Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
May 6, 2019
Hello All – For almost two decades, our government has been trying to overthrow the elected governments of Venezuela. The attempted coup in Venezuela last week was only the latest attempt to topple the government by violence. The coup failed, unable to gain the support of high-ranking Venezuelan military officers. Now the question is …. What next?
It is now obvious that the Trump administration is prepared to use the US military to overthrow the Venezuelan government. On Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton met with Pentagon people to discuss military options. On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that "We have a full range of options." While the United States has military bases in next-door Colombia, and a naval base in Aruba, just off the Venezuelan coast, it is unlikely that much regime change can be accomplished without sending in ground forces. Does Trump dare do that (Iraq, Afghanistan?). Will Congress tolerate this? Will we?
Our government has subjected Venezuela to 20 years of economic sanctions. An in-depth report this week shows that, since 2017, some 40,000 Venezuelans have died because of these sanctions. As Venezuela's economy depends on its oil industry, the attempt to blockade the export of oil has been especially harmful. Additionally, the report states that the sanctions "have reduced the availability of food and medicine, and increased disease and mortality." Moreover, "80,000 people with HIV had not had treatment since 2017 [and] 16,000 people who need dialysis, 16,000 people with cancer, and 4,000 people with diabetes" cannot get the medicines they need.
After Tuesday's coup failed, the Trump people blamed Cuba and Russia. While Cuba has thousands of medical people in Venezuela, the Trump people say (falsely) that they are really military, and they are calling the shots for the Venezuela government. Now old sanctions against Cuba are being reinstated, and new ones imposed. Trump has threatened Cuba with a "full and complete" embargo – an act of war - if it does not immediately abandon Venezuela. The United States worked for "regime change" in Cuba for half a century. These efforts started again in April 2018 when John Bolton became Trump's National Security Adviser. In turn, Bolton brought in extreme right-wing Cuban-Americans to guide US policy towards the Caribbean and Latin America. Thus many analysts see the US policy towards Venezuela as aiming ultimately at regime change in Cuba as well.
We must work for peace. In February a Bill was introduced into the House of Representatives called the "Prohibiting Unauthorized Military Action in Venezuela Act." [Link]. The Bill is now in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by our own congressman Eliot Engel. Congressman Eliot Engel is strongly opposed to the Venezuelan government, but he has also stated his opposition to US military intervention. To help him to keep his commitment, please call him at (202) 225-2464 and ask him to speak out against military intervention in Venezuela.
The Three-Day Gaza War
The violence in Israel/Gaza over the weekend has been described as the worst since the war of 2014. Needless to say, President Trump and most of the mainstream media blamed Gaza's Hamas and Islamic Jihad for starting this. But the context was the failure of the Israeli's to lift some sanctions on Gaza, after more than a year of demonstrations, as they had promised a few months before. Democracy Now! in its broadcast this morning, noted: "According to the Washington Post, Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian protesters taking part in the weekly Great March of Return which began 13 months ago. Palestinians then reportedly shot and wounded two Israeli soldiers near the border. In response, Israel carried out an airstrike on a refugee camp killing two Palestinian militants. The heaviest combat took place on Saturday and Sunday as militants in Gaza fired about 700 rockets into Israel while Israel launched airstrikes on over 350 targets inside Gaza." There is an expectation/fear that Israel will observe the Egyptian-brokered truce only until the end of the Eurovision Song Contest, hosted by Israel until May 18th. Another war would be unbearable.
News Notes
The Code Pink-led team that has been holding the fort at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, DC, is now threatened with a take-over by the supporters of faux-president Juan Guaido. An assault by US/Washington, DC police, Secret Service, etc. is expected. Now a mob of Guaido supporters has blockaded the Embassy, preventing food and medicine deliveries. Blocked from returning to the Embassy, Code-Pink's Medea Benjamin gives the Secret Service a call. And another one. Please do this also!
Despite the Democrats' control of both the New York State Senate and Assembly, the long-awaited state version of single-payer heath care failed to become law. The Nation magazine's Raina Lipsitz wrote an instructive article about what went wrong and what might go right "next time."
This newsletter has been following France's "Yellow Vest" ("Gilet Jaunes") movement closely since the beginning. This very grassroots movement for more democracy and economic justice is full of interesting thoughts and lessons for activists in the USA as well. Last month, the Yellow Vests organized their second "Assembly of Assemblies." Read about this here.
