Tidbits – Oct. 3 – Reader Comments: Israel Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza; GOP Anti-Worker Policies; Remembering Peter N. Carroll; Alva L’nez Jones Buxenbaum, Educator and Activist; Books About Palestine; Campus Free Speech Crises, 1964/2024; More

Reader Comments: Israel Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza; GOP Has Anti-Worker Policies; Remembering Peter N. Carroll; Alva L'nez Jones Buxenbaum, Educator and Activist; Books About Palestine; The Campus Free Speech Crises, 1964/2024; Cartoons; more..

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Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, AND cartoons - Oct. 3, 2024,Portside

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Re: Kamala Harris Will Win the Popular Vote
 

Why go to the expense of conducting a national election when it will be a small number of states that will decide the presidential election via the Electoral College?  Why don't we just have the elections in those states and forget about the rest of us who don't matter?

E. Krell
Baltimore MD

 

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Re: Damning Report Reveals How Antony Blinken Lied to Congress on Israel
 

Leaked documents show that the secretary of state received two explosive reports on Israel blocking aid to Gaza—right before he told Congress the exact opposite. Two U.S. government agencies advocated a pause in arms sales to Israel, in May.

The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration also concluded that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid, recommending that nearly $830 million in weapons and bombs to Israel, paid by U.S. taxpayers, should be frozen under the Foreign Assistance Act. USAID echoed the recommendation, writing in its memo that the U.S. should pause additional arms sales to the country.

Food for Gaza, including flour that could have fed nearly 1.5 million Palestinians for five months, was stockpiled less than 30 miles from the Gazan border in an Israeli port, the memo stated. In February, however, Israel stopped allowing flour into the territory, accusing the recipient, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, of having ties to Hamas. An independent investigation would find no evidence for Israel’s claims.

Chuck Dineen
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them.
 

Blinken told Congress, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting” aid, even though the U.S. Agency for International Development and others had determined that Israel had broken the law.

Mary-Alice Strom
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

The 118th Congress  --  Cartoon by Nick Anderson

 

Nick Anderson
September 26, 2024
Pen Strokes

 

Re: How Lebanon Transformed Anthony Bourdain

(post on Portside - June 9, 2019)

"After a few days in Beirut itself, Bourdain and his team moved to a hotel just north of the capital, closer to their eventual evacuation spot. By then, Israeli jets were bombing not only areas with a Hezbollah presence, but bridges and power plants across the country. Yet the show never became about the experience of a terrorized American stranded in a scary place. Bourdain never made it about Bourdain—Lebanon was the story. And even during the dramatic scene of his departure, on a ship surrounded by Marines and hundreds of other evacuees—Americans and dual citizens—his focus remained on Lebanon and the distraught faces of its people, leaving behind country and family, uncertain of whether they’d ever return.

"Despite the trying circumstances he faced, Bourdain still managed to produce a 43-minute piece later nominated for a news and documentary Emmy. We were also nominated for our coverage of the 2006 war, albeit in a different category, and won. While Bourdain did not win (although he would go on to pick up many other Emmys), I knew his episode had told my country’s story better than I ever could. I cried when I watched it."

Richard Rosa
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Protector  --  Cartoon by Rob Rogers

 

Not only is Trump a sexual predator, he has done more to deny women's access to reproductive health care than anyone in the last half century. How he can keep a straight face while calling himself a "protector" of women is beyond me.

Rob Rogers
September 27, 2024
TinyView

 

Re: Republicans Have Anti-Worker Policies — They Are Not the Party of Labor

(posting on Portside Labor)
 

"In my view, Vance’s support for workers hinges almost entirely on white Christian nationalism. He does not want to uplift the US working class in all its vibrant, multiracial, multigender beauty; he wants (white, male, Christian) workers to earn better wages so that their (white, female, Christian) spouses can stay home and raise more (white, Christian) children."

Jim Stone
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Should You Lose Your Right To Vote if You Have a Criminal Record? 
 

