Tidbits - May 16, 2019 - Reader Comments: Constitutional Crisis; School Shootings; War with Iran; Remembering Larry Hanley and Dan Clawson; Bernie Sanders; Vieques, Puerto Rico; Chelsea Manning; Eric Hobsbawm; Uber; lots more...
Re: Trump’s Contempt for Democracy Is Pushing Congress Toward Impeachment (Joseph Maizlish)
Re: 'We Are in a Constitutional Crisis': Groups Deliver 10 Million Petitions to Congress Demanding Trump Impeachment (Lennis Longo; Aida Rivera; Mary Ann Lucking)
School Shootings -- cartoon by Kevin Necessary
If I Die in a School Shooting
Re: Bolton Is Spinning Israeli ‘Intelligence’ to Push for War Against Iran (Tom Trumper; Sheva Kuvet Hart; Carmen Sola; Roberto Rosario)
Re: Larry Hanley Was a Transformational Labor Leader (Daniel Millstone; Dora Pagán; Ralph Palladino; Delgado-Medina Mariadelcarmen)
Larry Hanley Memories (Bob Muehlenkamp)
Re: Dan Clawson, Presente! (Daniel Millstone)
Re: Who Controls Our Time? (UMass Lowell Labor Education Program)
Re: Operation Take Down Bernie (Paul Buhle; Ethan Young; David Berger; Andrew Steuart)
Re: On the Trail With Bernie Sanders 2.0 (Robert E. Lerner)
Re: Exclusive: Machinists union to announce new endorsement process for 2020 (Michael Funk)
6-Week Old Heartbeat -- cartoon by RightHandedLeftyArtist
Re: The Reality Behind the ‘Surging’ U.S. Economy (Natalia Rivera; Steve Voytowich)
Re: Breaking the Grip of Militarism: The Story of Vieques (Janet Bayer; Mali Martha Lightfoot; Jam Suarez; André Lugo)
Re: Chelsea Manning Released From Jail, But Fresh Subpoena Means 'She May Have Just Over a Week of Freedom' (Eleanor Roosevelt)
Re: The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America (Disraelly Gutierrez Jaime)
Re: Eric Hobsbawm, the Communist Who Explained History (Tom Dale Keever; William W. Hansen; Chris Frazer; Roberto Buxeda)
Resources;
The Uber Workplace in Washington, D.C. (Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor)
The Social Movement Photography of David Bacon: Iraq Under Occupation (The Progressive)
Monthly Review May 2019 Warehouse Clearance Sale!
Announcements:
Divided We Stand: Strike Wave - New York - May 20
Grounding Reparations: Community Land Ownership & Racial Equity - New York - May 21 (National Economic and Social Rights Initiative)
Webinar: Changing perspectives of the Jewish left and progressive community on Israel and Palestine - May 27 and September 23
An Appreciation of Activism at The Henry J. Browne Centenary Celebration - New York - June 19 (West Side Commons)
Call for Solidarity Delegation to Caracas August 19 to 28 -2019 (Sovereign Venezuela)
Re: Trump’s Contempt for Democracy Is Pushing Congress Toward Impeachment
'Till now, the leadership of both major parties have been endorsing the principle that narrowly-defined personal and political success is a higher obligation than pursuing government even vaguely "by the people."
Any shift is welcome in itself, regardless of its prospects for a near-term victory.
Joseph Maizlish, Los Angeles
There is a time for sowing and a time for plowing If you do it otherwise , you get nothing
Haste is a poor advisor We must be cool cats and when we make our case ,not to our base but to the American people as a whole , that is the right time I am angry but like a hunter I am willing to wait for the right time to win my trophy
Lennis Longo
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Keep pushing!
Aida Rivera
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Folks- doesn't the Senate have to prosecute the President of Impeachment is successful?
Mary Ann Lucking
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
School Shootings -- cartoon by Kevin Necessary
Kevin Necessary
May 19, 2018
WCPO-TV (Cincinnati, OH)
Re: Bolton Is Spinning Israeli ‘Intelligence’ to Push for War Against Iran
He was always a warmonger for the arms manufacturers. Diplomacy is the best defense, war only makes more enemies.
