This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager
Sunday, May 11, 2014
President Obama, Pardon Pvt. Manning
Because the public deserves the truth and whistle-blowers deserve protection.
We are military veterans, journalists, educators, homemakers, lawyers, students, and citizens.
We ask you to consider the facts and free US Army Pvt. Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning.
As an Intelligence Analyst stationed in Iraq, Pvt. Manning had access to some of America’s dirtiest secrets—crimes such as torture, illegal surveillance, and corruption—often committed in our name.
Manning acted on conscience alone, with selfless courage and conviction, and gave these secrets to us, the public.
“I believed that if the general public had access to the information contained within the[Iraq and Afghan War Logs] this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy,”
Manning explained to the military court. “I wanted the American public to know that not everyone in Iraq and Afghanistan were targets that needed to be neutralized, but rather people who were struggling to live in the pressure cooker environment of what we call asymmetric warfare.”
Journalists used these documents to uncover many startling truths. We learned:
• Donald Rumsfeld and General Petraeus helped support torture in Iraq.
• Deliberate civilian killings by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan went unpunished.
• Thousands of civilian casualties were never acknowledged publicly.
• Most Guantanamo detainees were innocent.
For service on behalf of an informed democracy, Manning was sentenced by military judge Colonel Denise Lind to a devastating 35 years in prison.
Government secrecy has grown exponentially during the past decade, but more secrecy does not make us safer when it fosters unaccountability.
Pvt. Manning was convicted of Espionage Act charges for providing WikiLeaks with this information, butthe prosecutors noted that they would have done the same had the information been given to The New York Times. Prosecutors did not show that enemies used this information against the US, or that the releases resulted in any casualties.
Pvt. Manning has already been punished, even in violation of military law.
She has been:
• Held in confinement since May 29, 2010.
• Subjected to illegal punishment amounting to torture for nearly nine months at Quantico Marine Base, Virginia, in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), Article 13—facts confirmed by both the United Nation’s lead investigator on torture and military judge Col. Lind.
• Denied a speedy trial in violation of UCMJ, Article 10, having been imprisoned for over three years before trial.
• Denied anything resembling a fair trial when prosecutors were allowed to change the charge sheet to match evidence presented, and enter new evidence, after closing arguments.
Pvt. Manning believed you, Mr. President, when you came into office promising the most transparent administration in history, and that you would protect whistle-blowers. We urge you to start upholding those promises, beginning with this American prisoner of conscience.
We urge you to grant Pvt. Manning’s petition for a Presidential Pardon.
FIRST& LAST NAME _____________________________________________________________
STREET ADDRESS _____________________________________________________________
CITY, STATE & ZIP _____________________________________________________________
You can also call (Comments”202-456-1111), write The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, e-mail-(http://www.whitehouse.gov’contact/submitquestions-and comments) to demand that President Obama use his constitutional power under Article II, Section II to pardon Private Manning now.
*Start a stand -out, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, in your town square to publicize the pardon and clemency campaigns. Contact the Private Manning SupportNetwork for help with materials and organizing tips http://www.bradleymanning.org/
*Contribute to the Private Manning Defense Fund- now that the trial has finished funds are urgently needed for pardon campaign and for future military and civilian court appeals. The hard fact of the American legal system, military of civilian, is the more funds available the better the defense, especially in political prisoner cases like Private Manning’s. The government had unlimited financial and personnel resources to prosecute Private Manning at trial. And used them as it will on any future legal proceedings. So help out with whatever you can spare. For link go to http://www.bradleymanning.org/
*Write letters of solidarity to Private Manning while she is serving her sentence. She wishes to be addressed as Chelsea and have feminine pronouns used when referring to her. Private Manning’s mailing address: Bradley E. Manning, 89289, 1300 N. Warehouse Road, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027-2304. You must use Bradley on the address envelope.
Private Manning cannot receive stamps or money in any form. Photos must be on copy paper. Along with “contraband,” “inflammatory material” is not allowed. Six page maximum.