No. Voting is the most important right we have.

If everyone who is found guilty of a crime loses the right to vote, injustices will never be resolved.

Who knows more about our criminal justice system than the people embroiled in it and taking away their right to vote means that these injustices will never be recognized and corrected. Taking that right away means that you remove whatever avenues for correcting injustices we have.

Invent a rationale for people to be charged. Charge people under some ridiculous rationale. It will never be corrected.

Arlene Halfon

      =====

I think if we are serious about rehabilitation in the prison system, we should help prisoners lead a civic life. One of those things should the right to vote. In some countries, the prison system actually escorts prisoners to the vote booths to vote and back to the prison. I believe the more a prisoner is connected to the world outside the better he or she is ready to live in society.  

Wilson

 

Just the facts, meng, and nothing but the facts!  --  Cartoon by  Lalo Alcaraz

 

Lalo Alcaraz
October 1, 2024
https://www.pocho.com

 

Re: How One Donor-Advised Fund Helps Leonard Leo Weaponize Philanthropy 
 

Why should he get a tax break for his political contributions, I don't.

Brad Smith

 

Re: Peter N. Carroll 1943–2024
 

Peter N. Carroll, a respected and prolific writer, poet, and US historian, died after a short illness on September 16, surrounded by his family. He was 80. Dr. Carroll was a Chair Emeritus of ALBA and one of the key individuals involved in the founding of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives.

[To this moving tribute, we would like to add this note: Peter was the creator of the Poetry feature of Portside, and has been our poetry editor since its inception. We have been enriched by his comradeship, creativity and energy. Our condolences to the family and to all who have known and will miss this restless spirit. -- moderator]

Francisco Gonzalez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

      =====

I was very sad to hear that Peter Carroll has died. He had just accepted my latest poem on August 27th, but when I read in Portside that he had suddenly passed away, I figured the poem would not be posted, so I was very surprised to see it posted on September 27th. I consider it Peter's parting gift to me, and I'm grateful to Portside for posting it.

Bill Ehrhart

      =====

So very sad to hear of Peter Carroll's passing. Who is the new moderator?

Lita Kurth
San Jose

 

Re: What Is a Black Film? This and Other Tantalizing Questions Are Tackled in Justin Simien’s New Documentary, ‘Hollywood Black’

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

What is a Black film? How do we know it’s a Black film? These are slippery questions that defy Dr. Umar-ish simplicity about what is or isn’t Black. Is it a Black film because it’s a story about Black characters that stars Black actors? OK, but what if that story about Black characters is directed by a white person? “The Wiz” is absolutely a Black story that has a particularly African-American flair to it. But it’s directed by the great Sidney Lumet, who was white. “The Color Purple” (1995) and “A Soldier’s Story” tell deeply African-American stories, but they, too, were directed by white men — Steven Spielberg and Norman Jewison. What about Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown”? Even though it was released in 1997, it’s basically a Blaxploitation film. But, also, what about the brilliant film “Shame” by the British legend Steve McQueen? There are no major Black characters but it’s directed by a Black man.

This question and more are part of a fascinating new docuseries about the history of Black cinema on MGM+ called “Hollywood Black” by the filmmaker Justin Simien, best known for directing “Dear White People.”

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

 

Re:  Lorraine Hansberry: Radiant, Radical — And More Than 'Raisin' 

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

A new biography of the pioneering African American dramatist and intellectual. 

Roy Schulman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Alva L'nez Jones Buxenbaum, Educator and Activist, passed away on May 15, 2024 after a brief illness.

 

By Daniel Rosenberg

Alva was born in New Orleans LA on September 14, 1935. She was raised by educators Alvin Jones, a professor at Xavier University, and Inez Geddes, a public school teacher. Like other members of her family, Alva attended Xavier Preparatory High School in New Orleans, where she first became involved in the movement against Jim Crow segregation. As a high school student, she presaged the interests of her later life by collecting articles on the struggles going on around her.

