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
Friday, June 28, 2013
***Out In The 1940s Crime Noir Night-Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake’s “This Gun For Hire”-A Film Review
DVD Review
This Gun For Hire, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, based on a novel by Graham Greene, Paramount Pictures, 1942
No question I am a film noir, especially a crime film noir, aficionado. Recently I have been on a tear reviewing various crime noir efforts and drawing comparisons between the ones that “speak” to me and those that, perhaps, should have been better left on the cutting room floor. The classics are easy and need no additional comment from me as their plot lines stand on their own merits. Others, because they have a fetching, or wicked, for that matter, femme fatale to muddy the waters also get a pass. Some, such as the film under review from 1942, This Gun For Hire, offers parts of both. The plot line maybe less so, although because it is set in World War II America and indirectly part of the fight to defeat the nefarious (in this case Japanese) enemy it has a certain intrigue factor. As for femme fatale energy, or rather quasi-femme fatale energy, although I have always considered Veronica Lake (and her classic air over her eye look) fetching here she is a cross between that type and the girl next door.
As for the plot. Alan Ladd, a gun for hire to the highest bidder does his job as expected and is paid off for doing so. Unfortunately those that hired Ladd to silence an employee of a chemical company whose president was ready to sell poison gas to the highest bidder (Japan)were not on the level. They tried, might and main, to set Brother Ladd up as the fall guy. But one does not get to be, or rather one does not survive in the hired gun business, by being a chump for some nefarious scheme. Needless to say the plot is partially driven by his well-earned revenge.
However, a second plot line is brought in by Ms. Lake. America was at war and selling poison gas to the highest bidder, Japan, was, well, not right so she is “hired” to get the goods on the chemical operation through a weak-link, one of the company executives. Naturally in the course of these two plots unwinding the Ladd-Lake combination is brought to a boil, well, almost a boil. Through twists and turns the pair get the bad guys, although Ladd as a bad guy himself, or maybe just misunderstood, has to take a bullet for the cause because as we all know- “crime, especially murder, does not pay.” Not as good a pairing of Ladd and Lake as in The Glass Key but okay. But you can see what I mean about this one being sort of a semi-classic noir, right?
***On Intergenerational Sex-“…And Keep Me Young As I Grow Old”- With A Tip Of The Stetson To The “Belfast Cowboy,” Van Morrison
YouTube film clip of Van Morrison performing The Beauty Of The Days Gone By which has the "... and keep me young as I grow old" line in it.
From The Pen Of Peter Paul Markin
This space, fundamentally, is devoted to political struggles, the big picture communist future political struggles that reflect the hard fact, as noted by Leon Trotsky's definitive biographer, Isaac Deutscher, that we communists have in the past, and continue now, to devote the bulk of our energies to the most immediately pressing of the three great tragedies of life, the struggle against hunger. The other two, sex and death, have gotten short shrift other than to be dealt with in broad brush stokes, basically arguing that in our communist future those two acknowledged mysterious passages will be dealt with more thoughtfully, less traumatically, and with deeper insight.
That said, where does that leave my old North Adamsville High School Class of 1964 corner boy class mate, Johnny Silver, and his twin sex and death dilemmas-growing old and still having a yearning for sexual adventure, sexual adventure with younger, much younger women. Other than calling him, rightly I think, a “ dirty old man” for even thinking about having sex with a young, curvaceous, nubile woman, to speak nothing of what it might do to his physical condition, we have no immediate communist program to alleviate his problem. Sorry Johnny. No question though under such a now seemingly utopian regime inter-generational sex will be no more the subject of scandalous gossip that various other homo and heterosexual variations of sexual activity that are the norm now.
Now, if one has been attentive, I have, with the exception of Leon Trotsky’s brief fling with Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in the late 1930s during his Mexican exile, not spent much time on the personal sex lives of our revolutionary forbears. That has been in keeping with the traditional reticence of revolutionaries to discuss their personal sexual lives. And with my own preferences in the uses of this space. I, however, feel that Johnny Silver’s case can be instructive for those of us who are going into our “golden years” and are still as randy as middle- schoolers. Therefore I have posted Johnny Silver’s story, non-communist, non-political, Johnny Silver’s story, here for your perusal. The weak of heart, those under a doctor’s care, and assorted outraged moral philistines should avoid reading this for the good of your lives and/or souls. Note, and note carefully that other than a little editorial work this is strictly Johnny’s responsibility although I will admit my temperature and pulse were vicariously rising somewhat while performing this onerous task.
