***In Sunnier Times- When The North Adamsville Class of 1964 50^th Reunion Rose Was In Bloom

 

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman   

Introduction

If anybody, if I can, say anything about Sam Lowell it is that he is intrepid. Sam, an old corner boy known to me from the streets of North Adamsville, specifically from standing alongside of him on the corner of Main and Hancock “up the Downs” in front of Salducci’s Pizza Parlor, “holding up the wall” as we called it all through high school. A while back, maybe a few months now after we got back contact through his work in publicizing the 50^th anniversary North Adamsville Class of 1964 reunion after not having seen each other for several years, I told a rather long story about how he, via the magic of the Internet, in the fall of 2013 got in touch with a woman classmate, Melinda Loring, on the website established by the Class of 1964 reunion committee. Well with that contact one thing or another happened and he wound up having a short, painfully short, fling with her which broke apart for some reasons that he never could understand and some like that fact that he was “married” which he could. Short or not, that affair wound up breaking up in an acrimonious way with bad blood, very bad blood with ugly words and vows never to speak to each other again, between the two before the flame flickered out (those vows not a good thing since each had planned to go to the reunion, initially they were to go together).

Nevertheless Sam, who also wound up drafting himself onto that reunion committee early on, continues for his own arcane reasons to spread the word about the reunion, encouraging one and all to get on board. Here is the odd thing though due to that bad blood parting between them Sam has no intention of going to that reunion, although she will be going since unlike Sam she has gone to several previous ones. That is why Sam rightly deserves the designation “intrepid” although I think he is foolish to keep touting the event if he is not going. By the way this little piece will not find its way onto the class website so nobody should know yet that he is not going. Here is something that is no secret I never had any intention of going so I don’t care who knows that fact or when. But enough of this. Sam wanted me to write up a little something for him about his work to get people to the reunion. Here goes, and thanks Sam for your efforts whatever I think of their worth.

 

This is genesis:

As I noted in my introduction in the late fall of 2013 Sam Lowell was getting antsy about putting something together, or helping to put something together, for the 50^th reunion of our class, the North Adamsville (Massachusetts) Class of 1964. This was something of a surprise to me since a while before, maybe a year before, we had both mentioned that we had not gone to the 40th anniversary reunion when somehow through the then current technologic wizardry that reunion committee was able to send invitations to both of us. In that intervening time Sam had softened his stance after a few visits to the old town, and a couple of family deaths, and he kind of dragged me along in his enthusiasm, although not enthusiastic enough to attend the reunion, even though it had been a long time since we were close, corner boy close in high school days.

So Sam started putting out feelers, logically starting from the names he remembered from the 40^th reunion committee. That logic was aided by the fact that one of the committee was a woman, Sonia Loft, who also happened to be the secretary to the headmaster of the high school, and when he checked that lead it turned out she was still working at that position. He thereafter sent the following e-mail gathered from the North Adamsville High School website (praise be, Internet):     

 

“Hi Sonia Loft (sorry I do not know your married name if you are married but on the NAHS website you are listed under that name)- If I recall from a flyer I received then you and Jerry Doherty, who I remember you dated in high school and who lived next door to my grandparents, the Rileys, over on Young Street, if you don’t recall who I am without recourse to the Magnet [class yearbook],were the central organizers for the 40^th reunion of the NAHS Class of 1964 in 2004 so I wanted to contact you and see if there are any plans afoot for the 50^th next year. If so I would be happy to work on the organizing committee. If not, are you up for forming a committee to do that organizing? If we can get five or six people from the area to meet that would get us started. You are listed as the Headmaster’s   secretary at NAHS. That is invaluable. Also below is a note I want to send around to various sites (NA Alumni, Classmates, Facebook, etc.) once I know what is up in order to get a feel for whether we would have enough attendees to make it worthwhile.  Thanks for your time. Later Sam Lowell–samuellowell86@comcast.net”  

As a result of that e-mail Sonia sent Sam her private telephone number at NAHS and urged him to call her for information about a reunion committee that was then just being formed. He did so and was given information about a soon occurring meeting of the committee and, more importantly (or as turned out more ominously as later events testified to), information about a new class website that was being constructed by Donna Wells, the class vice president back in the day:

“Hi Donna- I talked to Sonia Loft today informing her that I want to be on the reunion committee. She informed me that there is a meeting next week, December 5th, in Rutland. I will attend (from the North Adamsville64 website it looks right now like there are only women on the committee so I will help balance things out) if you could please send the time and address and anything else needed I would appreciate it. Also I had set up a Facebook website North Adamsville Class of 1964 Reunion before I found out from Sonia today that a committee had already been formed so perhaps we could link this site with that one since many people use Facebook who might not know this site. I will update the new information about this site there now- Later Sam Lowell- samuellowell86@comcast.net

https://www.facebook.com/pages/North-Adamsville-High-School-Class-Of-1964-Reunion/547771395433314”  

That done Sam started working the common North Adamsville-related sites that he found through Google looking to see what the interest level was and for volunteers. Here is an example of the basic e-mail pitch: 

 

“Hi Jim - I am starting to try to get people together to organize a 50th reunion (Ouch!) –Don’t ask me why but I am feeling some old time breeze coming from Adamsville Bay smacking me in the face to help put this together. Are you up for it? Would you attend? Are you still in contact with 1964 NAHS in your social network (nice term, huh)? Let them know what's afoot -Right now this is just in the startup phase but we want to see who is in, and who wants to help organize this thing. I have set up an event page on Facebook- North Adamsville  High School Class of 1964 Reunion-Check it out- Later Sam Lowell- Sam Lowell- samuellowell86@comcast.net ”

 Once the class website (NA64.com, easy right) had been set up with a complete class list and space for individual profile pages Sam put the following pitch on his profile page:     

 

“Hi Class of 1964- I would like to help get people together to organize our 50th reunion (Ouch!) –Don’t ask me why but I am feeling some old time breeze in my bones coming from the tepid waters of Adamsville Bay, coming from the dusty old tree-named, Indian-named (oops, Native American-named) streets, and ocean-named streets of our town smacking me in the face. Coming too from some old bleeding Raider red and black nostalgia that I have not, well, have not felt since the day in June 1964 when we threw our collective caps in the air at Veterans Stadium and went out to face the world, a world that we didn’t create and were not asked about but which we faced as best we could. Coming, hell, from mind’s memory of steamy summers at Adamsville Beach, HoJo’s ice cream, deathly school lunches, running around tracks and on the streets in shorts subject to the whims of irate drivers and old lady pedestrians, also irate, cheering myself silly at those titanic football battles, especially senior year, on those granite-grey leafy autumn afternoons (nice, huh).