Alva was raised with a family legacy of educators, activists, and civic leaders. Alva was taught how to push against injustice and demand civil rights by the example her family set. As a student at Fisk University, and then as parent, educator, and community member, she lived a life of activism.

Alva became active in civil rights organizations and protests during and after high school. She organized for and participated in the Youth March for Integrated Schools movement in 1958 and 1959, under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. Her encounters in such nation-wide initiatives for racial equality led also to her joining the Communist Party USA after moving to Philadelphia. She married David Buxenbaum in 1960. Alva was one of the leading personalities in the Party-led Progressive Youth Organizing Committee in the early 60s. She was a charter member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1962. Not surprisingly, her activism attracted the notice of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

After settling in New York, she went on to chair the Party’s Women Commission, and thus engaged in a battery of initiatives for women’s rights. These included her role in founding and helping lead Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE) and her leadership in the Women’s International Democratic Federation with which WREE became affiliated. In this connection, she was part of the U.S. delegation to the World Congress of Women in Berlin in 1975. In collective settings and in her own right, she contributed substantively to theories of women and work, including the exploitive qualities of housework. She left the Communist Party in 1991.

Alva was well aware of her history and drew upon it for examples when speaking with community members, children, and interested younger scholars.  She transmitted to generations to come the legacies of historical resistance to injustice passed down to her. Her family was historically prominent in New Orleans African American civic and community life. Alva’s parents, aunts, and uncles were active in the NAACP and the Urban League long before the modern civil rights movement. Her great-grandparents belonged to the Citizens’ Committee whose late 19th century anti-segregation resistance led to the arrest of Homer Plessy and thus to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1894.

Alva’s involvements in public education movements in New York took off when her children began school. As a vocal parent leader, she extended her participation when she ran successfully for her district school board in the 1970s. She evolved as parent-educator. She taught elementary school in New York City for 35 years before becoming an Assistant Principal for five years and Principal for four years at PS 368: The Hamilton Heights School (K-5) in Washington Heights.

Alva enjoyed reading and was a member of two long standing book groups. In this light, she strongly upheld the social value of literacy and multilingualism:

 “I have always believed strongly that children should learn and become literate in more than one language; their first language and a second language. Children learn second languages easily when immersed.  Language literacy is also transferable, especially when you are young.”

An avid traveler, Alva found ample opportunity to use her language affinities in trips to Spain, Costa Rica, and Morocco, as well as annual visits to Puerto Rico.

She was a supporter of and participant in the arts, especially inspiring the organization Kindred CRAFT. She enjoyed a long association with the sculptor and painter Helen Ramsaran. Alva had an infectious spirit and an always-present sense of humor, making her principles and beliefs easily accessible to others.

Alva is remembered as a warm, engaging, embracing, dedicated person. Her loving regard for family, friends, comrades, neighbors, and co-workers extended to her predecessors and successors in social movements.

She touched the lives of thousands of children and parents, mentoring and training dozens of teachers according to her vision of humane education. She takes her place as a prime mover of progressive change.

She is survived by daughters -- Kim Una Buxenbaum and Nina Inez Buxenbaum –and four grandchildren - Kris Alvin Buxenbaum, Linez Nichole Buxenbaum, Scarlett Mackenzie Jones and Sterling Piersen Jones.

Alva was predeceased by her sons Alan (who died of SIDS as an infant) and Kris Geddes Buxenbaum.

 

Isabella Hammad’s (Incomplete) Essential List of Books About Palestine - Featuring Jean Genet, Ghassan Kanafani, Mahmoud Darwish, and More  (Literary Hub)
 

By Isabella Hammad
September 24, 2024
Literary Hub

There are a very many great books about Palestine and by Palestinians, and to condense them into a single essential list is a difficult task. Some books recently celebrated in the anglosphere, either written in English or translated into English (among other languages), include: Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail, Fady Joudah’s […], Susan Abulhawa’s Against The Loveless World, Mohammed El Kurd’s Rifqa, Ibtisam Azem’s The Book of Disappearance, and Mosab Abu Toha’s Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear. The below is a very incomplete list of a few other, mostly older, classic titles that have meant a lot to me.