We now begin Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. In addition to its religious significance, Ramadan often influences political activity. If you, like me, are mostly ignorant about what Ramadan is, read about it here.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – Weather permitting, the CFOW stalwarts gather every Saturday from 12 to 1 PM at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring St.) to protest war and other evils. Please join us!
Ongoing – The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Hastings still has room for a few dozen members. CSA's connect local/regional farms with consumers, providing fresh organic vegetables (as they come into season) in exchange for a pre-payment that helps the farmers get their new season off the ground. The CSA in Hastings is managed by CFOW stalwart Elisa Zazzera, and the shopping/eating season runs from June 5 to November 13. You can learn about the CSA partner, Stoneledge Farm, here. For more information, email Elisa at hastingsCSA@gmail.com.
Ongoing - The parents of Dr. Scott Warren are circulating a petition to end his incarceration. His crime: providing humanitarian aid to migrants in our southwest border lands. To learn more about Dr. Warren and what he does, check out this article from The Intercept. To sign the petition, go here.
Ongoing – Our "Raging Grannies" is one of the groups supporting Code Pink's campaign to expose the military and other nefarious investor financing by BlackRock, one of the world's largest investor organizations. To learn more about BlackRock and Code Pink's campaign, go here.
Sunday, June 2nd - CFOW's next monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 p.m. At these meetings we review our work/the happenings of 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 also encourage you to check out the several articles about the wars in Yemen and Latin America, and about the naval task force on its way toward Iran. Also recommended is Bill McKibben's article about the Extinction Rebellion's fight to save our climate; a New York Times' report on the massive UN study just out on the on-going extinction of millions of species; several articles about Biden and Sanders, and about the Democrats' dilemma re: Impeachment or investigation?; and an excellent history about the life & times of Pete Seeger, whose 100th birthday was on May 3rd. Read on!
Rewards!
These week's Rewards for stalwart readers celebrate the 100th birthday of Pete Seeger. Down below, in "Our History," there is a link to an excellent narrative of Pete's life & times. As for the music, we thank The Nation magazine for putting up a collection of Pete Seeger's Top 10 Songs. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Unconscious Bias is Running for President: On Elizabeth Warren and the False Problem of "Likeability"
By Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me and many other books [April 30, 2019]
---- Unconscious bias is running for president again. Unconscious bias has always been in the race, and Unconscious Bias's best buddy, Institutional Discrimination, has always helped him along, and as a result all of our presidents have been men and all but one white, and that was not even questionable until lately. This makes who "seems presidential" a tautological ouroboros chomping hard on its own tail. The Republican Party has celebrated its status as the fraternity of bias that's conscious till it blacks out and becomes unconscious bias. But this also affects the Democratic Party and its voters, where maybe bias should not be so welcome.One of the ugly facts about the 2020 election is that white men are a small minority of people who vote Democrat but have wildly disproportionate control of the money and media and look to have undue influence over the current race for the nomination, which is just one of the many fun ways that one person one vote isn't really what we have. [Read More]
A War Reporter Covers "The End of Ice" — And It Will Change the Way You Think About Climate Catastrophe
An interview with Dahr Jamail, by Elise Swain, The Intercept [May 4, 2019]
---- Focusing on breath and gratitude, Dahr Jamail's latest book, "The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption," stitches together personal introspection and gut-wrenching interviews with leading climate experts. The rapidly receding glaciers of Denali National Park, home to the highest peak in North America, inspired the book's title. "Seven years of climbing in Alaska had provided me with a front-row seat from where I could witness the dramatic impact of human-caused climate disruption," Jamail writes. With vividly descriptive storytelling, Jamail pushes further north into the Arctic Circle where warming is occurring at double speed. He surveys rapid changes in the Pribilof Islands, where indigenous communities have had to contend with die-offs affecting seabirds, fur seals, fish, and more — a collapsing food web. … "The End of Ice" readers won't find calls for technology-based solutions, politicians, mitigating emissions, or the Green New Deal to save us. Describing the current state of the planet, Jamail likens it to someone in hospice care. … "A willingness to live without hope allows me to accept the heartbreaking truth of our situation, however calamitous it is. Grieving for what is happening to the planet also now brings me gratitude for the smallest, most mundane things," Jamail explains. "I have found that it's possible to reach a place of acceptance and inner peace, while enduring the grief and suffering that are inevitable as the biosphere declines." [Read More] For more on civilization's twilight, read "To Be Hopeful in Bad Times," b [Link].
