Friday, April 08, 2016

Frida Kahlo-Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky 1937

Frida Kahlo-Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky 1937

© 2012 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Ar
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky, 1937; The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce; © 2012 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


Like many paintings by Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky focuses on a particular event in the artist’s life. It commemorates the brief affair Kahlo had with the exiled Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky shortly after his arrival in Mexico in 1937. In this painting, she presents herself elegantly clothed in a long embroidered skirt, fringed shawl, and delicate gold jewelry.  Flowers and coils of red yarn adorn her hair and adroitly applied makeup highlights her features. Poised and confident in her stage-like setting, Kahlo holds a bouquet of flowers and a letter of dedication to Trotsky that states, “with all my love.” Interestingly, Clare Boothe Luce, the American playwright, socialite, and U.S. Congresswoman, donated Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky to NMWA in 1988.
Kahlo, like many Mexican artists working after the Revolutionary decade that began in 1910, was influenced in her art and life by the nationalistic fervor known as Mexicanidad. The artists involved in this movement rejected European influences and favored a return to the country’s native roots and folk traditions. Kahlo often wore the distinctive clothing of the Tehuantepec women in southwest Mexico; she also looked to pre-Columbian art and Mexican folk art for forms and symbols in her paintings. The compositional elements of the stage and curtains, for example, draw upon Mexican vernacular paintings called retablos, devotional images of the Virgin or Christian saints painted on tin, which Kahlo collected.
 

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Merle Haggard Passes at 79....

 

 

 

