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Tidbits - Dec. 10, 2020 - Reader Comments: Biden First 100 Days; COVID Stimulus; Unions and Green New Deal; Social Security; Wear a Mask; Antisemitism; Jeremy Corbyn Affair; Refusing to Serve in Israeli Army; Intifada 33rd anniversary; lots of resources;

Reader Comments: Biden First 100 Days; What Kind of COVID Stimulus; Unions and Green New Deal; Who Gets Social Security; Wear a Mask; Antisemitism; Jeremy Corbyn Affair; Refusing to Serve in Israeli Army; Intifada 33rd anniversary; lots of resources;

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, AND cartoons - Dec. 10, 2020,Portside

14 Priorities for the First 100 Days (Poor People's Campaign)
Re: The U.S. Has Passed the Hospital Breaking Point (Sandy Eaton)
Re: Tucked into the Covid-19 Stimulus Package? Protection for Corporations (Judith Halprin)
An Important Question for Congress (Jews for a Secular Democracy)
Re: New York’s Building Trades Unions Are Showing the Way Forward on Green Jobs (Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO)
Re: 1918 Germany Has a Warning for America (Joseph Kaye)
Rudy Meets Reality  --  meme from SolidarityINFOService
Re: Social Security Administration Is Preparing to Bar 500,000 Americans from Getting Benefits (Sondra Farganis; Tim Basehart)
You Can't Get Me in a Lifeboat - I Have Rights  --  cartoon by Patrick LaMontagne
Deadliest Days in U.S. History
Re: ‘Refusing to Serve in the Army is My Small Act of Making Change’ (Luis Saez Ríos; Susanna Heller)
Re: The Tragedy of Jeremy Corbyn (David Byrne; Morton K. Brussel; Donna Nevel)
Jews Across the Globe Applaud Statement by Palestinian and Arab Academics, Journalists and Intellectuals (Independent Jewish Voices Canada)
33rd anniversary of the beginning of the First Intifada (Jewish Voice for Peace)
Celebrating Paying Off His Student Loans  --  cartoon by Bill Whitehead

Resources:

BBC History of Africa -20 videos (#SetHistoryStraight)
Check out our guide to discuss anti-blackness at home (United We Dream)
Introducing MUSE: Musicians United For Social Equity
Looking For Freedom: A Celebration Of The Music Of Jon Fromer - We Do the Work
Get your favorite Illinois Press books for 50% off - thru December 31
The 50 Best Multicultural Picture Books Of 2020 (Colours of Us)
Diane Feinstein's San Francisco History (Center for the Study of Political Graphics)
Visualize NYC 2001 (AIA New York, Center for Architecture and MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab)
Where You Spend Your Money and What THEY Did with Your Dollars During the 2020 Election Cycle
Abolitionist resources from 2020: materials, videos and more (Critical Resistance)

Announcements:

Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Class on Reconstruction: Repression and Resistance - December 14 (Zinn Education Project)
National Briefing on COVID-19 & The Eviction Crisis - December 15 (Right To The City Alliance)

14 Priorities for the First 100 Days (Poor People's Campaign)

 

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This morning we released a set of 14 policy and legislative priorities for the first 100 days of the next Congress and the Biden-Harris administration. Our priorities include comprehensive and just COVID-19 relief, health care for all, a federal jobs program and much more. 

CLICK HERE TO READ OUR FULL SET OF PRIORITIES

At our Moral Monday Mass Assembly on September 14 Biden said that under his presidency, “ending poverty will not just be an aspiration, it will be a theory of change — to build a new economy that includes everyone, where we reward hard work, we care for the most vulnerable among us, we release the potential of all our children, and protect the planet.” (Watch President-elect Biden’s statement from September 14, 2020 and also his and Vice President-elect Harris statements at the Poor People’s Campaign’s Moral Action Congress in 2019.)

We will continue to organize around the policy priorities of poor, low-income and impacted people to make this a reality. Please share this agenda far and wide, and use it as a tool to build power in your community. 

Forward together, not one step back!

Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis

Co-Chairs, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Poor People's Campaign

Re: The U.S. Has Passed the Hospital Breaking Point

To win healthy communities and planet, we have three arenas of struggle. Capitalism’s wanton destruction of the environment through deforestation and dependence on fossil fuels, public health infrastructures starved of resources and personnel, and health systems geared to maximize profit and minimize care. Destroying nature promotes mutations that develop into pandemics. Forty years of neglect and austerity have weakened our public health infrastructure, leaving us vulnerable each time a new disaster or plague arises. The neoliberal marketplace has assumed the role of dictating which communities die and which survive, with overall capacity shrunk. Can we survive under capitalism?

Sandy Eaton

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Tucked into the Covid-19 Stimulus Package? Protection for Corporations

the plan - force workers into unsafe places on threat of loss of unemployment benefits if they refuse based [on] health threatening conditions in the workplace AND then shield the owners from any lawsuits for injuries, illnesses, deaths caused by the conditions. Dickens would have loved this.

Judith Halprin

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

An Important Question for Congress

Just one example of why religion should stay out of government policy:

Jews for a Secular Democracy

Re: New York’s Building Trades Unions Are Showing the Way Forward on Green Jobs

(posting on Portside Labor)

It is clear that there is real worker buy-in on this agenda, and that local unions see renewable energy as a secure job source for the future. John Durso, President of the Long Island Federation of Labor, declared, “Long Island should be a hub of offshore wind development. With our strategic location centered on the East Coast and advanced supply chain from the aerospace industry, the region is poised to lead.”

Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: 1918 Germany Has a Warning for America

Another important Big Lie was attributing the burning down of the Reichstag to the Communists, resulting in the shredding of the last vestiges of democratic rule.

Joseph Kaye

Rudy Meets Reality  --  meme from SolidarityINFOService

SolidarityINFOService

Re: Social Security Administration Is Preparing to Bar 500,000 Americans from Getting Benefits

Grim but important to read

Sondra Farganis

     =====

What the hell is wrong with this country

Tim Basehart

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

You Can't Get Me in a Lifeboat - I Have Rights  --  cartoon by Patrick LaMontagne

Patrick LaMontagne

November 26, 2020
Winnipeg Free Press

Deadliest Days in U.S. History

Re: ‘Refusing to Serve in the Army is My Small Act of Making Change’

I congratulate you for your bravery and social conscience. Continue forging ahead and inspiring others in making a definite change in all.

Luis Saez Ríos

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Nice to know humans like this in Israel ...!!!

Susanna Heller

Re: The Tragedy of Jeremy Corbyn

This is far too soft on the pro Zionist campaign in the UK. I suggest you upload this video to your video lists because it is very good indeed.

Meet The Wrong Type of Jew, The Media Doesn't Want You To Know Exists | Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

Watch here

David Byrne

     =====

Regarding antisemitism and Corbyn in the UK, there are too many words in the article; one could more trenchantly say that the Israeli lobby is as strong in the UK as it is in the USA. Corbyn is/was not the problem! Israel is the problem. Labor in the UK is quite similar to the Dem party in the USA, both politically corrupt and centrist right wing. 

Morton K. Brussel

     =====

In a recent article in Jewish Currents by Joshua Leifer, “The Tragedy of Jeremy Corbyn,” he criticizes those from within the British Jewish community who attacked Corbyn while also perpetuating some of the same rhetoric and pitfalls as the community he critiques. While the author spoke to a number of people, he neglected to include some critical analysis offered by those closest to the situation in the UK and whose positions are different from what he put forth. He included a few quotes with these perspectives but a full story is missing. In a moment when the discourse around Palestinian rights and antisemitism is rife with conflation and omission, it’s critical to challenge this incomplete and distorted analysis.

The author writes that “With only a few words—“yes, I’m sorry”—Corbyn might have been able to avoid bad press in a crucial stretch leading up to the election. Instead, he launched into one of his characteristically long-winded disquisitions about his commitment to fighting antisemitism and “any other form of racism.” 

But isn't it also possible that Corbyn was acting in a principled manner and offering a thoughtful response. As Jewish Voice for Labour member Mike Cushman pointed out to me, “Corbyn was not prepared to do the normal politician schtick and make the statement that would win easy approval. He was long winded because he was trying to give a nuanced response to a complex situation.” This seems like a response to honor and to pay attention to, not to cite as a shortcoming.

