Tidbits - July 30, 2020 - Reader Comments: Democracy Threatened by Trump's Occupation Army; Chicago's Broad Opposition; Labor's Boycott Strategy; Health Effects of Tear Gas; What We Can Learn from Vietnam; No more Hiroshima! No more Nagasaki!; more
Re: Trump's Cynical and Deeply Dangerous Reelection Ploy: Sow Chaos in US Cities (Greenburgh Human Rights)
Re: Trump’s Occupation of American Cities Has Begun; Legislation to Block Trump Administration (Mark Gallaway)
Military State -- cartoon by Rob Rogers
Re: Black Lives Matter Chicago Sues to Prevent Occupation by Trump’s Paramilitaries (Lee Iara; Anthony Eggleston)
Re: Federal Agents Retreat to Portland Base as Protesters Control Streets (Peggy Yarborough; Marc Parry)
Religious Leaders Vow “Never Again” to Begin in Chicago! (Statement By Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. President, Rainbow PUSH Coalition)
Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Denounces GOP Congressman and Cultural of Violence Against Women - Listen to Full Speech Here (Judith Disla)
School Openings vs. Covid Surge -- Dave Granlund cartoon
Re: Maine Shipbuilders Bring the Hammer Down to Reject Concessions (Gigi Larrc)
Re: Unprepared to Reopen Safely Colleges Are Prepared to Blame Their Students (Mike Arney)
Re: What About the Back Rent???? (Isaac Dye)
Re: Labor’s Last Resort: Understanding the Boycott Strategy (Claire O'Connor; Nick Jones)
Re: What the Nazis Learned From America’s Indian Removal (Stan Nadel; Joe Maizlish)
Re: Half of Oklahoma Is “Indian Country.” Half of Oklahoma Is “Indian Country.” What If All Native Treaties Were Upheld? (Claudia Leight)
No Place for Traitors -- cartoon by Rex. A. Jones
Re: Whole Foods Punished Workers for Black Lives Matter Masks, Suit Says (Audrey Perry)
Re: The Forgotten History of the Jewish, Anti-Zionist Left (Paxton Marshall)
Re: Israel Demolishes Palestinian Coronavirus Testing Center in Hebron (Stan Nadel; Moderator's Note; Aida Rivera)
Re: Inquisition Mode: Victor Serge’s Final Notebooks (Roberto Buxeda; Dennis Leroy Kangalee)
Re: On Tyranny (Cathy Cox)
Resources:
Health Effects of Tear Gas? (Don't Shoot Portland)
Facts About Riot Control Agents Interim document - from the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Video - How Vietnam’s socialist approach is winning the battle against COVID-19 (Peoples Dispatch)
These results confirm what we've known to be true: National nurse survey reveals devastating impact of reopening too soon (National Nurses United)
No more Hiroshima! No more Nagasaki! (United for Peace & Justice)
Announcements:
July 31st to Aug 4th - Workers United Film Festival 9 (WUFF9) 2nd Virtual Film Festival Screenings
Commemorate Hiroshima & Nagasaki 75Th Anniversary - August 5, 6, and 9
Celebrate Women’s Suffrage—and LES Icon Rose Schneiderman – Book Talk - August 6 (Lower East Side Preservation Initiative - LESPI)
Re: Trump's Cynical and Deeply Dangerous Reelection Ploy: Sow Chaos in US Cities
It now appears clear that part of the Trump strategy is to send Federal agents dressed like Iraq War troops to Democratic-run cities, on the pretext of protecting Federal property, and then for them to attack and provoke Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police protesters, causing violence to escalate and using it … to scare the suburbs.
Greenburgh Human Rights
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Trump’s Occupation of American Cities Has Begun; Legislation to Block Trump Administration
They aren't from government agencies. They're hired killers. Traitors Trump and Barr used our tax money to hire these killers to hurt and kidnap us.
Mark Gallaway
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Military State -- cartoon by Rob Rogers
Rob Rogers
July 22, 2020
robrogers.com
Re: Black Lives Matter Chicago Sues to Prevent Occupation by Trump’s Paramilitaries
The groups seek an injunction to prohibit federal agents from “interfering in or otherwise policing lawful and peaceful assemblies and protests” in Chicago or arresting people without probable cause.
