* * * * DPP STANDING ROCK/ DAPL EVENT A BIG SUCCESS -Stand With Standing Rock

*   *   *   *

DPP STANDING ROCK/ DAPL EVENT A BIG SUCCESS

Hayat writes:

In spite of a short organizing time-frame, and poor weather conditions, 126 people showed up at a solidarity event for the Standing Rock Resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) on February 16, 2017. And everyone left feeling enriched and uplifted because the speakers were pretty incredible! The situation at Standing Rock has reached a crisis point so the event was extremely timely, and people passionately wanted to hear the latest updates, especially from people who had been there. 

The Reminder: The event started with a moving video update from Native leader from the Lakota Law Project, Chase Iron yes, reminding us that the struggle has only just begun. Much will depend now on challenges in the court system. They are counting on our backing and support. You can see theVIDEO here.

The Speakers: Wyze Love, urban Native activist, reminded us why we were all there, the importance of water, the contribution this movement by Native people is making for all Americans, and how they are providing a gift to all humanity.Jude Glaubman, member of Water Protector Legal Collective, explained the various legal needs they provide and what a wall of State oppression and legal barriers people onsite are facing, and will continue to face, with impending prison sentences. The Reverend Mariama White-Hammond spoke about the spiritual foundation of the Standing Rock movement and our moral, human responsibility to look after the earth, water and all its creatures.  We have to start to think in a new way if we are to survive disastrous climate change, fostered by fossil fuels, of which the pipeline is an integral part. Dan Luker, gave a moving account of his journey as a Vietnam Veteran, joining thousands of other veterans, who, inspite of political differences, still hold to the truth that they are committed to protecting Americans from foreign and domestic enemies. Gunning down people with rubber bullets and hosing down women and children is not okay with them.Emmy Rainwalker, a member of Dorchester People for Peace, and a specialist in supporting people who have experienced trauma, spoke alongside her husband Dan Luker. She has been a stalwart support system for Dan, and others at Standing Rock, providing listening, counseling and resources.

NEXT STEPS: At the end of discussions, various ideas for action emerged: 

·         Defunding of DAPL

·         Adopting a "Prisoner of conscience at Standing Rock"

·         Working for an Indigenous Day instead of Columbus Day in Massachusetts (this could also combine with changing the Massachusetts Seal, which is pretty racist right now)  

·         Preparing to march on Washington on March 10

·         Funding Veterans for Peace who are helping people who have sacrificed a lot to be at Standing Rock; we raised $800 from passing the hat. 

·         Next step for DPP could be to add our individual contributions so we can raise this amount to an even $1000! Those who didn't get a chance to contribute last night, please contact Emmy.

We will connect with those who have given us their emails on these ideas, and other ideas. Send yours in!

Please send us your ideas too!

If you want to donate to the Veterans Fund, please make out a check to: 

Veterans for Peace (put Standing Rock in memo line)

c/o Emmy Rainwalker

8 Carruth St.

Dorchester, MA 02124 

Resources and Actions:

http://lastrealindians.com

https://risewithstandingrock.com/home

http://www.nodapl.life

https://tinyurl.com/BosDivest

https://www.facebook.com/WaterProtectorLegal/

https://www.facebook.com/Standing-Rock-Sioux-Tribe-402298239798452/

https://www.facebook.com/Indigenousrisingmedia/

http://www.unicornriot.ninja/

Livestreams and videos:

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoungTurks/search?query=Standing+rock

https://www.facebook.com/VeteransRespond/?pnref=story.unseen-section

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=digital%20smoke%20signals

Events

Indigenous People’s March in Washington DC, March 10

http://theindigenouspeoples.com/2017/02/05/biggest-march-planned-in-washington-d-c-for-standing-rock-on-march-10th/

*   *   *   *

How Will Native Tribes Fight the Dakota Access Pipeline in Court?