*Call: (913) 758-3600-Write to:Col. Sioban Ledwith, Commander U.S. Detention Barracks 1301 N Warehouse Rd Ft. Leavenworth KS 66027-Tell them: “Transgender rights are human rights! Respect Private Manning’s identity by acknowledging the name ‘Chelsea Manning’ whenever possible, including in mail addressed to her, and by allowing her access to appropriate medical treatment for gender dysphoria, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT).” (for more details-http://markinbookreview.blogspot.com/2013/11/respecting-chelseas-identity-is-this.html#!/2013/11/respecting-chelseas-identity-is-this.html
Send The Following Message (Or Write Your Own) To The President In Support Of A Pardon For Private Manning
To: President Barack Obama White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20500
The draconian 35 years sentence handed down by a military judge, Colonel Lind, on August 21, 2013 to Private Manning (Chelsea formerly known as Bradley) has outraged many citizens including me. Under Article II, Section II of the U.S. Constitution the President of the United States had the authority to grant pardons to those who fall under federal jurisdiction. Some of the reasons for my request include:
*that Private Manning was held for nearly a year in abusive solitary confinement at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, which the UN rapporteur in his findings has called “cruel, inhuman, and degrading”
*that the media had been continually blocked from transcripts and documents related to the trial and that it has only been through the efforts of Private Manning’s supporters that any transcripts exist.
*that under the UCMJ a soldier has the right to a speedy trial and that it was unconscionable and unconstitutional to wait 3 years before starting the court martial.
*that absolutely no one was harmed by the release of documents that exposed war crimes, unnecessary secrecy and disturbing foreign policy.
*that Private Manning is a hero who did the right thing when she revealed truth about wars that had been based on lies.
I urge you to use your authority under the Constitution to right the wrongs done to Private Manning – Enough is enough!
City / Town/State/Zip Code_________________________________________
Note that this image is PVT Manning’s preferred photo.
Lenin on May Day
Workers Vanguard No. 1045
2 May 2014
TROTSKY
LENIN
Lenin on May Day
(Quote of the Week)
May 1 is celebrated internationally as the workers holiday, with its origins in the fight for the eight-hour day in Chicago over 125 years ago. In the quote below, taken from an April 1904 leaflet, Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin comments on the promise of workers emancipation embodied in May Day. In less than a year, the working class in Russia rose up in the 1905 Revolution, which proved a “dress rehearsal” for the first successful proletarian revolution in history, the October Revolution of 1917.
Comrade workers! May Day is coming, the day when the workers of all lands celebrate their awakening to a class-conscious life, their solidarity in the struggle against all coercion and oppression of man by man, the struggle to free the toiling millions from hunger, poverty, and humiliation. Two worlds stand facing each other in this great struggle: the world of capital and the world of labour, the world of exploitation and slavery and the world of brotherhood and freedom.
On one side stand the handful of rich blood-suckers. They have seized the factories and mills, the tools and machinery, have turned millions of acres of land and mountains of money into their private property. They have made the government and the army their servants, faithful watchdogs of the wealth they have amassed.
On the other side stand the millions of the disinherited. They are forced to beg the moneybags for permission to work for them. By their labour they create all wealth; yet all their lives long they have to struggle for a crust of bread, beg for work as for charity, sap their strength and health by back-breaking toil, and starve in hovels in the villages or in the cellars and garrets of the big cities....
The great struggle of labour against capital has cost the workers of all countries immense sacrifices. They have shed rivers of blood in behalf of their right to a better life and real freedom. Those who fight for the workers’ cause are subjected by the governments to untold persecution. But in spite of all persecution the solidarity of the workers of the world is growing and gaining in strength....
The old Russia is dying. A free Russia is coming to take its place. The dark forces that guarded the tsarist autocracy are going under. But only the class-conscious and organised proletariat can deal them their death-blow. Only the class-conscious and organised proletariat can win real, not sham, freedom for the people. Only the class-conscious and organised proletariat can thwart every attempt to deceive the people, to curtail their rights, to make them a mere tool in the hands of the bourgeoisie.
