Out In The Black Liberation Night- The Black Panthers And The Struggle For The Ten-Point Program-Fourteen –A Nation Of One’s Own?

Jackson Pulley had been doing his Saturday morning soapbox spiel in the environs of Lenox Avenue and 125^th Street in high Harlem up in New Jack City for as long as anyone could remember. Some grandmothers would tell their grandchildren whom they were minding or raising as their own while passing by doing the Saturday morning shopping that they could remember when their own grandmothers of blessed memory had taken them to that very same Saturday shopping not to listen to, not to be bothered by Jackson’s big boom voice, and of his hand-held mic that could be heard far above and below the avenue. And Jackson Pulley’s spiel had not changed much since he had first given voice to his project back in the late 1920s. His basis idea was that the black people in America, his people, his sweated, kicked around, abused beautiful people, due to the white man’s inherent racism, needed a country, a nation of their own. He would moreover argue his conceptions through good times and bad, against all comers, from old black knight scoundrel Marcus Garvey through the Communist party turns for and against the black nation, through the “new negro” stuff in the 1950s through to the Doctor King and Malcolm X knock down drag out fight and right up until recently when the Black Panthers gave the idea of a black nation a whirl for a while. Old Jackson kept his main idea front and center and would as the “false” challengers arose kick them like tin cans down the road.

Jackson had had no truck with old black knight Marcus Garvey seeing in him just another black hustler working the ignorant West Indies immigrant black janitors and black maids and down and out southern slave-branded sharecroppers out of their hard earned dough. He had been right as rain on that man when he first started seeing that blacks needed a new homeland. The pivotal event though that drove him to his position was seeing one of his own kin lynched right after World War I down in the great state of Georgia while the whites watched with red-heat passion bordering on lunacy. Later before heading north he bore the full brunt of Mister James Crow and his equally savage ways. No, it was time to separate, long past time.

He had had some respect for the Communist Party and their black nation idea. In fact he had been in a study circle with some brothers in the African Blood Brotherhood before some of them went over to the party. He could not go with them since he refused to belong to an organization that allowed whites in. Besides those reds didn’t follow that black nation policy except when they wanted to use it to recruit blacks in hard times. That “new negro” stuff was a joke as far as he was concerned, something out of W.E.B. Dubois’ “talented tenth” and just another way to buy off the natural leaders of black people. Stuff them harmlessly out of the way like some old time Toms. He got serious when Malcolm X arose like a phoenix out of the ashes but he had no truck with Elijah Mohammed seeing him as a less clever Marcus Garvey with all that religious mumbo-jumbo that never did anybody any good. Just another fast-talking preacher hustle, except not Baptist hustle like he knew growing up. The Black Panthers of course demanded respect, respect as black warriors ready to stick their necks out for the black community, but they had been taking a beating of late trying to stay in America, in the cities. Were taking a beating from whitey and his bad ass cops who went crazy when he saw black men with guns ready to defend their own. Still they were righteous and had an idea of what black people needed to get the hell off the eight-ball.

When pressed Jackson like he was this Saturday by a young black brother who seemed to want to know more details about how it would work he would say that what blacks should fight for is a place like Idaho, a place with lots of land and far away from the vast majority of whites. Although he himself had never been there he was sure it would do, and equally sure once black people had had enough of the white man (and increasingly woman) on their necks they would be flocking there. But the young man seemed to say by the shrug of his shoulders like one grandmother said as she passed Jackson Pulley and his soapbox for the hundredth time to her grandchildren “Don’t pay old Jackson any never mind.”…

The Ten Point Program

The original "Ten Point Program" from October, 1966 was as follows:^[39][40]

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black Community.

We believe that black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.

2. We want full employment for our people.

We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the white American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3. We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our black Community.

We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules was promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. We will accept the payment as currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over 50 million black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make.

4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.

We believe that if the white landlords will not give decent housing to our black community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.

5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.

We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else.

6. We want all black men to be exempt from military service.

We believe that black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like black people, are being victimized by the white racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist military, by whatever means necessary.

7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of black people.

We believe we can end police brutality in our black community by organizing black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our black community from racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all black people should arm themselves for self defense.

8. We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.

We believe that all black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.

9. We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.

We believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that black people will receive fair trials. The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a jury from the black community from which the black defendant came. We have been, and are being tried by all-white juries that have no understanding of the "average reasoning man" of the black community.

