AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

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

Saturday, February 09, 2019

TAKE ACTION: Submit a comment to oppose the food stamp rule Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis

Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis<info@poorpeoplescampaign.org>

2/7/2019 4:20 PM

To alfredjohnson34@comcast.net

Alfred,

In December, the Trump administration plotted to gut SNAP, the food assistance program more than 40 million Americans rely on to feed themselves.

This attack on the poor would impose oppressive work requirements that will have a devastating impact on our nation’s most vulnerable. These requirements will perpetuate the false narrative that poverty is the fault of the poor.

There are millions of poor people relying on food assistance to meet their basic needs every single day. Will you take action, Alfred, and submit a comment against this rule?

Every comment submitted must be reviewed and taken into consideration before the rule goes into effect. Together, we can stop this administration from hurting our nation’s poor. Submit a comment >>

SUBMIT COMMENT

We know this work requirement rule doesn’t work.

In 2018, West Virginia—a state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country—passed a similar rule.

Amy Jo Hutchinson from the West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign says that in just one county in her state more than 800 people are due to lose their benefits.

“They don't want you to know about the 23-year-old with autism who no longer receives SNAP,” Amy Jo says. “They don’t want you to know about the 18-year-old who recently aged out of the foster care system and has to find affordable housing, a job and food. They don't want you to know about the dad who can no longer use SNAP because of the fact he lives 10 miles out of town and has no access to transportation, which means he has limited access to employment and volunteer opportunities.”

This rule will drive 755,000 poor folks deeper into poverty across the country over the next three years. It's a cruel and cynical attempt to chip away at our social safety net by defining who is and who isn’t suffering in our nation.

“We eat or we die,” says Amy Jo, “and yet this administration continues to commit acts of violence against society's most vulnerable citizens.”

This proposed rule is policy violence, plain and simple.

Fight back against this administration’s latest attack on the poor. Click here to submit a comment opposing the proposed SNAP rule >>

Fight poverty, not the poor!

Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis
President of Repairers of the Breach & Director of the Kairos Center
Co-Chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

SUBMIT COMMENT

Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, please click here.

Big news today on climate change (and it’s good!) Climate Crisis Response Team

Climate Crisis Response Team<moveon-help@list.moveon.org>

2/7/2019 7:48 PM

To Alfred F Johnson

Dear MoveOn member,

This morning, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey released their broad and visionary Green New Deal to tackle the climate crisis—which calls for a complete shift to renewable energy in the next 10 years—and now it is up to us to build public support for this lifesaving, paradigm-shifting legislation.¹

This resolution does not come a moment too soon. The most recent report released last October by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change noted we have only 12 years to make urgent and unprecedented changes in order to avoid a climate catastrophe.²

And yet, many in Congress—including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—have balked at the Green New Deal or called for less-ambitious changes.³ But this is no time for incremental change; it is time for big, bold ideas that face this urgent threat head-on.

When Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and the youth-led Sunrise Movement pushed this demand into the national spotlight in November, MoveOn was among the first organizations to echo the call, and we are ready to go big to push the Green New Deal onto center stage in our political discourse this year and in the lead-up to the 2020 election.

Can you chip in $3 to MoveOn's efforts to elevate the Green New Deal—and, in doing so, to build the political momentum to tackle the climate crisis?

What happens in the next days and weeks could help determine if tackling climate change becomes a core issue for Democrats and progressives—which is why it's imperative we amplify the Green New Deal loud and clear, pull in more sponsors, make it central to the Democrats' governing vision, and ensure it pushes a climate debate in the political season to come.

Here is what we are ready to do to amplify Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Markey's visionary measure:

Working with our Video Lab team to produce powerful videos in support of the Green New Deal. MoveOn's Video Lab has already produced multiple videos about the Green New Deal that have been viewed millions of times, and we will continue to create persuasive, fact-based videos about our climate crisis, boost them across social media and with ads, and make sure millions more see them.
Flooding Congress with calls in support of the resolution. Our representatives need to know that we want the Green New Deal to be a central piece of legislation that they advocate for, and that as constituents we demand immediate action on climate change.
Developing powerful stickers and social media graphics to show our support. Imagine hundreds of thousands of bumper stickers calling for action on climate change on cars, bikes, computers, and notebooks in districts across the country—so many that when members of Congress are at home, they cannot make it to their office without seeing one. This will be a powerful, visible reminder of the deep support for this bill across the country.
Using our megaphone to call for 2020 candidates to support the legislation. MoveOn is already well underway with planning for the 2020 primary and election, which will include events with candidates and multiple opportunities for MoveOn members to share what is important to us. Using our grassroots power, we will make the Green New Deal a central part of that conversation.

