Tidbits - April 7, 2016 - Reader Comments: Bernie - Jewish Secular Values; Long Legs of Bernie's Army; 2016 - not 1968 or 1932; John McCain: Salute to a Communist; Fidel's Message; and lots more...

Reader Comments: Bernie - Jewish Secular Values and what they represent; Long Legs of Bernie's Army; 2016 is not 1968 or 1932; John McCain: Salute to a Communist; Fidel's Message to Brother Obama; the Right Minimum Wage; Tech Workers and the Working Class; Israeli Minister Calls for 'Civil ' Targeted Killings of BDS Leaders - Azmi Bishara is No Enemy of the Israeli State; Military Leviathan and the Draft; Announcements: Washington, DC; Brooklyn; Berkeley; New York

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Tidbits - Reader Comments and Announcements - April 7, 2016,Portside
Announcements:
 
WOW!!!! I just printed this out! Cannot wait to read. My comrade, Robin Nuzum and I were talking about the Sanders' Campaign today and we agreed that the Sanders' campaign is a once in a lifetime possibility for "we the people" to get someone who has shown for over 40 years that he cares about the people into the White House. I hope all of us Progressives, Radicals and folks who are sick and tired of being HAD/SCREWED by both Political Parties for a long time to get behind this campaign and begin the long process of Expanding Democracy in the U.S.Can't we do this? Bernie cannot run again in 2020. There isn't anyone like him who has dedicated his whole political life to "we the people." This is a once in a life time possibility to begin the "political revolution" that can lead to rolling back the oligarchical nature of our government. I pray that we can take advantage of this once in a lifetime, possibility!
 
Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons
 
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Great read reprinted from the Village Voice. Bernie's spirituality echoes the best of the tradition of Prophetic Judaism and the core values of most religions.This is our one chance for a president who truly speaks out hearts for a caring society.
 
Be sure to check out the Village Voice cover image at the end of the article.
 
Renée Hoffinger
 
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An interesting article about sanders religious values,Zionism and progressive politics.A must read!
 
Linda Richardson
 
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Thank you Sister. This is just what I needed to decide where I will tender my precious vote
 
Sheila Waters
 
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excellent article about Bernie Sanders' Jewishness - well worth the read.
 
John Gilbert
 
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I watched Sanders answer the question about his spiritual ideas and was very touched by it. He revealed himself as a consistent democratic socialist or social democrat as we now call it, a secular Jew not a religious Jew or a Zionist, and a person who empathized with other people of all backgrounds. He believes in community, in working together to create a humane society for all, and a critic of capitalist excesses. His remarks reminded me of Eugene V. Debs who was the Socialist Party Candidate for President five times, and ran for President in 1920 from jail, because Debs was convicted of sedition for opposing the First World War and sentenced to 10 years in prison. But in court when he was sentenced Debs spoke his most famous line, which social democrats grow up with. He said, 
 
"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." 
 
That is what Sanders was communicating and it remains a fine sentiment, particularly in the current world of greed, violence, bigotry, misogyny and intolerance.
 
I later read Sanders' speech in Utah and admired it, for while he supports Israel, he acknowledged the lamentable situation of the Palestinians and was very critical of the current Israeli government's actions against them, which I thought was very courageous for a Jew who needs to get along with other Jews. It is lamentable that in the Jewish community the strong non-Zionist, socialist, and internationalist positions have been forgotten because they were held by some wonderful people in the past. It was a breath of fresh air to hear Sanders espouse them again. They are the views that may lead at some point in the future to a peace settlement in the Middle East not the views of politicians in the current Israeli government. I also was struck by how knowledgeable Sanders is about many issues in the Middle East, which reflects an understanding of American foreign policy, his critique of some aspects of it and ideas about how to make things better. This is the kind of knowledge a presidential candidate needs.
 
Laurel MacDowell
 
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The Sanders campaign has jump-started the Civic Revolution. We can add to the momentum (A Primer for Civic Revolution)
 
Richard.D. Vogel
 
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I knew when he characterized his spirituality as " we are all in this together".. It was a mature faith and consistent with the biblical witness!
 
