Tidbits - Sept. 6, 2018 - Reader Comments: My Lai, Vietnam Remembered; Mollie Tibbbetts, Andrew Gillum, Stacey Abrams; Chicago 1968; New York Farmworker Leader Detained; Resources: Freedomways; 1968 Columbia; Announcements; and more....
Re: A Forgotten Hero Stopped the My Lai Massacre (David Harvey; Harold Acosta; Rod Nelson; Jim Skillman; Luis Angel Navarro Gandarilla; Robert Curtis; Maria Minguela; Rihard Lee Deaton; Don Carter; Bill O'Connor; Rafael Rivera; Blanca N. Díaz Pérez; Yansi Abacoa; Colin Corcoran Sr.)
Re: From Mollie Tibbetts to Andrew Gillum - Overt Racism: the Daily Shared Currency of Trump and Ultra Right (Enrico Campomizzi; Jim Lockwood; Barbara Landau; Carmen Sola; Sam Webb)
Re: Trump and the Rise of 21st Century Fascism (Roberto Buxeda)
Holy See No Evil -- cartoon by Robert Ariail
Re: The Revolution That Rewrote Life's History (Philip Specht)
Re: My $200,000 Debt Should Not Disqualify Me for Governor of Georgia (John Crawford; David Green)
Re: Chicago 1968: Revolt of the Progressive DNC Delegates (Gary Brooks)
Re: The 1968 Democratic Convention Protests - 50 Years Ago (John Marienthal)
Re: In a Historic Move, Los Angeles Educators Vote To Strike (Laurie King)
Prominent New York Farmworker Organizer Detained by Border Patrol, Awaits Deportation for Not Having Valid Driver's License (Alianza Agrícola)
Re: Low Wages And No Stability: How Amazon’s Use of Perma-Temps Is Hurting Workers (Kay Clark Rine; Eleanor Roosevelt; Carmen Oliver)
Re: Trump's Fake Trade Deal (Roger Dittmann)
Historian Jesse Lemisch, 1936-2018 (Historians for Peace and Democracy)
Portside is...... (Dan Jordan; Moderator's Note)
Open Letter to Justin Trudeau by Rita Wong, annie ross, Steve Collis and Cecily Nicholson (COAST - Clear Our Air: Stop TransMountain)
Resources:
Freedomways and the African American Freedom Movement (Geoffrey Jacques)
1968: Columbia in Crisis (Columbia University Libraries)
Announcements:
New Space Opening in New York City to Support Grassroots Movements
Solidarity to Solutions Week of Actions! - San Francisco Bay Area - September 8 - 14
Broadway Sings for Immigration Equality - New York City - September 10
Building Momentum: The Rise of Left Politics in Europe - New York City - September 12
Re: A Forgotten Hero Stopped the My Lai Massacre
It is hard to think about, but My Lai was not the only instance. Just as in Korea, there was very little value put on the lives of the native people on either side of the conflict.
David Harvey
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Atrocities / massacres committed in Vietnam by American Soldiers.... at least one American pilot had the guts to stop terror. !!!
Harold Acosta
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Q: Did John McCain save any lives in Viet Nam besides his own??
A. With all due respect (none)
Rod Nelson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
I met Thompson and his door gunner Larry Colburn a few years before Thompson died. He grew up in Stone Mountain, GA, a few miles from where we live.
Jim Skillman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
That's the incident in which the movie Platoon was inspired.
Luis Angel Navarro Gandarilla
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
=====
He's not forgotten by me. He did what everyone should have done. He's the definition of an American military officer
Robert Curtis
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Still many perished.I remember the pictures in black and white of old people and babies dead at the side of the road.
Maria Minguela
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
A courageous man in a time of madness.
Rihard Lee Deaton
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
And America is still leaving trails of blood and dead children around the world
Don Carter
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
I remember it well and still honor him and his crew.
Bill O'Connor
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
The guy is no Rambo. But he is a real honest and heroic man. Soldiers should not permit to be compelled to be assassins.