Tom Trumper
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Well, he’s got to push for war somewhere, we sure wouldn’t want to waste any money on improving lives here at home.
Sheva Kuvet Hart
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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If I'm not mistaken , isn't this what he usually does ? He has this obsession with creating situations that could lead to a war .
Carmen Sola
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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This guy needs to be removed...he's crazy!!!
Roberto Rosario
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Larry Hanley Was a Transformational Labor Leader
(posting on Portside Labor)
Obituary for Larry Hanley the smart progressive president of our nation's largest transportation union (and Staten Island resident) by Larry Cohen the retired president of the Communications Workers. Larry Hanley was a wonder and we were lucky to have him with us,. Thanks to Portside for the link.
Daniel Millstone
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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A Great leader
R I P
Dora Pagán
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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RIP good friend.
Larry will be missed. He wasn’t a know it all. He never placed himself over his members. He was among them, one of them. He wasn't treacherous and didn’t stab good Union people in the back like some do. Unlike some I know, the Union was about the members and not himself.
Too bad there are so few left like him.
Ralph Palladino
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living."
Delgado-Medina Mariadelcarmen
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Larry Hanley died this past Tuesday.
I met Larry in 1989 during David Dinkins’ campaign for mayor of New York. I was David’s Field Director. We had nothing going on on Staten Island. Larry was the president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 726, representing bus drivers on Staten Island.
His local rented a storefront on a strip mall. Dinkins had never been to Staten Island and didn’t want to go to the opening. We drove him across the Verrazano Bridge to Hanley’s store front. ATU’s all white bus drivers filled the office and spilled out onto the sidewalk and parking lot. The press coverage on TV and photo ops in the papers made it look like the entire white working class of Staten Island was for Dinkins.
That was Larry Hanley.
Larry’s political commitment came from a simple question: Was it good for workers? He saw society through the prism of class--all the problems of America flowed from employers exploiting workers, including racism and everything else employers used to divide workers, economic inequality, social injustice, and militarism. Larry and I shared the same Jesuit education. I asked him how he got his politics. “As a kid,” he said, “I read. I read everything. And driving a bus. That was my best teacher.”
He saved his ire, and disdain, for two groups. Union leaders who either forgot or never knew their job was to lead workers to fight their bosses. And liberals and progressives who thought they had good politics, but didn’t understand that the fight for good jobs, and therefore unions, was the core premise of all progressive politics.
Larry spent his entire life inside the ATU. He was elected ATU President in 2010. I worked closely with him for the following 8 years; he asked me to be on the Board of the Tommy Douglas Center. For Larry, every boss’s attack on a defined benefit pension plan, every no raise contract, lack of bathroom breaks for drivers, privatizing public transit, politicians cutting mass transit when it obviously had to be expanded to fight climate change, every member’s grievance, every kind of discrimination, were all equally important and he fought them all, all day, every day.
Larry had the memory of a continent of elephants. When he told a story he identified the exact date when it happened, described the room in detail, remembered everyone in the room and what they were wearing, and recreated the conversation--with accents--until he got to the end of some absurd story and said, “No, that’s exactly how it happened.”
Larry’s heroes were Robert F. Kennedy, Tommy Douglas, and Bill Lynch.
We are all better human beings because we were lucky enough to share our lives with Larry Hanley.
Bob Muehlenkamp
(posting on Portside Labor)
Dan Clawson, who died a few days ago (and is pictured here in the center in a Red for Ed T-shirt) was an important thinker, writer, teacher, organizer and activist on labor issues. Here via Portside and Labor Notes, Barbara Madeloni remembers some of his wonderful work. We were so lucky to have him with us.
Daniel Millstone
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
An important article by, and a beautiful tribute to, our colleague Dan Clawson. We will miss you, Dan.
UMass Lowell Labor Education Program
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Operation Take Down Bernie
The PROGRESSIVE speaks out for Bernie. We are glad to hear from our friend Ruth C on this.