The author also writes: “What if Corbyn’s leadership team had anticipated that they would need political capital to pursue an adamantly pro-Palestine politics and tried to address the fears of Jewish leaders in advance? What if, instead of retreating into defensiveness, they had moved to reconcile sooner with the British Jewish communal institutions where reconciliation was possible?”

Those of us who are active in organizations committed to justice in Palestine like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) are all too familiar with these critiques. What if we only tried to allay the fears of mainstream US Jewish organizations and learn how to talk to Jews, we are told. But talk won’t change those organizations’ determination to undermine all organizing for Palestinian justice. If you are a progressive Jewish group that addresses Palestine, and particularly if you support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), no amount of talk will help you avoid being attacked. The same is true in Great Britain. “There was and is no evidence,” Cushman notes, “that the communal institutions wished reconciliation – each move in their direction produced not appreciation but demands for further concessions. They wished not just to be heard on Labour policy, a reasonable request, but to have a veto on it.”

Cushman also added, and I think this is a critical point, “There was indeed a climate of fear among many British Jews, most of whom had no first-hand knowledge of the attitude of the Party towards Jews but had to rely on a steady stream of alarming and inaccurate reports which would have frightened anyone. It is one of the sins of those promulgating the untrue narratives that they made many members of the communities whose interests they claimed to be defending unnecessarily uneasy and reduced significantly their quality of life.” 

Leifer continues in the same vein: “What if there had been better organized Jewish anti-occupation groups capable of disrupting the dominant narrative about Corbyn and Labour without replicating the escalatory dynamics that only worsened the problem?”  But Leifer has already made clear that there is a well-resourced right-leaning, virulently anti-Palestinian Jewish community that is more politically conservative than in the US. The majority of Jews in the US identify with the Democratic party. That is true of much of the Jewish establishment as well, albeit one that is wedding to their pro-Israel agenda. But in Britain the mass of Jews, over a long period, have quit the Labour party for the Conservatives and have no wish to see a Labour Government elected. 

We know of course that one can be well organized and simply be up against a huge propaganda machine involving a well-resourced campaign and a media that shapes the narrative in ways benefiting the powers-that-be and working against those seeking justice. We know that politics is largely about power, and this premise that if they had simply done a better job of persuasion, things would have turned out differently totally ignores the power dimension and is naïve at best.

Similar reasoning is used when the author talks about Corbyn’s stand against the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition that conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel: “Corbyn and the left’s initial failure to adequately address accusations of antisemitism meant that when he took a stand against the IHRA definition, he had no political room to maneuver.” But what did this have to do with maneuvering? There wasn’t a chance in the world any of these Jewish organizations were going to budge on the IHRA definition, which has become a tool to discredit supporters of Palestinian justice across the globe; that Corbyn stood up to them is a testament to his commitments.

The author also doesn’t explain the problems with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report, which investigated allegations of antisemitism within the Labour party. Some of those problems are outlined here: 15 Reasons the EHRC Report can and should be challenged, and are essential to understanding what is really going on. For more information about the EHRC Report, you can also look here:

Statements and articles on the EHRC report – a compilation. Jewish Voice for Labour has also detailed rebuttals of some of the most common false allegations https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/statement/rebuttals/.

These perspectives and analyses deserved far more attention and focus, and, while the voices of the Jewish establishment were critiqued, they were given much more authority than they deserved. If one is committed to challenging antisemitism together with all forms of injustice, this kind of misrepresentation does not further that goal.

Donna Nevel

[Donna Nevel, a community psychologist and educator, is co-director of PARCEO, a participatory research center. She is a team member of the Palestinian Nakba Project that develops curriculum for educators; is co-founder, with Elly Bulkin, of Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism; and was co-founder, with Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark, of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.]

Jews Across the Globe Applaud Statement by Palestinian and Arab Academics, Journalists and Intellectuals

We, Jewish groups and individuals from across the globe, applaud the recent powerful statement and set of principles signed by 122 Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists, and intellectuals regarding the definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the way this definition has been applied, interpreted and deployed. 