And too reflecting on that fresh clean breathe of the “newer world” that was in the air just then. (As I write this on November 22, 2013, no need to ask what happened on that date or where we were not with this audience, overwhelmed by that little sadness that our dreams, our outrageous over-sized youthful dreams, might have been shortened up just a bit, that that day some portentous ebb of history would hold us back.)   

All this telling me to help put this reunion idea together since this is effectively our last shot at coming together under the sign of a significant anniversary. To see our respective old gangs collectively for probably the last time that the clan would be able to gather on a significant occasion what with death, disability, forgetfulness and just plain fright at the idea of a next time taking their toll. That the next significant milestone, the 75^th , assuming that the mania for oddball celebration years like 30^th , 45^th , and 60^th , or worst 38^th ,48^th or 68^th has no fully taken root by then we would all be at or approaching ninety-three. A very scary thought, the thought of holding a reunion at some assisted living site or nursing home. No thank you. Now or never.

Are you up for it? Would you attend? Are you still in contact with 1964 NAHS in your “social network” (nice term, huh, formerly known as friends and acquaintances)? Let them know what's afoot – As well as this site I have also set up an event page on Facebook - North Adamsville High School Class of 1964 Reunion- and other sites to reach out. Later Sam Lowell”

And Sam was not finished as he set up event pages and made contacts on various sites. Here is an early example:

 

“First Notice Updated (Made Simple I Hope- Just Click Below) –Save The Date -Spread The Word To Any Class Of 1964 People You Are In Contact With

 

Fellow classmates from the North Adamsville High School Class of 1964- On behalf of the Reunion Committee I invite you go to the newly established class website- click here-

 

http://www.northadamsville 64.com/class_index.cfm

 

-to find out more information about the planned 50^th anniversary class reunion. The reunion is scheduled for the weekend of September 20^th 2014 at the Best Western Adams Inn in North Adamsville (adjacent to the Neptune Bridge and river if you haven’t been to NA lately). We also invite you to join the website, create your own profile page, and share whatever you want to share with your fellow classmates. Sorry for the generic nature of this message. Sorry also if you received this message more than once if you belong to various NA-related sites.”      

And Sam individualized some information as well:

 

“Jim- Thanks for note- I noticed that you are not on our class website yet-here is the link-

http://www.northadamsville64.com/class_index.cfm

 

It is user-friendly. People are starting to join as we spread the news. If you are in contact with any NA64ers let them know. Are you retired yet? Sorry to hear about your medical problems. I just wrote to Joe Zaras who had sent me an e-mail which ended with “getting old sucks”- I said you will get no argument from me there, brother. Thanks for offer of help and since you live in Morristown as we get things firmed up and need help I will call on you. Later Sam- BTW some very nice pictures of you and yours where was that last one taken, Venice? They should go on your personal profile on NA64 to show that you have done well in life. Later Sam Lowell- Sorry about the football mix-up I was working from memory (ouch!) [Sam had assumed that Jim a big husky kid had been on the football team.] “  

And then as people came onto the website Sam became the “unofficial” class-greeter:

“Hi- Welcome to our class website-

For those who have, uh, lost, misplaced or sold off their Magnet [class yearbook] to the highest bidder here is a link to the Timothy Clark Public Library site so you can take that big trip down memory lane. By the way (BTW, okay) the theme for this reunion is “Try To Remember” so everybody better check that site out. Spread the word to others from NA64 who you are in contact with and sent any information that might help us to find missing classmates. Yes, and write stuff, put photos and video on your site too.    

https://archive.org/stream/magnet1964nort#page/n5/mode/2up”

 

And so Sam went along (with the Melinda Loring affair deep in the background sometimes making him work harder, sometimes acting as a deterrent ) and winding up with this short piece encouraging classmates to attend (done even as he was telling me at Jimmy’s that he was not going for the reasons listed above. And I was telling him to run for cover as fast as possible):

“On Freaking Out About Going To The Reunion

Hi-I have recently been reaching out to classmates on the site expressing a hope that they attend the reunion in September. I have met a certain resistance in some quarters so I am here as a pitchman. Some classmates have pleaded distance, infirmities and other commitments. I have no quarrel with them. Who I am trying reach here are those kindred who are scared, okay, okay afraid to go to the reunion. You know who are worrying about what to say to people they have not seen in a long time, about giving the details of their lives which seem kind of like they haven’t done anything once they have spelled it out, or about trying to avoid certain classmates who inflicted some ancient [or modern] hurts on them.

You are not alone. Although I am more than happy to write ten- thousand written words without working up a sweat on whatever subject is at hand, if you can believe this, I am a shy, very private person otherwise. I am, like those classmates, scared to death of actually going to the reunion. This will be my first reunion so I have not seen almost everybody who is going for 50 years. Worse, worst of all, worse than being scared of not being able to carry on a conversation, not remembering somebody I was life and death buddies with back then is that I can’t dance. Since this is a confessional age I freely admit I have two left-feet. A definite wall-flower guy. We are having dancing and a DJ and everything. I can feel my hands getting clammy already.  What, if unlike back in the day, somebody asks me to dance. Oh poor partner shoes, shins and who knows what else. And you think you have problems.