Robin Nuzum
 
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I agree with you completely that his candidacy is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I am behind it all the way.
 
Annette Gilley
 
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I had given up on the Village Voice but this article, which is only tangentially about Bernie Sanders, show reports of its death may have been premature. Jesse Alexander Myerson conjures up the Jewish socialist traditions of my (and perhaps some of your) youth. Thanks to David McReynolds for the hedzup. Judith and I were moved by this and felt this was where we belonged.
 
Daniel Millstone
Posted on Facebook in response to Portside's re-posting
 
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I am so glad to see this piece, and by a young person, too. What is not said is that the The Workmen's Circle in New York and the Boston Workmen's Circle Center for Jewish Culture and Social Justice are two established centers for the transmission of non-religious non-Zionist centered Jewish community carrying on the richness of Jewish traditions inspired by the prophetic parts of Judaism. Many of Bernie's generation (if not Bernie) like me learned Yiddish, Yiddish songs, Jewish socialist thought, labor history, etc. There was a community of Bernie's kinds of Jews. After World War II there was a shake-up over Zionism (BECAUSE the Allies did not accept Jewish survivors and sent them to what became Israeli, Jews here saw Israel as the safety net.) BUT, soon enough Workmens Circles revived. Thousands of kids have gone to Left-wing camps like Kinderland and the left wing Labor Zionist camps also nurtured the pre-war progressive Jewish traditions. Today in large numbers young Jews are learning Yiddish and connecting with the Left Jewish tradition.
 
Carolyn Toll Oppenheim
Posted on Facebook in response to Portside's re-posting
 
 
 
 
 
excellent analysis! yes, what we are seeing is indeed the creation of a movement that has all the potential to enact real, revolutionary change
 
"But the prime mover of millions of Americans into the socialist column has been the near complete dysfunctionality of contemporary American capitalism as it affects all but the top.....A recent study published in The Guardian revealed that the share of millennials describing themselves as middle class has fallen steadily since the turn of the century: from 45.6 percent in 2002 to a record low 34.8 percent in 2014, when 56.5 percent said they were working class, and 8 percent lower class.
 
Therein lies what's new: The young women who are backing Sanders, for instance, are probably as feminist as their pro-Clinton elders, but their daily grievances against capitalism are as deep as those they hold against patriarchy, unlike many of their elders. In earlier times, many who backed programs such as those Sanders champions identified as liberal; but today, by calling yourself a socialist, you signal a break with and critique of an economic and political order that is rigged against you."
 
 
Francisco Gonzalez
 
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Thank you, youngins.
 
Peter S. Fosl 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I agree with Miles Mogulescu here but think he underestimates the difficulties of what he, I and many others propose and plan for. As you may have found out, the Bernie Campaign is not one organization. It's many organizations and the pieces only fit together somewhat. If we are lucky, if we work hard and if we work and play well with each other, the Bernie Campaign, win, lose or draw, may change the nature of our politics (fingers crossed). Thanks to Portside for the link.
 
Daniel Millstone
 
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Yes! This is exactly what I have been thinking we need.
 
Rena Leib
 
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which is what should have happened in 2008
 
Jim Price
 
 
 
 
 
Ethan is quite right that this isn't Germany in 1932 or Chicago 1968 and that situation demonstrates the need to build an independent left.  But Bob is also right about the danger of a failed united response by the left in a crisis.  No, we probably won't get fascism if Hillary gets defeated by a Republican and we won't get a new regime that will continue a murderous imperialist war (at least no more so than with Hillary). 
 
But Bob's warning hold for the reality that a Republican win would consolidate a right wing majority on the Supreme Court for another generation with all that implies for the destruction of democratic rights, the solidifying of the corporate dominance of politics and the economy, the destruction of what's left of the labor movement, and the whittling away of the right to abortion and other key elements of women's equality.  All that should be bad enough to convince leftists that sitting on their hands or voting for a third party candidate in a swing state is shooing ourselves in the foot, if not the head. 
 