Johnny Silver’s comment:
I always liked younger girls when I was just a kid and I never got out of that habit, that sweet young thing habit. I used to take a lot guff from Frankie Riley, Peter Paul, and the other corner boys “up the Downs” at our hang-out, Salducci’s Pizza Parlor, when at sixteen I dated up twelve-year old “Luscious” Linda Lorraine. But she was “hot,” hot way beyond her years as I found out, have mercy, when she practically “raped” me, raped me if you can believe that, on our first date down at the North Adamsville Beach one summer night. I won’t say more because Peter Paul, who is editing this thing, might take a heart attack when he reads this since he never got to first base with her, and he tried, at least that is what she said, they all tried. They would yell “jail bait,” “baby-snatcher,” “cradle-robber,” and all that stuff that has been said by people, guys especially, since about the time Adam tried to date up Eve (who was a lot younger than he was and must have been pretty “hot” herself to get Adam off the straight and narrow) but she was fine, some sweet soap-smelling fine, and just getting some nice curves and stuff. Maybe that is where I go the habit.
[Markin: All we ever said was “watch out” Johnny. Linda, who lived the next street over from me then, was nothing but a “man trap,” a serious man-trap and Johnny was only one of several who enjoyed her “favors” in those days. Despite Johnny’s obvious lapse of memory I never tried to get to first base, or any base with her. As for the others, the corner boy others, I would not be surprised if on some “horny” girl friend-less nights they didn’t take a shot at it. It wasn’t hard. Last we heard of Linda she had had several kids by her early twenties and died of a heroin overdose in her mid-thirties so it wasn’t the age thing at all about Linda whatever Johnny might say now.]
And it's always pretty much was that way going forward. My first wife, Laurie, whom I met and who Peter Paul knows, was nothing but a fox when I was in graduate school and she was in high school and whom I met when I came back for a North Adamsville –Adamsville high school Thanksgiving Day football game. She was captain of the Red Raider cheer-leaders and I took dead aim at her.
[Markin: I agree Laurie was a fox, no question, but again we told Johnny to “watch out” on her as well because she was nothing but a man-eater as he found out a few kids, and a lot of alimony payments, later. I admit I took a “run” at her myself when they split up but I am still grinding my teeth over the way she treated me during our short “affair,” if that’s what you could call it.]
When I met my second wife, Alicia, she was just in graduate school and I was in my late thirties.
[Markin: Johnny and I started drifting apart then, mainly different parts of the country, so I don’t know about Alicia’s qualities but Johnny says that she treated him “good,” which to Johnny always meant good at giving him oral sex and stuff like that. Okay, get used to it we are adults and more explicit sexual details will be coming up so be forewarned. And take your heart medicine for god’s sake.]
My third wife, Becky, was barely out of college and I was in my forties when we met but she was “good.”
After that I stopped marrying them and just settled into a steady diet of “dating” seemingly ever younger women that I met through my work contacts or other social situations. [Markin: Johnny was, and is, a very good construction site consulting engineer.] And then, after Carrie left to pursue her screen-writing “dream” in California things dried up, dried up hard for this older man [Markin: Carrie was Johnny’s last serious live-in girlfriend, emphasis on the girl part, barely legal]. Well, first, damn the computer age for one thing, since it meant I could do more of my consulting work from home. And get more work done (and charge more as well). But it meant that the social situations also dried up. And no 50-something guy, no 50-something guy in his right mind, is going to the “meat market” singles bars around town trying to pick up the young ones when they have plenty of young guys around to moon over and get worked up about.
[Markin: I am trying to be gentle with Brother Silver here but he “forgot” to mention getting laughed at, ridiculed and told to go “back to the nursing home” by those self-same younger women. He also “forgot” to mention that he was not a 50-something guy but a 60-something guy when the “heat” came on him.].
And second, damn, whatever that Adam “spreading his seed” thing was because even if things dried up socially this old man wasn’t dried up, if you get my meaning. [Markin: Translation; he was still as randy as a middle- schooler] So I did whatever any “on the information super-highway” guy would do, I went online looking for sex sites, younger women-centered sex sites.
[Markin: Johnny didn’t have to work up a sweat finding them they practically come at you from the homepage onward.]
Of course “dating” services have been going on since just after Adam and Eve got it on. (Eve, by the way, a younger woman, a much younger woman and probably pretty “hot,” with a firm, curvaceous, naked body hot from what I heard, if I didn’t mention it before). Nowadays though (thank god, and thank god I took my medicine beforehand) the sexually explicit stuff women are putting online for your perusal is “over the top,” especially the younger ones, thank god. So naturally I filled out my “profile” page, paid my dough (via credit card but be careful), and “joined” all the other guys, horny guys waiting, wanting to “get laid” tonight.
