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
REMINDER- Save the Date: Film - "National Bird: Drone Wars"
Why is our government killing thousands of people around the globe they can’t even identify?
See National Bird, a film about the secret US drone assassination program.
Central Square Library 45 Pearl St, Cambridge Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 7 pm
Directed by Sonia Kennebeck, this powerful documentary follows the dramatic journey of three whistleblowers who are determined to break the silence around one of the most controversial current affairs issues of our time: the hidden U.S. drone war, which has escalated under President Trump.
Plagued by PTSD and guilt over participating in the killing of thousands of faceless people, including children, they courageously decide to speak out publicly, despite the possible severe consequences. The film also interviews people on the ground in Afghanistan whose families and lives have been shattered by the deaths and lost futures of those who have been injured and terrorized by drones.
After the film there will be a short discussion with suggestions of things we can do to stop this immoral and indefensible form of warfare.
Refreshments served.
Sponsored by Eastern Massachusetts Anti-Drones Network, a task force of UJP (United for Justice with Peace) JusticeWithPeace.org, (617) 776-6524.
Co-sponsored by Mass Peace Action, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Veterans For Peace, Smedley Butler Brigade
#OccupyTrumpcare National Week of Action: July 8 -15
Mass Action Needed to Ensure Defeat of Trumpcare!
Trumpcare isn’t dead, and we need to do everything we can to stop it. The Republicans in Congress are going to come back from the July 4th recess determined to try to get this reactionary legislation passed.
Trumpcare is a savage attack on working people and the poor. If passed, it will deny tens of millions access to healthcare and represent one of the greatest transfers of wealth from the working class to the 1% in U.S. history through massive tax cuts for the super-rich and corporations.
We need a full mobilization of the opposition to Trumpcare through rallies, protests, and occupations of Republican Senators’ offices. The Republicans are struggling to overcome internal divisions, but we need to keep the pressure up to ensure defeat of Trumpcare.
Our Revolution, the Democratic Socialists of America and others are calling for non-violent sit-ins across the country on Thursday, July 6th against Trumpcare. These are exactly the type of determined actions we need to build a movement from below to defeat Trump’s agenda.
Socialist Alternative and our partners in Movement for the 99% also feel we need to keep that movement going when Congress returns to session. That’s why we’re helping to initiate a week of action from July 8th to July 15th to #OccupyTrumpcare. Please join us at the protests, occupations and speak-outs that we’ll be initiating.
Please chip in $15, $27, or $100 to build mass actions against Trumpcare this coming week! We need to print thousands of picket signs and to make sure we have a legal fund for any arrests.
There is mass opposition across the country, we need all opponents of Trumpcare to unite behind a strategy of mobilizing the full breadth of that opposition, similar to the mass rallies around Trump’s inauguration when millions marched in the streets. With a well-organized mobilization and an escalating series of mass actions we can help ensure the Republican bill fails. A victory on this issue could help give confidence to the fight for Medicare for all. We could build upon our momentum to organize to ensure guaranteed, quality healthcare for everyone at the state level and nationally. To achieve these goals, we have to rely on our own strength, not the corporate-controlled leadership of the Democratic Party.
The first step in winning our demands, defeating the Republican agenda and bringing down Trump is to defeat this reactionary legislation once and for all.
We need all hands on deck to #OccupyTrumpcare! We are organizing rallies and occupations across the country. We will send out more information in the coming days of where and when you can join an action!
Negotiations are underway at the United Nations to ban nuclear weapons. That is a remarkable statement.
Last October, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to begin negotiations in 2017 on “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”. Today, 123 nations are involved in an intricate process to bring about such a treaty. The nine nuclear weapons states and most of their military allies have refused to participate. This follows nearly forty years of no serious progress toward disarmament, a process to which most nations, including the United States and then Soviet Union, legally bound themselves under the terms of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970.
So why is this important?
