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

Thursday, May 10, 2018

From CodePink- Open Letter to the People of Iran from the American People

,

Thank you for supporting an apology to the Iranian people. We will publicize the letter on social media and inside Iranian publications. We commit ourselves to doing everything we can to stop the our government from dragging us into another disastrous war.

Please forward this email on to others who may want to sign:

Here's the full petition:

An apology to the people of Iran

Open Letter to the People of Iran from the American People

Dear Friends,

We, the undersigned, apologize for Donald Trump’s reckless, baseless, and dangerous decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement and we pledge to do everything we can to reverse that decision.

We are ashamed that our government has broken an agreement that was already signed not just by the United States and Iran, but also by France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China, and then approved by the entire UN Security Council in a unanimous vote. We are ashamed that our government has broken a deal that was working, a deal with which Iran was complying, a deal that was making our entire world safer and could have moved our nations closer towards the path of friendship.

Unlike our president, we believe that a deal is a deal. Unlike our president, we want to resolve the conflicts in the Middle East, not escalate them. Unlike our president, we want our nation’s resources to be dedicated to enriching people’s lives, not enriching the weapons makers. Unlike our president, we want to live in peace and harmony with the people of Iran.

We understand that our nation already has a dreadful history of meddling in the internal affairs of your country. The 1953 coup that overthrew your democratically elected government was unconscionable. So was US support for Iraq’s Saddam Hussein when he invaded Iran in 1980, including selling him material for making chemical weapons that were used against you. The 1988 shooting down of an Iranian civilian airliner, killing all 290 passengers and crew, was unconscionable. So, too, are the decades of covert actions to overthrow your government and the decades of sanctions that have brought such needless suffering to ordinary Iranians.

We understand that the US government has no business interfering in your internal affairs or in the Middle East in general. We should not be selling weapons to nations guilty of gross human rights violations or sending our military to fight in faraway lands. With all the flaws in our own society--from massive inequality and racism to a political system corrupted by monetary influences--we should clean up our own house instead of telling others how to govern themselves.

We will do everything in our power to stop Donald Trump from strangling your economy and taking us to war with you. We will ask the UN to sanction the United States for violating the nuclear agreement. We will urge the Europeans, Russians, and Chinese to keep the deal alive and increase their trade relations. And we will work to rid ourselves of this unscrupulous president and replace him with someone who is trustworthy, moral, and committed to diplomacy.

Please accept our hand in friendship. May the peacemakers prevail over those who sow hatred and discord.

Sincerely,

Your friends can sign here: http://www.codepink.org/an_apology_to_the_people_of_iran?recruiter_id=369391

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Monday, May 14, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will launch

Nonviolent Moral Fusion Direct Action in Boston

Dear Smedleys

This Monday, May 14, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will launch a season of nonviolent moral fusion direct action in Massachusetts, and Massachusetts Peace Action needs you to join us there.

In communities across America—black, white, brown and Native—poor people, people of faith, and their supporters have built a Poor People’s Campaign to become what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life.”

On May 14, we will make the demands of the poor and dispossessed known to our failing leaders in Massachusetts by standing together at the State House in Boston. Sign up now to join us in nonviolent moral fusion direct action next Monday.

By engaging in highly publicized, nonviolent moral fusion direct action, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will force a serious national examination of the enmeshed evils of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy, and our distorted moral narrative.

These enmeshed evils know no boundaries. That’s why we need people who care about economic injustice, racism, militarism, and environmental devastation to build something better. Sign up today to join the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign in Boston on Monday.

Monday marks the opening of 40 days of moral direct action in Boston and across the United States. Stay tuned for details of actions focusing on racism and immigration May 21; the war economy, militarism, and gun violence May 28-29; health of the planet and of the people June 4; economic injustice June 11; and the need for a new moral narrative on June 23, when we will travel to Washington.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, co-coordinator of the Poor People's Campaign, spoke out forcefully on the necessity of moral resistance in the face of militarism in his sermon last Sunday. Click here to watch this important presentation.

Find more information on Facebook, or on the PPC website.

Forward together -- not one step back!

One Week Until Our Next Big Action: The Poor People's Campaign!

Hello again DS Family,

Just thought I'd forward the message below again with the gentle reminder that our next big action, The Poor People's Campaign, kick's off next Monday in 40 states across the nation and the District of Columbia!

Be sure to catch our daily countdown on Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook for interesting facts about why we're doing this campaign. Many thanks to the scores of you who have already signed up using this unique Democracy Spring/Poor People's Campaign link. For those who haven't, please be sure to do so today so you don't miss the information specific to your location for the mandatory non-violent direct action training ahead of Monday's action in your state or DC (either Sunday evening or Monday morning).