Well things were kind of slow for a while since I blocked off returning messages to any women over thirty, and rightly so as they started looking kind of sad sack by then (although there were plenty of them around, around with kid baggage, if that is where your tastes run go see). I though at first it might be because there was a prejudice against 50-something guys in this hellish youth-drive universe.
[Markin: See note above on the age question, the Johnny Silver age question.]
And then Tracy, sweet eighteen-year old Tracy, answered my plea.
Now Tracy was not your average young woman (girl really but let’s leave it at that). She was eighteen, bright, intelligent, ambitious, resourceful, and looking for a “sugar daddy,” whatever that might mean. Yes dear, Johnny Silver is just your meat.
[Markin: After some research this old-fashioned term “sugar daddy” could mean, like in the old days, someone, some man, who paid the freight to today’s “hook-up” or “friends-with benefits," or something entirely innocuous.]
But here is where the problem came in. We sent many message back and forth and we were making some headway. She stated clearly that she was not into “mere boys,” but older men who had been around, and knew a thing or two (or three). Yes Tracy, Johnny is very, very just your meat.
Eventually she agreed to meet me in a public place to discuss, discuss our “the exact meaning of sugar daddy" business, and the like. But here is where the wheels started to come off, almost. She wanted some pictures of me, presumably recently up-loaded digital camera-produced photos, before we met. Her idea, innocent enough, and actually reasonable enough, was to make sure I was not some three-headed monster or, perhaps, someone recently released from parole for any number of charges from sexual offenses to murder and mayhem
[Markin: Smart girl. As for any possible sexual offenses, as far as I know, they were all consensual and not in the least bit criminal although a few irate fathers might differ. The murder and mayhem I would advise that Johnny plead the Fifth on that one.]
And that was the first stumbling block. See, old guys like Peter Paul and me, were not suckled on computer technology practically from birth like today’s kids. We survive on the “information super-highway” but just barely and while I know, as Markin does, enough to get by let’s just call us “primitives.” In short, I confess, bitterly confess, any pictures I had were not digital, and even if they were I did not know how to up-load them onto any site, sex site or not. Truth. However Tracy did not believe me, and it made sense in her iPhone, iPad, texting, Facebook world that everybody knew how to do such an eight- year old simple task. I only avoided total defeat by producing some older photos and reading every manual for up-loading that came with the printer. But it was a near thing.
I won’t bore the reader with the details of our first meeting, or our later meetings but she was certain fetching in person and wiser in age than some of the older young women that I have been with through the years. But the big thing was that she was wonderful in bed. And this is where the faint-hearted, or just plain perverted, can get off and find your own sex site. Well let’s start off as always with the firm, soft, wrinkle-free skin, breast, buttock, thighs, that has driven me wild since old-time Linda Lorraine (hell, I can still smell her Palmolive soap, or perfume or whatever she used to drive the boys wild even now). Then of course the school-girlish strip tease that always gets me going. And then placing her mouth, well, placing her mouth where it did some good. Hell though everybody who reads this knows what’s what. I don' t have to draw a diagram, do I? Yes, we did it did several times (not all in one day, Viagra is good but no that good). She was very inventive with positions and of course, I knew a thing or two (or three) that got her going (read: moaning and groaning for her sugar daddy and not the old –fashioned meaning of the word either whatever Markin’s research said it meant in the old days). She still smiles about those two (or three things) when I bring it up.
But the point is really about “… and keep me young while getting old” as the line from the Van Morrison song, The Beauty Of The Days Gone By. Some guys get it by pumping iron or other maniac strenuous exercising, and some by endless youth-enhancing operations. And some, like Markin, by writing endlessly about the old days like they were coming back, or could do anybody any good.
[Markin: Watch it, Johnny, watch it brother.]
Me, no, I want a young thing, a young firm thing, a young sex-crazed thing, a firm young thing that wants a lesson in those two (or three) things I could teach her (and have her sweaty-smiling a couple of days later over) right next to me right up until, and maybe past, judgment day. Can you blame me?
Markin postscript comment:
We had better get to that communist future in a hurry, a real hurry. In the meantime I’ll go off and take a shower, a very cold shower. Oh yes, Johnny, by the way (BTW for the cyber-slang crowd) what is Tracy’s cell phone number? Or does she have a geezer-craving girlfriend? Whatever you do, Johnny- “don’t watch out, not now.”
Today is Day 120 of the Guantanamo prisoner's hunger strike. Reminder: it's
also Day 21 since the President said, “to the greatest extent possible,
we will transfer detainees who have been cleared to go to other
countries.”