Building on the Bernie movement to oppose President Hillary and create a strong 3rd party is the way to go, but helping the Republicans win is not. We have to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time, to promote multiple goals to meet  both our short and long term needs.
 
Stan Nadel
 
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These are two excellent, thoughtful, articles that are not at all mutually exclusive. I really like them both. I am one of those who see the fascism in Trump and his followers. I agree that bottom line goal is to stop the ongoing assault on democracy. I'm also a very committed Bernie supporter.  Bernie can absolutely defeat Trump or Cruz.  The polling is very clear. I'm gonna work hard as I can for Bernie, and hope he wins the nomination. If not, I think we have a multi-tracked responsibility --Elect HRC, continue to build and broaden the Bernie movement, try to unify the Left, and build a strategic, powerful, broad movement to compete for power with the corporatists, fascists, theocrats, and all the rest of the radical right. 
 
Stewart Acuff
 
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Maybe you're right that Clinton, should she be nominated, will not need the "Berniacs" (did you come up with that term?), in order to win. I'm not so sure. A big "if" is whether a Trump nomination will, literally or figuratively, split the GOP. I take it from Ross that he thinks it's probably unlikely. A united GOP could have at least 60m votes, if history is any guide. That's the number Hillary will have to beat. Can she do it without Bernie's supporters? Maybe, but I doubt it.
 
Geoffrey Jacques
Posted on Facebook author page, in response to Portside post
 
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The subtext of my article is that votes are merely an aspect of elections. The Dems threw the election in 1972. I think the GOP will do the same, because handing the reins to either far rightist is bad for biz, and the business of business is business. Meanwhile, perseveremos.
 
Ethan Young
Posted on Facebook author page, in response to Portside post
 
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Quite true, Ethan Young. I wrote about the Dems throwing the election in 1972. They knew of illegal Republican Party slush funds involving the Teamsters before the general election and suppressed the information.
 
Chip Berlet
Posted on Facebook author page, in response to Portside post
 
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I suppose the nitty gritty boils down to whether the GOP can put itself back together or not. If Trump is the nominee, obviously not. And I doubt Cruz can either. Can they pull some Frankenstein monster out of a deadlocked convention? Paul Ryan maybe?
 
Right now I'm not seeing how a not-Trump sustains the enthusiasm of the Trump base, and so, I think Ethan Young is right. But that could change. I'm not saying never to Hillary. But I don't see why the tent has to be folded now.
 
There is also the question of Congress. I don't see how Bernie folding now gets more Dem voters to the polls in November. I think the chance for that is improved by sticking until the convention even if he loses.
 
Steve Cohen
Posted on Facebook author page, in response to Portside post
 
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Clinton is not just disliked, she is hated. The more people learn about her deals through leaked emails etc it becomes worse. She has become more and more dependent on her sponsors. This means she becomes less and less able to act politically. If she became elected, she would be a weak president from the start.
 
Bernie still has a good chance to win
 
Oliver Völckers
Posted on Facebook author page, in response to Portside post
 
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I have never been so inundated with all kind of issues from family, friends and comrades. There is a therapeutic style that deals with the here and now and some of us act as though we were just placed here. Where are all the Marxists. Some say, "in denial." Where is the discussion around the "analysis." The United States of America is a society with a very short memory about slavery, racism, etc. The argument of yesterday was about Gore and Nader, Clinton and Obama and now it is about Clinton and Sanders. And, once again at the expense of strategy and tactics and yes, some Leninism. The main ideological question involved the attractiveness of Sanders and Trump. Trump campaign in 2016 represents an ideological and practical challenge to the left. It is the logical conclusion of identity politics and the confusion among the left. Sanders represent the challenge to Trump neo fascist movement. Unity, yes. And not just three organizations without any real ties to the masses.
 
Richard Hoyen
Posted on Facebook author page, in response to Portside post
 
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This has to be the most insightful editorials I have ever read on the case for the Hillary and Bernie camps to unite when we Dems take on the GOP Candidate who is likely to be either Trump or Cruz. Think of that as going up against Hitler or Mussolini if you have doubts about where you stand.
Or just read this article.
 