On Feb. 8 the US Army Corps of Engineers reversed course and issued an easement allowing the installation of the Dakota Access Pipeline under Lake Oahe in North Dakota. That decision followed a presidential memorandum indicating that construction and operation of the pipeline would be in the "national interest," and set the stage for a final showdown over the pipeline's fate. In response, two Indian tribes, the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux, filed new motions to halt the pipeline's construction and operation. After an initial hearing on those motions, the federal judge on the case allowed construction to proceed but will be considering the tribes' claims before oil will pass through the pipeline under Lake Oahe. That means, unlike the voices of thousands who joined the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in protest against the pipeline, the next chapter of this fight will be argued by a few lawyers in the pin drop silence of a federal courtroom.

In Boston -Passage at St. Augustine" Film Showings and Discussion, led by filmmaker Clennon L. King,

The showing at BPL Copley was rescheduled

"Passage at St. Augustine" Film Showings and Discussion, led by
filmmaker Clennon L. King, and Civil Rights veteran Mimi Jones (at the
Boston Public Library).

"Passage at St. Augustine" establishes America's Oldest City as home to
the most violent Civil Rights campaign of the entire Movement. Viewers
are transported back to this unlikely Florida tourist town to hear
first-hand from civil rights foot soldiers, Klansmen, journalists,
clergy, politicians and the like, who fought on the front lines of the
18-month battle that led directly to the passage of the landmark Civil
Rights Act of 1964. Despite MLK and LBJ headlining the film's real-life
cast, most come away asking why a campaign so pivotal appears to have
been wiped from the hard drive of History.

Saturday, February 18, 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. at the Mattapan Branch.

Monday March 8, 6 – 8 p.m. at the Central Library in Copley Square.
State Representative Byron Rushing will be part of the event's discussion.

Thursday, April 6, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.at the Dudley Branch.

Trailer
https://vimeo.com/135600497

Boston Public Library Programs
http://www.bpl.org/programs/

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Pivot Toward War: U.S. Missile Defense & the Weaponization of Space Conference

Pivot Toward War:

U.S. Missile Defense & the Weaponization of Space

25th Annual Space Organizing Conference & Protest

April 7-9, 2017

Huntsville, Alabama

Purpose

Join us for the Global Network’s 25th anniversary Space Organizing Conference and Protest at the home of Redstone Arsenal and the Space & Missile Defense Command, also known as the ‘Pentagon of the South’.

The effort by the Pentagon to develop and deploy the next generation of Star Wars weapons will increase global instability and cost hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.  The US Space Command has long maintained its mission is to create the technologies to ‘control and dominate’ space and the Earth below – ultimately on behalf of corporate interests.

This conference will allow citizens to learn more about these important issues and meet leaders from the growing international movements to Keep Space for Peace and Stop NATO expansion.

Fees

Registration for the conference will be on a sliding scale between $25-$75 (pay what you can best afford).  Lunch and supper on April 8 are included in your registration fee.  You can register online using the GN’s web site Donate Now button.  http://www.space4peace.org/ 

See the conference brochure at http://www.space4peace.org/actions/GN%202017%20Conference%20Brochure.pdf

Housing

We have reserved a block of rooms at the Springhill Suites Hotel (745 Constellation Place Dr) in downtown Huntsville for $99 per night (up to 4 persons per room).  (Contact us for details on reserving hotel rooms.) The hotel has an airport shuttle from the Huntsville airport. The Lowe Mill conference location is five minutes from the hotel. Limited home hospitality will also be available on a first come, first served basis.