“the Guardian explained, the hunger strike
“has worsened” since President Obama’s speech. The paper noted, “On the eve of
Obama’s address, there were 103 prisoners on hunger strike, with 31 being
force-fed by military authorities and one in hospital. Since then, not a single
prisoner has stopped their strike, and now 36 of the detainees are being
force-fed to keep them alive, with five of them being hospitalised.” On Sunday,
that number had risen to 37.
Carlos Warner, who represents a number of
prisoners, including Fayiz
al-Kandari, one of the last two Kuwaitis, said, “The numbers
of strikers are not moving downwards. Nothing has changed.” Others, as the
Guardian put it, “said they feared the media spotlight would move on
from the issue, despite the fact that nothing concrete has yet emerged from
Obama’s speech.”
“I do not wish to die, but I am prepared to run the
risk that I may end up doing so, because I am protesting the fact that I have
been locked up for more than a decade, without a trial, subjected to inhuman and
degrading treatment and denied access to justice. I have no other way to get my
message across. You know the authorities have taken everything from
me...”
According
to the Miami Herald today,
“As of Wednesday, the prison reported that 103 detainees were on hunger strike
and 39 of them were being tube-fed by Navy medical staff, three in the prison
hospital.”
We join in the call not to forget the hunger strike.
Our message Close Guantanamo
NOW is more relevant than ever. It will appear in the July
issue of The
Progressive, and this week's edition of Revolution
newspaper. We are seeking to publish it further
internationally, and give blanket permission for any publication as long as worldcantwait.net
is mentioned.
Please send your ideas, and your donations to
make that possible. California Prisoners to Begin Hunger Strike July 8,
2013
Over many years now of talking publicly about torture by
the US government in Guantanamo, Abu Ghriab, and black sites we still can't even
identify, I've been challenged by ex-prisoners, and family of prisoners here to
recognize that in U.S. prisons, people are tortured, including by solitary
confinement of probably 80,000 prisoners at any one time.
In 2011, a
hunger strike began in the Special Housing Units of CA state prisons, spreading
to thousands of prisoners. The state agreed to some of their demands; but two
years later, nothing changed. The prisoners, taking the risk and making intense
efforts to unite across nationalities, have announced they will hunger strike
again. YOU can add your name to this emergency call: JOIN US IN STOPPING
TORTURE IN U.S. PRISONS!
People
imprisoned at Pelican Bay State Prison in California have called for a
nationwide Hunger Strike to begin on July 8, 2013. They have also issued a call
for unity among people from different racial groups, inside and outside the
prisons. People who are locked down in segregation units of this society’s
prisons, condemned as the “worst of the worst,” are standing up against
injustice, asserting their humanity in the process. We must have the humanity
to hear their call, and answer it with powerful support!
Stay tuned at stopmassincarceration.org for other
ways of supporting the demand to stop solitary confinement and torture in U.S.
prisons.
Targeted Killing, Drone Warfare, Surveillance
& Grassroots Resistance: the Obama Doctrine Saturday, 8th of June
03:40 pm-05:20 pm, Room W622 Ed Kinane - Upstate Coalition to Stop the
Wars & Ground the Drones, Nick Mottern - KnowDrones.com, Zohra Ahmed -
Pakistan Solidarity Network, Debra Sweet - World Can't
Wait
Stopping Indefinite Detention by the US:
Guantánamo, Bagram and the NDAA Saturday, 8th of June 05:30 pm-07:10 pm,
Room E305 Features a multi-media presentation with slide show of art
against torture with Jeremy Varon - Witness Against Torture, Golnaz Fakhimi -
International Justice Network, Debra Sweet - World Can't
Wait
The
National Security State of Obama v Dissenters & Bradley Manning Sunday,
9th of June 10:00 am-11 :50 am, Room W510Featuring a special report on
the court martial of Bradley Manning by Kevin Gosztola. Thomas Drake - NSA
whistle blower, Jesselyn Radack - Government Accountability Project, Kevin
Gosztola, The Dissenter at firedoglake.com, Debra Sweet -
World Can't Wait
Send checks or money orders, payable to "World Can't
Wait": World Can't Wait 305 W. Broadway #185 New York, NY
10013
For sponsorship level donations, or if you wish to make stock
donations please contact Samantha Goldman samantha@worldcantwait.org, 866-973-4463.
To make a
tax-deductible donation of $100 or more in support of WCW's educational
activities, please make checks out to "World Can't Wait/Alliance for Global
Justice," a 501(3)(c) organization.
Is NSA Spying Just
Facebook Gone Wild?
NO!