Paul Buhle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Anybody who doesn't work to defeat the GOP by supporting Democratic candidate X may be the purest, revolutionariest cuss ever to dogear an international polemic, but they ain't worth doodoo to the workers or the left. Plan B is Plan A: do the most effective thing available to uproot the GOP and end the right/far right bloc dominating the bzwa democratic regime. Then organize the national opposition like the world depended on it.
Ethan Young
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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been hearing that shit at least since ‘64.
Part of the way with LBJ. He’ll keep us out of Vietnam.
A little before my time but, vote for Wilson. He kept us out of the war.
Oh, yeah. And defeat Franco: support the Popular Front in Spain.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.
But you’ll do it anyway.
David Berger
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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The proposition that a viable opposition to both the Democrats and Republicans can be organized in the span of 2 years is the most utopian thing said here yet. Obviously a sane radical needs to be engaging in projects that are going to scale back the ongoing state campaigns of violence. But that also means recognizing that Black and Brown activists were fighting those battles way before Bernie Sanders injected himself into things in 2015 on the national stage and way before DSA membership exploded.
And frankly the reality is that the demands of those activists, things like prison and police abolition, are far more radical than what Sanders is calling for and would probably be ignored by a Democratic administration, as was the case under Obama. So it stands to reason that we need to be asking whether this conversation is genuinely accountable to and rooted in a concrete, material frontline community that you as a so-called white activist sublimate your own aspirations to or if it is coming from somewhere else.
In my case I live in a machine Democrat state where the leadership has continued to move rightward in the past 15 years. There has been no distinct break between the operations of the Democrats during the second Bush midterms and now. They have promoted austerity and war and have zero interest in changing that.
There’s a big difference between lesser evil strategic thinking and telling me it is raining while a Democrat pisses on my leg.
Andrew Steuart
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: On the Trail With Bernie Sanders 2.0
Matt Taibbi is one of the few political writers (he wouldn't want to be called a "pundit" in a million years) who's worth reading, even if at length.
Robert E. Lerner
Re: Exclusive: Machinists union to announce new endorsement process for 2020
(posting on Portside Labor)
There is a list of reasons to be proud of my skills with machine tools and micrometers and fussy shit like that.
This union is definitely one of them, even though I was never a member and probably won't be in the future.
Michael Funk
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
6-Week Old Heartbeat -- cartoon by RightHandedLeftyArtist
Hypocrisy - the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense. (That ought to cover it)
righthandedleftyartist
May 11, 2019
Re: The Reality Behind the ‘Surging’ U.S. Economy
The minimum wage in my Puerto Rico is 7.25
Natalia Rivera
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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"A tiny uptick in wages won't do much to help Americans squeezed by debt and facing rising prices for medicine, child care, housing, and other essentials"
Steve Voytowich
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Breaking the Grip of Militarism: The Story of Vieques
Glad to see this mostly forgotten moment in history
Janet Bayer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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"Fringed by palm trees and lovely beaches, with the world’s brightest bioluminescent bay and wild horses roaming everywhere, it attracts substantial numbers of tourists. But, for about six decades, Vieques served as a bombing range, military training site, and storage depot for the U.S. Navy, until its outraged residents, driven to distraction, rescued their homeland from the grip of militarism..."
"...Vieques continues to face severe challenges today. These include unexploded ordnance and massive pollution from heavy metals and toxic chemicals that were released through the dropping of an estimated trillion tons of munitions, including depleted uranium, on the tiny island. As a result, Vieques is now a major Superfund Site, with cancer and other disease rates substantially higher than in the rest of Puerto Rico. Also, with its traditional economy destroyed, the island suffers from widespread poverty."
Mali Martha Lightfoot
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Why doesn’t the federal government remove that freaking tank out of Flamenco once for all ?
Great fuc.... reminder of the devastation they made
Jam Suarez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Cool. But this picture is in Culebra
André Lugo
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
And they say America doesn't have political prisoners.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
(posting on Portside Culture)
This book, the first 21st Century study of the frontier myth, writes reviewer Nathans-Kelly, comes at a time when "the United States has turned inward and backward with the same vehemence it once directed toward expansion and progress."