But hear me out. This is our 50th anniversary reunion. Realistically for those of us who have survived thus far this is the last time short of some assisted living common room or nursing home day room we will be able to do this event standing up. Or close to it. So think very hard about attending this reunion and remember there will be at least one other person in that huge room who will be scared too. Later Sam Lowell”

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel -Rally In Boston-Monday August 11th-City Hall Plaza-5:30 

 

 

PLEASE SEND TO YOUR LISTS -  THANKS Ann

We will be gathering at City Hall Plaza. We will move to the JFK Federal Building, from where the march starts at 5:30pm.

Mass March for Gaza

As the Israeli assault on Gaza enters a month, with over 1900 Palestinians killed already, join us in a march of solidarity with the Palestinian people to demonstrate against the US government's enabling role in the massacre, including the $3 billion in aid every year as well as its unconditional political support for the land siege and naval blockade that renders Gaza as the world's largest "open air prison."

The march will also be targeting Hewlett Packard (HP), as one of the companies complicit in the occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands, and hence a target for the Palestinian called - and led - Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Besides providing numerous other services to the IDF, HP developed and maintains the automated biometric access management system that controls the movement of Palestinians and specifically Palestinian workers through checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza.

We will be gathering at City Hall Plaza. We will move to the JFK Federal Building, from where the march starts 

 City Hall Plaza. We will move to the JFK Federal Building, from where the march starts at 5:30pm.

In Boston- Protest Monday, August 11

5:30pm Rally at City Hall Plaza and JFK Federal Building, then march to Hewlett-Packard Convention at the Westin Hotel

 

Say “NO” to

Our Government Underwriting the Massacre in Gaza

 

Say “SHAME” to

US Corporations like Hewlett-Packard (HP) which enable the Israeli Occupation

 

 

Lift the Siege of Gaza that collectively punishes 1.8 million people Stop US military, diplomatic and financial aid to Israel Boycott and Divest from companies which profit from Israeli crimes End the Illegal Occupation and Settlement of Palestinian Lands

 

On HP’s role in maintaining the Israeli occupation and supporting its armed forces, see here. 

In the US, HP is one of the government’s top military contractors.

 

*   *   *   *

US is the Accomplice and Enabler of Israeli War Crimes in Gaza

 

 

Each time Israel attacks Gaza and massacres its trapped civilian population – at the end of 2008, in the fall of 2012, and now again this past month – the same process repeats itself in both U.S. media and government circles: the U.S. government feeds Israel the weapons it uses and steadfastly defends its aggression both publicly and at the U.N.; the U.S. Congress unanimously enacts one resolution after the next to support and enable Israel; and then American media figures pretend that the Israeli attack has nothing to do with their country, that it’s just some sort of unfortunately intractable, distant conflict between two equally intransigent foreign parties in response to which all decent Americans helplessly throw up their hands as though they bear no responsibility… Israeli aggression would be impossible without the constant, lavish support and protection of the U.S. government, which is anything but a neutral, peace-brokering party in these attacks.   More

 

Faith groups join call for an arms embargo on Israel

Israeli aggression against Palestine, both in the past two weeks, and over the past several decades, has been largely enabled by American military aid and international military sales.  The US government gives Israel $3.1 billion a year to purchase the most advanced weaponry in the world.  European Union countries, as well as Brazil, India, and Chile have also sold advanced weapons to the Israeli military.

We support efforts to prevent the distribution of weapons to Gaza.

We likewise call for a blockade of weapons to Israel.

We are therefore joining the six Nobel Peace Laureates and thousands of others in endorsing the Palestinian call for an arms embargo on Israel.  More

 

US, UK ‘appalled’ by shelling of UNRWA school

US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki delivered an unusually strong condemnation of an Israeli strike near a Gaza school being used as a shelter in Rafah, saying that the US was “appalled” by the “disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school.”    The shelling, which left 10 people dead according to Palestinian reports, drew harsh condemnations worldwide, including from the United Nations, London and elsewhere, amid growing international criticism of the 27-day-long operation.   More

 

Read the full US statement here

In case you missed it. . .

BLOOD ON AMERICAN'S HANDS:  

US Provides Israel Weapons Used on Gaza

The United States exported to Israel a substantial amount of the same types of weapons Israel is using to kill Gazans, a new analysis of US Census Bureau export data reveals. For example, in 2013, the United States sent Israel at least $196 million in parts for military airplanes and helicopters, a category that includes F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters, both of which Israel is currently using to attack Gazan homes, offices and farmland… The billions of dollars in US military aid to Israel have bought a stunning array of US weapons and military hardware for the IDF, including 226 F-16 fighter jets, more than 700 M-60 tanks, 6,000 armored personnel carriers, scores of transport planes, attack helicopters and utility and training aircraft, not to mention innumerable bombs and tactical missiles of all kinds.    More

 

For examples of the US/Israeli “defensive” weapons used for the industrialized slaughter in Gaza, see here

 

Congress Passes $225 Million in Extra Military Aid to Israel. Which 8 Had the Courage to Vote No?

