Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
February 11, 2018
Hello All – In agreeing to the Schumer-McConnell funding proposal last week, Congress may have foreclosed whatever opportunity there was to give some protection to immigrants in the DACA program. In the coming weeks – at best – we can expect the Republicans to propose a program that "the President will accept." At last reckoning, this includes a lengthy path to citizenship for several million "Dreamers," conditioned on Democrats agreeing to spend $25 billion for Trump's Wall, severe limits on family unification for immigrants, and increased funding for border protection. DACA activists have stated that they will not accept a deal that helps them but injures others.
What can/should we do now? Although the DACA program will end on March 5th, a federal court order and many other lower court orders may prevent massive deportations for several months. And it is clear that thousands of young immigrants will continue to fight, probably in greater numbers and with increased desperation. How can we help to build this struggle?
One step is pressure on Congress. Representatives Engel and Lowey and Senator Gillibrand all voted "No" on the Schumer-McConnell deal, citing the deal's failure to support the young immigrants. While Schumer is immune/uncaring about constituent pressure, we can support actions that demonstrate his unpopularity on this issue. We can also speak with our neighbors, as the CFOW weekly vigil/protest has been doing for some time now. We need to dispel myths that immigrants take jobs from "real Americans"; that they are prone to crime (not true); or that they benefit from social services without paying their fair share (also not true). And we need to respond to immigrant arrests. In recent months, the immigration police ("ICE") have targeted immigrant community leaders for deportation. They have been arrested at court, or while bringing their children to school, or at work. Last year ICE arrested and deported 80,000 people in this way, a big increase over Obama levels.
Finally, we need to bear in mind the most immigrants, including parents who brought the "Dreamers" here as children, are refugees. They are not tourists who overstayed their visas, but are desperately fleeing war, or the ravages of climate change, or the collapse of their nation's economies under assault by neo-liberal economic policies. There are now some 60 million such refugees in the world. There is every reason to think that their numbers will continue to grow. Political clashes are happening around the world between those who want to wall-off their countries, and those who want to extend a hand to those in need. The USA fight about what should happen to DACA and to other immigrant/refugees is a moral test of our nation, presaging more intense fights to come. We need to rethink our ideas about borders, about nation, and about our responsibilities to our fellow humans.
News Notes
Once again Dark Reality lurks behind the fictitious world of Hallmark greeting cards. As Valentine's Day approaches, let's remember (and celebrate) the Feast of the Lupercal, and the hi-jinks (wolf skins, whips, nakedness!) that kicked off the Day of Love.
Immigrant leader Ravi Ragbir has received a temporary stay of his deportation order. Read more and see some good pictures from Erik McGregor here.
A presidential bad hair day was caught on film this week. Viewer discretion advised.
As usual, the USA is #1: "The world's top 15 defense spenders."
What are we so afraid of? – Check out this interesting article on "What American High Schools Are Teaching Students About Slavery?" [Link].
The climate stalwarts at 350.org organized an alternative, "Climate State of the Union." See the video here.
Finally, the Syrian city of Afrin, and especially its Kurdish inhabitants, is under attack by US ally and NATO member Turkey. The Trump team wishes it were not so, but patiently awaits the slaughter. Check out this inspiring Afrin rally video and read some background here. No Passaran!
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – Concerned Families of Westchester holds a rally/vigil each Saturday in Hastings, at the VFW Plaza, from 12 to 1. Please join us.
Monday, February 12th - Join the rally that will mark the 3rd anniversary of "NYC Shut It Down," from 7 to 10 p.m. at/in Grand Central Station. The organizers write: "Every Monday since the murder of Eric Garner and non-indictment of Mike Brown's murderer, NYC Shut it Down has taken to the streets to highlight the stories of those killed by police. We have been fighting for Black liberation and police abolition since our inception. This People's Monday, we will be honoring as many lives as possible for our anniversary. Every person who comes out helps us tell another story."
Wednesday, February 14th - Cuomo henchman Joe Percoco is on trial (40 Foley Square in NYC) for corruption in regarding to building a fracked-gas power plant in Orange County. Join the rally against fracking, the power plant, and Cuomo – sponsored by our friends at SANE Energy and many more – at 12:30 p.m. For more information about the rally and the crime, go here.