In solidarity,

Renaldo and the entire DS team

DONATE HERE

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Renaldo, Democracy Spring <hello@democracyspring.org>
Date: Wed, May 2, 2018 at 7:17 PM
Subject: Our Next Big Action: The Poor People's Campaign!
To: hello@democracyspring.org

Fellow Patriots,

By now you've probably seen Kai's "Big Announcement" last week on passing the torch to Tania, Shani, and me. If not, here's a link to that announcement on our website.

We've been working around the clock to advance the work and mission of Democracy Spring and I'm proud to announce our next big action: "The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival."

A mass nonviolent direct action campaign, Democracy Spring has partnered with Repairers of the Breach; the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice; the Popular Education Project; and over 100 local and national partners to push the sleeping giant of poverty in America -- where 1 in 2 Americans are poor or low-income (according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure) -- to the top of the national agenda.

From our perspective, this campaign (the resurrection of a dream that was killed shortly after its revolutionary dreamer, Dr. King, 50 years ago) is not just promising because of its sustained, escalating nonviolent direct action over 40 days in over 40 states across the country, but also because of its laser focus on the link between political and socio-economic (dare I add environmental) disenfranchisement!

Indeed, the campaign has already commissioned a report and map showing the states with some of the worst voter suppression laws are the same states with the worst poverty and healthcare rates (i.e. the lowest or no minimum wage, and denied Medicaid expansion).

Furthermore, while the official poverty rate is about the same today as it was when Dr. King decried it 50 years ago, the share of national income going towards the top 1% of earners has nearly doubled (the 400 wealthiest Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 64% of the U.S. population, or 204 million people) -- even while healthcare (the leading cause of bankruptcy) and education costs continue to soar, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour can't afford anyone a two-bedroom apartment at market rent in any state or county in the nation, and congress and the White House hand the rich yet another tax cut on the backs of the poor.

This political and economic inequality erodes our democracy in direct (voter suppression at a time when we have internationally low voter turnout compared to other democracies) and indirect (campaign finance laws that leave our policymakers beholden to the wealthy few at the expense of the many) ways and we must face these threats by building on the wisdom of our forbears who taught us -- from the founding revolution to abolition, women’s suffrage to the labor, farm workers, and civil rights movements -- that no major democratic struggle in American history has been won without the weapon that Dr. King called "the sword that heals," nonviolent direct action.

So, will you join us? Will you help us break the righteous record we set in April 2016 for the largest act of American civil disobedience this century? Will you step up locally to help your state advance the new pro-democracy wave to counter what I call "The 7 Deadly Sins of American Democracy"? Will you follow the lead of grassroots patriots like those in Florida who are advancing Felon Re-enfranchisement? Will you follow the lead of grassroots patriots in Oregon in 2016 (which had the largest voter turnout increase of any state during the last presidential election) or, most recently, those in New Jersey who organized to make their state the 12th since 2016 to enact Automatic Voter Registration?

If so, sign-up at this unique Democracy Spring/Poor People's Campaign link so that we can ensure that you get all the information you need (based on your location) ahead of our launch in just under 2 weeks!

The 40 days of action will commence on Monday, May 14th (the day after Mother's Day) in 40 states (at/around the state capitols) and the District of Columbia with a form of civil disobedience on each Monday over those 6 weeks. However, you MUST attend a training ahead of each action (usually on the Sunday before or at 11am on Monday) to participate. For more information, sign-up at the link above and see the Action Map here (which includes the contact info for your local coordinators).

The themes for each week are as follows:

Week One (May 13-19) - Somebody's Hurting Our People: Child poverty, Women, LGBTQIA community, and People with Disabilities

Week Two (May 20-26) - Linking Systemic Racism and Poverty: Voting Rights, Ending Mass Incarceration, treatment of indigenous people and Justice for Immigrants

Week Three (May 27-June 2) - The War Economy: Militarism, Veterans and the Proliferation of Gun Violence

Week Four (June 3-9) - Ecological Devastation and Health - Clean Air, Clean Water, and Healthcare for All

Week Five (June 10-16) - Everybody’s Got a Right to Live: Jobs, Income, the Right to Organize, Education and Housing

Week Six (June 17-22) - A New and Unsettling Force - A Fusion Movement Rising Up

That said, I'll leave you with these words from Rabbi Maimonides: "The world is equally balanced between good and evil. Your next act will tip the scales."

For Real Democracy,

Renaldo and the entire DS Team

DONATE HERE

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Senators Have a New Plan to Expand Indefinite Detention and Endless Global War

By Christopher Anders, Deputy Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office

MAY 3, 2018 | 4:00 PM

HTTPS://WWW.ACLU.ORG/BLOG/NATIONAL-SECURITY/SENATORS-HAVE-NEW-PLAN-EXPAND-INDEFINITE-DETENTION-AND-ENDLESS-GLOBAL-WAR

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse with this Congress, a bipartisan pair of senators have teamed up to write the single most dangerous piece of unconstitutional legislation of this Congress.