10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as our major political objective, a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate for the purpose of determining the will of black people as to their national destiny.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariable the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

From Out In The 1960s Night- The Lady With The Botticelli Smile

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

She had been behind him and had asked him for some spare change, nothing more. Normally requests for spare change, in Harvard Square where he was just then, Park Street, Kenmore Square or wherever he happened to be where pan-handlers grew like trees went through him like water since the beggar usually was some surly life-time drunk looking for the next bottle and the scab-filled, ragged, and smelly figure that confronted him could be dismissed out of hand. But this was 1967, the fall of 1967, after the summer of love and so, as likely as not, young hipsters, young men and women who were dropping out of the nine to five society, for a while anyway, but who either from circumstances or studied will decided to evade that bourgeois society could be found pan-handling for their daily needs in a sea of other young people who too were questioning a world that they had not created, and had not been asked about by their elders. So when he heard that sweet gentle good night voice in back of him he stopped out of curiosity since he had never been asked by a woman for spare change before, not at least out in the streets.

When he did turn around he saw nothing but a vision of some ancient Botticelli portrait, although with her silky brown hair she was just a tad too dark-haired for a Botticelli model for that artist, if he remembered correctly, ran to blondes, or brownish blondes. That brown hair all braided at the ends, a face filled to the brim with dangling brown eyes, ruby red lips (natural, no lipstick as was becoming the fashion among women then), slender, an indeterminate figure since she was full-blown garmented in some shapeless thing (also becoming the fashion, earth mother fashion) covered with shawls and a ton of beads to ward off, well, ward off evil probably. And then that smile, that wordless smile, that spoke of adventures and nighttime pillows, that not quite Mona Lisa smile, a smile that would leave you guessing but a smile that held promise to both cause great joy, and great madness sorrow before she was through with you. A smile like that smile that Vivian Leigh, the actress, smiled just before she gave that wilting “I’ve always depended on the kindnesses of strangers” look in the film adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire. Yes, just that look that would take a man down every known path, for good or evil, but take him down nevertheless.

She softly repeated that request and as he fished his pockets for some change, for some dollars if he had them, he was in a minor turmoil about whether to hit on her or to just let it pass. After handing her a couple of dollars and some change, and she just as softly as her request said thank you she made his decision for him as she walked away to ply her trade at her next target. For the rest of the day he kept thinking about that encounter, and that night, a little restless, he had a dream about her.

In the dream he dreamed that he had given her the money, and had been quick enough to engage her in a conversation. He had dream given her a name, some ancient name, Rowena, a name to spark ancient thoughts of fair maidens in distress. And of gallants to ease that situation. She laughed, called him silly, a romantic, but did take up his offer to have a cup of coffee with him at the Hayes-Bickford. He bought her lunch and they talked for hours there and later down by the Charles River although she, as was also becoming a fashion, did not want to talk about her past, about any previous sorrows or previous madnesses. She, they, he, were to be of the moment. He, as it turned out, was okay with that, and she went home with him after she picked up her rucksack and bedroll that a friend in Allston was holding for her. Thus their short sweet affair started.

Short and sweet since his fair Rowena made it clear to him that not only was she not going to dwelt on her, his, their pasts but that she was going to be a rolling stone-meaning 1967 meaning- that she had no strings attached to her and that she would see, and sleep with, whomever struck her fancy. And that was fine by him, he being very dream liberal and very a child of his age. Fine with him until she did not come home one night and he was distraught beyond compare. He confronted her, she got ready to pack her things, but he waved that off. That happened a couple more times and then one night he got very angry, an anger he couldn’t explain, and an anger that left her off the hook when she walked out the door and he didn’t wave her off. Then he awoke from his dream, awoke in a sweat.

The next afternoon he purposefully went over to Harvard Square to see if his Rowena was there. As he was looking a soft voice came from behind him asking if he had any spare change. He turned around and there she was with her Botticelli looks and that smile, that same “depend on the kindnesses of strangers” smile she gave him the previous day. He nervously fished in his pockets for some money, passed it over to her, and as he moved on then she again wandered to her next target. He never saw her again…

FYI- if you dont agree with building a Tar Sands/ Keystone pipeline- please vote Strongly Disagree !

Sent: Tue, Feb 19, 2013 8:36 pm
Subject: [nysnet] Unscientific poll on Keystone XL pipeline - pls vote!

Please vote in this unscientific online poll, in which apparently the fossil fools have mobilized to stuff the virtual ballot box.

USA Today editorialized in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline,
and put up an online poll here:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/02/18/keystone-xl-oil-pipeline/1929181/

They also allowed Bill McKibben to post a reply, also with a poll, here:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/02/18/keystone-pipeline-350org-bill-mckibben/1929153/

More info here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/19/1188212/-Another-opportunity-to-protest-the-Keystone-XL-pipeline

Another opportunity to protest the Keystone XL pipeline

byDWG

The editorial in the February 19th edition of USA Today calls for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. It offers the same old talking points. Canada will develop the tar sands whether we buy it or not, so we should buy more. Don't worry about pipeline safety, we have oodles and oodles of pipeline already (which frequently leak). We are not ready to transition to clean renewable sources of energy. In other words, what is good for the oil companies is also good for America. To hell with the climate.