NSA spying is a serious threat to democracy,
whistle-blowing, the unions, the climate justice movement, the movement against
mass incarceration, the fight for immigrant rights, and every other struggle for
social change.
Bring your neighbors, friends, and coworkers so they can
learn exactly what the government and the surveillance industry are doing and
how to fight it.
Join us to prepare to win the battle for public opinion
regarding the Snowden revelations.
Emergency Forum and
Discussion.
Panelists include:
--Peter Goselin of the National
Lawyers Guild on how spying is used against the movements for social
change
--ACLU of CT attorney explaining the facts and their legal
response.
--Anthony Sorge of Capitalism vs. Climate on spying &
the environmental movement
--Mongi Dhaouadi from the
Council on American Islamic Relations on spying & Muslim community
Presentations followed by an open discussion about how
best to build a movement that is capable of defending our democratic
rights.
Sunday, June 30, 2013 at
3 pm., Islamic Center of Berlin
1781 Berlin Turnpike,
Berlin Connecticut
Sponsored by the CT Coalition to Stop Indefinite
Detention
For more info: Mongi at 860-514-8038 or Chris at
860-478-5300
Save the
following dates:
July 6, 2013: Join us at Riverfest to table, distribute
educational materials on the real impact of NSA spying, and build a June 18
protest.
July 8 & 15: Join us at the Hartford Monday Night
Jazz Concerts to table, to distribute educational materials on the real impact
of NSA spying, and build a June 18 protest.
July 18: Broadly
sponsored picket and rally beginning at the Old State House at 4pm to say NSA!
NO Spying on Us!
Now that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is en route to Ecuador for
political asylum, there is a real danger the U.S. government will try to grab
him under the guise of law enforcement.
This is urgent. Please do two things in the next
minute:
** Click here to tell Obama that the U.S. government must
not engage in any abduction or other foul play against Snowden.
** ALSO
VERY IMPORTANT: Forward this email to people you know.
-- The
RootsAction.org team
P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force
endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg,
Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S.
Senator James Abourezk, Coleen Rowley, Frances Fox Piven, and many others.
FOCUS: Julian Assange
| Edward Snowden's Ordeal Is Just Beginning Julian Assange,
WikiLeaks Assange writes: "It has now been a year since I entered
this embassy and sought refuge from persecution. As a result of that decision, I
have been able to work in relative safety from a US espionage investigation."
Edward Snowden's Ordeal Is Just Beginning
By Julian Assange, WikiLeaks
23 June 13
t has
now been a year since I entered this embassy and sought refuge from
persecution.
As a result of that decision, I have been able to work in
relative safety from a US espionage investigation.
But today, Edward Snowden’s ordeal is just beginning.
Two dangerous runaway processes have taken root in the last
decade, with fatal consequences for democracy.
Government secrecy has been expanding on a terrific scale.
Simultaneously, human privacy has been secretly eradicated.
A few weeks ago, Edward Snowden blew the whistle on an ongoing
program - involving the Obama administration, the intelligence community and the
internet services giants - to spy on everyone in the world.
As if by clockwork, he has been charged with espionage by the
Obama administration.
The US government is spying on each and every one of us, but it
is Edward Snowden who is charged with espionage for tipping us off.
It is getting to the point where the mark of international
distinction and service to humanity is no longer the Nobel Peace Prize, but an
espionage indictment from the US Department of Justice.
Edward Snowden is the eighth leaker to be charged with espionage
under this president.
Bradley Manning’s show trial enters its fourth week on
Monday.
After a litany of wrongs done to him, the US government is
trying to convict him of "aiding the enemy."
The word "traitor" has been thrown around a lot in recent
days.
But who is really the traitor here?
Who was it who promised a generation "hope" and "change," only
to betray those promises with dismal misery and stagnation?
Who took an oath to defend the US constitution, only to feed the
invisible beast of secret law devouring it alive from the inside out?
Who is it that promised to preside over The Most Transparent
Administration in history, only to crush whistleblower after whistleblower with
the boot heel of espionage charges?
Who combined in his executive the powers of judge, jury and
executioner, and claimed the jurisdiction of the entire earth on which to
exercise those powers?
Who arrogates the power to spy on the entire earth - every
single one of us - and when he is caught red handed, explains to us that "we’re
going to have to make a choice."
Who is that person?
Let’s be very careful about who we call "traitor".
Edward Snowden is one of us.
Bradley Manning is one of us.
They are young, technically minded people from the generation
that Barack Obama betrayed.
They are the generation that grew up on the internet, and were
shaped by it.