[Updated] Funeral Service Set For Merle Haggard

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• April 7, 2016 •
merle
Merle Haggard. Photo: Myriam Santos
[Updated, April 7, 8:55 a.m.]:
The funeral service for Merle Haggard will be held at his home in Palo Cedro, California, on Saturday, April 9. Marty Stuart will officiate and sing, along with his wife, Connie Smith.
[Previous story, April 6, 12:38 p.m.]:
America has lost one of its greatest song poets.
Singer, songwriter, guitarist, fiddler, bandleader and music legend Merle Haggard died today on his 79th birthday, at his home outside of Redding, California.
One of the most influential and revered artists in music, Haggard was a permanent fixture on the country charts for three decades. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Kennedy Center honoree.
Perhaps no other singer-songwriter in contemporary country music has assembled as large a body of practically unblemished work. He stands almost alone in terms of artistic consistency, musical integrity, purpose and vision.
His songwriting achievements include such classics as “Mama Tried,” “Sing Me Back Home,” “Okie From Muskogee,” “Hungry Eyes,” “Workin’ Man Blues,” “If We Make It Through December,” “Big City” and “Today I Started Loving You Again,” among many, many others. His recorded legacy is vast and varied. He venerated blues, swing, pop, folk, gospel, honky-tonk, rockabilly and several other roots genres. Haggard respected country tradition and recorded tributes to Jimmie Rodgers (1969), Bob Wills (1970) and Elvis Presley (1977). He recorded with The Texas Playboys as well as with Mother Maybelle and The Carter Sisters, George Jones, Willie Nelson and Ernest Tubb.
MusicRow Podcast Featuring The Legendary Merle Haggard
“The Hag,” as he was known, placed 112 titles on the country charts, scored 71 top-10 hits and had 38 No. 1 successes. He recorded more than 90 albums.
Few stars have biographies as dramatic as Merle Haggard’s. His parents were “Okie” migrants to California during the Great Depression. He was born Merle Ronald Haggard on April 6, 1937 and raised in a converted railroad boxcar in Oildale, near Bakersfield, CA. His father died of a stroke when Haggard was nine, and his mother went to work fulltime to support the family.
Absent any parental supervision, Haggard became wild and rebellious as a youth, getting involved in petty theft, writing bad checks and riding the rails as a hobo. He was sent to juvenile-detention facilities and reform schools several times for shoplifting, truancy, robbery and other crimes, but this failed to curb his ways.
An encounter with Lefty Frizzell led him to start performing music professionally. A school dropout, he also worked as a teenage farmhand, oil field worker, truck driver and short-order cook.
Haggard was arrested in 1957 for attempted burglary and sent to San Quentin State Prison in California. He turned 21 in the penitentiary as convicted felon No. A-45200.
In 1958, he attended a prison performance by Johnny Cash, which deepened his commitment to a country career. One of his best penitentiary friends was executed on Death Row, and Haggard spent time in solitary confinement. These events all led him to turn his life around.
While locked away, Haggard took high-school equivalency courses. He also performed in the prison’s country band. He was paroled in 1960. For the rest of his life, he was haunted by memories and nightmares of his life in the penitentiary.
Upon his release, he dug ditches and worked as an electrician’s assistant. But he was soon entertaining in Bakersfield nightclubs and was signed by the independent imprint Tally Records. He debuted on the charts on that label with his 1963 version of Wynn Stewart’s yearning “Sing a Sad Song.” He scored his first top-10 hit in 1965 with songwriter Liz Anderson’s “(All My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers.”
The star named his award-winning band The Strangers as a salute to that hit in 1965. In that same year, Capitol Records picked up his recording contract. Capitol producer Ken Nelson took a “hands off” approach to Haggard and his musical vision, to the star’s lasting gratitude.
Liz Anderson also wrote Haggard’s first No. 1 hit, the seemingly autobiographical “The Fugitive.” Ironically, at the time, she knew nothing of his prison past.
By then, Merle Haggard was also making hits with his own songs. “Swinging Doors” (1966), “The Bottle Let Me Down” (1966), “I Threw Away the Rose” (1967), “Branded Man” (1967), the death-row ballad “Sing Me Back Home” (1967), “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde” (1968), the Grammy Hall of Fame winner “Mama Tried” (1968), “I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am” (1968), “Hungry Eyes” (1969) and the iconic “Workin’ Man Blues” (1969) were all top-10 hits written by Haggard in the 1960s.
The California based Academy of Country Music (ACM) saluted him with nine awards in 1965-69. The ACM honored him four more times in the 1970s.
Merle Haggard. Photo: Myriam Santos
Merle Haggard. Photo: Myriam Santos
Along with Buck Owens, Red Simpson and Wynn Stewart, Merle Haggard is regarded as a cornerstone figure of The Bakersfield Sound. Characterized by bright-sounding Telecaster electric guitar leads, aggressive production touches and a more edgy approach than contemporary Nashville Sound records, this style marked California country’s heyday. Another exponent was Bonnie Owens, the former wife of Buck who became Haggard’s duet partner, backup singer, co-writer and second wife.
In 1970, Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee” was named Single of the Year by the CMA. The controversial, hippie-bashing song was the voice of the people President Nixon called “The Silent Majority.” Haggard followed it with the even more redneck “The Fightin’ Side of Me.”
Still, many from the counterculture began to bring his works to the attention of left-leaning young people. The Grateful Dead, Joan Baez, The Byrds, The Everly Brothers, The Flying Burrito Brothers and others recorded his songs.      
Haggard, himself, added to his political ambiguity. He wanted to put out his interracial love song “Irma Jackson” as a single, but this was vetoed by Capitol. He was asked to endorse reactionary presidential candidate George Wallace, but refused. He returned to San Quentin to perform for the inmates in 1971.
By this time, Merle Haggard was one of the most famous country singers on earth. He was honored with a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1969. The CMA named him its Male Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year for 1970. California Governor Ronald Reagan granted him a full pardon in 1972. Haggard entertained President Nixon at the White House the following year. The country icon appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1974.
Between 1973 and 1976, he scored nine consecutive No. 1 hits. His Let Me Tell You About a Song was the CMA Album of the Year for 1972.