Because “Nuclear weapons are unique in their destructive power, in the unspeakable human suffering they cause, ….in the threat they pose to the environment, to future generations, and indeed to the survival of humanity.” – International Committee of the Red Cross
Because “Human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.” – the Hibakusha, the Atom Bomb Survivors of Japan
Because “We are closer to a nuclear war than at any time during or since the cold war.” – former Defense Secretary Adm. William Perry
Because “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be waged.” – the late President Ronald Reagan
Because “Nuclear weapons are incompatible with the values upheld by our respective faith traditions.” - Faith Communities Concerned about Nuclear Weapons (endorsed by UUA)
Because the very first resolution adopted by the General Assembly in 1946 called for “the elimination of atomic weapons’ and today there are approximately 14,900 nuclear weapons held by a small number of nuclear armed states, threatening the security of the entire world, and all of them are expanding and/or modernizing their nuclear arsenals.
Because the Challenger disaster, Fukushima, and the events leading to World War I demonstrate that complex systems fail, unexpected conditions occur, and human judgement is faulty, leading to the unthinkable.
Demonstrator calling for "No More Nukes" and "End the Arms Race" at the Women's March to Ban the Bomb.
But what is the point of a nuclear weapons ban if the nuclear weapons states are not participating? The United Nations has succeeded in implementing world-wide prohibitions on most weapons of mass destruction (e.g., chemical and biological), and on other especially horrific weapons systems (e.g. cluster bombs and land mines). This treaty will be passed --- there is no veto in the General Assembly. It commits the signatories to a future without nuclear weapons and lays out a pathway for the nuclear weapons states to join them. The belief is that the treaty will lead to the stigmatization of nuclear weapons and generate world-wide pressure toward their elimination.
Past disarmament efforts have focused on strategic issues. Although the treaty will address monitoring and enforceability, the foundation of this treaty rests with the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. It seeks to establish a comprehensive framework to deal with both the past severe and long-lasting consequences of the development, testing, manufacture and use of atomic weapons, as well as preventing the horrific consequences of any future use.
Jerry Ross at the Women's March to Ban the Bomb in NYC.
On June 17th, I participated in the Women’s March to Ban the Bomb organized in New York City by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the oldest women’s peace organization in the world. It was one of 150 solidarity actions taking place around the world in support of these treaty negotiations. The WILPF has been one of the prime movers among the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society that have generated the impetus leading to this extraordinary ban treaty effort. You can go to the Reaching Critical Will website to learn more about the treaty and what is going on at these negotiations on a day by day basis. Then contact your Congressperson, talk to your friends, neighbors, anyone who will listen: tell them the United States must participate in these negotiations and join this treaty. On at least three other occasions, the world has missed the opportunity to remove these weapons from our midst forever. We cannot let this chance pass us by.
At the Ban the Bomb Rally in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, demonstrators hold a banner showing support from almost 3 million Hibakusha to ban nuclear weapons.
At our Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office (UU-UNO) Intergenerational Spring Seminar this April (shortly after the treaty negotiations began), nuclear disarmament was one of the main themes. Earlier, I worked with our UU-UNO Director Bruce Knotts to encourage the UUA to endorse an interfaith statement supporting the treaty effort, which they did. Since 1962 there have been thirteen (13) Social Witness Statements adopted by the UUA on the restriction or elimination of nuclear weapons, along with the sign-on of innumerable related letters to public officials, open statements, shareholder letters, and amicus.
International peace issues are a priority of the UU-UNO. As Director, Bruce Knotts has been a leader among NGOs focusing on peace and justice issues, and for over four years has served as chair of the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security. Bruce has been active during these treaty negotiations helping to lead interfaith prayer services and discussions. It is an extraordinary gift for us to have the voice of the UU-UNO supporting our values within this representative body of the world community. What a priceless instrument we’ve been given to work toward the realization of our 6th Principle: the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.
Jerry Ross is the UU-UNO Envoy for First Parish in Bedford (MA) UU
In The Age Of A Cold Civil War-Immigrant Or Citizen- Know Your Rights From The ACLU-Short Course
Comment
In the age of Trump no matter how many generations you and yours have been here in America the beginning of wisdom is to know your rights such as they are and who to contact if they “come in the morning” for you and yours.
Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-In Honor Of The Frontline Defenders Of The International Working Class-From Our Forebears The Diggers Of The English Revolution-“The World Turned Upside Down”
A YouTube film clip of Billy Bragg (Known In This Space As Narrator Of Woody Guthrie And His Guitar: The Machine Kills Fascists )performing The World Turned Upside Down.
**** An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend The International Working Class Everywhere!
******** Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It Back! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule! ******** A Five-Point Program As Talking Points
*Jobs For All Now!-“30 For 40”- A historic demand of the labor movement. Thirty hours work for forty hours pay to spread the available work around. Organize the unorganized- Organize the South- Organize Wal-Mart- Defend the right for public and private workers to unionize. * Defend the working classes! No union dues for Democratic (or the stray Republican) candidates. Spent the dough instead on organizing the unorganized and on other labor-specific causes (good example, the November, 2011 anti-union recall referendum in Ohio, bad example the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall race in June 2012). *End the endless wars!- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops (And Mercenaries) From Afghanistan! Hands Off Pakistan! Hands Off Iran! U.S. Hands Off The World! *Fight for a social agenda for working people!. Quality Healthcare For All! Nationalize the colleges and universities under student-teacher-campus worker control! Forgive student debt! Stop housing foreclosures! *We created the wealth, let’s take it back. Take the struggle for our daily bread off the historic agenda. Build a workers party that fights for a workers government to unite all the oppressed. ************ As Isaac Deutscher said in his speech “On Socialist Man” (1966): “We do not maintain that socialism is going to solve all predicaments of the human race. We are struggling in the first instance with the predicaments that are of man’s making and that man can resolve. May I remind you that Trotsky, for instance, speaks of three basic tragedies—hunger, sex and death—besetting man. Hunger is the enemy that Marxism and the modern labour movement have taken on.... Yes, socialist man will still be pursued by sex and death; but we are convinced that he will be better equipped than we are to cope even with these.” ************** Emblazon on our red banner-Labor and the oppressed must rule!
*********** Markin comment: In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here. THE FOLLOWING IS A SONG BASED ON THE DIGGER EXPERIENCE IN 1650
If John Milton was the literary muse of the English Revolution then the Diggers and their leader, Gerrard Winstanley, were the political muses.
The World Turned Upside Down We will not worship the God they serve, a God of greed who feeds the rich while poor folk starve. In 1649 to St. George's Hill A ragged band they called the Diggers came to show the people's will They defied the landlords, they defied the laws They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs. We come in peace, they said, to dig and sow We come to work the lands in common and make the waste ground grow This earth divided we will make whole So it may be a common treasury for all "** The sin of property we do disdain No man has any right to buy or sell the earth for private gain By theft and murder they took the land Now everywhere the walls spring up at their command They make the laws to chain us well The clergy dazzle us with heaven, or they damn us into hell We will not worship the God they serve, a God of greed who feeds the rich while poor folk starve We work and eat together, we need no swords We will not bow to masters, nor pay rent to the lords Still we are free, though we are poor Ye Diggers all, stand up for glory, stand up now! From the men of property the orders came They sent the hired men and troopers to wipe out the Diggers' claim Tear down their cottages, destroy their corn They were dispersed - only the vision lingers on Ye poor take courage, ye rich take care This earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share All things in common, all people one They came in peace - the order came to cut them down WORDS AND MUSIC BY LEON ROSSELSON, 1981
Click on the title to link to a "Wikipedia" entry for heroic sans-culottes of the French revolution.
Every January, as readers of this blog are now, hopefully, familiar with the international communist movement honors the 3 Ls-Lenin, Luxemburg and Leibknecht, fallen leaders of the early 20th century communist movement who died in this month (and whose untimely deaths left a huge, irreplaceable gap in the international leadership of that time). January is thus a time for us to reflect on the roots of our movement and those who brought us along this far. In order to give a fuller measure of honor to our fallen forbears this January, and in future Januarys, this space will honor others who have contributed in some way to the struggle for our communist future. That future classless society, however, will be the true memorial to their sacrifices.