The US government is always going to need intelligence analysts
and systems administrators, and they are going to have to hire them from this
generation and the ones that follow it.
One day, their generation will run the NSA, the CIA and the
FBI.
This isn’t a phenomenon that is going away.
This is inevitable.
And by trying to crush these young whistleblowers with espionage
charges, the US government is taking on a generation, and that is a battle it is
going to lose.
This isn’t how to fix things.
The only way to fix things is this:
Change the policies.
Stop spying on the world.
Eradicate secret law.
Cease indefinite detention without trial.
Stop assassinating people.
Stop invading other countries and sending young Americans off to
kill and be killed.
Stop the occupations, and discontinue the secret wars.
Stop eating the young: Edward Snowden, Barrett Brown, Jeremy
Hammond, Aaron Swartz, Gottfrid Svartholm, Jacob Appelbaum, and Bradley
Manning.
The charging of Edward Snowden is intended to intimidate any
country that might be considering standing up for his rights.
That tactic must not be allowed to work.
The effort to find asylum for Edward Snowden must be
intensified.
What brave country will stand up for him, and recognize his
service to humanity?
Meet Seamus Whelan and the Vote Whelan campaign! Seamus is
running for Boston City Council At-Large and is the only candidate in Boston
calling for a $15/hour minimum wage #FightFor15! Friday, June 28 at Doyle's
Cafe!
We are pleased to announce that Seamus Whelan was one of the first
three candidates certified for the ballot for City Council at-large in Boston
this year! We smashed the massive hurdle of 1,500 signatures in just three weeks
using all volunteers and no "professional signature collectors." All in all we
turned in over 2,800 signatures!
We are excited about the responses we
received while campaigning. People were excited to hear about a working nurse,
union activist, immigrant and open socialist running for office. Going forward,
we do need your help to continue to make such an impressive impact for
independent working class politics and socialist ideas.
If elected,
Seamus will remain accountable by taking only the average wage of a skilled
Boston worker, giving the rest of the 87k salary back to building movements.
Help us build the fight against corporate power in Boston! Donate and volunteer
for the Vote Whelan campaign.
Come celebrate with us and help us raise
money for the campaign! $5 Door donation will go to Socialist Alternative -
please bring your checkbooks for Vote Whelan donations. Facebook Event Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook
The Vote Whelan campaign is preparing to kickoff a big
month of public activity including door knocking, standouts, and phone banking.
Any help you can give is much appreciated.
We're holding a volunteer
meeting to discuss our platform and to plan out upcoming volunteer
opportunities. Join us at Doyle's on Sunday June 30! Event Info 2pm - 4pm
Doyle's Cafe 3484 Washington Street Jamaica Plain June 30, 2013
2pm-4pm
Committee to Elect Seamus Whelan · 50 Saxton St, Apt 1, Boston,
MA 02125, United States
This email was sent to alfredjohnson34@comcast.net. To stop
receiving emails, click here.
You can also keep up with Vote Whelan on Twitter or Facebook.
Created with NationBuilder, the essential toolkit for leaders.
(Please forward
widely)
Emergency Alert: Lynne Stewart In Grave Danger
The warden of Carswell FCI agreed
to forward the compassionate release petition to the DOJ. But the government has denied her plea.The
time to increase the heat is now.
Disappointed but Not
Devastated My Dear Friends, Supporters, Comrades:
I know
we are all disappointed to the marrow of our bones and the depths of our hearts
by the news that the Bureaucrats, Kafka like, have turned down my request for
compassionate release.
Let me say, that we are planning ahead. The letter
from the BOP (soon to be posted on the website) is flawed, to put it mildly.
Both factually and medically it has major problems. We intend to go to court and
raise these in front of my sentencing Judge Koeltl. At the first sentencing he
responded to a query by one of the lawyers that he didn't want me to die in
prison -- we'll see if he can now live up to that. He is of course the same
Judge who increased my sentence to 10 years -- but this IS very different and we
can only hope that we can prevail. Stay tuned for what we need from you. We will
never give up.
In the meantime, once again, I grieve for my children and
grandchildren who love me so much and had such great expectations of enjoying
life together again in our beloved NYC and not just trying to, in the prison
visiting room. My Ralph, too, whose dedication and love are only exceeded by the
work he does on my behalf -- but he is a born fighter and although he hurts, it
all comes more naturally to him.
But for everyone else, I hope that your
affront at this crass bureaucratic denial of the request which you by your
signatures and letters and phone calls demanded -- How far can we let this go?
when a 73-year old woman who IS dying of cancer (maybe not on their timetable,)
her life of good works ignored, be shunted aside … "she does not present
circumstances considered extraordinary and compelling ... at this time." We must
show them that I cannot be ignored, that YOU cannot be ignored."