Robert Politzer
 
 
 
 
 

 
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), almost forty thousand men and women from fifty-two countries, including 2,800 Americans volunteered to travel to Spain and join the International Brigades to help fight fascism. The U.S. volunteers served in various units and came to be known collectively as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
 
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When I read John McCain's op-ed column upon the death of Delmer Berg in the Times I nearly fell off my chair. In this fetid campaign atmosphere, in which the Republican candidates are topping each other in inanity and far-right bluster, to read McCain's praise for a lifelong Communist for his having fought with the Lincoln Brigade in Spain was nothing short of astonishing.
 
Of course, he took a swipe at communism while praising Berg, but overall it was a wonderful tribute to someone he considered heroic.
 
Bravo to the senator for confessing about the Lincoln Brigadiers that he has "always harbored admiration for their courage and sacrifice in Spain."
 
Seymour Joseph
 
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Wow! Good for John McCain
 
Brad Janzen
 
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There is a lesson here, which  some of us need to learn. We are, of course, all "human", and of course in the conflicts which are inevitable, we can forget that.
 
But McCain, in this remarkable op ed piece, reminds us of that brief moment in his Presidential campaign where he paused to correct the woman who had said Obama was a Muslim.
 
These moments are rare. We won't see them from Ted Cruz, and to be honest, we won't see them from Hillary unless some focus group assured her it was safe.
 
So we will continue to oppose a great deal (almost all!!) of what McCain represents, but we are reminded that he took some positive actions regarding a reconciliation with Vietnam after the war's end.
 
David McReynolds
 
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Well, this certainly complicates my opinion of Senator McCain, but I guess it's pretty much like the bank robber who loves his mother and puts a dime in the collection box,  GO BERNIE!, 
 
Mike Liston
 
 
 
 
 
Fidel Castro speaks his brilliant mind in a talk back to Obama, Kerry, et al about American capitalism's designs on Revolutionary Cuba. This is a MUST read for anyone wanting to see a real end to the embargo, the boycotts and an authentic opening of people to people relations with revolutionary Cuba and 21 century capitalist America. The aging but extraordinary brother Fidel cuts right through all the liberal romanticism and takes it back to the realities of 21st century revolutionary socialism, triumphant and resilient through the most challenging and daunting of struggling times. Castro is a survivor as is his Revolutionary Cuba.
Viva La Revolucion`Cubano!
 
Larry Aaronson
 
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Viva Fidel! None of us who engaged in the revolutionary struggle waged in the US in the 50's, 60's and early seventies, particularly in the deep south, can forget the Cuban peoples assistance in the liberation of Southern Africa from the colonialists aided by the US superpower.
 
President Obama's gesture to the Cuban people is admirable, but does not go far enough in healing the wounds inflicted by the US via an economic blockade whose intent was to strangle the life out of the Cuban people. However, I applaud the President efforts to begin sustentative dialogue with the Cuban people, and I suspect that he is a lot more knowledgeable about Cuba's history of struggle than he is willing to debate about while he is still Commander in Chief. I suspect as well, that once he leaves the presidency, he will pursue this agenda with more boldness and fervor. But be warned...the Cuban people have no interest whatsoever, in returning their country to a playground for the rich and powerful interests of the US and the Europeans.
 
Sam Mahone
 
 
 
 
(posting on Portside Labor)
 
Well Hillary says $12 an hour is enough for now! Guess she does not care to mess with the corporate bottom line! What other reason could she possibly have?
 
William Proctor
 
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Adjusted for inflation and productivity gains minimum wage should be around $20/hr. Anyone have stats on how massive executive pay boosts have increased prices and cut employment?
 