Note on inclusion: As in other series on this site (“Labor’s Untold Story”, “Leaders Of The Bolshevik Revolution”, etc.) this year’s honorees do not exhaust the list of every possible communist worthy of the name. Nor, in fact, is the list limited to Bolshevik-style communists. There will be names included from other traditions (like anarchism, social democracy, the Diggers, Levellers, Jacobins, etc.) whose efforts contributed to the international struggle. Also, as was true of previous series this year’s efforts are no more than an introduction to these heroes of the class struggle. Future years will see more detailed information on each entry, particularly about many of the lesser known figures. Better yet, the reader can pick up the ball and run with it if he or she has more knowledge about the particular exploits of some communist militant, or to include a missing one.
The 50th Anniversary Of The Summer Of Love, 1967- An Encore -Out In The Be-Bop 1960s Night- When The Music’s Over-On The Anniversary Of Janis Joplin’s Death
From The Pen Of Sam Lowell
Scene: Brought to mind by the cover art on some deep fogged memory producing, maybe acid-etched flashback memory at the time, accompanying CD booklet tossed aside on the coffee table by a guy from the old days, the old New York University days, Jeff Mackey, who had been visiting Sarah, Josh Breslin’s wife of the moment. Jeff had just placed the CD on the CD player, the intricacies of fine-tuned down-loading from YouTube beyond anybody’s stoned capacity just then and so the “primitive” technology (stoned as in “turned on,” doped up, high if you like just like in the old days as well although Josh had gone to State U not NYU but the times were such that such transactions were universal and the terms “pass the bong” and “don’t bogart that join” had passed without comment). Don’t take that “wife of the moment” too seriously either since that was a standing joke between Sarah and Josh (not Joshua, Joshua was dad, the late Joshua Breslin, Jr.) since in a long life they had managed five previous marriages (three by him, two by her) and scads of children and two scads of grandchildren (who had better not see this piece since grandma and grandpa have collectively expended many jaws-full hours of talkabout the danger of demon drugs, the devil’s work even if only with a half-hearted sincerity since they fully expected that those younger kids like their own kids would experiment, would "puff the magic dragon" and then move on).
When Josh had picked up that tossed aside booklet he noticed awispy, blue-jeaned, blouse hanging off one shoulder, bare-foot, swirling mass of red hair, down home Janis Joplin-like female performer belting out some serious blues rock in the heat of the “Generation of ‘68” night. (The Generation of "68 designation a term of art among the brethren still standing who had faced down that seminal year in the history of the 1960s, some calling it the ebb tide year although Josh had pushed that forward over the years to 1971 the year when they had utterly failed to shut down the government if it would not shut the Vietnam War.) The woman maybe kin to Janis, maybe not, but certainly brethren who looked uncannily like his first ex-wife, Laura, who had taught him many little sex things learned from a trip to India and close attention to the Kama Sutra which he had passed on to everybody thereafter including Sarah. And no again don’t take that wistful though about Laura as anything but regret since their civil wars had passed a long time before and beside Laura had not been heard from since the time she went down to Rio and was presumably shacked up with some dope king or diamond king or something probably still earning her keep with those little India tricks. (Strange to think that straight-laced Forest Lawn-raised Laura knew all the tricks that some courtesans would blush at sine a look at her would say virgin until marriage. No way.
Still looking at the tantalizing artwork Josh thought of the time of our time, passed. Of wistful women belting out songs, band backed-up and boozed-up, probably Southern Comfort if the dough was tight and there had been ginger ale or ice to cut the sweet taste or if it was late and if the package store was short of some good cutting whiskey, but singing, no, better evoking, yes, evoking barrelhouse down-trodden black empresses and queens from somewhere beyond speaking troubled times, a no good man taking up with that no good best girlfriendof hers who drew a bee-line to him when that empress advertised his charms, no job, no prospect of a job and then having to go toe to toe with that damn rent collector man on that flattened damn mattress that kept springing holes, maybe no roof over a head and walking the streets picking up tricks to pass the time, no pocket dough, no prospects and a ton of busted dreams in some now forgotten barrelhouse, chittlin’ circuit bowling alley complete with barbecued ribs smoking out back or in a downtown “colored” theater. Or the echo of that scene, okay. Jesus, maybe he had better kick that dope thing before he actually did start heading to Rio.