Russiagate, There are No Winners
By Sarah Lindemann-Komarova, Medium.com [April 25, 2019]
---- Baby boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, we are now into the 4th American generation that has only known armed conflict via "wars of choice". If there is one thing the on-going Russiagate phenomenon has clarified, it is that many Americans do not understand war the way people in many other countries understand it. It is also clear that no one is going to convince anyone of anything they don't already believe in relation to Trump, Clinton, Russia, or the 2016 election. These two realities have brought us to a dangerous moment in history. … May 9th millions of people in this part of the world still celebrate Victory Day with a reverence that has not diminished over 74 years. The parades will honor the 27 million lives lost in the Soviet Union, pay tribute to everyone else who sacrificed and survived, and keep the memory of the reality of war alive for the next generations. While this is going on Americans will be bombarded with more images, metaphors, and data to convince them that Russia is not only an enemy, but an existential threat and Russia will continue to respond with an aggressive defensive posture. That is not offered as an indictment or defense of any side, if you flip the roles and believe Russia is the aggressor and America the victim the dynamic is the same and it can only lead to escalation. … I would like to suggest we go beyond the nuclear threat and promote something more comprehensive, a real, global peace movement. We can no longer be scared into thinking this is an impossible dream, a fantasy by naïve people. The reality, the one certainty is there are no winners in war. There are only voices from the graves. [Read More]
Russia-gate Update
Orwellian Cloud Hovers Over Russia-gate
---- Call us old fashioned, but we Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) still "do evidence" – and, in the case at hand, forensic investigation. For those who "can handle the truth," the two former NSA technical directors in VIPs can readily explain how the DNC emails were not hacked – by Russia or anyone else – but rather were copied and leaked by someone with physical access to the DNC computers. [Read More] Also useful is "Mueller's Own Mysteries: Little-noted aspects of the first volume of the Mueller report," by Stephen F. Cohen, The Nation [May 1, 2019] [Link].
WAR & PEACE
Why Trump can't ban the Muslim Brotherhood without Damaging Democratic Prospects
---- Donald Trump's already problematic and divisive Middle Eastern policy could create more problems as he seeks to label the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization. Though presented as a national security move, it could ignite further Middle East and North African tensions, while giving another green light to authoritarianism – all in favour of the regional states who support the designation. Such a move would give justification to targeting and discriminating against American Muslims, whilst potentially inspiring other Western nations to do the same. Yet the order, which would involve sanctions against the group, would also promote further violence and crackdowns against both factions supporting political Islam and even non-fundamentalist groups, in the name of MENA 'security'. [Read More]
The War in Yemen
In our National Interest? 250K Yemenis now Starving to Death, with 233K already dead in Trump-Backed War
---- Trump's policy in Yemen might best be described as "malign neglect." The US is giving strategic and logistical support, and above all political legitimacy to a brutal war being waged on little Yemen by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and their coalition allies (though that group seems to be shrinking, with the departure of Morocco). The US is not deeply involved in the war, but its very neglect of the issue enables it to go on, disastrously. … On Monday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted again that support for the Saudi-led war on Yemen is in the US interest. … Meanwhile, a new United Nations Development Program report is apocalyptic, concluding that 233,000 people have died in the war, with 102,000 combat deaths and 131,000 indirect deaths owing to lack of food, exposure, etc. Over half the deaths consisted of children under 5. Mr. Pompeo, no "national interest" is worth that. [Read More] For more grim news, see this short video, "War in Yemen has set back its development by more than 20 years, UN report says."
Trump's War on Latin America
Trump's "Troika of Tyranny" Meddles in Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua
By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout [May 3, 2019]
---- Under the guise of protecting human rights, the Trump administration is illegally meddling in three countries it has dubbed the "troika of tyranny" — Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. National Security Adviser John Bolton claimed, "Miami is home to countless Americans, who fled the prisons and death squads of the Castro regime in Cuba, the murderous dictatorships of Chavez and Maduro in Venezuela, and the horrific violence of the 1980s and today under the brutal reign of the Ortegas in Nicaragua." But the U.S. government's human rights record doesn't compare favorably to Cuba's. And the Trump administration, which ignores notorious human rights violators like Saudi Arabia, is acting out of more cynical motives in its commission of egregious human rights violations against Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. … [Read More]
War with Iran?