Thursday, February 15th - Kathy Kelly (Voices of Creative Nonviolence) will be the featured speaker at a community forum about the war in Yemen at the Stony Point Center, 17 Cricketown Road in Stony Point. The program begins at 7 p.m. and is sponsored by the Community of Living Traditions, WESPAC, and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Also among the speakers will be CFOW stalwart Nick Mottern. For more information, or to RSVP, email ssmith@stonypointcenter.org. ($10 donation requested, but no one turned away.)
Monday, February 26 - Port Chester Immigration Defense and Make the Road (Westchester Hispanic Coalition) will be hosting a Free Legal Advice and Training for Immigrants and those who serve them. The program begins at 7 p.m. At St. Peter's Episcoopal Church, 19 Smith St. in Portchester.
Sunday, March 4th – CFOW's monthly meeting will be at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 p.m. At these meetings we review our work of the past month and lay plans for the coming weeks. Everyone is welcome at these meetings; please join us!
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," I especially recommend the section of articles on "DACA and the Dreamers"; an article - on the 15th anniversary of his notorious speech at the UN – about Colin Powell's justifications for the Iraq War; several articles about the possibility of war on the Korean Peninsula; an interesting article that looks back on the decline (and perhaps rise) of the American labor movement; and an article by Jeanne Theoharis summarizing her new book on the use and especially the misuse of the MLK-Rosa Parks civil rights movement in considering the strategies of Black Lives Matter and our contemporary black freedom movements.
Rewards!
With South Korea in the news spotlight, stalwart readers may want to pause and consider the subtle cultural background of this little-known country. So here is Psy and his music video "Gangnam Style," which has logged more than 3 billion views on YouTube. Questions? And for something more traditional, let's bring back Frank Turner and "I Still Believe." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
The Betrayal of DACA and the "Dreamers"
The Resistance Gets Rolled [Immigrants]
By Elana Schor, et al., Politico [February 9, 2018]
---- At the height of its influence, the tea party had the GOP in a vise-grip. But liberal activists have a long way to go to match that sway over Democrats, if this week's budget deal is any indication. Left-leaning groups that spent months pressing Democrats to fight for the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers were stiff-armed yet again by the party's leaders. They cut a bipartisan budget deal that left House Democrats scrambling to square their advocacy for immigrants with the party's fear of shouldering the blame for a second government shutdown in a matter of weeks. … Few liberal groups clamoring for action on Dreamers have pressed reluctant Democrats harder than Indivisible and United We Dream, the latter of which is dedicated to representing undocumented immigrants affected by President Donald Trump's move to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Those two groups joined the National Immigration Law Center on a withering statement Thursday that blasted any lawmaker supporting a budget agreement without winning aid for Dreamers for "voting to advance Trump's white supremacist agenda." [Read More]
As Long As Rights Are Trampled, There Will Be Forced Migration
By and , Foreign Policy in Focus [February 6, 2018]
---- It's an ongoing debate: What do U.S. citizens owe undocumented immigrants, if anything? Do DACA "Dreamers" deserve special consideration? What have immigrants brought to our country — what strengths and gifts, and what liabilities? We want to add this critical question: How has U.S. foreign policy affected their countries? Refugees walk hot desert miles, ride atop trains, and entrust themselves to smugglers for a chance at a safer, less desperate life. Has our country helped create the extreme conditions these migrants are fleeing? [Read More]
More about Immigration and DACA – Kirsten Weld, "DACA: The Agony of an Uncertain Path Forward," NACLA [February 8, 2018] [Link]; Nick Pinto, "ICE Is Targeting Political Opponents for Deportation, Ravi Ragbir and Rights Groups Say in Court," The Intercept [[Link]; Lydia McMullen-Laird, "Life After Deportation," The Indypendent [NYC] [February 6, 2018] [Link]; and Kai Wright, "The Way We Talk About Immigration Is Profane," The Nation [February 7, 2018] [Link].
FEATURED ESSAYS
The Lonely Struggle: A Tribute To Gene Sharp
By James L. VanHise, ZNet [February 10, 2018]
---- Dr. Gene Sharp, the preeminent expert on strategic nonviolence, passed away on January 28th. If the dictators of the world were celebrating, their joy was premature. Because it wasn't this frail, 90-year-old professor that was a threat to their dominance, but his ideas. And they are far from dead. … Sharp's signature concept is basic yet profound: without the voluntary obedience of ordinary people, no government or institution can function. Governments need the cooperation of the general population to pay taxes and obey the laws, of course, but they also require support from civil servants to carry out their programs, and security forces to compel obedience. Weapons like strikes, boycotts and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation can help erode these "pillars of support," leaving rulers isolated and impotent. This is an old idea that was utilized most famously by Gandhi. But Sharp took it further by aggregating and systematizing knowledge of nonviolence so it could be used strategically. [Read More] Also useful/interesting is this editorial from Waging Nonviolence, "Remembering Gene Sharp, a pioneer of people power" [Link].