Lee Iara
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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The problem, is mostly one of law. Trump is overstepping his boundaries in sending federal troops to US cities to be used against US citizens. It's my personal opinion that Trump is trying to push the situation to a point where he can legally declare martial law, and then refused to allow elections. This is the work of a weak, cowardly, person. We As Americans need to do a much better job of electing our employees, and participating in our democracy. Trump is a perfect example at what happens when voter apathy allows the stupid amongst us to elect our employees. We end up with an idiot television show host who has no idea what he's doing. He's already openly talking about refusing to accept the results of an election.
Anthony Eggleston
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Federal Agents Retreat to Portland Base as Protesters Control Streets
If Trump’s intent was to calm things down, he has failed. But if, as some suspect, the president wanted to ratchet up confrontation for political gain, then it is not clear that it has been a success either.
“It’s a power play by Trump. He thinks he’s going to get his base all riled up by pitting the forces of law and order against the anarchists,” said Josh O’Brien, who travelled from Seattle to join the protests. “But he’s f**ked it up like he f**ks everything up. Look who’s here with us. Grandmothers. Doctors. Because like most Americans they don’t think people should be abducted from the streets by the president’s secret police.”
Peggy Yarborough
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Federal authorities secure and protect Federal properties. PERIOD. - Why is the current maladministration spending money on this Nonsense while IGNORING funding and support for the U.S. Postal Service?
Marc Parry
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Religious Leaders Vow “Never Again” to Begin in Chicago!
Statement By Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. President, Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Rabbi Samuel N. Gordon, Congregation Sukkat Shalom
Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, III, Senior Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ
Bishop Horace Smith, Jr., Senior Pastor, Apostolic Faith Church
Rabbi Shoshanah Conover, Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute
Rev. Reginald Sharpe, Senior Pastor, Fellowship M.B. Church
Dr. Stephen G. Ray, Jr., President, Chicago Theological Seminary; President, Society for the Study of Black Religion
Rev. Dr. Reggie Blount, Senior Pastor, Arnett Chapel AME Church
Rabbi Michael S. Siegel, Senior Rabbi, Norman Asher Rabbinic Chair, The Anshe Emet Synagogue
Rev. Will Hall, Pastor, St. James Community Lutheran Church
Elder Michael Eaddy, Senior Pastor, People’s Church of the Harvest COGIC
Rabbi Max Weiss, Oak Park Temple B’nai Abraham Zion
Father Michael L. Pfleger, St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church
Rev. Dr. Aaron McLeod, Esq., Pastor, Gorham United Methodist Church
Rev. Dr. Janette C. Wilson, Pastor, Maple Park United Methodist Church
Tuesday, July 22, 2020
Hitler had his Brown shirts and Mussolini had his Black shirts, now Donald Trump has his camouflage shirts. Hitler’s bullyboys operated on the fringes or outside of the law to violently intimidate Germany’s leftists and finally to exterminate Jews. Trump’s bullyboys are operating on the fringes or outside of the law to violently intimidate America’s progressives and people of color who are exercising their first amendment right to protest racial injustice.
We know the end result of Hitler’s unprecedented genocide of Jews and the world vowed “Never Again.” Today, beginning right here in Chicago, we vow “Never Again”! We see what Donald Trump, Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and Attorney General William Barr are doing in Portland, Oregon. They have put together a motley group of untrained, unidentified, non-insignia, camouflage wearing, military uniformed, no-name-tagged bullyboys who are kidnapping protesters and putting them in unidentified vans, taking them to “where, we don’t know” minus charges and operating without the request and against the wishes of local political and law enforcement officials, including the mayor of Portland and the governor of Oregon.
The Chicago Tribune reported and President Donald Trump said he was sending similar teams of bullyboys to Chicago, New York, Detroit, Atlanta, Baltimore and other “liberal Democrat-run cities.” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today that that’s not happening in Chicago and we back her 100 percent. We understand this is part of Trump’s re-election strategy of fear and campaign of “law and order” and we don’t want or need his kind of law and order.
We know Trump has no limits and this may be just a trial run for imposing martial law around November 3 in the name of these cities are too violent and voter fraud is too rampant to hold the election. We must know and be aware that Trump may try anything!
In Illinois we are beginning today to contact the mayor, city council members, the governor, the attorney general, state legislators in the house and senate, the Cook County board president and commissioners, and Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders in the city, county and state to vow that if President Trump and Chad Wolf send their thugs to Chicago we will join with these leaders to mobilize our various constituencies to lead a greeting of Chad Wolf and his 200 hooligans with a massive disciplined non-violent, mask-wearing, socially distanced “march of resistance” of over 100,000 protesters telling him to take his bullyboys and go back to where they came from.