Rafael Rivera
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
How could I forget Vietnam? My 23 year old brother was sent over there after a short training, and never returned from that inferno.He lasted there three months and also was wounded in between. Still in the couple of letters we used to receive, he tried to lift us up by joking..." he was pilling potatoes". He was in hell!
Blanca N. Díaz Pérez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
They all still murderers and the US military is an imperialist force for conquest & wholesale massacre
Yansi Abacoa
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
You have no idea what you are talking about.
Colin Corcoran Sr.
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Sure tell me more about how i don't know what I'm talking about, being born and raised & living in one of the US's militarily occupied colonies.
Yansi Abacoa
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Trying so hard to please daddy
Enrico Campomizzi
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
And grand-daddy, he spent several years in prison for being a KKK organizer.
Jim Lockwood
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Well worth reading!
Barbara Landau
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Trump . , is as racist , disgusting and opportunistic as he is father.
Carmen Sola
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
i like that phrase ... shared currency
Sam Webb
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Trump and the Rise of 21st Century Fascism
Trump is capable of anything, he is a very sick person with a great deal of power and he is amoral and unusually ignorant and not knowing the difference between right and wrong makes him a potential mass murderer.
Roberto Buxeda
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Holy See No Evil -- cartoon by Robert Ariail
Robert Ariail
August 31, 2018
Re: The Revolution That Rewrote Life's History
A deep look at the concept of an individual. This even has political implications, because the survival of the human species depends on the survival of individuals, who are intensely interdependent. Can you picture a wealthy stockbroker, in his Brooks Brothers suit, consulting his iPhone, and ask how independent is this individual?
Philip Specht
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: My $200,000 Debt Should Not Disqualify Me for Governor of Georgia
Sometimes we have to risk everything we have. Stacey Abrams is a courageous woman and we should support her any way we can.
John Crawford
=====
I am year away from retirement age but cannot do because I also took responsibility for making sure several members of young 'uns in my family were taken care of. I also am in debt. I understand about this ....
Now, if your name was tRump, you'd be beyond a third bankruptcy by this time in life; .and would have pasted a lot of businesses, big or small in addition to a lot of individuals with your debt problems. He says he was smart in doing so, and his followers loved him for being so smart - OH - now, you'll be disrespected by the tRump lovers for NOT being smart
David Green
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Chicago 1968: Revolt of the Progressive DNC Delegates
Proud to have been part of the Mississippi delegation to the 1968 convention, to have had a chance to vote for the anti-war platform plank that unfortunately failed, and to have supported Bond for weep!
Gary Brooks
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: The 1968 Democratic Convention Protests - 50 Years Ago
It is absolute nonsense to blame the left for the 1968 election, there really was no "left" to mobilize.. SDS was a fledgling organization of perhaps 65000 with a small national office--- there was no internet-- everything was done by phone calls and mail. the anti-war movement was a little bit better organized but organizing 200,000 people to show up at a once or twice a year event is not the same thing as getting out the vote. Todd Gitlin should not feel guilty about holding up his nose and not voting-- it would not have made a difference.
Again we confuse the popular vote margin of 500,000 with the electoral college. Nixon won Calif. (40 electoral college votes) by 220,000: Illinois's 26 votes went to Nixon by a margin of 130,000. As a young vet who had just become active in the new anti-war movement in California I sensed most of the people in the state still supported the war. Nixon also tried to preempt the anti-war movement claiming he had a "secret plan".
John Marienthal
Re: In a Historic Move, Los Angeles Educators Vote To Strike
(posting on Portside Labor)
Check out the current Evergreen District teacher strike in SW Washington. On Friday the organized the largest union picket line a bunch of us long time activists have ever been in
Laurie King
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
As a follow up to the news that a prominent farmworker organizer was detained we are now able to make public that it was Carlos Cardona, the Alianza Agrícola co-founder and co-president and a dairy worker in our area for over 10 years.
On the evening of Thursday, August 30th, Carlos was pulled over by Attica police and turned over to Border Patrol for not having a valid driver’s license. He is now being held at the Buffalo Federal Detention Center in Batavia, NY, facing deportation and separation from his three-year-old daughter and wife. Carlos is a prominent organizer with Alianza Agricola and part of the statewide campaign Green Light Driving Together, an effort to expand access to driver’s licenses for all New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status. He is originally from Guatemala and has been living in the United States with family for a decade.