He was featured in films such as 1968’s Killers Three, 1967’s Hillbillys in a Haunted House and 1969’s From Nashville With Music. He also had acting roles in the TV movies Huckleberry Finn (1975) and Centennial (1979), as well as several TV series.
On disc, his early 1970s hit streak included a revival of Ernest Tubb’s “Soldier’s Last Letter” (1971), plus “Someday We’ll Look Back” (1971), “Daddy Frank” (1971), “Carolyn” (1972), Hank Cochran’s “It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad)” (1972), “I Wonder If They Ever Think of Me” (1973), the hard-luck recession anthem “If We Make It Through December” (1973), “Old Man From the Mountain” (1974), Dolly Parton’s “Kentucky Gambler” (1974), “Always Wanting You” (1975), the TV show theme song “Movin’ On” (1975), “The Roots of My Raising” (1976) and a remake of the Cindy Walker/Bob Wills western-swing favorite “Cherokee Maiden” (1976).
His commitment to constant touring was renowned. Although he seldom spoke on stage, his musicianship made him a master showman. In addition, he did humorous imitations of such fellow country stars as Marty Robbins, Hank Snow, Buck Owens and Johnny Cash during his concerts. There were no set lists. Neither his band nor the audience knew which song would be next.
Haggard’s vocal performances seemed to take on new depth and expressiveness after he began recording for MCA in 1976. During the next four years, Haggard released such timeless singles as “If We’re Not Back in Love By Monday” (1977), “Ramblin’ Fever” (1977), “I’m Always on a Mountain When I Fall” (1978), “My Own Kind of Hat” (1979), “The Way I Am” (1980), “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” (1980) and “Rainbow Stew” (1981).
This era of his career found him continuing to champion the problems of blue-collar Americans and the common man. Journalists referred to him as a working-class hero. He also often addressed alcoholism, depression and middle age. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1977.
His duet partners during this period included Clint Eastwood. The team had a No. 1 hit in 1980 with “Bar Room Buddies.” This appeared on the soundtrack of Eastwood’s movie Bronco Billy, as did Haggard’s No. 1 solo hit “Misery and Gin.” Haggard also recorded duets with singer-songwriter Leona Williams, his third wife.
He signed with Epic Records in 1980, and his decade-long tenure at the label witnessed yet another creative flowering. He recorded hit duets with George Jones (1982’s “Yesterday’s Wine”) and Willie Nelson (1983’s “Pancho and Lefty,” which earned them a CMA Award). Haggard won a 1984 Grammy for his version of the Lefty Frizzell/Whitey Shafer standard “That’s the Way Love Goes.”
His solo Epic hits also included such blockbusters as “My Favorite Memory” (1981), “Big City” (1982), “Are the Good Times Really Over” (1982), “Going Where the Lonely Go” (1982), “Someday When Things Are Good” (1984), “A Place to Fall Apart” (1984), “Natural High” (1985), “Kern River” (1985), “I Had a Beautiful Time” (1986), “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star” (1987) and “A Better Love Next Time” (1989).
He published his first autobiography, Sing Me Back Home, in 1981. A second one appeared in 1999, My House of Memories.
Merle Haggard underwent financial, alcohol and drug difficulties during the 1990s. But he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994. He won a Living Legend honor at the Music City News Awards in 1990 and an Award of Merit at the 1991 American Music Awards.
Two tribute albums to his music were released in 1994. Tulare Dust featured performances of his songs by Dwight Yoakam, Rosie Flores, Lucinda Williams and Billy Joe Shaver, among others. Mama’s Hungry Eyes co-starred Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Brooks & Dunn, Alabama, Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Pam Tillis and more. In 1997, TNN aired a tribute-concert TV special titled Workin’ Man, which included Tim McGraw, Trace Adkins, John Anderson, Mark Chesnutt and others.
The emergence of the Americana music genre provided Merle Haggard with a career renaissance. Later-career albums earned him strongly positive reviews. These included 2000’s If I Could Only Fly, 2001’s Roots, 2002’s The Peer Sessions, 2003’s Like Never Before, 2004’s Unforgettable, 2005’s Chicago Wind, 2007’s The Bluegrass Sessions, 2007’s Working Man’s Journey, 2010’s I Am What I Am and 2011’s Working in Tennessee. He recorded for Curb, Epitaph, EMI, Audium, Vanguard and other imprints.
Photo: merlehaggard.com
Photo: merlehaggard.com
He was part of the all-star ensemble on the Grammy-winning “Same Old Train” record of 1998. He sang duets with Jewel (1999) and Gretchen Wilson (2005). He toured with Bob Dylan in 2005. He played Bonnaroo in 2009.
In 2007, he and Willie Nelson recorded with Ray Price on the critically applauded CD Last of a Breed. His 2015 duet reunion album with Nelson was the equally acclaimed Django and Jimmie.
Meanwhile, the Dixie Chicks, Eric Church, Brooks & Dunn, Colin Raye, Shooter Jennings and Lynyrd Skynyrd all saluted him in the lyrics of their songs. In 2006, Haggard was honored as a BMI Icon. He has, to date, 48 BMI Awards that add up to over 25 million performances.
Also in 2006, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The ACM gave him its Poet’s Award in 2008. Befitting his status as a legend, Merle Haggard was presented with a Kennedy Center Honor in 2010. California State University in Bakersfield gave him an honorary degree in 2013, a doctorate in fine arts.
Always a rugged individualist who resisted political labels, Haggard remained an outspoken American patriot. He opposed the war in Iraq in 2003 and defended the Dixie Chicks’ free-speech rights. He endorsed Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations in 2007, then wrote a song expressing hope for Barak Obama’s inauguration. In recent years, he became interested in conservation and environmental issues. He did yoga, smoked pot, dabbled in herbal medicine and believed in UFO’s and extraterrestrial life.
He had been having health issues since the 1990s. Haggard underwent an angioplasty in 1995 for clogged arteries and received two heart stents in 1997. He suffered herniated discs in his lower back in 2002. In 2008, he had lung-cancer surgery. He was hospitalized with pneumonia in 2012, 2015 and 2016.
Merle Haggard married five times. He was wed to first wife Leona Hobbs from 1956 to 1964, and they had four children — Dana, Marty, Kelli and Noel. Marty and Noel became country singers. Singer-songwriter Bonnie Campbell Owens was Haggard’s wife between 1965 and 1978. She remained in his band after they divorced. Bonne Owens and Leona Hobbs both died in 2006.
His union with singer-songwriter Leona Williams lasted from 1978 to 1983. He married Debbie Parret in 1985 and divorced her in 1991. He has been married to Theresa Ann Lane since 1993. They have two children, Janessa and Ben.
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Sir Van Morrison overjoyed at receiving knighthood