…the Senate took time off its debate about the refugee crisis to pass $225 million in supplementary military aid for Israel to repair the Iron Dome missile defense system.   Israel has a GDP of over $300 billion and, at the end of last year, experienced its highest ever GDP per capita. It is a developed country with a booming tech sector. It has the ability to pay for its defense system itself.  It is mid-boggling to think that the US pays for 23-25% of Israel's military budget each year… Anyway, the bill, of course, passed the Senate by unanimous consent. The House, however, took a vote on it. It passed easily but not unanimously: 395 to 8.  Only 4 Democrats and 4 Republicans voted against it.  More

 

"Gaza War Strains Relations Between U.S. and Israel"

Even as the White House harshly criticized the Israeli strike on the school, the Pentagon confirmed that last Friday it had resupplied the Israeli military with ammunition under a longstanding military aid agreement. Mr. Obama swiftly signed a bill Monday giving Israel $225 million in emergency aid for its Iron Dome antimissile system… In a world of bitter enmities, the Israeli-American dispute is more akin to a family quarrel… American officials said that after the previous cease-fire fell apart on Friday, Mr. Netanyahu scolded the American ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, saying the United States should not “ever second-guess him again” on how to deal with Hamas.

 

U.S. won’t use arms transfers to press Israel for cease-fire

The Obama administration will not leverage arms transfers to Israel to bring about a cease-fire, the top Pentagon spokesman said. The arms and ammunition provided to Israel is “through a longstanding foreign military sales program,” Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters on Saturday. “Israel is a staunch ally in that part of the world. And that program has existed for many years, and we’re supplying that material through that program.” Kirby stressed that the United States has made it clear that it would like to see a cease-fire and an end to violence in Gaza. More

 

More on the Gaza crisis below.

 

*   *   *   *

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel !

Monday In Boston: March for Gaza! End the Israeli Siege, No more US Tax Dollars, Boycott, March on HP

WE DEMAND:

• End the Israeli Siege of Gaza
• No more US tax dollars for Israel
• Boycott, Divestment  and Sanctions
• Join US to March on HP and let them know Occupation is a Crime

Hewlett Packard makes billions off the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

• HP supplies computers to the Israeli army, and manages  the Israeli Navy’s IT infrastructure, which has been criticized  for war crimes.
• HP manufactures and maintains  a computer system of Israeli biometric  ID cards (with fingerprints, retinal and facial data), which are labeled  with ethnicity and nationality. IDs are used to control  movement of Palestinians  going to and from work in Israel and even between their own villages.

The rally will start at the US Federal building in Boston to call for an end to US aid to Israel; the US a major supplier of weapons and money.  The march will proceed through downtown Boston to the Westin Hotel near the waterfront convention center, where Hewlett Packard is sponsoring a convention for HP employees.  Hewlett Packard is a major supplier of Israel and enabler of the occupation.
Sponsored by Boston BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, United for Justice with Peace, Northeastern University Students for Justice in Palestine, Boston University Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Women for Justice in Israel/Palestine, Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, Boston Alliance for Water Justice, Suffolk Law National Lawyer’s Guild, Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, International Socialist Organization - Boston, Communist Party of Boston, Massachusetts Peace Action
Download the flyer as a PDF. 

United for Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic justice. Help us continue to do this critical work! Make a donation to UJP today.
info@justicewithpeace.org	617-383-4857	www.justicewithpeace.org

No New U.S. War In Iraq- Immediate Withdrawal Of All U.S. Troops And Mercenaries!  Stop The Bombing!

Workers and the oppressed have no interest in a victory by one combatant or the other in the reactionary Sunni-Shi’ite civil war. However, the international working class definitely has a side in opposing imperialist intervention in Iraq and demanding the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops and mercenaries. It is U.S. imperialism that constitutes the greatest danger to the world’s working people and downtrodden.