The day Carlos was detained, August 30th, was also his daughter’s 3rd birthday. Rather than joy and celebration, the family was torn apart, her father criminalized for nothing other than coming to the U.S. to work hard and provide for his family. Ironically, that same day was the NYS Fair’s themed “Dairy Day” and Carlos’ boss was in Syracuse with dairy farmers from across the state celebrating the industry.
The irony doesn’t stop there. Today is Labor Day, and members from the Alianza Agricola and thousands of other undocumented immigrant workers are in the milk parlors and in the fields working long shifts in the extreme heat and without any overtime or vacation pay as if it were just any regular day. In an interview with Carlos from detention last night, he reminds us, “we’re not complaining about that. We just want to be able to get a license to be able to drive if we need to go to the doctor or so that we can buy fresh healthy food each week.” Carlos isn’t a criminal. His only “crime” was to come to the U.S. to work hard and help provide for his family. There are two ways you can help: 1) support them through the nightmare they are experiencing and donate funds for the legal and other expenses this will incur for his family, and 2) demand executive action from Governor Cuomo to expand licenses to all immediately and stop the deportation pipeline that is separating NY’s immigrant families simply because they don’t have an NYS ID.
Please donate to this GoFundMe Page that has been set up to support his wife and child: http://bit.ly/familysupportneeded.
In addition to financial support for his family, we are expecting that if Carlos is able to be released on bond it will be set at the exorbitant price of $10,000. Any donations that you can give are very much appreciated - as well as sharing with your family/friends/networks.
And thank you to all who have already donated and shared this campaign! Almost $2,500 has been raised by 50 people in just two days!
#AlianzaAgricola
#ImmigrantRights
#ImmigrantNY
#RRRN
#GreenlightNY
Re: Low Wages And No Stability: How Amazon’s Use of Perma-Temps Is Hurting Workers
(posting on Portside Labor)
Walmart started doing this too for stocking new stores when I lived In SE NC. I helped stock the one I worked at in Leland but after that they brought in temps, mostly from SC.
Kay Clark Rine
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Whatever it is you think you need to buy from Amazon, you can buy it somewhere else with less exploitative anti-labor bullshit.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Unfortunately the law allows it??. If a law was passed that you could only use temporary employees for a certain amount of months, and then either hire them as full time employees or fire them, Amazon would be forced to do one or the other and firing is the worse option because they lose trained employees.
Another solution is to provide tax incentives for hiring full time employees where they would get x amount of credit for the $ spent in salaries for the first x amount of months after hiring and for the number of employees hired.There is a solution and it's political but the party in power are all so greedy that couldn't even think about this or something else
Carmen Oliver
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
There is no mention of the increase in the minimum wage, $16.--/hour? Why? Because you are fake news?
Roger Dittmann
Historian Jesse Lemisch, 1936-2018
The Steering Committee of Historians for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD) is saddened to announce the death of historian Jesse Lemisch (1936-2018). Jesse was one of the founders of Historians against the War (precursor of H-PAD) and served for several years on its Steering Committee. His pioneering work on “history from below,” with his early focus on the American revolution, inspired many young scholars who went on to do important research in United States social history. Along with his scholarship, Jesse made an invaluable contribution to the historical profession by his critique of almost all of its prevailing practices. His list of objections was far-reaching but more often than not his polemics hit a mark or at least raised substantive questions about the conventional wisdom. Throughout his life, Jesse was an activist scholar. He could be contentious and difficult at times, but also a principled advocate on issues of peace and justice.
For online appreciations, see “Jesse Lemisch, 1936-2018,” and Staughton Lynd, “Remembering Jesse,” on the H-PAD web site.
Portside is sort of a social justice news clearinghouse. If you haven't connected with them, they are a good source of insights on the world.
Dan Jordan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Moderator's Note:
Check out Portside here.