What We've Learned in Year 1 of Russiagate
By Aaron Maté, The Nation [February 9, 2018]
---- Many of Trump's political opponents remain tethered to the eventual emergence of proof that his campaign colluded with the Russian government in order to win the presidency. But the evidentiary basis so far for Russiagate is thin, to say the least. Meanwhile, the relentless pursuit of this narrative above all else has had dangerous consequences. As high-level officials and investigators have repeatedly acknowledged, there is still no evidence so far of coordination between the Trump orbit and the Russian government over the release of stolen e-mails or any other campaign matter. There is only a curious cast of characters that make for an unlikely conspiracy. … If "hard evidence" is what "many Americans most eagerly anticipated" in January 2017, they have continued to wait in vain. The Russian government may well have hacked Democratic Party e-mails, but evidence of it beyond unsubstantiated claims has yet to arrive. In its place is a bipartisan fear mongering campaign that recalls the height of the Cold War. [Read More]
Still Struggling For Freedom After 43 Years
---- I am overwhelmed that February 6th is the start of my 43rd year in prison. I have had such high hopes over the years that I might be getting out and returning to my family in North Dakota. And yet here I am in 2018 still struggling for my FREEDOM at 73. I don't want to sound ungrateful to all my supporters who have stood by me through all these years. I dearly love and respect you and thank you for the love & respect you have given me. But the truth is I am tired and often my ailments cause me pain with little relief for days at a time. I just had heart surgery and I have other medical issues that need to be addressed: my aortic aneurysm, which could burst at any time, my prostate and arthritis in my hip and knees. I do not think I have another ten years, and what I do have I would like to spend with my family. Nothing would bring me more happiness than being able to hug my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. [Read More]
Sunday Reading: War-Torn Fiction
From The New Yorker [February 11, 2018]
---- The conflicts in this handful of recent stories about war date back as far as the nineteen-forties and are as recent as the aughts. Uwem Akpan's "My Parents' Bedroom" takes us to a household in Rwanda, where the civil war between the Hutu and the Tutsi people is played out within one family. In Shani Boianjiu's "Means of Suppressing Demonstrations," we see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of a female Israeli soldier stationed at a highway checkpoint. In "Waiting for Death in a Hotel," Italo Calvino takes us to an Italian hotel converted into a prison for captured partisans during the Second World War. [FB - and several more.] [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
As Congress Feeds The Merchants Of Death, The People Must Divest
By Medea Benjamin and Elliott Swain, Code Pink [February 6, 2018]
---- In recent budget negotiations, Senate Democrats agreed to a boost in military spending that exceeded the cap for fiscal 2018 by $70 billion, bringing the total request to an enormous $716 billion. Inevitably, this means more Pentagon contracts will be awarded to private corporations that use endless war to line their pockets. Democrats capitulated to this massive increase without so much as a scuffle. But the move hardly comes as a surprise, given how much money flows from weapons makers to the coffers of congressional campaigns for both parties. … If neither major political party will stand up to this status quo, what can be done? One answer might be found in the recent push to divest from fossil fuel companies undertaken by, among others, Norway and New York City. By December of 2016, 688 institutions, representing over $5 trillion in assets, had divested from fossil fuels. In an interview with The Guardian, author Naomi Klein described the fossil fuel divestment effort as "a process of delegitimizing" the sector and of affirming that it yields "odious profits." An analogous campaign to delegitimize beneficiaries of war is long overdue. [Read More]
Lie After Lie: What Colin Powell Knew About Iraq 15 Years Ago and What He Told the U.N.
By Jon Schwarz, The Intercept [
---- Colin Powell delivered his presentation making the case for war with Iraq at the United Nations 15 years ago, on February 5, 2003. As much criticism as Powell received for this — he's called it "painful" and something that will "always be a part of my record" — it hasn't been close to what's justified. Powell, who was secretary of state under President George W. Bush, was much more than just horribly mistaken: He fabricated "evidence" and ignored repeated warnings that what he was saying was false.