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Daddy George H.W. Bush; Bill Clinton; W. Bush and now Barack Obama have an unbroken streak of bombing Iraq. Let us say as strongly as we can, that the bombing begun overnight in Kurdish areas — no matter who “asked” for it to be done — is outrageously dangerous, will not “save civilians,” but instead will endanger them further. Rather than protecting people in harm's way, US bombs and secret operations are a message to other powers that no one else will be allowed to run Iraq. The U.S. always says it's bombing/selling arms/torturing to “keep us safe” from whatever group it identifies as the most dangerous target of the “war” on terror.  Each time a US president bombed Iraq, from 1990 on, whether the stated reasons were removing Saddam Hussain, breaking a fabricated connection with Al Qaeda, or finding weapons of mass destruction, the actual national security need was always keeping control of that strategic, oil-rich region. This time, it is complicated. US military domination of the region, from Afghanistan across a sweep to Egypt, has increased the attraction of Islamic fundamentalism as a way of resisting western empire. US occupation in Iraq and support for the murderous, torturing Maliki regime created the conditions by which Iran has been strengthened in the region, and ISIS has gained a following. But US re-intervention in Iraq will only create more instability. Thanks to World Can't Wait activists in Chicago, San Francisco Bay area, and Seattle, who have gotten right out on the streets to protest the US bombing of Iraq. Above: Chicago World Can't Wait, Gay Liberation Network and other organizations quickly organized an emergency response demonstration this afternoon. Watch video. Chicago Tribune coverage. Watch San Francisco NBC coverage. Genocide-Enablers Have No Right to Talk About “Preventing Genocide” Revolution August 8 In announcing U.S. bombing raids on Iraq on 8/7/14, Barack Obama declared: “[T]housands—perhaps tens of thousands—are now hiding high up on the mountain, with little but the clothes on their backs.  They’re without food, they’re without water.  People are starving.  And children are dying of thirst.” And “innocent people facing the prospect of violence on a horrific scale.” And that under these conditions, “the United States of America cannot turn a blind eye.  We can act, carefully and responsibly, to prevent a potential act of genocide.” This from the head of state of the country that has for decades, and in recent weeks on a savage and horrific scale, is enabling Israel to massacre the Palestinian people of Gaza, to kill their children, to bomb their schools and power plants, to starve nearly two million people and maintain a constant state of destruction and terror. The head of state of the country that is ENABLING GENOCIDE in Gaza at this very moment has no right to speak when it comes to “preventing genocide.” On very short notice, we are pulling together compelling, authoritative speakers and artists, including voices from Gaza for: Thursday August 14: An Evening of Information & Inspiration Cooper Union, NYC & Live on the internet 7 pm EDT Stop Israel’s Ongoing War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity Against the People of Gaza Invite friends via Facebook Event Terrible crimes against humanity are being committed in front of our eyes. Nobody of conscience can remain silent. Whatever the status of the fragile cease-fire in Gaza, Israel has killed 1,900, most of them — by all accounts — non-combatants, and likely many more in its bombardment and invasion. Nearly two million, essentially defenseless people, are locked down in an outdoor prison, traumatized, subject to death from the air at any moment, without access to drinkable tap water or electricity. As they dig out from the rubble in scenes that evoke some of the great crimes in history, as they bury their dead, the people of Gaza continue to be subjected to collective punishment that constitutes an ongoing war crime and crime against humanity. There have been important statements and courageous protests against worldwide. Yet the horrors continue. Resistance to these crimes must become much more broad, diverse, and determined. And those of us living in the United States — the country that enables Israel’s crimes against the people of Gaza, with political, financial, military, and moral support — have a particular responsibility to resist and make clear these crimes are not being done in our name. Next Thursday, we will come together, physically, in one place. We will bring diverse views and perspectives — including on the nature and role of — Israel  but a shared commitment that Israel’s ongoing war crimes in Gaza must stop immediately. In doing so, we will strengthen the foundation from which to call forth new and expanding waves of protest until these crimes being perpetrated against the people of Gaza by Israel stop. Join us! Johanna Bon, Dwayne Booth (Mr. Fish), Lamis Deek, Paul DiRienzo, Joe Friendly, Alan Goodman, Rich Greve, David Kirschbaum, Wililam Lee, Frederick Nagel, Pam Olson, Sharon Pavlovich, Stephanie Rugoff & Debra Sweet.  Veterans for Peace NYC Chapter 34 and Peace Action - Staten Island Thursday August 14 7pm (doors open 6:30 pm) The Great Hall of The Cooper Union 7 East 7th Street, NYC Nine Years After Camp Casey, Reflections on Nixon and the Legitimacy of the System August 8,1974: it's been 40 years since Richard Nixon was driven from office in disgrace, and rightly so.  He didn't go because the system "worked," as revisionist history says now.  He went because it became necessary to preserve appearance of legitimacy for a system which represented to billions of people the unjust Vietnam War; Cointelpro spying and assasination programs; the beating and killing of protesters at Jackson State & Kent State. Nixon's impeachment brought a slew of new politicians into Congress, passing some reforms which limited state surveillance.  Nevertheless, it fell to the Democrats to abolish welfare and deport more immigrants.  If you ask me, the system is still not legitimate. Photo, above: was this the day Henry Kissinger proposed, reportedly for the fourth time, the use of nuclear weapons against North Vietnam?  August 2005:  Nine years ago, Camp Casey was born by a ditch near Crawford, TX, thanks to the determination of Cindy Sheehan to get answers from GW Bush on why her son was killed in Iraq. Cindy Sheehan posted a thoughtful reflection on how and why it happened. It's really worth reading and thinking about. From the Texas Abortion Rights Freedom Ride The Abortion Rights Freedom Ride is wrapping up a week in Austin, where they have protested at the courthouse all week, as well as at Rick Perry's mansion. Watch moving testimony from women driven to desperate circumstances by unwanted pregnancies, as well as liberating and challenging perspectives from the freedom riders: from Austin and Houston. Also, a must-watch: An Abortion Rights Battle Bigger Than Texas — Interview with Sunsara Taylor. Next, the Freedom Ride heads down to San Antonio. See below for the ad featured on page 3 that many of you signed and donated to publish (click image to enlarge): Share this message: At times like this... From Egypt to Ukraine, the US is enforcing empire, and using or backing military aggression endangering millions. At times like this, it's imperative to have organization in place to go into action, into print, and out widely and publicly to stop the crimes of our government. Your donations are urgently needed to produce Thursday's Gaza event. “You never cease to impress me with your courage. Thank you for speaking truth to power.” — J.A. via Facebook “Thank you again and again for the work you do and the difference it makes to so many!” — Steve, Canada “One of the reasons I support World Can't Wait is because it is on the street and in the public view protesting US torture and indefinite detention and its wars of aggression. Thank you.” — Nancy Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait

If you were forwarded this message and would like to subscribe directly, sign up here. World Can't Wait | (866) 973-4463 | 305 West Broadway #185 NY, NY 10013 Make a donation online | Make a tax-deductible donation online Send checks or money orders, payable to "World Can't Wait": World Can't Wait 305 W. Broadway #185 New York, NY 10013 To make a tax-deductible donation of $100 or more in support of World Can't Wait's educational activities, please make checks out to "World Can't Wait/Alliance for Global Justice," a 501(3)(c) organization. You are receiving this email because alfredjohnson34@comcast.net is subscribed to this email announcement list. If you would like to unsubscribe click here.

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As The 100th Anniversary Of The Beginning of World War I (Remember The War To End All Wars) Starts ... Some Remembrances-Poet’s Corner-Wilfred Owen's Anthem For Doomed Youth 

Wilfred Owen

Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,--

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

On The 40^th Anniversary Of The Resignation Of One Richard M. Nixon -The Original Frost/Nixon Watergate Interviews- Parental Guidance Advised

 

Markin comment on one Richard Milhous Noxious (oops-Nixon):

In politics, hard bourgeois politics, one needs a very high degree of amnesia in order to survive the crooked deals, the humiliating compromises, and the desperate need to trim around the edges of political opponents because who knows who you might need for your own deals, compromises and trimmings. History has been kinder to one Richard Milhous Nixon than he ever desired, kinder due to the above characteristics of bourgeois politics and its companion, revisionist history, by those who were old-time opponents and those who are younger who knew not what a truly treacherous and dangerous man he was, to friend and foe alike. That said, anybody who wants to “rehabilitate” that man should consult the series of articles that the late Hunter S. Thompson, “Doctor Gonzo,” wrote for Rolling Stone and which can be found in the compilation entitled The Great Shark Hunt before writing or uttering word one on the subject. Of course for me, and others, at the time the idea of impeachment for Nixon was not enough. What a number of us were calling for in those days, those 1974 days when the man was going under by virtue of his own hubris, was that he be tried by the victims of his massive bombings of Vietnam and other places in Southeast Asia. That would have been real justice and the right verdict of history on the man.  

