Progressive Calendar 03.17.12 /2
From: David Shove (shove001umn.edu)
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:30:53 -0700 (PDT)
*P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    03.17.12*

1. Israel/Apartheid        3.17 10am
2. WAMM speak out    3.17 12noon
3. CUAPB                   3.17 1:30pm
4. Northtown vigil          3.17 2pm
5. Syrian revolution       3.17 2pm
6. End Afghan war        3.17 3pm
7. Anarchism/socialism 3.17 7pm

8. Frances Fox Piven  - Occupy! and make them do it
9. Glen Ford               - The U.S. empire’s Achilles Heel: its barbaric
racism
10. ed                        - Half-smart ALEC  (haiku)

--------1 of 10--------

From: WAMM: Syrian revolution    3.17 2pm

Israel/Apartheid 3.17 10am

Presentation by Karen Redleaf: “The Jewish National Fund: Colonization,
Occupation, and Apartheid” Saturday, March 17, 9:30 a.m. (Refreshments);
10:00 a.m. to Noon (Program and Discussion) The Lutheran Church of Christ
the Redeemer, 5440 Penn Avenue South, Minneapolis.

Karen Redleaf is a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.
As of a recent 10-day fact-finding mission to Palestine, Karen is the
national spokesperson for the Stop the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Campaign.
She has returned from that trip and has a lot to share. She will speak on
how the Jewish National Fund continues to ethnically cleanse Palestinian
and Bedouin communities in order to appropriate lands for the State of
Israel. Come and learn about a project to counter the JNF—The Plant a Tree
in Palestine Project. Karen will recommend other ways you can support the
Stop the JNF Campaign. Sponsored by: Middle East Peace Now (MEPN). FFI:
Call Dixie Vella, 952-941-1341 or visit www.mepn.org.


--------2 of 10--------

WAMM speak out 3.17 12noon

WAMM Speak Out: "The Gifts of Uncertain Times: Getting the Support You Need
to Keep On Keeping On" Saturday, March 17, Noon to 2:00 p.m. Sabathani
Community Center, Room D1/D2, 310 East 38th Street, Minneapolis.

Kaia Svien will help us explore the role emotional intelligence plays in
our activism. She will lead us in exercises on listening and sharing,
personal storytelling and small group conversations about ways to sustain
ourselves as we go forward. Many WAMMers who've experienced this process
based on Johanna Macy's teachings have found it very restorative. Some
Occupiers will join us. Kaia, a WAMM member, has been teaching Mindfulness
Based Stress Reduction for 16 years. Sponsored by: WAMM. FFI: Call Polly
Kellogg, 612-721-9408 or WAMM, 612-827-5364.


--------3 of 10--------

From: Michelle Gross <mgresist [at] visi.com>
Subject: CUAPB 3.17 1:30pm

Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue
South http://www.CUAPB.org <http://www.cuapb.org/>

Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)


--------4 of 10--------

From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com
Subject: Northtown vigil 3.17 2pm

Peace vigil at Northtown (Old Hwy 10 & University Av), every Saturday 2-3pm


--------5 of 10--------

From: WAMM
Syrian revolution 3.17 2pm

Demonstration: Syrian Revolution Anniversary  Saturday, March 17, 2:00 to
4:30 p.m. Loring Park, 1382 Willow Street, Minneapolis.

Please join others to stop bloodshed in Syria and demand secure
humanitarian corridors to bring aid to the Syrian people. Join others in a
demonstration to save lives of injured women and children on the
anniversary of the first year of the Syrian Revolution. To date, there are
more than 10000 people dead, amongst them 600 women and 430 children. The
Syrian people need their universal human rights, and they need your support
to gain freedom, dignity, and democracy. Hosted by: Minnesota Supports the
Syrian Revolution. FFI: Visit
https://www.facebook.com/events/323054981076760/.


--------6 of 10--------

From:WAMM
End Afghan war  3.17 3pm

Protest: End the War in Afghanistan Now! Saturday, March 17, 3:00 p.m.
Mayday Plaza, 3rd Street and Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis.