The paper did give Bill McKibben a chance to write a rebuttal. He points out that climate change is already serious and will be made worse by the rapid expansion of tar sands extraction.

Here is where you come in.

1. Vote in the polls on each page:

Tell USA Today we are ready to protect the climate

Support Bill in saying NO to the Keystone XL

2. Raise Your Voice :

Letter to editor: Letters@usatoday.com

Facebook post: Facebook.com/USATODAYOPINION

Tweet: @USATODAYOPINION

The Forward on Climate rallies have had an impact. The The media, however reluctantly and derisively, covered the rallies. USA Today even felt compelled to mention them in the editorial.

Thousands demonstrated in Washington on Sunday against the project, asserting that the pipeline would unlock so much dirty oil that it would be "game over" for the globe if the project proceeds.

Expansion of the tar sands extraction will drastically increase greenhouse gas emissions, for which Canada has no significant plans to limit. The Canadian government wants profit without responsibility.

While stopping the Keystone XL pipeline will not stop tar sands extraction, it will make it more difficult and expensive to get to markets. That cost will slow demand and development.

The US government has been ineffectual in regulating emissions from refineries. Oil companies have been fighting regulations to limit toxic emissions from refineries, much less limit greenhouse gases. Since toxic and greenhouse emissions are much higher for refining tar sands heavy oil than conventional crude, the environmental burden falls on us.

This is not a critical infrastructure project for the United States. Once built, almost all the benefits will go to the oil and pipeline companies, along with the Canadian government. Billing it as necessary or in the best interests of the American people is simply not true.

The cost-benefits of pipeline construction are also unsound. Contrary to misleading claims from the oil industry, the project will only create a few short-term construction jobs. There will be spills (all pipelines spill). There are serious questions about the pipeline safety record TransCanada, the company building the Keystone XL pipeline (e.g., here, here, andhere). Leaks in the Keystone XL pipeline will be more expensive and difficult to clean up because of the heavy oil chemical cocktail. Enbridge is still dragging its feet about cleaning up a large tar sands crude spill in Michigan.

Anyone who thinks that tar sands oil will lower their price at the pump is kidding themselves. Tar sands development is not profitable until prices reach the $80/barrel range. Little will come to market until market price is above that benchmark. Market prices of oil are set on the global market, which is driven by global production and demand.

USA Today is wrong. We are ready for clean energy, but the myriad of subsidies and tax breaks given to fossil fuels slows rate of adoption.

Let's raise our voices with Bill McKibben's and say no to Keystone XL. Let USA Today hear you.

1. Vote in th e polls on each page:

Tell USA Today we are ready to protect the climate

Support Bill in saying NO to the Keystone XL

2. Raise Your Voice:

Letter to editor: Letters@usatoday.com

Facebook post: Facebook.com/USATODAYOPINION

Tweet: @USATODAYOPINION

(Note: The paper gathers a sample of reactions on the editorial page later in week.)

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Subject: Largest US Climate Rally Gets Ridesharing Boost

Massachusetts based Ridebuzz.org helped climate activists carpool to the largest climate rally in the history of the US (Feb 17), which turned out over 40,000 activists from across the nation. Ridebuzz is an official Climate Rally Partner, and provided ridesharing to boost Rally turnout - helping supporters carpool to DC from across the nation - contributing to a successful rally!

The Forward on Climate Rally was a historic event [This pic says it all] - organized by the Sierra Club, 350.org, and the Hip Hop Caucus, and backed by 168 partner organizations to encourage President Obama to take immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and stop the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Obama addressed climate change issues in his recent state of the union address, which received notable applause, and activist would like to see meaningful action taken, that include economic based drivers to rapidly spur a green low-carbon economy. See Ridesharing Knowledge Base below for the economics of ridesharing.

Considering the tremendous scale of this rally, and the need to maintain a harmonious low carbon footprint, connecting would-be-goers in advance of the rally with environmentally responsible ride options was critical to turning out a strong showing of support. In addition to nearly 150 buses coming from 30 states, an online Ridebuzz.org Event Group helped attendees organize their carpools(aka rideshares) from all over the country to boost turnout and reduce emissions, and was listed on the rally website. The Ridebuzz.org website helps people find and share rides - sharing travels costs and cutting travel emissions.