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Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate Interview, David Frost, Richard Milhous Nixon, 1977

Apparently some things will not remain in the bottle. That appears to be the case with one Richard Milhous Nixon, one time President of the United States, certified demon and off-handedly a common criminal. Just when you though it was safe to go outdoors to get a little fresh air here he rises again to scare the bejesus out of another generation of idealistic young people and send his old time political opponents, including this reviewer, screaming in the night. What has brought on the fear?

Well, for one the recent notoriety around the movie "Frost/Nixon", the "story" behind the celebrated attempt by Nixon to `help' rewrite the second draft of history on his presidency and for Frost to leap-frog to the front of the journalist pantheon. That is what I thought I had bargained for when I ordered up what I assumed was a copy of the movie. What I got was far, far worst, a copy of the original Watergate segments of the original Frost/Nixon television interviews from 1977. I will, eventually, after my pulse returns to normal, get a copy of the movie and review that in this space but for now I will make a few comments on this little documentary gem.

As fate would have it I have recently been reading (or rather re-re-reading) "Dr. Gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson's compilation volume entitled "The Great Shark Hunt". Included in the selections were a series of articles that Thompson did for "Rolling Stone" magazine from his "mythical" National Affairs Desk at the time of the Nixon-era Watergate hearings in 1974. Thompson, not afraid to deride Nixon when he was riding high was more than willing to skewer him on his way down. To give a flavor of the times, of Thompson's appreciation of what the name Nixon meant to our generation and the importance of exposing that little crook to the clear light of day (something that, unfortunately, never really happened as he ran down some rat hole) I am reposting the concluding paragraph from a review I did of his "Songs Of The Doomed" in 2006:

"As a member of the generation of 1968 I would note that this was a period of particular importance which won Hunter his spurs as a journalist. Hunter, like many of us, cut his political teeth on one Richard Milhous Nixon, at one time President of the United States and all- around political chameleon. Thompson went way out of his way, and with pleasure, skewering that man when he was riding high. He was moreover just as happy to kick him when he was down, just for good measure. Nixon represented the `dark side' of the American spirit- the side that appears today as the bully boy of the world and as craven brute. If for nothing else Brother Thompson deserves a place in the pantheon of journalistic heroes for this exercise in elementary political hygiene. Anyone who wants to rehabilitate THAT man before history please consult Thompson's work. Hunter, I hope you find the Brown Buffalo wherever you are. Read this book. Read all his books."

And that last sentence kind of says it all. Probably from the minute that he resigned in disgrace in August 1974 Nixon began his little campaign to "rehabilitate" himself and move up in the presidential pecking order from dead last to at least beat the likes of James Buchanan and Millard Fillmore. He should not have bothered. His grilling by the well-prepared Frost (who had his own personal agenda in getting involved in this project) was as full of self-justifications, obfuscations, down right balderdash and melodramatic nonsense as one could take in an hour and one half presentation.

Even three years later he still didn't get it. The basic premise that Nixon and his staff worked under while president was that of the "divine right of kings" a theory discredited a couple of centuries ago. But why go on. Whether you want to view this little film as horror, humor or hubris do not, and I repeat do not, do it while you are depressed about the state of the world. As noted above- Be forewarned this film is not for the faint-hearted. Parental Guidance is very definitely suggested for all concerned.

As The 100th Anniversary Of The Beginning of World War I (Remember The War To End All Wars) Starts ... Some Remembrances-Poet's Corner-Rupert Brooke-The Soldier

V. The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England's, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

  

In The 74^th Anniversary Year Of The Assassination Of Great Russian Revolutionary Leon Trotsky A Tribute- DEFEATED, BUT UNBOWED-THE WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY, 1929-1940

 

LEON TROTSKY AND THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, PART I

BOOK REVIEW

THE CHALLENGE OF THE LEFT OPPOSITION (1923-25), LEON TROTSKY, Pathfinder Press, New York, 1975

If you are interested in the history of the International Left or are a militant trying to understand some of the past lessons of our history concerning the communist response to various social and labor questions this book is for you. This book is part of a continuing series of volumes in English of the writings of Leon Trotsky, Russian Bolshevik leader, from the start in 1923 of the Left Opposition in the Russian Communist Party that he led through his various exiles up until his assassination by a Stalinist agent in 1940. These volumes were published by the organization that James P. Cannon, early American Trotskyist leader founded, the Socialist Workers Party, in the 1970’s and 1980’s. (Cannon’s writings in support of Trotsky’s work are reviewed elsewhere in this space) Look in this space for other related reviews of this series of documents on and by this important world communist leader.

Since the volumes in the series cover a long period of time and contain some material that , while of interest, is either historically dated or more fully developed in Trotsky’s other separately published major writings I am going to organize this series of reviews in this way. By way of introduction I will give a brief summary of the events of the time period of each volume. Then I will review what I believe is the central document of each volume. The reader can then decide for him or herself whether my choice was informative or not.

Although there were earlier signs that the Russia revolution was going off course the long illness and death of Lenin in 1924, at the time the only truly authoritative leader the Bolshevik party, set off a power struggle in the leadership of the party. This fight had Trotsky and the ‘pretty boy’ intellectuals of the party on one side and Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev (the so-called triumvirate).backed by the ‘gray boys’ of the emerging bureaucracy on the other. This struggle occurred against the backdrop of the failed revolution in Germany in 1923 and which thereafter heralded the continued isolation, imperialist blockade and economic backwardness of the Soviet Union for the foreseeable future.