Speakers/Music (List in formation) 

• Judy Collins (Vine & Fig Tree, Alabama)
• Bruce Gagnon (Global Network Coordinator, Maine)
• Dr. Shreedhar Gautam (President, Global Network Chapter Kathmandu, Nepal)
• Subrata Ghoshroy (Program in Science, Technology, and Society, MIT)
• William Griffin (Veterans For Peace, Georgia)
• Huntsville Feminist Chorus (Alabama)
• Joy Johnson (Green Party of Madison County, Alabama)
• Tarak Kauff (Veterans For Peace, New York)
• Hyun Lee (Task Force to Stop THAAD in Korea & Militarism in Asia & the Pacific, New York)
• Tiara Rose Naputi (Chamorro diaspora from Guam, Assistant Professor, Dept of Communication, University of Colorado)
• Agneta Norberg (Swedish Peace Council, Stockholm)
• Yasuo Ogata (Co-chair World Conference against A & H Bombs and former Member of Parliament, Upper House, Japan)
• Lindis Percy (Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, England)
• J. Narayana Rao (Global Network board member, India)
• Mary Beth Sullivan (PeaceWorks, Maine)
•  Im Sun-bun (Farmer, Korean Women's Peasants Association, Seongju, South Korea)
• Regis Tremblay (Filmmaker, Maine)
• Dave Webb (Global Network Board Convener & Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK)
• Lynda Williams (Physics faculty, Santa Rosa Junior College, California)
• Loring Wirble (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado)
• Col. Ann Wright (US Army retired, diplomat) * Keynote speaker

Conference Program

Friday, April 7

2:00 pm News Conference

4:00 – 5:30 Vigil at Redstone Arsenal/Marshall Space Flight Center – Gate 9 (Rideout Road, Exit 14 off Hwy 565)

6:00 Dinner at Las Parrillas Grill Mexican Restaurant (2713 Patton Rd SW, Exit 17 off Hwy 565)

8:00 Cash bar at hotel and film screening: Thirty Seconds to Midnight: The Final Wake-Up Call by Regis Tremblay

 

Saturday, April 8

8:30 – 9:00 am Registration at Flying Monkey Theatre (Lowe Mill, 2211 Seminole Dr, 2^ndfloor)

9:00 – 9:30 am Welcome & Purpose of Conference

9:30 – 10:00 Presentation: The US Space Global Warfighting System & Global Network Responses

10:15 – 11:45 Plenary Panel I -  A New Arms Race: Military Satellites, Drones, Prompt Global Strike, Military Space Plane, NSA Surveillance, & Mining the Sky

12:00 – 1:00  Lunch

1:15 – 2:30  Plenary Panel II – Asia-Pacific Pivot: Resistance to Missile Offense Radars & Interceptors

2:45 – 4:00 Plenary Panel III – Global Network Leader Reports from around the World

4:15 – 5:45 Plenary Panel IV – Alternative Vision: Transforming a War Economy to a Peace Economy - Organizing Strategies & Movement Building during the Trump Administration

6:00 – 8:00 Supper Program – Keynote Speakers & Music (Col. Ann Wright & Huntsville Feminist Chorus)

Sunday, April 9

10:00 am – Noon   Visit Space & Rocket Center Museum (Exit 15 off Hwy 565)

Sponsors (List in formation)  

• Gainesville Iguana (Florida)
• Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
• Greater Brunswick (Maine) PeaceWorks
• Green Party of Madison County (Alabama)
• Maine Natural Guard
• Nashville (TN) Greenlands
• North Alabama Peace Network
• Selma (Alabama) Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation
• Task Force to Stop THAAD in Korea & Militarism in Asia & the Pacific
• US Peace Council
• Veterans For Peace Chapter 99, Asheville, NC
• Veterans For Peace, Savannah (Georgia) Chapter 170
• Veterans For Peace National
• WorldBeyondWar.org

 

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
http://www.space4peace.org 
http://space4peace.blogspot.com  (blog)

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. - Henry David Thoreau

Boston Event- "Why Congress Should Start an Impeachment Investigation Now of President Donald Trump."