As the letter states so compellingly: ” The fight against antisemitism should not be turned into a stratagem to delegitimise the fight against the oppression of the Palestinians, the denial of their rights and the continued occupation of their land.”

It avers:  “Antisemitism must be debunked and combated.  Regardless of pretense, no expression of hatred for Jews as Jews should be tolerated anywhere in the world. We also believe that the lessons of the Holocaust as well as those of other genocides of modern times must be part of the education of new generations against all forms of racial prejudice and hatred.”

And it also makes clear: “The fight against antisemitism must be deployed within the frame of international law and human rights. It should be part and parcel of the fight against all forms of racism and xenophobia, including Islamophobia, and anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism. The aim of this struggle is to guarantee freedom and emancipation for all oppressed groups. It is deeply distorted when geared towards the defence of an oppressive and predatory state.”

See the full statement from Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists, and intellectuals here.

Full list of signatories is here.

Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV)

33rd anniversary of the beginning of the First Intifada

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the beginning of the First Intifada, a 6-year-long series of mass demonstrations against Israeli settler-colonialism and occupation.

Two of those demonstrations are represented on this solidarity poster commemorating both Palestinian and Jewish resistance to oppression. The poster was created by JVP member Josina Manu Maltzman in 2003.

Where there is oppression, may there thrive resistance — from Nazi-occupied Europe to Israeli-occupied Palestine.

Jewish Voice for Peace

Celebrating Paying Off His Student Loans  --  cartoon by Bill Whitehead

Bill Whitehead

May 12, 2016

Free Range

BBC History of Africa -20 videos (#SetHistoryStraight)

This series of 20 programs is based on a unique project, overseen by UNESCO known as the GHA: the General History of Africa - Africa’s history, culture and heritage written and told by Africans themselves. Zeinab Badawi travels across more than thirty countries in west, east, central and southern Africa and explores the continent’s history from the beginning of time to the modern era with the goal to 'set history straight'. She captures key moments in Africa’s history in her conversations with Africans  from all walks of life  including leading historians from across Africa and she brings  alive some of the lesser  known heroes and heroines of the continent’s past.  This is a search for truth and identity - uncovering hidden chapters and perspectives of Africa’s history and revising  distorted interpretations.

#SetHistoryStraight

Go here

Check out our guide to discuss anti-blackness at home (United We Dream)

Guide in English - click here

Guide in Spanish - click here

The holidays are approaching and it will be a time many of us will reconnect with loved ones (via zoom) and share meals with our household members. While we will share memories, good food, and laughs, many of us will also have tough conversations about politics, race and more. In our immigrant communities, for example, anti-blackness is very real. We know that our communities still have a long way to go - but proactively dismantling anti-Blackness is something that must start at home.

Having these tough conversations can be draining, but they are important, which is why we want to share some resources we put together. Check out our Undocu Guide to Dismantle Anti-Blackness at Home in English and Spanish!

As a person your family and friends trust, you might be the best person to engage them into a constructive conversation that changes their perspective. Let’s continue to remind our non-Black loved ones that although our struggles as non-Black undocu immigrants intersect, being Black in Amerikkka comes along with added layers of policing, constant surveillance, and racism. None of us are free until we are all free. Our liberation depends on each other. It’s time to put an end to the injustices and prejudices. So let's continue to learn and share together!

If you know of someone who might benefit from this guide, please share!

United We Dream

Introducing MUSE: Musicians United For Social Equity

A montage of artists from the website of Musicians United For Social Equity (MUSE)

By Alex Lacamoire

December, 2020
Allegro

The conversations about racial bias in America were placed front-and-center earlier this year. As a result, the theatre industry was morally obligated to acknowledge and to grapple with this truth regarding diversity in its music teams: The number of musicians of color, particularly Black and Brown artists, is disproportionate when compared to the number of white musicians. In an effort to change this statistic, a multi-racial collective of award-winning musical leaders from Broadway and beyond have founded Musicians United For Social Equity (MUSE).