This is our moment to shift the discussion on climate change. Will you chip in $3 now to help make it happen?

Here's the sad truth: There is almost no way that Donald Trump and the Republicans in the Senate will take climate change seriously. They deny the science and make jokes about the weather, because they are in the pockets of Big Oil and other fossil fuel giants. And we want to be honest: The Green New Deal is not about to become law.

But there is an opportunity right now—to show politicians of both parties the genuine, widespread, popular support for the Green New Deal and other visionary approaches to tackle this crisis. Democratic leaders will be watching the public reaction—and MoveOn is in a unique position to flex our grassroots organizing muscle to help shape the conversation.

If we can join with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Markey, the Sunrise Movement, and countless other environmental leaders to loudly and compellingly demand action, Democrats will follow that energy—making climate change a central theme of their agenda in the House and a central issue in the 2020 primaries.

And if Democrats do that, it will provide a clear choice between the parties heading into 2020—as a widespread movement of electrified climate voters, including many younger voters, first-time voters, and unlikely voters turn out to support candidates up and down the ballot who will replace the climate deniers in Congress and the White House.

But if the Green New Deal lands with a thud, Democrats will take that as a sign to back away—to be silent on the disastrous impacts of climate change or to seek modest, insufficient responses to this global crisis.

So our path isn’t easy, but it is clear: make sure that we bring together millions of voices to make calls, share videos, show up at events, and support the environmental advocates and leaders in Congress in creating a national clamor to address environmental justice; make sure Democrats in House leadership and on the 2020 trail respond to that clamor; and secure a critical place for climate in our political discourse, galvanizing voters and contributing to the cultural shift necessary to take on this issue.

We do not have a moment to waste. So please, click here now and chip in $3 to help us spread the clarion call for bold action on climate change immediately.

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin, Jenn, Isbah, Michael, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Ocasio-Cortez Unveils Green New Deal to Reset Climate Policy," Bloomberg, February 7, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/63010?t=5&akid=226547%2E38417624%2E92wjhZ

2. "We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN," The Guardian, October 8, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/61232?t=7&akid=226547%2E38417624%2E92wjhZ

3. "Ocasio-Cortez Unveils Green New Deal to Reset Climate Policy," Bloomberg, February 7, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/63010?t=9&akid=226547%2E38417624%2E92wjhZ

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?

Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.

Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to Alfred Johnson on February 8th, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

“Raising Voices for Yemen” Defendants to Appear in New York City Criminal Court on February 25

Kathy Kelly, our speaker on Friday march 22 at the Friends Meeting in Cambridge, is up to all kinds of good things down there in New York City. Arrested still again. don’t miss her. best, paul

“Raising Voices for Yemen” Defendants to Appear in New York City Criminal Court on February 25

On January 2nd, 2019, eleven people from New York, New Jersey, Maine, Illinois and Iowa protested the the Saudi-led, U.S.-supported bombardment and siege of Yemen by nonviolently blocking the doors of the United States Permanent Mission to the United Nations at 799 United Nations Plaza in New York. Far outnumbered by officers of the New York City Police, the protestors were arrested and later released pending court appearances.

The protest was a part of “Fast for Yemen,” two weeks when participants fasted from solid food in solidarity with the people of Yemen suffering from the world’s worst famine in over a century and took part in daily protests and marches in New York City and in Washington, DC. Along with the US Mission, the fasters and their friends brought their protest to some of the other parties to war crimes in Yemen, to the missions or consulates of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, France and to the offices of Lockheed Martin.

The eleven defendants, Kathy Kelly, Joan Pleune, Alice Sutter, Manijeh Saba, Trudy Silver, Jules Orkin, Brian Terrell, Bud Courtney and Al Pereira, will appear in Criminal Court of the City of New York, 100 Center St., at 9:30 AM on Monday, February 25, to answer to charges of disorderly conduct. Carolyn Coe and Ed Kinane will be represented by an attorney. The public is encouraged to attend this hearing to show solidarity with the defendants and with the people of Yemen.