Dear RootsAction supporter, We're pleased to let you know about this upcoming event in Jamaica Plain, "Why Congress Should Start an Impeachment Investigation Now of President Donald Trump." RootsAction is co-sponsoring this important gathering with several groups including Free Speech For People, our partner in the Impeach Donald Trump Now campaign, which has already gained more than 875,000 signers nationwide. The event will feature a conversation with John Bonifaz, co-founder and president of Free Speech For People. Please see his letter below and let others know about this exciting event. Best wishes, The RootsAction.org Team The nation is now witnessing a massive corruption of the presidency, far worse than Watergate. By refusing to divest fully from his business interests, President Trump has been in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution from the moment he took the oath of office. The President is not above the law. We will not allow President Trump to profit from the presidency at the expense of our democracy. I hope you will join me on Thursday, March 2, in Jamaica Plain to learn more about our campaign at impeachdonaldtrumpnow.org and how you can get involved in this fight for our Constitution and our democracy. I will be speaking and taking questions that evening from 7pm to 9pm at the First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain. You can RSVP with our partners via Facebook, by clicking here. I hope to see you on March 2 in Jamaica Plain! John Bonifaz   www.RootsAction.org

You Need To Read This-The Great Intra-Class Confrontation of 2017 in the U.S.

The Great Intra-Class Confrontation of 2017 in the U.S.

http://lfsc.org/docs/Capitalist%20Crisis%202017%20-%20Rojas.pdf - English

http://lfsc.org/docs/Capitalist%20Crisis%202017%20-%20Rojas.pdf - Spanish

Planting Seed for Strikes in the Trump Era, #Strike4Democracy Sweeps Nation

Planting Seed for Strikes in the Trump Era, #Strike4Democracy Sweeps Nation

Posted by Staff

Date: February 17, 2017

in: Latest National News

“It’s a moment we’re in, where all the typical rules don’t entirely apply”

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–February 17, 2017

By:  Deirdre Fulton, staff writer...

tps://www.facebook.com/groups/strike4democracyF17/?multi_permalinks=1825073497753721&notif_t=group_highlights&notif_id=1487445108649405

Planting Seed for Strikes in the Trump Era, #Strike4Democracy Sweeps Nation

Posted by Staff

Date: February 17, 2017

in: Latest National News

“It’s a moment we’re in, where all the typical rules don’t entirely apply”

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–February 17, 2017

By:  Deirdre Fulton, staff writer...

In Massachusetts-Veterans Know Your Rights And Benefits-A Handbook

In Massachusetts-Veterans Know Your Rights And Benefits-A Handbook

By Political Commentator Frank Jackman

Nowadays as the Veterans Administration is increasingly talked about as being ripe for privatization by the Republican-controlled Congress and The Dump The Trump Administration. Talked about by people who are unlike us not veterans for the most part we need to be aware of all the benefits that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts provides in addition to VA benefits. Also local governments as well. The Commonwealth has put out this handy little handbook which contains a lot of information that even I was not aware of so check it out.   

I have been a supporter of Veterans for Peace for a long time and while we are concerned out in the streets with the struggle against war and other social issues we are also concerned that all veterans whether they agree or hot-temperature disagree with us get all the benefits to which they are entitled. And knowledge of those benefits and rights is the start of the process. Read on.  

Out In The Black Liberation Night- The Black Panthers And The Struggle For The Ten-Point Program- Four- A Home Of One's Own

Out In The Black Liberation Night- The Black Panthers And The Struggle For The Ten-Point Program- Four- A Home Of One's Own

Lettie Morse had been sitting on the rim of the world.  Lettie , all of eighteen, and sweet child- mother of three young children (ages, if you can believe this, and you will once the facts become known, two girls four and three and a boy, one) was just that moment sheltered against the rawness of life, if just for that moment, over at that Sally ‘s Harbor Lights safe house (Salvation Army for those not in need of their facilities and only familiar with their operations at supermarkets and the like ringing bells and seeking dollars at Christmas) in the deep South End section of  Boston over by Blackstone Park.  And like all such citizens caught up on the rim of the world Lettie had a story, and a dream too. Not a long story, not at eighteen, and not when one is on the rim of the world when just getting by from one day to the next, hell, just one step in front of you to the next, took up your hours, and not the stuff of story, or parable either.                 