Portside on Facebook
Subscribe to Portside Snapshot (our daily digest - one email message per day)
August 26, 2018
Social Justice Centre (Kwantlen Polytechnic University / British Columbia)
Dear Justin Trudeau,
BC has been burning this summer, and you would throw gasoline on the flames by tripling the size of the Trans Mountain pipeline. It appears that either you have not been properly schooled about climate justice, or that you have been bought out by corporate interests that are pulling your government’s strings.
In the spirit of generosity, in case we are in the first scenario, we have compiled a climate primer that we urge you to read and consider seriously in light of our shared responsibilities to care for the land, the water, and each other. These responsibilities are held deeply in Indigenous laws that are guided by natural laws, and deserve the respect and action of each and every person who lives on Turtle Island.
We do not trust a colonial legal system that grants Kinder Morgan sweeping injunctions in a matter of days, while First Nations like the West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations must wait for half a year to merely get an injunction hearing against the Site C dam, while their sacred places are being clearcut and desecrated by BC Hydro. This colonial system shows a distressing bias where rich corporations are able to get injunctions more frequently than small First Nations that are trying to protect and enforce Indigenous and natural laws.
Humans can learn to adapt and respond to natural cycles and rhythms; this is why we have leap years. The calendar adjusts itself to the orbit of the earth around the sun by adding a day every four years, instead of ignoring the gap that widens over time between our calendar and the natural cycle. This is one example of how humans need mechanisms to plan for cycles that are much larger and more powerful than what we can individually perceive. This story of the leap year gives rise to the name of the Leap Manifesto, which we have included in our primer, along with a summary of the Tsleil Waututh Environmental Assessment of the TransMountain Pipeline and Tanker Expansion Proposal, a warning letter signed by more than 15,000 scientists, Pope Francis’s encyclical letter, and the Save the Fraser Declaration.
We pledge our allegiance to the Indigenous peoples who remind us that we are relatives with all life, plants and animals, and that water and land are sacred. These are crucial teachings for our times. A good relative doesn’t poison and threaten the home that we all depend on, the earth.
Sincerely,
Rita Wong, annie ross, Steve Collis and Cecily Nicholson
COAST: Clear Our Air: Stop TransMountain
Freedomways and the African American Freedom Movement
A New Civil Rights Movement, a New Journal
Written by Geoffrey Jacques
August 7, 2018
Reveal Digital
Freedomways, the African American journal of politics and culture that for nearly a quarter century chronicled the civil rights and black freedom movements beginning in the early 1960s, started in 1961, a year that was a kind of transitional one for the civil rights movement. The sit-ins that had begun in early 1960, and the continuing demonstrations and emerging fervor, had made national headlines, but the movement hadn’t yet achieved the national stature that it would a couple of years later. Nevertheless, the civil rights movement was still a significant, if not yet overwhelming, news media story. The 1961 Freedom Rides, in which black and white movement volunteers tested a recent Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on interstate bus travel by sitting together on trips through the South, brought headlines, photographs and television news footage of racist mobs, burning buses and bloodied civil rights activists.
