Tidbits - June 10, 2021 - Reader Comments: Manchin and the Filibuster; Secret IRS Files; Police Reform; Palestinian Workers; Gender Diversity; Evangelicals and MAGA; Whiteness of Wealth; Art of the Spanish Civil War; Books on Sale; Announcements

This is the best strategic view https://portside.org/2021-06-08/so-what-hell-do-we-do-now-joe-manchin-e… I have read on how to pass the For the People Act. We will all need to put our shoulders to the wheel to get this done, to preserve our democracy. Very truly yours,

Len Polletta

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He voted for the Covid Relief bill even though every Republican voted against it. He needs to be reminded that what really counts is not the views of a Republican Senators but the views of the American people....

Dave Posmontier
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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His own constituents want the bills he won't support.

Steve Cohen
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.

Jose Luis Medina
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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There. Must. Be. A. WEALTH. TAX

Linda Crowley
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Billionaires Are Non-Essential -- cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz

Lalo Alcaraz
June 10, 2021
Mexican Judge

Re: Housing Is a Social Good

Having spent close to half my life working for HUD, I discovered early and never changed my mind:

The major function of HUD's low-income housing programs were purported to provide decent, safe, and sanitary housing for people at prices low-income residents could afford. Instead, the major function of the programs were to provide tax shelters to the wealthy. The second greatest function was to provide jobs to middle-class people like me. Providing adequate and affordable housing to people who needed it, despite being the excuse for the programs, were treated as the least important. This, despite the fact that the "supposed beneficiaries" were treated as the rationale for all the expense.

Yes, "housing" must follow food, education and health care as a socially-required need that Government must fulfill.

Arlene Halfon
Washington, DC

Re: The AFL-CIO Releases Its Police Reform Report, But Doesn't Want to Talk About ItThe AFL-CIO Releases Its Police Reform Report, But Doesn't Want to Talk About It

The AFL-CIO’s new report on police reform doesn’t come anywhere close to what’s needed. Written largely from the perspective of police officers, it rejects calls to defund the police, embracing the failed approach of trying to weed out bad apples.

Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Palestinian Workers Have a Long History of Resistance

The rights that are actually under attack today are those of the Palestinian people resisting discrimination and ongoing dispossession.

"Far-right Jewish activists announced plans for a provocative march through Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem while, adding to the tensions, the Israeli police on Sunday detained a pair of Palestinian siblings whose activism and media appearances recently drew a wave of international attention to the displacement of Palestinians from East Jerusalem...

"Tensions increased further on Sunday as the Israeli police detained several leading Palestinian activists in East Jerusalem — including Mona and Mohammed el-Kurd, 23-year-old twins who attained global prominence in the buildup to the war by raising awareness about attempts to evict them from their home in favor of Jewish settlers. Both were released after several hours, following an international outcry about their detention.

"The police also arrested a third leading activist, Zohair Rajabi, a community leader in Silwan, another Palestinian neighborhood where hundreds of residents are under threat of forced eviction.

"A television reporter for al-Jazeera, Givara Budeiri, was also detained for several hours on Saturday evening while covering a protest in Sheikh Jarrah, prompting an outcry from free speech groups."

Israeli Security Forces Clash With Protesters in East Jerusalem

Geoff Mirelowitz
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Poor People’s Campaign plans ‘Moral March on Manchin’

see my book: American Unemployment - Past, Present, and Future

Lies your economists told you—and the truths that can change the nation

Frank Stricker

Very Definition -- cartoon by Clay Bennett

Clay Bennett
June 7, 2021
Chattanooga Times Free Press

Re: Exterminate All the Brutes: a critique

"...Peck’s critique of white supremacy is articulated within the safe limits of Western liberalism. There is nothing here which is abrasive, taboo, or explicitly supportive of ongoing struggles and movements for justice."

Really? Not in my neck of the woods. Powerful and widely useful in undermining a white supremacist order.

Carl Davidson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Nearly 10% of Youth in One Urban School District Identify As Gender-diverse, New Study Finds

It's hard to take seriously the research of anyone who accepts the unscientific tenet of gender ideology which purports that sex is "assigned at birth" rather than observed at birth. Sex and gender are two different things. In a male dominated society, what is assigned at birth is a gender role based on the actual observed sex. That gender role contains society's coercive pressures of what is considered masculine or feminine—with females getting the worst of it. However, instead of acting to do away with these false gender demands and everyone, some believe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and choose to try to jump it instead of knocking it down. Women's liberation–and the achievement of material truth over fantasy–depends on the fence being leveled. For starters, that means to stop confusing sex with gender.