Disraelly Gutierrez Jaime
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Eric Hobsbawm, the Communist Who Explained History
I returned to London last summer after a fifteen year absence. I went to Highgate to visit the grave of an old friend who had died recently.. Nearby I stopped at the Karl Marx memorial and noticed Hobsbawm's final resting place was only yards away. May he rest in peace after a life well spent.
Tom Dale Keever
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Wonderful review. Thanks. I'll skip Evans and re-read "Invention, Ages of..., Rebels, Bandits and Nationalism. I am curious as to an intellectual biography of Clarence Thomas. That sounds like a very, very short book.
-- "With or without religion you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things - that takes religion."
--Steven Weinberg, 1979 Nobel Laureate, Physics
William W. Hansen, Chair
Dept of Politics and International Studies
Chief Omezi Obodo/Obi Mbieri Imo State
American University of Nigeria
Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria
=====
I am a historian and a huge admirer of Hobsbawm. But really, this story has a lot of egregious anti-communist garbage.
Chris Frazer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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To even suggest that Marxism has become anachronic and obsolete is a reflection of the naive cynicism of the author of this text.
Roberto Buxeda
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
The Uber Workplace in Washington, D.C. (Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor)
The on-demand ride-hailing industry that has emerged in recent years presents sobering challenges for its new workforce. These challenges include: drivers not knowing how much they truly earn; increased financial risk and debt; and dangers to drivers’ health and safety.
In keeping with the mission of the Kalmanovitz Initiative (KI) for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University to advance public policy that improves workers’ lives, Dr. Katie J. Wells’ report about a two-year investigation of the working conditions of 40 Uber drivers in the Washington, D.C. area reveals the following:
- Uber drivers do not know how much they earn or lose.
• 100% of drivers experienced difficulties with, or barriers to, calculating their actual compensation. - Data about the Uber workplace is limited.
• Regulators and researchers do not have access to basic information about labor conditions. - Uber drivers are encouraged to take on financial risk and debt.
• 33% of drivers took on debt as a result of their work on the ride-hailing platform. - Uber drivers report challenges to their health and safety.
• 30% of drivers reported physical assaults or safety concerns. - Despite these challenges, the Uber workplace remained attractive.
• 50% of drivers would recommend the job to a friend.
• 45% of drivers planned to keep working the job for at least six more months.
Read the full report here.
Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor
209 Maguire Hall
Georgetown University
37th and O Streets NW
Washington, DC 20057
202.687.2293
The Social Movement Photography of David Bacon: Iraq Under Occupation (The Progressive)
Iraq had one of the oldest and most radical labor movements in the Middle East before the reign of Saddam Hussein. After the U.S. invasion in 2003, overthrowing the dictator, Bacon and other labor activists traveled there to learn how the war was affecting workers. They did not anticipate what they found.
by David Bacon
May 13, 2019
The Progressive
We're delighted to share the first of a multi-part series from the archives of photographer David Bacon. A former union organizer, Bacon's thirty years of photographs and writing capture the courage of people struggling for social and economic justice in countries around the world. His images are now part of Special Collections in Stanford University's Green Library. Part One tells of his visit to Iraq to find out how workers were faring in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion.
In 2003, as people began to realize that the Bush Administration intended to invade Iraq, demonstrations of hundreds of thousands filled streets around the world. I joined them as an activist opposed to a war that seemed inevitable, and as a photographer documenting movements for peace and human rights.
These marches included people from many unions, including my own-what was then the Northern California Newspaper Guild (now the Pacific Media Workers Guild), CWA Local 39521. One of our members, Henry Norr, was even fired by the San Francisco Chronicle after he was arrested on the first day of the war, along with 1400 other demonstrators, in the streets of the city's financial district. They'd all blocked traffic in the city's downtown business district, vowing to halt business as usual. Some brave souls even signed a petition in the paper's newsroom, arguing for Henry's right as a worker and union member to participate in political activity.
The involvement by workers and unions led to the formation of U.S. Labor Against the War, which quickly grew to include labor organizations and activists across the country. One of the first questions on our minds was how the war would impact Iraqi workers. We knew that the country had one of the oldest and most radical labor movements in the Middle East, driven underground by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. US LAW asked me and Clarence Thomas, a leader of the San Francisco longshore union, ILWU Local 10, to go to Baghdad and get some answers.