[Isabella’s Hammad’s Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative is available now from Grove Press.]

 

Deepak Bhargava & Stephanie Luce: "Practical Radicals: How Oppressed People Change the World"  -  Virtual  - October 10  (The Havens Wright Center for Social Justice)

 

Thursday, October 10
12 noon US Central Time / 6 pm UK

REGISTER FOR THE EVENT HERE

This event is presented in collaboration with the School for Workers at UW-Madison.

This is an online event, which you can join via zoom. If you would like to attend, you must register in advance on TicketTailor (click on the link above, or visit our website). You will be sent a confirmation email after registering with instructions on how to join. If you do not receive the meeting link, please check your junk mail folder. For any additional information, email havenswrightcenter@ssc.wisc.edu.

Deepak Bhargava is President of the JBP Foundation. Since 2019, he has been a distinguished lecturer at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.

He previously led Community Change for 16 years, where he worked to strengthen the community organizing field and launched coalitions that achieved major policy reforms at the federal level on issues such as poverty, health care, and immigration. Bhargava has trained and mentored hundreds of leaders who’ve played key roles in progressive organizations and social justice movements, and, more recently, he co-founded a new organization, Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice, which trains and supports early and mid-career people working for social change, especially people of color, women, LGBTQ people and people from working-class backgrounds.

He has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, the Open Society Foundations (US), and 350.org, where he was Board Chair. He currently serves on the board of the Democracy Fund.

Bhargava is the co-author of Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World with Stephanie Luce (New Press, 2023) and co-editor of Immigration Matters: Movements, Visions, and Strategies for a Progressive Future with Ruth Milkman and Penny Lewis (New Press, 2021). He was a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute from 2020-2023, where he co-authored The Statue of Liberty Plan: A Progressive Vision for Migration in the Age of Climate Change with Rich Stolz and The Death of “Deliverism” in Democracy Journal with Shahrzad Shams and Harry Hanbury, which explores the relationship of economic policy to political allegiances.

He has written extensively about community organizing, public policy related to poverty and economic justice, progressive strategy, civic engagement, and racial justice among many other topics for the New York Times, the Guardian, USA Today, the Nation, the American Prospect, Huffington Post, and Democracy Journal, and he has been featured in major news outlets such as National Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, National Public Radio, and MSNBC.

Bhargava is married to Harry W. Hanbury, a documentary filmmaker. He was born in Bangalore, India, and grew up in New York City, where he currently resides.

Stephanie Luce is Professor of Labor Studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, and Professor of Sociology at the Gradate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).

She received her BA in economics at the University of California, Davis and both her PhD in sociology and her MA in industrial relations from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

She is the author of Fighting for a Living Wage, and co-author of The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy, and The Measure of Fairness. She is also author of Labor Movements: Global Perspectives. Her latest book, co-authored with Deepak Bhargava, is Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World.

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
 

For more information, visit www.havenswrightcenter.wisc.edu

or email Adrienne Pagac at pagac@wisc.edu.

 

60 Years of Free Speech: A Panel with Icons of Berkeley Activism  - Berkeley - October 15  (The Berkeley Forum)

 

Tuesday, October 15 · 5:30 - 7:30pm PDT

West Pauley Ballroom
2495 Bancroft Way 
UC Berkeley 
Berkely, California 94720

FREE

Reserve a Spot

This October marks the 60th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, a pivotal moment in campus history that showcased the power of student activism. To celebrate this milestone and inspire a new generation of students, the Berkeley Forum presents an anniversary panel featuring Free Speech Movement veterans Bettina Aptheker, Lynne Hollander Savio, and Jack Radey. The event will include an introduction to the Movement by student activism expert Dr. Robert Cohen, a moderated panel discussion, and an extended audience Q&A, providing attendees an opportunity to engage directly with these remarkable speakers.
 