Carol Hanisch

Re: ‘High on the Hog’ Producers on How Their All-Black Creative Team Told the Story of African American Food

Netflix’s new “High on the Hog” isn’t just a food show or a history show or a travel show. It’s a joyful combination of all of those genres, shot through with a deep reverence for the people and places that were formative to creating African American food — which in turn became simply American food

Dave Lott
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Love this show

Michele Hemenway
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Onward Christian Soldiers: The MAGA March Toward a Fascist America

A new critical analysis of the Jan. 6 putsch and the role of evangelicals in it and the fascist MAGA movement just got published as an ebook and paperback format.

Makes for a good read this summer and beyond. Thanks!

Werner Lange

Onward Christian Soldiers: The MAGA March Toward a Fascist America
Paperback – June 7, 2021

Paperback: $15.00; Kindle: $5.00

The MAGA making of American fascism almost succeeded. Whether or not it ultimately does in the future depends upon the extent to which the vicious viper which reared its ugly head on January 6 in the nation’s capital is defanged, if not decapitated altogether. Thus far the institutional response to this fascist putsch has been too meek and the public shock too mild. The majority of the participating domestic terrorists have not even been identified, let alone arrested and prosecuted. Next to nothing has been done to their congressional enablers and supporters. And precious little light has been shed on the core social base of this extensive MAGA movement, namely Christian fascists. Most commentary on the deeply embedded fascist nature of Trump’s social base euphemistically dismisses it as merely Christian nationalism or conservative evangelicalism, racist manifestations of hijacked Christianity which have been part of American history for centuries. Such myopic misrepresentations of this qualitatively new and ongoing threat to American democracy fail to grasp the grave danger of the MAGA movement as an unprecedented fascist force with deep roots in our frayed social fabric. This analysis aspires to overcome that myopia and sound the alarm.

Whiteness_of_Wealth (Economic Policy Institute)

Racial discrimination in the tax code is the topic of this week’s State of Working America podcast. Dorothy Brown, author of The Whiteness of Wealth, talks with EPI’s Eve Tahmincioglu.

“There was never a connection [to race] when we talked about tax statistics,” Brown says. “In fact, I went into tax law because I knew it had nothing to do with race. Growing up in the South Bronx, dealing with racism on a regular basis, I didn't want to take a job that required me to deal with racism in the substance of the law. I knew I wanted to be a lawyer and I took a tax accounting course and said, that’s it. It’s just numbers. The only color that matters is green.”

Brown continues, “I’ve never been more wrong about anything in my life.”

Black families, Brown says, are more likely to get hit with the “marriage penalty” when filing taxes because spouses are more likely to be contributing 50/50 to the household income. White families, on the other hand, are more likely to have one high earner and one low earner—and the tax code is skewed to advantage such families.

Listen to the podcast

Economic Policy Institute
1225 Eye St. NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-775-8810 • epi@epi.org

Art of the Spanish Civil War: Political Propaganda and the Modernist Avant-Garde

Toni Vidal, CNT-FAI, 1936, Library of Congress (originally published in the Barcelona newspaper "Tierra y Libertad"

By Kacper Grass
April 1, 2019
Daily Art Magazine

April 1, 1939 marked not only the end of the Spanish Civil War but also the fall of the Second Spanish Republic. The victory of General Francisco Franco’s rebel forces resulted in the overthrow of Spain’s leftist Republican government and its subsequent replacement with a Nationalist dictatorship that would last until Franco’s death in 1975.

Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Spanish Civil War

Today, 80 years after the end of the conflict, the legacy of both the Second Spanish Republic and the Franco regime continue to be controversial subjects of political debate. What remains clear, however, is that the three years of civil war had a profound impact on the country’s cultural sphere, as the most prominent artists of the day used their talents and means of expression to react to what was happening around them.

