and now the endless combustion of all that coal and gas and oil has triggered the end of the Holocene and is calling into question the very survival of our civilization. Some of the richest companies on earth have been in the energy business, and geopolitics has long followed the oil derrick. Even our domestic politics is dominated by this industry more than any other; it is, after all, where the Koch brothers made their mint. … Richard Rhodes's Energy: A Human History, Matthieu Auzanneau's Oil, Power, and War: A Dark History, and Kate Ervine's Carbon all time-travel in both directions, offering us visions of a much cleaner future and tracing the origins of our ominously polluted present. Since this is the great existential crisis of our time, it's a good sign that a robust literature is emerging, of which these volumes are solid examples. But though much of their discussion is about history, the crucial questions turn on what comes next. As the excitement over the Green New Deal proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (among others) makes clear, that future is very much up for grabs. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES/"THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
Immigration Agents Are Making Arrests In New York's Courts
By Michelle Chen, The Nation [February 15, 2019]
---- Such encounters between immigrants and ICE agents were rare under previous administrations, but under Trump they have jumped about 17-fold over two years. This has meant more than 200 encounters with Homeland Security, including direct arrests and eavesdropping, mostly in New York City. … In just two years, New York's legal infrastructure has become stalking grounds for Homeland Security, targeting many people who were previously never considered enforcement priorities, just ordinary residents with business before the court. After stripping down Obama-era policies that steered ICE toward criminal cases rather than immigrants not deemed to be public-safety threats, Trump has intensified the scope and frequency of arrest and prosecution. Accordingly, IDP's analysis shows that ICE might on a given day pursue a range of immigrant groups, including aggrieved workers, domestic-violence survivors, and parolees in community-based alternative courts. … The pending Protect Our Courts Act would outlaw civil arrest on court premises and ban immigration agents from courts without a warrant. Yet the damage to the court's social dynamics could be irrevocable. Courtrooms are becoming even less welcoming to immigrants—yet another public institution where they must make a choice between recognition and safety. [Read More]
Lessons From FBI's Secret War On Activism
By Michael Steven Smith, The Indypendent [February 17, 2019]
---- The Federal Bureau of Investigation tried to destroy left organizations and the black freedom movement during the last major upsurge in radical politics in this country, in the 1960s. It looks like they are trying to do it again. The bureau's Cointelpro (Counterintelligence Program) was a secret operation the bureau carried out against left-wing groups from 1956 to 1971. It first targeted the Communist Party, and was expanded to the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in 1961 and the "New Left" in 1968. In a secret 1968 memo, longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover directed his agents to "expose, disrupt and otherwise neutralize the activities of various New Left organizations. We must frustrate every effort of these groups and individuals to consolidate their forces or to recruit new or faithful adherents." Hoover directed his venom especially at the Black movement, writing that "we must prevent the rise of a new black messiah." …. Here are some key practices to remember…. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
The Fight for Justice Takes Its Toll on Ferguson Activists
By Joe Penney, New York Review of Books [February 12, 2019]
---- Many people I spoke with in St. Louis stressed that it's important to look at these deaths in their broader setting. The city has the highest murder rate in America, and the vast majority of both the victims and suspects are black. The police have an extremely poor record of solving such murders. Out of 187 homicides in 2018 in St. Louis, 108 remain unsolved (at time of writing). Darren Seals, one of the two activists who were shot and found in burning cars, had said in a November 2014 Facebook post that he had been shot before. Some activists in St. Louis also often suffer from depression and isolation, and have limited access to therapy and other resources. St. Louis is one of the most segregated cities in the US, with Delmar Blvd. dividing the more affluent white population from neighborhoods that are up to 98 percent black in North St. Louis. The Ferguson protests in 2014 were a flash-point, but "there's a long history of this kind of violent reaction to black folks in St. Louis generally, and certainly violent reaction to protesters," said Blake Strode, the executive director of ArchCity Defenders, a nonprofit civil rights law firm that has worked on dozens of cases of police brutality. Besides the unexplained deaths, Ferguson activists have experienced myriad threats to their physical and mental well-being. In 2014, one young activist, Josh Williams, was arrested after lighting a garbage can on fire while protesting the police killing of another black man, Antonio Martin, according to activists. He was convicted a year later, after pleading guilty for arson, burglary, and theft, and sentenced to prison for eight years. He told Vice News that his harsh sentence was to make an example out of him, and that prison guards verbally abuse him with racist slurs. [Read More]