Just after the occupation began, Medea Benjamin and Code Pink set up an office in Baghdad, called Occupation Watch. Staffing it was a Polish/British activist, Ewa Jasiewicz. With their assistance Clarence and I visited activists in several unions, and through them were able to go out to Baghdad's refinery and several factories. I interviewed and photographed the workers and their workplaces. The impact of the war on ordinary people was everywhere, and I went into the streets, photographing street life from demonstrations of the unemployed to children sleeping on the sidewalk.
In each workplace, workers had reorganized unions that had been illegal under Saddam Hussein. The U.S. occupation authorities, however, denied these unions their legal right to exist. Occupation czar Paul Bremer published lists of factories, most of which had been publicly owned, and invited private foreign investors to buy them at auction. While the union activists we talked with were glad Saddam Hussein was gone, they said the occupation had thrown most people into poverty, failed to pay wages, and treated them as enemies.
Read full story here.
These images are digital scans of film negatives. They are part of a large body of work, created over a span of thirty years. Two years later I returned to Iraq, and spent time with Basra oil and longshore workers. Those images are coming in Part Two, Basra.
See additional pictures here.
[A former union organizer for 30 years, David Bacon's photoessays and stories seek to capture the courage of people struggling for social and economic justice in countries around the world.]
Monthly Review May 2019 Warehouse Clearance Sale!
For a limited time, get selected formats of close to 100 Monthly Review Press titles for 70% OFF! Sale ends May 24th.
Here’s how to find clearance books and place your order now!
- Browse the list of clearance titles here or below.
- Add books to your cart. The sale only applies to selected cloth and/or paperback formats so be sure to select the applicable format before adding a book to your cart. (Note: eBooks are excluded from the sale.)
- Order by midnight Wednesday (5/15/2019) and use this coupon code to get $15 off shipping on orders of $50 or more: 20offshipclear50
- Please note that you cannot use any other coupons on sale items.
There is limited inventory on each given format so order now!
Monthly Review
134 W 29th Street, Room 706
New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212-691-2555
Divided We Stand: Strike Wave - New York - May 20
Contemporary labor movement organizers and journalists discuss the recent successes of strikes across the country, and why the American labor movement is experiencing new life.
Monday, May 20, 2019
6:30 - 8:30pm
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby Street
New York, NY 10012
The American labor movement is experiencing a revival. Low wages, exploitative practices, poor conditions, and lack of support are motivating workers to unionize and, when necessary, to strike. Organizers and journalists in the contemporary labor movement will discuss the recent successes of rebellions across the country—from teachers to graduate students, museum staff, and retail workers—the causes for this new wave of strikes, and what lessons can be taken for workers, labor organizers, and activists nationwide.
With:
Bianca Cunningham - Organizer & Writer, Labor Notes
Bianca is a Staff Writer and Organizer at Labor Notes, a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists since 1979.
Cunningham was formerly a Verizon retail worker, where she helped lead the groundbreaking 2014 drive that won a union at seven stores. Later she became an organizer and region-wide trainer for Communications Workers District 1. Bianca covers transit and grocery workers for Labor Notes.
Eric Blanc - Author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers’ Strike Wave And Working-Class Politics
Eric is a journalist and a former public high school teacher. He has appeared on Democracy Now and has written for The Nation and The Guardian.
During the Los Angeles, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona public education strikes, Blanc has been Jacobin magazine’s on-the-ground correspondent.
Kim Kelly - Teen Vogue’s “No Class”
Kim writes on class, politics, and culture, and is a labor columnist for Teen Vogue. Kelly is founder of anti-fascist music festival Black Flags Over Brooklyn, and serves on the council of the Writers Guild of America East.