Ben Eli Osterberg
 
 
 
 
 
I live in China. My wife and her two siblings were considered to have jobs that were quite physical (she was a post office worker, her brother, a brick layer and sister, a cook}  All retired at fifty with higher pensions paid per month than salaries paid per month at work. White collar workers and such retire at fifty five if female and sixty if male. All the teachers I know retire with more money paid in retirement than wages paid while working. That's all shifting upwards because of higher living standards and longer life spans but I expect the blue collar/white collar cutoffs will continue as they are now. My Chinese relatives and colleagues can all retire at sixty or earlier, but I get to keep on slaving away for my measly Social Security until I'm sixty seven. Still, I can count my blessings I guess as my miserable US social security will at least keep me housed and fed here in Beijing, China's most expensive city, whereas back in the States, I could eat or sleep under a roof but not both so Hip Hip Hooray! Thank God I don't live old in the USA! 
 
Mike
 
 
 
 
(posting on Portside Labor)
 
When were tech professionals anything other than workers?  Did they not always work because they must work in order to survive?  Did they always not work for an employer?  Did they control their work? They were never anything other than workers -- like tool makers and nurses and teachers and other "professional" workers, as well as those whose skills and education/training aren't widely recognized as professional.
 
Jim Young
Harrisburg, PA
 
 
 
 
 
based on biased policing, unfair profiling and disparate sentencing...
 
William Billy Wheeler
 
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You wouldn't believe how many people are incarcerated, because of not being able to pay the fine, for a traffic violation.. Smh
 
Dave Ponder II
 
 
 
 
 
Not a word about the United Farm Workers (UFW), an AFL-CIO union. Any opinions on the reason?
 
Jimmy Watson
 
 
 
 
 
The Israeli Government's Civil-Military Jihad Against BDS Leaders
(submitted to both Portside and published on CounterPunch yesterday.)
 
On Monday March 28 the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth held a conference with Israeli government officials, including the President of Israel, The  Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs, and Information,President of the World Jewish Congress, President of Hebrew University, Ambassador of the United States to Israel  the Minister of Transportation and Road Safety, Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy, and prominent business leaders in Israel, about how to stop the BDS movement. A video of their comments (with English subtitles) below includes statements that BDS leaders are collaborating with terrorist movements and that they should be targeted by the military in such a  way as to make their lives miserable. 
 
The political harassment campaign described  as sikul ezrahi memukad,  euphemism for the targeted killing of a terrorist. But in this case anything that could be done under the law would be permissible, such as taking away one's citizenship or forcing enemies into exile. Among those BDS leaders named by Israeli officials as subject to legal 'thwarting'   or extreme political harassment is the former professor, political philosopher, public intellectual, and former member of Knesset, Asmi Bishara who was forced into exile and is  now living in Doha. Criminal charges  against Professor Bishara for collaborating with Israel's enemies have never been revealed or documented.
 
I first met Prof. Bishara in Israel  in 1994 when I was an invited speaker and guest of the Israeli Anthropological Association. During  those weeks  I met Bishara, then Chair of  Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University and affiliate of the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. I invited Bishara to a large conference in  South Africa that I co-organized with then Prof. Wilmot James at the University of Cape Town. The conference "Democracy and Difference" was an intellectual celebration of the election of Nelson Mandela. The speakers included Jean and John Comaroff, Loic Wacquant, Brackette Williams, the late Fernando Coronil, scholars working on the democratization of Eastern Europe, and South African scholars  and political and militant anti apartheid activists including Mamphele Ramphele, Albie Sachs, and Hermann Gilomee.
 
 
 
Azmi Bishara (2013 photo)
 
 
Azmi Bishara gave a key note on the theme of his major work  on civil society and  the conditions for its emergence, including the separation of state and civil society and concepts of nation, nationalism, citizenship, society  and democracy.  His book, Civil Society: A Critical Study was first published in 1996 and has been republished in several editions, most recently in 2012. It is primarily a philosophical, theoretical and conceptual book written by a nee-marxist, post colonialist scholar. and
 
I returned to Israel in the late 1990s and early 2000s to conduct research on the ethics of organ transplant and international  transplant brokering that included the criminal trafficking of persons for organ removal as described in my article, Mr Tati's Holiday and Joao's Kidney Safari. At that time I was eager to reconnect with Azmi Bishara  and to see him in action in his MP office in the Knesset. Azmi kindly made time to show me around Israel's Parliament and to discuss a bill  pending in Knesset about allowing compensation for unrelated living organ donors for Israeli patients on dialysis. The bill proposed to create a system of compensated  kidney donation  similar to the one that  Iran has had for 25 years.
 