Ridebuzz.org Founder, Jeff Brown noted that “DC is a long haul for many people coming from around the country, and the option to find and share a ride can make the difference as to whether someone attended or not. Sharing rides helps travelers share on fuel costs and reduce emissions as compared to driving alone. And for a long trip, traveling with others is a great chance to meet people that share some of the same values concerning the environment. It was a fun and important trip to DC!”

Ridesharing Knowledge Base:
Ridesharing is a critical transportation strategy for reducing energy consumption and stimulating the economy. By encouraging ridesharing (AKA carpooling), and pursuing a course to double the current US average occupancy rate of 1.38 passengers per vehicle miles travelled (VMT), the US could cut 1.3 trillion vehicle miles annually - saving 60 billion gallons of fuel and corresponding emissions, and save consumers an estimated $211 billion dollars (@ $3.50/gal). Additionally, these savings could be realized with no new infrastructure investments. Fuel purchases drain money from the economy, but savings from transportation are spent in other sectors and create relative job growth (PERI). Transportation accounts for 28% of greenhouse gas emissions(GGE) in the US, passenger transportation accounting for 20% of total GGE (US EPA). By doubling occupancy in the light passenger vehicle category, total US GGE would be cut by 10%. More works need to be done to educate consumers of the environmental and economic benefits of ridesharing! VMT and fuel savings calculated from 2009 FHWA stats (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2009/vm1.cfm)

Ridebuzz Info: Massachusetts based, Ridebuzz.org (501c3) is a leading provider of ridesharing services to many events such as the National Equality March, Occupy Congress, and the Forward on Climate Rally. Ridebuzz is used widely by event organizers for conferences, weddings, concerts, rallies, and sporting events. Ridebuzz is also used by businesses, universities, and individuals for commuting, one-time trips, and road trips - on a local and national scale. The challenges of mobility, including the high cost of fuel, and financial barriers to ownership can limit mobility and event attendance. Ridebuzz services bring people together in a socially, environmentally, a financially responsible way. If half of everyone driving joined a rideshare, the cost of vehicle operation and vehicle emissions could be cut in half - saving local communities millions of dollars. Organizers and anyone wanting to encourage ridesharing to events can create a free group here: http://www.ridebuzz.org/groups


PICS OF RALLY:
http://t.co/Iwvrwqrw
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliacreinhart/8485287325/in/set-72157632799407302/
Thisone says it all: http://urbanxdesign.tumblr.com/image/43380481135
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/forwardonclimate

RELATED LINKS
Forward on Climate Rally Website:
Carpooling Info on Rally website:
Ridebuzz Link for the Rally:
Ridebuzz RIDES to DC:
Ridebuzz homepage

Contact Info
Jeffrey Brown
Founder, Executive Director
Ridebuzz.org
978-394-3740 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 978-394-3740 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (mobile)
Jeff@ridebuzz.org
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ridebuzz
Website: www.ridebuzz.org



Ridebuzz logo: http://www.ridebuzz.org/eventbuttons

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VFP Unites to Protest Bradley Manning's 1,000 Days of Imprisonment!

This week marks 1,000 days of imprisonment without trial for Bradley Manning. Veterans For Peace chapters are participating in national and international actions, also beginning our 100-day Countdown to Brad's much delayed court martial, now scheduled to begin on June 1st.

VFP will mobilize a large veterans presence at Fort Meade, Maryland, on June 1, and we will remain there throughout the Army's court martial of Manning, probably into July.

Actions Planned in Over 40 Cities
Here is the latest list of actions from the Bradley Manning Support Network. These do not yet include all the actions being planned by VFP chapters on or near February 23. It does include actions planned by the new VFP chapters in the UK and Ireland.


To have your action added to the list, contact Emma Cape at Emma@bradleymanning.org.

Have Your Photo Taken with Bradley
Get together with VFP members and friends and take a photo with a sign or banner supporting Bradley (and maybe an image of Bradley).

Send your photos to the VFP national office, to shelly@veteransforpeace.org. Shelly will gather all photos into a Flicker album and post them on the VFP website. This is a really simple and fun way to show Bradley we will be there for him.