We want to be very clear. We need, want and welcome federal support and assistance: e.g., the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) because our people need health care; the U.S. Department of Labor because our people need jobs and job training; the U.S. Department of Education because our people need an equal high quality public education; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) because our people need safe, sanitary and affordable housing; and even a just Justice Department, DEA and AFT if they will trace where all these out-of-town guns and drugs are coming from, but the mayor said the Trump Administration wasn’t interested in doing that. We don’t need unidentified pretend U.S. military forces brought to Chicago without a mutual understanding of need, an invitation mutually agreed to and a mutual mission to make Chicago a better, safer and more just city.
So together we vow “NEVER AGAIN” will begin right here in Chicago! President Trump sending fake military forces to Chicago would be both immoral and potentially in violation of the U.S. Constitution. And if they are sent to Chicago, they will be uninvited, unwelcome and will be met with massive resistance!
We will not accept another chapter from the model handbook of how a dictator can rise to power, and certainly not on Chicago’s back. It ain’t happening in Chi-town!
Yoho Yoho, that yo-yos got to go.
Judith Disla
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
School Openings vs. Covid Surge -- Dave Granlund cartoon
Dave Granlund
July 27, 2020
USA Today
Re: Maine Shipbuilders Bring the Hammer Down to Reject Concessions
(posting on Portside Labor)
How can we support the strikers? Solidarity!
Gigi Larrc
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Unprepared to Reopen Safely Colleges Are Prepared to Blame Their Students
Yes, I agree that the primary blame is on the hands of the Trump administration, misleadership from the top, and the mostly Republican political "leadership" in Congress and the state governorships and capitals.
However, do the authors dispute widespread evidence of our nation's youth crowding beaches, bars, house parties, block parties—even calling some of them "coronavirus parties"? Do the authors dispute that virus tracing has concluded that some or many of these events have led to flare ups of the virus, a worsening of the situation, infections of the youth's older relatives, etc.?
Why do some progressives have such a hard time walking and chewing gum? Yes, we must cast primary blame at Trump, the GOP, Republican (and less so, Democratic) governors, a now-impotent CDC, etc.. And, we can also tell the youth that violations of social distancing and mask wearing help spread the virus.
Mike Arney
Bronx, NY
Re: What About the Back Rent????
And what about next month's rent? They got new tenants ready to move right in?... and then at some point landlords need to pay the mortgage, don't they?
Isaac Dye
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Labor’s Last Resort: Understanding the Boycott Strategy
(posting on Portside Labor)
Two articles on BOYCOTT as a strategy of resistance.
- Labor’s Last Resort: Understanding the Boycott Strategy
- How One Woman Pulled off the First Consumer Boycott – and Helped Inspire the British to Abolish Slavery
The two articles present two strategies with different messages. 1. Labor - boycott doesn't work so well. and 2. Consumer boycott in England played very effective role in ending slavery.
My observations again in twos
1. Capitalists get the strongest messages from their bottom line. That should be the target - to notify them, thru their bottom line, that the people do have power. BOYCOTT
2. Young people are leading and fueling the resistance. They are major consumers of soft drinks. Let's boycott Coca Cola. Young people aren't the only consumer, but they certainly are one of the largest demographic. And Coke is only one of many choices. On a sunny hot day, out on the picket line or march, a pepsi goes down as well as a coke. Or even better, a bottle full of water. A gin and tonic doesn't have any coke. You get my points.
Please, let's start talking about this.
Claire O'Connor
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glad to read your piece on boycotts. I did 10 years with the Farmworkers Union, 1966 to 76.
I believe that boycotts can be powerful and not nearly enough understood and used.
Nick Jones
Re: What the Nazis Learned From America’s Indian Removal
Jack Schwartz is right about US Indian policy here, but he misses the mark when he links it to the Holocaust. When Hitler talked about "Lebensraum" and making the Volga the German's Mississippi he wasn't referring to what was intended for Jews--which by 1941 was total extermination and not displacement. In these plans Hitler was referring to the Slavic population of the lands between Germany and the Volga. It was developed in a detailed "General Plan Ost" and foresaw the displacement of nearly the entire Slavic population of the region, with the survivors to be moved east of the Volga the way the Americans moved the surviving Indians west of the Mississippi. The Nazi technicians who drew up "General Plan Ost" estimated that carrying it out would mean the deaths of around 50 million Slavs.