Before the Fall...and then

 

 

Sir Van Morrison overjoyed at receiving knighthood

Van Morrison was introduced as Sir Ivan as he received his knighthood from Prince CharlesImage copyright PA
Image caption Van Morrison was introduced as Sir Ivan as he received his knighthood from Prince Charles
Van Morrison has described becoming a Sir as "amazing" and "exhilarating" after receiving a knighthood from the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace.
The artist was introduced as Sir Ivan Morrison as he stepped forward to be dubbed a knight.
He received the honour for services to the music industry and tourism in Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland musician has collected many awards since emerging with the group Them in the 1960s.
But there appeared to be a sense of wonder about his latest achievement.
"For 53 years I've been in the business - that's not bad for a blue-eyed soul singer from east Belfast," he said.
During his career, he has wowed audiences at a host of grand venues ranging from the Royal Albert Hall to the Hollywood Bowl, but admitted his preference was for the more intimate gigs.
"I enjoy that the most - playing a small club - that's really what I do," he said.
"The bigger places you have to do for financial survival reasons, let me put it that way, but the bigger places enable me to play small clubs occasionally."
The musician was accompanied by his daughter Shana Morrison at Buckingham PalaceImage copyright Reuters
Image caption The musician was accompanied by his daughter Shana Morrison at Buckingham Palace. He described the setting as 'old world charm'.
The 70-year-old said he had a brief chat with Prince Charles as he received his award and was asked about his future plans.
"He was just saying, was I still writing? And he said: 'You're not going to retire any time soon?' And I said: 'No, I'm not, I'm going to keep it going while I can'."
Asked if fans could still call him Van The Man now that he has a knighthood, the singer laughed and said "Well, take your pick".
Morrison grew up in Belfast, where his father, a shipyard worker, was said to have had one of the best record collections in the city.

Common One

Astral Weeks, which regularly features in critics' lists of all-time great albums, was recorded in three days and set the template for the rest of his career with its mix of poetic lyrics, often inspired by his native country, jazz improvisation, Celtic folk and soulful vocals.
But the singer said his favourite album was the 1980 production Common One.
"It's a mixture of different components - a bit of funk, blues, gospel - it's quite a fusion, and plus I seemed to tap into something, and that particular band seemed to have a rapport," he added.
He was joined for the ceremony by his daughter, Shana Morrison, also a musician.

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Free The Dallas Six-Day Two Of The Trail

Please circulate this report widely! Also please share on social media via the Support the Dallas 6 website and Facebook event page.
 
 
                                                           
 
 
Court Report from Tuesday April 5 – Day 2 of the Dallas 6 Trial
in Wilkes-Barre, PA
 
The Dallas 6 are six African American prisoner whistleblowers in solitary confinement at SCI Dallas Pennsylvania charged with rioting for peacefully protesting on April 29, 2010 against widespread abuse, violence & torture by prison guards of Black, Latino and white prisoners which they had documented. The remaining three facing charges – Andre Jacobs, Carrington Keys, and Duane Peters – finally have a jury trial after almost six years. For info or to support: scidallas6.blogspot.com. Donations: tinyurl.com/rally4dallas6  
 
Highlights Day 2
graphic by Molly Crabapple
·       Big news!  The court heard why the Dallas 6 did the peaceful protest. There was concern that they would not have been allowed to lay this out in court, so the fact that they did was in and of itself a victory. Andre Jacobs and Carrington Keys gave powerful opening statements laying out why they did the peaceful protest.  They were well-prepared, thorough and were effective in their cross-examinations.
·       Prosecution called two prison officials as witnesses in an attempt to back their claim that the men wanted to coerce the guards to forcebly remove them from their cells.  They further charged Carrington Keys with assault: they claimed he threw feces.   
·       A video was shown in which Duane Peters is clearly heard over and over saying, “We want to talk to the Luzerne County Public Defenders,” prior to guards removing the men from their cells (cell extraction).
·       Defendants blew holes in the prosecution’s assault charges by showing discrepancies with official reports; they said they did not know cell extraction would happen and that prison officials could have avoided it.
 
After the prosecution made their opening arguments that this was a riot because the men wanted to coerce cell removal/extraction and there was assault because Keys allegedly threw feces, Andre Jacobs, one of the Dallas 6, told the jury they were appreciative because this was the first time in six years that they had a chance to tell their side of the case.  He then laid out how the evidence showed that the police never investigated the so-called crime scene, that the charges are politically motivated and that the Dallas 6 were targets of retaliation because they had a lawsuit against the prison and the guards.  Retaliation was in the form of mail tampering, deprivation of food and clothes, attacks and threats that they would be killed.  He understood that prison is not a country club, but the guards have a duty to abide by the law.  He took the peaceful action to protect himself and the other prisoners.  He hopes the jury finds them not guilty.
 