Bolton's War
By Paul Pillar, LobeLog [May 6, 2019]
---- National Security Advisor John Bolton, aided by his comrade-in-arms Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is doing everything possible to instigate a war with Iran. Naked aggression as a means of starting such a war may be too much for even Bolton to pull off, so the strategy has been to try to pressure and goad Iran into doing something—anything—that could be construed as a casus belli. So far, no doubt to Bolton's frustration, Iran has exercised remarkable restraint in the face of unrelenting and escalating hostility from the Trump administration. Iran even continues to comply with its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement that restricted Iran's nuclear program, despite the U.S. reneging on the agreement and the resulting absence of economic improvement for Iran that was part of the deal. But Bolton keeps searching for still more ways to goad and to pressure. [Read More]
Warmongers Bolton & Pompeo send Aircraft Carrier to Menace Iran, still Hoping for Confrontation
---- Uber warmongerers John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, somehow the National Security Adviser and Secretary of State of the United States, respectively, have sent an aircraft carrier battle group toward the Gulf in the vicinity of Iran, in hopes of provoking a military confrontation with that country. … Bolton and Pompeo say that the aircraft carrier was sent because they had intelligence that Iran or an Iranian proxy planned an attack on US troops…. Iran is a poor weak global south country with a military budget on the order of that of Norway or Singapore, a GDP the size of Thailand's, which has no conventional military capacity. It isn't threatening the US, it is the other way around. It made what amounted to a peace treaty with the US in 2015, which the US has violated. It spent blood and treasure to defeat ISIL in Iraq and Syria. It can be a bad actor, but it isn't a significant threat to the US. [Read More]
Also useful/worrying about US aggression towards Iran – "Citing Iranian Threat, U.S. Sends Carrier Group and Bombers to Persian Gulf," by Edward Wong, New York Times [May 5, 2019] [Link]; and "U.S. sends bombers, carrier group to Middle East after 'indications' of possible Iran-backed attack," from Market Watch [May 5, 2019] [Link]. [h/t JW]
HUMAN-CAUSED CLIMATE CHAOS
Notes from a Remarkable Political Moment for Climate Change
By Bill McKibben, The New Yorker [May 1, 2019]
---- On Wednesday, the British House of Commons, led by the Conservative Party, voted to declare that the planet was in a "climate emergency." The day before, a CNN poll found that, in the United States, Democratic voters care more about climate change than about any other issue in the upcoming Presidential election: more than health care, more than gun control, more than free college, more than impeaching the President. Having followed the issue closely since I wrote my first book about climate change, thirty years ago, I think I can say that we're in a remarkable moment, when, after years of languishing, climate concern is suddenly and explosively rising to the top of the political agenda. Maybe, though not certainly, it is rising fast enough that we'll get real action. … Political reality is always important, but in this case there's something more crucial—call it just plain reality. It dictates that every step we take from here on pay heed to the underlying science, above all to the shrinking time we have left to make any real difference. After thirty years of standing still, baby steps won't do us a bit of good, and a misstep may cost us our last chance. [Read More]
Civilization Is Accelerating Extinction and Altering the Natural World at a Pace 'Unprecedented in Human History'
By Brad Plumer, New York Times [May 6, 2019]
---- Humans are transforming Earth's natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, posing a dire threat to ecosystems that people all over the world depend on for their survival, a sweeping new United Nations assessment has concluded. The 1,500-page report, compiled by hundreds of international experts and based on thousands of scientific studies, is the most exhaustive look yet at the decline in biodiversity across the globe and the dangers that creates for human civilization. … Its conclusions are stark. In most major land habitats, from the savannas of Africa to the rain forests of South America, the average abundance of native plant and animal life has fallen by 20 percent or more, mainly over the past century. With the human population passing 7 billion, activities like farming, logging, poaching, fishing and mining are altering the natural world at a rate "unprecedented in human history." At the same time, a new threat has emerged: Global warming has become a major driver of wildlife decline, the assessment found, by shifting or shrinking the local climates that many mammals, birds, insects, fish and plants evolved to survive in. As a result, biodiversity loss is projected to accelerate through 2050, particularly in the tropics, unless countries drastically step up their conservation efforts.