LeNair Xavier - Worker & Organizer, Pleasure Chest
LeNair originally gained notoriety as adult entertainer, "Tré Xavier". Now, he's undoing the misinformation given by porn by making a brand of LeNair Xavier. Still as a performer, but also as a poet, artist, erotic model, and most importantly, blogger. For 3 blogs, in fact: his own (L's X-Ray Vision); the sex toy company, Kiiroo; and as author of the "X-Rayed Sex" column of the NYC gay nightlife blog, Thotyssey. Still demanding equality in all areas he believes in, and is asked to lend his voice.
National Economic and Social Rights Initiative
New York City Office:
90 John Street, Suite 501
New York, NY 10038
Phone: (212) 253-1710
Fax: (212) 385-6124
Email: info@nesri.org
Issues on Palestine and Israel - part 1 of 2 online webinar/discussion series
Part I: May 27, 9-10:30 pm (eastern time)
PART OF THE CCDS SOCIALIST EDUCATION PROJECT FOURTH MONDAY DISCUSSIONS
The panel will explore the changing response of the US Jewish community to the Israeli occupation and repression of the Palestinian people. Jewish opinion has evolved from largely supporting Israel to a majority of youth now questioning its policies and engaging in a discussion on Zionism. Many activists and leaders in the struggle for Palestinian rights are Jewish. The conversation will highlight the recent charges of "anti-Semitism" leveled against critics of Israeli policies such as Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Angela Davis, and divisions within the Democratic Party.
Speakers:
- Ira Grupper was co-chair of New Jewish Agenda 1989-93.He is a long time member of CCDS, a member of its National Coordinating Committee. Ira is a longtime organizer and activist for labor, civil rights, and for those with disabilities.
- Rebecca Vilkomerson is the executive director, Jewish Voice for Peace.. Rebecca Vilkomerson is also a contributing writer to the anthology Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism. Stories of Personal Transformation. (Carolyn L. Karcher, Editor)
Join this discussion
Changing perspectives of the Jewish left and progressive community on Israel and Palestine
May 27, 2019 9:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/925043068
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+19294362866,,925043068# US (New York)
+16699006833,,925043068# US (San Jose)
Dial by your location
+1 929 436 2866 US (New York)
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Meeting ID: 925 043 068
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/an0spDt4e
Part 2 -- Palestinian perspectives on current issues and the struggle for liberation -- Proposed date: September 23, 9-10:30 pm (eastern time)
Part 2 will focus on Palestinian perspectives on current issues such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and the Israeli government and AIPAC campaign to criminalize BDS. Discussion will include the continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank, the situation in Gaza and implications of Netanyahu's reelection. US and Trump administration policy will be examined: military aid, recognition of East Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, the annexation of Golan heights, war with Iran.
Invited speakers: US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and the Arab Organizing and Resource Center (Bay Area)
Credit: Baz Ratner/Reuters // Washington Post
Wednesday, June 19, 2019 at 6 PM – 8:30 PM
West Side Community Garden
123 West 89th Street
New York, New York
Reception to be held at The West Side Community Garden 6:00PM - 7:15PM Centenary Celebration will be held at St. Gregory's Church
To honor the centenary of the birth of local activist Henry J. Browne (1919-1980), Upper West Siders are planning a major event on the evening of Wednesday, June 19th to celebrate his life and work and the social justice activism he inspired. Born in Hell’s Kitchen, the former St. Gregory’s RC Church priest was also a professor of history at Cathedral College who later taught sociology at Rutgers University. Browne was widely known as the outspoken voice for UWS residents affected by development of the West Side Urban Renewal Area, and as the crusader who held the city accountable to follow through on its commitment to provide 2,500 units of affordable housing.
A co-founder of Strycker’s Bay Neighborhood Council, Father Browne was an extraordinary leader and key community player in the West Side activist movements of the 1950s, 60s & 70s, who initiated and participated in the struggles for peace, civil rights, tenants’ rights and affordable housing. His work was critical in maintaining the diverse and active neighborhood we value today.
The June event, HJB 100: An Appreciation of Activism on the Upper West Side, scheduled for 6 pm - 8:30 pm, will be held on West 90th St between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues, in and around the former site of St. Gregory's, where Browne preached. Portions of the event will be held in the West Side Community Garden, Wise Towers Plaza, and St. Gregory’s Church. The evening's program will feature remarks from Browne family members, faith-based advocates, local residents and elected officials, and community leaders.