Although Bishara  was not happy about the idea of paying people to donate a kidney for a fee he believed that it could be a solution for Israel that could possibly end the flourishing underground black markets in kidneys.  He revealed that he had had a kidney transplant at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem where I was conducting some of my and research.  He was lucky, he said,  because he had several siblings and all of them wanted to donate a kidney to their brother. He was humbled by the transplant experience and he wished that family kidney  donations and voluntary kidney sharing could be enhanced in Israel by honoring the living donors and by helping Jewish families to consider organ sharing with relatives which was common among Palestinian families but not among Jewish families.  He was even willing to consider compensating unrelated donors within the borders of Israel and  across the ethnic divides as a good thing.  Bishara challenged and changed my way of thinking about these issues that were central to my Organs Watch project.
 
I cannot think of Azmi Bishara as anything other than a public scholar, a man who loves his Palestinian community and who was dedicated to making his country a better and more equitable and robust democracy. Although a scholar at heart Azmi relished his role in Knesset and was greeted warmly by many of his colleagues as we walked through the corridors on that day.
 
The compensated organ sharing bill did not pass. However, the man who was so motivated  about getting a bill passed to make kidney transplantation more available to all Israeli patients is no enemy of the Israeli state.
 
Nancy Scheper-Hughes
 
[Nancy Scheper-Hughes is Chancellor's Professor of Medical Anthropology, University of California Berkeley. Scheper-Hughes participated in a Vatican plenary on Human Trafficking in April 2015. She has published a series of articles on the "conversion" of Pope Francis, including, Can God Forgive Jorge Bergoglio? (2013), CounterPunch;  The Final Conversion of Pope Francis (with Jennifer S. Hughes), and Face to Face with Pope Francis (2015), Huffington Post.]
 
 
 
 
 
Palestine has the right to exist too.
 
Mousa Abu Salim
 
 
 
 
 
Superdelegate!
 
More powerful than local motives!
Faster than a speeding ballot!
Able to leap tall popular totals with a single vote!
 
Dave Ecklein
 
 
 
 
 
Just not true about the draft leavening our soldiers. We've had WWI, the anti-Soviet Archangel War, WWII, the Cold War, Korea,? and Indochina WHILE WE HAD A DRAFT!
 
Forcing men into the military doesn't make for more democracy. It puts the military ethos into more people.
 
With or without a draft, the US will fight wars. With fewer soldiers, they will just use drones and unmanned weapons. Citizen/soldier? Come on, now!
 
Elliot Markson
Former LT, USMCR 1962-1965
 
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One of the best analyses of what has happened since the end of the draft that I have seen!!
 
Cathy Deppe
 
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Such a thoughtful and detailed article from an Air Force Lt. Colonel (Ret.) and history professor --
 
Alfred Rose
 
 
 
 
Hamza Hamouchene provides a very thoughtful and thorough critique of how capitalist-driven creation of renewable energy infrastructure is lacking social management and planning. Further, such large projects in the global South should prioritize the elimination of energy poverty, in this case in Morocco and north Africa, but this is not apparently the plan as this article points out. These challenges should be on the front burner for ecosocialist intervention in ongoing class struggles in energy transition. Nevertheless, I have some disagreements with Hamza Hamouchene regarding her following statements:
 
"*One needs to say it clearly from the start: the climate crisis we are currently facing is not attributable to fossil fuels per se, but rather to their unsustainable and destructive use in order to fuel the capitalist machine.* In other words, capitalism is the culprit, and if we are serious in our endeavors to tackle the climate crisis (only one facet of the multi-dimensional crisis of capitalism), we cannot elude questions of radically changing our ways of producing and distributing things, our consumption patterns and fundamental issues of equity and justice."
 