MUSE offers pathways for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) musicians seeking access to careers in theatre. Launched in October, musicians of color can go to www.museonline.org and join a directory, sign up for master classes, receive expert mentorship, and connect with other musicians and advocates. Specialized forums for members could include a panel about orchestrations led by Tony-award winning writers, or possibly offer one-on-one training with a music director from a Broadway hit show.....

Despite the fact that many productions are on hold due to the pandemic, we feel that this is the perfect time to offer panels and master classes so that when things do start up again, productions on Broadway and beyond will have a well-trained pool of musicians of color to draw from. It is imperative that we come back to work with a different mindset, one where we look at how we’re populating our teams and our orchestra pits and challenging ourselves to have more racial equity in their makeups....

While the directory and many of the master classes are specifically for BIPOC musicians, the website is open to all people who are willing to advocate for our cause. We encourage allies to amplify our message and to help enlist musicians in our directory. MUSE has space not only for musicians who have theatre experience, but also those who may not have thought of theatre music as an avenue to explore. It’s about cultivating talent and creating access to a pipeline, and that access is the key to creating a more-diverse landscape in theatrical music teams.

In order for change to occur, new practices have to be put in place in our industry. MUSE is energized to create new roadways for learning and growth, and the members are excited to connect employers of theatrical works with names that may be new to them, all the while preparing those musicians to succeed in the field.

For more information about MUSE and to find ways to get involved, go to www.museonline.org.

Looking For Freedom: A Celebration Of The Music Of Jon Fromer - We Do the Work

Listen here.

Get your favorite Illinois Press books for 50% off - thru December 31

Our 2020 Holiday Sale starts now! All books--e-books, hardcovers, and paperbacks--are 50% off using Promo Code Holiday50 on our website.

Start Browsing!

University of Illinois Press

1325 S Oak St

Champaign, IL 61820-6903

The 50 Best Multicultural Picture Books Of 2020 (Colours of Us)

It’s always difficult to narrow it down to the 50 best multicultural picture books of the year because there are so many gorgeous ones out there but here is our selection of our favourite ones!

The 50 Best Multicultural Picture Books Of 2020

Happy reading!

Colours of Us

P.O.Box 2678

Plettenberg Bay 6600

South Africa

Diane Feinstein's San Francisco History (Center for the Study of Political Graphics)

International Hotel Struggle - 10 Proud, Defiant Years!

Rachael Romero, San Francisco Poster Brigade

Inkworks Press

Offset, 1979

Berkeley, CA

A Los Angeles Times article on Monday discussed a proposal to rename 42 San Francisco schools named after people with alleged associations with slaveholding, colonization, or oppression. Included on the list is the Dianne Feinstein Elementary School.

Senator Feinstein is accused of repeatedly raising the Confederate flag in front of S.F. City Hall, and for helping to destroy a Pilipino neighborhood through mass evictions.

Her insistence that the Confederate flag continue to be flown at City Hall is detailed in a 2019 San Francisco Bay View article. (see link below).

The evictions occurred in 1977, following a decade-long struggle over the International Hotel in San Francisco, home to 150 elderly Chinese and Pilipino tenants. The evictions were preceded by one of the most violent street battles in San Francisco history. Approximately 400 police in full riot gear broke through the 3,000 people barricading the hotel with their bodies.

In what could be interpreted as an attempt to distance Feinstein from the accusation, the article pointed out that Feinstein did not become mayor of San Francisco until the following year. However, it left out the fact that she had been a member of San Francisco’s powerful Board of Supervisors from 1969 -1978, and continued to support the demolition after she became mayor.

Many posters were produced during the years of protests to save the International Hotel. At least one of them, shown here, includes a cartoon figure of then Mayor Feinstein, working with the courts, police, and the Four Seas Investment Corporation to demolish the hotel, while hotel residents and supporters organize resistance against them.

Haven’t yet seen any posters showing Feinstein and Lindsey Graham hugging – both were maskless – during the Amy Coney Barrett hearing in October, but we’ll share them.