Carrington Keys of the Dallas 6 began by thanking the jury, and said they did a peaceful protest in defense of others imprisoned in solitary confinement. They had filed hundreds of complaints about abuse and torture without relief, only retaliation.  After guards left a Latino man in a restraint chair for 15 hours, they had to do something to save the life of friends and others, so they engaged in a peaceful protest, as it was the only option available to them.  During the cell extraction, it was factually and mathematically impossible for a substance to be thrown, and reports showed the guards sustained no injuries and did not change their clothes.  Covering cell windows are actions taken every day and there is never this level of response.  They were singled out.  Covering cell windows is not a riot.  He said, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you are our only voice, and your duties are important.”
 

graphic by Molly Crabapple
Michael Wiseman, attorney for Duane Peters, defined the terms: RHU is a block of cells where men are kept in solitary confinement without contact with each other or others except for an hour of what is euphemistically called “recreation.”  A restraint chair is where you are strapped by your arms and legs with strict guidelines on use which are not always honored.  He said, “these gentlemen can give context in a way I cannot on the brutality of what goes on in RHU and what happens in cell extraction where the force is overwhelming.  It’s a brutal process, with stun guns, tasers and electric shields that bring a prisoner down immediately.”  He said the jury will hear shouts of “stop resisting” but they will not see any resistance.  The prosecution is trying to turn a peaceful protest into a riot charge. He’s not saying that what they did was the right thing to do as the prison rules say you cannot cover your window, but in the context it may have been the right thing to do.  And covering your cell window is a common occurrence.  This is a serious criminal charge and not all is what it appears to be. 
 
Sargent Buck was the first witness to be called by the prosecution.  He claimed that feces hit him “in the head area”. A video was shown of the cell extraction, where he was the camera man, the 5th man in the line to go into the cell.  Two videos were shown leading up to the cell extraction, one where he goes down the line of the cells asking each of the seven men to remove the item covering the window and announcing that each man was not compliant. The other is where the court psychologist who is supposed to be their hostage negotiating team to try to talk to the men, goes to each cell.  He says, “remove the sheet so I can talk to you.” By this time another prisoner has covered his window.  None respond except Duane Peters who says over and over, “We want to talk to the Luzerne County Public Defenders” and “you are denying us our right to talk to a lawyer.”
 

video still from cell extraction of Carrington Keys
In cross examination, Carrington Keys brought into evidence, despite objections of the prosecution, a medical report that said Mr Buck was hit in the back of the head by a cup of urine and feces that was thrown at him.  Mr Buck said that he didn’t write that report but he would not deny it on the stand, only that “he was hit in the head area”.  But he could not remember where in the head he was hit. It was also raised whether the report of the assault was written before the incident even took place which he denied, and that the story was fabricated as retaliation which he also denied.  Further that reports and previous testimony were that “the inmates were protesting”, never that the inmates were rioting.  Also that he failed in his duty to counsel prisoners.  
 
Andre Jacobs asked Mr Buck how many times he has met with the DA to discuss his testimony.  He couldn’t remember and he denied discussing his testimony.  He claims he couldn’t remember when he knew that grievances had been filed against him and that he was out on medical leave.  Andre raised the suicide of Matthew Bullock (a mentally ill, elderly white man), which the men had documented in the Human Rights Coalition report.  When the prosecution raised objections that it was not relevant, Andre Jacobs replied that our defense is that once the HRC report came out, we were retaliated against, that Mr Buck prevented the process of finding a resolution. Andre’s questioning brought out that cell extraction is discretionary, that there were other options.  This is important since the prosecutors claim is that the men knew they would face cell extraction, and they didn’t. 
 
Attorney Michael Wiseman’s cross-examination revealed that the guards had received a note from a confidential informant that a protest was going to happen. He also exposed a prison rule that when executing extraction, it was to be “with the least amount of force necessary.” 
 
The final witness of the day for the prosecution was Lt Mozier.  He claims he went around to talk to the men before the cell extractions began.  But there is no video evidence of this, and the men claimed it never happened. He also claimed that if the men had removed the items blocking the window and come to the door and put their hands through the slot to be handcuffed as did one prisoner, there would not have been the cell extraction.  Andre Jacobs said they feared for their lives and that their lives were threatened.  Lt Mozier also said he could not remember if the items had already been removed from the cell windows before extraction began.  He doesn’t recall any conflict with the prisoners or the complaints made against him. Carrington Keys again raised that Lt Mozier  did nothing to try to resolve the issue, that there was no record anywhere of his having gone cell to cell to talk to the men, there were other avenues than cell extraction, and that he took no steps in crisis intervention.
 
The video player didn’t work, so questioning of Lt Mozier is resuming today (Wednesday), after playing the next video.
 
ANYONE WHO CAN ATTEND THE TRIAL ANY DAY THIS WEEK, PLEASE CONTACT US! 
WE URGENTLY NEED AS MANY SUPPORTERS AS POSSIBLE TO BE PRESENT IN THE COURTROOM.
 