THE DEMOCRATS AND 2020
Biden vs. Bernie—a Foreign Policy Faceoff
---- Biden is a liberal interventionist, at least historically, willing to wage wars of aggression in the name of human rights or national security. He actively drummed up support for US bombing in the Balkans, supported the occupation of Afghanistan, voted for the 2003 war in Iraq, publicly backed the bombing of Libya and supported vastly intensified drone wars in Pakistan and Somalia. Senator Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, is running on an anti-military intervention platform. He offers solid criticism of the US war-making system and calls for a sharp reduction in military spending in order to fund much-needed social spending. … Biden's pro-war stand is morally and politically wrong, and I am not alone in my opinion. Biden will have a hard time convincing voters that his policies are all that different from Trump's. A recent poll confirms that a majority of Americans oppose Trump's foreign policy. But Biden's baggage could actually help Trump win. [Read More]
Why So Many Journalists Are Clueless About the Bernie 2020 Campaign
By Norman Solomon, ZNet [May 2, 2019]
---- Mainstream journalists routinely ignore the essential core of the Bernie 2020 campaign. As far as they're concerned, when Bernie Sanders talks about the crucial importance of grassroots organizing, he might as well be speaking in tongues. Frequently using the word "unprecedented" — in phrases like "our unprecedented grassroots effort to take on the powerful special interests and billionaire class" — Sanders emphasizes the vast extent of organizing necessary for him to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency next year. For an extraordinary campaign, that could be attainable. For mainline media, it's virtually inconceivable. … Four years ago, the media wisdom was that the 2016 Sanders campaign would scarcely get out of single digits. Media savants dismissed him — and the political program that he championed — as fringe. In timeworn fashion, when reporters and pundits made reference to any policy issues, the context was usually horseracing, which is what most campaign coverage boils down to. Yet policy issues — and the passions they tap into — are central to what propels the Sanders 2020 campaign, along with the powerful fuel of wide recognition that Bernie Sanders has not bent to the winds of expediency. That goes a long way toward explaining the strength of his current campaign. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Has Donald Trump Committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors?
An interview with Rep. Jamie Raskin, by John Nichols, The Nation [May 2, 2019]
---- From the beginning of the administration, I've said impeachment should not be a fetish for anybody, but it should be a taboo for nobody. At this point in events, we have to be taking it very seriously. … What people sometimes miss is that impeachment takes the question of holding presidents to account out of the paradigm of crime and punishment. The president is not punished by virtue of impeachment as he would be with a prosecution. He doesn't go to jail. He may face prosecution separately, but this is about defending our Constitution by removing a president who has become an intolerable threat to the people and our form of government. [Read More]
Do Democrats Prefer Trump in the White House?
Bu Paul Street, TruthDig [April 24, 2019]
---- While Trump deserves the historical black mark of impeachment, obstruction of justice is likely the least of his crimes. His worst transgressions include a ramped-up war on a habitable earth (Trump is gleefully enabling the fossil fuel industry's exterminatory campaign to turn the planet into a giant greenhouse gas chamber), his nativist war on immigrants, his championing and passage of a regressive tax cut in an already absurdly unequal society, his ongoing campaign to kick millions of vulnerable people off the health insurance rolls, and his broadly authoritarian wars on truth, democracy and the rule of law. … Most of the citizenry is sick of the multiyear conspiracy drama, an endless media-politics fascination that has sucked up civic oxygen while numerous issues of vastly greater importance have been ignored: economic hyperinequality, bad jobs, inadequate and over-expensive health care, rotting infrastructure, abject plutocracy and rampant gun violence, not to mention our race to environmental self-destruction. [Read More] Just days after Trump's election victory in 2016, Naomi Klein wrote "It was the Democrats' embrace of neoliberalism that won it for Trump," The Guardian [UK] [November 9, 2016]
[Link]. Compare and contrast. [h/t JG]
Why has Trump weakened efforts to fight white supremacists at home and abroad?
By Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer [May 1, 2019]
---- …Certainly saw an emboldening under Trump. At no point in recent memory have we seen a march like Charlottesville with white nationalists from 30 states carrying tiki torches and chanting 'Jews will not replace us.'" The statistics reveal how much has changed for the worse since Trump. ADL's annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents recorded a total of 1,879 attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions across the USA in 2018, the third-highest year on record since ADL started tracking such data in the 1970s. That includes white nationalist banners hung over highway bridges, and flyers distributed on campuses. … ADL Senior Vice President Eileen Hershenov told a congressional hearing: "White supremacists in the United States have experienced a resurgence in the past three years, driven in large part by the rise of the alt-right. There is also a clear corollary … to the rise in polarizing and hateful rhetoric on the part of candidates and elected leaders." Another grim statistic: White supremacists, Hershenov noted, were responsible in 2018 for 78 percent of all extremist-related murders. [Read More] For more on Trump as terrorist, read/see (video) "Donald Trump: White Nationalist Terrorism Denier," by Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept [May 6, 2019] [6 minutes] [[Link].
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
No, escalations do not begin with rockets on Israel
By Orly Noy, +978 Magazine [Israel] [May 5, 2019]
---- Israel might have the power to tell itself and the rest of the world a story of victimhood. In reality, it has been abusing two million besieged Gazans for over a decade. As the number of casualties on both sides of the Gaza border continues to climb, Israeli politicians are busy having their age-old argument: should we destroy Gaza? Erase it? Or should we send it back to the Stone Age?. … Israel can tell both itself and the world any story it wants. It can talk about "escalation" only when rockets fall on the south or about terrorism only when its citizens pay the price. It can erase the barbaric blockade on Gaza, the endless starvation of its population, the snipers who kill unarmed protesters, the shooting at fishermen, the lack of potable water, the electricity, the infrastructure, the economy and the unemployment. Yet none of these will cease being part of the history in the making of occupation and violence. With all due respect, a narrative cannot replace reality, and in reality, Israel has been abusing two million besieged Gazans for over a decade. What did we think would happen? That because the strong have the power to tell the story the weak would simply vanish? [Read More]
The Wounded Around Me
The Electronic Intifada [May 3, 2019]
---- It's been more than a year since the Great March of Return protests started in Gaza. The weekly demonstrations were launched as a way to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians living under a draconian siege that has left Gaza on the brink of a humanitarian disaster. They are also a reassertion of the Palestinian right of return to the lands and homes from which Palestinians were dispossessed in 1948. Two-thirds of Gaza's population of approximately two million people are refugees. But the activism of demonstrators has come at a high and deadly cost. Still, people march. More than 200 people have been killed and there have been well over 11,000 moderate to serious injuries. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, up to the end of March and after one year of protests, there were 114 amputations because of injuries to protesters. There is hardly a person in Gaza who has not, in one way or another, been affected by these stark statistics. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Happy Birthday, Pete Seeger
By Dick Flacks and Peter Dreier, Jacobin Magazine [May 3, 2019]
---- Pete Seeger would have turned 100 today. Few figures in American history have lived as influential and deeply radical lives as he did. Let's celebrate him today. Seeger's life and legacy offers some clues for working through perennial riddles faced by American socialists and radicals. How to make use of a relatively privileged background to promote social justice — rather than be paralyzed by guilt? How to create a popular art that doesn't succumb to banality, cynicism, or spectacle, but that helps inspire activism? … Pete's life mission was crystallized when he met Guthrie in March 1940 at a benefit to raise money for migrant farm workers. Pete was impressed by Guthrie's ability to fuse folk melodies and lyrics about contemporary events. Guthrie had become a radio voice for the swelling Okie population of Southern California, singing about their plight, and developed close ties to union and Communist activists. Pete traveled with Guthrie, singing at migrant labor camps and union halls, and developing his performance skills. [Read More]
A Radical Reunion: Harvard's Student Strikers, 50 Years Later
By Katha Pollitt, The Nation [May 6, 2019]
---- I almost didn't attend the reunion celebrating the 50th anniversary of the student strike at Harvard University in 1969. I was put off by the organizers' listserv, with its endless political exhortations and relating of strike minutiae. How is it that so many people remember so much about events that took place half a century ago? Is there such a thing as memory envy? In the end, I went because it was probably my last chance to see many people with whom I shared a formative political event: getting arrested for participating in the takeover of University Hall to protest Harvard's role in promoting the war in Vietnam. [Read More]