The March 11 cold-blooded murder of 16 Afghan civilians, including many
children, by a U.S. Army soldier is the latest atrocity carried out by the
U.S./NATO occupiers of Afghanistan. Outrage grows in Afghanistan, in the
U.S. and around the world in response to this senseless massacre. The only
way to end war crimes is to end the war. Emergency protests, vigils and
other activities to call for an end to the war are being held in cities
across the U.S. On Saturday, March 17. Sponsored by: the Anti-War Committee
(AWC), Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), Minnesota Peace Action Coalition
(MPAC), Occupy Minneapolis Events Committee, Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS UMTC), Twin Cities Peace Campaign (TCPC), WAMM, and others.
FFI: Call 612-522-1861 or 612-827-5364.


--------7 of 10--------

From: Tom Dooley fellowcommoditydooley [at] gmail.com
Anarchism/socialism 3.17 7pm

Discussion Forum: Anarchism vs. Socialism
Working Democracy Meetup Group
Saturday, March 17, 2012 7:00 PM
Mayday Books 301 Cedar Ave S Minneapolis, MN 55454

George Kane will dish up corned beef and cabbage.
We'll have the usual good beverages including Finnegans Beer who give all
profits to charity.Other good snacks


--------8 of 10--------


Occupy! and Make Them Do It
by Frances Fox Piven
Published on Friday, March 16, 2012 by The Nation

The spring months are likely to see the expansion of the Occupy movement.
Evicted from the little parks where they were encamped, the activists are
joining housing occupations and other protests against predatory banks,
student protests against rising tuition and debt, and labor strikes and
protests against lockouts. This is big news in American politics because we
have not seen a protest movement with this much imagination, energy and
traction for a long time.

But as the 2012 elections draw nearer, the protests will be shadowed by the
unfolding campaigns. After all, most Americans think of elections as the
very heart of American politics. Accordingly, there will be lots of
exasperated advice to the protesters: at least for now, they should work
for the election by joining the ranks of volunteers registering voters,
ringing doorbells and staffing the campaign offices. And, of course, they
should refrain from attacks on Obama. After all, think of how bad things
would be with Romney as president and Tea Party Republicans controlling
both houses of Congress. The Supreme Court could become even worse, to say
nothing of the danger of another war.

This advice is likely to be ignored. The recruits to Occupy are simply too
disillusioned with electoral politics—and who can deny their reasons in the
broken promises and timid compromises produced by a system of
representation awash in money and lobbyists? Nevertheless, the critics are
also right, it could be worse. Hence the apparent dilemma: yes, the
election is important, so we should work on the campaign. And yes, the
electoral system is corrupt, so joining and supporting the protests is a
better way to work for the transformation of the country. In other words,
electoral politics and movements proceed on separate tracks, and we have to
choose one track or the other.

This is a false dilemma. Elections and movements do not proceed on separate
tracks. To the contrary, electoral politics creates the environment in
which movements arise. Think of FDR’s denunciations of the economic
royalists and LBJ’s adoption of the refrain “We shall overcome” and, yes,
even Obama’s ringing cry “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Rhetoric, of course. But while the rhetoric was intended to appease, that
very effort communicated the new political possibility that FDR needed the
support of working-class voters, that LBJ needed the support of
African-Americans and that Obama needed the support of the young, minority
and poor voters who turned out in droves and arguably gave him the election
of 2008. So, ironically, rhetoric can help to fuel protest movements.

Moreover, when protest movements do emerge, the price of appeasement can
rise dramatically. Protest movements raise the sharp and divisive issues
that vague rhetoric is intended to obscure and avoid, and the urgency and
militancy of the movement—with its marches, rallies, strikes and
sit-ins—breaks the monopoly on political communication otherwise held by
politicians and the media. Politicians trying to hold together unwieldy
majorities and their big money backers strive to avoid divisive issues
except in the haziest rhetorical terms. But movements—with the dramatic
spectacles they create and the institutional disruptions they can
cause—make that much harder. Movements work against politicians because
they galvanize and polarize voters and threaten to cleave the majorities
and wealthy backers that politicians work to hold together. But that
doesn’t mean that movements are not involved with electoral politics. To
the contrary, the great victories that have been won in the past were won
precisely because politicians were driven to make choices in the form of
policy concessions that would win back some voters, even at the cost of
losing others. Thus the Democrats who finally supported civil rights
legislation were not stupid. They knew that by conceding to the civil
rights movement they were risking the long-term support of the white South.
They tried to straddle the divide. But the movement forced their hand.