In addition to this, the Cold War still raged. John F. Kennedy had been elected on a platform of liberal policies at home and anti-Communist assertiveness abroad. The war in Vietnam was a set of kindling getting ready to blaze. Domestic McCarthy-era persecutions of American Communists and those who associated with them had not yet abated. Several political prisoners remained incarcerated. Anti-Communist trials of political activists were continuing. The Communist Party itself would be indicted under the McCarran Act, which demanded that the Party plead guilty to being the government’s almost cartoonish caricature of the organization and register itself and its members under those terms or face draconian fines and prison sentences. Yet despite all this, the winds of change were in the air. One example involved one of the country’s most prominent political prisoners, the black American Communist activist Henry Winston, who had been convicted under the Smith Act a decade earlier. He had been blinded in prison due to medical neglect, and an international campaign was mounted demanding his release. In July, 1961, President Kennedy would commute Winston’s eight-year prison sentence. Winston would go on to lead the Communist Party, USA as its chair for two decades.`
`
At the same time, a new generation of nationally prominent black artists, not content to portray themselves as apolitical figures, embraced the new freedom movement. Some of these artists would become associated with Freedomways over the years. Among them were Lorraine Hansberry, whose A Raisin in the Sun was the first prominent Broadway drama written by a black writer; actors Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Harry Belafonte; visual artists like Margaret G. Burroughs, Charles White, Jacob Lawrence, Elton Fax, Romare Beaden, Elizabeth Catlett Mora; pioneering cartoonists Brumsic Brandon, Jr., and Ollie Harrington; musicians like drummer and modern jazz pioneer Max Roach, as well as trumpeter Bill Dixon, saxophonist Archie Shepp, and their cohorts in what was called the jazz avant garde; and a host of new writers, led by novelists James Baldwin, Alice Childress, Rosa Guy, John Oliver Killens, and Julian Mayfield, and including a host of poets (Alice Walker published some of her earliest poems and stories in the journal), essayists, and political analysts. My own contributions to the journal came late in its run, with a couple of book reviews, and, in 1984, with an article on jazz.
The foregoing history was the setting in which a small group of African American left wing activists, headed by the then-legendary and notorious W.E.B. Du Bois, founded yet another Greenwich Village-based little magazine. Freedomways was unusual even in the world of little magazines of the era, where what may have looked unusual to mainstream society was actually, in the diverse intellectual world of the Village in the late 1950s and early 1960s, quite commonplace. But what distinguished this magazine were qualities that came not only from its editorial personnel and outlook, but from its history as well.
Read full article here.
The occupation of five buildings in April 1968 marked a sea change in the relationships among Columbia University administration, its faculty, its student body, and its neighbors. Featuring documents, photographs, and audio from the University Archives, 1968: Columbia in Crisis examines the causes, actions, and aftermath of a protest that captivated the campus, the nation, and the world.
This online exhibition is based upon a physical exhibition of the same name which was on display in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library from March 17 to August 1, 2008.
Unless otherwise noted, all images and documents are from collections found in the Columbia University Archives.
Exhibit Curator - Jocelyn Wilk
Causes »
The events and situations which contributed to the student protests of April 1968.
Timeline of Events »
A timeline summary of the events of April 23-30, 1968.
The Protests »
A more detailed description of what transpired on campus - inside and outside the occupied buildings - during the student protests of April 23-30, 1968. This section includes audio of a WKCR promotional tape detailing the radio station's coverage of these events.
The Bust »
Details the events and responses to the April 30, 1968 police bust of occupied campus buildings.
Campus "Liberated" »
Information about the May 1968 strike and some of the other after-effects of the police bust.
Commencement »
The 1968 commencement was like none other in Columbia's modern history. This section includes audio of the commencement speech given by Professor Richard Hofstadter.
Consequences »
What happened at Columbia as a result of the April 1968 protests.
Bibliography and Resources »
1968: Columbia in Crisis is but a summary of a complex and compelling event in the history of Columbia University. The following list of published and primary sources is provided should you wish to learn more.
Columbia University Libraries / Rare Book & Manuscript Library / Butler Library
6th Fl. - 535 West 114th St.
New York, NY 10027
(212) 854-5590 / rbml@libraries.cul.columia.edu
New Space Opening in New York City to Support Grassroots Movements
The People's Forum
320 West 37th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
Walking distance from all subway lines
We are a movement incubator for working class and marginalized communities to build unity across historic lines of division at home and abroad. We are an accessible educational and cultural space that nurtures the next generation of visionaries and organizers who believe that through collective action a new world is possible.
Approach
Through methodologies such as popular education, our cultural work and our media laboratory, this space serves as a movement incubator for grassroots organizations and individuals to connect and gather ideas for collective action.
Our facilities
Our center comprises a co-working space, conference rooms, a theater for film screenings, a media laboratory, a lending library, and our People’s Café.
Solidarity to Solutions Week of Actions! - San Francisco Bay Area - September 8 - 14
On September 8th we will kick of the week with the Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice March where tens of thousands of youth, climate leaders, and Indigenous Peoples from California, the nation and the world will take to the streets to demand climate solutions that are inclusive of economic and racial justice.