Unfortunately, Congress never investigated Powell's use of the intelligence he was given, so we don't know many of the specifics. Even so, what did reach the public record in other ways is extremely damning. While the corporate media has never taken a close look at this record, we can go through Powell's presentation line by line to demonstrate the chasm between what he knew and what he told the world. As you'll see, there's quite a lot to say about it. [Read More]
War with North Korea?
South Korea, Straying off the Leash?
---- Never before has North Korea loomed so large in the U.S. imagination. No longer just a problem "over there," North Korea has emerged as a much more immediate threat, one with the power to unleash nuclear Armageddon on not only East Asian but also North American shores. … In sharp contrast to alarmist views of an erratic and hostile North Korea, the dominant American narrative of South Korea depicts U.S.-South Korea relations as an enduring and equal partnership in the face of a shared enemy. … What belies this comforting bilateral scenario, however, is the cynical U.S. response to recent joint ROK–DPRK initiatives during the upcoming winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. … Key U.S. officials and prominent news outlets sounded a new specter, the "wedge." Not to be confused with an NFL football tactic, the "wedge" portrays mutual overtures between the North and South as an ominous sign that Kim Jong-un is trying to sow discord between Seoul and Washington in order to weaken the longstanding U.S.-ROK alliance. [Read More]
Pentagon Readies the 'Father of All Bombs' for Use Against North Korea
By Michael T. Klare, The Nation [February 6, 2018]
---- It is no secret that the Defense Department is preparing for possible preventive attacks on North Korean nuclear and missile facilities. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has openly called for strikes of this sort, sometimes described as the "bloody nose" option. But any such scenario faces two major hurdles. … With the Winter Olympics just about to begin, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in desperately striving to arrange peace talks with the North, this is the moment to speak out for de-escalation of the Korean crisis and the commencement of serious talks involving all key parties, including the United States, leading to a reduction in threatening arsenals and behaviors on all sides. Readers should also voice support for two bills currently before Congress, HR 4837, the "No Unconstitutional Strike against North Korea Act," and its Senate version, S. 2016; both prohibit the president from launching a first strike against North Korea or otherwise engaging US armed forces in hostilities with the North without a declaration of war or explicit statutory authorization by Congress. [Read More]
How Trump's North Korea 'Options' Could Lead to Nuclear War
By Bob Dreyfuss, Rolling Stone [February 4, 2018]
---- Is Donald Trump looking for an option to go to war against North Korea? That's the unsettling conclusion from a report last week in The New York Times – that even Trump's own generals and national security advisers, who are not exactly doves themselves, are afraid of giving the president any ideas. The Pentagon, "worried that the White House is moving too hastily toward military action on the Korean peninsula," is resisting demands from Trump to explain how he might do precisely that, and so U.S. officials have consequently circumscribed how much they're willing to tell the president. "Giving the president too many options," the officials said, "could increase the odds that he will act," reports the Times. [Read More]
The War(s) in Syria
It's Hard to Believe, but Syria's War Is Getting Even Worse
---- Since the rout of the Islamic State last year, and steady government advances against other insurgent groups, a misperception has grown abroad that the Syrian war is winding down. Instead, the carnage is reaching a new peak. Since December, 300,000 people have fled new fighting. In one 48-hour period this week, government strikes killed more than 100 people, mostly civilians, according to rescue and medical workers, in the besieged, rebel-held suburbs just east of the capital, Damascus. The explosions could be heard and the smoke seen from the seat of power just a few miles away. … The fact is that the Syrian war, for years, has not been just one war but a tangle of separate but intersecting conflicts with a rotating cast of combatants. Much of the world cheered the collapse of the Islamic State's medieval-inspired caliphate last year. But that victory cleared the way for the war's underlying conflicts to resurface with a vengeance. [Read More]
Why Is the Syrian War Still Raging?