Yes to the last sentence but the first is problematic.  Surely we cannot replay the history of fossil fuel consumption driven by fossil capital. Carbon emissions come from the actual burning of fossil fuel, a physical process. This is the prime driver of the climate crisis, to be sure a result of the historical use of this fuel as the energy source in the reproduction of capital. I cannot imagine what would have been the alternative to fossil fuels' "unsustainable and destructive use" *while still consuming fossil fuels,* but can imagine the rapid transition away from these fuels in a solar transition.
 
" *It follows from this that a mere shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, while remaining in the capitalist framework of commodifying and privatizing nature for the profits of the few, will not solve the problem.* In fact, if we continue down this path we will only end up exacerbating, or creating another set of problems, around issues of ownership of land and natural resources."
 
Well if this "mere shift" can be accelerated, as climate science tells us is imperative to have any remaining chance to avoid climate catastrophe, with the majority of humanity living in the global South bearing the heaviest impact, then such a shift to renewable energy could have a stupendous positive result, the end of energy poverty in the global South and the capacity to bring down the atmospheric carbon dioxide level below the safe upper limit of 350 ppm, preventing climate catastrophe!   *And yes ecosocialists should not accept this transition remaining in the capitalist framework, on the contrary should use this unprecedented opportunity to end the rule of capital on our planet.*  We are now confronting a clean energy transition that is still too slow.  And only when a more robust renewable creation is coupled with rapid phaseout of fossil fuels - starting with the highest carbon footprint ones, i.e., coal, natural gas (because of methane leakage to the atmosphere) and tar sands oil - will there be any chance of avoiding climate catastrophe. A full transition with these characteristics cannot be generated in the capitalist framework. The Military Industrial Fossil Fuel Complex must be dissolved, both as the main obstacle to such an energy transition and to end of the rule of capital itself.
 
While ecosocialist class struggle is still too weak to prevent the deficiencies in this big solar projects, as the global climate justice movement gains strength the opportunity to create a sustainable and just solar transition will grow.  But the creation of a wind/solar energy infrastructure must begin now even with all the problems pointed out by Hamza Hamouchene. We cannot wait for the end of the rule of capital to then start building this renewable infrastructure, it will be too late.
 
David Schwartzman
Washington DC
 
 
 
 
 
As usual she manages to bs her way through . . . and in the end is in favor of capital punishment
 
Carol Weinshenker
 
 
 
 
 
 
Metro Washington Council Union Cities Coordinator Chris Garlock will lead a "Washington Worker's Guided Walking Tour" , Wednesday, April 13 from 9a-12 noon.
 
The 3-hour walking tour of downtown DC reveals labor's often-untold story of protest and resistance. Highlights include the 1932 Bonus Army encampment, the real Roosevelt Memorial, the "Man Controlling Trade" statue and the A. Philip Randolph Memorial.
 
$10 per person benefits the Employment Justice Center.
 
Wednesday, April 13, 2016 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (EDT)
 
AFL-CIO - 815 16th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20005
 
 
[Chris Garlock, Organizer of UALE Washington Worker's Guided Walking Tour is DC LaborFest Director.]
 
 
 
 
 
Six years ago, the Supreme Court undermined our democracy with Citizens United. In 2013, they did it again by gutting a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
 
Deaf to the pleas of millions, Congress has failed to right these wrongs. Now, we must act.
 
Democracy Awakening will bring thousands of Americans to Washington, DC from April 16-18 for a long weekend of workshops, trainings, rallies, music, advocacy and direct action in support of voting rights and money in politics reform.
 
Labor for Single Payer understands that no real healthcare reform is possible as long as big money flows unchecked into our political system and states are allowed to reinstate Jim Crow-style voting restrictions. That is why we are joining with the CWA, NAACP, APWU, People for the American Way, Pride at Work and nearly 200 other allies to build a powerful new movement to awaken democracy.
 
Please join us in Washington DC April 16-18. RSVP Today. 
 
For information on finding transportation to Washington, click here. 
 
In Solidarity,
 
Mark Dudzic
National Coordinator, Labor Campaign for Single Payer
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
'This Is An Uprising' Book Party
Paul Engler and special guest Frances Fox Piven
 
April 19, 2016  --  6:30 p.m.
 