Call for Solidarity Delegation to Caracas August 19 to 28 -2019 (Sovereign Venezuela)
Sovereign Venezuela is a non-governmental association of progressive organizations and individuals who advocate in defense of Venezuelan sovereignty by means of research and analysis as well as building links between the North American and Venezuelan grassroots social movements. Below is a brief analysis of recent events and the positions that form the bases of our solidarity. Please consider endorsing this important effort as an organization or individual and contributing to our work.
Brief analysis.
Since the election of Hugo Chavez as President in 1998, under the banner of the Bolivarian Alternative, which gave him a mandate to advance social investment and regional integration, Washington and its right wing Venezuelan allies have sought to bring about regime change by any means necessary. Since the death of Chavez in March 2013, the US backed opposition MUD has used a variety of tactics, including extra constitutional ones, in an attempt to bring down the government and restore neoliberal rule.
With the election of Lopez Obrador in Mexico and the growing resistance to the neoliberal agendas in Brazil and Argentina, we are encouraged that the interventionist commitments of the Lima Group can now be curtailed in favor of diplomacy, dialogue, and mutual respect among nations. We favor a North South intercultural dialogue that promotes the development of human life in community, respect for the rights of migrants, and the free development of alternative socio-economic models throughout the hemisphere.
BASES OF SOLIDARITY WORK
- Demand full respect for international law and respect for Venezuela's right to self-determination and sovereignty.
- Reject any form of interference in Venezuela's internal affairs.
- Condemn illegal, violent and unconstitutional attempts to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nicholás Maduro.
- Support dialogue between the government and the opposition, initiated by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and continuing now in the aftermath of the May 20 elections.
- Demand that Washington lift sanctions and restore full diplomatic relations with the US based on mutual respect.
SPONSORS:
- Steve Kramer - Executive Vice President, 1199-SEIU
- Estela Vazquez - Executive Vice President, 1199-SEIU
- Sally Cabral - Executive Vice President, 1199-SEIU
- Latin America and the Caribbean Solidarity Committee - 1199-SEIU
- Andre Francois - President, Local 8751, Boston School Bus Union
- Steve Kirschbaum - Vice President Local 8751, Boston School Bus Union
- Karen Jarrett - Downstate Director, Political and Community Organizing, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) (ID for identification purposes only)
- Dan Kovalik - human rights, labor rights lawyer and peace activist. He has contributed to articles CounterPunch, Huffington Post. He is currently teaching International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
SUPPORTED BY:
Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle NYC; International Action Center; Answer Coalition; Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism; Suzanne Ross; International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ); United National Anti-war Coalition; Workers World Party; Cuba Solidarity; International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity; FMLN NY; Alliance for Global Justice; Casa de las Americas, D12; Casa Las Americas NYC; Students and Youth for a New America; Nicaragua Center for Community Action (NICCA); Venceremos Brigade; Frank Velgara, Frente Socialista de Puerto Rico - Comit‚ de Nueva York; New York City Cuba Solidarity Project; Ben Ramos, ProLibertad Freedom Campaign, New York City; Cuba Solidarity Project; Fuerza de la Revolucion; Haiti Liberte; Mimi Rosenberg, Esq., Radio producer and host, WBAI, 99.5 FM Building Bridges and Wednesday Edition; Maria P ez Victor, Canadian, Latin American & Caribbean Policy Center; Fr. Luis Barrios, Ph.D., STM; Holyrood Church/Iglesia Santa Cruz (at Fort Washington); Gerald Meyer, Prof. Emeritus Hostos Community College (CUNY); Dr. Arnold Matlin; Diane Hirsch-Garcia; Claudia Chaufan, Associate Professor, York University Toronto; Socialist Unity Party and Struggle-La Lucha for Socialism; Frederick B. Mills, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy Department of History and Government Bowie State University; Alfred L. Marder, President, US Peace Council
If you want to support this initiative please send an email to cbalbertolovera@gmail.com
Spread the word