–V.I. Lenin, “May Day” (April 1904)
Honoring Rubin “Hurricane” Carter-1937–2014
Workers Vanguard No. 1045
2 May 2014
Honoring Rubin “Hurricane” Carter-1937–2014
(Class-Struggle Defense Notes)
Rubin Carter died at his home in Toronto, Canada, on April 20, succumbing to prostate cancer at the age of 76. A one-time middleweight boxing contender known as the “Hurricane,” Carter was the victim of a vicious racist frame-up on bogus murder charges in New Jersey, where he was imprisoned for 19 years. After his exoneration in 1988, Carter dedicated himself to the cause of prisoners who were wrongly convicted, for the last decade as the founder and CEO of Innocence International. The Spartacist League and Partisan Defense Committee were steadfast in our support to his fight for freedom and greatly appreciated his involvement in our efforts to win freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal. A class-war prisoner who spent 30 years on death row, Mumia is now consigned to life in prison on what Carter recognized as equally ludicrous murder charges. Hurricane will be sorely missed.
Carter became a police/FBI target for his advocacy of black armed self-defense. Regarding the 1964 cop riot against black residents of Harlem who were protesting the shooting of 15-year-old James Powell by an off-duty officer, Carter told a Saturday Evening Post reporter: “When scores of children were being trampled, stomped, and mutilated by a legion of club-wielding police—while other cops held their guns to the children’s heads—the black community should have arisen right then and fought to their deaths in the streets, if it was necessary. Because self-protection is the absolute right of every living being on the face of the earth.” Depicting Carter’s statement as a call to kill cops, the Saturday Evening Post article made Carter a marked man. The Hurricane was repeatedly hauled in by Paterson, New Jersey, cops on traffic citations and other bogus charges and harassed by police in just about every city where he went to box.
Carter increasingly chose to box abroad. Prior to a 1965 bout in South Africa, his guide was Steve Biko, a young anti-apartheid fighter who went on to become a leader of the Black Consciousness Movement and was murdered by his apartheid jailers in 1977. To aid the black freedom struggle in South Africa, Carter bought enough guns in the U.S. to fill four duffel bags, which he delivered to the outlawed African National Congress upon returning to South Africa in February 1966.
Not long after, Paterson cops seized on the fatal shooting of two white men and a white woman at the Lafayette Bar and Grill on June 17 to go after him. Carter and his friend John Artis were picked up by police “looking for two Negroes in a white car.” When Carter and Artis passed lie detector tests and eyewitnesses failed to identify them as the alleged killers, they were released. Four months later, Carter and Artis were charged with the murders.
As the 1975 Bob Dylan song “Hurricane” put it: “The trial was a pig circus, he never had a chance.” The cops never dusted the murder scene for fingerprints, nor found the murder weapons, nor tested alleged suspects immediately after the killings for gunpowder residue. The only “evidence” was a statement four months after the fact by two local criminals, Alfred Bello and Arthur Bradley, “identifying” Carter and Artis as the killers. Bello and Bradley, who were supposedly carrying out a burglary nearby and had themselves been suspects in the killings, became the state’s chief witnesses. In return, burglary charges against them were dropped and they were given a $10,500 reward. Cops and prosecutors also intimidated most of the defense witnesses into silence. In May 1967, Carter and Artis were convicted by an all-white jury in Paterson, a city whose population was one-third black.
The second trial was an even greater travesty than the first. The prosecution coerced Bello to repudiate his admission of perjury, while suppressing a polygraph test that showed this repudiation to be a lie. Bradley was offered a deal on a pending indictment, which he refused, but was intimidated to not testify for the defense. Meanwhile, Raab was barred from the courtroom. Having presented no motive for the triple slaying in the first trial, the prosecution “discovered” one nine years later: the social unrest of the 1960s and Carter’s militant views. It was claimed that Carter and Artis had been driven by “revenge” for the killing of a black bartender earlier the same night.
Carter and Artis were convicted a second time and sentenced to life terms. Their liberal and celebrity supporters deserted them in droves. Having gotten the new trial they demanded, the liberals were satisfied that justice had been served. Few turned out for the trial and there were no mass protests after Carter’s reconviction.