Stan Nadel
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How could a political culture which has not faced the events and their implications for amends and reparations/restitution not be haunted?
How could it not as it continues to try to escape what it has done, ritually repeat the atrocities as if to assert their acceptability and righteousness?
But even were all the books and stories and records to be scrubbed from the libraries and memories even of the surviving descendants of the direct victims, the pattern of denial and the rejection of the fact of human equality and unity will replicate harm and cast it in every direction.
The only way out is to grieve and repair.
A high school teacher took us new students on a tour of the campus. She proudly pointed to the spring where she said Fr. Junipero Serra paused and drank. She probably didn't know that in a corner of the campus had been a Tongva village. Now we know, and now my classmate knows what she didn't know then, that she is part Tongva.
There is more we may not know in the ordinary narrative way, but the spirit remembers it all.
Joe Maizlish,
Los Angeles
It is important to discuss Native American rights in an era when we are recognizing white supremacy in all its forms. And yet, when I read comments by Matthew Fletcher, director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center at Michigan State, I cringed. His reference to "the rule of thumb" shows how our language, in defending the rights of one group of people, can be unintentionally offensive to another group. The "rule of thumb" derived from a period when it was legal for a man to hit his wife with anything up to the width of his thumb. The language we use has power and meaning!
Claudia Leight
No Place for Traitors -- cartoon by Rex. A. Jones
Rex A. Jones
July 10, 2020
Krazy Kartwonz
Re: Whole Foods Punished Workers for Black Lives Matter Masks, Suit Says
(posting on Portside Labor)
I hope the employees win their case! Whole Foods hasn’t been the same since Amazon purchased them. They dropped medical coverage on some of their part-time employees. Bezos is one of the riches men in the world yet he deprives his employees of healthcare. I haven’t shopped there since.
Audrey Perry
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: The Forgotten History of the Jewish, Anti-Zionist Left
I’m surprised there is nothing about Heredi opposition to Zionism, which also has a long history.
Paxton Marshall
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Israel Demolishes Palestinian Coronavirus Testing Center in Hebron
Portside recently posted a story claiming that the Israelis demolished a COVID-19 test center. This claim has bee denied by the Israelis and further evidence is supplied in the following report, including ""PA Ministry of Health officials told the Post that they were unaware of plans to build a coronavirus center in Hebron...Asked if the municipality was authorized to open a coronavirus testing center, the spokesman said that the PA government was the only party authorized to open health centers in the West Bank." Please post this report--or at least some sort of correction as the original posting seems to be totally unfounded.
Stan Nadel
Israel demolished Hebron car dealership, not 'COVID-19 center'
The structure was being built on a plot of land located in Area C, which is exclusively controlled by Israel.
By Khaled Abu Toameh
July 23, 2020
Jerusalem Post
An unlicensed structure demolished earlier this week by the Israeli authorities near Hebron was not being planned as a center for coronavirus tests, but as a private car dealership business.
A Palestinian car dealer who was planning to open a business at the site, located at the entrance to Hebron, claimed after the demolition that the structure was intended to serve as a “center for conducting coronavirus tests” on Palestinian workers upon their return from Israel.
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Moderators Note: Who is Khaled Abu Toameh?
Khaled Abu Toameh is an Israeli Arab journalist, lecturer and documentary filmmaker. Abu Toameh writes for The Jerusalem Post and for the New York-based Gatestone Institute, where he is a senior distinguished fellow. He is a producer and consultant for NBC News since 1989
Gatestone Institute is a far-right think tank known for publishing anti-Muslim articles. It was founded in 2008 by Nina Rosenwald, who serves as its president. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former national security advisor, John R. Bolton, was its chairman from 2013 to March 2018.
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That is what Israelis allege, why should we believe their allegation and not that of the Palestinians? The Israelis love to demolish everything Palestinians build... look as how they expanded the Jewish settlements: destroying Palestinians houses built on lands belonging to them, pulling families out of their homes and giving it to Jewish “settlers”. I no longer believe everything Israel officials say.
Aida Rivera
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Inquisition Mode: Victor Serge’s Final Notebooks
(posting on Portside Culture)
A remarkable writing that must be reread and shared, in the strangest of ways it makes me hopeful for a truly human future in which peace becomes the rule and not the exception.