For more information, email VFP Board member Gerry Condon at projectsafehaven@hotmail.com or call him at 206-499-1220 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 206-499-1220 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Back to Top

STOP CUTS TO VITAL PROGRAMS • TAX THE 1% • REDIRECT PENTAGON SPENDING NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION Across the country, grassroots activists are standing up to make their priorities loud and clear. The middle class is the backbone of America, and it’s time Congress listened to us, not Pentagon CEOs. As a decade of war comes to a close, it’s time to transfer wasteful Pentagon spending into programs that benefit all Americans. The people of Massachusetts voted for the Budget for All in all 91 cities and towns where it was on the ballot. They said Congress should stop cuts to vital programs, create jobs, tax the 1% and corporations, bring the troops home and cut Pentagon pork. It’s time for Congress to follow the mandate of Massachusetts voters! February 27, 2013 @ 4:30 pm Park Street Station Tremont & Park Streets, Boston Nearly one in five of our federal budget dollars are going to the Pentagon — that’s roughly $660 billion a year and more than what the next 19 countries spend combined. We can reduce the bloated Pentagon budget by $100 billion a year without harming our national security or our troops. We start by ending corporate welfare for Pentagon contractors and their CEOs. Protect our Priorities. Protect the Middle Class. Sign the Petition: http://bit.ly/14pJIBL Download the Flyer: http://bit.ly/X197A9 For more information or to volunteer contact: Budget for All Massachusetts • info@budget4allmass.org • 617-354-2169 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 617-354-2169 end_of_the_skype_highlighting • www.budget4allmass.org Info on the National Day of Action: pullthepork.org

Join Massachusetts Peace Action - or renew your membership today! Dues are $40/year or $10 for student/unemployed/low income. Pay now and you will be a member in good standing through December 2013. Your financial support makes this work possible! Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 617-354-2169 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 617-354-2169 end_of_the_skype_highlighting • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Click here to unsubscribe

Anti-Drone Organizing Meeting

When: Monday, March 4, 2013, 7:00 pm

Where: American Friends Service Committee
2161 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge

Anti-Drone Organizing Meeting

The Network to Stop Drone Surveillance and Warfare (NSDSW) was organized in New York on December 15, 2012, with the following statement of purpose:

Horrified by the facts of the era of drone warfare and surveillance technology, we declare our commitment to establishing an ongoing network of groups and organizations. The Network to Stop Drone Surveillance and Warfare seeks to initiate and coordinate events and actions that will raise a united and spirited voice for justice and peace, and to stop weaponized drones and related technology applications. These activities are aimed at highlighting the illegality, immorality, and unconstitutional nature of using drones to spy on and/or kill human beings.

The Network has called for "April Days of Action" to spotlight drone manufacturing facilities, drone research and training, and drone bases.

United for Justice with Peace calls for Eastern Massachusetts organizers to join together to take up the NSDSW's call, plan one or more April actions, and potentially form an ongoing network.