Fight On
-- All of Us or None of Us. An affront to one is an affront to all.
Please take a moment to join Pete Seeger, Desmond
Tutu, Dick Gregory and thousands of others. Get ten of your friends to sign
the petition for compassionate release today.
It is devastating,
totally unbelievable. Is this in a democracy, the only superpower? I am sad. I
will sign. Praying God’s blessing on your efforts.
- Desmond Tutu
Lynne Stewart should be outa
jail.
- Pete Seeger
Action Alert:Rally and March
in New York City: Monday, July 1 from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm
4:00 pm - Meet at Foley Square (bound by Centre,
Layfayette and Worth Streets 2 blocks north of City Hall Park in Lower
Manhattan) March Route: to the Federal Court House @ 500 Pearl
Street; then to MCC (Metropolitan Correction Center Jail); and back to
Foley Square for the Rally to "Bring Lynne Stewart Home
Now"
CALL: White House -
President Barack Obama 1-202-456-1414
June 26th, 2013 Disappointed but Not Devastated
6/25/13
Disappointed but Not Devastated
My Dear Friends, Supporters, Comrades:
I know we are all disappointed to the marrow of our bones and the depths of our hearts by the news that the Bureaucrats, Kafka like, have turned down my request for compassionate release.
Let me say, that we are planning ahead. The letter from the BOP (soon to be posted on the website) is flawed, to put it mildly. Both factually and medically it has major problems. We intend to go to court and raise these in front of my sentencing Judge Koeltl. At the first sentencing he responded to a query by one of the lawyers that he didn’t want me to die in prison — we’ll see if he can now live up to that. He is of course the same Judge who increased my sentence to 10 years — but this IS very different and we can only hope that we can prevail. Stay tuned for what we need from you. We will never give up.
In the meantime, once again, I grieve for my children and grandchildren who love me so much and had such great expectations of enjoying life together again in our beloved NYC and not just trying to, in the prison visiting room. My Ralph, too, whose dedication and love are only exceeded by the work he does on my behalf — but he is a born fighter and although he hurts, it all comes more naturally to him.
But for everyone else, I hope that your affront at this crass bureaucratic denial of the request which you by your signatures and letters and phone calls demanded — How far can we let this go? when a 73-year old woman who IS dying of cancer (maybe not on their timetable,) her life of good works ignored, be shunted aside … “she does not present circumstances considered extraordinary and compelling … at this time.” We must show them that I cannot be ignored, that YOU cannot be ignored.”
Fight On — All of Us or None of Us. An affront to one is an affront to all.
Love Struggle, Lynne Stewart
State House Hearing: Budget for All Resolution
Wednesday, July 10, 2013 Rally 10am – State House
Steps Hearing 11am - room A2
With
widespread support among voters across the state, the Massachusetts House and
Senate will hold hearings on
the Budget for All resolutions, S.1750 and H.3211. Make sure our State
Legislature tells Congress to:
Prevent cuts to vital programs that help all of our families: Social
Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans benefits and housing, food and
unemployment assistance.
Create and protect jobs in fields like manufacturing, education,
transportation, and other public services.
End corporate tax breaks, loopholes and offshore tax havens, so that wealthy
individuals and corporations pay their fair share!
Redirect Pentagon spending to meet human needs. The US war budget is greater
than the military spending of the next 10 largest military powers combined.
While over half of the country’s discretionary budget is being spent to prepare
for war, millions of veterans and civilians are unable to get their basic needs
met.
Sequestration has made this fight more important than ever.
Budget-cutters in Washington have slashed Meals on Wheels, Head Start,
Housing, Education, Fuel Assistance, Unemployment, Health Programs, AIDS
Housing, and Family Violence Prevention. Jobs are being threatened and lost, and
the President wants to cut even more social programs.
See you at the State House July 10!
Join us to demand a
Budget for
All!
Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-In Honor Of
The Frontline Defenders Of The Working Class!-Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up!”
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!Hands Off Syria! U.S. Hands
Off The World!
*Fight for a social agenda for working people! Quality Free 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.
*********
Bob Marley Get Up, Stand Up Lyrics
Get up, stand up: stand up
for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up
for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up
for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give
up the fight!
Preacher man, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is
gold;
'Alf the story has never been
told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights.
come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up
for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give
up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up
for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give
up the fight!
Most people think,
Great god will come from the
skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is
worth,
You will look for yours on
earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights.
jah!
Get up, stand up! (jah, jah!
)
Stand up for your rights!