While the disputes in the Russian party eventually had international ramifications in the Communist International, they were at this time fought out almost solely with the Russian Party. Trotsky was slow, very slow to take up the battle for power that had become obvious to many elements in the party. He made many mistakes and granted too many concessions to the trio. But he did fight. Although later (in 1935) Trotsky recognized that the 1923 fight represented a fight against the Russian Thermidor (from an analogy with the period of the French Revolution where the radical regime of Robespierre and Saint Just was overthrown by more moderate Jacobins) and thus a decisive turning point for the revolution that was not clear to him (or anyone else on either side) then. Whatever the appropriate analogy might have been Leon Trotsky was in fact fighting a last ditch effort to retard the further degeneration of the revolution. After that defeat, the way the Soviet Union was ruled, who ruled and for what purposes all changed. And not for the better.

The most important document in this volume is clearly and definitely Trotsky’s Lessons of October. Although there are a couple of other documents of interest- The New Course, his program to try to bring the agrarian and the industrial crisis into focus-and The Problems of Civil War- Trotsky’s contribution to the so-called “literary discussion” in the party far outdistances those documents in importance. When this document hit the press there was definitely gnashing of teeth by the ruling trio in the Kremlin- Why? Lessons of October is essentially a polemic against fainted-hearted, opportunist failure to appreciate both the rarity of a revolutionary moment and the necessity to have a sharp combat- tested organization to take advantage of that situation. Moreover, this polemic was a direct attack on Zinoviev and Kamenev for their position against insurrection at the time of revolution and on Stalin’s March, 1917 call for political support to the bourgeois Provisional Government.

George Bernard Shaw once called Trotsky the “Prince of Pamphleteers” and he certainly earns that title in Lessons of October. Alas, those who write the best polemics do not necessarily win the power. Those 200,000 plus politically immature or careerist new party members beholding to the increasingly Stalinist bureaucracy drafted under the “Lenin Levy” saw the writing on the wall differently. That was decisive. Nevertheless, Lessons of October is not just any political document- it is an essential document for the education of today’s militants. It bears reading, re-reading, and reading again. I know I always get something new out of it each time I read it.
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In Honor Of Leon Trotsky On The 74^th Anniversary Of His Death- To Those Born After-Ivan Smirnov’s Journey

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Ivan Smirnov came out of old Odessa town, came out of the Ukraine (not just plain Ukraine like now but “the” then), the good black earth breadbasket of Russian Empire, well before the turn of the 20^th century (having started life on some Mister’s farm begotten by illiterate but worthy and hard-working peasant parents who were not sure whether it was 1880 or 1881 and Mister did not keep very good records up in the manor house) although he was strictly a 20^th century man by habits and inclinations. Fashioned himself a man of the times, as he knew it, by developing habits favored by those who liked to consider themselves modern. Those habits included a love of reading, a love of and for the hard-pressed peoples facing the jack-boot (like his struggling never- get-ahead parents) under the Czar’s vicious rule, an abiding hatred for that same Czar, a hunger to see the world or to see something more than wheat fields, and a love of politics, what little expression that love could take even for a modern man stuck in a backward country. 

Of course Ivan Smirnov, a giant of a man, well over six feet, more like six, two, well-build, solid, fairly muscular, with the Russian dark eyes and hair to match, when he came of age also loved good food when he had the money for such luxuries, loved to drink shots of straight vodka in competition with his pals, and loved women, and women loved him. It is those appetites in need of whetting that consumed his young manhood, his time in Odessa before he signed on to the Czar’s navy to see the world, or at least  brush the dust of farmland Ukraine and provincial Odessa off his shoes as the old saying went. Those loves trumped for a time his people love (except helping out his parents with his wages), his love of liberty but as we follow Ivan on his travels we will come to see that those personal loves collided more and more with those larger loves. 

So as we pick up the heart, the coming of age, coming of political age, Ivan Smirnov story, he was no kid, had been around the block a few times. Had taken his knocks on the land of his parents (really Mister’s land once the taxes, rents, and dues were taken out) when he tried to organize, well, not really organize but just put a petition of grievances, including the elimination of rack-rents to Mister which was rejected out of hand and which forced him off the land. Forced him off under threat to his life. He never forgot that slight, never. Never forgot it was Mister and his kind that took him away from home, split his family up. So off he went to the city, and from there to the Black Sea Fleet and adventure, or rather tedium mixed with adventure and plenty of time to read.

Ivan also learned up close the why and wherefores of modern warfare, modern naval warfare. Knew too that come some minor confrontation the Czar’s navy was cooked.  As things worked out Ivan had been in the Russian fleet that got its ass kicked by the Japanese in 1904 (he never called them “Nips” like lots of his crewmates did not after that beating they took that did not have to happen if the damn Czar’s naval officers had been anything but lackeys and anything but overconfident that they could beat the Johnny-come-lately Japanese in the naval war game). And so Ivan came of war age and political age all at once.

More importantly after that debacle he applied for, and had been granted a transfer into in the Baltic fleet, the Czar’s jewel and defending of citadel Saint Petersburg, headquartered at later famous Kronstadt  when the revolution of 1905 came thundering over their heads and each man, each sailor, each officer had to choice sides. Most seaman had gone over the rebels or stood on the sidelines, the officers mainly played possum with the Czar. He had gone wholehearted with rebels and while he did not face the fate of his comrades on the Potemkin his naval career was over. That was where his love of reading from an early age came in, came and made him aware of the boiling kettle of political groupings trying to save Russia or to save what some class or part of a class had an interest in saving Russia for their own purposes. He knew, knew from his dismal experience on the land, that Mister fully intended to keep what was his come hell or high water. He also knew that Mister’s people, the peasantry like his family would have a very hard time, a very hard time indeed bucking Mister’s interests and proclaiming their own right to the land all by themselves. Hadn’t he also been burned, been hunted over a simple petition.