(please forward widely) Join UNAC for an educational conference call on the situation in Mali and Africa. There will be short presentation by three UNAC leaders followed by questions and discussion. The conference call will be at 9 PM (EST) on Sunday, February 24. Speakers will include, Glen ford, Ana Edwards and Abayomi Azikiwe. To access the call, please dial (218)339-3600 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (218)339-3600 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. The access code is 342310#. Glen Ford is a longtime journalist and executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com, a weekly journal of African-American political thought and action. Glen is also the vice-chair of the Black is Back Coalition, an antiwar and social justice coalition Ana Edwards is the host of DefendersLIVE a radio show in Richmond Virginia. She is also a founding member of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and the chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project. Ana recently returned from a trip to Mali Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire. He is also a founding member of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI). The United National Antiwar Coalition says: France and the US out of Africa Now! No Resource Wars for the Profits of the 1%! Not One More Cent for the new Scramble for Africa! The recent French military intervention and the US military and intelligence operations in the region must be opposed by all those who stand in favor of self-determination for African peoples. Contrary to the self-serving claims of both France and the US that they are out to defend democracy, both nations' military operations in the Sahara-Sahel are in defense of their access to Africa's minerals, oil, gas, and arable land at bargain basement prices. The invitation for a French military attack by a Malian coup regime armed by Washington is but a fig leaf for an escalation of already existing efforts to protect the 1%'s plunder of Nigerién uranium, Malian gold, Nigerian oil, Algerian natural gas, Western Saharan phosphates, Cote d'Ivoire’s plantations, and more. Africanists liken the current situation to the period in the late 19th and early twentieth century when the European countries carved up Africa between them. In the new "Scramble for Africa," Europe and the United States, are competing for petroleum, minerals, and land to the detriment of the economic well-being of the African peoples. The claim that the French intervention, an intervention supported by the U.S., is an emergency humanitarian response to help the people of Mali is belied by the context in which it is occurring: ≈Colonialism Redux and Ecological Disaster. France, who held many colonies in Africa, really never left after granting independence in the 1960's. France intervened militarily in Africa 19 times between 1962 and 1995 and more recently intervened in Cote d' Ivorie, Chad, and the Central African Republic in order to defend the 1%’s interests. On January 23, news sources reported that French special forces were sent to protect the French privately owned Areva uranium mining operation in the border country of Niger. Uranium from Niger supplies reactors supplying 75% of France’s electrical needs. ≈ National Oppression. The Tuareg and other Northern peoples were first denied control over their homeland when the colonial map-makers divided their territory between Mali, Niger, Chad, Algeria, and other countries that border the Sahara. Tuareg rebellions, like the one that prompted this French intervention, have challenged France’s right to extract uranium in a manner that poisons the local populations and decimates their livelihood. At the same time, the Tuareg claims are disputed by other Northern peoples, such as the Songhai, and by Southern groups that feel Mali proper would be weakened by Tuareg independence. Colonialism’s legacy of divide and conquer cannot be solved with the colonizer’s guns. ≈Austerity Mandated by the 1%. The last two decades of IMF and World Bank-imposed economic restructuring in Mali made gold mining so profitable that Mali is now the number three gold producer on the African continent. At the same time, this development has left the majority of Malians living on less than US$1 a day and the peoples of that nation some of the poorest on the planet. US military aid to Mali reinforces this state of affairs. ≈Competition for Oil and Natural Gas. Nigerian oil, a high quality sweet crude, is a crucial part of the U.S. energy plan and is cited as part of the reason that the U.S. has created the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI). A 2009 agreement for a $10 billion natural gas pipeline from Algeria to a Nigerian port further demonstrates the hydrocarbon basis of the TSCTI and related US military plans for the region. The 2010 budget request for Trans- Saharan Counter Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP) was $80.3 million. ≈”War on Terror” Funding Used Against the 99%. Washington recently asked France and Algeria to be sure to include US favored partner Morocco in the unfolding so-called “War on Terror “in the Sahara-Sahel. Morocco has been using the US’s “War on Terror” rhetoric to justify its occupation of Western Sahara and contain the national aspirations of the Sahrawi people organized in the Polisario Front. Africanist Franklin Charles Graham IV, in an article in the Review of African Political Economy, says that it is fair to say that most US aid for counter-terrorism activities in the Sahara-Sahel goes to suppress indigenous rebellions against corrupt and undemocratic regimes. ≈Elite Rivalries. The 2008 authorization of AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command under whose aegis Washington is sending troops and special forces to 35 African nations is, according to Concerned Africa Scholar’s Daniel Volman, a direct response to the growing competition from China and other players for Africa’s energy resources. ≈Looting of Africa. According to the South African political economist Patrick Bond, development aid and investment in Africa from the imperialist countries since the colonies were granted formal independence has resulted in a growing impoverishment of the people of the continent, leaving more Sub-Saharan people living on less than a $1 a day than in the 1950’s. Including the loss to the peoples of their raw material wealth, and the ecological damage wrought by its extraction, raises the dollar amount of the plunder to unimaginable levels. ≈War at Home. Each cent spent for the extraction of profits from Africa for the 1% could be spent at home for the victims of the current economic crisis. Each effort to paint the main threat to the well-being of the African people as terrorism will be accompanied by new threats to civil liberties here in the United States. Whatever the exact reality of a new influx of non-Malian Islamic radicals into the Sahara-Sahel, based on the experience of US propaganda and military action in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, those who support self-determination must take any claim by Washington that it is intervening to fight an Al Qaeda threat with a grain of salt. The evidence that resources are the main reason for war in the Sahara-Sahel is too strong. If the recent occupations of the Middle East by the US have taught us anything, it should be that no problem will be solved by US and European military intervention. Join the United National Antiwar Coalition is its efforts to educate about European and US resource wars in Africa and build a movement to end them. UNAC speakers are available for forums and interviews. See the United National Antiwar Coalition at www.unacpeace.org Some places to look for information on the resource wars in Africa: Review of African Political Economy Bulletin of the Concerned Africa Scholars Third World Quarterly Pambazuka News Pan-African News Wire Black Agenda Report New Internationalist Jadilyya click here to donate to UNAC Click here for the Facebook UNAC group. To add yourself to the UNAC listserv, please send an email to: UNAC-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

From The Bradley Manning Support Network



Dear All

THANK YOU very much for taking action this weekend and becoming a leader in the movement to free Army whistle-blower Bradley Manning! We are excited to report that 70 EVENTS (that we know of) have happened around the world this weekend, a sign that people everywhere are truly beginning to recognize how important Bradley's case is to the futures of people worldwide.

How did your event go?

- We'd like to share the extent of actions worldwide, big and small alike, with our supporters online and with the media. PLEASE REMEMBER TO E-MAIL ME (emma@bradleymanning.org) PHOTOS FROM YOUR EVENT, along with a one-paragraph description, BY MIDDAY TOMORROW if possible so we can include them in our updates. A general description of your activities and the number of people who participated is fine, but don't leave out any exciting details!