Roberto Buxeda
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Victor Serge. The Man. The Myth. The Last Radical...Wow. If you haven't read his memoirs do so. The introductory notes by Adam Hoschschild are enough to remind you why being a true radical is important and why Human Rights and Liberation are RADICAL. Not toeing the 'party line' or declaring hollow Marxist platitudes. Serge was so radical he was almost excoriated by every "formal" bourgeois and Totalitarianist form of Communism you can imagine. He was a real Left Wing Revolutionary in the way that Che, Fanon, and very few others were. He did not win awards, get an endorsement deal, become a well paid professor or do TED TALKS (ahem). Peace.
Dennis Leroy Kangalee
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
(posting on Portside Culture)
I usually don't repost advertisements, but this is a book that everyone should read. It's very short, concise, and extremely important. You may be able to borrow it from a library, if you don't want to or can't buy a copy.
Cathy Cox
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Health Effects of Tear Gas? (Don't Shoot Portland)
THREATS TO HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, FROM TEAR GAS IDENTIFIED IN NEW RESEARCH BY PORTLAND CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION
[This is not an information sheet, but is a report that the community group Don't Shoot PDX, put together on impacts of "riot control agents." Don't Shoot PDX has been leading community work on racial equity for a long time here in Portland.]
While the size and diversity – which speaks to the heterogeneity of effects of tear gas on individuals – of the protests following the killings of Geoge Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery seen around the world are historic in their own right, these demonstrations are further distinguished by the risks of spreading Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the strain of coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has identified the main mode transmission of the virus from person-to-person contact and through respiratory droplets (CDC, Coronavirus Disease 2019). In the absence of any pharmaceutical intervention, the only strategy against COVID-19 is to reduce the contact of infected and asymptomatic individuals by following social distancing measures of at least six-feet distance from person-to-person (Lewnard, J.A. and Lo, N.C., 2020). With more than 2,000 cities in the U.S. documenting protests since the death of George Floyd on March 25th, 2020, there is a significant public health concern regarding the increase of COVID-19 cases (Burch, A.D.S. et al., 2020). This is even more concerning, because shortcomings in surveillance and diagnostic capacity combined with the threat of asymptomatic spread indicate that the number of cases reported to date are likely underestimated. The obvious risk of the pandemic is further fanned by the estimated 35% cases of asymptomatic carriers of the virus (Azad, A., 2020).This is of major public health concern because tear gas increases the production of respiratory droplets, and the weapons used to disseminate the gas can inadvertently spread infected respiratory droplets over long distances.
[from the Report Introduction]
Download the report: Riot Control Agents (RCA) Ban RCA against Black Lives Matter Protests & Stop Killing US Report by Mormon, A., Williams, Z., Smith, D., and Randolph, A.C.
Don't Shoot Portland
DSPDX CENTER FOR ADVOCACY AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
18 NE KILLINGSWORTH ST
PORTLAND, OR 97217
Facts About Riot Control Agents Interim document - from the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
What riot control agents are
- Riot control agents (sometimes referred to as “tear gas”) are chemical compounds that temporarily make people unable to function by causing irritation to the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and skin.
- Several different compounds are considered to be riot control agents. The most common compounds are known as chloroacetophenone (CN) and chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile (CS). Other examples include chloropicrin (PS), which is also used as a fumigant (that is, a substance that uses fumes to disinfect an area); bromobenzylcyanide (CA); dibenzoxazepine (CR); and combinations of various agents.
How riot control agents work
- The extent of poisoning caused by riot control agents depends on the amount of riot control agent to which a person was exposed, the location of exposure (indoors versus outdoors), how the person was exposed, and the length of time of the exposure.
- Riot control agents work by causing irritation to the area of contact (for example, eyes, skin, nose) within seconds of exposure.
- The effects of exposure to a riot control agent are usually short-lived (15–30 minutes) after the person has been removed from the source and decontaminated (cleaned off).