Sources: 

Center for the Study of Political Graphics

3916 Sepulveda Blvd, Suite 103

Culver City, CA 90230

Visualize NYC 2001 (AIA New York, Center for Architecture and MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab)

Evolving Public Realm

In New York City, where residents are often pushed together in cramped apartments or on crowded streets, having a third space to go to—somewhere that isn’t work or home—is crucial. For many people, public spaces such as parks, libraries, or even open streets serve that purpose.

But with the city facing “the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, its ability to maintain these important spaces is threatened.

The adopted budget for Fiscal Year 2021, which went into effect on July 1, 2020, includes cuts to many of the city’s essential services, including the NYC Department of Education and its budget for affordable housing. The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation was also hit particularly hard, with its already slender budget cut by 14 percent. The effects of this are already being felt across the five boroughs: more people are using city parks during the pandemic, but they’re not being maintained as frequently, leading to unkempt spaces that are strewn with litter

This project is in partnership with AIA New YorkCenter for Architecture and MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab.

Where You Spend Your Money and What THEY Did with Your Dollars During the 2020 Election Cycle

Election Cycle political donations, as reported by the Center for Responsive Politics...

Shopping

  • Price Club/ Costco  donated    $225K, 99% went to Democrats
  • Rite  Aid donated $517K, 60% went to Democrats
  • Magla Products ( Stanley tools, Mr. Clean) donated $22K, 100% went to Democrats
  • Warnaco  (undergarments) donated $55K, 73% went to Democrats
  • Martha  Stewart Living Omnimedia donated $153K, 99% went to Democrats
  • Estee Lauder donated $448K, 95% went to Democrats
  • Guess, Inc. Donated $145K, 98% went to Democrats
  • Calvin Klein donated $78K, 100% went to Democrats
  • Liz Claiborne, Inc. Donated $34K, 97% went to Democrats
  • Levi Straus donated $26K, 97% went to Democrats
  • Olan Mills donated $175K, 99% went to Democrats
  • Wal-Mart donated $467K, 97% went to Republicans
  • K-Mart  donated $524K, 86% went to Republicans
  • Home Depot donated $298K, 89% went to Republicans
  • Target donated $226K, 70% went to Republicans
  • Circuit City Stores donated $261K, 95% went to Republicans
  • 3M Co. Donated $281K, 87% went to Republicans
  • Hallmark Cards donated $319K, 92% went to Republicans
  • Amway donated $391K, 100% Republicans
  • Kohler Co. (plumbing fixtures) donated $283K, 100% Republicans
  • B.F. Goodrich (tires) donated $215K, 97% went to Republicans
  • Proctor & Gamble donated $243K, 79% went to Republicans 

Spirits

  • Southern Wine & Spirits donated $213K, 73% went to Democrats
  • Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons (incl. Beverage Business and considerable media interests) donated $2M+, 67% went to Democrats
  • Gallo Winery donated $337K, 95% went to Democrats
  • Coors & Budweiser donated $174K, 92% went to Republicans
  • Brown-Forman Corp. (Southern Comfort, Jack Daniels, Bushmills,Korbel Wines, Lenox China , Dansk and Gorham Silver) donated $644 K -- 80% went to Republicans 

Hungry

  • Sonic Corporation donated $83K, 98% went to Democrats
  • Triarc Companies (Arby's, T.J. Cinnamon's, Pasta Connections) donated $112K, 96% went to Democrats
  • Pilgrim's Pride Corp. (chicken) donated $366K, 100% went to Republicans
  • Outback Steakhouse donated $641K, 95% went to Republicans
  • Tricon Global Restaurants (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell) donated $133K, 87% went to Republicans
  • Brinker International (Maggiano's, Brinker Cafe, Chili's, On the Border, Macaroni Grill, Crazymel's, Corner    Baker, EatZis) donated $242K, 83% went to Republicans
  • Waffle House donated $279K, 100% went to Republicans
  • McDonald's Corp. Donated $197K, 86% went to Republicans
  • Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Smokey Bones,Bahama Breeze) donated $121K, 89% went to Republicans
  • Heinz Republicans  $64,000 Democrats $21,300!   John Kerry's wife's company!!! 

