Progressive Calendar 03.17.12 /2 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ShoveCove
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