See Lettie, sweet child-mother Lettie, considered herself, and was considered by friend and family alike to be, how to put it kindly, an ugly duckling (although motherhood became her as she held forth black Madonna-like in facing that one step after the next day), the runt of the litter of seven children when Vernon and Eleanor Morse (yes, named after the former First Lady, Mrs. Roosevelt, for her kindnesses toward  the Negro people) when they had come up from Clarksville down in the Mississippi delta after hearing that Boston was the “land of milk and honey” and had landed smack dab in the recently constructed Columbia Point Housing Project over by the waters of Dorchester Bay. As so whether that was a wise or foolish decision (probably wise given hellhole Mister James Crow Mississippi goddam) the “projects” was where Lettie came of age, came of age fast, too fast.     

She would not speak of her troubles adjusting, adjusting as best she could, to northern urban life, bunched up in a shared small corner room with two other pretty sisters slightly older, of the slow heavy as molasses drawl she inherited from her maternal grandmother and which drew howls of laughter at the junior high school that serviced the projects, or of the cruel ugly duckling taunts from boys (and a wayward girl or two). Like a lot of not pretty girls (and maybe pretty girls too but that is best left for another story, today we are on the rim of the world with black Madonna Lettie) she substituted being sexually available to the boys for anything else she might have felt. And they, as boys will, when the midnight whistle blows and they hear of some “easy piece” had their way with her, and then left her, left her that first time, well not exactly empty- handed, but with child, one of them anyway, and hence Christine .

Things went along okay for a while in that “projects”  Morse home, she making room for her baby in her shared room, but Lettie, got a little restless as young girls will, and a boy, a not from the projects boy, took an interest in her. What she did not know was that he was selling reefer like crazy to the kids over near Uphams Corner (a school nearby the central point of sales) and eventually got busted, busted flat and sent away to reform school for a while. However, not leaving her empty-handed and thus Shana. That episode broke the camel’s back in the Morse household as fragile as it was. Lettie was unceremoniously told to pack her bags and she did. And so with two small children, no money, no home and no prospects she hit the streets, the mean streets. Lettie said to tell you no matter how bad things get, no matter how rough you think life is stay away from Mister’s streets, from his trick streets, from his walking daddy hustler’s streets, from his pimp daddy streets. She learned that lesson the hard way although she was not left empty-handed and hence Robert, father unknown, maybe unknowable.

So things kind of went downhill from there for a while, as Lettie tried to keep her little family together, tried to get off the streets, tried to get off the rim of the world, and so she landed at the Sally’s  safe house. She would stay there as long as it took for that promised apartment in the Orchard Park Housing Authority to come through. And that thought, the thought of  getting off the rim of the world, that thought of fixing up a home, a home to keep her children safe, a home of her own kept her focused… 

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.

The Class of 1964-The Generation of '68-Innocence Lost

Commentary by Peter Paul Markin 

Recently, as part of a search for a pair of missing brothers from the neighborhood of my youth detailed in this space in the commentary Markin Takes A Turn As Neighborhood Historian, I contacted various members of my high school class, the Class of 1964, whom I knew, or through investigation, found out were still in the area and might be able to help. In conversations with a couple of them I found out about the fate of a number of former friends. One of the people I interviewed as a result happened to be a class officer and requested that I write a little resume of what I had been doing the past forty some odd years for the class record.

I have spent a fair among of ink in this space pointing out that I am part of the generation of ’68. I say that with no regrets whatsoever. I am, however, also part of the Class of 1964 that formed a solid core of the ‘68'ers. That is a different proposition, especially coming from a very, very working class high school that at the time had no minorities-none. The closest we came to that (pardon the silly joke from my youth), this being a heavily Irish area, was to have let a few Italians come in. The span of four years from 1964 to 1968 was not just a time of change but a virtual sea change for me. Below is the short commentary (edited somewhat to omit some local and family references).