Now is the time to help these brave prisoner whistleblowers win a major victory for prisoners across Pennsylvania and across the US!
 
Please do the check-in below if you want to come or contact by email or phone. Rooms are available in the area.  
 
If you cannot attend, PLEASE, do the call-in/fax-in.  There are links taking you to the instructions and letter templates for emailing or faxing. 
 
 Daily coverage of the trial by NBC 28 Scranton (Note: exact link may have changed, you may have to search video on website)
 
 Times-Leader (Luzerne County):
Jury seated for trial of 3 inmates accused of instigating prison riot
Prosecutors: ‘Straightforward’ charges against members of ‘Dallas 6’
 
CAN YOU COME?
Trial is expected to last five days.  Cars will be coming from Philly daily but you need to COMPLETE THE ONLINE CHECK-IN if you need a ride or can provide a ride from Philly or Pittsburgh, and/or would like to stay overnight - http://tinyurl.com/dallas6check-in
CAN'T COME?  WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP!
MAKE A DONATION! Online at http://tinyurl.com/rally4dallas6 or send check/money order payable to Abolitionist Law Center, P.O. Box 8654 Pittsburgh PA  15221  Memo line: Dallas 6
DROP THE CHARGES!
For those who can’t make it to the trial but want to show support, please take part in a CALL-IN/FAX-IN to the DA demanding she drop charges. Details and talking points at - http://tinyurl.com/dallas6letter
Dallas 6 online:
Blog – http://scidallas6.blogspot.com/
Facebook – http://tinyurl.com/packthecourtd6
Twitter - Follow @madinah7 for trial updates
 Twitter Hashtags - #Dallas6 #Justice4Dallas6  
Video - March for freedom - March 18, 2016 - http://tinyurl.com/d6marchforfreedom
Truthout article by Shandre Delaney: "Dallas 6" Prisoners Face Trial for Protesting Abuse in Solitary Confinement
Letter to Luzerne County District Attorney to dismiss the charges against the Dallas 6, endorsed by the PA Council of Churches and signed by over 75 representatives of faith-based organizations.
 
Contact: Shandre Delaney, mother of one of the Dallas 6; Human Rights Coalition 412-403-6101
Phoebe Jones, Justice for the Dallas 6 Support Campaign; Global Women’s Strike  610-505-4944
 
Justice for the Dallas 6 Support Campaign: Abolitionist Law Center; Every Mother is a Working Mother Network; Fight for Lifers West; Germantown Friends Meeting Mass Incarceration Working Group; Global Women’s Strike & Women of Color@GWS – US; Human Rights Coalition – Fed Up; Human Rights Coalition – Philadelphia; Marcellus Shale Earth First; Mishkan Shalom New Jim Crow Study-Action Group; Payday men’s network; Peacehome Campaigns; Shalefield Organizing Committee.  Endorsements: Art for Justice; Brandywine Peace Community; California Families Against Solitary Confinement (CFASC); The Center for Returning Citizens (TCRC); Decarcerate PA; Defending Dissent Foundation; Global Women’s Strike & Women of Color@GWS – UK; Green Party of Philadelphia (GPOP); Human Rights Defense Center – Lake Worth, Florida; Jewish Voice For Peace - Philadelphia; People’s Opposition to War Imperialism and Racism (POWIR) – Hollywood, Florida; Philadelphia Coalition for REAL Justice; San Francisco Bay View newspaper; Sin Barras – Without (Prison) Bars – Santa Cruz; T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; WHAT’S UP?! Pittsburgh; Welfare Warriors; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) – Philadelphia. Individual Endorsements: Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Patrice Armstead, Building People’s Power and Coalition Demanding Reinstatement of Dr. Monteiro; Malik Aziz, Founder, Men United for a Better Philadelphia and Chairman, National Exhoodus Council; Pastor Antoinette Johnson, King Solomon Baptist Church; Dr. Anthony Monteiro; Rev. Bob Moore, Executive Director, Coalition for Peace Action (for id purposes only); Margaret Prescod, host of “Sojourner Truth” on Pacifica Radio; Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of African American Studies & History, Temple University; Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University; Dr. Carla Willard, Africana Studies Program, Franklin & Marshall College.  Partnering with: AFSC Prison Watch.
 
 
 
 
 

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A View From The Left- NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

 

Drone Off

CODEPINK activists from 20 states shut down the gates at Creech Air Force Base, home of the Reaper and Predator drone program, on March 31 and April 1. Join CODEPINK in calling on the Presidential candidates to end drone warfare and adopt a ten-point peace platform. We want a #President4Peace!

 

WTF! John McCain Saluting an American Communist?

In the piece titled “The Good Soldier,” McCain saluted Delmer Berg whose obituary had run March 2nd in the Times. Berg, who died at age 100, was presumably the last living American veteran of the famous Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Read on...  