After Court:
4 to 7 PM: The defendants and their friends invite the public to an event, The Fierce Urgency of Now: YEMEN! at the 5C Cafe and Cultural Center at 68 Avenue C, on the corner of E. 5th Street. This will be an afternoon to raise awareness and also raise funds for legal and other expenses. $10 donation is requested. Among the performers for the afternoon will be Rose Tang, Vinie Burrows, Flames of Discontent, Trudy Silver’s Where’s the Outrage, Bud Courtney and Anthony Donovan, Raymond Nat Turner and Ras Moshe. For information call 212-477-5993.

Other Events in New York February 22 to 26:

Friday, February 22, at 11 AM- 1 PM: gather at the “Isaiah Wall,” Ralph Bunche Park, 1st Avenue and E 42nd Street, across from the United Nations. At 11:30, process to 42^nd and Lexington, offices of Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin is one of many arms manufacturers that are profiting from the war in Yemen- On August 8, 1918, A Saudi Air Force jet dropped a 500 pound bomb made by Lockheed Martin was dropped on a school bus, killing more than 40 children and their teachers.

Saturday, February 23:
11 AM- 12:30 PM: join the weekly Vigil for Yemen, held each Saturday at Union Square on E 14^th Street

Tuesday, February 26:
11 AM: at 11 AM- 1 PM: gather at the “Isaiah Wall,” Ralph Bunche Park, 1st Avenue and E 42nd Street, across from the United Nations. At 11:30, process to US Mission and Saudi Consulate, 866 2nd Avenue, to demand that the United States and Saudi Arabia immediately and permanently end all military and economic assault on Yemen.

7:PM: Rise and Resist meeting at People’s Forum, 320 W 37th Street. Rise and Resist is a direct action group committed to opposing, disrupting, and defeating any government act that threatens democracy, equality, and our civil liberties. Kathy Kelly and Brian Terrell of Voices for Creative Nonviolence will lead a discussion about resisting the war in Yemen.
Contact Brian Terrell, 773-853-1886, Kathy Kelly, 773-619-2418 or Jules Orkin, 201-566-8403

https://therealnews.com/stories/activists-on-hunger-strike-demanding-an-end-to-us-saudi-war-on-yemen

Photos from January 2 at the US Mission by Sophia Ko

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Voices for Creative Nonviolence · 1249 W Argyle St · Chicago, IL 60640 · USA

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Charlie Welch<cwelch@tecschange.org>

2/7/2019 10:29 PM

Via Act-MA <act-ma-bounces@act-ma.org>

To act-ma@act-ma.org

While the influence and resistance of African heritage is commemorated 
and celebrated in the world, here in euna (united states of north 
america) they are recognized in the month of  February as " Black 
History Month". encuetro5 continues to honor and celebrate all peoples 
of African descent, their friends and comrades!//mientras que la 
influencia y resistencia de la herencia africana se conmemora y celebra 
en el mundo, aquí en euna (estados unidos de norte américa) se reconocen 
en el mes de febrero como el "Mes de la Historia Negra". encuentro5 
continúa honrando y celebrando a todos los pueblos de ascendencia 
africana, sus amistades y camaradas./

*/
*/         To view flyer/para ver volante /*http://en
<http://encuentro5.org/home/>g/home/
<http://encuentro5.org/home/>cuentro5.or <http://encuentro5.org/home/>

/*

Join encuentro5 community and friends to commemorate and celebrate 
African Heritage Influence and Resistance in the Diaspora in the usna 
(united states of north america) *On Saturday, February 9, 2019 7pm* – 
*11pm * *9A Hamilton Pl. across from Park St. T station (Green/Red 
lines) and next to Orpheum Theater.*/Únete a la comunidad del encuentro5 
y amistades para conmemorar y celebrar la herencia Africana, su 
influencia y resistencia en**la diáspora en euna (estados unidos de 
norte américa) * sábado 9 de febrero del 2019 */*/7pm – 11pm /** 9A 
Hamilton Place **a cruzar de estación de tren Park St. (líneas 
verde/roja) y alado del teatro Orpheum.*

We will honor our African ancestors by sharing history including 
fragments not widely known or spoken about, such as the 
*Afr**o**Indigenous* Peoples. The Indigenous Peoples of the Americas had 
themselves been enslaved before Africans were kidnapped, transported to 
this part of the world and enslaved.And, while both formed and 
maintained close collaborative relationships not much is known about 
them. Pieces of history like these are not mentioned or included in usna 
school textbooks. Join us on this journey as we learn more about the 
African heritage influence on usna culture.  Help make this a memorable 
evening, share Afrocentric instruments, music, song, dance, poetry, 
food, stories, etc.