The Myth of American Idealism: How U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers the World  -  New York  -  October 16  (The New School)

 

Come join us at this event in NYC!!! Going to be talking Chomsky with some truly fascinating people:

Wednesday, October 16, 2024, 6:30PM to 8:00PM (EDT)

Room UL104, University Center
The New School
63 5th Avenue New York NY

REGISTER 

A panel discussion and Q&A on the ideas and work of Noam Chomsky, including his new book: The Myth of American Idealism with the book's co-author Nathan Robinson, who is also the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs magazine.

Speakers will examine Chomsky's critiques of U.S. foreign policy from Vietnam to Iraq to Gaza and discuss why his searing analysis of U.S. power remains vital and relevant.

The panel of speakers will be comprised of those who have worked with or been inspired by Chomsky's writings over the last 50 years: 

Amy Goodman - Host of the independent global news program Democracy Now! since 1996, author of six books, winner of the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence and the Gandhi Peace Award

Bev Stohl - ran Prof. Chomsky's office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for over 20 years and is the author of Chomsky and Me: A Memoir. 

Greg Grandin - professor of history at Yale University, author of Kissinger's Shadow, Empire's Workshop, and Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award. 

Victor Pickard - Media studies professor, Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, author of America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform and Democracy Without Journalism?: Confronting the Misinformation Society.

Presented by the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs at the Schools of Public Engagement.

 

Dissenters Tidalwave Annual Conference  - Chicago - October 25 - 27

 

It’s the most magical time of year, Tidalwave! Join us this fall for Dissenters’ annual membership conference, where young people from across the country will convene in Chicago for three days of connecting, learning and taking action to build our movement to defund war and militarism. From October 25 - 27, Dissenters from across the country will arrive in Chicago to strategize about how we can organize young people in the heart of U.S. empire and build our power to wage anti-imperialist campaigns and dismantle the U.S. war machine.

Over the last 11 months, we have witnessed escalated examples of political and war elite's influence on the global stage. While Israel carries out the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, our mandate to take bold action against the war machine and build a movement of millions could not be more clear. The U.S. uses its military and financial power, police, prisons, weapons, walls, soldiers, guns, drones, and media to attack people worldwide and build a world where its political and corporate elites create endless wars for personal power and profit.

It’s up to us to create the future we need—will you join us?

Do you want to submit a workshop for Tidalwave 2024? Send us your proposal at bit.ly/tidalwave24-workshop!

Dissenters is a new national movement organization that is leading our generation to reclaim our resources from the war industry, reinvest in life-giving institutions, and repair collaborative relationships with the earth and people around the world.

We’re building local teams of young people across the country to force our elected officials and institutions to divest from war and militarism, and reinvest in what our communities actually need. From campuses to congress, we are building grassroots power to cut off war elites once and for all.

Whether you chip in a few bucks or build your own local Dissenters team, we all have a role to play in this movement. For opportunities to get involved, connect with us here. https://wearedissenters.org/connect/

 

The Free Speech Movement @ 60: The Campus Free Speech Crises, 1964/2024 - New York - October 30  (Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives)

 

 

The Free Speech Movement @ 60: The Campus Free Speech Crises, 1964/2024
October 30th, 6-7:30, 2 North Reading Room, Bobst Library
REGISTER

In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement this session will probe the origins, character, and impact of the Berkeley student revolt of 1964. It will also explore the current state of free speech, including the pressure on universities to repress the campus encampment movement against the war in Gaza. The session will feature a panel discussion, a short play, and a poetry reading.

Free, RSVP required.
Event will be live streamed.

PARTICIPANTS:
Bettina Aptheker, Waldo Martin, Carol Christ, Robert Cohen, Lytle Shaw, Barbara Garson, Kay Hyman, Sydney Mazik, Keith Huff, Anne-Marie Garcia Jardine.

This event is co-sponsored by: Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU Special Collections; the Social Studies program of NYU Steinhardt; and the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.