Thanks to the lunacy that has overtaken the GOP, Obama is in a good
position to win re-election. But he is vulnerable to an escalating Occupy
movement. In particular, minority, young and poor new voters are volatile
voters, and they are susceptible to the appeals of Occupy. I, for one, hope
the movement forces Obama to pay for its support, in desperately needed
economic, political and environmental reforms.

© 2012 The Nation
Frances Fox Piven is professor of political science and sociology at the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she has taught
since 1982. Her latest book, just published, is Who’s Afraid of Frances Fox
Piven? The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate
(The New Press). She is the author and co-author of numerous books,
including The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush's Militarism (2004)
and Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America (2006), and
has received career and lifetime achievement awards fromt he American
Sociological Association and the American Political Science Association.
Frances has been featured on Democracy Now!, and regular contributor to The
Nation

The spring months are likely to see the expansion of the Occupy movement.
Evicted from the little parks where they were encamped, the activists are
joining housing occupations and other protests against predatory banks,
student protests against rising tuition and debt, and labor strikes and
protests against lockouts. This is big news in American politics because we
have not seen a protest movement with this much imagination, energy and
traction for a long time.

But as the 2012 elections draw nearer, the protests will be shadowed by the
unfolding campaigns. After all, most Americans think of elections as the
very heart of American politics. Accordingly, there will be lots of
exasperated advice to the protesters: at least for now, they should work
for the election by joining the ranks of volunteers registering voters,
ringing doorbells and staffing the campaign offices. And, of course, they
should refrain from attacks on Obama. After all, think of how bad things
would be with Romney as president and Tea Party Republicans controlling
both houses of Congress. The Supreme Court could become even worse, to say
nothing of the danger of another war.

This advice is likely to be ignored. The recruits to Occupy are simply too
disillusioned with electoral politics—and who can deny their reasons in the
broken promises and timid compromises produced by a system of
representation awash in money and lobbyists? Nevertheless, the critics are
also right, it could be worse. Hence the apparent dilemma: yes, the
election is important, so we should work on the campaign. And yes, the
electoral system is corrupt, so joining and supporting the protests is a
better way to work for the transformation of the country. In other words,
electoral politics and movements proceed on separate tracks, and we have to
choose one track or the other.

This is a false dilemma. Elections and movements do not proceed on separate
tracks. To the contrary, electoral politics creates the environment in
which movements arise. Think of FDR’s denunciations of the economic
royalists and LBJ’s adoption of the refrain “We shall overcome” and, yes,
even Obama’s ringing cry “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Rhetoric, of course. But while the rhetoric was intended to appease, that
very effort communicated the new political possibility that FDR needed the
support of working-class voters, that LBJ needed the support of
African-Americans and that Obama needed the support of the young, minority
and poor voters who turned out in droves and arguably gave him the election
of 2008. So, ironically, rhetoric can help to fuel protest movements.

Moreover, when protest movements do emerge, the price of appeasement can
rise dramatically. Protest movements raise the sharp and divisive issues
that vague rhetoric is intended to obscure and avoid, and the urgency and
militancy of the movement—with its marches, rallies, strikes and
sit-ins—breaks the monopoly on political communication otherwise held by
politicians and the media. Politicians trying to hold together unwieldy
majorities and their big money backers strive to avoid divisive issues
except in the haziest rhetorical terms. But movements—with the dramatic
spectacles they create and the institutional disruptions they can
cause—make that much harder. Movements work against politicians because
they galvanize and polarize voters and threaten to cleave the majorities
and wealthy backers that politicians work to hold together. But that
doesn’t mean that movements are not involved with electoral politics. To
the contrary, the great victories that have been won in the past were won
precisely because politicians were driven to make choices in the form of
policy concessions that would win back some voters, even at the cost of
losing others. Thus the Democrats who finally supported civil rights
legislation were not stupid. They knew that by conceding to the civil
rights movement they were risking the long-term support of the white South.
They tried to straddle the divide. But the movement forced their hand.