- If you were able to collect names on our petition (http://www.bradleymanning.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Petition.1.pdf) PLEASE MAIL THEM TO OUR CENTRAL OFFICE as soon as you can. If you plan to organize future events for Bradley, I encourage you to save the contact information yourself first, so that you can communicate directly with other supporters in your area.

- If you wish to organize more events for Bradley in the future, and you'd like to be added to our international organizers' e-mail list to actively participate in ongoing discussions about strategy and actions between now and the June court martial, please let me know!

Next week I will send more information about our campaign's next steps, including launching a letter-writing campaign and call-in to target military presiding authority General Linnington, asking congresspeople to launch inquiries into the lack of accountability for Bradley's torture at Quantico, and beginning to plan for our June 1st International Day of Action, the weekend before Brad's court martial. I look forward to working with you all further!

Thank you again very much for your hard work! The growing grassroots movement to support Bradley Manning is giving this young whistle-blower a fighting chance at freedom!

In solidarity,
Emma Cape
National Organizer for the Bradley Manning Support Network (www.bradleymanning.org)

The Class Struggle At Harvard Continues

Dear All,

For six months, employees of Harvard's University Financial Services suffered a regime of fear. Administrators announced "restructuring," then threatened union members that they would be fired if they didn't work fast enough. Every week for the six month "transition," managers met with anxious staffers to tell them they were not succeeding. Work was divided up unequally, and sometimes there was little to do, but the bosses kept insisting that their fishy production tallies would determine who would stay and who would get canned. Staff believed that management targeted certain staff to be fired, then cooked up data to support their scheme. You can read more about the hellish "transition" endured by UFS workers here. When it was over, three workers of color were terminated, all parents, two of them longer-service women with histories of disability. All Caucasian workers are keeping their jobs in the department, where management condoned racist comments and behavior for years.

One union member returned from a disability leave only to be told she is being laid off after 25+ years' service. Previously she was written up for confronting a colleague over racist remarks (the co-worker received no discipline). Another woman, known to be the fastest worker in the unit, was terminated for supposedly not working fast enough. She has also protested racist treatment at Harvard, has two kids, and could lose her home. One day after the last termination, union members and our allies fought back with a militant picket in the freezing cold. Please help us make our March 7 action bigger and louder! We'll gather starting at 5:30 pm, at Harvard's Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave, very close to the Harvard Sq Red Line T stop, for a rally and march to the affected workplace. Click here for a map. A flyer is attached with more information. The Facebook event is here.

In Solidarity,

Geoff Carens, Union Rep, HUCTW/AFSCME Local 3650
Delegate, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
iwwboston.org

Out In The 1960s Night-The Old Man's See

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman


The young man, a mere boy actually at fourteen, Daniel Patrick Riley III (Daniel III)to give him a name, sat at the kitchen window and watched the old man dragging himself haltingly across the old ball field to his favored spot in in the front window of Harry's Variety situated just across the street from the field. The old man, see, Daniel Patrick Riley, Senior (Daniel, Senior, Riley, Junior, for the interested, although he plays no part in this story, was busy making do at his work location up in Adamsville Center working as a welder at the shipyard) had suffered a debilitating stroke a couple of years before and so the lame walk (and hanging useless arm), the seemingly taking forever walk across the ball field from his house, the very house that Daniel III was sitting in at the kitchen table watching him struggle at his almost daily task. Daniel, Senior hated, absolutely hated to stay in the house any more than he had to, else he would have to put up with Grandmother Riley's constant chatter. He much preferred the company of men, even if only the young corner boys who peopled the walls in front and to the side of Harry's Variety. In any case Daniel, Senior was given every deference by one and all at that locale, even by king hell king corner boy leader Red Riley (Daniel, Senior's grand- nephew) a man not known to defer to anyone, not for long anyway (Daniel III had seen him waylay a guy with a whipsaw chain, a tough looking guy, just because he was a corner boy from the wrong corner, Jesus).

Daniel III as he watch his grandfather make those final stumbling steps on the curb at Sagamore Street wondered to himself the stories the old man had to tell, tell about old North Adamsville, about the field he had just crossed (called Welcome Young Field, no, not because it welcomed the young, although it did that, did that pretty well he thought, but because some long ago guy gave the town the land to build the park and the town, as towns did in those days, named the place after him and that was his name). He wondered, for instance, how the old man felt, all Irish proud, all rumor had it old IRA proud too although the details of that connection were very sketchy, very touchy in fact, about one of their own, Jack Kennedy, making it all the way to the White House just a few months back. The old man had married old, had his children old, and thus he was remote from them and more remote from his grandchildren so questions to him, or about him, were filtered through Grandmother Riley, or not answered.