So Ivan from the first dismissed the Social Revolutionary factions and gave some thought to joining the Social Democrats. Of course being Russians who would argue over anything from how many angels could fit on the head of a needle to theories of capitalist surplus value that party organization had split into two factions (maybe more when the dust settled). When word came back from Europe he had sided with the Mensheviks and their more realistic approach to what was possible for Russia in the early 20^th century. That basic idea of a bourgeois democratic republic was the central notion that Ivan Smirnov held for a while, a long while, and which he took in with him once things got hot in Saint Petersburg in January of 1905.       

That January after the Czar’s troops, his elite bloody Cossack troops in the lead, fired on (and sabre-slashed) an unarmed procession led by a priest, damn a Russian Orthodox priest, a people’s priest who led the icon-filled procession to petition the Czar to resolve grievances, great and small, Ivan Smirnov, stationed out in the Baltic Fleet then after the reorganization of the navy in the wake of the defeat by the Japanese the year before had an intellectual crisis. He knew that great things were going to unfold in Russia as it moved into the modern age. He could see the modern age tied to the ancient agrarian age every time he had leave and headed for Saint Petersburg with its sailors’ delights of which Ivan usually took his full measure. He could see in the city within a city, the Vyborg district, the growing working-class district made up of fresh recruits from the farms looking for higher wages, some excitement and a future.

That was why he had discarded the Social Revolutionaries so quickly when in an earlier generation he might very well have been a member of People’s Will or some such organization. No, his intellectual crisis did not come from that quarter but rather that split in the workers’ party which had happened in 1903 far from Russia among the émigré intellectuals around who was a party member. He had sided with the “softs,” the Mensheviks, mainly because he liked their leader, Julius Martov, better than Lenin. Lenin and his faction seemed more intent on gaining organizational control, had more hair-splitters which he hated, and were more [CL1] wary of the peasants even though both factions swore faith in the democratic republic for Russia and to the international social democracy. He had sided with the “softs” although he saw a certain toughness in the Bolshevik cadre that he admired. But that year, that 1905 year, had started him on a very long search for revolutionary direction.           

The year 1905 had started filled with promise after that first blast from the Czarist reaction. The masses were able to gather in a Duma that was at least half responsible to the people, or to the people’s representatives. At least that is what those people’s representatives claimed. More importantly in the working class districts, and among his fellow sailors who more likely than not, unlike himself, were from some strata of the working class had decided to set up their own representative organs, the workers’ councils, or in the Russian parlance which has come down in the  history books the soviets. These in 1905, unlike in 1917, were seen as supplementary to other political organizations. As the arc of the year curved though there were signs that the Czarist reaction was gathering steam. Ivan had trouble organizing his fellow sailors to action. The officers of his ship, The Falcon, were challenging more decisions. The Potemkin affair brought things to a head in the fleets. Finally, after the successes of the Saint Petersburg Soviet under the flaming revolutionary Leon Trotsky that organ was suppressed and the reaction set in that would last until many years later, many tough years for political oppositionists of all stripes. Needless to say that while Ivan was spared the bulk of the reprisals once the Czarist forces regained control his career in the navy was effectively finished and when his enlistment was up he left the service.       

Just as well Ivan that things worked out as they did he had thought many times since then because he was then able to come ashore and get work on the docks through some connections, and think. Think and go about the business of everyday life like marriage to a woman, non-political but a comfort, whom he met through one of his fellow workers on the Neva quay and who would share his home and life although not always understanding that part of his life or him and his determination to break Russia from the past. In those days after 1905, the dogs days as everybody agreed, when the Czar’s Okhrana was everywhere and ready to snatch anyone with any oppositional signs Ivan mostly thought and read, kept a low profile, did as was found out later after the revolution in 1917, a lot of low-level underground organizing among the dockworkers and factory workers of the Vyborg district. In other words developing himself and those around him as cadre for what these few expected would be the great awakening. But until the break-out Lena River gold-workers strike in 1912 those were indeed dog days.     

 

 

And almost as quickly as the dog days of the struggle were breaking the war clouds over Europe were increasing. Every civilized nation was arming to the teeth to defend its civilization against the advancing hordes pitched at the door. Ivan could sense in his still sturdy peasant-bred bones that that unfinished task from 1905, that fight for the land and the republic, hell maybe the eight hour day too, was going to come to a head. He knew enough too about the state of the navy, and more importantly, the army to know that without some quick decisive military action the monarchy was finished and good riddance. The hard part, the extremely hard part, was to get those future peasant conscripts who would provide cannon fodder for the Czar’s ill-thought out land adventures to listen up for a minute rather than go unknowingly head-long into the Czar’s arm (the father’s arms for many of them). So there was plenty of work to do. Ivan just that moment was glad that he was not a kid.  Glad he had learned enough to earn a hearing, to spread the word.     

As the war clouds came to a head after the killing of the archduke in bloody damn Sarajevo in early summer 1914 Ivan Smirnov knew in his bones that the peasant soldier cannon fodder as always would come flocking to the Czar like lemmings to the sea the minute war was declared. Any way the deal was cut the likely line-up of the Czar with the “democracies” of the West, Britain and France and less likely the United States would immediately give the Czar cover against the villainies of the Huns, of the Germans who just the other day were propping up the Czar’s treasury. It could not end well. All Ivan hoped for was that his party, the real Social-Democrats, locally known as the Mensheviks from the great split in 1903 with the Bolsheviks and who had definitely separated from that organization for good in 1912, would not get war fever just because the damn Czar was lined up with the very democracies that the party wished to emulate in Russia.

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