Artis was released on parole in 1981. Carter’s conviction was finally overturned in 1985 by U.S. district court judge H. Lee Sarokin who declared, “The extensive record clearly demonstrates that petitioner’s convictions were predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure.” Even after Hurricane’s release, the Harlem-based Amsterdam News (16 November 1985) peddled the line of the cops and prosecutors, portraying Carter as a “bad dude” who was “capable” of committing the murders. In a protest letter to the paper (which it refused to publish), the PDC wrote: “It is particularly indecent for the Amsterdam News, a newspaper which promotes itself as ‘the new Black view,’ to join the vindictive prosecution attempt to railroad Carter back to that prison hellhole for life” (WV No. 392, 29 November 1985). It was not until 1988 that the prosecution ceased its effort to put him back behind bars.
The PDC contributed to the Carter/Artis defense and regularly attended the 1976 retrial. The PDC was later personally invited to Carter’s 29 February 1988 press conference after the prosecution finally threw in the towel. At its close, a PDC representative congratulated Carter, who said warmly, “I would like to thank you people for all your support.” He recalled that after his release in 1985, we sent a small holiday gift that he returned, explaining: “From what I’ve seen since my release from prison, these funds should be better used for the benefit of someone less fortunate than I—like the homeless, the hungry, or those poor people who still remain in prison.”
The obituaries of Carter in the bourgeois press have lauded his dedication to winning freedom for those in prison for crimes they did not commit. Even the New York Daily News cited Carter’s effort as he was dying to convince the Brooklyn district attorney to review the case of David McCallum, a black man convicted in 1986 of kidnapping and murder at the age of 16. McCallum’s conviction was based solely on a coerced confession that was immediately recanted and appears to have no correlation with the physical evidence and known facts.
Not surprising is the media’s failure to make any reference to one innocent man whose freedom Carter has championed, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Evidence of Mumia’s innocence goes directly into the newsroom shredder. In addressing a March 1995 PDC-initiated rally for Mumia in Toronto, Carter noted that after reviewing materials about Mumia’s frame-up: “I detected a foul but familiar odor emanating from the documents. And the more I read, the stronger the odor got. It was a stench that at one time I had hoped was limited to New Jersey, but which I soon discovered is associated with cases of wrongful conviction everywhere” (“Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter Speaks Out for Jamal,” WV No. 619, 24 March 1995).
The SL and PDC honor Hurricane by continuing our fight to free Mumia and all the class-war prisoners. In doing so, we seek to instill in class-conscious workers and the oppressed the understanding that only socialist revolution can put the racist frame-up machine out of business once and for all.
In Honor Of May Day 2014-From The American Left History Blog Archives-Reflections on May Day 2012 In Boston- Forward To May Day 2013
An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Fight-Don’t
Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It, It’s Ours! Labor And The Oppressed
Must Rule!
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
I have noted on several
previous occasions (including in an article in the April 2012 “Boston Occupier,
Number 7”) that due to the recent absence of serious left-wing political
struggle (prior to the events at Occupy Boston in Dewey Square from October to
December 2011anyway) that our tasks for May Day 2012 in Boston centered on
reviving the international working class tradition beyond the limited
observance by revolutionaries, radicals and, in recent years, immigrants. This
effort would thus not be a one event, one year but require a number of years
and that this year’s efforts was just a start. We have made that start.
The important thing this year
was to bring Boston in line with the international movement, to have leftist
militants and others see our struggles here as part of an international
struggle even if our actions were, for now, more symbolic and educational than
powerful blows at the imperial system. I believe, despite the bad weather and
consequently smaller than anticipated numbers on May Day 2012, we achieved that
aim. Through months of hard outreach, especially over the past several weeks as
the day approached, we put out much propaganda and information about the events
through the various media with which we have access. The message of this May
Day, a day without the 99%, got a full hearing by people from the unions,
immigrant communities, student milieu and other sectors like the women’s
movement and GLBQT community.The
connections and contacts made are valuable for our further efforts.