Immediate signs and symptoms of exposure to a riot control agent
People exposed to riot control agents may experience some or all of the following symptoms immediately after exposure:
- Eyes: excessive tearing, burning, blurred vision, redness
- Nose: runny nose, burning, swelling
- Mouth: burning, irritation, difficulty swallowing, drooling
- Lungs: chest tightness, coughing, choking sensation, noisy breathing (wheezing), shortness of breath
- Skin: burns, rash
- Other: nausea and vomiting
Long-lasting exposure or exposure to a large dose of riot control agent, especially in a closed setting, may cause severe effects such as the following:
- Blindness
- Glaucoma (a serious eye condition that can lead to blindness)
- Immediate death due to severe chemical burns to the throat and lungs
- Respiratory failure possibly resulting in death
Video - How Vietnam’s socialist approach is winning the battle against COVID-19 (Peoples Dispatch)
Watch here.
Vietnam, with a population of 100 million people, has not recorded a single death from COVID-19. There has not been a single local case of the virus in the last three months. How has Vietnam been so successful in combating the virus where many richer and more powerful countries have failed?
As we approach the fifth month of the coronavirus pandemic, we wanted to share a few key findings from our third national survey of nurses about what they are experiencing during reopening:
This time around, more than 21,200 nurses responded, and the results are shocking: RNs across the country are being forced to reuse single-use PPE and work in unsafe conditions.
Here are a few of the findings we've gathered from our survey of nurses:
- Only 24% surveyed think their employer is providing a safe workplace.
- 87% of hospital nurses reported reusing at least one type of single-use PPE, such as an N95 respirator or face shield.
- Just 23% reported being tested for COVID-19 — despite the fact that 85% of nurses who work in hospitals have reported that their facility has restarted elective procedures.
- 42% note that they feel stressed more often than before the pandemic.
Nurses are afraid, stressed, and concerned: of infecting their families, for our safety, for our ability to protect our patients and do our jobs.
And in the midst of these concerns, we are facing a record-breaking number of infections everyday across the country. To date, more than 165 nurses have died of COVID-19 — all while states continue to push forth with plans for reopening businesses and schools.
We must protect nurses and our workplaces if we have any chance of effectively fighting this dangerous virus. The safety of nurses is essential to a safe reopening, and it is unconscionable that nurses' lives are being unnecessarily harmed.
You can help by taking a moment to read through the findings from our latest survey, and share them with your friends and family. We'll continue to share relevant information as well as actions to take to raise awareness and advocate for nurses and our safety.
In solidarity,
National Nurses United
8455 Colesville Rd
Suite 1100
Silver Spring, MD 20910
T. 240-235-2000
F. 240-235-2019
info@nationalnursesunited.org
No more Hiroshima! No more Nagasaki! (United for Peace & Justice)
We Hibakusha [A-bomb survivors] call the atomic bombs ‘weapons of the devil.’ We cannot allow even a single bomb to exist on this planet…. The pain of the victims of that day must not be forgotten.
—Reiko Yamada, Hiroshima A-bomb survivor
Faced with the terrifying perspectives which are opening up to humanity, we can perceive even better that peace is the only battle worth waging. It is no longer a prayer, but an order which must rise up from peoples to their governments—the order to choose finally between hell and reason.
—Albert Camus, August 6, 1945
No More Hiroshima! No More Nagasaki!
As we approach the 75th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th, let us be aware that today, nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons, most an order of magnitude more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, continue to pose an intolerable threat to humanity, and the U.S. is poised to spend nearly two trillion dollars over the next three decades to maintain and upgrade its nuclear arsenal. All the nuclear-armed states are engaged in nuclear weapons “modernization.” Read more; learn about many opportunities for action and view Abolition 2000’s calendar of international events.
Educate Yourself and Others!
UFPJ has collected a wide range of critical perspectives on the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including testimonies of nuclear survivors, the long legacy of racism and full spectrum dominance that informed the use of nuclear weapons, and the Japan Council against A and H Bombs’ (Gensuikyo’s) pointed rebuttal of Trump’s message on the anniversary of the Trinity nuclear test. Read the statements and analysis.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Webinars With Vital Perspectives
The atomic bombings have been the subject of crucial and incisive analysis by scholars and activists deeply knowledgeable about the history and the imperative of promoting a just and nuclear-weapons-free world. To hear from them about deconstructing the myths surrounding atomic weapons and the true story of the U.S. decision to use the bomb, and to register for the upcoming webinar, “100 Seconds to Midnight. What Does This Mean? What Can We Do?” click here.
Ban Nuclear Weapons Now!
UFPJ Coordinating Committee Member, Thea Paneth had a personal reflection posted on the Common Dreams website, “As the daughter of a nuclear victim I raise my voice on this upcoming anniversary to say with the Hibakusha (survivors of the original N-blasts) ‘nuclear weapons must be abolished.’”