Daniel, Senior had been born in that very house that he had just come from and which Daniel III had been sitting at watching him do his daily exertions. Thus, Daniel III was sure that the old man had plenty he could tell about what was what, and who was who in the neighborhood. See Daniel III was, and was not ashamed to admit it, something of a know-it-all or wanted to be a know- it- all and so it bothered him that Daniel, Senior was not accessible. He had his own very short list of experiences and remembrances about the area, and stuff that he had learned about from others (including Ma and Grandma) but he wanted to know what it was like when the Irish first started pushing out of the cold- water flats over in Dorchester and South Boston and moving into the small single homes that dotted the neighborhood or into the cold- water flats that also dotted the area as well.

But mainly this day Daniel III was concentrated, as was his wont, when he came over from his own home in South Adamsville with his two brothers to stay with his grandparents at the beginning of summer vacation, on the "history" of that old ball field. He knew that in a few days that something called the North Adamsville Sons of Hibernia, which rumor had it his grandfather had helped start back in the late 1930s, was organizing the annual Fourth of July celebration where they kicked out the jams (sorry, his schoolboy expression of the moment). That was where he and his brothers has traditionally loaded up, loaded up like crazy on the twice daily hand-out of soda and ice cream (and stashed a ton of it in grandpa's old ice box and kept going back for more, whoa!). It was also where he had won his first road race ( a snappy victory against older boys) and had , ah, kissed his first serious kiss (not first kiss, okay, just first serious kiss) the previous year when he was smitten by Mary Shea, who lived across from his grandparents, at the nighttime dance held in the converted tennis courts.

What he really wanted to know though was the whole story behind the creation of the ball field and the whole park. He already knew the Welcome Young part, or at least the official welcome young part but he wanted more. He had heard that the real reason for the ball park was that the three gin mills that lined Sagamore Street just up from Harry’s Variety (okay, okay he had watched too many film noir things of late), the Dublin Grille, The Irish Pub, and Matty’s had gotten together along with their patrons including his own father and his two uncles (Henry and Kevin) and petitioned the town to create a ball park so that the patrons, all male, all young family men or budding family men could have an excuse to be out a few nights a week in the spring and summer playing the national pastime with their fellows. Then stop in; conveniently stop into one of the gin mills to have a beer, or seven, before heading home to the wife and kiddies at about midnight or so. Here was the funny part though, his grandfather was the guy who was pushing for the construction and he didn’t drink liquor, hated it and was a lifelong tee-totaler.And would not allow liquor in the house so grandmother, when she wanted to entertain her sisters who all liked to drink as she did, had to go uptown to a place where “ladies were invited,” a place like the Red Feather and do their drinking there.
He had also heard that the reason that his grandfather pressed the issue was that he wanted his sons, if they had to drink that cursed liquor, to be near home when they fell on their faces. (The uncles lived at home and Daniel III and his family had lived a couple of blocks away up on Newbury Street then.)

Just like he wanted to know, know about how he got the whole damn neighborhood, even the non-Irish to vote overwhelming for Jack Kennedy from his stoop over at Harry’s. And about how Harry was “connected,” seriously connected, and never had to worry about a bust when he ran his “book” right out in the open (Daniel III had even seen the fabled book, filled with byzantine writing, lying right on the counter one time). Yah, Daniel III wanted to know all that stuff, and his grandfather‘s role in it.

Fast forward 2011-A old man, watched or unwatched he was not sure, and the watching part did not matter, did not matter like it did with that other old man a half century before had been watched, sat, memory sat, on an aluminum bleacher at the corner of Welcome Young Field on the Fourth Of July and wondered, wondered out loud, when the North Adamsville Sons of Hibernia stopped organizing the annual festivities. (Probably from the multi-hued of colors of those passing by him, black, Latinos, Asian, and white, Irish white he could tell, when the neighborhood “changed” or those old-timers died off or got cranky.) Wanted to know when the three gin mills (still film noir enthralled) closed up shop. (Probably the same as above.) Wanted to know about what ever happened to old “connected” Harry. Wanted to know why the park seemed smaller to his adult eye (and was actually smaller since a chuck of it had been chopped off when they expanded the Red Line subway to North Adamsville.) But he mainly wanted to know all that stuff that his grandfather never told him, and with another more dastardly stroke a couple of years after that last one never could. Yes, as he stood up and started to drag his own lame arthritic leg and ankle, remarkably like his own grandfather’s halting gait, back across the field in front of his grandparents’ house (long since sold off to strangers) he still really did want to know all that stuff, and his grandfather’s role in it.