From the 9th-14th, the It Takes Roots coalition is leading and/or supporting events throughout the Bay Area including local community tours, non-violent direct actions, and a solutions summit that uplifts grassroots, Indigenous, and placed based solutions to climate change.
With these events, that will run parallel to the Global Climate Action Summit, we will call on Gov. Jerry Brown, media, elected officials from across the country, and corporate executives to listen and acknowledge frontline and grassroots communities as the real Climate Leaders protecting people, land, water, and air. We will demonstrate how the most regenerative solutions to the climate crisis require not only decarbonization, but also strategies to decolonize, detoxify, demilitarize, de-gentrify and democratize our economies and our communities.
Check out some recent articles in the local San Francisco press highlighting the Week and featuring frontline leaders like this op-ed by Antonio Diaz of PODER with Bill McKibben and this article by Jean Tepperman of the Sunflower Alliance!
JOIN US IN BUILDING SOLIDARITY AND AMPLIFYING THE PEOPLE’S SOLUTIONS!
In solidarity,
The It Takes Roots Team - the Climate Justice Alliance, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network, and the Right to the City Alliance
Broadway Sings for Immigration Equality - New York City - September 10
Broadway Sings for Immigration Equality
Monday, September 10, 2018 at 9:30PM
The Green Room 42
570 Tenth Ave
4th Floor inside YOTEL
New York, NY 10036
42nd Street & Tenth Avenue
1,2,3,A,C,E,N,Q,R,S
Tickets here.
Performers from 10 currently running Broadway shows come together for BROADWAY SINGS FOR IMMIGRATION EQUALITY, a powerful evening of live music and comedy to benefit Immigration Equality, our nation’s leading LGBTQ immigrant rights organization!
There are over 80 countries today where it is a crime or fundamentally unsafe to be LGBTQ, with punishments including years in prison, or even the death penalty. Immigration Equality provides free legal services to reunite queer families and secure asylum for LGBTQ and HIV-positive people fleeing persecution. They are literally saving the lives of LGBTQ people around the globe! Learn more at immigrationequality.org.
Hosted by the hilarious Larry Owens, produced by Sean Seymour and music directed by James Harvey, BROADWAY SINGS FOR IMMIGRATION EQUALITY will be a celebration of love, a call to action, and most of all, a rocking evening of Broadway’s best talent. Lineup includes Lisa Brescia (Dear Evan Hansen), Erika Henningsen (Mean Girls, Les Miserablés), Kimber Sprawl (A Bronx Tale), Laurel Harris (Wicked, Beautiful), Kara Lindsay (Newsies, Beautiful), Ryan Vasquez (Hamilton, Waitress), Josh Daniel (The Book of Mormon), Brian Flores (Head Over Heels), Solea Pfeiffer (Hamilton, Songs for a New World), Reilly Richardson, Lawrence Merritt (On The Town, Pippin), Robert Ariza (Spring Awakening), Ximone Rose (Once On This Island), Jane Bruce (Jagged Little Pill), and more! Join us for an amazing evening of performances as we take a stand for LGBTQ equality and raise awareness and funds for this important cause. You won’t want to miss this!
Building Momentum: The Rise of Left Politics in Europe - New York City - September 12
September 12 @ 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM
The People's Forum
320 West 37th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
Walking distance from all subway lines
Join us for a special discussion with Ash Sarkar, Paul Mason and Danièle Obono on the resurgence of New Left politics in Europe, the challenges the left faces from right-wing populism, and the parallels with the United States.
Ash Sarkar is a British-Indian writer, broadcaster, journalist, and lecturer living in London. She is a Senior Editor at Novara Media, where her work focuses on race, gender, class, and power.
Paul Mason is a British freelance journalist, writer, film-maker and novelist. His book, PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future, has been published in 16 languages.
Danièle Obono is a librarian by trade, political science graduate, and political activist since the early 2000s in a variety of progressive social movements. Daniele Obono is now serving as a first-time member of the French National Assembly for the left political movement La France Insoumise.