 

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OTHER EVENTS

 

Saturday, April 9: Music for Peace: The Three Brahms Violin Sonatas,  @ 7:30 pm, Harvard-Epworth Methodist Church, 1555 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge. + Google Map  In the final concert of Mass Peace Action’s 2015-16 Music for Peace Concert Series, two of America's leading chamber musicians perform the three Brahms Violin Sonatas: Sonata in G major, Opus 78; Sonata in A major, Opus 100; Sonata in D minor, Opus 108. Benefits Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund. Reserve seats for $25 in advance for Mass. Peace Action members, $35 for non-members, $10 for students, $35 at the door.

 

Wednesday, April 13: Michael Dukakis: Subways or Submarines? Changing our Nation’s Priorities from Endless War to Prosperity. Kicking off Massachusetts Peace Action's Distinguished Peacebuilders Series is the honorable Michael Dukakis, governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and 1983 to 1991, Democratic nominee for President in 1988, and a well-known advocate for effective public transportation and high-speed rail. 7 pm at Christ Church, Zero Garden Street, Harvard T, Cambridge. Benefits Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund; part 1 of the spring Distinguished Peacebuilders Series. Register for $10 for Massachusetts Peace Action Members, for students, and low income. Non-members, register for $20. To attend all 3 talks this spring, $25 for members and $50 for non-members.  

To attend, register online for Michael Dukakis' talk or the entire series, call 617-354-2169 with credit card number, or write a check to “Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund” and mail to 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Cosponsored by Democratic Socialists of America, Budget for All Massachusetts, and American Friends Service Committee - Peace & Economic Services. Following Gov. Dukakis' talk will be Series lectures by Noam Chomsky in May and Helen Caldicott in June.

 

Tuesday, May 3: My Name Is Rachel Corrie. This one-play show, edited from Rachel's emails and journal entries by the late Alan Rickman and editor in chief of The Guardian Katherine Viner, chronicles the life of the 23-year-old American peace activist who traveled to Gaza in January of 2003 with the International Solidarity Movement to defend Palestinian homes from being demolished. It was there, on March 16th, 2003 that she was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer while protecting her host's home from being destroyed by the Israeli army. Tuesday, May 3, 7:30 pm. Hibernian Hall, 182-186 Dudley St., Roxbury. Facebook invitation: https://www.facebook.com/events/1724110167826809/. Advance ticket purchase: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2531586

 

Saturday, May 7: Courage and Commitment. Join Andrea James of Families for Justice as Healing, Tim DeChristopher of Climate Disobedience Center, Joia Mukherjee of Partners in Health, and Robert Meeropol of the Rosenberg Fund for Children, for a forum at the Arlington Street Church. Live music by the Leftist Marching Band and Foundation Movement. 7 pm, 351 Boylston St, Arlington St T stop, suggested donation $20. This is a benefit for the 75th anniversary of the World Fellowship Center.

 
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A View From The Left- Tax Day is coming, and...People's BudgetTell Congress: Vote for the People's Budget!

Tax Day is coming, and...People's BudgetTell Congress: Vote for the People's Budget!

Each year, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) offers an alternative budget resolution to the “austerity” budgets supported by the House Majority and Speaker Ryan. The People's Budget offers a solid blueprint to:

·                     Invest more than $1 trillion in housing, education, transportation, clean energy and safe water to create millions of jobs

·                     Prevent cuts, restore social spending and reduce poverty by half in 10 years

·                     Increase educational opportunities, provide Pre-K and debt-free college for all

·                     Increase, not cut, Social Security and health care

·                     Close corporate tax loopholes, tax Wall Street speculation and raise taxes on the top 2%

·                     Redirect wasteful Pentagon spending and direct to peoples needs, ending Pentagon pork and the overseas contingency "slush fund" 

The People's Budget is backed by hard numbers and research by the Economic Policy Institute.

Send your message to Congress here.

 

 #MakeGEPay: Longtime DPP Project Pays Off

During the Great Recession six years ago, DPP and other local peace groups launched the “25% campaign,” saying that 25% of the Pentagon budget should be redirected toward economic and racial equity. The idea spread far and wide. Nationally, the New Priorities Network inspired exciting projects in several states (a statewide coalition that took on Lockheed Martin in Maryland, a coalition that tried to start converting a military truck manufacturer that was cutting jobs in Wisconsin), and Peace Action is still sponsoring Move the Money trainings across the country. Locally, the 25% Coalition brought together people of color to talk and strategize about peace and justice in Boston.

 

Most of these efforts dwindled and disappeared when the money didn’t move, but one has survived thanks above all to Massachusetts Peace Action and the Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants: the Budget for All campaign. On Monday they staged a “Make GE Pay” rally outside the welcome party for GE execs hosted by Governor Baker and Mayor Walsh. “[A] few dozen protesters braved a wintry mix standing outside the press conference to question why a company that generates $117 billion in revenue needs a penny from the government,” reported Globe business columnist Shirley Leung. “This as GE brass hobnobbed 33 stories in the sky in the swanky State Room, with beef Wellington and lobster roll canapes.”