---- The Islamic State is being routed from its strongholds, and the rebels who seek to topple President Bashar al-Assad are down to a few remaining pockets of land. But nearly seven years after it started, the war in Syria continues to defy attempts at resolution. It may continue for years. The war's complexity helps explain why it's still going. The Syrian war is largely driven today by three major, intersecting conflicts playing out at the same time. The uprising against Mr. Assad that started the conflict splintered the country, bringing more parties into the fighting and preventing an easy resolution. Foreign powers – including Russia, the United States and Iran – have lined up behind different sides, fueling the war by providing arms and a willingness to keep going. Each of the major conflicts has its own underlying logic that sustains the fighting. [Read More]
The War in Iraq – "Mission Accomplished"
US, having Destroyed Iraq, won't give a Dime to Reconstruction
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment [February 9, 2018]
---- The Trump administration is going into the Iraq reconstruction conference in Kuwait next week with no plans to contribute a dime to the effort. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will attend. Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi estimates that Iraq needs $100 billion to rebuild. The country is still devastated from the 2003 US war of aggression and 8.5 year military occupation, which spurred Sunni insurgencies and led to the collapse of the US- and NATO-trained military in 2014. The past 3.5 years have been spent attempting to recover the Sunni Arab areas of the country from ISIL, which involved destroying most Sunni Arab cities in the country. [Read More]
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHAOS
First U.S. City to Ban Fossil Fuel Expansion
By Kevon Paynter, Yes! Magazine [February 10, 2018]
---- On a clear July morning three years ago, dozens of environmental activists pushed their kayaks into the Willamette River in Portland while others rappelled 400 feet from the top of St. Johns Bridge in an attempt to block a Shell Oil ship and its drilling equipment from leaving the port and entering Alaskan waters. A key piece of Shell's arctic drilling fleet, the vessel had arrived in Portland for repairs but its departure was delayed by protesters chanting "coal, oil, gas, none shall pass!" during two days of civil disobedience that became known as Summer Heat. By the time the vessel finally sailed, the stage had been set for what would be a yearlong battle, culminating in an ordinance that banned construction and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in the city. Last month, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld Portland's ban as constitutional, affirming the city's power to regulate the safety and welfare of its residents and sending a powerful signal to cities that they too can take the lead to limit fossil fuel use. [Read More]
---- On a clear July morning three years ago, dozens of environmental activists pushed their kayaks into the Willamette River in Portland while others rappelled 400 feet from the top of St. Johns Bridge in an attempt to block a Shell Oil ship and its drilling equipment from leaving the port and entering Alaskan waters. A key piece of Shell's arctic drilling fleet, the vessel had arrived in Portland for repairs but its departure was delayed by protesters chanting "coal, oil, gas, none shall pass!" during two days of civil disobedience that became known as Summer Heat. By the time the vessel finally sailed, the stage had been set for what would be a yearlong battle, culminating in an ordinance that banned construction and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in the city. Last month, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld Portland's ban as constitutional, affirming the city's power to regulate the safety and welfare of its residents and sending a powerful signal to cities that they too can take the lead to limit fossil fuel use. [Read More]
Pancakes Not Pipelines: Canadian Activists Organize to Stop Kinder Morgan's Prized Oil Pipeline
]
---- Dozens of Canadian activists hitched a bus ride from Victoria, British Columbia early on January 29th to Texas-based oil company Kinder Morgan's terminal in Burnaby. There, they had two clear goals: to block the road to the facility and to cook some pancakes. The two tasks weren't separate from one another. They both represented a message to Kinder Morgan and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government against a nearly $6 billion project called the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Residents blocked the road to stop construction of a terminal for a project that they view as a danger not only to their communities, but the environment as well. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES/"THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
Exactly 16 Years Ago, George W. Bush Opened the Floodgates to Torture at Guantánamo
By
---- Today, February 7, is the 16th anniversary of one particularly sinister and misguided development in Bush's "war on terror" — a memorandum, entitled, "Humane Treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda Detainees," which was sent to just a handful of recipients including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Attorney General John Ashcroft, CIA director George Tenet, and General Richard B. Myers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. … It is also important to remember that the torture and abuse that Bush unleashed in his memo of February 7, 2002 remained US policy for nearly four and half years, until the Supreme Court reminded the president, in Hamden v. Rumseld, on June 29, 2006, that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions apply to all prisoners held by the US, whatever their location. … Significantly, in December 2014, a major step was taken against the use of torture, when the Senate Intelligence Committee issued the 500-page executive summary of a scathing 6,200-page report about both the brutality and the pointlessness of the CIA's torture program. Stung by this, almost the entire US establishment turned on Donald Trump when, during his first weeks in office, a draft executive order was leaked indicating that he wanted to revive the use of torture and of CIA "black sites." [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Where Did It All Go Wrong? [US labor movement]