Mayors for Peace Promotes Global Partnership for a World Free from Nuclear Weapons
Mayors for Peace, led by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is working for a world without nuclear weapons and for safe and resilient cities as essential to realizing lasting world peace. To view their new video, a 7-minute compilation of messages from 23 prominent nuclear abolitionists, and to help Mayors for Peace reach its goal of 10,000 member cities by the end of 2020, click here.
UFPJ is a diverse network of peace and justice organizations. If your organization is interested in joining UFPJ, read our Unity Statement, and if it is consistent with your principles join.
Please donate to help us continue sending out "UFPJ Currents" to our members and supporters. And THANK YOU for all your work for peace and justice!
July 31st to Aug 4th - Workers United Film Festival 9 (WUFF9) 2nd Virtual Film Festival Screenings
WUFF9 Returns This Friday with 2nd Round of Virtual Film Festival Screenings! -- July 31st to August 4th
(Full Trailer Compilation Above and at https://vimeo.com/441174933)
See the Full Schedule on our blog here.
This 2nd Virtual Festival is dedicated to the Black Lives Matter movement and related themes.
How It Works:
On Friday, July 31st, starting at 12:00 p.m. (EST), go to the Workers Unite Film Festival homepage and simply play the videos that are embedded on the top of our page. They will remain there for 12 hours and be switched out at 12:00 a.m. midnight. The next batch of videos play from 12:00 a.m. to approx. 12:00 p.m. the next day. Note that there are two available screening windows (Screen 1, Screen 2) for the main day time slot playing different programs of films. There is no charge for watching or login requirements.
Commemorate Hiroshima & Nagasaki 75Th Anniversary - August 5, 6, and 9
This year, the 75th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is proud to be part of an enormous coalition of 165 organizations that are working together specifically to honor survivors of the bombings—the “Hibakusha”—as we acknowledge that the nuclear weapons, the atomic survivors, and civilization itself are #StillHere. Please participate! So far, PSR’s intrepid summer intern Liberty Potter is tracking 106 US-based virtual and in-person events in 24 states. For ten hours on August 6 and seven hours on August 9, the coalition will broadcast a national livestream which will shine a spotlight on creative projects and local events around the country and amplify the voices of activists and stories of downwinders and survivors. For a wealth of information, including a clickable map of activities, full calendar listings, the list of coalition partners, the Joint Position Statement, Hibakusha Appeal petition in support of the nuclear weapons ban, and a downloadable toolkit for social media
We are a group of organizations and individuals working together to mark the anniversaries of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Trinity nuclear test.
To highlight the voices of those affected by nuclear weapons: the hibakusha, downwind communities, nuclear workers, uranium workers, military personnel, and their families who were exposed to harmful and sometimes deadly levels of ionizing radiation and other toxins.
To press our leaders to take the actions necessary to ensure nuclear weapons are never used again and to negotiate in good faith the global elimination of these most devastating weapons of mass destruction.
Hiroshima Nagasaki 75th Virtual Commemoration - Manhattan Proj for a Nuclear Free World
Hiroshima Nagasaki 75th Virtual Commemoration - Manhattan Proj for a Nuclear Free World
Aug 5, 2020 09:30 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Lower East Side Preservation Initiative invites you to Rose Schneiderman, Woman's Suffrage and the Lower East Side: A Virtual Talk
Celebrate Women’s Suffrage - and LES Icon Rose Schneiderman - with LESPI!
August marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, won by multitudes of suffragists who galvanized the American public with their pioneering activist strategies. Firebrand Rose Schneiderman and her Lower East Side comrades brought trade union tactics and class consciousness to the national women’s suffrage movement.
THURSDAY AUGUST 6 AT 6:00PM - VIA ZOOM
NO CHARGE - ADVANCED REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED: REGISTER HERE
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Suffrage historian extraordinaire Susan Ware—consultant to PBS documentaries and Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library—celebrates that heterogeneous combustion of energy in her recent book, Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote.
Please join LESPI on Thursday, August 6th at 6 pm for a Zoom book talk with Dr. Ware, who will discuss Rose Schneiderman—and the startling breadth and diversity of the movement that won women the vote. The event is free but registration is required
Lower East Side Preservation Initiative
93 Fourth Avenue #1223 | New York, New York 10003
347-827-1846 | info@LESPI-nyc.org