(oh-hoo! )
Get up, stand up! (get up,
stand up! )
Don't give up the fight!
(life is your right! )
Get up, stand up! (so we
can't give up the fight! )
Stand up for your rights!
(lord, lord! )
Get up, stand up! (keep on
struggling on! )
Don't give up the fight!
(yeah! )
We sick an' tired of-a your
ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven
in-a Jesus' name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty god is a living man.
You can fool some people
sometimes,
But you can't fool all the
people all the time.
So now we see the light (what
you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our
rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah! )
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the
morning! git it up! )
Stand up for your rights!
(stand up for our rights! )
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight!
(don't give it up, don't give it up! )
Last
week, PFC Bradley Manning offered to accept responsibility for releasing
classified documents as an act of conscience – not as charged by the US
military. As people who have worked for decades against the increased
militarization of societies and for international cooperation to end war, we
are deeply dismayed by the treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning. The military
under the Obama administration has displayed a desire to over-prosecute
whistle-blowing with life-in-prison charges including espionage and “aiding the
enemy”, a disturbing decision which is no doubt intended to set an example.
We
have dedicated our lives to working for peace because we have seen the many
faces of armed conflict and violence, and we understand that no matter the
cause of war, civilians always bear the brunt of the cost. With today’s
advanced military technology and the continued ability of business and
political elites to filter what information is made public, there exists a
great barrier to many citizens being fully aware of the realities and
consequences of conflicts in which their country is engaged.
Responsible
governance requires fully informed citizens who can question their leadership.
For those citizens worldwide who do not have direct, intimate knowledge of war,
yet are still affected by rising international tensions and failing economies,
the WikiLeaks releases attributed to Manning have provided unparalleled access
to important facts.
Revealing
covert crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, this window into the realities of modern
international relations has changed the world for the better. While some of
these documents may demonstrate how much work lies ahead in terms of securing
international peace and justice, they also highlight the potential of the
Internet as a forum for citizens to participate more directly in civic
discussion and creative government accountability projects.
Questioning
authority, as a soldier, is not easy. But it can at times be honorable. The
words attributed to Manning reveal that he went through a profound moral
struggle between the time he enlisted and when he became a whistleblower.
Through his experience in Iraq, he became disturbed by top-level policy that
undervalued human life and caused the suffering of innocent civilians and
soldiers. Like other courageous whistleblowers, he was driven foremost by a
desire to reveal the truth.
Private
Manning said in chat logs that he hoped the releases would bring “discussion,
debates and reforms” and condemned the ways the “first world exploits the
third.” Much of the world regards him as a hero for these efforts toward peace
and transparency, and he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as a
result. However, much as when high-ranking officials in the United States and
Britain misled the public in 2003 by saying there was an imminent need to
invade Iraq to stop it from using weapons of mass destruction, the world’s most
powerful elites have again insulted international opinion and the intelligence
of many citizens by withholding facts regarding Manning and WikiLeaks.
The
military prosecution has not presented evidence that Private Manning injured
anyone by releasing secret documents, and it has asserted in court that the
charge of “aiding the enemy through indirect means” does not require it to do
so. Nor has the prosecution denied that his motivations were conscientious; it
has simply argued they are irrelevant. In ignoring this context and
recommending a much more severe punishment for Bradley Manning than is given to
US soldiers guilty of murdering civilians, military leadership is sending a
chilling warning to other soldiers who might feel compelled by conscience to
reveal misdeeds. It is our belief that leaders who use fear to govern, rather
than sharing wisdom born from facts, cannot be just.
We
Nobel Peace Prize laureates condemn the persecution Bradley Manning has
suffered, including imprisonment in conditions declared “cruel, inhuman and
degrading” by the United Nations, and call upon Americans to stand up in
support of this whistleblower who defended their democratic rights. In the
conflict in Iraq alone, more than 110,000 people have died since 2003, millions
have been displaced and nearly 4,500 American soldiers have been killed. If
someone needs to be held accountable for endangering Americans and civilians,
let’s first take the time to examine the evidence regarding high-level crimes
already committed, and what lessons can be learned. If Bradley Manning released
the documents, as the prosecution contends, we should express to him our
gratitude for his efforts toward accountability in government, informed
democracy and peace.
Over many years now of talking publicly about torture by
the US government in Guantanamo, Abu Ghriab, and black sites we still can't even
identify, I've been challenged by ex-prisoners, and family of prisoners here to
recognize that in U.S. prisons, people are tortured, including by solitary
confinement of probably 80,000 prisoners at any one time. 
Sequestration has made this fight more important than ever.