Thanks to the lunacy that has overtaken the GOP, Obama is in a good
position to win re-election. But he is vulnerable to an escalating Occupy
movement. In particular, minority, young and poor new voters are volatile
voters, and they are susceptible to the appeals of Occupy. I, for one, hope
the movement forces Obama to pay for its support, in desperately needed
economic, political and environmental reforms.

© 2012 The Nation
Frances Fox Piven is professor of political science and sociology at the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she has taught
since 1982. Her latest book, just published, is Who’s Afraid of Frances Fox
Piven? The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate
(The New Press). She is the author and co-author of numerous books,
including The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush's Militarism (2004)
and Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America (2006), and
has received career and lifetime achievement awards fromt he American
Sociological Association and the American Political Science Association.
Frances has been featured on Democracy Now!, and regular contributor to The
Nation


--------9 of 10--------


The U.S. Empire’s Achilles Heel: Its Barbaric Racism
The latest atrocities in Afghanistan are just par for the course.
by Glen Ford
Published on Saturday, March 17, 2012 by Black Agenda Report

The American atrocities in Afghanistan roll on like a drumbeat from hell.
With every affront to the human and national dignity of the Afghan people,
the corporate media feign shock and quickly conclude that a few bad apples
are responsible for U.S. crimes, that it’s all a mistake and
misunderstanding, rather than the logical result of a larger crime:
America’s attempt to dominate the world by force. But even so, with the
highest paid and best trained military in the world – a force equipped with
the weapons and communications gear to exercise the highest standards of
control known to any military in history – one would think that commanders
could keep their troops from making videos of urinating on dead men, or
burning holy books, or letting loose homicidal maniacs on helpless
villagers.

These three latest atrocities have brought the U.S. occupation the point of
crisis – hopefully, a terminal one. But the whole war has been one atrocity
after another, from the very beginning, when the high-tech superpower
demonstrated the uncanny ability to track down and incinerate whole Afghan
wedding parties – not just once, but repeatedly. Quite clearly, to the
Americans, these people have never been more than ants on the ground, to be
exterminated at will.

The Afghans, including those on the U.S. payroll, repeatedly use the word
“disrespect” to describe American behavior. But honest people back here in
the belly of the beast know that the more accurate term is racism. The
United States cannot help but be a serial abuser of the rights of the
people it occupies, especially those who are thought of as non-white,
because it is a thoroughly racist nation. A superpower military allows them
to act out this characteristic with impunity.

American racism allows its citizens to imagine that they are doing the
people of Pakistan a favor, by sending drones to deal death without warning
from the skies. The U.S. calls Pakistan an ally, when polls consistently
show that its people harbor more hatred and fear of the U.S. than any other
people in the world. The Pakistanis know the U.S. long propped up their
military dictators, and then threatened to blow the country to Kingdom Come
after 9/ll, if the U.S. military wasn’t given free rein. They know they are
viewed collectively as less than human by the powers in Washington – and,
if they don’t call it racism, we should, because we know our fellow
Americans very well.

The U.S. lost any hope of leaving a residual military force in Iraq when it
showed the utterly racist disrespect of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, the
savage leveling of Fallujah, the massacres in Haditha and so many other
places well known to Iraqis, if not the American public, and the slaughter
of 17 civilians stuck at a traffic circle in Nisour Square, Baghdad. What
people would agree to allow such armed savages to remain in their country
if given a choice?

The United States was conceived as an empire built on the labor of Blacks
and the land of dead natives, an ever-expanding sphere of exploitation and
plunder – energized by an abiding and general racism that is, itself, the
main obstacle to establishing a lasting American anti-war movement. But,
despite the peace movement’s weaknesses, the people of a world under siege
by the Americans will in due time kick them out – because to live under
barbarian racists is not a human option.

Copyright © 2012 Black Agenda Report
Back Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at
Glen.Ford [at] BlackAgendaReport.com.


--------10 of 10--------

HALF-SMART ALEC

ALEC is just a
paid gang of David and Charles
Koch conspirators.


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