/Honraremos a //nuestros// an//cestros// africanos compartiendo 
historia//incluyendo //fragmentos////que no se conocen o hablan 
ampliamente, como los pueblos *afroindigenas*. Los mismos pueblos 
indígenas de las Américas habían sido esclavizados antes de que los 
africanos fueran secuestrados, transportados a esta parte del mundo y 
esclavizados. y, mientras ambos formaban y mantenían relaciones íntimas 
y colaborativas, no se sabe mucho sobre ellos. Piezas de //la 
historia//como estas no se mencionan ni se incluyen en los libros de 
texto en las escuelas de euna (estados unidos de norte america). Únase a 
nosotros en este viaje para aprender más sobre la influencia de la 
herencia africano en la cultura euna. Ayuda hacer esta noche memorable, 
comparte instrumentos, música, canción, baile, poesía, comida e 
historias afrocéntricas//, etc//./

/
/

/*For more información/para más información (617) 922-5744*/


*PLEASE CONTACT ME DIRECTLY IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PROGRAM*

*
*

* https://www.facebook.com/events/250367502547414/*


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Fight for a Green New Deal in Seattle Socialist Alternative

Socialist Alternative<newsletter@socialistalternative.org>

2/7/2019 10:32 PM

To alfredjohnson34@comcast.net

Al,

Billionaire in Chief Donald Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address was, unsurprisingly, filled with lies, distortions, and fear mongering. But also notable were the glaring omissions, including any plan to address our growing climate crisis.

As Bernie Sanders said in his State of the Union response: “How can a president of the United States give a State of the Union speech and not mention climate change when the leading scientists of the world tell us that climate change is real, is caused by human activity, and is already causing devastating harm in the United States and in much of the world? Further, they tell us that we have a very short 12 years in order to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy if we are going to have a planet that is healthy and habitable for our kids and grandchildren.”

The last five years have been the warmest on record. We’re seeing an alarming regularity of extreme weather events, from wildfires across Washington State and in California, to a new normal of “once-in-a-lifetime” storms super-charged by global warming, to the recent polar vortex. With a climate change denier in the White House who has filled his cabinet with fossil fuel interests, we need immediate action to address the climate crisis.

The idea of a Green New Deal, which has been called for by environmental activists and strongly supported by democratic socialists Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, is a crucial step in the right direction. Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi struck down calls for a select committee on climate change to propose a Green New Deal, replacing it with a toothless committee, and the Democratic Party leadership backed down from an effort to bar candidates who accept fossil fuel contributions.

It will take building powerful movements to win a Green New Deal in Seattle and nationwide.

Here in Seattle, we need to lead on the environment and clean energy. We should create our own aggressive targets to make Seattle 100% renewable by 2030. Traffic gridlock in Seattle is the 9th worst of any city in the country —we need to develop a world-class, fully-electric mass transit system, free at point of use, to provide a viable alternative to reliance on car-based transit. This must be financed by taxing the rich, not with regressive tolls on city streets or in the new tunnel. We need a major green public works program which can create thousands of family wage union jobs for Seattle workers through a major expansion of clean energy, free energy conservation retrofitting in homes and apartments, and repair of broken and increasingly unsafe public infrastructure. Let’s fully electrify our working waterfront, for port worker safety and a sustainable environment.

Can you donate $15, $50, or $100 to re-elect Councilmember Kshama Sawant and build the fight for a Green New Deal?

Just today, 45,000 students walked out of classes in Belgium to protest climate change, and students across the world, including in the U.S., are building for a major climate strike on March 15. We need elected officials who aren’t bought off by Big Oil, and who use their positions to stand with movements fighting the fossil fuel industry, like Kshama did during the successful struggles to block access of a Shell oil rig to the Seattle Port and to divest Seattle from Dakota Access Pipeline-investor Wells Fargo.

We need a new party for working people that will fight to stop climate change. We need to take the big energy corporations into democratic public ownership and re-tool them for clean energy and mass transit. The fossil-fuel reliant capitalist system has failed to address the urgent climate crisis – we need a democratic socialist green economy that bases itself on the needs of people and the planet.

Donate Today

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