Last week, Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced S. Res. 59, which is a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). An AUMF is roughly the modern equivalent of a declaration of war, and the Corker-Kaine AUMF gives President Trump and lots of future presidents the authority to take the country to war against an endless list of groups and individuals in an endless list of countries.

The result will be true global war without end.

The two senators wanted to get a quick vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week and have the bill rocket through the Senate and House and onto the president’s desk. Fortunately for all of us, senators from both parties, from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to Sen. Jeff Merkely (D-Ore.), forced a slowdown. But Corker and Kaine are working overtime to try to jam through their AUMF, which is a dumpster fire of bad ideas.

Here are just some of the harms packed into their proposed AUMF:

It immediately authorizes war against eight groups. With literally no strategic or operational restrictions, the Corker-Kaine AUMF authorizes immediate war against eight groups in six countries. The American military could be sent into battle in countries such as Libya, Somalia, or Yemen to fight groups that most Americans have never even heard of. This could lead to the immediate deployment of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of American military service members to fight if Congress passes and Trump signs this AUMF.

The U.S. could declare war on a person. The president — not just President Trump, but likely every president for the next generation or longer — will be able to add new groups or new countries to the AUMF by simply sending a one-paragraph note to Congress. Absurdly, the Corker-Kaine AUMF even gives the commander-in-chief the option of going to war against a “person.” The president would not even have to explain why the new group or person is an enemy or what kind of danger awaits from military action in a newly added country.

SENATORS: DON’T GIVE TRUMP A BLANK CHECK TO WAGE WORLDWIDE WAR

https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/styles/action_sidebar_wide_280x240/public/field_image/action2400x960_1_0.png?itok=bokScT01

TAKE ACTION NOW

Congress abdicates its war-making powers. In a stunningly unconstitutional move, the Corker-Kaine AUMF takes the most important power that the Constitution gives to Congress alone — the power to declare war — and turns it almost entirely over to this president and every future president. The only way that Congress would be able to stop a determined president from going to war everywhere and against anyone the commander-in-chief chooses would be to get a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress to override the president's veto.

This flips the constitutional order on its head since the Constitution says a majority of both houses must agree to go to war before military action is taken. By contrast, the Corker-Kaine AUMF requires two-thirds of both houses to try to stop a president from using the war power that the AUMF would give the president. This provision to swap the Constitution’s requirement of a majority in both houses to declare war for a two-thirds majority of both houses to stop war breaches checks and balances and the separation of powers. It can’t possibly be constitutional.

So, what more could be added to a piece of legislation that unconstitutionally sets us up for war everywhere and forever?

How about amping up the authority for any president to use the military to lock people up with no charge or trial? And expanding this authority with no boundaries — and with no statutory prohibition in the AUMF against locking up American citizens or anyone picked up even in the United States itself? We believe it would still be unlawful for a president to try it (again), but why risk it?

Congress went down this same road in 2011, with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and hundreds of thousands of activists from the ACLU and our allies called and emailed their members of Congress urging its defeat. It narrowly passed, and President Obama signed it — with a promise not to use it against American citizens, but without denying that a president could have the power to order military detention.

The Intercept has an explanation of how this new detention provision could work. It is truly hard to believe that anyone in Congress would believe that it is a good idea for the legislature to head down this road again. Please sign our petition urging your senators to do everything they can do to make sure the Corker-Kaine AUMF never becomes law.

The Corker-Kaine AUMF is beyond dangerous. It is unconstitutional. And it is set up to never end. The Senate has a duty to kill this legislation immediately and show all members of Congress and the executive that abdicating Congress’s duty to declare war stays with the people’s representatives and no one else.

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2018 summer protest season kicks off with action of 70+ farmworkers, allies in Sarasota!

CIW’s Silvia Perez: “We have fought for decades to protect the dignity of the women and men who harvest our food — and we are winning, through the Fair Food Program. Wendy’s cannot erase the hard-earned progress we’ve made…”

Even as the tomato harvest ends in Immokalee and the academic semester draws to a close for student allies, the Fair Food Nation is anything but winding down. Far from it: farmworkers and allies have their eyes trained on victory in the Wendy’s Boycott, and have lined up a jam-packed schedule of big summer protests and national calls to action. With pressure continuing to mount following the spring’s Freedom Fast and Time’s Up Wendy’s March, Wendy’s will be hard-pressed to ignore the Fair Food Nation’s clarion call for real, worker-driven social responsibility.

Indeed, allies around the country are marshaling their networks to pen hundreds of letters to Wendy’s headquarters while also mobilizing to show up in-person to the annual shareholder meeting in Dublin, OH on June 5. If you’re ready to join in the actions planned for the shareholder meeting, make sure to check out our call to action!

Today, we bring you a report from the very first hot and sunny summer protest of the season in Sarasota, Florida. Last Sunday, dozens of farmworker men, women, and children hopped into vans to journey to the beautiful gulf coast community two short hours north of Immokalee that has, for many years, been a veritable Fair Food stronghold.