Some participants that spoke to me on May Day (and
others who had expressed the same concerns on earlier occasions) believed that
we had “bitten off more than we could chew,” by having an all-day series of
events.While I am certainly open to
hear criticism on the start time of the day’s events (7:00AM does stretch the
imagination for night-owlish militants) the idea of several events starting
with that early Financial District Block Party and continuing on with the 11:00
AM Anti-Capitalist March which fed into the noontime rally at Boston City Hall
Plazaand then switching over to the
immigrant community marches and rally capped off that evening by the sober,
solemn and visually impression “Death Of Capitalism” funeral procession still
seems right to me. Given our task –introducing (really re-introducing) May Day
to a wider Boston audience we needed to provide a number of times and events
where people could, consciously, contribute to the day’s celebration. Maybe
some year our side will be able to call for a one event May Day mass rally (or
better a general strike) but that is music for the future.
Needless to say, as occurs
almost any time you have many events and a certain need to have them
coordinated, there were some problems from
technical stuff like mic
set-ups to someone forgetting something important, or not showing at the right
time, etc. Growing pains. Nevertheless all the scheduled events happened, we
had minimum hassles from the police, and a couple of events really stick out as
exemplars for future May Days. The Anti-Capitalist March from Copley Square,
mainly in a downpour, led by many young militants and which fed into the
noontime City Hall rally was spirited and gave me hope that someday (someday
soon, I hope) we are going to bring this imperial monster down. The already
mentioned funeral procession was an extremely creative (and oft-forgotten by
us) alternative way to get our message across outside the “normal” ham-handed,
jack-booted politicalscreed.
Finally, a word or two on
organization. The Occupy-May Day Coalition personnel base was too small, way
too small even for our limited goals. We need outreach early (early next year)
to get enough organizer-type people on board to push forward. More broadly on
outreach I believe, and partially this was a function of being too small an
organizing center, we spent too much time “preaching to the choir”-going to
events, talking to people already politically convinced , talking among
ourselves rather than get out into the broader political milieu. For next year
(which will not be an election year) we really need union and community people
(especially from oppressed communities) to “smooth” the way for us. We never
got that one (although we want more than one ultimately) respected middle-level
still militant union official or community organizer that people, working
people, listen to and who would listen to us with his or her nod. Radical or
bourgeois politics, down at the base, you still need to have the people that
the people listen to on board. Forward
to May Day 2013.
***A Pauper Comes Of Age- For the
Adamsville South Elementary School Class Of 1958
A YouTube film clip of Bill
Haley and the Comets performing Rock Around The Clock placed here to
give a nostalgic reminder of the times, the times of our 1958 elementary school
times.
Fritz Taylor, if he thought about it
at all, probably would have said that he had his history hat on again like when
he was a kid, that day in 2008 when out of the blue, the memory time blue, he
thought about her, thought about fair Rosimund. No, before you get all set to
turn to some other thing, some desperate alternate other thing, to do rather
than read Fritz’s poignant little story, this is not some American Revolution
founding fathers (or mothers, because old-time Abigail Adams may have been
hovering in some background granite-chiseled slab grave in very old-time
Adamsville cemetery while the events to be related occurred) or some bold
Massachusetts abolitionist regiment out of the American Civil War 150th
anniversary memory history like Fritz used to like to twist the tail around
when you knew him, or his like.
Fritz, that 2008 early summer’s day,
was simply trying to put his thoughts together and write something, write
something for those who could stand it, those fellow members of his who could
stand to know that the members of the North Adamsville High School Class of
1964 were that year celebrating the 50th anniversary of their graduation from
elementary school. In Fritz’s case not North Adamsville Elementary School like
many of his fellows but from Adamsville South Elementary School across town on
the “wrong side of the tracks.” And although, at many levels that was a very
different experience from that of the average, average North Adamsville class
member the story had a universal quality that he thought might amuse them,
amuse them that is until the name, the thought of the name, the mist coming
from out of his mouth at the forming of the name, holy of holies, Rosimund,
stopped him dead in his tracks and forced him to write a different story.