*******
Josh Breslin (a. k. a. the Prince of Love, although some merry prankster yellow brick road bus wit made a joke of that moniker calling him the Prince of Lvov, some Podunk town in Poland, or someplace like that, maybe Russia he was not sure of the geography all he knew was that he had made a wag wiggle a little for his indiscretion) was weary, weary as hell, road- weary, drug-weary, Captain Crunch’s now Big Sur–based magical mystery tour, merry prankster, yellow brick road bus-weary, weary even of hanging out with his “papa,” “Far-Out” Phil Larkin who had gotten him through some pretty rough spots weary. Hell, he was girl-weary too, girl weary ever since his latest girlfriend, Gypsy Lady (nee Phyllis McBride but in a time when everyone in youth nation was shedding "slave" names the moniker of the day or week was the way that you identified most fellow travelers-that was just the way it was and kind of nice when you thought about it-wouldn't you rather be Moonbeam than some Susan something), decided that she just had to go back to her junior year of college at Berkeley in order to finish up some paper on the zodiac signs and their meaning for the new age rising. Yeah, okay Gypsy, do what you have to do, the Prince mused to himself. Chuckled really, term paper stuff was just not his “thing” right then. Hell, he had dropped out of State U, dropped out of Laura Perkin’s life, dropped out of everything to chase the Western arroyo desert ocean washed dream that half his generation was pursuing just then.
Moreover this summer of 1968, June to be exact, after a year bouncing between summers of love, 1967 version to be exact, autumns of drugs, strange brews of hyper-colored experience drugs and high shamanic medicine man aztec druid flame throws, winters of Paseo Robles brown hills discontent, brown rolling hills until he sickened of rolling, the color brown, hills, slopes, plains, everything, and springs of political madness what with Johnson’s resignation, Robert Kennedy’s assassination piled on to that of Martin Luther King’s had taken a lot out of him, including his weight, weight loss that his already slim former high school runner’s frame could not afford.
Now the chickens had come home to roost. Before he had joined Captain Crunch’s merry prankster crew in San Francisco, got “on the bus,” in the youth nation tribal parlance, last summer he had assumed, after graduating from high school, that he would enter State U in the fall (University of Maine, the Prince is nothing but a Mainiac, Olde Saco section, for those who did not know). After a summer of love with Butterfly Swirl though before she went back to her golden-haired surfer boy back down in Carlsbad (his temperature rose even now every time he thought about her and her cute little tricks to get him going sexually and she had never heard of the Kama Sutra) and then a keen interest in a couple of other young women before Gypsy Lady landed on him, some heavy drug experiences that he was still trying to figure out, his start–up friendship with Phil, and the hard fact that he just did not want to go home now that he had found “family” decided that he needed to “see the world” for a while instead. And he had, at least enough to weary him.
What he did not figure on, or what got blasted into the deep recesses of his brain just a couple of days ago, was a letter from his parents with a draft notice from his local board enclosed. Hell’s bells he had better get back, weary or not, and get some school stuff going real fast, right now fast. There was one thing for sure, one nineteen-year old Joshua Lawrence Breslin, Olde Saco, Maine High School Class of 1967, was not going with some other class of young men to ‘Nam to be shot at, or to shoot.
Funny, Josh thought, as he mentally prepared himself for the road back to Olde Saco, how the past couple of months had just kind of drifted by and that he really was ready to get serious. The only thing that had kind of perked him up lately was Ruby Red Lips (nee Sandra Kelly), who had just got “on the bus” from someplace down South like Georgia, or Alabama and who had a great collection of blues records that he was seriously getting into (as well as seriously into Miss Ruby, as he called her as a little bait, a little come on bait, playing on her somewhere south drawl, although she seemed slow, very slow, to get his message).