The Class of 1964

I am now a proud member of the class of 1964, a class that started in 1960 with the hopes of a fresh breeze with the Kennedy Administration and its short-lived Camelot. Now in 2008 it looks like a new breeze like that of our youth might be blowing once again. For the kids’s sake I hope so. I would also note that I, along with many of you, are also part of the generation of ’68, a generation that raised some hell with the way things were done in this country. We lost that fight but some values remain from those times. All of this is by way of a preface to what I have been doing since high school.

Needless to say I got caught up in the politics of the time, civil rights, the fight against the Vietnam War, Bobby Kennedy’s ill-fated campaign, SDS-type organizations, the anti-war fight for the soul of the American Army and later other left-wing political causes. Ah, those were the days. I also did my share of time as a counter- cultural devotee, a ‘hippie’ living in various communal situations. You know the anthem-drugs, sex, rock and roll. Ah, those also were the days, as well. Then, in some ways unfortunately, I had to grow up. I have for the past thirty years been working as an educator. Along the way I had a mid-life crisis (you KNOW what that was) and went to back to school and got yet another degree. (Here I included some information about my family, etc.) …. Reading this little resume over I think I like the first part with the politics and the alternate lifestyle the best. I will say once again, ah, those were the days.

Once Again, Out In The Be-Bop Night-See Jack Run- The Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Elections of 1960

*Once Again, Out In The Be-Bop Night-See Jack Run- The Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Elections of 1960, A 50th Anniversary, Of Sorts

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/jfk-election-50-photos_n_780421.html

Click on the headline to link to a Huffington Post entry on the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's victory in the 1960 American Presidential Elections.

Markin comment:
A few weeks ago I mentioned, in an entry that amounted to a nostalgic 1960s Boston kid time trip down political memory lane, the following that links in with this entry posted under the sign of the 50th anniversary of Jack Kennedy’s presidential election victory election over one Richard Milhous Nixon, the arch-political villain of the age:

“During the course of the afternoon that event (the Patrick campaign event), and the particular locale where it was staged, brought back a flood of memories of my first serious organized political actions in 1960 when, as a lad of fourteen, I set out to “save the world.” And my soul, or so I thought at the time, as well. That was the campaign of our own, Jack Kennedy, as he ran for president against the nefarious sitting Vice President, one Richard Milhous Nixon. In the course of that long ago campaign he gave one of his most stirring speeches not far from where I stood on this Saturday (near the Hynes Center).

Although gathering troops (read: high school and college students) for that speech was not my first public political action of that year, a small SANE-sponsored demonstration against nuclear proliferation further up the same street was but I did not help to organize that one, the Kennedy campaign was the first one that hinted that I might, against all good sense, become a serious political junkie. Ya, I know, every mother warns their sons (then and now) and daughters (now) against such foolhardiness but what can you do. And, mercifully, I am still at it. And have wound up on the right side of the angels, to boot.

The funny thing about those triggered remembrances is that as far removed from bourgeois politics as I have been for about the last forty years I noticed many young politicos doing their youthful thing just as I did back then; passing out leaflets, holding banners, rousing the crowd, making extemporaneous little soapbox speeches, arguing with an occasional right wing Tea Party advocate, and making themselves hoarse in the process. In short, exhibiting all the skills (except the techno-savvy computer indoor stuff you do these days before such rallies) of a street organizer from any age, including communist street organizers. Now if those young organizers only had the extra-parliamentary left-wing politics to merge with those organizational skills. In short, come over to the side of the angels.

But that is where we come back to old Jack Kennedy and that 1960 campaign. Who would have thought that a kid, me, who started out walking door to door stuffing Jack Kennedy literature in every available door in 1960 but who turned off that road long ago would be saying thanks, Jack. Thanks for teaching me those political skills.”