Still, once the initial trauma wore
off, he thought what better way to celebrate that milestone on the rocky road
to surviving childhood than to take a trip down memory lane, that
Rosimund-strewn memory lane. Those days although they were filled with memorable
incidents, good and bad, paled beside this Rosimund-related story that cut
deep, deep into his graying-haired mind, and as it turned out one that he have
not forgotten after all. So rather than produce some hokey last dance, last
elementary school sweaty-palmed dance failure tale, some Billie Bradley-led
corner boy down in the back of Adamsville South doo- wop be-bop into the night
luring stick and shape girls like lemmings from the sea on hearing those doo
wop harmonies, those harmonies meant for them, the sticks and shapes that is,
or some wannabe gangster retread tale, or even some Captain Midnight how he
saved the world from the Cold War Russkies with his last minute-saving
invention Fritz preferred to relate a home truth, a hard home truth to be sure,
but the truth. So drugged with many cups of steaming instant black coffee, a
few hits of addicted sweetened-orange juice, and some protein eggs he whiled
away one frenzied night and here is what he produced:
At some point in elementary school a
boy is inevitably supposed to learn, maybe required to, depending on the whims
of your school district’s supervisory staff and maybe also what your parents
expected of such schools, to do two intertwined socially-oriented tasks - the
basics of some kind of dancing and to be paired off with, dare I say it, a girl
in that activity. After all that is what it there for isn’t it. At least it was
that way in the old days, and if things have changed, changed dramatically in
that regard, you can fill in your own blanks experience. But here that is where
fair sweet Rosimund comes in, the paired-off part.
I can already hear your gasps, dear
reader, as I present this scenario. You are ready to flee, boy or girl flee, to
some safe attic hideaway, to reach for some dusty ancient comfort teddy bear,
or for the venturesome, some old sepia brownie camera picture album safely
hidden in those environs, but flee, no question, at the suggestion of those
painful first times when sweaty-handed, profusely sweaty-handed, boy met
too-tall girl (age too-tall girls hormone shooting up first, later things
settled down, a little) on the dance floor. Now for those who are hopped up, or
even mildly interested, in such ancient rituals you may be thinking, oh well,
this won’t be so bad after all since Fritz is talking about the mid-1950s and
they had Dick Clark’s American Bandstand on the television to protect
them from having to dance close, what with those funny self-expression dance
moves like the Stroll and the Hully-Gully that you see on old YouTube
film clips. And then go on except, maybe, the last dance, the last close dance
that spelled success or failure in the special he or she night so let me tell
you how really bad we had it in the bell-bottomed 1960s (or the disco 1970s,
the hip-hop ‘80s, etc.). Wrong.
Oh, of course, we were all after
school black and white television-addled and addicted making sure that we got
home by three in the afternoon to catch the latest episode of the American
Bandstand saga about who would, or wouldn’t, dance with that cute girl in
the corner (or that Amazon in the front). That part was true, true enough. But
here we are not talking fun dancing, close or far away, but learning dancing,
school-time dancing, come on get with it. What we are talking about in my case
is that the dancing part turned out to be the basics of country bumpkin
square-dancing (go figure, for a city boy, right?). Not only did this clumsy,
yes, sweaty-palmed, star-crossed ten-year-old boy have to do the basic “swing
your partner” and some off-hand “doze-zee dozes(sic)” but I also had to do it
while I was paired, for this occasion, with a girl that I had a “crush” on, a
serious crush on, and that is where Rosimund really enters the story.
Rosimund see, moreover, was not from
“the projects” but from one of the new single-family homes, ranch-style homes,
that the up and coming middle-class were moving into up the road. In case you
didn’t know, or have forgotten since North Adamsville High days, I grew up on
the “wrong side of the tracks” down at the Adamsville Housing Authority
apartments. The rough side of town, okay. You knew that the minute I mentioned
the name, that AHA name, and rough is what you thought, and that is okay. Now.