Josh, all throughout high school and even on the bus, was driven by rock ‘n’ roll. Period. Guys like Elvis, Chuck, Jerry Lee, even a gal like Wanda Jackson, when they were hungry, and that hunger not only carried them to the stars but slaked some weird post-World War II, red scare, cold war hunger in guys like Josh Breslin although he never, never in a million years would have articulated it that way back then. That was infernal Captain Crunch’s work (Captain was the “owner” of the “bus” and a story all his own but that is for another time) always trying to put things in historical perspective or the exact ranking in some mythical pantheon that he kept creating (and recreating especially after a “dip” of Kool-Aid, LSD for the squares, okay).
But back to Ruby love. He got a surprise one day when he heard Ruby playing Shake, Rattle, and Roll. He asked, “Is that Carl Perkins?” Ruby laughed, laughed a laugh that he found appealing and he felt was meant to be a little coquettish and said, “No silly, that's the king of be-bop blues, Big Joe Turner. Want to hear more stuff?” And that was that. Names like Skip James, Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters and Little Walter started to fill his musical universe.
What got him really going though were the women singers, Sippie Wallace that someone, Bonnie Raitt or Maria Muldaur, had found in old age out in some boondock church social or something, mad Bessie Smith squeezed dry, freeze-dried by some no account Saint Louis man and left wailing, empty bed, gin house wailing ever after, a whole bunch of other barrelhouse blues-singers named Smith, Memphis Minnie, the queen of the double entendre, sex version, with her butcher, baker, candlestick-maker men, doing, well doing the do, okay, and the one that really, really got to him, “Big Mama” Thornton. The latter belting out a bluesy rendition of Hound Dog made just for her that made Elvis' seem kind of punk, and best of all a full-blast Piece Of My Heart.
Then one night Ruby took him to club over in Monterrey just up the road from the Big Sur merry prankster yellow bus camp, the Blue Note, a club for young blues talent, mainly, that was a stepping-stone to getting some work at the Monterrey Pop Festival held each year. There he heard, heard if you can believe this, some freckled, red-headed whiskey-drinking off the hip girl (or maybe some cheap gin or rotgut Southern Comfort, cheap and all the in between rage for those saving their dough for serious drugs).
Ya just a wisp of a girl, wearing spattered blue-jeans, some damn moth-eaten tee-shirt, haphazardly tie-dyed by someone on a terminal acid trip, barefoot, from Podunk, Texas, or maybe Oklahoma, (although he had seen a fair share of the breed in Fryeburg Fair Maine) who was singing Big Mama’s Piece of My Heart. And then Ball and Chain, Little School Girl, and Little Red Rooster.
Hell, she had the joint jumping until the early hours for just as long as guys kept putting drinks in front of her. And maybe some sweet sidle promise, who knows in that alcohol blaze around three in the morning. All Josh knew was this woman, almost girlish except for her sharp tongue and that eternal hardship voice, that no good man, no luck except bad luck voice, that spoke of a woman’s sorrow back to primordial times, had that certain something, that something hunger that he recognized in young Elvis and the guys. And that something Josh guessed would take them over the hump into that new day they were trying to create on the bus, and a thousand other buses like it. What a night, what a blues singer.
The next day Ruby Red Lips came over to him, kind of perky and kind of with that just slightly off-hand look in her eye that he was getting to catch on to when a girl was interested in him, and said, “Hey, Janis, that singer from the Blue Note, is going to be at Monterrey Pops next month with a band to back her up, want to go? And, do you want to go to the Blue Note with me tonight?” After answering, yes, yes, to both those questions the Prince of Love (and not some dinky Lvov either, whoever that dull-wit was) figured he could go back to old life Olde Saco by late August, sign up for State U., and still be okay but that he had better grab Ruby now while he could.