Traveling and/or Dining

  • Hyatt Corporation donated $187K of which 80% went to Democrats 
  • Marriott International $323K, 81% went to Republicans
  • Holiday Inns donated $38K, 71% went to Republicans 

Abolitionist resources from 2020: materials, videos and more (Critical Resistance)

We see many opportunities on the horizon for 2021. This year, abolition has spread across the popular imagination like never before, and it is on us to ensure that we make our imaginations a reality. We must build on the movements that exist, develop new and creative alliances, and mobilize the new and unprecedented energy for liberation.

We want to share with you a roundup of political education resources, materials and more made in 2020. We hope you will use these tools, share them with your networks, and help us make abolition irresistible as we join forces with new partners and movements in 2020!

Highlights of materials made for organizers: 
  • Critical Resistance on Proposition 25 in California. Read here.
  • Second Saturdays People's Reportback, found here.
  • "Imagine Freedom: Art Works for Abolition" Exhibition Catalogue, viewable online here. 
  • Upcoming Abolitionist Steps to End Imprisonment poster (stay tuned for images from this in the next couple weeks!)

Critical Resistance

1904 Franklin St.

Suite 504

Oakland, CA 94612

Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Class on Reconstruction: Repression and Resistance - December 14 (Zinn Education Project)

Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Class

On Monday, December 14, at 4:00 p.m. Pacific / 7:00 p.m. Eastern, the Zinn Education Project will host a Teach the Black Freedom Struggle people’s history class with Professor Kidada E. Williams, who will speak about African American survivors of racist violence in the context of Reconstruction, drawing parallels to the present.

William's book, They Left Great Marks on Me: African American Testimonies of Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I, analyzes Black people’s accounts of their own experiences with racial violence following the Civil War. Williams writes,

Assuming silences where none existed, historians have missed opportunities to reveal who Blacks thought they were as a people in direct relation to the violence that they and their family members, friends, and neighbors endured and how this aided African Americans’ mobilization against violence.

The story of Black resistance in They Left Great Marks on Me provides K–12 educators with a framework for thorny curricular questions. It helps students and teachers confront the violence of white supremacy without erasing Black agency and power. Read more and register.

As usual, this session will be a conversation. For the first half-hour, Williams will be in conversation with Tiffany Mitchell Patterson, West Virginia University professor; next, there will be breakout rooms for 12 minutes to allow participants (in small groups) to meet each other, discuss the content, and share teaching ideas. Finally, Williams and Patterson will return to answer audience questions and continue the conversation.

Registration is free. Donations welcome.

Learn More and Register

Zinn Education Project

PO Box 73038, Washington, DC 20056 

202-588-7205

National Briefing on COVID-19 & The Eviction Crisis - December 15 (Right To The City Alliance)

Tuesday December 15, 2020, 3pm ET

While the current CDC order has many shortcomings, it has kept millions of people housed amidst this public health catastrophe—particularly in states where no other protections currently exist. Learn how public health can join housing organizers calling on the CDC to extend and strengthen their order, and for broader federal action on Day 1 of the Biden Administration. We hope you can join and build with us!

Join the Right to the City Alliance and Human Impact Partners as we engage leading voices from the public health, legal, and housing justice sectors, for a conversation on the deepening housing and public health crises as the CDC Eviction Moratorium is set to expire on December 31st. This National Briefing will offer concrete solutions to the crisis, along with opportunities for the public to play a role in pressuring the incoming administration to act. Join us! Live captioning & Spanish interpretation will be provided.

Register here https://secure.everyaction.com/m9cR9uOGakqbFM3xhB2eCQ2#!

Right To The City Alliance (RTTC) emerged in 2007 as a unified response to gentrification and a call to halt the displacement of low-income people, people of color, marginalized LGBTQ communities, and youths of color from their historic urban neighborhoods. We are a national alliance of racial, economic and environmental justice organizations.

La Alianza de Derecho a la Ciudad (RTTC) surgió en el 2007 como respuesta unificada al aburguesamiento y como un llamado a parar el desplazamiento de las personas de bajos recursos, personas de color, comunidades LGBTQ marginadas y jóvenes de color de sus vecindarios urbanos de siempre.  Somos una alianza nacional de organizaciones de justicia racial, económica y ambiental..