But although I had started getting a handle on the stick "projects" girls
I was totally unsure how to deal with girls from the “world.” And Rosimund very
definitely was from the world. I will not describe her here; although I could
do so even today, but let us leave it at her name. Rosimund. Enchanting name,
right? Thoughts of white-plumed knighted medieval jousts against some
black-hooded, armored thug knight for the fair maiden’s hand, or for her favors
(whatever they were then, mainly left unexplained, although we all know what
they are now, and are glad of it)
Nothing special about the story so
far, though. Even I am getting a little sleepy over it. Just your average
one-of-the-stages-of-the-eternal-coming-of-age-story. I wish. Well, the long
and short of it was that the reason we were practicing this square-dancing was
to demonstrate our prowess before our parents in the school gym. Nothing
unusual there either. After all there is no sense in doing this type of
school-time activity unless one can impress one's parents. I forget all the
details of the setup of the space for demonstration day and things like that
but it was a big deal. Parents, refreshments, various local dignitaries, half
the school administrators from downtown whom I will go to my grave believing
could have cared less if it was square-dancing or basket-weaving because they
would have ooh-ed and ah-ed us whatever it was. But that is so much background
filler. Here is the real deal. To honor the occasion, as this was my big moment
to impress Rosimund, I had, earlier in the day, cut up my dungarees to give myself
an authentic square-dancer look, some now farmer brown look but back then maybe
not so bad.
I thought I looked pretty good. And
Rosimund, looking nice in some blue taffeta dress with a dark red shawl thing
draped and pinned across her shoulders (although don’t quote me on that dress
thing, what did a ten-year old boy, sister-less, know of such girlish fashion
things. I was just trying to keep my hands in my pockets to wipe my sweaty
hands for twirling time, for Rosimund twirling time) actually beamed at me, and
said I looked like a gentleman farmer. Be still my heart. Like I said I though
I looked pretty good, and if Rosimund thought so well then, well indeed. And
things were going nicely.
That is until my mother, sitting in
a front row audience seat as was her wont, saw what I had done to the pants. In
a second she got up from her seat, marched over to me, and started yelling
about my disrespect for my father's and her efforts to clothe me and about the
fact that since I only had a couple of pairs of pants how could I do such a
thing. In short, airing the family troubles in public for all to hear. That
went on for what seemed like an eternity. Thereafter I was unceremoniously
taken home by said irate mother and placed on restriction for a week. Needless
to say my father also heard about it when he got home from that hard day’s work
that he was too infrequently able to get to keep the wolves from the door, and
I heard about it for weeks afterward. Needless to say I also blew my 'chances'
with dear, sweet Rosimund.
Now is this a tale of the hard
lessons of the nature of class society that I am always more than willing to
put in a word about? Just like you might have remembered about old Fritz back
in the day. Surely not. Is this a sad tale of young love thwarted by the
vagaries of fate? A little. Is this a tale about respect for the little we had
in my family? Perhaps. Was my mother, despite her rage, right? Well, yes. Did I
learn something about being poor in the world? Damn right. That is the point. …But,
oh, Rosimund.
************
Rock Around The Clock Song Lyrics
from Bill Haley
One, two, three o'clock, four
o'clock, rock,
Five, six, seven o'clock, eight
o'clock, rock,
Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve
o'clock, rock,
We're gonna rock around the clock
tonight.
Put your glad rags on and join me,
hon,
We'll have some fun when the clock
strikes one,
We're gonna rock around the clock
tonight,
We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til
broad daylight.
We're gonna rock, gonna rock, around
the clock tonight.
When the clock strikes two, three
and four,
If the band slows down we'll yell
for more,
We're gonna rock around the clock
tonight,
We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til
broad daylight.
We're gonna rock, gonna rock, around
the clock tonight.
When the chimes ring five, six and
seven,
We'll be right in seventh heaven.
We're gonna rock around the clock
tonight,
We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til
broad daylight.
We're gonna rock, gonna rock, around
the clock tonight.
(please forward
widely)
Celebration of Life and
Struggle
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Celebrate Mumia's 60th
Birthday!
Welcome Home Lynne
Stewart!
Free all political prisoners! End
racist mass incarceration! Abolish the death penalty! Stop police brutality and
murder!
East Coast Event: Saturday, April 26th, 10 am to 6 PM
a
Constitutional Protest through the Arts
Church of the Advocate, 18th
& Diamond, Philadelphia
West Coast Event: Sunday, May 4th, 6 pm reception, 7 pm
rally
Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. Oakland
There will also be other
events around the Bay Area
TAKE
ACTION Against Obama's Visit
to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines & Malaysia!