Carles Fontserè, Llibertat!, 1936, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

The Spanish Civil War is particularly noteworthy for the international impact that it had, especially in artistic and literary circles. George Orwell’s experience fighting for the P.O.U.M., one of several pro-Republican militias, is recorded in his memoir Homage to Catalonia, while Ernest Hemingway’s work as a foreign journalist during the war served as an inspiration for his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Jean-Paul Sartre’s short story The Wall is an existentialist account of the condemnation and execution of prisoners by Nationalist soldiers, which was the tragic fate the poet Federico García Lorca, among many others. In Spain, the most prominent artists of the modernist avant-garde were mobilized to react—some producing overt political propaganda posters and others expressing their views through more abstract works.

Republican Versus Nationalist Propaganda

Political propaganda posters have become an icon of the civil war era, as both Republican and Nationalist forces employed artists to rally support throughout the duration of the conflict. Most Republican posters were produced in the socialist realist style, which had already become the official artistic form in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. Common themes included idealized depictions of peasants or proletarian workers, socialist symbolism, as well as official communiques from the government or allied militias. Indeed, Nationalist propaganda shared many of the same artistic qualities, except that the extremely traditionalist or patriotic slogans and fascist imagery made it more akin to the realism that was characteristic of political posters in Nazi Germany.

Read full article here

For Summer break, dip into a great book! (Hard Ball Press)

When you take time off this summer, take a Hard Ball Press book along. We have stories of working people standing up for their rights, finding solidarity and love along the way.

Perfect for grownups, and children, too, with bilingual picture books.

Check out all our titles at Hard Ball Press, and enjoy your time off.

Timothy Sheard, editor
Hard Ball Press
415 Argyle Rd., 6A
Brooklyn, NY, 11218
917-438-1352

Long Hot Summer Reading: ALL 40% off (Verso Books)

Arm yourself with radical manifestos and revolutionary theory for a summer of struggle. ALL books are 40% off through the end of June.

The long, hot summer refers to the one hundred and fifty-nine race riots that erupted across the United States in 1967. Now, one year after the murder of George Floyd and the global insurrection against racist police violence and racial inequality, the books on this reading list offer critical analyses of white supremacy and tell histories of anti-colonial resistance and movements for liberation across the world.

ALL of our books are 40% off until Wednesday, June 30 at 11:59PM EST.

Need help finding books? Browse some of our reading lists, including Climate Crisis and COVID-19, Emerging Futures, No Walls, No Borders, Abolition and Black Struggle, Revolutionary Feminisms, Black Radical Thought: A Verso Bookshelf and Decolonize your bookshelf! Verso Student Reading.

Verso Books
6 Meard Street
London, W1F 0EG
United Kingdom

A Home for White People Working for Justice (SURJ)

This year, we have experienced unprecedented growth. As Black leadership across the world led people into the streets and into action in support of Black lives, we welcomed thousands of white people new to the movement and put them to work. And as the Right doubled down on their racist organizing in white communities, we set out door knocking and phone banking to recruit more white communities into our movement and away from the Republicans and the white supremacists.

To be responsive to SURJ’s growth, I’m excited to share that we are launching a new website SURJ.org and a new logo that’s easier to use and reproduce. THANK YOU for your support last year to help us grow our impact.

This website is simpler to navigate and has clear pathways for new people to get involved. It features an updated chapter directory, a page just for brand new people, and a brief history of SURJ. And it contains many of the widely used resources and from our old website too, like the SURJ values and Tema Okun’s article “White supremacy culture characteristics.”

Will you join me in celebrating the growth of SURJ’s organizing work and the launching of our improved new website, SURJ.org, by making a gift to sustain this work for decades to come?

Our new website more clearly reflects our expanded organizing and shows how to get more involved with SURJ and our organizing programs

The SURJ Chapter Network: Our 175+ chapters across the US and Canada are working on local campaigns around abolition, elections, and political education.
SURJ National Membership: We’ve launched a national membership program, where you can plug into SURJ’s National work no matter where you live in the country.
SURJ Disability is organizing white disabled people into SURJ’s national abolition work and supporting the SURJ network in its commitment to disability justice.
SURJ Faith is growing a national network of faith-rooted folks taking action in local, regional, and national SURJ campaigns especially around abolition.
Organizing with poor and working people in the South and in priority states: As a part of our commitment to building our base in poor and working class white communities, especially in rural places and the South, we are building multiple layers of organizing using electoral, chapter, base building and media work in Ohio, and through SURJ's Southern Crossroads project in Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, and Kentucky. Watch our powerful video clip about economic justice and the South.
Raising funds for solidarity partners: Following the leadership and vision of the Black liberation movement is essential in order for any of us to get free. The transformation we’ve seen in 2020 is because of their labor and leadership. Moving resources to support their work is an important part of aligning with their organizing.