The Globe doesn’t often stoop to cover protests, but this was the Globe’s second piece covering Monday’s rally. The first, a straight news report the day after, linked GE’s $25 million pledge for Boston schools to the protestors’ demand. Then the reporter let us respond to GE: “I think it’s outrageous that we would give millions of dollars of tax cuts to an extremely abusive transnational corporation while our MBTA, our schools, and our public services are vastly underfunded,” said Ari Rubenstein, a Boston resident with the group, Corporate Accountability International. In a remarkable third mention, the Globe actually advertised the rally two days earlier – on the front page.

 

Organizing the rally was a good call for the Budget for All coalition, which usually focuses on federal spending. The Union of Minority Neighborhoods, No Boston 2024, Jewish Voices for Peace, and other organizations joined the protest. A lot of people in Boston think GE is getting away with a lot of our tax money, and the rally gave voice to that. GE is scrambling to respond, with its CEO doing local radio interviews this week and City Hall trumpeting how much the company will pay in property taxes.


“I hope the #MakeGEpay movement sticks around,” Leung ended her column, “if only to keep up the pressure to make sure [the $120 million in city and state subsidies to] GE is money well spent.”

 

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Support Just Cause Eviction – Call the City Council

Real estate interests are lobbying our city councilors to deep-six Boston’s proposed Just Cause Eviction ordinance. Call now and protect our neighborhoods from outside profiteers! If you are a property owner or landlord, please say so when you call.


We are asking for 5-7 calls: the 4 At-Large City Councilors, your district councilor, and Housing Committee leaders Josh Zakim and Frank Baker.

Annissa Essaibi-George, at-large   617-635-4376

Michael Flaherty, at-large   617-635-4205

Ayanna Pressley, at-large   617-635-4217

Council President Michelle Wu, at-large   617-635-3115

Frank Baker, district 3, Dorchester    617-635-3455

Josh Zakim, district 8, Beacon Hill, etc.   617-635-4225 

Andrea Campbell, district 4, Dorchester-Mattapan   617-635-3131

 

Here is a sample script:


"My name is ____________, in (neighborhood, Dorchester) .  I am a (landlord, tenant, homeowner) and I'm calling to urge Councilor_________________ to support Just Cause Evictions.


I don’t see this as a landlord vs tenant issue. It’s an issue of neighborhood stability. I've lived in my neighborhood for _______ years and I don't want it destabilized by outside investors!

Do you know how the Councilor is planning to vote on Just Cause Evictions?

 

Can you have the Councilor call me and tell me if she/he will support and work for getting this bill introduced and passed ASAP?"

 

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DPP Hosts Peace Walkers

Dear Friends at DPP,

Once again DPP hosted the walkers from the Peace Pagoda at a breakfast meeting in Dorchester. Thanks to all who joined in and brought goodies for breakfast. Brief report follows.

Hayat

 

 “Our security in this country depends on advancing the shared security for all…” This is the theme for the 2016 Walk for a New Spring by the Monks and Friends of the New England Peace Pagoda. For the past 15 years this group has walked from Leverett, Mass to Boston, and beyond, to highlight the need to end wars, poverty and racism; to inspire and lead in the work of addressing climate change, and bring an end to nuclear weapons. Founded by the Niponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order of Japan, the Peace Pagoda brings to mind all those lost in the nuclear holocaust of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 

Dorchester is an annual stop for the Walk, where they are hosted by the First Parish Church and Dorchester People for Peace. At a breakfast gathering this week, the group explained that they are walking all the way to Washington D.C. carrying the ideas from a Quaker working paper by the American Friends Service Committee called “Shared Security, Re-imagining US Foreign Policy” to communities along the route and to our legislators in Washington, DC. In an interdependent world, foreign policies that are based on an “us vs. them” paradigm have produced nothing but negative results. Only a foreign policy that advances the human dignity and opportunities for all, can lay the foundation for lasting peace and security. This will lead to a world of shared security.

 

Tim Bullock, the organizer of the Walk, says they like to stop in Dorchester because it is a community where people acutely feel the challenges and stresses of insecurity but, at the same time, the Dorchester community also has the vision and energy to take care of their neighborhoods and work towards shared security for everyone.

 

In this precarious world, we applaud this critical effort at tackling the key issues of our times.

 

Lead, Flint, Boston, and crime – against whom?

First the lead-in-the-drinking-water crisis in Flint, Michigan hit the news. Now we’re discovering lead in Boston school drinking fountains. But did you know there’s a link between lead poisoning, crime, and Black Lives Matter? Read on...

 
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The Chickens Are Coming Home To Roost-Bill-Black Lives Matter In Ways You And I Are Are Clueless About


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