176 St. Nicholas Ave.
Brooklyn
 
 
Join us to celebrate the launch of Mark and Paul Engler's important new book "This is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt is Shaping the Twenty-First Century," which grew out of their popular column on Waging Nonviolence. We are co-sponsoring a presentation, discussion, and book-signing with Paul Engler and special guest Frances Fox Piven. The event will be held at Mayday Space in Bushwick on April 19, and will begin at 6:30 p.m.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Democratic Socialists of America present a forum on Bernie's Plan for Free Public College Tuition Find out how we can pay for public higher education - putting an end to student debt, investing in youth.
 
Saturday April 23, 2016 
2 PM till 4:30
 
Starry Plough pub and restaurant,
3101 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley
2 blocks from the Ashby BART
 
Hear:
  • Kayla Pace, a student at UC Davis, a member of Young Democratic Socialists
  • Eugene Ruyle, emeritus professor Cal State Long Beach and alumnus of UC Berkeley
  • Nicky Gonzalez Yuen, teacher at De Anza Community College, and boardmember of trustees of the Peralta College system.
 
All welcome. Wheelchair accessible.
 
For Information contact Karl Knobler at 510-384-5780 or peopleforbernie.sfba@gmailcom
 
 
 
 
 
Historians and organizers will discuss enduring and timely topics-mass organizing, housing, policing, economic inequality, and education-together, where the past meets the present.
 
Friday evening, May 6th, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
 
CONFERENCE KICK-OFF AND KEYNOTE ADDRESS
 
They Couldn't Wait: A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and the Struggle for American Equality, Jerald Podair, Lawrence University, author of Bayard Rustin: American  Dreamer
 
Saturday, May 7th, 9:00-3:00 p.m..
 
SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
  • CLARENCE TAYLOR - author of "Knocking At Our Own Door: Milton A. Galamison and the Struggle to Integrate New York City Schools"
  • ELSIA VASQUEZ - P.A.L.A.N.T.E.  Harlem
  • JOHANNA FERNANDEZ - author of "When the World Was their Stage: A History of the Young Lords Party, 1968-1974"
  • ZAKIYAH ANSARI - New York State Alliance for Quality Education
  • ROBERTA GOLD - author of "When Tenants Claimed the City: The Struggle for Citizenship in New York City Housing"
  • LISA JOHNSON - member, 1199SEIU, the Fight For Fifteen Campaign
  • PETER EISENSTADT - author of "Rochdale Village: Robert Moses, 6,000 Families, and New York City's Great Experiment in Integrated Housing"
  • LINDA OALICAN - Damayan Migrant Workers Association
  • PREMILLA NADASEN - author of "Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of Afri- can American Women Who Built A Movement"
  • CHRISTINE LEWIS - Domestic Workers United
  • JERALD PODAIR - author of "The Strike That Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis"
  • KWAN-LAMAR BLOUNT-HILL - J.D., Former Charleston SC Police Dept. Officer; Criminal Justice Academic
 
The Worker Institute at CORNELL ILR
16 East 34th Street, 6th Floor New York, NY 10016
 
 
Space is Limited / Pre-registration Required Register Now: $15 Registration Fee
Boxed Lunch & Beverages provided
 
MAKE CHECK OR MONEY ORDER PAYABLE TO:
The New York Labor History Association
MAIL TO: Peter Filardo, NYLHA Treasurer, 340 W. 28th St., #18-A, New York, NY 10001
OR ON-LINE THROUGH PAYPAL AT: newyorklaborhistory.org
 
For more information contact: Jane Latour
 
Co-sponsors: The Worker Institute at Cornell; The Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University; LaborArts.org
 
 
 
 
 
Left Forum is the culmination of the creative efforts of thousands of participants, panel and workshop organizers, and hundreds of volunteers who engage the gamut of conference organizing activities, from helping generate artistic events and panels, to outreach and involvement of a rainbow of organizations and individuals. The 2015 gathering involved 4,000 participants, 1,350 speakers and hundreds of panels, workshops, and events. (More information here.)