By Gabriel Winant, The Nation [February 7, 2018]
---- The false appearance of a fair and representative system has worked to the benefit of increasingly rapacious employers for 40 years. In this way, the failure of American labor law stands as both the cause of and a metonym for the overall institutional breakdown of American liberalism. Perhaps there was a moment when the scraps of the liberal regime might still have been sewn back together into something usable. In many ways, that prospect is what we've been witnessing since 2008 with a new groundswell of labor organizing, much of it pressing hard against the limits of the law. But the Trump administration has foreclosed whatever remained of that possibility. Now we're in a more raw contest between fear and solidarity, with no reasonable mediator to step in, hear both sides, and secure justice. On the one hand, it's frightening to let go of the illusion of liberal procedural fairness. On the other hand, it's the truth, and that's probably where we should start if we're going to begin again. [Read More]
Poor People's Campaign: City Of Hope
By Liam Farrell, TERP [February 9, 2018]
---- With a new Poor People's Campaign recently kicking off 40 days of actions to put morality at the center of US political discourse and with the Poor People's Economic and Human Rights Campaign planning a march to DC and a Resurrection City in June, it is a good time to recall the first Poor People's Campaign and its occupation of Washington, DC. The first Poor People's Campaign occurred just a few weeks after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Their encampment, Resurrection City, a "community of love and brotherhood," will have its 50th anniversary this spring. It was an encampment on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial next to the Reflecting Pool that sought to raise the moral consciousness of the nation by focusing on the plight of the poor. The issues focused on by Resurrection City were the need for a national jobs program and a guaranteed basic income for all. [Read More]
Looking Back, the NFL Boycott Was a Historic Moment in the Struggle for Justice
By
---- The Super Bowl is over, and it's time to reflect on the history that was made with this NFL season — and I'm not talking about the Eagles. I have a frequent refrain that it is hard to understand a moment in history when you're in it, and there was such a story this year. This football season, there was a boycott of the NFL by fans who were determined to stand in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who has been effectively blacklisted from the league for his protests against police brutality and systematic racism. The people who participated in the boycott are among those who, though they might not realize it, are in the middle of a crucial moment in history. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Pro-Israel Democrats concede 'human rights' issue is killing the brand
By Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss [February 3, 2018]
---- Last week Pew released a bombshell survey showing that the progressive base of the Democratic Party is now far more sympathetic to Palestine than Israel. "[N]early twice as many liberal Democrats say they sympathize more with the Palestinians than with Israel (35% vs. 19%)." That finding is now getting pushback from Democrats who support the strong Israel-U.S. relationship. They worry that the issue is becoming politicized: that the Republican Party is becoming the address for Israel support, so before long Democratic candidates for office will distance themselves from Israel. And Israel will be under real pressure to change its Jim Crow foundations. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
The Civil Rights movement, distorted: Weaponizing history against Black Lives Matter
---- Casting the young protesters as reckless and not living up to the legacy of the civil rights movement, a number of prominent voices have measured Black Lives Matter against the movement and found it falling short. Many who claim sympathy with BLM's purpose have used the civil rights movement to decry their tactics—putting aside the fact that King took a highway many times over his life, that the movement was disruptive and unpopular, and that it made many Americans uncomfortable. The civil rights movement has become museum history, inaccessible for our grubby use today. While the actual civil rights movement was far more disruptive, demanding, contentious, and profound than it's depicted, the mythologies of it get in the way of seeing the continuities between these struggles, the shoulders current movements stand on, and the ways people can learn from past struggles to approach the problems we face as a nation today. [Read More]
Vietnam Will Win: the Politics of Strategy
---- To mark the 50th Anniversary of the 1968 Têt Offensive, CounterPunch is serializing Wilfred Burchett's Vietnam Will Win (Guardian Books, New York, 1968) over the next few weeks. Readers can judge for themselves the validity of the facts, observations, analysis, conclusions, predictions and so on made by the author. The books is based on several visits to the Liberated Zones controlled by the National Liberation Front ('Viet Cong') of South Vietnam in 1963-64, 1964-65 and in 1966-67 and close contacts with the NLF leadership, resistance fighters and ordinary folk. … Unfortunately, it took another seven years (1968-75) of death and devastation – and the extension of the war into Cambodia and Laos – for the U.S. to finally leave Vietnam in ignominy in April 1975. So here, chapter by chapter, Wilfred Burchett exposes the futility of fighting a people united in their struggle for independence, liberty and unity. It also explains, soberly and factually, why they were winning and how they won. [Read More]