Ilhan Omar, AIPAC, and the 2020 Democratic Presidential Contenders
By Akela Lacy, The Intercept [
---- Omar has not been alone at the center of recent firestorms over the politics of the Mideast conflict: Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the Palestinian-American freshman from Michigan, has also faced backlash for purported anti-Semitism. Underlying the accusations against the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress, however, is the fight over the growing movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel for its human rights abuses, which is known as BDS. Omar and Tlaib find themselves at the vanguard of these public scuffles not least because they are the first and only members of Congress to publicly support the BDS movement. There are signs for pro-Palestinian activists to take heart. Omar's and Tlaib's strong stances reflect progressive voters' desires for a more even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but they certainly aren't the only politicians paying attention. Democrats seem to be drifting left on the Mideast conflict, even some powerful figures in the party — including contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. [Read More]
Amazon Pullout Shows What Anti-Capitalist Organizing and Leftist Politicians Can Do
By Natasha Lennard, The Intercept [
---- The plan's thwarting offers a lesson in the possibility of forceful collective struggle against seemingly unbeatable Goliaths. It also proves the need for left-wing politicians and organizers to challenge and replace conservative, capitalist Democrats if we are to wrest control of neighborhoods, cities, and public resources away from corporate interests and towards the good of existing communities. … It's true that these politicians played a crucial role. Yet without consistent pressure and door-to-door canvassing from activist and community groups — including immigrant and worker advocate organizations Make the Road NY and Desis Rising Up and Moving, alongside Teamsters and Queens residents — many elected officials would not have taken up a stance against Amazon. New York legislatures of old showed no such sensitivity to anti-gentrification and anti-corporate sentiment. [Read More] Also useful on "the lessons of Amazon," read "New York Fights—and Amazon Flees," by Jarrett Murphy, The Nation [February 14, 2019] [Link]
OUR HISTORY
What Did Elliott Abrams Have to Do With the El Mozote Massacre?
By Raymond Bonner, The Atlantic [February 2019]
---- In a testy exchange with Elliott Abrams on Wednesday, Representative Ilhan Omar resurrected the memory of El Salvador's El Mozote massacre, one of the worst mass killings in modern Latin American history. Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, was all of two months old when the December 1981 massacre took place. Abrams, President Donald Trump's new special envoy for Venezuela, was a senior State Department official in the Reagan administration, which was sending military and economic aid into El Salvador to defeat a leftist insurgency and stop what it saw as a wave of communism approaching the United States. What happened in 1981? And what did Abrams have to do with it? More than 900 peasants were murdered in and around several villages in the eastern province of Morazán. Most were old men, women, and children. At the Roman Catholic church in El Mozote, soldiers separated men from their families, took them away, and shot them. They herded mothers and children into the convent. Putting their American-supplied M-16 rifles on automatic, the soldiers opened fire. Then they burned the convent. Some 140 children were killed, including toddlers. Average age: 6. Omar's questioning of Abrams was not artful, and Abrams wasn't unreasonable in viewing it as a personal attack. But she was right to suggest that he had sought to diminish or even cover up the massacre by calling it communist propaganda. Nor was she wrong to question whether Abrams was ethically qualified to assume a high government position, with the mission to oust the Venezuelan dictatorship and promote democracy. [Read More] For more on this lying weasel, read "'Why Should we believe anything You Say?" How Ilhan Omar Nailed Elliot Abrams for Iran-Contra Lies," b
A Tale of Two Citations: Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" and Michael Harrington's "The Other America"
---- More than half a century has passed since Rachel Carson meticulously exposed government and corporate poisoning of the planet with synthetic pesticides. The book, with its wonderful drawings, excoriated the government and corporations for covering the planet with cancer-causing pesticides like DDT, a product of the newly powerful agribusiness and pharmaceutical infrastructure. … The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union heated dramatically after the Soviet Union launched its first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957 and especially as the Cuban missile crisis devolved toward the end of 1962 and threatened to blow up the world. In that context, it was not an easy matter to challenge the government on the releases of radiation from its atomic bomb tests and threats of annihilation in nuclear war. America's fantasy machine has today rewritten the history of that opposition, casting Rachel Carson as an isolated figure, a romantic single-issue lone wolf against chemical pesticides like DDT. But Rachel Carson, bravely unconventional, was no isolated figure; she was part of a revolt in the 1950s and 1960s of scientists and leftist thinkers alarmed not only by chemical pollution and pesticides but – and this intersection is crucial! – by the above-ground nuclear bomb tests and the harmful effects of radiation on children. [Read More]