On Friday April 25,
2014
protest the U.S. military
build-up and simultaneous push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the
Philippines and throughout the Asia Pacific!
President Obama plans to
visit the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia to secure the use of
their sovereign land for U.S. military bases and their cooperation with the
U.S.-led free trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). People’s organizations
throughout the Asia Pacific are mobilizing to oppose the U.S.’ rampant
militarism in the region and its economic hegemony through the sinister
implementation of the TPP, or “NAFTA on steroids.” The expansion of U.S.
militarization in the region will lead to increased human rights abuses,
violence against women and children, pollution and environmental destruction,
while costing US tax-payers millions of dollars. It also aims to squash
anti-imperialist people’s liberation movements–including the national democratic
revolution of the Philippines, the longest running national liberation struggle
in Asia.
Tell Obama:
People of the Pacific
don't want your drones, nukes, bases, troops or multi-national corporate
criminals! US OUT now!
CALLS:
·US Out of the Philippines
and all Asia Pacific
·Stop the Trans Pacific
Partnership Agreement
·Junk the Visiting Forces
Agreement and New Military Access Agreements
·End the Aquino regime’s
puppetry to US imperialism
·Uphold Philippines
sovereignty
·Build international
solidarity against US intervention, militarization and aggression
·Send US troops back home!
Fight Imperialist intervention in the Philippines and Asia. Fight the
imperialist war and plundering!
Take
Action:
1.Join local actions in your area, or organize an action in
your area!
U.S.
Cities:
Los Angeles
@ 6pm
Wilshire Federal Building
11000 Wilshire Blvd, LA 90024
New York
@ 6:30
Meet us
at the U.S. Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Times Square
Please join UNAC at
the Mayday Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights march and rally on Mayday,
May 1, 2014 starting at Union Sq., NYC. The various countries represented by
the immigrant communities throughout the New York area are countries that have a
US military presence and /or are under economic pressure by US imperialism.
Workers throughout the world and in the US are feeling the brunt of the world
crisis of capitalism. Therefore, UNAC will help organize an antiwar contingent
in this important demonstration for worker and immigrant rights. Please join
us.
We will gather
during the afternoon of May 1st starting at 12 noon at Union Square
(14th & B’way, NYC).
We will form our
contingent and march to various locations in lower Manhattan starting at 5:30
PM. Please join us for as much of the day as you can.
• We demand
Legalization for All, End to Deportations and Detentions, and an End to
militarization of our borders.
• We demand a $15
Minimum Wage. Everyone deserves a living wage.
• We demand
immediate contracts for all city employees. No concessions! No givebacks! Full
retro pay!
• Housing,
Healthcare, Education and Jobs for All
• End U.S. Wars,
Bring the Troops Home
• Stop Racist War on
Black Community and All People of Color (POC) • Climate Justice Now
• Abolish the Prison
Industrial Complex
• International
Solidarity, No to TPP
• Stop the violence
against Transgender POC, and all LGBT Communities
• End Common Core
• Gentrification of
our Communities
Some other possible
slogans for our contingent:
No war on workers at
home,
No war on workers in
Ukraine!
International
Mayday! /
"Endless War Steals
from the Poor"
Mayday
2014:
No war on
Immigrants, or workers ANYWHERE! /
No War on Syria,
Iran, Ukraine, Russia
Money for Jobs, Not
for War!
UNAC will have some
signs, please also bring your own in English and Spanish or other languages.
Chicago Campaign Against drone manufacturer
Boeing
As part of the continuing
effort of the antiwar movement against drones and the spring anti-drone actions,
UNAC supporter and Chicago Anti-War Committee member Kait McIntyre will be
running for the board of Boeing. There will also be a protest at the Boeing
Stockholder Meeting on April 28th. Please sign the Anti-War Committee's
petition here: https://antiwarcommitteechicago.wufoo.com/forms/zqtccbx0znm21r/
and view Kait McIntyre's campaign video here: http://antiwarcommitteechicago.blogspot.com/2014/04/boeing-campaign-video.html.
You can get more information on the protest on the
same site as the video.