And not just that thanks for heralding the break-out, or at least the attempted break-out of my 1960s generation from the Eisenhower-Nixon cold war death trap. See, at the time of the great attempted break-out from the confines of bourgeois society and the tracked career path all kinds of people seemed like they could be allies, and Jack Kennedy seemed a kindred spirit. I will not even mention Bobby, that one still brings a little tear to my eye. But enough of nostalgia we still have to fight to seek that newer world, to hear that high white note before everything comes crashing down on us.

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Below is an American Left History blog entry, dated, Thursday, August 23, 2007, entitled ON COMING OF POLITICAL AGE-Norman Mailer's The Presidential Papers to give a little flavor to the above commentary.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

ON COMING OF POLITICAL AGE-Norman Mailer's "The Presidential Papers"

Click on the headline to link to a "The New York Times" obituary for American writer Norman Mailer article, dated November 10, 2007.

COMMENTARY/BOOK REVIEW

THE PRESIDENTIAL PAPERS, NORMAN MAILER, VIKING, 1963

At one time, as with Ernest Hemingway, I tried to get my hands on everything that Norman Mailer wrote. In his prime he held out promise to match Hemingway as the preeminent male American prose writer of the 20th century. Mailer certainly has the ambition, ego and skill to do so. Although he wrote several good novels, like The Deer Park, in his time I believe that his journalistic work, as he himself might partially admit, especially his political, social and philosophical musings are what will insure his place in the literary pantheon. With that in mind I recently re-read his work on the 1960 political campaign-the one that pitted John F. Kennedy against Richard M. Nixon- that is the center of the book under review. There are other essays in this work, some of merely passing topical value, but what remains of interest today is a very perceptive analysis of the forces at work in that pivotal election. Theodore White won his spurs breaking down the mechanics of the campaign and made a niche for himself with The Making of a President, 1960. Mailer in a few pithy articles gave the overview of the personalities and the stakes involved for the America of that time.

Needless to say the Kennedy victory of that year has interest today mainly for the forces that it unleashed in the base of society, especially, but not exclusively, among the youth. His rather conventional bourgeois Cold War foreign policy and haphazard domestic politics never transcended those of the New and Fair Deals of Roosevelt and Truman but his style, his youth and his élan seemingly gave the go ahead to all sorts of projects in order to ‘‘seek a newer world”. And we took him up on this. This writer counted himself among those youth who saw the potential to change the world. We also knew that if the main villain of the age , one Richard Milhous Nixon, had been successful in 1960 as he graphically demonstrated when he later became president we would not be seeing any new world but the same old, same old.

I have been, by hook or by crook, interested in politics from an early age. Names like the Rosenbergs, Joseph McCarthy, Khrushchev and organizations like Americans for Democratic Action and the like were familiar to me if not fully understood then. I came of political age with the 1960 presidential campaign. Mailer addresses the malaise of American political life during the stodgy Eisenhower years that created the opening for change-and Kennedy and his superb organization happily rushed in. These chances, as a cursory perusal of the last 40 odd years of bourgeois presidential politics makes painfully clear, do not come often. The funny thing is that during most of 1960 I was actually ‘Madly for Adlai’, that is I preferred Adlai Stevenson the twice defeated previous Democratic candidate, but when the deal went down at the advanced age of 14 I walked door to door talking up Kennedy. Of course, in Massachusetts that was not a big deal but I still recall today that I had a very strong sense I did not want to be left out of the new age ‘aborning’. That, my friends, in a small way is the start of that slippery road to the ‘lesser evil’ practice that dominates American politics and a habit that took me a fairly long time to break.

Mailer has some very cutting, but true, remarks about the kind of people who populate the political milieu down at the base of bourgeois politics, those who make it to the political conventions. Except that today they are better dressed and more media savvy nothing has changed. Why? Bourgeois politics, not being based on any fidelity to program except as a throwaway, is all about winning (and fighting to keep on winning). This does not bring out the "better angels of our nature." For those old enough to remember that little spark of youth that urged us on to seek that "newer world" and for those too young to have acquired knowledge of anything but the myth Mailer’s little book makes for interesting and well-written reading.