The new website and logo reflect our organizational strategy -- honed and affirmed through the hard-fought organizing over this pivotal year -- of working to bring millions more white people to take action and support struggles for:

Abolition: We’re working to decrease the number of people in prisons, jails, and detention centers, support campaigns that invest resources in communities and not in policing and prisons, and make sure white communities understand how we will all be better off in a world without cages.
Economic justice: We know fights for racial justice and economic justice are inseparable because the current system maintains wealth for the few by recruiting poor and working white people to see themselves as more aligned with those at the top than with working class communities of color. We are organizing for the long haul in strategic priority states with poor and working class white people to build bases of progressive power committed to racial and economic justice. Watch our powerful video clip about economic justice and the South.
Progressive electoral power: In this moment of growing neofascist and white supremacist expression in the Republican Party, it is critical that we ensure Republicans do not take hold of the federal government again. Helping to build the base of progressive white voters in strategic districts and states is an essential role SURJ will play in 2022 midterm elections.

In solidarity,

Erin Heaney,
SURJ National Director

Showing Up for Racial Justice

Just Wage Forum 2021: A Just Wage Reflects Participation by Workers - June 11 (Center for Social Concerns, University of Notre Dame)

Please join us for the ongoing Just Wage Forum, a series of Zoom conversations between scholars and practitioners in pursuit of a fairer and more inclusive economy. Our next session convenes Friday, June 11@1p EDT.

To register and participate, use this link; you'll then receive a separate Google calendar invitation with the Zoom webinar address You can also tune in via the YouTube livestream. Details on the event are below.

Just Wage Criterion 6: A Just Wage Reflects and Promotes Participation by Workers
A just wage -- as well as a wider just wage structure -- is best determined by negotiation via union recognition, collective bargaining, and regular contracts. In the absence of collective bargaining, a just wage can be encouraged by standardized guidelines featuring due process procedures in wage negotiations and disputes, as well as input via bodies chosen by the workers themselves (staff councils, advisory bodies, etc.). Regardless of union recognition, a just wage structure should include representation of workers in leadership positions (such as boards of directors) and opportunities for co-ownership (via stock options, e.g.).

Presenters

Naomi R Williams, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University

Damon A. Silvers, J.D., Director of Policy and Special Counsel, AFL-CIO

Respondent

Kevin J. Christiano, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Notre Dame

If you would like to revisit prior sessions, or would like to see details about upcoming sessions, you can view them here.

University of Notre Dame
Center for Social Concerns | Geddes Hall (Building #1212)
Notre Dame, IN 46556 | Phone (574) 631-5293 | ndcntrsc@nd.edu

The European Left at a Crossroads - June 12 (DSA International Committee and DSA in France)

SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 2021 AT 12 PM EDT – 2 PM EDT

Event by DSA International Committee and DSA in France

Join DSA’s International Committee for a panel on the current state of politics in Western Europe. Esteemed guests include Tariq Ali, Clare Daly (MEP from Ireland), Grace Blakeley, and Cole Stangler, who will discuss topics ranging from the EU and NATO to the rise of the far-right and the state of the left. Q+A with audience questions fielded from the Facebook livestream follows. The event will be moderated by DSA Europe International Committee member Chip Gibbons.

Tariq Ali - British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual, editor of New Left Review
Grace Blakeley - English economics and politics commentator, staff writer for Tribune, contributor to Novara Media
Clare Daly - Irish Member of the European Parliament, Independents for Change Party
Cole Stangler - journalist based in Paris, France, published in The Guardian, Jacobin, The Nation, and New York Times

Moderator: Chip Gibbons - DSA Europe International Committee member

Watch live - Click here

Book Talk: The Labor Board Crew: Remaking Worker-Employer Relations from Pearl Harbor to the Reagan Era - June 17 (Labor and Working Class History Association)

Ron Schatz, The Labor Board Crew: Remaking Worker-Employer Relations from Pearl Harbor to the Reagan Era

June 17 at 7 PM EST

LAWCHA
226 Carr Building (East Campus)
Box 90719
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0719

lawcha.office@gmail.com